A Moment Aside for January 22, 2021

 

A Moment Aside --- 22 January 2021

     Jonah is one of my favourite books of the Bible. I think it should have been a comic book. We all know the story of Jonah being swallowed by a “big fish.” It’s sad if that’s all we know.

    Jonah was called to preach to Israel’s great enemy at Nineveh. Jonah refuses and runs off, taking a boat to Spain. He’s thrown overboard when a storm hits and he’s swallowed by that “big fish” which eventually vomits him up on the shore. THEN he goes to Nineveh with the message that Nineveh will be destroyed in 30 days. Jonah is disgusted when the king of Nineveh and all the people (and the animals!) repented of their ways, put on sack-cloth (what we call burlap) and turn to fasting and prayer. Jonah is further disgusted when God relents and does not destroy Nineveh. You can imagine Jonah sitting in his little hut, arms folded and head turned away from God. He feels God has failed him by forgiving the Ninevites and has betrayed the people of Israel by permitting their enemies to live. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.  He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. (Jonah 3:10-4:2)

     Jonah took shade under a bush in the heat of the day. A worm came and chewed up the bush and killed it. Jonah did not take it well and asked God to let him die. God replied Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night.  And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?” (Jonah 4: 10-11)

     Jonah is a story of God’s care and concern – and, yes, love – for all people and in fact, all creation. It was written to counter ideas that God’s love and care and concern were limited to a certain people only. It was written to counter that idea that those people deserved it… and the enemy didn’t. God’s mercy was for some, but not for all. Jonah tells us good news.

     Is Jonah a prophecy and a parable for our own day? You bet!