In this brief book, Estelle tackles the book of Jonah and some of its long-ranging implications concerning the world-wide scope of God’s message. Jonah also prefigures Christ and His work in some important ways, and Estelle emphasizes how God’s salvation is made possible through a combination of judgment and mercy. Although this book only allows for a surface-level approach, it is an admirable survey of Jonah and encourages a much closer look at this familiar story. 

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Jonah, first and foremost, plain and simple, has this most important message for the Christian church today: Christ, the risen One who is greater than Jonah, brings salvation through judgment and mercy to his people, those inside and outside of Israel who call on his name. What is foreshadowed and illustrated in Jonah becomes reality in Christ. [3]

The book of Jonah, even on a superficial reading, is obviously taking pains to demonstrate God’s mercy to those outside of Israel, as discussed above. But why? This message will find its culminating fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. In other words, whereas the advent of the Lord of history as recorded in the four Gospels discloses the inauguration of the kingdom of God in new fullness, a kingdom which will include both Jews and Gentiles to the ends of the earth, the book of Jonah presages that earth-shaking event many centuries in advance of its actual occurrence. [28] 

What would our last thoughts be if we knew we were soon going to die and go out into eternity? We should be challenged as we read the psalm of Jonah. If we are honest, we often live at a hectic velocity. This fast pace, many times marked by our own secret rebellion, means we have no time for stillness of soul, for solitude to examine who we really are and what we have or haven’t done. [75] 

Whatever the inestimable grief that Jonah feels in his cry at this point, there is another who entered into a state of forsakenness beyond anything ever imagined by human beings: total abandonment by God. Jonah got himself into trouble; Christ, on the other hand, accepted the wrath of God not to atone for his own shortcomings, but to pay the penalty for sins not his own. Christ cried out with a cry of dereliction never before imagined or equaled since. The expression of grief voiced by the strained human poem of Jonah finds its ultimate echo in Christ’s cry from the cross. [84]

Tragically, the historical sections of God’s Word provide abundant evidence of Israel’s continued and recalcitrant unfaithfulness to the stipulations set out by her covenant Lord. If the people refuse to obey, if they refuse to magnify God’s name among the surrounding nations, then God will purify his unrepentant people through exile, but also through restoration from exile so that the nations may see the power of God’s name again. Israel’s obedience was intended to signify God’s glory among the nations. If she failed in that obedience, then she would be chastised and disciplined. And God would still have his glory. [112]

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