What is a summary of the book of Jonah?

from the old testament

• Jonah is a historical prophetic book. It’s unknown as to when, exactly, it was written. Its abrupt ending never resolves Jonah’s complaint, leading some to believe that Jonah’s “response” was to write this book to display God’s mercy as he had learned it. Others, however, are unconvinced that Jonah learned his lesson, instead suggesting that an unknown author wrote it to show how God used an unrepentant prophet to display His great mercy to Nineveh.
• While Jonah surviving in a fish for three days has led some to conclude it’s purely a myth, the fact that Jonah was a known prophet (2 Kings 14:25) and that God is entirely capable of working the miracle (Job 42:2) and Jesus’ inference of its truthfulness (cf. Matthew 12:39–40), it is to be understood as an actual account.
• The book is written in a four-act structure, which the modern chapter numbers follow. In the first act, God tells Jonah, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2). However, Jonah’s response was to flee by boat to Tarshish, a city in the opposite direction (Jonah 1:3).
• We don’t learn until Act 4 why Jonah runs: “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jonah 4:2). Jonah didn’t want God to be merciful to the Ninevites, who were long-standing enemies of Israel (cf. Nahum 3:1–4).
• As Jonah fled, God caused a great storm to hit the boat and, ultimately, for Jonah to be cast from it and be swallowed by the great fish (Jonah 1:4–17). In a story plot twist, it’s the pagans, not Jonah, who respond rightly to God by fearing and worshiping Him (Jonah 1:14–16).
• Act 2 records Jonah’s cry in the water and prayer in the fish (Jonah 2:1–9). While he asks for help and rightly extols God’s greatness, he never repents for disobeying God. God responds to his less-than-satisfactory prayer by having the fish vomit him on shore (Jonah 2:10).
• On shore, in Act 3, God again sends Jonah to Nineveh, and he obeys (Jonah 3:1). However, though the region of Nineveh was large, requiring three days to travel it (Jonah 3:3), Jonah only walks for a day and then declares judgment, without even specifying who was going to judge or why (Jonah 3:4). The picture shows Jonah doing the bare minimum to obey God by declaring judgment without offering hope to the people.
• But God uses that, ensuring the word spread to the king (Jonah 3:6), who took the warning deathly serious and declared a city-wide time of repentance for “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (Jonah 3:6–9). Indeed, God saw they were truly repentant, and the Act ends with, “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it” (Jonah 3:10).
• Act 4 opens by displaying Jonah’s heart: “it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry” (Jonah 4:1). Jonah was angry that God spared Nineveh, asking for God to kill him (Jonah 4:3). He then sat down to watch the city, apparently hoping that God might still judge them (Jonah 4:5). Despite his complaining and heart hatred for the Ninevites, God provided a plant to give him shade (Jonah 4:6).
• However, the next day, God killed the plant to teach Jonah a lesson (Jonah 4:7–8a). As before, Jonah asked God to kill him because he was miserable (Jonah 4:8b), to which God replied: “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:10–11). Jonah ends abruptly here, and the reader is expected to fill in the answer: God is God and will show mercy on whomever He desires (cf. Exodus 33:19). Our response is to reflect His mercy, not resent it.

from the new testament

• Jesus affirmed Jonah as historical and as a type of His death and resurrection. In Matthew 12:39—41 (cf. Luke 11:29–32), Jesus calls Jonah's three days and three nights in the fish a "sign" pointing to His own death, burial, and resurrection: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40).
• Jonah centers on God showing mercy to Israel's enemies. The New Testament reveals that this was part of God's larger plan to save the nations: "God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" (Acts 10:34–35).  
  
• The New Testament confirms Jonah's message by showing that God is sovereign and merciful and that He "will have mercy on whom [He] has mercy" (Romans 9:15–16; cf. Exodus 33:19; Romans 10:12–13). It also reveals God's heart behind His mercy: He is patient, "not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9; cf. 1 Timothy 2:3–4).
• Despite Jonah's reluctance and half-heartedness, God still accomplished His purposes.
  In Philippians 1:15–18, Paul rejoices that Christ is preached even when some proclaim Him from wrong motives. While not directly about Jonah, this illustrates the same principle: God relentlessly pursues people and seeks to save them, despite our failures as His messengers.

implications for today

The book of Jonah is fascinating—not just because Jonah lived in a big fish but because it’s a story of God’s prophet rebelling against God while God remained patient with him. Ironically, while God planned to show mercy to the Ninevites through Jonah, He did it by showing mercy to Jonah.

What can we learn from this story? First, God neither requires our faithfulness nor is hindered by our lack of it! Jonah did everything he could to prevent the Ninevites from receiving God’s mercy to no avail.

Second, we learn that God’s mercy is sometimes greater than we like! We don’t know enough about Jonah to know whether this disobedience was characteristic of him, but what we do know is that the Ninevites were wicked, despicable people. Jonah wasn’t trying to withhold mercy because of a petty grievance but from a nation that had a long history of vile and evil behavior. That doesn’t excuse Jonah’s response, but would we perhaps do the same thing if God asked us to deliver a message of mercy to rapists or murderers? What God teaches us is that when the Bible says He’s merciful, it means mercy without limits. He forgives anyone who truly repents.

Third, we flinch when we read Jonah, wondering how God put up with him. But that should cause us to wonder why God puts up with us! Even as believers, we remain sinful (1 John 1:8, 10). While the Holy Spirit is transforming us to be like Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18), if we’re honest, we aren’t always easy to love. Yet God remains merciful, ready to keep forgiving us when we sin (1 John 1:9).

Let us learn to praise God as we read this book, that He was merciful toward the wicked city, and that He is merciful toward us!