AN
EXPOSITION,
W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E R V A T I O N
S,
OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET
J
O N A H
THIS
book of Jonah, though it be placed here in the midst of the prophetical books
of scripture, is yet rather a history than a prophecy; one line of prediction
there is in it, Yet forty days, and
Nineveh
shall be overthrown; the rest of the book is a narrative of the
preface to and the consequences of that prediction. In the midst of the
obscure prophecies before and after this book, wherein are many things dark
and hard to be understood, which are puzzling to the learned, and are strong
meat for strong men, comes in this plain and pleasant story, which is
entertaining to the weakest, and milk for babes. Probably Jonah was
himself the penman of this book, and he, as Moses and other inspired penmen,
records his own faults, which is an evidence that in these writings they
designed God's glory and not their own. We read of this same Jonah 2 Kings
xiv. 25, where we find that he was of Gath-hepher in
Galilee
, a city that belonged to the tribe of Zebulun, in a remote corner of the
land
of
Israel
; for the Spirit, which like the wind, blows where it listeth, will as
easily find out Jonah in
Galilee
as Isaiah at
Jerusalem
. We find also that he was a messenger of mercy to Israel in the reign of
Jeroboam the second; for the success of his arms, in the restoring of the
coast of Israel, is said to be according to the word of the Lord which
he spoke by the hand of his servant Jonah the prophet. Those prophecies
were not committed to writing, but this against Nineveh was, chiefly for the
sake of the story that depends upon it, and that is recorded chiefly for the
sake of Christ, of whom Jonah was a type; it contains also very remarkable
instances of human infirmity in Jonah, and of God's mercy both in pardoning
repenting sinners, witness Nineveh, and in bearing with repining saints,
witness Jonah.
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