The New American Commentary: Jonah

As I preached through the Book of Jonah, I used many resources.  One of the most accessible commentaries on the book was Frank Page’s entry for Jonah in the New American Commentary Series.  I thought it was a helpful contribution that included sufficient linguistic studies, thorough treatments of argued discrepancies, and helpful pastoral insights.

Favorite Quotes

  1. The plans of a sovereign God are not so easily thwarted by the stubborn will of a puny prophet (229).
  2. Pray like everything depends upon prayer; and work like everything depends upon work (230).
  3. Superficial solutions to the entanglements caused by our rebellion and disobedience seldom work (236).
  4. The major point is that God, through the fish, could sustain this pouting prophet during “unbelievable” circumstances and return him to the place where he could renew his commission to serve (242).
  5. His job was to deliver the message, not to critique or revise it (255).
  6. Countless numbers of modern-day believers miss much of the joy of being involved in God’s wonderful work because of self-centeredness (272).
  7. He did not experience this emotion either in his own deliverance from certain death or from the mass turning of the people of Nineveh.  His happiness was induced by a plant (278-9).