The Book of Jonah is remarkable in many ways, one of which how short it is (just over 1300 words). Some may in fact argue that there are missing chapters.
It is essentially a story of disobedience, repentance, and forgiveness. Jonah disobeys God and becomes the root cause for a subsequent storm at sea. God saves him, he seems to repent, and gets another chance. He does what God asks, but then God changes his mind and Jonah gets angry at Him for doing so. God tries to teach Jonah something about forgiveness, but it is never clear if Jonah learns or not. In other words, while God forgives Nineveh, it is not clear if Jonah forgives God for changing His mind.
A careful analysis, however, might give us clues to the meaning of this very complex story. (The entire text from King James is at the end of this essay for your reference).
Book 1. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and “cry against it” because its wickedness has come to His attention. Instead, Jonah runs away to Tarshish “from the presence of the Lord.” In other words, he disobeys God. It’s important to note that in sentence one, God issues the order. In sentence two, Jonah disobeys. There is no reason given for this disobedience, but clearly, Jonah knows who he is dealing with.
The idea of disobeying God is not new; in Genesis, the very first command of God to Adam is: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Of course, we know what happens. They disobey and as a result, mankind is cursed. In a similar way, Jonah disobeys and his peers pay the price (the storm). But is important to note at this early stage of the story that God never said he will destroy Nineveh. He just tells Jonah to “cry against it.” The story doesn’t give a reason for Jonah’s disobedience either; it simply narrates how he “went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish.” He wanted to get away from the presence of the Lord.
Running from God is not an uncommon theme either. In fact, Jonah is full of similar themes that run throughout the Bible. We never really know the reason for Jonah’s disobedience like we know Adam and Eve’s. But God will not be ignored, and sends “a great wind” so that the mariners become afraid and “cried every man unto his god.”
This statement implies that these sailors had different gods. The struggle between the genuine and false gods runs throughout the Bible, and what happens here is interesting in the sense that only through turmoil can the genuine God be known. In fact, as the story evolves, eventually we discover who is the real God behind all this turmoil. As they pray to their gods, the sailors also start throwing things overboard to lighten it figuring that might help them weather the storm.
But this is a storm unlike other storms, and nothing seems to work. Unbelievably, Jonah is sleeping through this storm (turmoil). In fact, it was the shipmaster that has to wake him and tells him to call upon his own God to save them from the storm. In essence, it appears they are trying everything and anything to stop the storm, and they want Jonah to make a pitch to his God like they are doing to theirs.
It doesn’t work, so their next plan is to “cast lots.” Casting lots was a method to figure out the will of God (whichever one that might be), and it appears throughout the Bible in various places. They want to see who caused this storm and if they can stop it, and the “lot fell upon Jonah.” Of course it did, because it was Jonah’s God who caused it. Remember: Jonah knows he is the root cause; the others don’t.
This is where narration of the story should be pointed out. Like the Bible itself, this is third-person narration, or the god-like, omniscient narrator. In the third person, the reader has to take the “word” of the narrator, or the story will make absolutely no sense. This is true whether you are reading stories from the Bible, or any other novel. So as an example, “Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish.” If you don’t believe that, the story of Jonah doesn’t make any sense at all.
Consequently, when the “lot fell upon Jonah” it makes sense, since he WAS the root cause of the storm – or more precisely, his disobedience was. The third-person narrator is simply confirming that fact.
The sailors question Jonah…his occupation, his country, his people. “I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord who did this.” The men become afraid (not that they were not afraid before). They ask him, “Why hast thou done this?” – Why did you run from the Lord’s presence? What did we do to you?”
So apparently Jonah told them the whole story of what happened. Thus, in his disobedience, Jonah has put everyone in jeopardy. More important, perhaps, in revealing that he is the root cause, he is “teaching” them not only about his connection to the real, genuine God, but who that God really is. So while they all had gods, they now realize now that Jonah’s God is the one who caused this storm.
Jonah tells them to throw him overboard since “I’m the cause.” Throughout the story, Jonah has kind of a death wish. You will see in the subsequent books Jonah repeatedly asks “to die.” One of the things that must be figured out in order to understand this story is why Jonah disobeyed to begin with (if that can ever be determined).
The sailors don’t throw him over at first; they keep on trying to row out of the storm. They even pray to Jonah’s God while rowing (“We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.”) They are doing everything they can to appease God for Jonah’s disobedience.
When that doesn’t work, they end up throwing Jonah overboard and the sea becomes immediately calm. Then the men fear the Lord “exceedingly” and they offer a sacrifice and make vows. By throwing Jonah off and the ship, “The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah,” where he stayed for three days and nights.
In a way, this is what happened. You disobey God, and you cause bad things to happen to the people around you. It isn’t just Jonah who experiences the “turmoil” resulting from disobedience; it’s everyone around him. Jonah, being connected to the real God, is the only one who can “save” people around himself. By sacrificing himself for his disobedience, he saves the ship.
Now he could have avoided all this by just doing what God told him to do. Why he didn’t remains a mystery. The good news is, the people around him learned who the true God was. In fact, it is by sacrificing Jonah that they realize who the true God really is.
Book 2. Jonah, now in that big fish, prays. In this book there is some of the most remarkable language of prayer. For example, “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord” is a beautiful sentence. Or “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.” Inside the fish, Jonah humbles himself. He prays deeply, and the Lord spoke to the fish, who vomits Jonah out to dry land.
Book 2 is a story about Jonah coming to terms with himself through prayer. He is alone, praying to God, acknowledging he had an “affliction unto the Lord.” What is Jonah’s affliction? He goes on to say that he was “cast out of thy sight.” But Jonah actually left of his own accord. So is the story telling us that not obeying God leads to darkness? Perhaps.
The prayer continues with Jonah really saying how deep this disobedience was (“the weeds were wrapped about my head.”). But God has “brought up my life from corruption.” The fish spits him out.
Book 3. In Book 3, God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh again and do what he told him to do. So he does. Jonah warns, “40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” But where did that come from? The story says that Jonah should “preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” Because this is 3rd person narration, we have to believe that for the story to make sense. But the original command was: “cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.” Since Jonah runs away, we have no evidence that it was a similar command God had in mind. In any case, Jonah does what he is told.
Here is, however, and interesting twist. According to the text, Nineveh was a “great city of three days’ journey.” Jonah “began to enter the city a day’s journey” when he cries and says in forty days, Nineveh is going to be overthrown. Was he in the city? Or another city? Even though the next line says “the people of Nineveh believed God,” it is not clear exactly where Jonah is preaching.
Perhaps that doesn’t matter, because the Nineveh people believe him. They start repenting, putting on sackcloth and even the King “laid his robe from him” and proclaims a fast and that everyone should turn “from his evil way.” The King hopes, “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not?”
God sees this activity, and “repented of the evil that he had said that he would do.” And he doesn’t do it.
This is very interesting, the wording. God “repents.” The people of Nineveh repent. Jonah, in the fish, repents. If you examine the language, however, Jonah never really repents. He simply prays to God to deliver him – not because he disobeyed God, but because he is in the fish and “the weeds were wrapped about my head.” He does what God wants after the fish spits him out, but God changes his mind about Nineveh.
Book 4. And then we come to Book 4, a very perplexing one. Jonah gets “very angry” because God didn’t do what he said he would do to the city of Nineveh. In fact, he asks God to kill him. “It’s better for me to die.”
Why would Jonah react like this? One might speculate that since Jonah didn’t do what God told him to do, and God caused all the turmoil, and now that he did do what He said, he doesn’t follow through, Jonah goes into conflict. But Jonah didn’t repent. Jonah ran away, went to sleep in the ship, and only after the lots were drawn and he was exposed did he tell the sailors to throw him overboard. In this case, the people of Nineveh repent – from the King on down. God himself repents. And that confuses Jonah – and God.
God questions his anger, but Jonah never answers him. Here, again, he leaves the presence of the Lord and in a huff, leaves the city and sits in a booth “till he might see what would become of the city.” He obviously doesn’t believe God is going to let the city off.
Jonah sulks. So God prepared a gourd “to deliver him from his grief.” There’s a lot of theory behind what “gourd” means; suffice to say it is some kind of shade plant. But oddly, God uses a worm to wither the gourd, and heats things up. Jonah asks to be killed again for the second time. God scolds Jonah, saying that he (Jonah) had pity for the gourd, and had nothing to do with it, and you’re saying I shouldn’t spare Nineveh “who can’t tell their right hand from the left?”
And the story ends.
What’s interesting is the exchange between God and Jonah after the gourd is killed. God asks him if “doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?” And Jonah says, “I do well to be angry, even unto death.” What, exactly, is Jonah’s problem? He is just an angry man. Why? Because God didn’t do what he said he would do. But then, neither did Jonah at first when God told him to preach to the city.
God says to Jonah that he (Jonah) had pity on the gourd, which Jonah neither labored for or made grow, which came and went in the night. Why shouldn’t God spare Nineveh, where there are over 120,000 people who can’t tell their left from right hand? He spares them because they repented.
So what IS Jonah’s problem?
The central problem within Jonah is aboutc From the beginning, it is the changing of one’s mind that is the root cause of situations within these four books. God says to do something, and Jonah changes his mind. The sailors pray and throw things overboard, and change their minds and throw Jonah off the ship. The fish swallows Jonah and then spits him out. God is going to destroy Nineveh and changes His mind. The amount of inconsistencies is stunning.
But, if you step back, there is really an underlying consistency to these seemingly inconsistent behaviors. Cause and effect still rule. For example, if you believe that for every action there is an equal reaction, then step by step, from the moment God issues the order to preach against Nineveh, you can trace the cause-and-effect of the subsequent actions around disobedience, repentance, and forgiveness. It is God who forgives. Jonah, in his obstinacy, cannot forgive God for changing his mind. Jonah forgets who he is dealing with – a valuable lesson not only in religion, but in life. You always have to know who you are dealing with, because from that knowledge comes the ability to determine whether you are going to obey or not. The Book of Jonah is really a story about perceptions. Jonah knows he is dealing with God, but tries to ignore that fact. It’s a story of deceptions. Jonah hides who he is until found out, he is thrown off (remember, the sailors didn’t want to do it but did).
And it’s a story of forgiveness – of those who can (God) and those who cannot (Jonah). Many of us are like the people of Nineveh – we don’t know our right hand from our left. We are in the hands of God, who not only understands us, but actually tries to help us. If He didn’t send Jonah to warn the city, He could have just destroyed it. The people listened, and repented.
But a careful reading will show that Jonah never repents. It’s unfortunate for him. His prayer proves this. He “cried by reason of mine affliction” – affliction which is disobedience. And god heard him “out of the belly of hell.” So the fish is really “hell.” He knows God has him “into the deep.” He says he was “cast out of thy sight.” But it was Jonah himself who left the presence of the Lord. Yet in his prayer he realizes “thou brought up my life from corruption.” And the beautiful prayers referred to earlier take place. He says, “I will pay that that I have vowed Salvation is of the Lord.” Where is the repentance in these statements?
So the story of Jonah is a story really about God’s ability to change His mind, and that as humans, we cannot nor should not try to fathom His will.
REFERENCE:
Jonah 1 King James Version (KJV)
1 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
7 And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
8 Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
9 And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him. Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
11 Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
14 Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.
15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto theLord, and made vows.
17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
2 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.
10 And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
3 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.
4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
2 And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?
5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
6 And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
10 Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?