In the Book of Jonah, God reveals an important truth: the prophets were not of a different nature from us, but were “men with a nature like ours” (James 5:17). They had weaknesses, shortcomings, and faults, and they were capable of falling just as we are. What set them apart was not their own power, but the grace of God working within them. It was the power of the Holy Spirit acting through their weakness, so that “the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Cor. 4:7).

Jonah the Prophet was one of the weak ones of the world whom God chose to put to shame the mighty (1 Cor. 1:27). He possessed both faults and virtues, yet the Lord chose him despite his weaknesses. God worked through him, in him, and with him, and appointed him to be a great and holy prophet—one whose very footsteps we are unworthy to follow. Through Jonah, God shows us that He can also work through us, using our weakness as He used Jonah’s.

— From a Lecture of Pope Shenouda III