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Jonah 1:1-4 – Jonah Is Historically True

Here are some reasons why we can say Jonah is historically true.

1. The book begins as several other prophetic books do. That is with the words “the word of the LORD came to ….” Look at Joel 1:2, Micah 1:1, Zephaniah 1:2, Haggai 1:1, Zechariah 1:1, Malachi 1:1; they all begin with this sentence.

2. The fact that it is written about a pagan nation is not unique; Gentiles had been welcomed into the nation of Israel from its inception. In the covenant promise that God gave to Abraham in Genesis chapter 17, there was a provision made for foreigners to be part of the household of God (Genesis 17:27). The Psalms repeatedly state the fact of the ingrafting of the nations into the family of God, for example, Psalm 82:8, “Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!” and Psalm 107:3, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble, and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.” So, with God, it is true that He was clearly focused on the nation of Israel, but it wasn’t at the absolute exclusion of all the other peoples of the earth.

3. Like several other books within the collection of books known as the Minor Prophets (i.e., Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk), Jonah doesn’t explicitly state when it was written, but we do have a clue. In the first verse, we read that “the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai.” This is important because it not only identifies him as a real man with ancestral heritage but as the same prophet we read of in 2 Kings 14:25, which dates him during the reign of Jeroboam II (782-753 BC).

4. There is another piece of information that underscores the historicity of the book of Jonah: Jesus references Jonah on two occasions, first in Matthew 12:38-42 and then in Matthew 16:1-4. Jesus would not have spoken of a man who did not exist to make his point.

Question

  1. Why can we believe in and accept the historicity of the book of Jonah?

Prayer Points

  1. Give thanks for the trustworthiness of the Word of God.
  2. Use prayer points from your congregation.
  3. Pray for family matters.