By: Curtis Baker
In our last study together we left Jonah on the sea shore after he had been vomited up by the great fish. If you recall, all of this came about because Jonah tried to flee from God. Rather than carry out his mission to preach to the people of Nineveh, Jonah tried to flee to the farthest ends of the earth. But as we resume our study of this book in chapter three, we find that Jonah’s experiences have reoriented his motivation. Rather than run from God, Jonah is now ready to carry out his original mission.
If you take a close look at how chapter three begins, and you compare it to how the whole book began in chapter one, you will notice that the story essentially starts over again. God came to Jonah in chapter one and asked him to go and preach to the city of Nineveh, the ancient capital of the Assyrian empire. In chapter three, the same call of God comes again, only now Jonah is actually ready to carry out God’s instructions.
I’ll remind you at this point who the people of Nineveh were. As the capital of the Assyrian Empire, Nineveh was the center of Assyrian life. The Assyrians were known to be especially brutal people, and their name struck fear all across the Middle Eastern world of the Biblical times. As intimidation tactics, it was known that Assyrians would defeat a city’s army, and then as a means of intimidation to that city, they would impale the dead prisoners on posts all the way around the besieged city. The message was clear–“if you try to resist, this is what will happen to you as well!”
With a reputation like that, it is no wonder Jonah did not want to preach to them. Not only was Jonah rightfully afraid…he also had no interest in doing the people of Nineveh any favors.
However, the experience at sea and with the great fish had taught Jonah not to question God’s command, so he went and preached to evil people of Nineveh. It is at this point in the story something truly shocking happens…maybe even more shocking than Jonah living in the belly of a fish for three days. The people of Nineveh hear Jonah’s preaching and repent! Can you believe that? Under the leadership of their ruler, the most wicked city in the ancient world repents of the wicked things they have done. Who would have thought this could happen?
Apparently, Jonah did. As we move into chapter four, we discover now why Jonah did not want to preach to the Ninevehites in the first place. It wasn’t simply that he was afraid…it was the fact that he knew God was a gracious and forgiving God, and if the people of Nineveh repented God would have mercy on them (Jonah 4:2-3). Jonah did not want God to have mercy on them. He wanted these wicked people to die in their sins!
When all is said and done, the story ends with a darkly humorous scene. After Nineveh’s repentance, Jonah goes outside of the city walls and sulks over what has happened. As Jonah sits in the desert heat, God provides a vine to give him cover and shade. Jonah is very pleased with this. Then, the next day, God provided a worm that ate the plant, and God sent a hot scorching wind to torture Jonah. Jonah is furious about this. So furious, once again he wants to die. But the story ends with this probing question from God, “What right do you have to be angry about this?”
At first glance, the question simply seems to be about the vine. But upon closer inspection, the question is really about this whole sequence of events. What right does Jonah have to be angry at Nineveh’s repentance? After all, God says, “should I not be concerned about this city of a 120,000 people, most of whom don’t know their right hand from their left?” (Jonah 4:11) In other words, most of whom have nothing to do with the violent reputation of the imperial government?
As I stated last week, even though this is a story that fascinates children, it is actually a very adult story. Children have not learned the cycles of hatred that we adults have learned. How many of us have as our main concern God’s redemptive work in the world? How many of us, instead, are consumed with visions of hatred and revenge?
(Don’t forget to join me for A Message From the Heart radio program Sunday evening at 8:00pm on KJAK 92.7FM, or streaming live at www.kjak.com)
(curtisbaker@hotmail.com)
Write to: P.O. Box 157, Slaton, TX 79364
