It is not only divine names that have meanings; there is also meaning in human names at least in Scripture history. Sometimes they were expressive of the faith of those who conferred them; Eve, Noah, and Joseph are examples of this. Sometimes new names were given as marks of lordship or proprietorship. Thus Pharaoh renamed Joseph (Gen. 41:45); Nebuchadnezzar did the same to Daniel and his friends (Dan. 1:7); and the Lord Jesus granted the surname Cephas to Simon the fisherman (John 1:42). And what shall we say of the Saviour's own name and the meaning of it? “Thou shalt call His name Jesus (Jehovah the Saviour); for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).
Jonah means “dove.” What was in the minds of his parents when they named him is not recorded; but the fact reminds us that it was in a bodily form like a dove the Holy Spirit descended upon the man Christ Jesus (Luke 3:22). This lovely emblem of purity, gentleness, and peace perfectly suited Him upon whom it came. But Jonah Where do we discover anything dove-like in his ways and words relative to the people of Nineveh? Surely his cruel talons are suggestive of a very different bird!
We cannot help contrasting our prophet with Joses the Levite of Acts 4:36-37. So kindly were his deeds, and so gracious was his ministry, that the Apostles surnamed him Barnabas which being interpreted, means “son of consolation.” Barnabas deserved his name before he received it; Jonah received a sweetly suggestive name that he never seems to have deserved at all!
Nineveh repented; king, nobles, and people fell low together at the feet of their justly indignant Creator. Heaven was thus filled with rejoicing, as the Lord teaches us in Luke 15 But while heaven rejoiced, it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry” (Jonah 4:1). Alas, what is man! What an exposure of the narrowness and selfishness of the human heart, even in a divinely chosen and specially favored servant of Jehovah! He would have preferred the whole population of a vast city to perish than that his own reputation as a prophet should suffer! He was amazed that he should have gone through the streets of Nineveh denouncing judgment within forty days, and then find the divine sentence withdrawn! Yet why should God have given forty days notice, unless He desired to give time for repentance? Does not Peter tell us that He is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”? (2 Peter 3:9). Did He not say, long before Peter's day, “I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God; therefore turn yourselves and live ye” (Ezek. 18:32). Even ecclesiastical Jezebel (Popery), the foulest evil upon which the eye of a holy God ever rested, has had space given her to repent of her fornication (Rev. 2:21). Had Jehovah dealt with Jonah's own nation as he would have liked Him to deal with Nineveh, not an Israelite of any tribe would be found on earth today. Jonah's behavior reminds us of the churlish elder son of Luke 15:25 who “was angry and would not go in,” because the father was lavishing grace upon a returning sinner. Where should we have been—reader and writer alike—if the God against whom we have all sinned were like some of His poor faulty servants.
The disappointed prophet—by no means a friend or neighbor (at least for the time being) of the God who delights in mercy (Luke 15:7)—prayed that he might be allowed to die. If death was so desirable, pity that he ever asked to be released from the fish's belly! Elijah also once asked that he might die, because his testimony was not prospering as he expected (1 Kings 19:4). Happily God intended for him a triumphant translation, without passing through death at all. A similar wonderful departure is the proper hope of all Christians today.
Although as wrong as he could be spiritually when he prayed his peevish prayer, Jonah had not lost all sense of his true relationship with God. Thus he addressed Him as “Jehovah,” and said, “I pray Thee, O Jehovah, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil?” If he really knew all these delightful things about God, it should have been his joy to proclaim them to sinners everywhere. We know God more intimately still. The cross of Calvary has revealed grace and mercy such as Jonah could not have imagined. Is it our joy to proclaim it to young and old? If we are to be successful in our testimony, our hearts must be in tune with the great compassionate heart of God. We must develop a yearning over the perishing, and it should be our prayer and labor that we may “by all means save some” (1 Cor. 9:22).
Now mark the contrast between Jonah and the servant of Matthew 25:24. The latter looked his Lord in the face and said, “Lord, I know that Thou art a hard man, reaping where Thou hast not sown, and gathering where Thou hast not strewed.” But Jonah said, “I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful.” Is there anything so perverse and contradictory as the heart of man? He of Matthew 25 charged his Lord with being hard and unreasonable; and Jonah complained that He was too good! We are reminded of the children in the market-place of whom the Lord spoke in Luke 11:32. Neither John the Baptist nor the Lord Jesus suited their carnal taste. John was too austere, standing aloof from the people, and Jesus was over gracious, mixing too freely with all sorts and conditions seemingly giving the preference to publicans and sinners. “But wisdom is justified of all her children” (Luke 7:35). This means that wisdom's true children, that is, all who have heed born of God understand and approve wisdom's ways; while the wise ones of earth expose their folly by their failure to understand what God is doing. Unhappy Jonah! He was doubtless born of God, but He was utterly out of harmony with His great heart of mercy. His mercy to the Ninevites was therefore vexation to him, instead of delight. Let us not miss this serious lesson. The Lord's own disciples were slow to learn it (Matt. 14:15; 15-23) although His companions from day to day.