(dove)
The naughty Jew, Jonah, was reluctant to pronounce judgment upon the Gentiles and disappointed when God graciously spared them. God had to teach His self-important, disobedient and jealous Jewish prophet-of-judgment-to-the-Gentiles, by the hard way, out of the depths, that “salvation is of the Lord,” that God may mercifully spare whomsoever He pleases, in spite of Jonah’s displeasure, who feared that God’s being gracious would impair his own reputation! Our corrupt nature would rather misuse God’s gifts to exalt ourselves! nevertheless “Mercy glories over judgment,” and Nineveh was spared for about 256 years. See Nahum.
Jonah the Galilean (3 miles from Nazareth) is a type of the Lord’s rejection, death, resurrection and testimony of both grace and judgment to the Gentiles (Matt. 12:39-41; Rom. ]1:11-15), also of Israel disobedient, cast out, in distress, then delivered and missionaries to the Gentiles.
B.C. 862. Jonah was one of the earliest prophetic writers.