Text for the Week: Jonah 3

Scripture: Jonah 3:1-10

¹The Lord’s word came to Jonah a second time: ² “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and declare against it the proclamation that I am commanding you.” ³ And Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s word. (Now Nineveh was indeed an enormous city, a three days’ walk across.)

⁴ Jonah started into the city, walking one day, and he cried out, “Just forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!” ⁵ And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, from the greatest of them to the least significant.

⁶ When word of it reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, stripped himself of his robe, covered himself with mourning clothes, and sat in ashes. ⁷ Then he announced, “In Nineveh, by decree of the king and his officials: Neither human nor animal, cattle nor flock, will taste anything! No grazing and no drinking water! ⁸ Let humans and animals alike put on mourning clothes, and let them call upon God forcefully! And let all persons stop their evil behavior and the violence that’s under their control!” ⁹ He thought, Who knows? God may see this and turn from his wrath, so that we might not perish.

¹⁰ God saw what they were doing—that they had ceased their evil behavior. So God stopped planning to destroy them, and he didn’t do it.

Questions

1. What do you think was Jonah’s motive for going to Nineveh?  Did he want to carry God’s message, or, was he simply afraid of repeating the adversity he had just been through
2. Jonah does not mention anything about God, God’s message, or an opportunity to repent, what does this say about Jonah as a prophet sent by God?
3. Despite Jonah’s message the people of Nineveh respond with an outlandish sign of repentance, what are we supposed to learn from this response?
4. It seems comical that livestock would fast and wear “mourning clothes” what does this mean?

Background

Related Scriptures: Matthew 12:36-32, Mark 1:14-20, Galatians 3:28

The wording of God’s message to Jonah implies that the message for Nineveh is an ongoing message, something that God began to tell Jonah at his first calling and is and will continue to tell Jonah throughout the process. God interacting with Jonah is not a one-time event.

This is the only time in the Old Testament where a prophet is given the same message twice, this indicates that the story is more about God’s mercy to Jonah than the message to Nineveh.

The language of 1:2 also indicates that it is the message and not Jonah which is important, normally it is the prophet as God’s mouthpiece that

Nineveh was not as large as Jonah suggests and the scale of the city in verse 3 is meant to contrast with the minimal effort of the prophet.

There is a shift in Jonah 3 about how God is identified in verse 1 “The Lord” speaks to Jonah, this is God’s personal name given to Israel, but in the rest of the chapter that deals with Nineveh “God” is used. This shows a different level of intimacy.

Jonah is completely downplayed in this chapter, it is God and the message that are honored while Jonah is obscure.

For more background watch my video here

Reflection

Jonah never calls the people to repentance and yet the whole city finds God. Details like this are meant to make us stop and ask questions about the story and how we understand what is happening. Jonah has been sent by God to Nineveh and refused to go, now Jonah is being sent again with the same message. This might not strike you as significant but in the Old Testament this is the only time where a prophet is given a second chance to deliver a message after failing to do so the first time. This is a display of mercy, not to Nineveh, but to Jonah. But Jonah does not seem to receive this mercy gladly, he seems to grudgingly accept the fact that he is going to Nineveh. The message he offers Nineveh is one of destruction with no possibility of hope, he says they are definitively on the path to destruction. Yet the mercy God has just shown to the faithless prophet forces us to ask is this the message that God gave the prophet. Despite the fact that Jonah preaches a message with no hope attached to it and only preaches once, the city repented and this was a city that was mammoth. Imagine standing in Time Square in New York yelling Jonah’s words and the entire city seeking forgiveness from God. Yet when the people hear this message they do exactly this, and they do so in an outlandish fashion, going so far as to wrap their animals in burlap and force them to fast. Not only that but even though they do not even acknowledge God by name or do anything to show allegiance to Jonah’s God, God still accepts this as sign of true turning and shows mercy to the city.

So here we are at the turning point of the story and God and the prophet are at odds, God is rejoicing in the show of contrition and repentance by a huge city while Jonah is lamenting it. Jonah was called to be God’s prophet and given a message for Nineveh, but he failed to deliver that message and instead proclaimed his own message, which God used but left Jonah on the outside. The message Jonah proclaimed to the people included no qualification, no mercy that God would said Nineveh would get a reprieve if they repented, simply destruction. Yet, God’s plan included mercy and God lovingly accepts the people of Nineveh because they showed contrition even when Jonah had not told them what they did wrong. God had clearly given Jonah a message that was different from the one he preached, why did Jonah ignore that message, because he hated the people of Nineveh. He made himself false out of hatred for the people and when God moved in the city all that was left for Jonah was to sulk on a hillside because God was loving and compassionate to the people Jonah hated.

The story of Nineveh’s repentance is not the point of the Book of Jonah, it is merely a minor plot point. The Book of Jonah is meant for readers to consider Jonah’s reaction to God’s message and to ask ourselves if we are like Jonah. Jonah allowed his hatred of the people of Nineveh to get in the way of what God wanted. Jonah admits to understanding that his hatred would get in the way of God’s plan (4:2), that is he knows God’s character and knows what God desires but does not agree and so attempts to sabotage God.

Jonah is not a book that leaves us with answers, it ends with God asking a question to Jonah (and through Jonah us) a question, should God show mercy. The point of the book is to reveal that Jonah’s prejudices against Nineveh forced him to act outside of God’s plan and revealed that true disciples must lay aside such prejudice. God worked in spite of Jonah’s resistance but wanted to work with and through Jonah. God offered Jonah the chance to participate in something great and Jonah allowed his own hatred to create distance between himself and God and even when God rescued him from the depths Jonah maintained his hatred rather than draw near to God and God’s plan.

Takeaway

Are we willing, as Jesus’ disciples, to lay aside hatred of others so that God can show them mercy and we can do great things in God’s name or are we going to create distance between ourselves and God?