John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches.

Mention the name Jonah, and those who hear you most likely will think of the prophet in Israel who experienced a violent storm at sea when he took a ship to Tarshish in his attempt to flee from the duty assigned to him, namely, to preach in Nineveh, and who was thrown overboard by the sailors. His story is well known, and he is mentioned in other books of the Bible, as well as in the book bearing his name. He is mentioned in II Kings 14:25. And there are no fewer than nine references to him in the New Testament, all nine coming from the mouth of Jesus. He was therefore no fictional character. It is a true story of which we read in the book that bears his name. Jesus refers to what happened to him as historical fact. And Jesus spoke the truth every time He opened His mouth. We sin then when we open our mouths to deny the fact that this book deals with a man of real flesh and blood, and that what is recorded concerning him is absolutely true.

There was however another Jonah that sailed on a very stormy sea, and that in the very first ship built by man, when God opened the windows of heaven, and broke open the fountains of the deep. What is more, even as Jonah the prophet was sent by God to bring a message to the people of Nineveh, this Jonah was sent to bring a message to Noah and his family in the ark. You see, the Hebrew word for dove is Jonah. And the prophet Jonah in a sense served as a messenger of God, even as that dove did from the hand of God. This we hope to make plain in subsequent contributions to this department.

These two messengers differ greatly in that Jonah was a human being belonging to the creatures God created in His own image, while the Jonah that Noah let go from the ark, and God sent back with a message to the church of that day, was a creature brought forth by God on the fifth day of creation week and out of the water, one day before man was created out of the dust of the ground. Then too the dove made no attempt to avoid bringing the message to Noah, while Jonah did his best to keep from preaching in Nineveh. The message the dove brought was in sign language—an olive leaf—while Jonahs message was spelled out in clear human language.

We read at the very beginning of the book that “the word of the Lord came unto Jonah.” And that word came in human language. They were not words in sign language that might or might not be interpreted correctly. It was a word for the people of Nineveh, and a word that was very clear as to its meaning. This becomes evident in the reaction to Jonah’s preaching. They understood it, and understood it as word coming from no one less than Jehovah.

In both instances it was the hand of God that directed these two messengers. His hand led the dove to find the olive leaf, to pluck it off, and to bring it to Noah. It was the hand of God that in an amazing way brought this disobedient prophet to bring Gods message to the Ninevites. What is more, both messengers were sent with messages to God’s people. Members of the church of Christ were there in Nineveh, those whose names were eternally written in the Lamb’s book of life, even though they were not of the fleshly seed of Abraham.

And for those who wish to believe that the church of Christ was born on Pentecost, let it be pointed out that Scripture does NOT speak that way. We may qualify the statement and say that the New Testament church was born on Pentecost, but we may not say that the whole church had its birth that day. It is certainly true that you do not find the word church even once in the Old Testament Scriptures. But then from Genesis 1 through Malachi 4 you do not find the word regeneration either. Would anyone dare to say that therefore there was no regeneration during the whole Old Testament dispensation? It would take an unregenerated heart to say that! The word faith appears in the Old Testament Scriptures only twice. Shall we say that during that period of time there was hardly any faith? Do we not read of the “heroes of faith”—better called the giants of faith—in Hebrews 11? And that chapter covers the Old Testament from creation through way beyond the days of David.

What is especially striking is that Stephen in Acts 7:38speaks of the “church in the wilderness.” Those who want to maintain that the Jews are the Kingdom of God, and the Gentiles are the church of God, in order to get around what God says here, translate Stephen’s words as, “the congregation in the wilderness.” The word plainly is church, or, if you will,ecclesia in the Greek. And there is a Greek word for congregation that is not used here. You will find it inActs 13:43. Why did God not give Stephen that word, if He wanted us to believe that there was no church yet in the Old Testament dispensation?

And does not Paul speak in Ephesians 2:14 of the middle wall of partition being broken down between Jews and Gentiles? And that does not mean that the Gentiles can now come into the kingdom, and the Jews can come into the church, even though there is an element of truth in this. But note that in verse 19 Paul states that the Gentiles are fellow citizens with the Jews in the kingdom. The Jews are not the only citizens in the Kingdom. And the Gentiles alone are not the church. Note that the Gentiles are in verse 20 called the temple of God together with the Jews. Turn then to Revelation 21:1-3 and note that the tabernacle, or temple, of God is with both Jew and Gentile, with all the saints, all those who believe from Adam onward. We must insist that Jonah was sent to Gentiles who in Gods counsel were from eternity members in the church of Christ, and in time were brought into that church through the work of Jonah.

Part of Jonah’s problem stems from this very fact, even though he knew that in Abraham’s seed ALL nations would be blessed. As a prophet he knew thatGenesis 18:18 meant that there could be Ninevites in the Old Testament church. And as we shall see, the Lord willing, God showed him that these Ninevites shared in the same blessings that the believing seed of Abraham enjoyed. All the members of the body of Christ enjoy the same blessings, for as members of ONE body they all receive from the Head the blessings of His cross.

Now to return to what we began to set forth. The Jonah or dove that served the church in the ark was a symbol of peace and gentleness. It is contrasted with the raven in the account of the flood. Men today contrast it with the hawk, which is used as a symbol of war, while the dove symbolizes peace. And although there are several other characteristics of the dove presented in Scripture, here on the foreground the dove, namely Jonah, is, as pointed out, a messenger of peace. The Jonah that brought Noah the olive leaf—another symbol of peace—is presented in Matthew 10:16 as a creature with a gentle, harmless nature, and thus as the very opposite of the hawk.

As suggested above, the dove brought Noah a message of peace. God’s holy wrath had brought terrible devastation to the earth. He visited the sinful human race and made war against it, wiping off from the face of the earth all His enemies! In His holy wrath He brought worldwide calamity and disaster. Who can stand before Him? But He used a harmless dove to let the church know that His thoughts to His people are thoughts of peace, and that He had a new earth ready for His church to live on and to use in His service. That dove, indeed, brought a message of God’s peace upon His church that had seen His terrible wrath against His enemies.

And now God is sending another Jonah to Nineveh with a message of peace for His people dwelling there. O, yes, Jonah preaches destruction. But God did that through Noah as well. And, as we hope to point out later in this series, that must be done. That is the way to approach the sinner. Do not argue with God about that. You are sure to lose and find out your folly. But that must wait for a later installment in this series. The point to be made here is that God sends Jonah to Nineveh because He has eternal thoughts of peace for His people in Nineveh. And He sends a dove to let them know this.

What we must keep in mind while we consider the book of Jonah is the fact that it brings us the gospel as it is in Christ. We must see that when we read in verse one of the book that the word of the Lord came to Jonah. It was the word of the gospel, the good news of salvation, the news of “peace on earth to men of good will.” The message was that of eternal thoughts of peace which God has for His people in Christ. Jonah was not sent to see whether there were any children of God among these Gentiles. He was sent because there were people there toward whom God eternally had thoughts of peace. To these He wants Jonah to extend the olive leaf of the gospel so that they may know the salvation which God has prepared for them.

Although in some of his actions Jonah was a hawk, averse to bringing the gospel to these Gentiles, and when forced to do so found delight in pronouncing impending destruction upon the wicked, God used him to convey His thoughts of peace to the elect in that Gentile city. God used him as a dove. Never mind Jonah’s unpeaceful attitude. Never mind the fact that he did not come into Nineveh acting like a dove. The truth we must see is God’s peaceful thoughts and intentions that sent Jonah to be His tool for the salvation of His people in Nineveh. Jonah has the name of dove, not because of what he in his sinful nature did, but because of Him Whose word came to Jonah to be preached in Nineveh. Jonah was the messenger. It was God’s message. Let us not lose sight of that fact. What God does through man counts, not what man wants or sets out to do.

And God’s thoughts of peace toward those whom He chose in Christ are eternal thoughts of peace, thoughts He always had in His holy heart and mind, and which will be there eternally. A truth we must remember is that not only is Jehovah God, but God is Jehovah. His name Jehovah means I AM. And there are so many false doctrines today that deny this truth. That He is the I AM ought to fill us with holy awe and prevent us from any tendency to present Him at any time as a changeable god, dependent upon man’s will as to what to do next. He says, “I Am” and never says “I Was” or “I Will be.” Always He is the same, unchangeably the same. In this name He tells and warns us that He is, and that without our help; that He has in Himself all that which He needs; and that He does not need our consent, our acceptance of a well-meant offer of salvation, of a free offer, or for us to open our hearts to receive His Son. His glory and the attainment of His desire does not depend upon what we do or are going to do. He is the I AM, and is not the I hope-to-be, if you will let me and help me.

No, His thoughts of peace toward His people are eternal, because He chose every one of them personally before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4); and this choice is with Him eternally and unchangeably. That is why He sent Jonah to Nineveh. There were people there that must be saved. These will be saved. For He is Jehovah, and thus is the unchangeable and self-sufficient One.

THAT assures us of our salvation as well. And let it be pointed out that the book of Jonah begins with that truth for our comfort. In the Hebrew we read, “How the word of JEHOVAH came unto Jonah, the son of Amitai.” As we consider this book and its truth, let us bear that in mind. Jehovah is at work. Jehovah speaks to us from the pages of this brief book of the Old Testament.

John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches.

Mention the name Jonah, and those who hear you most likely will think of the prophet in Israel who experienced a violent storm at sea when he took a ship to Tarshish in his attempt to flee from the duty assigned to him, namely, to preach in Nineveh, and who was thrown overboard by the sailors. His story is well known, and he is mentioned in other books of the Bible, as well as in the book bearing his name. He is mentioned in II Kings 14:25. And there are no fewer than nine references to him in the New Testament, all nine coming from the mouth of Jesus. He was therefore no fictional character. It is a true story of which we read in the book that bears his name. Jesus refers to what happened to him as historical fact. And Jesus spoke the truth every time He opened His mouth. We sin then when we open our mouths to deny the fact that this book deals with a man of real flesh and blood, and that what is recorded concerning him is absolutely true.

There was however another Jonah that sailed on a very stormy sea, and that in the very first ship built by man, when God opened the windows of heaven, and broke open the fountains of the deep. What is more, even as Jonah the prophet was sent by God to bring a message to the people of Nineveh, this Jonah was sent to bring a message to Noah and his family in the ark. You see, the Hebrew word for dove is Jonah. And the prophet Jonah in a sense served as a messenger of God, even as that dove did from the hand of God. This we hope to make plain in subsequent contributions to this department.

These two messengers differ greatly in that Jonah was a human being belonging to the creatures God created in His own image, while the Jonah that Noah let go from the ark, and God sent back with a message to the church of that day, was a creature brought forth by God on the fifth day of creation week and out of the water, one day before man was created out of the dust of the ground. Then too the dove made no attempt to avoid bringing the message to Noah, while Jonah did his best to keep from preaching in Nineveh. The message the dove brought was in sign language—an olive leaf—while Jonahs message was spelled out in clear human language.

We read at the very beginning of the book that “the word of the Lord came unto Jonah.” And that word came in human language. They were not words in sign language that might or might not be interpreted correctly. It was a word for the people of Nineveh, and a word that was very clear as to its meaning. This becomes evident in the reaction to Jonah’s preaching. They understood it, and understood it as word coming from no one less than Jehovah.

In both instances it was the hand of God that directed these two messengers. His hand led the dove to find the olive leaf, to pluck it off, and to bring it to Noah. It was the hand of God that in an amazing way brought this disobedient prophet to bring Gods message to the Ninevites. What is more, both messengers were sent with messages to God’s people. Members of the church of Christ were there in Nineveh, those whose names were eternally written in the Lamb’s book of life, even though they were not of the fleshly seed of Abraham.

And for those who wish to believe that the church of Christ was born on Pentecost, let it be pointed out that Scripture does NOT speak that way. We may qualify the statement and say that the New Testament church was born on Pentecost, but we may not say that the whole church had its birth that day. It is certainly true that you do not find the word church even once in the Old Testament Scriptures. But then from Genesis 1 through Malachi 4 you do not find the word regeneration either. Would anyone dare to say that therefore there was no regeneration during the whole Old Testament dispensation? It would take an unregenerated heart to say that! The word faith appears in the Old Testament Scriptures only twice. Shall we say that during that period of time there was hardly any faith? Do we not read of the “heroes of faith”—better called the giants of faith—in Hebrews 11? And that chapter covers the Old Testament from creation through way beyond the days of David.

What is especially striking is that Stephen in Acts 7:38speaks of the “church in the wilderness.” Those who want to maintain that the Jews are the Kingdom of God, and the Gentiles are the church of God, in order to get around what God says here, translate Stephen’s words as, “the congregation in the wilderness.” The word plainly is church, or, if you will,ecclesia in the Greek. And there is a Greek word for congregation that is not used here. You will find it inActs 13:43. Why did God not give Stephen that word, if He wanted us to believe that there was no church yet in the Old Testament dispensation?

And does not Paul speak in Ephesians 2:14 of the middle wall of partition being broken down between Jews and Gentiles? And that does not mean that the Gentiles can now come into the kingdom, and the Jews can come into the church, even though there is an element of truth in this. But note that in verse 19 Paul states that the Gentiles are fellow citizens with the Jews in the kingdom. The Jews are not the only citizens in the Kingdom. And the Gentiles alone are not the church. Note that the Gentiles are in verse 20 called the temple of God together with the Jews. Turn then to Revelation 21:1-3 and note that the tabernacle, or temple, of God is with both Jew and Gentile, with all the saints, all those who believe from Adam onward. We must insist that Jonah was sent to Gentiles who in Gods counsel were from eternity members in the church of Christ, and in time were brought into that church through the work of Jonah.

Part of Jonah’s problem stems from this very fact, even though he knew that in Abraham’s seed ALL nations would be blessed. As a prophet he knew thatGenesis 18:18 meant that there could be Ninevites in the Old Testament church. And as we shall see, the Lord willing, God showed him that these Ninevites shared in the same blessings that the believing seed of Abraham enjoyed. All the members of the body of Christ enjoy the same blessings, for as members of ONE body they all receive from the Head the blessings of His cross.

Now to return to what we began to set forth. The Jonah or dove that served the church in the ark was a symbol of peace and gentleness. It is contrasted with the raven in the account of the flood. Men today contrast it with the hawk, which is used as a symbol of war, while the dove symbolizes peace. And although there are several other characteristics of the dove presented in Scripture, here on the foreground the dove, namely Jonah, is, as pointed out, a messenger of peace. The Jonah that brought Noah the olive leaf—another symbol of peace—is presented in Matthew 10:16 as a creature with a gentle, harmless nature, and thus as the very opposite of the hawk.

As suggested above, the dove brought Noah a message of peace. God’s holy wrath had brought terrible devastation to the earth. He visited the sinful human race and made war against it, wiping off from the face of the earth all His enemies! In His holy wrath He brought worldwide calamity and disaster. Who can stand before Him? But He used a harmless dove to let the church know that His thoughts to His people are thoughts of peace, and that He had a new earth ready for His church to live on and to use in His service. That dove, indeed, brought a message of God’s peace upon His church that had seen His terrible wrath against His enemies.

And now God is sending another Jonah to Nineveh with a message of peace for His people dwelling there. O, yes, Jonah preaches destruction. But God did that through Noah as well. And, as we hope to point out later in this series, that must be done. That is the way to approach the sinner. Do not argue with God about that. You are sure to lose and find out your folly. But that must wait for a later installment in this series. The point to be made here is that God sends Jonah to Nineveh because He has eternal thoughts of peace for His people in Nineveh. And He sends a dove to let them know this.

What we must keep in mind while we consider the book of Jonah is the fact that it brings us the gospel as it is in Christ. We must see that when we read in verse one of the book that the word of the Lord came to Jonah. It was the word of the gospel, the good news of salvation, the news of “peace on earth to men of good will.” The message was that of eternal thoughts of peace which God has for His people in Christ. Jonah was not sent to see whether there were any children of God among these Gentiles. He was sent because there were people there toward whom God eternally had thoughts of peace. To these He wants Jonah to extend the olive leaf of the gospel so that they may know the salvation which God has prepared for them.

Although in some of his actions Jonah was a hawk, averse to bringing the gospel to these Gentiles, and when forced to do so found delight in pronouncing impending destruction upon the wicked, God used him to convey His thoughts of peace to the elect in that Gentile city. God used him as a dove. Never mind Jonah’s unpeaceful attitude. Never mind the fact that he did not come into Nineveh acting like a dove. The truth we must see is God’s peaceful thoughts and intentions that sent Jonah to be His tool for the salvation of His people in Nineveh. Jonah has the name of dove, not because of what he in his sinful nature did, but because of Him Whose word came to Jonah to be preached in Nineveh. Jonah was the messenger. It was God’s message. Let us not lose sight of that fact. What God does through man counts, not what man wants or sets out to do.

And God’s thoughts of peace toward those whom He chose in Christ are eternal thoughts of peace, thoughts He always had in His holy heart and mind, and which will be there eternally. A truth we must remember is that not only is Jehovah God, but God is Jehovah. His name Jehovah means I AM. And there are so many false doctrines today that deny this truth. That He is the I AM ought to fill us with holy awe and prevent us from any tendency to present Him at any time as a changeable god, dependent upon man’s will as to what to do next. He says, “I Am” and never says “I Was” or “I Will be.” Always He is the same, unchangeably the same. In this name He tells and warns us that He is, and that without our help; that He has in Himself all that which He needs; and that He does not need our consent, our acceptance of a well-meant offer of salvation, of a free offer, or for us to open our hearts to receive His Son. His glory and the attainment of His desire does not depend upon what we do or are going to do. He is the I AM, and is not the I hope-to-be, if you will let me and help me.

No, His thoughts of peace toward His people are eternal, because He chose every one of them personally before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4); and this choice is with Him eternally and unchangeably. That is why He sent Jonah to Nineveh. There were people there that must be saved. These will be saved. For He is Jehovah, and thus is the unchangeable and self-sufficient One.

THAT assures us of our salvation as well. And let it be pointed out that the book of Jonah begins with that truth for our comfort. In the Hebrew we read, “How the word of JEHOVAH came unto Jonah, the son of Amitai.” As we consider this book and its truth, let us bear that in mind. Jehovah is at work. Jehovah speaks to us from the pages of this brief book of the Old Testament.