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What We Missed in Jonah

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Seth and David talk about everything they missed in Jonah and why you should definitely preach the book of Jonah next Easter Sunday.

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The Jesus Turns We Didn't See Coming

Show Notes

David and Seth return for a special bonus episode of the Spoken Gospel podcast, recorded exclusively for their podcast audience. After wrapping up their four-part YouTube series on the Book of Jonah, the two kept talking off-camera and realized they had missed several profound connections between Jonah and Jesus. They rushed back to the studio to capture these insights, and the result is a focused exploration of the Gospel hiding in plain sight within one of the Bible's most familiar stories.

Jonah and the Day of Atonement

In Jewish tradition, the Book of Jonah was read aloud during the Day of Atonement — the most significant day on Israel's calendar, described in Leviticus 16 as the high point of the entire Torah. On that day, all of Israel's sins were covered through sacrifice. The reading of Jonah on such a solemn occasion served a deeply convicting purpose. By identifying with Jonah as a representative of Israel, the Jewish people were not only repenting of personal disobedience — they were mourning their collective failure to fulfill God's original covenant purpose: to bless the nations.

Jonah embodied Israel's refusal to extend God's mercy beyond its own borders. And Israel, languishing in exile, had failed in the same way. Reading Jonah on the Day of Atonement forced God's people to confront not just the sins they committed against their neighbors, but their unwillingness to love their enemies — to be the missionary nation God had called them to be. It was a book that cut to the heart of everyone who heard it.

The Cross as the True Day of Atonement

For those who trust Jesus, the Day of Atonement finds its ultimate fulfillment in the cross. Jesus is the final sacrificial lamb, and his death is the moment when the sins of the whole world — not just Israel's — are dealt with once and for all. This reframes the tension at the heart of Jonah's story. Jonah sat on a mountain overlooking Nineveh and called God's mercy toward Israel's oppressors "evil." And his accusation was not entirely unfounded. How could God forgive such violent, wicked people without compromising his justice?

The answer is the cross. God would not have been just to simply pass over sin — whether Israel's or Nineveh's — without atonement. But because Jesus died on our Day of Atonement, God is proven to be both just and the justifier of everyone who trusts him (Romans 3:26). And if Jonah also functions as a mirror for God's people to repent of their own failures, then the Gospel offers even more comfort: there is forgiveness in Jesus for those who, like Jonah, fail to live up to God's covenant commands.

The Scandal of the Cross and God's Mercy to Oppressors

Jonah raises a question that still unsettles people today: How can God's mercy toward the oppressor be reconciled with his commitment to the oppressed? Nineveh was not just any city — it was a superpower, and its rise would eventually mean the destruction and exile of Israel. Showing mercy to Nineveh was, in a very real sense, a death sentence for God's own people. Jonah's outrage was not entirely unreasonable.

But Jesus takes this tension and magnifies it to an almost unbearable degree. If Jonah is a representative of Israel, Jesus is the ultimate Israelite — a Jewish man living under Roman oppression, a Galilean marginalized even within his own nation. And his death was itself a kind of exile. He was crucified outside the city walls of Jerusalem, and Deuteronomy declares that anyone who hangs on a tree is cursed. Jesus was literally cut off from God's people and, in that moment on the cross, cut off from God himself: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" You can almost hear Jonah praying that same prayer on the mountain overlooking Nineveh — "God, why are you forsaking me and going after them?"

Jesus Does the Opposite of Jonah

Here is where the contrast becomes staggering. Jonah, in his moment of perceived abandonment, called God's mercy toward his enemies evil and refused to extend forgiveness. But Jesus, in his actual abandonment — forsaken on the cross, murdered by the very people he came to save — says, "Father, forgive them." Jesus does precisely what Jonah refused to do. He forgives the oppressors. He extends mercy to the nations.

And the specific language Jesus uses echoes the end of the Book of Jonah in a remarkable way. God's closing argument to Jonah is that the people of Nineveh "do not know their right hand from their left" — an Old Testament expression for ignorance. They had not been trained in God's ways. They did not understand what they were doing. Jesus uses nearly identical reasoning on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). This is not a dismissive statement — as if Jesus were calling his executioners simpletons. It is a statement of profound sympathy. Acts tells us that the people who crucified Jesus did not know they were killing the Lord of Glory. There is a tenderness in God's posture toward human frailty, echoed in the psalm that says, "He knows that we are mortal, that we are but flesh." Jesus showed that same tenderness to his persecutors — the very compassion Jonah withheld from Nineveh.

Jesus Is the Better Jonah

The final and perhaps most piercing contrast is this: Jonah would rather have died than see God's mercy extended to his enemies. Death, for Jonah, was an escape — a way to avoid witnessing what he considered an unbearable injustice. But Jesus willingly entered into death for the opposite reason. He died not to escape mercy but to make it possible. Jonah wanted death so he wouldn't have to watch God forgive. Jesus embraced death so that God could forgive. Jesus is the better Jonah — the true prophet, the true Israelite, the one who fulfills every failed mission and broken covenant. Where Jonah sat in judgment, Jesus hung in mercy. Where Jonah ran from God's compassion, Jesus became the vehicle for it. The sign of Jonah that Jesus promised is not just about three days in the grave. It is about a God whose mercy is so relentless that he would sacrifice his own Son to extend forgiveness to the very people who nailed him to the cross.

Transcript

Intro: [upbeat music] Welcome to the Spoken Gospel podcast. Spoken Gospel is a ministry that's dedicated to speaking the gospel out of every corner of scripture. In Luke 24, Jesus told his disciples that every part of the Bible was about him. So each week, hosts David and Seth work through a passage of scripture to see how it's all about Jesus and his good news. Let's jump in. [upbeat music]

David: All right. Well, welcome everyone to a very special episode of the Spoken Gospel podcast. Uh, we are gonna jump back into the Book of Jonah.

Seth: Right.

David: Yeah.

Seth: Just for our podcast audience.

David: Right.

Seth: So-

David: As you remember, we were broadcasting on YouTube, the whole Jonah series, but we were, we... Uh, right after we stopped hitting record on our fourth episode

Seth: We just kept-

David: [laughs]

Seth: ... talking about all the things we missed-

David: Yes

Seth: ... and we're like, "How did we not see this connection-

David: [laughs]

Seth: ... to Jesus?" And it's not on YouTube, but-

David: It's go- that's what happens when you slow down a little bit-

Seth: Yes

David: ... make coffee and think about it. So we were like, "We have to record this just for our podcast audience." So this is our, our Jonah special episode, hyphen-

Seth: What we missed [laughs]

David: [laughs] Only the good stuff, comma, what we missed, colon, only the Jesus turns.

Seth: Only the Jesus turns.

David: [laughs]

Seth: And it's gonna be great.

David: It's, yes.

Seth: Um, so to start off with-

David: Uh-huh

Seth: ... in Jewish tradition-

David: Right

Seth: ... the Book of Jonah was read during the Day of Atonement.

David: Okay. Right. And if, in the Day of Atonement, if you need a refresher course, Leviticus 16, it's the high point, not only of the Book of Leviticus, but of the whole Torah.

Seth: Yeah.

David: And it is the day on which all of Israel's sins are atoned for.

Seth: Right. And so now you have this really fascinating book-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... about read on the Day of Atonement.

David: Right. And it, and it w- and it's, like, a book about atonement for your oppressors.

Seth: Yeah. And in a book that rebukes Israel for their own sin-

David: Uh-huh

Seth: ... personified in the character of Jonah.

David: Right.

Seth: So-

David: Why read this book on the Day of Atonement?

Seth: It's like, this is like, it's like either... It's like, it's a very biting book.

David: Yeah.

Seth: It's like it's a book that convicts everybody there, and that's why they read it, I guess.

David: Oh, oh.

Seth: Like, right.

David: Right, because the, the Day of Atonement, it, it, Leviticus 16 tells you to be somber the whole day.

Seth: Yeah.

David: It's a somber day. And to read this book is to be like, "Oh, not only have I sinned by sinning as my neighbor." It's like w- they're repenting even for their, like, refusal to go bless the nations. Like, they're-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... they're joining themselves-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... with Jonah, identifying themselves with Jonah as a representative of Israel, saying, "Man, maybe we deserve to be cut off from-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... the Promised Land. Maybe we deserved exile. Oh, woe is us. Now we can make a sacrifice."

Seth: Right. So they're repenting. So Jews throughout history would repent for the sin of Jonah.

David: Mm.

Seth: They repented for their failure to extend mercy to their oppressors-

David: Right

Seth: ... and for their failure to live up to God's own covenant commands to bless the world.

David: Yeah.

Seth: Right? Like, that was, like, the original purpose of Israel.

David: Right.

Seth: By their following of God, they would bless the nations. Jonah did not do that as a representative of Israel.

David: Yeah.

Seth: And Israel, while they c- ma- ma- maintain, remained in exile, failed to do it as well.

David: Yeah.

Seth: So they read on the Day of Atonement to mourn, lament, and repent of their failure as God's people.

David: Yeah. It's really interesting to then think about reading Jonah on the Day of Atonement as a Christian because-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... our Day of Atonement is the day Jesus died on the cross.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Like, that's the day that the final sacrificial lamb was slain.

Seth: I'm just imagining some church trying [laughs] to preach Jonah-

David: [laughs]

Seth: ... on Easter Sunday. [laughs]

David: That would be, that would be a difficult task.

Seth: I, I, kind of it makes me really excited. Like, if I were to plant a church, we're starting on Easter Sunday, and it's the Book of Jonah. [laughs]

David: The Book of Jonah. [laughs] It's like, "Wait, what are you doing?" And, but it's like, um, how is, how, how are the nations blessed? By the covenant of, of God, by God's sa- sa- salvation. Like-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... how could the wicked, cut off nations be blessed? Like, we, we talked about how evil and violent the Assyrians were.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Like, i- is, is God evil for blessing them?

Seth: Right. Is he... So Jonah is on the top of the mountain-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... remember? And he calls God evil for extending mercy to the Ninevites.

David: Right. And it's like, well, he would've been, just like he would've been evil to pass over the sins of his own people, Israel-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... had it not been for the Day of Atonement-

Seth: Mm

David: ... that sins were righted, that wrongs were put back, that justice was done. And on our day of atonement-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... Jesus died on the cross for our sins, for the sins of the whole world-

Seth: Wow

David: ... for the sins of the nations-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... so that God would be proven as not evil to save-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... the nations-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... but good as just and justifier-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... uh, 'cause Jesus died-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... like, on our new day of atonement. It's interesting.

Seth: So, no, it's-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... good news.

David: It's very good news.

Seth: I mean, like, yeah, like Jesus, if Jesus is the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... and the Book of Jonah acts as a way for us to repeat our own failures to be God's chosen people-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... there is forgiveness for us in Jesus when we fail to live up to his covenant commands.

David: Yeah.

Seth: It's, it's-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... it's good news.

David: Okay. So that was the first one.

Seth: That was the first one.

David: What's the second one?

Seth: Well, the second one continues to l- basically, it'll lead into the same idea.

David: Mm-hmm.

Seth: But, um, Jonah, when he's on top of the mountain and he sees the mercy God extends to Nineveh, he calls it evil.

David: Right.

Seth: He calls it exceedingly evil that he would, God would extend mercy to Israel's enemies while allowing Israel to remain in exile.

David: Right.

Seth: That's, because that's-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... a breaking of the promise to Jonah, right?

David: Right.

Seth: It's like-

David: That he's like, "We were your chosen people. Like, how are you gonna go back on your covenant and show, like, forgiveness to these heathens?"

Seth: Right. And remember, Nineveh was a superpower at the time.

David: Right.

Seth: So showing mercy to Nineveh kinda was a death sentence to Israel-

David: Right

Seth: ... and eventually, it would be.

David: It was, yes.

Seth: It was a death sentence to Israel. So Jonah's like-On to some of the tension

David: Not asking a completely unfounded question.

Seth: Right. It's like, what... Like, how can God's mercy towards the oppressor be reconciled with God's commitment to the oppressed-

David: Right

Seth: ... on the most general level?

David: Yes.

Seth: But then what about God's chosen people versus the nations He has not chosen?

David: Right. And so Jonah, as representative of Israel, looking down at their future captors and oppressors and exilers, refuses to give, like, the repentance that God wants to give to them.

Seth: Mm-hmm.

David: He refuses to forgive them. He refuses to-

Seth: Extend mercy

David: ... want... Like, extend mercy, yeah, to them.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Instead, he just sits there in judgment over them.

Seth: Yes.

David: Yeah.

Seth: But remember what Jesus talks about, it being the sign of Jonah.

David: Uh-huh.

Seth: And I just kept... So, like, so if Jonah is representative of Israel-

David: Yes

Seth: ... in one sense, Jesus is the-

David: Is the ultimate

Seth: ... ultimate representation-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... of Israel, exiled by the powers. Like, right?

David: Right. Yes, yes, yes.

Seth: He's in exile as a Jewish citizen under Roman oppression.

David: Uh-huh. Even exiled, in a sense, as a Galilean.

Seth: Yes.

David: You know, not... He's not a, he's not a Judean.

Seth: Right.

David: He doesn't live in Jerusalem.

Seth: Mm-hmm.

David: He's a, "Ugh, you're a Galilean."

Seth: Yep.

David: Yep.

Seth: And eventually, he will die, and there's enough Biblical evidence to talk to his, about his death as a type of exile-

David: Right

Seth: ... just like Israel died.

David: And he died, he did not die in the city, you know-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... in this, like, very Jewish way. He was, like, and it says, "Cursed is..." Like, the Deuteronomy says, "Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree." So not only was he crucified outside the city walls-

Seth: Right

David: ... exiled from Jerusalem, he died as a, as a cut-off one-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... on the, on the tree.

Seth: And if Jonah is somewhat right to be offended that God would show mercy to the oppressors when they, God's own people were being judged-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... how much more of a scandal is it for God to refuse to extend mercy to His own Son-

David: Right

Seth: ... as He's murdered and crucified on the cross, while His oppressors on the cross, Jesus says, are forgiven.

David: Right.

Seth: Jesus p-

David: Yeah.

Seth: Like, no-

David: I mean, He's sitting there, like, the embodiment of being a forsaken Israelite.

Seth: Mm-hmm.

David: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Seth: Right.

David: I mean, you could almost, you could almost hear Jonah praying that prayer-

Seth: Yes

David: ... on the mountain overlooking Nineveh.

Seth: Yes.

David: "God, why are you forsaking me and going after Nineveh?"

Seth: Yeah.

David: "Like, why would you do that?"

Seth: Why'd you avoid my prayer? Why are you forsaking me, God?

David: Yeah.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Where did my plague go? You're forsaking me. Yeah. But Jesus was actually cut off from, like, from God.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Actually exiled, and yet in that moment, did not do what Jonah did.

Seth: Jonah called that type of mercy evil.

David: Evil.

Seth: But Jesus... And, and what, what did Moses refuse to do? He refused to extend-

David: Jonah.

Seth: Jonah. What did... Jonah refused to, he refused to extend mercy to Nineveh.

David: Right.

Seth: But Jesus on the cross says, "Father, forgive them."

David: Right.

Seth: He forgives the same people-

David: Yes

Seth: ... Jonah refuses to. And remember what Jonah says at the ver- what God says at the very end of the book-

David: Mm

Seth: ... of Jonah about Nineveh? They don't know their right hand from their left hand.

David: Yes. This is our third big realization that we made.

Seth: It-

David: So-

Seth: Which just means they don't know what they're doing

David: They don't... To, to not know your right from your left is an Old Testament way to talk about ignorance. Like, you just, you don't know good and evil.

Seth: You don't know the right way to live.

David: Right.

Seth: You don't know God's way to live.

David: You don't, you're not wise. You just don't, you, you don't know what you're doing. And so Jesus s- like, he-

Seth: While he's reversing-

David: Yes

Seth: ... what Jonah does, says, "Father, forgive them," because?

David: Yeah, they don't know their right hand from their left. They don't know what they're doing.

Seth: They don't know what they're doing.

David: And so Jesus is pulling on the story of Jonah.

Seth: Mm-hmm.

David: And like, I mean, if you haven't seen that yet, I mean, he's this exiled-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... uh, you know, prophet, gone to the nations, you know, all this stuff. I mean, th- they cast lots on the boat, in Jonah's boat.

Seth: Right.

David: Right? They, like, they cast lots for Jesus's clothing. Like, the story of Jonah is really repeating itself, and then for him to say the words of God very closely here-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... where he's like, "Shouldn't I save Nineveh? 'Cause they don't, they're, they don't know what they're doing. They, they don't know their right hand from their left." Jesus forgives them because they don't know their right h- hand from their left. And-

Seth: He does exactly the opposite of what Jonah did.

David: Yes. And it's like there's this profound mercy and almost, like, sympathy in that statement. Like-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... he's not saying, like, "God, forgive them because they're a bunch of simpletons."

Seth: Yeah.

David: "God, forgive them 'cause they're, they're just idiots." No, that's not what's happening here. He's like, Nineveh hadn't been trained in the way of the Lord, you know? Like-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... the people who crucified them did not know they were crucifying the Lord of Glory, Acts says.

Seth: Mm-hmm.

David: Right?

Seth: Mm-hmm.

David: Like, they, they didn't know. A- and so, like, they just did not know what they were doing, and there's this sympathy that, like... I, I'm reminded of the psalm that says, like, He knows that we are mortal, that we are but flesh.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Like, He knows that we are like grass that withers. Like, there's this sympathy-

Seth: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

David: ... that almighty God shows to human beings, that like, man, sometimes we just don't know what we're doing. There's this sympathy-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... that Jesus showed to his persecutors that Jonah refused to show to the Ninevites.

Seth: That's right.

David: Yeah.

Seth: And Jonah also wanted, would rather have died-

David: Yes

Seth: ... than see God's mercy extended to his enemies.

David: Right.

Seth: But Jesus willingly dies-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... to extend mercy to His enemies.

David: Right.

Seth: Jesus willingly does what Jonah wanted to use as an escape.

David: Mm-hmm.

Seth: Jonah, Jesus wanted to enter into death to save His enemies. Jesus, Jonah wanted to escape to death to not see God's mercy.

David: Right.

Seth: Jesus is the better Jonah.

David: Yes. [laughs] He is.

Seth: He's the better Jonah.

David: Jesus is the much better Jonah. Yeah, that's so good.

Seth: Um-

David: So that was what was on our minds.

Seth: That was what it was on our minds.

David: [laughs]

Seth: And we were like, "We have to put this on the podcast."

David: Run back in the podcast studio-

Seth: Um

David: ... and record this. Yeah.

Seth: So again, guys, thank you so much for listening for so long. Half a million downloads, it feels like a huge, humbling, um, uh, milestone-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... for us behind the scenes. Thank you for listening.

David: Mm-hmm.

Seth: Thank you for being a part of this community. We're happy to do what we do. Um-

David: Yeah. So yeah, that's, now, now that is officially the book of Jonah.

Seth: That is officially-

David: Now, now we've-

David: ... we've, we've now signed off on this. So yeah.

Seth: Uh-huh.

David: Thank you all for listening, like Seth said, and, uh, we'll see you next week. [outro music]

Outro: Thank you for listening to the Spoken Gospel podcast. Spoken Gospel creates short films, devotionals, and podcasts like this one. Everything we make is free because of generous supporters like you. To see our resources, visit spokengospel.com or subscribe to our YouTube channel. Thanks for listening. See you next week. [outro music]

Related Resources

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The Jesus Turns We Didn't See Coming

Show Notes

Jonah and the Day of Atonement

The Cross as the True Day of Atonement

The Scandal of the Cross and God's Mercy to Oppressors

Jesus Does the Opposite of Jonah

Jesus Is the Better Jonah

Related Resources

Introduction to Jonah

View our devotional on Jonah 1

Ready to study a different book?

Listen to the Jonah 1: Jonah's Not About A Fish podcast

Listen to the Jonah 2: A Prayer from the Deep podcast

Listen to the Jonah 3: God Repents of Evil podcast

Listen to the Jonah 4: Is God's Mercy Evil? podcast

Listen to the What We Missed in Jonah podcast