Upon receiving his command from God to go to the people of Nineveh, Jonah flees to Tarshish. At this point Jonah seems a little bit cowardly from running away from a task given to him by God. Jonah may also be seen as unconfident for not facing the people of Nineveh. Jonah seems selfish when he is on the boat as he knew that running away would put not only himself, but also the other men on the boat in danger. However, he also seems selfless when he tells the men to throw him overboard to save themselves. We see that Jonah is God fearing and has strong faith when he desperately prays to God inside the fish. Again, Jonah seems slightly selfish when he realises that because God forgave the people of Nineveh and wasn’t overturned they saw him as a false prophet. At the end we see that Jonah is appreciative of God’s creations when He brings Jonah the kikayon.
God’s characteristics
We see that God is mighty when he created a storm at sea. Furthermore, God is compassionate and forgiving because He allowed the fish to spew Jonah out onto dry land after he repented. This is further proven when God forgave the people of Nineveh after repenting for their wrongdoings.
The non - Jewish people
The first non – Jewish people we encounter in the book of Jonah are the sailors on the boat. After witnessing the powers of God they converted to Judaism and offered sacrifices to Him. The people of Nineveh were immoral and sinned, however, when Jonah came to them warning that if they didn’t change their ways and repent the city of Nineveh would be overturned, they all repented and the King decreed that they all wear sackcloth.
Supranatural occurrences
The fact that God could speak to Jonah, in itself, is a supranatural occurrence. God created a storm at sea that only effected the boat Jonah was on and the rest of the sea was calm. Jonah was swallowed by a big fish, without being digested or suffocated, and survived for three days and three