Jonah: A Pastoral and Contextual Commentary

By Rosa Ching Shao

In this commentary on Jonah, Dr. Rosa Shao beautifully weaves together the story of the biblical text with narratives from the Asian (Chinese and Filipino) contexts and psychological insights. Testifying to how she was drawn to the book, Dr. Shao shares how this book has impacted her personally and demonstrates how others can hear the book’s message in their own context. From better understanding the story of Jonah, readers will gain valuable insight for discerning God’s divine call on their own lives.
The Asia Bible Commentary series empowers Christian believers in Asia to read the Bible from within their respective contexts. Holistic in its approach to the text, each exposition of the biblical books combines exegesis and application. The ultimate goal is to strengthen the Body of Christ in Asia by providing pastoral and contextual exposition of every book of the Bible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Langham Global Library
• Release date: Jul 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781783686919

Book preview

Foreword

It is a special delight to commend to a wide-reading audience Dr. Rosa Shao’s delightful commentary on the book of Jonah, for it has been my privilege to know her and her work in teaching for well over thirty years at the Biblical Seminary of the Philippines. I had also been the graduate teacher of her husband at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, some forty years ago.

Dr. Rosa Shao has produced at one and the same time a scholarly work – with appropriate critical references to the Hebrew text, where such references greatly enhance the understanding of the meaning of the book of Jonah – as well as providing useful illustrations taken from the fields of psychology and pastoral ministries. She has brought her dual achievements in the areas of biblical exegesis and clinical psychology to the writing of this commentary.

This commentary has been especially successful in being biblically accurate with regard to the culture of Jonah’s day, as well as contextually relevant to our own day. Rosa is to be commended for the strong archaeological background she has been able to bring out in this text as well as for her great discussions on theology. Her illustrations from everyday life are likewise special gems that will endear this book to so many of her readers.

I strongly urge the use of this commentary not only within the Asian context, for which its contents set it forth as being beautifully distinctive, but also for the church at large around the world. The message of how God sent his messenger Jonah to Assyria, the land of Israel’s enemy, but unfortunately, this messenger fled in the opposite direction and gave a silent but complete no to God’s call, is contrasted with the love of God who gave this failing servant of his a second chance. Many who have been disobedient to the call of God for one reason or another, will take enormous comfort and encouragement from God’s gracious offer of a second chance.

Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.,

President Emeritus,

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary,

Hamilton, Massachusetts, USA

Series Preface

In recent years, we have witnessed one of the greatest shifts in the history of world Christianity. It used to be that the majority of Christians lived in the West, but Christians are now evenly distributed around the globe. This shift has implications for the task of interpreting the Bible from within our respective contexts, which is in line with the growing realization that every theology is contextual. Thus, the questions that we bring into our reading of the Bible will be shaped by our present realities as well as our historical and social locations. There is a need therefore to interpret the Bible for our own contexts.

The Asia Bible Commentary (ABC) series addresses this need. In line with the mission of the Asia Theological Association Publications, we have gathered evangelical Bible scholars working among Asians to write commentaries on each book of the Bible. The mission is to produce resources that are biblical, pastoral, contextual, missional, and prophetic for pastors, Christian leaders, cross-cultural workers, and students in Asia. Although the Bible can be studied for different reasons, we believe that it is given primarily for the edification of the Body of Christ (2 Tim 3:16–17). The ABC series is designed to help pastors in their sermon preparation, cell group or lay leaders in their Bible study groups, and those training in seminaries or Bible schools.

Each commentary begins with an introduction that provides general information about the book’s author and original context, summarizes the main message or theme of the book, and outlines its potential relevance to a particular Asian context. The introduction is followed by an exposition that combines exegesis and application. Here, we seek to speak to and empower Christians in Asia by using our own stories, parables, poems, and other cultural resources as we expound the Bible.

The Bible is actually Asian in that it comes from ancient West Asia, and there are many similarities between the world of the Bible and traditional Asian cultures. But there are also many differences that we need to explore in some depth. That is why the commentaries also include articles or topics in which we bring specific issues in Asian church, social, and religious contexts into dialogue with relevant issues in the Bible. We do not seek to resolve every tension that emerges but rather to allow the text to illumine the context and vice versa, acknowledging that we do not have all the answers to every mystery.

May the Holy Spirit, who inspired the writers of the Bible, bring light to the hearts and minds of all who use these materials, to the glory of God and to the building up of the churches!

Federico G. Villanueva

General Editor

Author’s Preface

A few years ago, I received an email from the Asia Theological Association (ATA) looking for writers for the book of Jonah. It stirred my interest to revisit my journey with the prophet Jonah. Nearly thirty-nine years ago, I had worked on an analytical key and exegetical commentary on Jonah, in partial fulfillment of the required degree in Master of Divinity in Biblical Studies at the Biblical Seminary of the Philippines. Surely it would be exciting to reenter the experience of this runaway prophet and upgrade my understanding of his message years after the effort on my thesis?

When the ATA tasked me with writing the commentary on Jonah, I found myself thinking of Jonah with the fish. A family visit to the Cincinnati Zoo came to mind, evoking fond memories of our then two-year-old son, afraid to go into the aquarium center because he had heard from his Sunday school teacher that a big fish had swallowed Jonah! I would soon reexamine how both God’s tenderness and toughness could be seen in the provision of the fish and how the emotion of fear is so very real, even to a toddler.

Revisiting the account of Jonah also stirs my burden for lost souls. I reflect on the thousands of migrants fleeing their own troubled lands, seeking asylum and safe haven across the Mediterranean Sea as well as over barbed gates and walled borders. I had once stood at a resort in Antalya, Turkey, overlooking the vast Mediterranean Sea, and pictured Jonah taking a ship through Joppa to go to Tarshish – a little like those migrants escaping from a distressed homeland, except that Jonah was taking flight from God himself. A five-foot fish statue hangs beside a tree near the very shore where Jonah once set foot, and my interest in Jonah was rekindled, knowing I could be standing where Jonah himself had once stood. It is a timely endeavor to reconsider the book’s missionary message in the light of so many boat people around us – are they not also treasured by our Lord God? How do we discern God’s call to their needs in view of our increasing, yet also shrinking, global village?

The book of Jonah is short, simple, and succinct, but its simplicity is not tantamount to simplification. The narrative is packed with suspense, twists in the tale, and a continuous wrestling between Jonah and the Lord God. There is more than meets the eye in every chapter of the book.

The book of Jonah portrays how God deals with his servant in a personal way. Every servant of the Lord encounters some disturbance, and even disappointment, in doing God’s work. Revisiting Jonah may help us realize that the Lord God cares more about his servants than about the tasks he assigns to them.

A poem by Bishop Ralph Cushman reminds me why I offer my life to serve God when I could make excuses and run away; this poem also challenges me to deepen my walk with God so that I may be able to last long and stay faithful in his ministry. It is titled I Met God in the Storm.[1]

I met God in the storm

Where he found me all forlorn;

And he put his arm around me,

And I thank him for the storm.

I met God in the dark,

Where I wandered stiff and stark;

And he caught my hand to guide me

And I thank him for the dark.

I met God in defeat

Where he followed my retreat

With a vision of new conquest;

Now I’m glad of that defeat.

I met God by a grave

Where he braced me to be brave

But I failed and then he caught me;

Yes, I thank him for that grave.

I shall meet God when the night

Overwhelms my flickering light;

Then he’ll lead me to the morning,

Far away from cloud and storming,

Where I’ll praise him for the night.

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

When We Say No to God

As I thought about writing this commentary, I decided to find out how people today would remember Jonah and how they would describe him. In one of the faculty prayer meetings I was leading, I raised a simple question: Have you ever said ‘no’ to God? If so, on what occasion? Of the 60 percent who responded, almost three-fourths had said no to God. Some of these seminary faculty and staff had said no to God:

when making a lifetime decision or choice such as dating someone or studying in a seminary;

when dealing with personal sickness and repenting of sins; or

when invited to join church activities and even to speak to God’s people.

A common feature underlying all these situations was