Jonah’s Ministry: Christian Journalists Reflect on Prophet’s Journey of Disobedience, Repentance for Modern Lessons

By Dayo Emmanuel

Christian media group, Journalists For Christ (JFC), held its November fellowship over the weekend, focusing on a study of the book of Jonah.

The event, which took place on Zoom, featured participants sharing experiences and insights from the four chapters of the book.

Pastor Olufemi Emmanuel (PhD), a lecturer at the West Africa Theological Seminary, Lagos, whose doctoral work centered on the Old Testament prophets, gave a review of the book to kick-start the conversation.

“When you are studying the prophets, you study all of them. For example, the book of Jonah is recognized as a missionary book,” he explained.

The theologian continued: “Jonah seems to be a missionary prophet, someone God sent to speak to nations. Unlike other prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Jonah was practically speaking across other nations, delivering God’s message.

“Regarding the background of the book of Jonah, there seems to have been a long-term feud between Israel and the Assyrians. Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, was central to this enmity. The Assyrians were known for their wickedness, and the Israelites hated them. This is one aspect of the book’s background,” he said.

Stating further, he added, “Concerning Jonah himself, a commentary suggests he was the son of the widow of Zarephath who died and was raised from the dead by Prophet Elijah. Although not confirmed in the Bible, this traditional belief holds that Jonah was the boy raised by the prophet,” he explained.

Reviewing further, Emmanuel said, “At the time God sent Jonah to Nineveh, the Assyrian nation was not as vicious as it had been. It was a window period God created for them to hear His message.

“In Israel, it was a time of prosperity under King Jeroboam II, who reigned for about 42 years. Jeroboam II expanded Israel’s borders due to Assyria’s subjugation of Syria. Trade routes passing through Israel brought wealth, making it a prosperous era. The Israelites, like modern-day Americans proud of their nation, were exceedingly proud during this time.

“God called Jonah to Nineveh to cry out and call the people to repentance. Jonah, however, refused to go. Jonah 1:3 says he decided to flee from the Lord. Many believe this was due to Jonah’s hatred for the Assyrians or his fear that they would repent. Jonah mistakenly thought God’s presence was confined to Israel.

“Jonah paid his way onto a ship heading for Tarshish. While on board, a storm arose, causing panic. The sailors threw cargo overboard to lighten the vessel, but it was futile. Jonah, sleeping in the ship’s hold, was awakened by the captain. The sailors cast lots to determine the cause of the storm, and the lot fell on Jonah. He admitted responsibility and suggested they throw him overboard. Once they did, the sea calmed.

“Interestingly, the sailors prayed to Jonah’s God before throwing him overboard and later worshiped Him, making vows and sacrifices. Despite Jonah’s silence and not preaching to the sailors, God still revealed Himself through the storm and calm, leading the sailors to believe in Him,” he said.

The theologian narrated further how Jonah ended up in the fish’s belly.

“Jonah was swallowed by a great fish prepared by God and remained in its belly for three days and nights. Jonah prayed during this time, as recorded in chapter two. God then commanded the fish to vomit him onto dry land.

“In chapter three, God’s call came to Jonah a second time. This demonstrates that our God is a God of second chances. Jonah, now obedient, went to Nineveh. Commentators note it would have taken Jonah 40 days to walk through the city, but he arrived earlier. After Jonah’s declaration, the entire city—from the king to the animals—repented in fasting and prayer. Despite this, Jonah retreated to a hill, hoping for the city’s destruction, but it did not happen.

“Chapter four reveals Jonah’s displeasure at God’s mercy. He prayed, expressing anger that God spared Nineveh, stating he fled earlier because he knew God is gracious and merciful. Jonah even wished for death, frustrated that his prophecy of judgment did not come true.

“Jonah sat outside the city under a booth he made for shade. God caused a plant to grow, providing him relief from the sun. When an insect destroyed the plant, Jonah became angry. God used this to teach him a lesson: if Jonah cared so much about a plant, how much more should he care about the 120,000 people in Nineveh?

“Throughout the book of Jonah, we see God’s sovereignty and power. He breaks human protocols to reveal His mercy and compassion. Jonah, meanwhile, showed concern for inanimate things while disregarding the value of human souls,” Emmanuel concluded, setting the stage for the conversation.

Key Reflections

Administrative Secretary of JFC, Dayo Emmanuel, who moderated the session, noted that in man’s disobedience, God, who won’t bend His rules, still finds a way to achieve His purpose.

“What I’m learning here is that in our disobedience, the Lord still brings His purpose to pass,” he said.

He continued: “God will not bring another word to us until we obey the previous instruction. Our obedience starts from the last place we disobeyed God. We must go back there to pick the instruction we dropped. This is evident in Chapter 3 verse 1 of Jonah, where God repeated the same word He gave in Chapter 1.

“Just like in school, when we fail a course, we must return to retake it if we must graduate. May it not be too late for us to repeat, because if the fish had digested Jonah, he wouldn’t have had that opportunity,” he explained.

He however tried to reason out why Jonah earlier refused to go on the assignment.

“Our reviewer today Dr. Emmanuel gave us an extra biblical commentary of the Assyrians who he said according to history were so wicked and would paint a whole mountain with the blood of their enemy tribesmen. Jonah may have been reacting against this antecedent and wishing the total destruction of the city forgetting that God is full of mercy,” he said.

In his own comment, Pastor Timilehin Ajayi who said he gained a lot studying the book of Job said, “I’ve done a little study of the book since it was announced we were to read it ahead. Some things kept occurring in my mind about the essence and why did God pick Jonah out of the lot?

“God has chosen us as journalists and allied professionals for the particular assignment. Our own assignment starts from our own immediate family, places of work, our community where we live. God has chosen us to go. If we look at the vision concept, our assignment is both centrifugal and centripetal; going inward and going outward,” Ajayi said.

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Continuing, he said, “Several times we have disobeyed God like Jonah in our thoughts, actions, our excuses, whatever way that you have made it that forms of disobedience to what God has asked us to do, and that is why God has made it a way at this time, to give us a second chance. Many of us have passed through it and God has prepared the big fish, the whale, to relocate us, to take us back to where He sent us. and it is a fulfillment of His plan.

“God has brought Journalists For Christ together because He has picked every member as an elect to fulfill or accomplish that assignment of reaching out. I’m sharing first as an individual member, secondly, as a corporate organisation, as Journalists For Christ, are we doing what God expects us to do among media practitioners and allied professionals?” He asked.

Ajayi however enjoined members of Journalists For Christ to have the sympathy like God for outreach with their noble profession.

“It is needed for us to show empathy. God needed us to show that love. So like I’m getting convicted. I want to plead with every member of this group and the leadership. Let us do a reminiscence. Let’s go back and place ourselves before the mirror of the book of Jonah, and let us go share and celebrate the love of God.”

At the fellowship, Mrs. Fúnmi Falobi saw the book of Jonah from the perspective of the International Men’s Day.

“I look at it from the angle of the International Men’s Day. This month is dedicated to that. Celebrating the men’s achievements, their challenges and everything. So taking this from the point of book of Jonah, I will also say that Jonah, as a man who knew God, maybe out of fear, whatever, he did not carry out that instruction.

“My point is, God has placed men as leaders in their families and in the society. They are supposed to be role models, starting from the family and extended to the society, but then people see that Jonah came back and was able to fulfill God’s purpose,” she said.

President of JFC, Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin in his contribution was intrigued by the life of Jonah.

“One thing that intrigued me about the life of Jonah was how he owned up after the lot fell on him as the troubler in that ship,” he said.

Continuing, he said, “Sometimes I always refer to how we are. It takes our openness sometimes to show we are sorry for our errors. The people even tried to find an alternative to avoid the guilt of his blood. But he wanted to be thrown overboard, they had to throw him eventually into the water,” he commented.

Furthermore, he said, “Sometimes we find ourselves in that kind of circumstance that we may have to make a personal sacrifice,” he said.

The fact that no man can escape from God was another thing that fascinated Otufodunrin.

“One other thing that is very obvious is that you cannot run away from God. Sometimes we say we are hiding, but God sees us. You enter a room and you’re hiding, but God is seeing you. Just to understand sometimes we can easily accept that call.

“He was not keen on going to deliver the message, and that was why he was trying to run away. Again there are things that God wants us to do, however how difficult, you must know that if God has said so, it must happen, and there’s no point trying to run, Otufodunrin said.

He also talked about the love of God which everybody must emulate.

“Many of us may agree that to forgive is easy, but it is not easy to forget, and we often think of forgiving after somebody would have said sorry. God has already shown love, and He had to teach Jonah that lesson, that in spite of whatever they must have done, whatever type of terrorism,
whatever they must have done to other people, we must learn to forgive because we were all sinners and God forgive us. God did not like our sins, but He liked us.

“We should try as much as possible to take this into our life. We say we forgive people, but we sometimes do not delete the offence from our system. Forgiveness reminds us of agape love,” he concluded.

Sanmi Falobi’s contribution rested on the supreme control God has over our lives.

Looking at the time Jonah spent in the belly of the fish as a time of separation for him, he said, “God controls everything in our lives. At the time of his separation, the state of his loneliness, of his pain, he realised, he agreed he has done something wrong when he made the decision as a prophet to run from God,” he said.

Stating further, he said, “By the time he came down from his high horse, in the time of his separation, the state of his loneliness, of his pain, Jonah realized he had done something wrong and that’s why God was able to make him come back to fulfill His plan.

“We have made some foolish decisions. We have done something wrong and we have to go back. We may have become pastors, we have become deacons. We are husbands, we are wives. We have younger people looking up to us. Sometimes we are not simple to own up but rather shift the blame and sometimes God will not forgive us or we face a little consequence, but Jonah was able to come back to continue from where he stopped.”

Falobi also observed the setback of Jonah who was kept in the belly of the fish for three days he would have used to obey and serve God.

“He missed many steps, three days in the fish, it could be three days, three, three weeks, three months or three years but at the end, when God gives the last instruction, that was where he started from.

“Sometimes we face challenges, we need to take that time to reflect, See where we are falling short, and come back to relationship. Where did I not serve you fully? It’s not only about sin. It is not whether we have committed sin, but are we able to re-examine to build back our relationship with God and consider our errors and come back?” He asked.

Chaplain of JFC, Pastor David Alabi closing the discussion at the fellowship was intrigued by where the prophet Jonah humbled himself.

“It’s a whole lot I have seen in the story of Jonah. For me the crowning is where Jonah humbled himself,” he said.

Alabi continued that, “When God commands us to do a thing and we leave it undone, we should come to a place of humility. We should allow humility to take place, to take hold of our hearts, to bring us to the place of repentance. There we will be brought back by the Lord, on track to what to do and to go in the direction He wants us to go,” he said.

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