What’s With The Incredible Ages in Genesis 5?
Today’s topic: How are we supposed to understand the frankly incredible ages that Genesis 5 gives of the antediluvian patriarchs? Was Adam really 930 years old when he died?!
What does the Bible tell us about these ages?
Also, who was too lazy to look up antediluvian?
(ante = before + diluvian deluge, flood—it means “before the flood”. You’re welcome.)
Seen Our New Podcast?
We are one week into our Year Through the Bible at Asbury. (Or, as the cool kids say, YTTB.) Every Thursday in this space, I’ll post some thoughts on what we have been reading. (If you are on my email list, the post will be emailed to you at 4:00 AM central time that morning. Subscribe here.)
Our brand new Year Through the Bible podcast released yesterday. Episode 01 was about the most frequently-asked question we received: How should we think about Genesis 1? Did God create the universe in a period of six literal twenty-four hour days? Check it out here.
(Read below the image for today’s post—thoughts on the amazing ages recorded in Genesis 5.)
Genesis 5:1-32
5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. 7 Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died….
9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. 10 Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died.
12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel. 13 Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died.
15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared. 16 Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died.
18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch. 19 Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.
21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. 26 Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.
28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son 29 and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” 30 Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died.
32 After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
What ARe We Supposed to Believe About the Ages in Genesis 5?
Numbers are important in the Bible. The problem is that we have lost the ability to interpret the numbers in the way that the ancient Israelites would have understood them. So, when we read in Genesis chapter 5 that Adam lived to be 930 and his son Seth 912, we know that these numbers are important, but we don’t know why they are important.
Some possible ways to interpret the amazing ages in Genesis 5:
The ages report literal years, identical to our years. That is, Adam was 930 years old when he died, and Adam’s years were made up of 365 days, just like ours.
The years in Genesis 5 are different from our years. Adam’s 930 years mean something different than our years—they are units of time that we don’t understand.
The years in Genesis 5 are symbolic. The problem is, we don’t have the key to interpreting the symbols!
Which is it?
Why not just accept the numbers at face value and be done with it? Why do the numbers have to "mean something”?
Seeing the years listed in Genesis chapter 5 as completely identical to modern years might be the correct interpretation, but I’m not convinced, and that’s because of what we read further on in the Bible itself.
Use the Bible to Interpret the Bible
The most important way to interpret the Bible is through using the Bible itself. So, are there other passages that might shed light on the ages of Genesis 5? Yes.
First, we should notice that after the Flood, no one lives anywhere close to as long as beforehand. It is significant that Abraham, who lives after the Flood and is the greatest of all the Patriarchs, is recorded as living only to 175 (Genesis 25:7). Now, 175 is an incredible age, but it is hundreds and hundreds of years shorter than the ages in Genesis 5.
Why does the Bible go out of its way to tell us Abraham’s specific age? I think one reason might be because we are supposed to compare Abraham with the antediluvian patriarchs and see just how different their lives were before the Flood. In Genesis, the Flood permanently changes things, and one of the ways we can see that is through the great ages of the people who live before the Flood. So, the ages of the men before the Flood highlight the change that the Flood has brought to human life.
Second, we read in Psalm 90 that the ancient Israelites had lifespans similar to our own—70-80 years:
9 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
So, for the readers of the Bible in ancient Israel—who lifespans were in the same ballpark as modern Americans—the ages of the antediluvian patriarchs would have also seemed extremely strange.
This fact suggests to me that the great ages recorded in Genesis 5 are meant to get our attention and strike us as strange. They are meant to stand out.
One more thing: all the ages and details given in Genesis 5 allow us to see that Adam is still alive when the ninth generation is born!
Adam lives 0-930.
Lamech, the ninth descendant, is born in Year 874.
This means that Adam saw the increasing violence and depravity that humans adopted as a result of his disobedience in the garden of Eden, all the way down to the ninth generation.
I find this a striking detail. Without the ages given to us in Genesis 5, we would not be able to know this.
What does the Bible itself teach us about the ages in Genesis 5?
“Are we supposed to see the years in Genesis 5 as identical to our concept of years?”
That’s the question folks ask, but it’s not the right question and there is no real way to answer that question.
The better question is, What does the Bible itself teach us about the ages in Genesis 5?
When we ask that question, we see that even in the Bible, these ages are unusual and so we should pay close attention to what we read in Genesis 5—these great ages are meant to grab our attention and teach us something important.
P.S. I kicked off YTTB this past Sunday at Asbury: You Are Going to Die (And Other Good News). Check it out here.
Day 1
Today is Day 1 of our Year Through the Bible. (YTTB, for those in the know.)
Today’s readings:
Genesis 1-2
Matthew 1:1-2:12
Psalm 1
Proverbs 1:1-6
At Asbury, we are following the One Year Bible plan. (Get your One Year Bible here.) All you need to know is on the website we created for YTTB:
I’ll Be Posting Here Each Thursday
For those of you who have followed me for a while, you are used to me posting every weekday when we are working through a reading plan. With the scope of the YTTB plan, however, daily posting is just not realistic. First, I just can’t pull off that kind of output, 365 days in a row. Second, there is too much to cover—each day there is an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading, a psalm, and a proverb.
So, every Thursday at 3:30 AM central I’ll post here some thoughts on that week’s readings; for those of you who have subscribed to my Bible list, you’ll get that post delivered via email every Thursday at 4:00 AM.
(By the way, I have two email lists for subscribers: a general Andrew Forrest blog list, and the Bible list. I posted something on the general section yesterday entitled NDO 2026, which was about my plans for 2026. You can subscribe to either list here.)
Weekly Podcast Released Every Tuesday
We will be recording a weekly video podcast every week that will hit on some of the questions raised by that week’s readings. The first episode of this new podcast will be released on Tuesday, January 6. I’ll post that first episode here and it will be sent to all subscribers, too.
Submit Your bible questions
At the Year Through the Bible website, there is a place to submit a Bible question. We’ll do our best to answer as many questions as possible, and the plan is to look at the most relevant or interesting or frequently-asked questions each week in the podcast.
How to Get the One Year Bible in An App
Having the One Year Bible in an app on your phone can be a great supplemental tool. Among other things, it is another way to keep track of your progress.
Also, the app comes with audio! So, it’s possible to listen to that day’s reading while on the go.
At Asbury, we are using the Life Bible app for YTTB. To download the app and to see a video that describes how to set it up, go to www.yearthroughthebible.com. (The desktop version of the app is at www.lifebible.com.) Once set up, the app looks like this:
Why We Are Not Recommending the YouVersion Bible App
If you are reading this on January 1, 2026, then by all means feel free to use the YouVersion Bible app. (There is a MAJOR problem with the YouVersion app, however—see more, below.) Search for “One Year Bible” in Plans. It will look like this:
But, at Asbury we are not recommending the YouVersion app for YTTB. This is because there is no way to backdate a yearlong reading plan on the YouVersion app, which means that anyone who wants to join us later in 2026 will have no way to stay current with Asbury’s reading plan if he or she is relying on the app. The Life Bible app, in contrast, allows users at any time to configure the start date to “January 1, 2026” so as to stay current with the rest of the church. If you personally want to start on January 1 with the YouVersion app and include friends who also start with you on that date, that’s great, but after that date the YouVersion app will not be as useful to us at Asbury for our YTTB. Hence: our recommendation of the Life Bible app.
All-church bible Study Schedule
I am teaching three All-Church Bible Studies this spring, each from 6:30-8:00 PM. (All the studies will be live-streamed.)
Wednesday, January 14
Wednesday, March 4
Wednesday, May 6
In addition to these studies, I will of course be preaching weekly through the Bible.
The Way to Understand the Bible Is to Read the bible
The Bible is difficult and there will be many places over the course of the year where we will encounter something confusing or opaque or unsettling. I will do my best to provide guidance so you can get the most out of our YTTB, through:
Weekly sermons;
Tuesday podcasts;
Thursday Bible posts;
Answering the Bible questions folks submit;
Teaching the All-Church Bible studies;
And all the other things we are going to be doing in 2026.
BUT
The best way to understand the Bible is to keep reading the Bible. You just have to keep going. What you will find is that a question you have in January will either be answered in August, or, what may seem vitally important to you in February will end up being replaced by a different burning question in November. That’s just how the Bible works.
So, don’t overthink it. Just read every day, one day at a time.
Let’s GO.
Which Will It Be?
Today is our final reading in our Jonah series, and it’s the perfect ending. Or, I should say, it’s perfectly open-ended.
Starting this Sunday at Asbury, we are kicking off our Love Goes First sermon series, with each week building on the other. The series will run for two months. My book comes out on October 7—please pre-order your copy today!
In terms of of Bible reading, some of you will remember that I read one psalm a day every day.
Well, it just so happens that TODAY I begin another cycle with Psalm 1. (Tomorrow would be Psalm 2, Sunday Psalm 3, etc.)
Here’s my Psalms schedule. Download it, print it out, and mark your progress.
Jonah 4:10-11
10 And the Lord said, “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. 11 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?”
The ending of Jonah is open-ended. The Lord asks Jonah, “Isn’t okay for me to pity these lost people?” and we are not given Jonah’s response.
Jonah has said that he would rather die than see the Lord show mercy to his enemies.
What does Jonah choose? Will he be on the Lord’s side, or stand off by himself?
What about us?
It’s either/or.
Either we accept that the Lord is free to show mercy on whomever he wants to show mercy, or we end up being cut off, outside, filled with seething hatred.
It’s either grace, or nothing.
Which will you choose?
The Worm
Jonah 4:5-9
5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”
The Lord appoints a worm to take away the plant that Jonah delights in.
Why?
Because Jonah is missing the point. The Lord has given the plant to Jonah as a gift, but Jonah cares more about the gift than the giver. So, the Lord takes away the plant.
What’s interesting in the Hebrew phrase, translated here as “to save him from his discomfort” (v.6). What it literally says in Hebrew is “to save him from his evil.” So, the Lord is trying to get Jonah’s attention by whatever means necessary so as to save Jonah from persisting in his evil ways. (Previously, the Lord used the great fish!)
Yet another example of the lengths to which the Lord will go to reach people.
The Lord’s Gentle Patience
Jonah 4:4
And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
Jonah is burning with hate and rage at the Lord because of the Lord’s patient mercy.
The irony is that Jonah is too blind to be able to see how the Lord is being patiently merciful with him!
Throughout this final chapter, the Lord responds to Jonah’s petulance with simple, gracious questions. The point of those questions is to help Jonah realize his errors so he can turn around before it’s too late.
God’s mercy is not an end in itself, it is the means to the end. The end is life with God, and the Lord uses mercy to be able to win people back from death to life. Here, God is still trying to win back Jonah. (Whether he succeeds or not is an open question, since the book doesn’t tell us.)
I love that gentle question:
“Do you do well to be angry?”
The Lord is doing whatever he can to try to break through Jonah’s hard heart.
God gives up on nobody.
Which means neither should we.
In light of all the anger and hatred that has resulted from Charlie Kirk’s assassination, whom should you be praying for? Who needs to know the mercy and love of God?
“I Knew You Were a Dirty Forgiver!”
Here is our final video overview of the Book of Jonah. Hope it helps you get more out of your reading this week.
Jonah 4:2-3
2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “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. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Here we finally learn why Jonah fled—because he knew that the Lord wanted to be merciful to the Ninevites!
Jonah is throwing back in the Lord’s face one of the most repeated verses in the Bible: Exodus 34:6-7. Here’s the context of that Exodus passage: the Israelites have been worshipping the golden calf, but instead of wiping them out, the Lord chooses to forgive. The Lord gives this remarkable moment of self-revelation to Moses to explain why.
“6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.’”
This is a richly ironic complaint from Jonah—God’s mercy has been necessary to Israel’s national life from the very beginning, but here Jonah has the gall to complain about it!
How many times have I behaved in the same way?
Lord, help us be grateful today.
“It Was Evil”
Jonah 4:1
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
What it literally says in Hebrew is “it was very evil to Jonah.”
This is a remarkable sentence. The Lord shows mercy to Nineveh and forbears to destroy it, and Jonah calls that action “evil.”
That’s how you know you are in a bad way—when you call good things “evil.”
Be on the lookout this week if you find yourself in that same place, and if you do, repent—change direction.
Be on the lookout this week for the times when others call something good “evil.” Pray that those people would repent.
Does the Lord Change His Mind?
Sorry this is an hour late than normal—I am traveling and I forgot to schedule this!
Jonah 3:10
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.
Because of the Ninevites’ repentance and humility, the Lord does not bring upon them (at this time) the disaster that their wickedness had warranted.
Does this mean the Lord has changed his mind?
Short answer: NO.
The Lord has always promised blessing upon those who live righteously, and disaster on those who persist in wickedness.
Jeremiah 18 is a great passage that shows how the Lord is ready to act in whatever way accords with this overarching purpose.
Jeremiah 18:1-11
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’
Trust and turn to the Lord today—he is ready to meet you.
Evil King, Model prayer
Jonah 3:6-9
6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
This is a remarkable prayer, from the king of Nineveh. Presumably, this is a man who had been bloodthirsty and cruel, and yet here he makes no excuses and shows no expectation—he just prays a prayer of humble repentance.
“Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” (Jonah 3:8-9)
Believe it or not, this is a good model for us—we humbly acknowledge our sin, commit to repentance, and do not presume that the Lord owes us anything.
(Though, of course, he delights to forgive and offer mercy.)
Wild Success
Jonah 3:5
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
Here’s what I’m wondering:
What does it mean that Jonah, this disobedient prophet, has the greatest ministry success of anyone in the entire Old Testament? Here, the entire city repents and humbles itself. (Sackcloth is like burlap, and wearing it is meant to display an outer humility that matches an inward repentance.)
I think there is something that the Lord wants us to learn from seeing Jonah’s wild success.
For me, it’s a good reminder that all God is asking us to do is to go, and he’ll take care of the rest.
The Outcome Is the Lord’s
Here’s this week’s video overview of Jonah chapter 3.
Jonah 3:2-4
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
This (second) time, Jonah actually goes and does what the Lord has commanded.
At least, I think he does. Truthfully, it’s a strange series of events.
Nineveh is a three days’ journey across, but Jonah goes only one day into the city. Is he being faithful, or not? Does he quit too soon?
Jonah has just been in the belly of the beast three days, and here he enters the belly of a different kind of “beast”—the city of Nineveh. Should he have gone all the way through?
Then, when he delivers his message, it is really strange: he doesn’t explain what Nineveh has done, who it is who sent him, and if there is even a possibility for repentance for the city.
What we will see is that, despite these possible problems, Jonah ends up being remarkably successful in his mission.
What does this mean?
When God commands something, all we have to do is do it. Success depends on God.
Every Day is a Do-Over
Jonah 3:1
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time….
The biblical authors are masters of spare, ironic detail. I just love how the author of Jonah reminds us that God’s word had to come to Jonah “a second time”. We know that the reason the Lord had to speak to Jonah twice is because of Jonah’s disobedience!
As chapter 3 begins, the Lord gives Jonah another chance to get it right.
Recently, there have been a few times as a day drew to a close that I found myself praying, “Lord, please give me another day to get this right.”
And, when the morning came, it was like God gave me a do-over.
But, it’s the same literally every day, isn’t it?
Every new day is a do-over.
Don’t waste it today.
Fish Vomit
Jonah 2:10
And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
Forgive the title of today’s post, but it comes from the Bible!
I think this is meant to be a startling and humorous verse.
Jonah has been taken down to death, and then brought back up by the Lord. As his second chance begins, he finds himself covered in fish vomit. It’s a funny ending. And there is a lesson there for the church.
See, because of the resurrection of Jesus, death loses its power over us.
Can I say it? In light of the resurrection, it even becomes kind of comic.
“For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
Forrest Gump’s Mom Was Right
Jonah 2:8-9
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
When the storm first hits in chapter 1, each pagan sailor cries out to his respective god:
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god.
But, after their interaction with Jonah, they turn to the true God in worship:
14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. (1:14-16)
Note the key words sacrifice and vows.
Later, as Jonah concludes his prayer from the belly of the fish, he remarks that the lost pagans have no hope of God’s mercy:
Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love. (2:8)
He seems totally unaware of both God’s desire to show mercy to the nations, and the possibility that some of those pagan outsiders might actually turn to the living God. Exhibit A: the sailors.
In contrast, Jonah boldly states that he is going to worship the Lord through right way:
But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the Lord! (2:9)
Note the repetition of the words from chapter 1—Jonah says that he will sacrifice and vow, which is the very thing that the sailors were described as doing.
The difference, however, is subtle but important.
The sailors “offered a sacrifice and made vows.” Past tense. Jonah, on the other hand, says he “will sacrifice” and make good on his vows.
The difference is that Jonah says he will do it, whereas the sailors actually do it.
Will Jonah follow through?
We’ll have to read on to find out.
What I know for sure is that Forrest Gump’s mom was right:
“Faithful is as faithful does.”
Jonah’s Stubborn Faith
Jonah 2:4-7
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
5 The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I went down,
to the land whose bars closed upon me forever.
Yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord my God.
7 When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
Jonah is a funny guy, and I know I’ve been hard on him. (Though, as we shall see, it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it.)
There is a lot he does wrong, but I have to admit I do admire his stubborn faith.
Even when it looks as if he is going to drown—completely because of his own sin—he stubbornly believes the Lord will save him:
Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’(Jonah 2:4)
Jonah believes that he will see Jerusalem again.
There is a lot not to like about Jonah, but his stubborn faith in God’s mercy is something to emulate.
Does Jonah Die?
Each week, I’m filming a brief video overview of the Jonah chapter we are studying that week. Here is the video overview of chapter 2. (Today’s reading and commentary is below the video.)
Jonah 2:2-3
“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your breakers and your waves
passed over me.
Does Jonah die?
I had never really considered the question before, but a close reading of chapter 2 shows why it’s a relevant question.
The reason is the word “Sheol”. Sheol is the Old Testament word for the underworld, or the place of the dead.
See v. 2:
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
Does Jonah literally die? It’s not clear. He could be speaking figuratively in his prayer in chapter 2—maybe he is just at death’s door as he sinks below the water. On the other hand, maybe he actually dies. Either way, the point is essentially the same: the Lord rescues Jonah and brings him up from the deep, giving him another chance.
But, the possibility of Jonah’s death makes the words of Jesus much more meaningful when he uses Jonah as a way of talking about himself.
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 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. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. (Matthew 12:38-42)
What’s remarkable about the whole incident is that Jonah doesn’t deserve to be saved, and yet the Lord saves him anyway.
There is a lesson there.
The “Pregnant” Fish
Jonah 2:1
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish….
I had always thought that the fish is Jonah’s punishment. But, I hadn’t read closely enough. Rather than being his punishment, the fish is Jonah’s salvation. Jonah is thrown overboard into the sea, and would surely have drowned, were it not for the fish that the Lord sends to save him.
In chapter 2, we will see that the time Jonah spends in the belly of the beast gives him time to reflect, which, I’m sure, is part of God’s plan.
Is it possible that your current problem or difficultly can be used by God to get you to reflect on your life and its direction?
P.S. In Hebrew, the first time the fish is mentioned, it is a masculine noun.
1:17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
The Hebrew word is “dahg".
Then, in 2:1, with Jonah in its belly, the fish has become a feminine noun.
2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish….
The Hebrew word has become “dahg-ah”.
Why?
Because Jonah is in the fish’s belly! It’s like the fish has become a mama fish, pregnant with Jonah. It’s a fun little Hebrew flourish.
Then, in 2:10 (getting ahead of ourselves) guess what happens?
2:10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
It reverts back to the masculine version of the word! “Dahg”. Jonah has been vomited up, and is no longer in the belly of the fish.
How fun is that?!
(I’m telling you, this is a really sophisticated little book.)
Overboard
Jonah 1:13-17
13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
God chose the family of Abraham to be his covenant people. Why? So that Abraham’s family would be a vehicle of blessing for the nations:
12 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Jonah has not been a faithful Israelite. In fact, his active rebellion against the Lord has brought potential disaster upon the pagan sailors. Nevertheless, God uses Jonah’s rebellion and hard-heartedness to reach the sailors anyway. Once he is thrown overboard, the sailors begin to worship the true God:
15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
This incident with Jonah and the sailors is a foreshadowing of what the Lord will do later, after the Resurrection of Jesus. Then, the rejection of Jesus by the Jews will be used by God to bring salvation to the Gentiles.
God is always at work.
Jonah: The Ultimate Passive Man
Jonah 1:11-12
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”
I only noticed this this past Sunday morning:
When Jonah offers to be thrown into the sea, he is not making a heroic gesture of sacrifice; that is, he is not selflessly sacrificing himself in order to spare the lives of the innocent sailors.
You know how I know that?
Because if Jonah were that concerned about the well-being of the sailors, he would hurl himself over the gunwale of the ship.
What does he do instead?
He tells the sailors to throw him overboard.
Even in extreme distress, Jonah refuses to take responsibility for anything.
Don’t be like Jonah today.
Esse Quam Videri
Jonah 1:7-10
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
Casting lots was like an ancient game of chance in which the participants believed that the deity would direct the outcome. So, names or stones or figures or whatever might be placed in a bowl and then shaken out, and whatever came out would be the answer. In this case, the lot falls on Jonah.
What’s interesting to me is the way Jonah describes himself, when questioned by the terrified sailors:
“I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
Esse Quam Videri
Esse quam videri is a Latin phrase that means “to be, rather than to seem.” It is about how what really matters is not what we pretend to be, but who we really are, and that our goal should be to be not merely to seem.
Jonah says one thing, but his actions indicate otherwise. In fact, in Jonah 1 it is the sailors who are the God-fearers, not Jonah.
It turns out that Jonah, despite what he says, is very far from being a God-fearing prophet.
Reading through the book of Jonah will cause us to examine our own lives.
“Where is the gap between who I really am and who I pretend to be?”
Where do you need to close the gap between being and seeming today?
P.S. I preached on this topic this past Sunday at Asbury.