the Book of Jonah a subversive story
about a rebellious prophet who hates God
for loving his enemies Jonah is unique
among the prophets of the Old Testament
because they're typically collections of
God's words spoken through the Prophet
but this book doesn't actually focus on
the words of the Prophet rather it's a
story about a prophet a really mean and
nasty prophet Jonah appears only one
other time in the Old Testament it's
during the reign of Jeroboam the second
one of Israel's worst kings and Jonah
prophesied in his favor promising that
he would win a battle and regain all
this territory on Israel's northern
border now it's important to know that
the prophet amos also confronted
Jeroboam and threw him God specifically
reversed
Jonah's prophecy promising that Jeroboam
would lose all those same territories
because he was so horrible so before the
story of Jonah even begins we are
suspicious of Jonah's character The Book
of Jonah has a beautiful design with all
this literary pairing and symmetry so
you have chapters 1-3 telling the story
of Jonah's encounter with nan is
realized first with some sailors and
then with Jonah's hated enemies the
Ninevites and each part offers a comic
contrast between Jonah's selfishness and
the pagans humility and repentance
chapters 2 & 4 contain prayers of Jonah
one is a prayer of repentance kind of
and the other is a prayer in which Jonah
chews out God for being too nice now
this careful design of the book is
matched by a really unique style of
narration the story's full of all of
these stereotyped characters who
ironically do the exact opposite of what
you think they would do so you have the
Prophet the man of God who rebels and
hates his own God you have the sailors
who are supposed to be really immoral
but actually they have soft repentant
hearts and turn to God in humility you
have the king of the most powerful
murderous empire on the planet and he
humbles himself before God because of
Jonah's five word sermon and even the
king's cows repent this kind of story
fits what today we would call satire
these are stories about well-known
figures who are placed in extreme
circumstances and they use humor and
irony to critique their stupidity and
character flaws let's just dive in and
we'll see how all the pieces work
together the story opens as
addresses Jonah and commissions him to
go preach against the evil and injustice
in Nineveh the capital city of the
Assyrian Empire Israel's bitter enemy
but instead of going east to Nineveh
Jonah goes in the opposite direction
finding a ship going as far west as you
can go
to Tarshish now the big question here is
why why does Jonah run is he afraid does
he just not like Ninevites and we're not
told yet so the man of God tries to run
from God and he boards a ship full of
pagan sailors he goes down into the ship
and then he falls asleep so God sends a
huge storm to wake up his prophet well
ironically the sailors above board are
wide awake to everything that's
happening they can discern that there's
a divine power at work here so they
throw the dice and they discover that
Jonah he is a culprit so they asked
Jonah to explain himself and Jonah
spouts off a whole bunch of religious
mumbo-jumbo he says yeah I'm a Hebrew
and I worship the Lord the God who made
the sea in the dry land what a joke
right God made the sea and the dry land
all right and Jonah's dumb enough to run
from this God by getting on a boat and
when the sailors asked Jonah what they
should do he says kill me by throwing me
overboard which kind of seems noble at
first until you realize this could
actually be his most selfish move yet I
mean what better way to avoid going to
Nineveh so he puts his blood on these
innocent sailors hands by trying to
force them to kill him they're reluctant
of course and they repent to God even as
they toss him over the storm subsides
and they end up fearing the God of
Israel and unlike Jonah
they actually worship God but God foils
Jonah's plans to escape Nineveh as
Jonah's sinking God provides this
strange watery tomb for him the stomach
of a large fish now of course under
normal circumstances this would be
certain death but in this story
everything's upside-down and so Jonah's
submarine death becomes his passage back
to life cramped in the stomach of this
beast Jonah
utters a prayer where he never
technically says that he's sorry but he
does thank God for not abandoning him
and he promises that he will obey God
from this point on
or what and God's response is quite
comic the whale vomits Jonah back onto
dry land so once again God Commission's
Jonah to go and preach in Nineveh and
Jonah complies
we're told that Nineveh was a gigantic
city it would take days to walk through
so Jonah gets one day in and here is his
message forty more days and Nineveh will
be overturned it's five words in Hebrew
and his sermon is very short and it's
also odd I mean look at what's missing
there's no mention of what the Ninevites
have done wrong or of what they should
do to respond there's no mention of who
might overturn them and most noticeable
there's no mention of God what's going
on here as Jonah intentionally given the
bare minimum of information it's like
he's trying to sabotage his own message
or ensure the Ninevites destruction
there's just no effort on Jonah's part
here whatever his motives are the plan
doesn't work because no sooner does he
utter this five word sermon that the
king of Nineveh the entire city
including all its cows repent in sorrow
and ashes so for the second time these
evil pagans show themselves to be more
responsive than God's own prophet so God
forgives the Ninevites and he doesn't
bring destruction on the city now here's
the brilliant part of the story the last
word of Jonah's short sermon overturned
means just that turned over and it can
refer to a city being overthrown or
destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah but it
can also be used of something being
transformed like turned over and changed
into its opposite and so
comically Jonah's words actually came
true but not in the way that he intended
Nineveh does get turned over as Jonah's
enemies repent and find God's mercy the
final chapter brings all the pieces
together Jonah he's fuming mad and he
utters his second prayer he first tells
God why he ran away back in chapter 1 it
was not because he was afraid rather it
was because he knew that God was so
merciful and this is great Jonah
actually quotes God's own description of
himself from the book of Exodus and he
throws it back in God's face as an
insult he says he knew that God is
compassionate and that you would find
some way to forgive these horrible
veidt's you can just hear the disgust in
Jonah's voice Jonah then cuts off the
conversation and he prays that God would
kill him on the spot he'd rather die
than live with the God who forgives his
enemies fortunate for Jonah God doesn't
comply and simply asked if Jonah's anger
is even justified
Jonah ignores the question and he goes
outside the city to camp on a nearby
hill waiting to see what might happen
you know the Ninevites might repent of
their repentance and get roasted after
all what happens next is very odd God
provides this Viney plant to shade Jonah
from the Sun and that makes him quite
happy but then God sends a tiny worm to
eat up the plant and so Jonah loses his
shade and they're in the heat of the Sun
Jonah ass again that God kill him so God
again asked Jonah if his anger is
justified and Jonah barks back
absolutely just let me die and those are
Jonah's last words in the story God's
final words are what concludes the book
he says that this whole vine incident
was an attempt to get through to Jonah
right Jonah got all concerned and
emotional over this vine which he only
enjoyed for a day and God asked Jonah
you know are humans a bit more valuable
than vines I mean isn't it okay if God
might feel the same kind of emotion and
concern for the city of Nineveh that's
full of thousands of people who have
lost their way and also their cows and
that's how the book ends with God asking
Jonah for permission to show mercy to
his enemies and what does Jonah's answer
the story doesn't say because that's not
the point the point is that the book is
trying to mess with you and God's
questions here are actually addressed to
you the reader are you okay with the
fact that God loves your enemy and so
this book holds a mirror up to the one
who reads it in Jonah we see the worst
parts of our own character magnified
which should generate humility and
gratitude that God would love his
enemies and put up with the Jonah in all
of us and so this strange story actually
becomes a message of good news about the
wideness of God's mercy that ought to
challenge us too
core and that's the Book of Jonah