Jonah must be the best known of the twelve minor
prophets. His story is retold time and
time again – and it is a colourful and vivid story, dramatic, concise and
powerful. Its most memorable feature is
undoubtedly the encounter with the big fish, but there is a whole lot in there
about the full range of human experience and about God’s encountering human
beings. It is interesting that the big
fish has grabbed all the attention – even though it is only mentioned in three
verses. It is also interesting that it
has become so well known, but that is probably precisely because it is so
absurd. Telling the story of Jonah is
almost like telling a joke. It’s
crazy.
One commentator[1]
suggests that other prophets have influential ideas and theology “but the book
of Jonah has the best story” adding “many people are familiar with the story of
Jonah but often their knowledge of the story comes more from popular retellings
of the narrative than from the text itself.”
Another[2] suggests
that it is “easy not to take the little story of Jonah seriously” pointing out,
as an example, that “Voltaire took delight in scoffing at its
improbabilities.” A third commentator[3]
indicates that “... it offers a totally different kind of experience for the
reader from that of other prophetic books.”
This book “has tantalized and intrigued scholars and commentators from
the start. Although on the surface the
story appears fairly simple and straightforward, it soon becomes apparent that
underlying it a complex and fascinating web is spun by an author drawing on a
range of resources as he grapples with conflicting perceptions of God. The result is an exquisite gem, unique in the
pages of holy Scripture and unparalleled in contemporary writings.” And a fourth commentator[4]
says of the book – “psychologically aware, accurate, compassionate, humourous
and hopeful, the book is dynamite.”
Martin Luther describes the prophet Jonah as “a
queer and odd saint who is angry because of God’s mercy for sinners, begrudging
them all the benefits and wishing them all evil ... And yet he is God’s dear child. He chats so uninhibitedly with God as though
he were not in the least afraid of Him – as indeed he is not, he confides in
Him as a father.” And Luther goes on to
make the point that, in view of the repentance of Nineveh, “I am tempted to say
that no apostle or prophet, not even Christ himself, performed and accomplished
with a single sermon the great things Jonah did. His conversion of the city of Nineveh with
one sermon is surely as great a miracle as his rescue from the belly of the
whale, if not an even greater one.”
Now, before we turn to the text itself, let’s
consider what kind of writing this is. Is
this a historical account of an actual person called Jonah and what happened to
him, or is it something else, something a little different from that? Of course, there are those who think this to
be a description of actual events just how they happened. That may be so, though I am inclined to think
it not to be the case. In the end I
don’t think the question matters. I
think this book, as the whole Bible, is about ultimate truths – and it is the
ultimacy of the truths that matters. Of
course, many accounts in the Bible record the story of actual historical
events. But there are other places where
the language of poetry is used or where other ways are found to depict
important truth. One way in which that
happens is through the parables that Jesus told. Jesus is not telling stories of actual events
when he offers a parable. But he is
telling stories of things that could well have been. It might well have happened like this. The important lesson is to be learned in any
case. Jesus is not, for example, talking
about Mrs. A who lost a coin and went looking for it, then threw a party to
celebrate when she found it. But it is
the sort of thing that could have happened – and did happen every day. Lots of women lost coins – and then turned
the house upside down looking for them – and were keen to share their joy when
the lost object was found. The same
could be said of the good Samaritan, the prodigal son and so many more. That’s what a parable is. Some parables were more far-fetched than
others, but they all made good and important points. And if sometimes Jesus did use a story of an
actual event that didn’t really add anything, nor did it take anything
away.
I think that Jonah is like a parable. I think it probably didn’t happen just as it
is told – but, in the end, what I really think is that it doesn’t matter
whether it did or did not. What matters
is the truth that the story is intended to convey.
We can understand a little more about that when
we remember that for Jews for centuries the book of Jonah has been read on the
Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement,
or Yom Kippur, is the most solemn fast day in the Jewish liturgical year. The message of Jonah, which is appointed to
be read in the afternoon service, emphasises so many of the great lessons of
Yom Kippur. It is impossible to run away
from God’s presence. God takes pity on
all his creatures. God is always willing
to accept true repentance. Still today,
Yom Kippur marks the time when Jewish people come in penitence before God and
seek restoration with the human community, not just the immediate circle of
family, friends and colleagues, but also the wider human community of peoples
and nations. It is also a reminder of
the possibility of God’s forgiveness, a possibility which Jonah experienced for
himself, but then was unwilling to see applied to others.
The Jewish teacher Jonathan Magonet identifies
some of the lessons which he thinks the book of Jonah brings to the marking of
Yom Kippur. He says that the book of
Jonah is a reminder that “fasting alone is not the essence of the day”. Piety only works, if it is effected in
action. False piety is of no interest to
God. The response to Jonah’s vow to go
now to Nineveh, having been spat up on the beach by the fish, can only be a reply
from God something like: ‘Don’t give me your piety – perform my will. Forget Jerusalem and go to Nineveh.’ This then links to a second key point – that
the repentance of the Ninevites provides a context for the day. As Magonet puts it – “That people can change
and that God can forgive, are the hope upon which the dynamic of the Day
depends.” This again leads on to another
point: “If pagan Nineveh can repent how much more should Israel, and how much
greater the scandal if they do not.” And
one more point from Magonet in this context of his comments on Jonah with
relation to Yom Kippur, which is a point that we, as Christians, might link to
the Great Commission. Magonet makes the
point that Nineveh’s role in all of this is a challenge to Israel because it is
a reminder of the wider concern and offering of the love of God. Magonet writes as a Jew for Jews – but I
think that we can learn from all of these points as Christians.
In the first chapter the story gets off to a
quick start. In just the first three
verses Jonah is called by God. He is
told where to go and what to say. He is
given a task. But he decides that he is
not going to take this task on – and he takes fairly extreme steps to avoid
it. Before we say a little more about
what is contained in these three verses, there are a couple of key questions
raised that we would do well to reflect on.
The first of these is a question about whether we are always listening
out for what God might want to say to us.
At least Jonah heard the call. He
is not so caught up in other things that it entirely passes him by. He doesn’t respond as he should. But he is listening to God. Are we listening to God? Are we listening out for anything that God
might want to say to us? The second
question is about what we do when we receive a call from God. It might be a call to do something big, as
was the case for Jonah here. It might be
that it is something that we, and others, would regard as small. None of that matters. If it is God’s call, it is the right
size. The question is: are we ready to
respond when God calls us?
In the first verse we are simply told that
God’s call came to Jonah – the word of
the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai.
The important thing is that this locates Jonah’s call in real time and
in a real place. I have earlier made
reference to the view that the story is a parable, rather than a historical
account, and I am not changing my mind on that.
But, even if we assume that the story is a parable, we still need to
take it as it stands and allow God to speak to us through it. Indeed, that is precisely the point of a
parable. Of course, the other point
about this first verse is that it does present us with a bit of a mystery. How did God’s call come to Jonah? We are not told. Was it through a dream? That is often what happens in the Bible. Was it a voice? Was it a letter? Was it a combination of circumstances? Did God use a human agent? We are not told. All we know is that “God’s word to him was
indeed powerfully real. Jonah was
called. He was deeply disturbed by this
and, as we shall see, unable to accept it.”[5]
We are not told exactly how Jonah was called,
but we are told what he was called to do – that’s in verse 2. Go to
the great city of Nineveh; go and denounce it, for I am confronted by its
wickedness. This is a typical
prophetic commission. Jonah is to get
up. He is to go. And he is to do. It is interesting that Nineveh is actually
described as ‘a great city’. It is, of
course, also described as being known for its wickedness.
But how does Jonah respond? He responds by putting as much distance as he
can between himself and Nineveh. Verse 3
– But to escape from the Lord Jonah set
out for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa,
where he found a ship bound for Tarshish.
He paid the fare and went on board to travel with it to Tarshish out of
the reach of the Lord. The normal
response to the prophetic call is to go where the call takes the prophet. So what happens here is quite a
surprise. Jonah is not alone in having
concerns about the implications of responding to God’s call. That happens quite a lot. But this deliberately evading God’s call is
highly unusual. There are other
occasions when a prophet has delivered a message and then run for it, afraid of
what the repercussions might be – but Jonah is unique in running away before he
has even delivered his message. “Here is
something unprecedented: a prophet of Israel in rebellion against God. While Moses, Amos and Jeremiah had been
unable to resist the word and service of God, Jonah takes decisive steps to
avoid it.”[6] What God asks of Jonah is just too much and
so he puts as much distance as he can between himself and the call of God. In terms of geography he actually goes in the
opposite direction – but what is far more significant is simply that he ensures
that he is unable to engage with what God has asked him to do. I can’t imagine that Jonah wanted to disobey
God. I don’t believe that this was a
deliberate choice to do the wrong thing.
I suspect that Jonah simply wished that God had left him alone, that he
had never heard this daunting call. How
he must have longed for God not to have spoken!
Sometimes, when we are called by God, it is
something exciting. It is something
that, given the chance, we would choose to do.
Often we can’t believe that God has chosen us to be his partner in
something so fascinating. We are glad to
be called, and we are glad to respond.
But, other times, for all sorts of reasons, we do not feel able or ready
to respond. It may be that we feel not
up to the task. It may be that a
particular calling seems too scary. It
may even be that God is asking of us something that we just don’t want to do. Sometimes we can’t wait to respond to God’s
call. Other times we just wish it would
go away. But in all cases God’s call is
God’s call – and we need to decide what we are going to do with it. And, as we are considering our response, we
should always remember that, no matter how a particular task may seem to us,
God is the source of life and, in responding in the right way to God’s call, we
will find life, life, as John’s Gospel puts it, in all its fulness.
As one commentator puts it with reference to
this story: “Jonah’s resistance to the ongoing call of God can readily be rationalized
in human terms. After all, it was a
crazy call! But, as Isaiah puts it,
God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and his ways higher than our
ways.”[7] God’s call to Jonah would take him way out of
his comfort zone, but he needed to learn that God has a different, and bigger,
perspective. He also needed to learn
that God doesn’t call anyone to do anything without giving the one who is
called the needed resources to carry out the task. Those are good lessons for us to learn too.
But Jonah is now en route for Tarshish, and
most of the rest of the first chapter of Jonah deals with the account of this
voyage – up to the point where Jonah leaves the trip by being, at his own
request, thrown overboard. All this is
recorded in verses 4 to 16 of Jonah 1.
Jonah has responded to God by running off in
the opposite direction from that in which God had asked him to go. Now God responds to Jonah by sending a
tremendous storm. Verse 4 – the Lord let loose a hurricane on the sea,
which rose so high that the ship threatened to break up in the storm. At first glance it might seem as though this
is something like God giving Jonah a smack on the wrist. You think you can do what you like – well,
I’ll show you. But, if we pause to
consider this a little more carefully, and particularly if we do so in the
context of looking ahead to what comes next in the story – and we can’t help
doing that because we know the story - then I think we can see something
extremely helpful going on here. It may
not be the way we would do it. Indeed,
it is not a way in which we could do it – but here we have God gently – or
should we saying rigorously – calling a halt to the prophet’s flight. This is part of God helping Jonah to get
things right.
I don’t believe that God ever wants to hurt
us. But I do believe that God is with us
in everything that happens to us – and I do believe that God can bring good
things out of bad. It doesn’t take the
bad away, but it does, at least, allow for something positive to emerge from
those situations in which we struggle.
One thing that I do think is interesting is
that, while all this is going on, Jonah is asleep. Verse 5 – the
sailors were terror-stricken; everyone cried out to his own god for help, and
they threw things overboard to lighten the ship. Meanwhile Jonah, who had gone below deck, was
lying there fast asleep. The sailors
are scared stiff. They are doing all
they can to save the ship. The first
thing to say here is that if these, presumably experienced, sailors are
terrified, then we may presume that there is something to be scared about. They are the experts. They would be used to storms at sea. If this one scares even them, it is something
to worry about. The second thing is that
it was their job to sail the ship – so it is not unreasonable to expect them to
be the ones doing all that could be done to keep the ship afloat. But this is a case of all help being needed –
and how anyone could sleep through this is a mystery. We might think that Jonah’s conscience would
be troubling him, but it certainly isn’t keeping him awake. Anyhow, the sailors are doing what they can
to save the ship and Jonah is asleep when the captain comes across him. Verse 6 – when
the captain came upon him he said, ‘What, fast asleep? Get up and call to your god! Perhaps he will spare a thought for us, and
we shall not perish’. Now what is
perhaps most interesting here is the place that faith plays in this story. There is a recognition that prayer can
achieve things. “The captain, who is not
an Israelite, is nonetheless a man of piety.
When he finds Jonah sleeping, his first action is not to punish him, nor
even to ask him to help throw cargo overboard, but to ask him to pray. ... He assumes that Jonah worships some god
and also that calling upon that god will help in this acute situation.”[8]
One thing that we might say in passing here is
that God needs his people to be awake.
If faith is asleep, then it is not doing what it should. We need to be on the lookout for what God
wants of us.
The story now moves on to the establishing of
Jonah as the cause of the storm, the suggestion by Jonah that he should be
thrown overboard, the reluctance of the captain to comply with Jonah’s
suggestion – after all, good captains don’t throw their passengers overboard,
no matter how bad conditions get – the eventual compliance with Jonah’s request
and the amazing immediate quietening of the storm.
In verse 7 there is the casting of lots to
determine who is responsible for the predicament in which they find themselves
– The sailors said among themselves, ‘Let
us cast lots to find who is to blame for our misfortune.’ They cast lots, and when Jonah was singled
out ... The casting of lots was a
normal procedure when a process of discernment was needed. There are a number of references in the Bible
to this as a means of determining a course of action, not least, of course,
that this was how the successor to Judas Iscariot was chosen to join the
disciple group. The other thing here is
that the sailors clearly believed that someone was responsible for the storm by
having displeased their god - and so it proved to be. The lot falls on Jonah and the sailors
immediately start throwing questions at Jonah.
However, we ought to note the reasonableness of these sailors here. Of course, they wanted to understand what was
going on and so they started questioning Jonah.
But notice that they didn’t just grab him and throw him overboard. Rather they question him so that they can
understand. Essentially they ask him
four questions: What is your
business? Where do you come from? Which is your country? What is your nationality? These questions are important. The answer will bring an explantion to the
sailors and will satisfy their curiosity but, more significantly, it will bring
Jonah to the point of facing up to reality.
He can’t just shut himself away.
He can’t just ignore others. As
one of the commentators on this book says: “In his sleeping Jonah had spoken
volumes! He did not want anyone to know
who he was. The strength of his desire
to remain unknown was greater than his willingness to show solidarity with the
suffering of others. The sailors’
questions were critical in leading to Jonah’s identity being made known. In challenging him, the sailors also aided his
own self-recognition. At last Jonah is
on the road to acknowledging his identity, of owning who he is. In this acknowledgment he can begin to accept
responsibility; he learns that what he does, as well as what he does not do,
affects the well-being of others.”[9]
And so he answers, verse 9 – I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord the
God of heaven, who made both sea and dry land. This is the first time in the story that
Jonah speaks – and he speaks of God. His
comment indicates that he has a mastery
of the essentials of his faith.[10] He has actually only answered one of the four
questions that the sailors asked, but he has said all that matters. They didn’t ask him about his faith – but he
has told them. They immediately realise
that this is to do with faith. This is
to do with his response to God. And so
they ask him, firstly, what he has done.
That’s verse 10 – At this the
sailors were even more afraid. ‘What is
this you have done?’ they said, because they knew he was trying to escape from
the Lord, for he had told them. And
then, secondly, they ask him what they need to do. That’s verse 11 – ‘What must we do with you to make the sea calm for us?’ It is interesting how the sailors keep the
initiative. “They were clear that the
storm which threatened their lives was related to a fearful lack of seriousness
in Jonah’s religious belief.”[11] They ask him what they need to do. This is now the seventh question that has
been put to Jonah since he has been woken up.
First, the captain had asked him what he was doing sleeping. Then there were the four questions after the
lot had fallen on him. The sixth
question was the one about what he had done.
And now, and seventhly, he is asked what they need to do.
Can you imagine how Jonah must have felt? Put yourself in his shoes for a moment. How God’s call had turned his life upside
down – even though he hadn’t responded positively to it. And now he has to speak again. And so Jonah makes his second comment of the
story. It’s in verse 12 – ‘Pick me up and throw me overboard; then the
sea will go down. I know it is my fault
that this great storm has struck you.
So Jonah “finally opts for the lives of others rather than his own.”[12] But, as we have already noted, professional
sailors don’t normally respond to bad weather by throwing their fare-paying
passengers overboard. So, in the first
instance, they don’t take Jonah at his word.
They make one final attempt to get clear of the storm. Verse 13 – though the crew rowed hard to put back to land it was no use, for the
sea was running higher and higher.
So they pray to God – verse 14 – Do not let us perish, Lord. How interesting that these sailors address
God before Jonah gets round to doing that though, in fairness, it is Jonah who
has pointed them in the right direction.
But perhaps the crucial thing here is the recognition that prayer is
what is needed and so “if Jonah, the insider who has experienced a direct word
from the Lord, will not cry out to his God, then the sailors, the outsiders,
will, and they do.”[13]
Then, they do what Jonah has suggested. They throw him overboard. The storm abates – and the sailors worship
God. The sailors have been told to throw
Jonah into the sea and their obedience transforms the situation. The fantastic happens. The storm abates. What was true then and there remains true for
us, namely that God is a transforming God.
The sailors are in a very different situation. They, as it were, sail off in to the sunset –
because they have no further part in our story.
Jonah is also in a very different situation. If we didn’t know the story we might think we
were finished with Jonah. Surely this is
the end for him. But, of course, it
isn’t. God has plenty more in store with
Jonah – and this is not the end of this particular story or this particular
journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment