My small group recently finished Priscilla Schirer’s study of the book of Jonah, Navigating A Life Interrupted. I have not agreed with everything Priscilla offered, but overall, her study was informative and I appreciated her focus on connecting the story – the plot, characters, and dialog — in Jonah directly to our lives. How might this ancient story provide insight into one’s own situation in the 21st century? What does this story really tell us about the character of God?
The last week of the study was my favorite. Almost everyone remembers the story of Jonah and the big fish part, but that’s just one verse. And, as I discovered, the big fish played a vastly different role than I had thought. In fact, there were several things I thought I knew about this story that, through Priscilla’s work, encouraged a reexamination and led to new revelations.
The story begins with Jonah, a prophet of God, receiving instruction to go to prophesy to the Ninevites because their “evilness and wicked ways” had finally gotten on God’s nerves. I learned that the Ninevites were a major city in the growing Assyrian empire and dangerous enemies of Israel. I had thought Jonah didn’t want to go because they were Gentiles, or because they were wicked (as stated by God), or because he was busy. I mean, I’ve wanted to say no to doing the right thing just because I didn’t want to be inconvenienced. I didn’t realize that God’s call on Jonah was to go to enemy territory to tell them to repent or risk God’s destruction. I have a lot more compassion for Jonah now.
With this historical context, it would seem that Jonah’s behavior was rooted in fear. We discover later, though, that even here at the beginning of the story, Jonah is angry, and surprisingly, his anger is not toward the Ninevites, but toward God.
When Jonah flees, he takes a boat to Tarshish, which in his day was as close to the end of the world as one could get. The text indicates he’s not just disobeying a command from God, but trying to flee from “the presence of the Lord.” This is kinda shocking considering that, as a prophet of God, he would know you can’t flee the presence of the Lord. This begins to reveal a new layer to Jonah’s state of mind or personality. He is not just afraid of the task, or angry at God, he is panicked and attempts the impossible – to get away from the God of heaven and earth, the God who loves him.
It might seem strange to say that God loves Jonah, since once Jonah is on the boat headed to Tarshish, God sends a storm so strong that the boat nearly breaks apart and the mariners throw off all excess cargo. Why won’t God just let Jonah disobey? Why does God pursue Jonah and why does he do it by threatening his life? The storm is so violent it terrifies the sailors and they pray to their gods and cast lots to determine who among them caused the storm to be sent. Yet, Jonah is asleep. As someone who has suffered from depression, Jonah reads like a depressed man. His choices are not logical. His fear and anger have overwhelmed him and now he’s numb. He sleeps, unaware of the chaos around him. He’s utterly exhausted in his attempt to resist the truth about God or himself.
When the sailors cast lots, it falls on Jonah. Jonah admits the truth he’d been avoiding — he is fleeing his god, and that his god is the God, “the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” The sailors are even more terrified to learn the truth of the situation. Jonah has fled from God, fallen asleep to God’s pursuit, and feels suicidal. He tells the men to throw him into the sea. And yet, amazingly, despite the fear they have endured, despite the costs they have paid, the sailors continue to try to save Jonah’s life by rowing back to shore. They care more about his life than he does. Absolutely everyone on the boat expects that throwing Jonah overboard is a death sentence.
Of course, the storm gets worse. Jonah really does know His God very well. The sailors pray to God! They beg for their lives and beg to not be held guilty of killing Jonah. They call him innocent, and…is he? What sin did Jonah commit? I mean, he didn’t do what God told him to do, and I suppose that is sin, even though it wasn’t a commandment of the Torah. He has, through his actions, said no to God. Is that not allowed?
Ultimately, they throw him into the sea because they know now, like Jonah, that it will please God. And the storm stops. And the men believe in God and “offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.”
So, a couple things here. This part of the story really does remind us that our choices affect others, even people we don’t know. It matters when we listen and we disobey. There’s no such thing as a sin that’s just between God and me. Additionally, apparently following the rules that have been written down isn’t enough. God still speaks and following His directions is expected. Required, even? Secondly, it is absolutely astounding how this mess leads the mariners to become believers in God. Every time Jonah talks about God to others, the others believe! These men come to understand that their lives are in the hands of the Creator God, a God powerful enough to make heaven and land and the sea and the storms and see and care about the actions of a single man. But there’s something deeply unsettling in this scene. God has sent the storm. God has caused this calamity. It is understandable that they were all afraid, even though, if you know the character of God, you know not to fear the calamity. The storm was a means to an end, not an end. But the men had to throw Jonah overboard. They had to do something they felt was morally wrong in order to please an angry God. Now, we know that God then calms the storm and sends the big fish, which actually saves Jonah from certain death. The sailors didn’t. Jonah didn’t. This poses complicated moral implications. The sailors exhausted all other options before sacrificing Jonah, but, in the end, sacrificed one man in the hope it would save many. Or, at least, that’s what it would have looked like from their standpoint. They would have seen an angry God, pursuing a disobedient man, and requiring his death for such an act. What Priscilla helped me see, what we can see from many centuries later, was a loving God, pursuing a frightened and angry man, and refusing to let him go.
I always thought the big fish was the punishment from God. Now, I understand the big fish is the second chance. Jonah is in the fish for three days and three nights before he finally talks to God. He finally repents – turns to God – but he does not apologize for running. His prayer (chapter 2) is almost exclusively other scripture verses. In utter despair, he turns to poetry. They speak of God as one who hears people in distress, who answers prayers, who casts people into the deep and restores life from the Pit. God is attributed as being the one to cast Jonah into he deep, and it is God’s waves that surround him. Jonah could only perceive the deep, the weeds, the loneliness. Jonah is deeply depressed. The belly of that fish is rock bottom and he spends 3 days and 3 nights there, waiting for death. Some argue he actually died. Hunger and thirst surely brings him to the brink, but then, “I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.” (v.7) Jonah had wanted to get away from the holy temple — the place on earth of God’s manifest presence — but he discovers in the belly of a fish, in the deep of the sea, at the thin space between life and death, his prayer reaches God. It goes all the way to the holy temple. He confesses “deliverance belongs to the Lord!” He repents. He remembers his life and its ending belong to God. Later, he will ask for death twice more, yet here, when death is so close, he confesses the truth of the power of God to deliver him (or anyone) from the darkness they are drowning in. For this, God then speaks to the big fish and Jonah is back on dry land. Even the desperate places belong to God.
Chapter three begins a lot like chapter one. God again tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, but this time, it’s not because “their wickedness has come up before me.” Instead, Jonah is to go and get the message from God for the Ninevites when he gets there. Uh oh. Now Jonah must travel deep into enemy territory to give a message that he has not yet received. This time, he is faithful. He goes. He enters the town and gives this message, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And then Jonah witnesses the biggest revival in the history of humanity as every Ninevite repents. I find it hard to believe that’s all Jonah said, though Shirer does. I mean, how would the Ninevites know who to turn to or what needed to be repented? But Jonah doesn’t tell us more about the message because this story isn’t about the Ninevites or Jonah’s incredibly successful career as a prophet. This story is about the prophet and the God who loves him. The king of Nineveh proclaims a fast, a forsaking of their evil ways, and a call to prayer in the hope that God might not bring calamity. Indeed, God saw what they did – prayer, fasting, AND turning from “their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands.” So God doesn’t destroy Nineveh.
Was Jonah a success or failure? According to his message, in 40 days, Nineveh will be destroyed, yet 40 days will pass and Nineveh will stand. He preached God’s word and, as a result, the Ninevites repented. Isn’t that why the 40-day delay? Isn’t it a success that Jonah’s message didn’t happen? Or did Jonah feel a failure? He proclaimed destruction to Israel’s foes, but destruction did not come.
In the final chapter, Jonah is pissed. He knew God would relent and forgive. He knew God’s true character as gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent. God’s threats of punishment are not from an angry God that wants to punish and chastise but a God that wants to relent. God wants to celebrate restoration and reconciliation and right relationship. This pisses off Jonah so much that he asks God to kill him. Is there someone God could forgive that would make you want to end your relationship with God?
Jonah asks God to kill him. That God is who He is, and that God extended forgiveness to Jonah’s enemy, made Jonah suicidal. Death by act of God. How could an all-powerful deity, known for being loving and gracious, cause one of its own prophets to desire death? It seems knowing that God is slow to anger, kind and generous would be a relief, a joy, a delight, a cause for celebration, not a cause for vicious anger. Jonah is suicidal because God is God and Jonah cannot control who God loves. This was always the issue – we simply cannot control God and God has the tendency to love our enemies and us. It can feel like such a betrayal. Schirer noted that Jonah’s description of God in 4:2 echoes God’s self-description in Exodus 34:6-7. She claimed Jonah left out God’s description of himself as the God of Truth, but what I see missing in Jonah’s description of God is God’s faithfulness. Perhaps Jonah omitted the adjective faithful because he felt God wasn’t anymore.
To me, Jonah is still severely depressed, suicidal, in a rage. It is fascinating, and scary, to me that God would use such an angry and mentally unwell man to reach an entire city. Shirer focuses a lot on Jonah as a disobedient man, struggling with a life interrupted by God’s plans. I see a man viscerally aware of his lack of control in his relationship with God and the immense power of God that it breaks him. Why does God not heal him?
God speaks again to Jonah, and asks a question. “Is it right for you to be angry?” Whew. That’ll stop you in your tracks. Jonah doesn’t answer. Instead, he goes outside the city and makes a place to sit and wait to see what will happen. What happens after people repent and God relents? What is Jonah expecting to see? If he’s so angry about God’s love for the Ninevites, why is he sticking around? Why not go home? Is he hoping they’ll fail? Is he waiting to see God bless them so he can use that as a new reason to justify his anger at God and doubt God’s faithfulness?
The rest of the story is about a strange interaction between God and Jonah. This is where a dramatic production of this would be particularly helpful.
God appoints a bush to give shade to Jonah, who is suffering in his booth. Jonah feels happy. Then God appoints a worm to attack the bush and sends a hot wind and the sun. Jonah feels faint and asks to die, again. He thinks, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
God again asks, “is it right for you to be angry (about the bush)?” This time, Jonah answers, yes. I am “angry enough to die.”
Angry enough to die over a bush?
Jonah doesn’t just feel angry, he feels justified in his anger. More than that, he feels a rage so intense he can’t imagine continuing to live.
God acts creatively and Jonah reacts emotionally. Jonah cannot think rationally.
Is Jonah angry about the bush? The bush was largely metaphorical, right. An object lesson that God gives and takes away. On the one hand, this seems to be a God who uses power over Creation without considering how Creation thinks or feels about that power or those choices. This is a deity to be feared, fickle, and frustrating. Why create humanity with such a desire for control and for wisdom only to deny control and wisdom to it?
On the other hand, isn’t it interesting that God responds to Jonah’s request for death with a question about anger? Do you hear God’s tone as one of contempt, weariness at the stupidity of mortals? Or do you hear God’s voice as tender, curious, concerned?
Tone matters a lot here. It can sound like God is chiding Jonah for being so emotional, implying he is petty or dimwitted. But what if God is love? What if, instead, we hear God’s final words to Jonah as patient, witnessing God coming alongside Jonah in his distress. God notes that Jonah was cared about the bush, even though he did nothing to create it or care for it. God knows Jonah cares, is capable of compassion, and that it upset Jonah when what he cared about (the bush) was no longer. He asks Jonah, then, if God should also care about the Ninevites and their animals? To God, all Creation is God’s creativity manifest and God’s responsibility. Aren’t God and Jonah the same in caring for Creation? In fact, God implies, what would it say about God if She didn’t care about some of the people She created and didn’t doggedly pursue their repentance and reconciliation?
That moment when you realize why you’re really upset and why it’s not a good reason.
The book ends there. God’s question hanging in the hot, humid air. What would it say about God if God didn’t love our enemies?
What impresses me about this exchange is something I learned from Shirer’s study. Shirer spends a lot of her study exploring the how’s and why’s of Jonah’s (and our) disobedience. For her, this story is about obedience to God. But this last chapter argues against that. If it were about obedience, then the story could end in chapter 3 when Jonah obeyed and God brought a great revival to the Ninevites! So why chapter 4? Why does it matter that Jonah is displeased? God can do whatever God wants, and we should trust that God is good all the time. God gives and takes away and it doesn’t matter what we think or feel, we don’t know the big picture. Except, God does care. The entirety of chapter 4 is God staying with Jonah in his depression. God listens to Jonah. God waits for Jonah. God asks if Jonah is justified in being angry and when Jonah refuses to answer, God comforts Jonah. God teaches Jonah. God sticks around. It’s not enough that Jonah obeyed. It’s not enough that Jonah did so well that an entire city was saved. God wants Jonah. God wants Jonah to see the bigger picture – that God’s love is for him and for others and that God’s love for others does not diminish God’s love for Jonah.
The question hangs in the air, should God love our enemies? We don’t hear how Jonah responds, but as Timothy Keller notes in The Prodigal Prophet, Jonah probably wrote the story or, at least, shared the story over and over until someone wrote it down. The question, then, is for all who hear the story. Should God not be concerned about __, that large region of Creation, that entire population, those “wicked” people? God cannot imagine forsaking them because they “do not know their right hand from their left.” How awful would it be if God simply destroyed people because they were confused by the corruption, chaos, and consequences of evil instead of finding a way to rescue them? How disheartening it would be if God only wanted our obedience and didn’t love us enough to pursue us until we understand and so be able to love more deeply.