The Book of Jonah is an upside-down story about a disobedient prophet and repentant Gentiles.
The book’s four chapters include the Bible’s big story of creation, fall, redemption, and life connected with God. However, since Jonah is an upside-down story, the “big picture” Bible story starts at the end of the Book of Jonah.
To see the connection between the book of Jonah and Exodus, we need first to recap what happened in Genesis 1-9.
Contents
Book of Jonah and Genesis 1-9
In Genesis 1-9, three falls happened before the Flood.
The first fall happened in the Garden of Eden, where God dwelled with man. The Garden is the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. After the Fall, Adam and Eve are cast out from the Garden, away from the Tree of Life, towards the east.
The second fall happened in the land of Eden when Cain killed his brother, Abel. God sent Cain to wander around the earth away from the land of Eden. Cain moved east away from God’s presence, settled in the land of Nod (to wander in Hebrew), and built a city.
Sin gradually spiraled out of control, leading to the third fall, the all-encompassing corruption on the whole earth. The corruption brought God’s judgment in the Flood, which also purifies the defiled earth. God delivers Noah through the floodwaters in an Ark and starts anew with his family.
- The first fall occurred in a place where God dwelled with man.
- The second fall happened on the Land.
- The third fall occurred in the world.
(Eden, Noah’s Ark, the Tabernacle, the Temple, and Christian churches resemble this 3-tier world pattern of the Bible.)
Now, we look at how the Book of Jonah connects to Genesis 1-9.
Reverse exodus in the book of Jonah
Jonah’s story is a reverse exodus that follows the exodus story in Genesis 1-9 in reversed order. The story in the Book of Jonah moves
- from the 4th chapter’s Garden
- to the 3rd chapter’s city
- to the 2nd chapter’s chaotic floodwaters of the world
- to the 1st chapter’s “ark” that saves the repenting Gentiles
- to the very first verses of the book when Jonah is walking with God
Jonah chapter 4
The last chapter, chapter 4, especially points to Creation Week and the Fall.
- The prophet moved from the formerly corrupt, now repenting city of Nineveh to the east.
- He set his booth on a hill (the text doesn’t mention a hill, but how else could he see what happens to a big city if he’s not on a hill) to see what happens to Nineveh. The Garden of Eden was located on a hill.
- God provided Jonah with shelter in the form of a vine, which a worm (a serpent-like figure: moves on the ground and destroys God’s providence for Jonah) takes away during the night. After the shelter is taken away, Jonah wants to die. Perhaps hinting that the vine is the life-giving Tree of Life.
- “The sultry wind” alludes to the Holy Spirit and “the sun that beats Jonah’s head” to God’s presence, which also judges (John 3:19).
- The mention of “discern between their right hand and their left hand” alludes to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad.
Jonah chapter 3
In the third chapter, Jonah moves from the Garden to a city. In Gen 4, the line of Cain moved further away from the Garden and built cities east of Eden.
Jonah chapter 2
The second chapter describes Jonah in the belly of a fish.
- When Jonah is far away from God, he starts calling on the name of the Lord. When the ungodly line of Cain moves away from God, the godly line of Seth begins to call on the Name of the Lord (Gen 4).
- In the belly, Jonah is banished (like Adam, Eve, and Cain) from God’s sight.
- The experience in the fish’s belly refers to the floodwaters of Noah’s Flood and the spiritual chaos on earth before the Flood. The chaos is like a grave because you are dead, far away from the life-giving presence of God.
- Like in Noah’s Flood, the waves and billows passed over Jonah. He went down to the bottoms of the mountains. If God’s holy temple is on the top of a mountain, then the bottoms of the mountains is death.
In the chiastic central point of the Flood narrative, Gen 8:1, God remembered Noah, and the waters started to subside. The chiastic structure tells us that God remembering Noah is crucial to the story. We see the same happening in other exodus stories when God remembered Abraham and delivered Lot out of Sodom (Gen 19: ), God remembered Israel during the Exodus (Ex 2:24, 6:5, 12:14), and Jesus established holy communion as a memorial of Him (Luke 22:19). In Jonah 2:7 it is Jonah who remembered God, vowed to make sacrifices. God delivered Jonah across the water after three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17).
Jonah 2:10
Then Yahweh spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.
In 2:10, we see the 3-tier world pattern again when God creates Jonah anew by speaking from Heaven to the fish in the water that vomits Jonah on the dry land.
Jonah chapter 1
In the first chapter, Jonah is connected with God. He is a man of God, a prophet to whom God speaks. God speaks to Jonah, telling him to go and preach against the Assyrian city of Nineveh.
He flees to Tarshish, “away from the presence of the LORD” (Jonah 1:3). Since the story of Jonah is upside-down, this time, going to the west means going away from God’s presence.
When he flees by boat, God sends a storm on the sea, and the unbelieving Gentiles repent, but God-fearing Jonah does not. The Gentiles throw Jonah into the sea, which calms the storm. They convert on the spot, offer sacrifices, and make vows to Yahweh.
Once in the water, God prepares a giant fish to swallow up Jonah.
Summary of the Bible study on The Book of Jonah
The Book of Jonah parallels Jonah’s journey and critical events in Genesis 1-9, revealing a reversed exodus storyline.
The same storyline reveals God’s primary goal for humanity: God in connection with His glorified people. As God exists in a communion of three, the connection between God and his people exists through communion maintained in remembrance of one another and acted out in rituals. The Scriptures communicate this to us, and that’s what the Book of Jonah also wants to tell of.