The Reluctant Prophet - Part 5

In the final part of this series, Carla Lindsey asks what the book of Jonah is really about … and the answers are bigger than a really big fish.

A good story often ends with a good question. You are probably familiar with Dr Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat. It’s a story in which, after the mother has gone out for the day, leading to the children and cat all but destroying the house, a question is posed as to what the children should tell their mother about how they spent their day. The book gives no answer to the question but rather, asks the reader, ‘What would you do if your mother asked you?’

Jesus left stories open ended too. It’s really quite frustrating! It would be nice if he would wrap his stories up with a black-and-white conclusion, but often he doesn’t. The parable of the Good Samaritan ends with the question, ‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’ A good question! One that invites a response from the listener. Luke concludes one of the miracle stories by recounting the disciples’ words: ‘Who is this man that the wind and waves obey him?’ Another good question. One the reader is invited to consider.

As we now approach the end of the book of Jonah, we will see that the writer of the book used the same technique. The book ends up in the air. There is no ‘and they all lived happily ever after’. Instead he leaves us with a very big question. A question that makes the reader consider which people are important to God. Are all people of equal value to God? I mean really? Are those who live in ways that oppose God’s kingdom still just as important to him? What lengths should God go to reach those people? Are they just as deserving of God’s mercy as those who follow his ways?

Burning up

We’ll come back to these questions, but first let’s pick up the story where we left off. We left chapter three of Jonah with things hanging. Jonah had finally made it to Nineveh and had delivered the message that God had given to him. The people of Nineveh believed the message and immediately repented, fasted and called on God in the hope that their city might not be overturned. And that’s where we left it. Jonah had done what he was asked to do. The Ninevites had done all they could do. Now … what would God do?

Well, ‘when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened’ (3:10).

The Ninevites were saved. An excellent outcome you might think. The book seems set for a triumphant ending … but Jonah wasn’t impressed at all by this turn of events. In fact, ‘to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry’ (4:1). This could be translated, ‘Jonah became hot’ or ‘burned up’. In other words, he was fuming! Fuming because God had chosen to show mercy to the Ninevite people—people who were enemies of Israel.

Jonah vented his frustration, and said to God, ‘Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity’ (4:2).

Loving your enemies

Now it begins to make sense. Now we get a glimpse into the mind of Jonah and understand why he disobeyed God to start with. He wanted the Ninevites to be destroyed. The city of Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and the Assyrians had oppressed Jonah’s people. Jonah didn’t want to give them a second chance. As far as he was concerned they deserved the punishment that they had coming.

How dare God spare the Ninevites after all they had done! How dare God show grace and compassion! Where did the vengeful God go? Could we have him back?

And with that, Jonah threw all his toys out of the cot. He exclaimed, ‘Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live!’ (4:3). Jonah would rather die than have God spare the Ninevites.

A slightly extreme reaction! A tantrum perhaps? An exaggeration? A sign of Jonah’s mental and physical exhaustion? Certainly an expression of just how unreasonable God’s grace to the Ninevites seemed to Jonah at the time.

Jonah seems to have forgotten his own recent behaviour. Jonah was a recent recipient of God’s grace. If people should get what they deserve, then God should have left him to die on the sea floor. Or, maybe Jonah hadn’t forgotten his own recent rescue, but as biblical scholar Richard D. Philips suggests, perhaps Jonah simply thought that ‘there were sinners and then there were sinners’. Maybe Jonah knew he wasn’t perfect, but he felt he certainly wasn’t as bad as those Ninevites!

Jonah essentially complained to God because God was too good. Jonah had praised God’s mercy in chapter two, but now he hated it.

God responded to Jonah’s rant with a question: ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’(4:4). A good question that cut to the heart of the situation. God doesn’t enter a silly argument to try to justify his actions; he just asks Jonah what it had to do with him!

Jonah didn’t respond. He didn’t need to. The answer is obvious. Jonah had no right to be angry.

Now the narrator takes us to a different scene. We find Jonah leaving Nineveh and sitting down to the east of the city. ‘There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen’ (4:6). As Jonah sat and waited to see exactly what was going to happen to Nineveh, God gave him an object lesson to expose his narrowmindedness.

A twist in the plot

‘The Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant’ (4:7). Scholars speculate that it might have been a castor oil plant, as they grow in the area and their growth rate is rapid. But whatever this plant was, the important thing was that God provided it.

In chapter two, God provided a fish that saved Jonah when he was in the sea—and now on land, God provided a plant to save Jonah from the sun. Jonah was comfortable. He was happy. Yet again he was the recipient of God’s grace.

Then we see the word ‘but’. We’ve already come across it a few times in the book of Jonah. ‘But Jonah ran away’ (1:3), ‘but God provided a fish’ (1:17), ‘but this seemed wrong to Jonah’ (4:1). These ‘buts’ indicate a twist in the plot is coming.

‘But’ at dawn the next day God provided again, not a fish or a plant, but this time he provided a worm. And the worm chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God ‘provided’ yet again. This time he provided a scorching east wind, and so that the sun blazed on Jonah’s head and he grew faint, and yet again, Jonah wanted to die. He said, ‘It would be better for me to die than to live’ (4:8).

Jonah was not having a good day! What an emotional roller coaster ride he was on. The death of the plant must have just felt like the last straw. Everything was wrong in the world. It was too much and he wanted out.

God responded to Jonah in the way same he had to his earlier outburst, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?’ (4:9). This time Jonah answered. ‘It is,’ he said. ‘And I’m so angry I wish I were dead’ (4:9).

Jonah had only had the plant one day, but in that short time the vine had come to mean something to Jonah and so he felt he did have a right to be angry. That vine was important to him and it had been taken. He was so furious about it that he wanted to die.

Jonah’s strong answer helps God make his point.

God responded, ‘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 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?’ (4:10–11).

A final question

And there we have the question the book ends with. God was saying, ‘Jonah, if you really care about that vine that you have no investment in and only got yesterday, can you imagine how much more I care about the people in Nineveh? People I made, people I know, people I love—120,000 of them! All unique, all precious to me. Those people might not matter to you, but they matter to me!’

God did not want to overturn their city. He wanted to give the Ninevites every opportunity to turn to him.

The book of Jonah is not a story about a fish. It’s a story about people, about their relationship with God and with each other. It’s a story about a man who was forced to rethink his way of understanding God and others … and it was a painful process for him.

Biblical scholar Douglas Stuart says, ‘It is always easier to think that God is more with us than with our enemies.’ But actually, God doesn’t limit his presence to just one group of people. He loves us all! Everyone. This is what Jonah had to learn, but to learn that he needed to change the way he understood God. He needed to change the lens through which he made sense of the world. No longer could he see himself as superior and more deserving of God’s grace. And no longer could he see God’s love as having limits.

Did Jonah work these things out? I’d like to think that over time he did, but the book doesn’t tell us. It ends up in the air, with questions that ancient and modern readers alike are invited to consider: Who deserves God’s love? Who are our Ninevites?

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by Carla Lindsey (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 9 July 2016, pp20-21
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