Jonah\u2019s first couple of screw-ups<\/h3>\n
In the first chapter of Jonah, of course, God commands Jonah to preach against the wicked city of Nineveh. Jonah does not walk, he runs<\/em> in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve all felt discomfort at some point about doing our Christian duty. We\u2019ve all politely declined God\u2019s \u201csuggestions\u201d when they were too costly in time, treasure, effort, or comfort.<\/p>\n Jonah\u2019s reason for running was creative, to say the least \u2013 we\u2019ll get to that a little later.<\/p>\n So he hops on a ship bound for Tarshish, and God sends a violent storm. The sailors do what anyone would do in the middle of a storm at sea: they draw straws to discover who is to blame. Of course it\u2019s Jonah.<\/p>\n As the waves continue crashing over the ship\u2019s bow, the sailors ask Jonah to tell them a little about himself.<\/p>\n Jonah answers (all quotes are NIV), \u201cI am a Hebrew and I worship the\u00a0Lord<\/span>, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land\u201d \u2013 and who sent the storm to punish Jonah for disobeying orders.<\/span><\/p>\n (Great job, Jonah, representing God as vindictive and his followers as idiots.)<\/p>\n \u201cPick me up and throw me into the sea,\u201d he tells the sailors, \u201cand it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The (pagan) sailors are horrified at this suggestion, and at first ignore it and try to row back to shore. But when realize they\u2019re about to die, they ask Jonah\u2019s God not to punish them for killing Jonah, and toss him overboard.<\/p>\n (Is it just me, or did the pagan sailors just have more reverence for God than Jonah did?)<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the famous part: \u201cNow the Lord<\/span> provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah,\u201d and Jonah spent roughly seventy-two hours in the belly of said fish.<\/p>\n Now, when all seems lost, Jonah decides to pray:<\/p>\n When my life was ebbing away, <\/span>I remembered\u00a0you,\u00a0Lord<\/span>, <\/span><\/span>and my prayer rose to you, <\/span>to your holy temple\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, <\/span>and you listened to my cry.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God\u2019s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise,\u00a0<\/span>will sacrifice to you.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n What I hav<\/em>e vowed I will make good.<\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>I will say, \u2018Salvation\u00a0comes from the\u00a0Lord<\/span>.\u2019 <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n (We will soon see whether Jonah makes good on his fish-belly vows.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd the Lord<\/span> commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n (Before we continue the story, quick question: have you subscribed to my free newsletter<\/a><\/span>? You should!)<\/p>\n Jonah has a new lease on life, and does God have a job for him.<\/p>\n \u201cGo to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you,\u201d God commands.<\/span><\/p>\n I can hear Jonah bellowing, \u201cSir, yes Sir!\u201d and sprinting to Nineveh. There, he preaches with the newfound zeal of a man freshly puked out of a giant fish: \u201cForty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n According to his fish-belly vow, he should also proclaim, \u201cSalvation comes from the Lord.\u201d But it\u2019s more fun to talk trash \u2013 and, truth be told, after all the embarrassment this wicked city had caused him, he\u2019s actually looking forward to its destruction.<\/p>\n But doggone it, the people of Nineveh believe Jonah\u2019s message. \u201cA fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.\u201d Even the king humbles himself. He proclaims that all residents \u2013 including the animals \u2013 must fast and wear sackcloth (take a moment to picture a goat in sackcloth). <\/span><\/p>\n The king commands everyone to \u201ccall urgently on God\u201d and \u201cgive up their evil ways and their violence\u201d on the outside chance that God would have mercy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sure enough, God hears their prayers and sees their repentance \u2013 and spares the city. (Mind you, the Ninevites did not perform circumcisions or burnt offerings.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBut to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.\u201d<\/p>\n Jonah prays again \u2013 this time with a slightly different tone than he\u2019d taken inside the fish. He reminds God of an earlier conversation they\u2019d had:<\/p>\n Isn\u2019t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish.\u00a0I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.<\/p>\n You read that correctly: Jonah fled to Tarshish because he knew God would ultimately have mercy on Nineveh \u2013 and he hated that idea.<\/p>\n Jonah adds melodramatically, \u201cNow,\u00a0Lord<\/span>, take away my life,\u00a0for it is better for me to die\u00a0than to live.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Then he sits down outside the city to sulk and watch. Will God really save Nineveh, or did Jonah\u2019s tantrum change God\u2019s mind?<\/p>\n God provides a plant to grow in just the right spot to shade Jonah from the midday sun, which gives Jonah consolation. But the next morning, God sends a worm to kill off the plant, exposing Jonah to the scorching sun. In his misery he cries out again, \u201cIt would be better for me to die than to live\u2026I\u2019m so angry I wish I were dead.\u201d<\/p>\n And God lets Jonah have it:<\/p>\n You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.<\/span>\u00a0And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left\u2014and also many animals?<\/span><\/p>\n And so ends the book of Jonah.<\/p>\n 4th century Bible translator and commentator Saint Jerome has some fascinating thoughts on the book and character of Jonah. As reported<\/a> by author Yvonne Sherwood, Jerome viewed Jonah\u2019s actions in a positive<\/em> light\u00a0(please pardon the lengthy quote):<\/p>\n Jerome, peering into the mechanisms of Jonah\u2019s psyche, sees a man who feels that speaking a word to the Ninevites would be like speaking a word against the Israelites\u2026Jonah acts thus as a patriot, not so much that he hates the Ninevites [but] because he \u201cdespairs of the safety of Israel\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n Thus Jonah becomes a nationalist in a positive sense, and stands among the noblest heroes in the biblical hall of fame (emphasis added).<\/em><\/p>\n Jerome is really reaching here, putting lipstick on a pig, as it were. To our modern eyes, Jonah was obviously unwilling to see non-Hebrews as equals. He knew God\u2019s mercy and resented the idea of any other people sharing in that mercy. Today we might call him a bigot.<\/p>\n It is hard for some of us to imagine why someone would want to withhold God\u2019s compassion from others \u2013 but then again, this is one of the mountains that many evangelicals would die on. (I was one of those evangelicals.)<\/p>\n Jesus himself taught that all God wants from us is to love sacrificially<\/a><\/span> and care for the needy<\/a><\/span> (tall orders, indeed), but many among us disregard these words of Jesus and focus on verses that seem to say all God wants from us is belief.<\/p>\n We make excuses for our failure to love \u201cthe least of these\u201d (or even treat them humanely) because \u201cthey\u201d are taking our jobs or crossing our border without permission. We should be inviting them in, feeding and clothing them \u2013 according to Jesus.<\/p>\n We call ourselves patriots when we stand for the national anthem, and criticize those who take a knee on behalf of the least of these. We should be addressing our national sins, not silencing the advocates of change.<\/p>\n We blame the marginalized for their adversity \u2013 perpetuating their misfortune, instead of resolving it.<\/p>\n We discriminate against those whom we don\u2019t understand, judging them as sinners \u2013 while we ourselves are guilty of judgmentalism, hate, and refusing to see others as equals.<\/p>\n We are like Jonah when we begrudge God\u2019s love and mercy for all people. We don\u2019t want to share God\u2019s grace. We care more about trifles, like guns and masks, than about loving our neighbors \u2013 all of them<\/em> \u2013 as ourselves.<\/p>\n YOU MIGHT WANT TO CHECK OUT:<\/strong><\/p>\n The Beatitudes: what does God require of us?<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The inclusivity of heaven \u2013 according to Jesus <\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was hungry, you handcuffed me\u201d \u2013 see Jesus in Palestinian children<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Learning to love my gay neighbor, Part One: Preface<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n FEATURED IMAGE: \u201cBen the Whale Sewing Pattern\u201d<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0LittleStuff.me<\/a><\/span>\u00a0is licensed under\u00a0CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We think of Jonah as that guy who sat undigested in the belly of a big fish for 3 days. But there\u2019s more to his story. Really, the fish part may have been the high point of his life. And really, there\u2019s something about him that\u2019s very familiar. Jonah\u2019s first couple of screw-ups In the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4414,"featured_media":3247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[515],"tags":[260,709],"class_list":["post-3220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exvangelical","tag-evangelical","tag-jonah"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"jonah\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1358\/2021\/07\/7-18-whale-300x270.jpeg\")
Jonah gets religion<\/h3>\n
Nineveh or bust<\/span><\/h3>\n
Jonah\u2019s hissy fits<\/span><\/h3>\n
Here\u2019s where the patriotic stuff comes in<\/h3>\n
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