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Jonah attempted to run away from God, fleeing to Tarshish, to a distance he assumed he would be unreachable, having deliberately evaded God’s instruction to announce his judgment against Nineveh.
Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrians, who had been brutal towards the neighboring nations, including Israel, so ordinarily, an average Israelite would be happy for God’s judgment. falling on them.
However, Jonah knew God as gracious and compassionate, and would not eventually destroy them after he had preached.
On Jonah’s way to Tarshish, God brought a great storm against the ship, and the sailors’ lot picked Jonah as the cause of the raging storm.
Then they threw Jonah to the sea as requested by him as he was determined to sacrifice his life than go to Nineveh.
In the end, the sailors were awestruck by the LORD’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.
In the second lesson, some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, explicitly the Jewish leaders opposed to Jesus, asked him for a sign to prove he is heaven sent.
After all the miracles he has already worked?
Jesus, in response, addressed them as a wicked and adulterous generation, asking for signs.
None will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah, just as Jonah was in the belly of a huge fish for three days and nights, the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, implying Jesus’ death and resurrection.
They should repent and not be after signs.
Nineveh repented at Jonah’s preaching, and the Queen of the South sought Solomon’s wisdom, but the generation disregarded one greater than Jonah and Solomon.
The final condition of the generation would be worse than the first for rejecting Christ.