The question came in a deceptively simple guise: “What is your favourite scriptural text?” Normally the answer would be: “The one I am working on at the moment.” But, under pressure, the response that came unbidden to my lips was: “The Book of Jonah.” And what was the reason for this? It was surely not because the book is so short, coming in at a mere four slender chapters; rather, as I reflect on it, this tiny scroll is really a most extraordinary creation.
In the first place, the prophet for whom it is named is, most unusually, not at all the hero of the text. At every point in the book, he gets it wrong, in a way that is almost comical. Consider: unlike other prophets, Jonah runs away as soon as he hears God’s command, and it costs him money: “He paid the fare, went aboard to travel with them to Tarshish”. Notice that very important phrase here: “away from the Lord”. I suppose you might argue that he is simply living up to his name; for Jonah means “dove”, and the prophet spends the entire book flying away from God.
But of course, you can’t run away from God, and the story goes on: “the Lord hurled a violent wind upon the sea”. The sailors (ordinary pagans) then start to pray, while Jonah goes to sleep down in the hold. But these are deeply religious people, and they wake him up to insist that he should pray to his God. But his God, he tells them, is “the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land”. At this they realise that the situation is very serious indeed, and ask what they should do. Jonah simply tells them, “Pick me up, and throw me into the sea”. Somewhat reluctantly, they eventually do precisely that, But Jonah has done his prophetic work, and these sailors are “struck with great fear of the Lord… they offered sacrifice and made vows to God”. Mission accomplished, you may say.
That is chapter 1. In chapter 2, the Lord sends a large fish to swallow Jonah; he then sings a song of lamentation from inside the beast, who understandably vomits Jonah up upon the shore. So, Jonah surrenders to God, and in chapter 3 rather grudgingly starts preaching to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was after the 8th century a byword for wickedness and oppression, so the last thing the reader is expecting is that they should pay any attention to the prophet. That however, is precisely what happens: “The people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth”. In this they are led, quite unexpectedly, by their king, who insists that even the animals must fast; we can only imagine what the hungry “cattle and sheep” made of it all. But it all works out: for we are told that “God repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out”. So everyone we have met so far, apart from Jonah himself, has done exactly the right thing. Mission accomplished.
And is Jonah humbly delighted with the success of his mission from God? He is nothing of the kind; instead he complains to God that “I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in mercy, reluctant to punish”. And Jonah is not at all impressed by the mercy of God, so he sulks. Twice God asks him, “Are you right to be angry?” The first time Jonah does not bother to give an answer to the Lord; instead, he leaves the city, and shelters in the shade, apparently still hoping that God is after all going to destroy Nineveh. Instead, God does something creative: he made a plant “grow up over Jonah’s head, giving shade that relieved him of any discomfort”. And for the first time in the book, Jonah is actually pleased. But God is not finished, and the next morning sends a worm to attack the plant, which promptly withers. Jonah is absolutely furious, and simply asks to die. Now, for a second time, God asks, “Are you right to be angry over the plant?” Jonah has still not got the message, and simply replies, “I am angry enough to die”. God just cuts through his selfishness, and asks: “You are worried about a plant which you did not work over and did not raise… should I not be worried about Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left?” There the book ends, with God’s question hanging in the air. How, in your view, should Jonah answer the question? And, if you are worried about how God behaves, how should you answer it?
Now I invite you to read that extraordinary book of Jonah today. Its four chapters will not take you very long. You will not regret it.
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