Today in our journey through the 66 books of the Bible we come to the minor prophet, Jonah.
Author
As with most of the books of Hebrew Scripture, there is no internal claim to authorship in this narrative. The book of Jonah was originally included in “The Twelve” because it was accepted as a prophetic book and Jonah as a historical prophet. There is a prophet called Jonah, son of Amittai, mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25. The Jonah of 2 Kings served as a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel in the eighth century BCE shortly after the time of Elisha and before the time of Amos and Hosea.
However, most biblical scholars today do not view the book of Jonah as historical. That is the case not simply because of the story of Jonah being swallowed by a great fish. If we believe in the miraculous, the tale of Jonah and the great fish is not sufficient reason to reject this story as historical. And there are naturalistic explanations of this story as well. For example, a local Cape Cod lobsterman was swallowed by a humpback whale a few years ago and he lived to tell the tale.[1]
The real reason modern scholars don’t view the book of Jonah as historical is because Jonah is unlike all the other prophetic books in many ways. First, the book of Jonah is a narrative, whereas the other prophetic books are not. The other prophetic books are filled with the oracles of the prophets; Jonah is not. Second, none of the other prophets rebel against God as Jonah does. Jonah takes practical steps to preempt the fulfillment of God’s will. Third, the rest of the Bible generally views Assyria, Israel’s great 8th century enemy, in a negative fashion. The book of Jonah, by contrast, depicts the entire capital of Assyria (Nineveh) as repenting. Fourth, despite his reluctance, Jonah becomes the most successful prophet on record. Everyone who hears him obeys his message, even though Jonah does not want them to do so.
This last fact leads one to question what type of narrative we have in this book. Is it satire, parable, comedy? The book of Jonah has all these elements. In fact, it is almost a perfect short story. The four sections of the narrative are expertly balanced. The structural symmetry of this story, like the book of Ruth, is stunning. Whoever the author of the book of Jonah was, he or she was a very skillful storyteller.
Date
If the book of Jonah was written by the historical prophet, Jonah, son of Amittai, then we might date this book to the eighth century BCE. However, most scholars today believe that the book of Jonah was written by an anonymous Jew living sometime during the Persian period, that is, during the Jewish exile or after return from exile, sometime between the 6thand 4th century BCE.
Themes
Some scholars believe that the principal theme of the book of Jonah is the power of repentance. Others suggest that the main purpose of the book is to contrast divine justice and divine grace. Still others think that the main point is to demonstrate the difference between God’s universalist approach to the salvation of humanity and Jonah’s exclusivist and nationalistic tendencies. Perhaps it is best to recognize that the book, as brief as it is, cannot be reduced to just one theme.
The book of Jonah is read during the afternoon service on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, thus emphasizing the theme of repentance. By such reading, Jews to this day are taught to identify with the repentant Ninevites and not with the rebellious Jonah.
Ultimately, I am not sure it matters whether we view the book of Jonah as historical or not. Whether we read the book as history, or whether we read it as a well told tale, it still makes its point.
Structure
- Jonah flees his mission (1-2)
- Jonah reluctantly fulfills his mission (3-4)
Key Concept—God of the Second Chance
To help you understand the key concept of the book of Jonah, I beg your indulgence while I retell the story of this book. I want to tell this story in four parts, just like the four chapters of the book of Jonah. I have titled the parts of this story: (1) Running To… (2) Coming To… (3) Giving Out… and (4) Giving Up…
Running To…
As we have already seen, this is a story about one of God’s prophets. The story is set in the northern kingdom of Israel in the eighth century BCE. This is a time when the Assyrian Empire is on the rise. It is this same empire that will eventually destroy the kingdom of Israel and take many of her inhabitants into exile.
Amidst this situation, God comes to the prophet Jonah and tells him to go and preach against Nineveh because its wickedness has come up before him.
Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. It was located where the modern-day city of Mosul is in northern Iraq today, on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. Nineveh was, in the eighth century BCE, the largest city in the world.
So, what does Jonah do when God tells him to go and preach against Nineveh, the capital of Israel’s enemy? Jonah runs the other way. It is thought that Tarshish is a reference to Spain. So, let me just show that to you on a map…
OK, so Jonah is trying to get as far away from Nineveh in the known world as he can go. But the text also says that “Jonah ran away from the Lord.” A little bit later it says that Jonah was trying to “flee from the Lord.”
Now, here’s the problem with trying to run away from the Lord: how do you get away from him? God is everywhere, right?
Psalm 139 says…
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
So, I don’t know what Jonah was thinking. I’m not sure how Jonah figured he was going to get away from the Lord, but he was determined to try.
First, Jonah went down to Joppa on the Mediterranean coast. He paid the fare and boarded a ship headed for Tarshish. Another thing I should point out is that the ancient Israelites were not sea-faring people. They were, in fact, fearful of the sea. Numerous times in the Hebrew Scriptures this is made clear. Nonetheless, Jonah is determined to get away from Nineveh and get away from the Lord, so he boards a ship crossing the Mediterranean Sea. As much as he doesn’t like that, he does it anyway because he likes the thought of going to preach in Nineveh even less.
So, what does God do? God sends a great wind on the sea. In fact, God sends such a violent storm that the ship is in danger of breaking up. You know a storm is bad when even the sailors are afraid, and that is the situation here. All the sailors call out to their individual gods and plead for deliverance. Then they do the only other thing they know to do; they start throwing the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.
Where is Jonah amidst the storm? He is below deck, sleeping. The captain goes down and yells at Jonah, urging him to call out to his god so that they don’t all end up at the bottom of the sea.
Finally, the sailors do what most people do in a crisis where there seems to be no solution. They decide to fix blame. They try to figure out who is responsible for the sea god stirring up such a terrible storm. They cast lots, trusting the gods to use that method to tell them who is responsible. If they had a Ouija board, it would have spelled out “J-O-N-A-H”.
Once the sailors get their answer, they start giving Jonah the third degree. They start playing twenty questions: “What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from?”
Jonah answers, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
“Oh, my goodness,” they say, “What have you done?”
“I’m running away from God.”
“You’re what?! OK, so what should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
Amazingly, Jonah tells the sailors to throw him into the sea and everything will calm down. The sailors first try to row back to land. They can’t do it. So then, they ask God’s forgiveness in advance, and they throw Jonah into the sea. And the sea becomes like glass. At this point the sailors are more afraid than they were during the storm. They end up sacrificing to the Lord and worshipping him. Jonah has his first converts, but he isn’t around to enjoy it. He is sinking down to the bottom of the sea.
Coming To…
This is the point at which the Lord provides a huge fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah is in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.
Now, not only does this part of the story seem incredible, but Jonah’s prayer inside the fish seems unbelievable. I don’t know about you, but if I was swallowed by a great fish, I think my prayer would run along the lines of “HELP!” But Jonah somehow composes this very eloquent prayer. And God’s answer to the prayer is to command the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land. That’s my favorite part of the story! However, I imagine it was not Jonah’s favorite part.
Giving Out…
So, then the word of the Lord comes to Jonah a second time. To me, this is the main point of the book. We serve the God of the second chance. God gives Jonah a second chance to say “yes” to the Nineveh mission. God gives us a second chance to say “yes” to him as well. In fact, I believe our God is one who gives us as many chances as are necessary.
This time, Jonah obeys the Lord, and he goes to Nineveh. I wonder, was Jonah smelling like fish when he got there, or did the Lord arrange for Jonah to be able to take a shower first? I don’t know.
At any rate, Jonah arrives in Nineveh. He plans a three-day mission tour of the city and on the first day he preaches, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
Do you get the sense that Jonah was a reluctant prophet? I picture him walking around as unobtrusively as possible and whispering, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Jonah does not even tell the Ninevites to repent, but they do anyway… on the first day of Jonah’s preaching mission no less. We read that “The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.”
When word reaches the king of Nineveh, even he repents in sackcloth and ashes. And he makes a proclamation, calling on all his people to fast and give up their evil ways, and their violence. “Who knows?” asks the king. “Perhaps God will relent, show compassion and not kill us all.”
Amazing! Jonah is not even trying to be a successful preacher and he has his second group of converts—a whole city!
Giving Up…
This leads to the final chapter of the book of Jonah. One would expect a prophet to be happy when people repent and turn to the Lord. But Jonah isn’t. He’s fit to be tied. He says to the Lord, “I knew you would end up forgiving these people. That’s why I didn’t want to come in the first place. So now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
This is where God becomes a great counselor. He says to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
When I was a child and got angry about something, my mother would call it a pucker-snatch. That usually made me even more angry. Jonah was in a pucker-snatch of mammoth proportions.
So, what does Jonah do? He sits down at a place east of the city, makes himself a shelter and waits to see if God will destroy the city anyway. Can you imagine waiting to see if God will destroy your enemy? There’s a lot of emotion wrapped up in that one.
Then the Lord gives Jonah an object lesson, kind of like I try to do with the mystery box every Sunday. God provides a leafy plant and makes it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort. Jonah takes note of the object lesson, and he is happy about the plant. Note: this is the first time that Jonah is happy about anything, and he is happy because he is comfortable.
But God does not leave Jonah in his comfort. At dawn the next day, God provides a worm to eat the plant, and it does. Then God provides a scorching east wind and the sun blazes on Jonah’s head so that he grows faint. I sort of picture Jonah being bald and getting a sunburn on the top of his head. The heat is so bad that Jonah says again, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
And God says to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
And Jonah says, “It is, and I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
Then the Lord lays his main lesson on Jonah… “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
Isn’t that fascinating? We have been treated to this great short story, filled with both comedy and pathos, and the story ends with a question from God to Jonah, “Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh?”
I wonder if perhaps God is asking us a similar question today, “Should I not be concerned about Cape Cod?”
Are we concerned, spiritually, about the people of Cape Cod? Think about it, Jonah had the bad news, and he ran the other way, unwilling to share that bad news with others, afraid that God might forgive the enemy. We have the good news of Jesus Christ to share with the world, and sometimes we try to run the other way.
One sure sign of having experienced the grace of the God of the second chance, is that we seek to share that grace with others. I wonder: have you experienced that grace? Are you sharing that grace with others?
Remember this: you have never locked eyes with someone who does not matter to God, including when you look in the mirror.
Lots of people ask for a sign from God. The one time Jesus gave people a sign, he called it “the sign of Jonah”. We read in Matthew 12, beginning with verse 38…
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to Jesus, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”
Jesus answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The Pharisees and teachers of the law wanted a sign from Jesus to prove he was sent by God, and the only sign he would give them was the sign of Jonah—namely that he would spend three days in the heart of the earth and then rise again.
The book of Jonah teaches us that everyone matters to God and the life of Jesus teaches us the same thing. God sent his Son Jesus to live for us, to die for us, and to rise again for us so that we might have a second chance at life eternal.
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