Most of us have heard the story of Jonah and the whale. Jonah was asked by God to go to Nineveh. He went the opposite way instead. A big storm came. The boat crew threw him overboard to stop the storm. The storm stopped, and Jonah was swallowed by a big fish. After being in the fish’s belly for 3 days, the fish threw him up on shore. Jonah then went to Nineveh.
Is that the story? Is that it? If that is all we know, I think we may be missing the point. I’ve opened up the book of Jonah recently, and though I am not a great Biblical scholar, a few things from this story have grabbed my heart, turned my thinking, and pushed me forward in my journey with God.
The story begins with God asking Jonah to bring a message to Nineveh. “Announce my judgment against Nineveh.”(1:2) Nineveh. A Gentile city. A wicked city. Obviously, Jonah did not have fond thoughts toward this city and did not want to go there. But the heart of God is being revealed here. God didn’t care who the Ninevites were, and he didn’t care how wicked they were. He still wanted someone to go there with his message. God obviously cared about the Ninevites. In 1 Timothy 2:4, I read that “God wants not only us, but everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” God was (and is) making a way for everyone to turn toward him. God’s heart is for everyone, not just us, not just for those we like, not just for those we think are worthy enough. Everyone.
Now back to Jonah’s heart. He didn’t want to go to Nineveh. Why? These people weren’t Israelites! They weren’t part of God’s Chosen People. Only the Israelites were the blessed ones, the ones most suited to serve and honor God. Yes, I praise God for blessings and mercy, but I don’t extend those same blessings and mercy to those outside of my circles. God, please judge those people over there. It’s okay to bring your condemnation against my enemies. I want God for me, not for them. They haven’t lived up to God’s standards like I have, so why should God be merciful to them? Yes, I changed tenses in the middle of this paragraph for a reason. Sometimes my heart looks an awful lot like Jonah’s.
Jonah finally does go to Nineveh and tells them they are all going to die. Doom and destruction are coming. Woe on you! He even gives a time line for it: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” (3:4) Sound familiar? However (surprise, surprise!), Jonah’s prophecies do not come true. And, boy, was he mad about that. “This change of plans upset Jonah.” (4:1) He probably was embarrassed that others would now think of him as a false prophet. How could God do that to him? But perhaps Jonah didn’t really understand prophecy. Perhaps we don’t understand prophecy. Could prophecy be more about warning people, rather than actually predicting the future? Perhaps prophetic stories are meant to be “wake-up calls,” causing us to think about what is important and true. Perhaps prophecy is more about enlightenment and change than it is about accurately stating future events.
(Ponder on that for a day. This post got a little too long, so I’ve decided to divide it into 2 parts. More tomorrow!)
(scripture quotes taken from the New Living Translation and The Message)
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