Revisiting a Familiar Story – Jonah 1-4
The story of Jonah lives in the imagination of many as the story of a runaway prophet and a big fish. While those are elements of the story they are far from the point. Rather, Jonah is the startling and bizarre story of what happens when our enemy-hate runs into the grace of God.
Context:
No other book like this one in all of scripture. Jonah starts off similar to the other Minor Prophets but is actually about the prophet himself.
One of the few minor prophets of which we do not know who the author is, the other being Malachi.
A prophet is simply a messenger of the Lord to call the People of God back to covenant faith.
Theologians have two schools of thought when it comes to Jonah:
Historic Story
A Parable using real people. Jonah was mentioned in 2 Kings as a prophet that prophesied that Israel will expand its borders. Jesus also mentions Jonah displaying similarities of Jonah being in the belly of a fish for three days and himself being in the tomb for 3 days.
Jonah’s behavior is dramatic yet we can act like Jonah often. You will find that Jonah is really a story that is aimed at us, God’s believers.
Narrative:
Jonah 1:
Jonah means ‘Dove’. Amittai means ‘Faithfulness’. So Jonah begins with the line, “Now the word of the Lord came to Dove son of Faithfulness. This is ironic, as Jonah is the most faithless person in this story.
Jonah is tasked to go to Nineveh and to call out against their evil. Of which there is some historical context to understand here.
Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian empire.
They were brutal people with ruthless practices.
Assyrians were responsible for near genocide of the Hebrew people, killing 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Jonah instead flees the presence of God to Tarshish, the farthest west city of the known world.
The Lord prepares a mighty tempest that nearly destroys the boat. As a result the sailors interrogate Jonah. Of which ends with him being thrown overboard and then swallowed by a great fish.
Jonah 2:
We see our son of Faithfulness in the belly of the fish. He ends his poem with this ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’
He then is vomited up onto dry land.
Jonah 3:
Jonah is commissioned once again to carry out the task that the Lord has for him.
He gets to Nineveh and preaches an eight word sermon. “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown”
He doesn’t mention what evil they have done or what they need to do to not be overthrown.
He doesn’t lie with this sermon. God does indeed overthrow the Ninevites, just not not the way that you would expect. He overthrows their hearts
Word even reaches the king of Nineveh and he issues a bizarre decree. No man nor beast can taste anything and that they all be covered in sackcloth.
God relents from sending destruction.
Jonah 4:
If we were to not have Jonah 4, Jonah would have a happy ending. But, Jonah 4 has the big reveal of why Jonah didn’t want to come to Nineveh to begin with.
We assume that Jonah doesn’t want to come to Nineveh because he was afraid of the Ninevites, but it is actually because he hated them. This begs the question, what do we do when God loves our enemy?
Jonah then laments to God and quotes God’s own words to him from Exodus 34:6.
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…”
The Old Testament covenant was an agreement between God and Israel. Exodus 34:6 was God’s response to Israel after they made a golden calf and God still chooses to renew the covenant and to not leave his people in their brokenness. They ask God why would you do this? Exodus 34:6 is his response.
Jonah’s true worst enemy in this story is himself.
Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us. - Charles Spurgeon
Our hatred can blind us from part of what God has for us.
God asks a simple question, “Do you do well to be angry?”
Jonah completely ignores this question. Then he goes outside of the city to watch what would become of it.
God then has a plant grow next to Jonah which gives him shade. This makes him exceedingly glad. Not too long after, God appoints a worm to attack the plant making it wither.
God is using this as a teaching moment for his prophet. God is still not finished with Jonah. He still has one more person to reach, Jonah.
Although Jonah messes up so many times, God is in fact gracious and compassionate. Slow to anger and abounding in love.
Jonah’s anger went from avoidance to anger to selfishness.
The Lord ends Jonah with this question, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
The Ninvevites didn’t know any better.
God is inviting us to all meditate on these questions. Should he not pity those who we call enemies as well?
Spiritual Practice
Forgiveness of our enemies is key.
“The first step towards enemy love is recognizing the common humanity, the common brokenness that we all share.” - Tim Mackey
Sit down and meditate with a pen an paper of a time where someone displayed a characteristic that made you upset or hurt you. Now meditate and think of a time where you displayed that same attribute.
Humble yourself. There is pride in our hatred. It can cause us to completely miss what God has for us.
Take joy in the small mundane day to day interactions. God could be using these small conversations to impact this person in a huge way.
