CONTENTS Jonah receives a call from the Lord to go to Nineveh. He fleeth to Tarshish. A storm overtakes the ship in which Jonah is embarked. At his request the mariners throw him into the sea, and he is swallowed by a fish.... [ Continue Reading ]
By the word of the Lord coming unto Jonah, is meant the impression made on his mind, either by vision or revelation; and Jonah perfectly understood that the direction to go to Nineveh was of the Lord. The reason for Jonah's commission is assigned; the wickedness of the place was come up before the L... [ Continue Reading ]
It is probable that this Tarshish was Tarsus, a sea-port in Israel. But what an awful attempt in Jonah to run from the Lord, and how foolish as well as presumptuous, the endeavour. Reader let not us by the way overlook the instructions it brings of human nature in its best men, manifesting its corru... [ Continue Reading ]
See how everything ministers to the Lord's pleasure, when and where the Lord designs? Some of the ancient Jews have said, but by what authority I know not, that this wind was only directed to the ship in which Jonah was; for that other ships passed and repassed in safety at the time. But be this as... [ Continue Reading ]
What a striking instance doth Jonah here afford, how men's minds are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. He, for whom this storm was raised, was the only one insensible of danger. Sinners asleep in a storm of national judgments, are the Jonah's of the present day.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Lord sometimes sends preachers like this ship-master, from even the unawakened, to rouse his own people. But had Jonah considered it: what a reproach was this to him; that he, whom the Lord of heaven had sent to reprove a great prince and his people, should be brought down to the humbling state... [ Continue Reading ]
It should seem that those shipmen thought that there was somewhat very singular in this storm, and so far they were all led to interpret a divine judgment in it, by this plan of casting lots for the discovery.... [ Continue Reading ]
There is somewhat very interesting in this history, simply as an history, but considered spiritually it riseth in importance. When in the threatened shipwreck of our whole nature by reason of the fall, and when the Lord's lot, in the person of Jesus, fell on him, every eye, and every thought, is dir... [ Continue Reading ]
It appears by the following verse, that he not only told who he was, but his whole history, and particularly that part of it which referred to his running away from his duty; and for which this singular storm was brought upon them. Jonah interpreted it right. So did the sons of Jacob, in their cruel... [ Continue Reading ]
This is a beautiful part of the history. The modest enquiries of the mariners; the honesty of Jonah; the reluctances in the minds of the ship's-company to cast Jonah into the sea; their cry unto the Lord; and the offering they made when they had done it, to be freed from the guilt of his blood; all... [ Continue Reading ]
I stay not to enquire what fish this was. Our Lord Jesus himself hath said it was a whale. Matthew 12:40. Neither do I consider myself as called upon to show how Jonah could remain the time here spoken of, without being suffocated. The subject itself is miraculous; and as such, he that appointed the... [ Continue Reading ]