Today’s first reading (Jonah 3:1-10) is from the Book of Jonah. There is a large gap in the storyline from yesterday’s reading and reflection. Long story short, the crew of the ship that was giving passage to Jonah, throws him overboard into the tempest. John is swallowed by a large fish, has a conversion of some kind, the “deposited” on the beach when the whale regurgitates him (Jonah 2:11)
Jonah has been given a second chance. In its own way it parallels the life of St. Peter whose forgiveness for denying Jesus was sealed by the repetition of his initial summons “Follow me,” (John 21:19) Jonah is called again to be the divine messenger to Nineveh: “The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: ‘Set out for the great city of Nineveh and announce to it the message that I will tell you.’” (Jonah 3:1-2)
The third chapter of Jonah is quite short – only 10 verses. Here are the highlights: Jonah goes to Nineveh, he announced their destruction, the people believed and repented, and God relented of the punishment due the city and its king. But there is a lot going on in 10 verses.
Johan sets out to Nineveh, a journey of as much as 900 miles assuming he was ‘beached’ near Joppa. Walk or ride, Jonah has lots of time to think about everything. Still, you have to wonder about the nature of Jonah’s commitment to God’s plan. Sure, he has been rescued, but it is not clear, one way or the other, if his attitude towards Nineveh has changed. It is still to be seen how prodigal this child of God is. There is an old expression, “your attitude determines your altitude.” It is one thing to accept the gift of rescue and salvation, but will there be a significant change in attitude that will allow the full height of altitude to be reached?
Interesting possibilities but consider the proclamation: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” Eight words in English; only five in Hebrew. Short, sweet and to the point. Delivered with passion? With a 21st-century teenager “whatever” attitude? Intended to change hearts and minds? Intended to be so unenthusiastic that destruction of Nineveh is inevitable? Did he say more?
I think it is important to return to the idea of Jonah as the run-away prophet, now saved, but is he committed to the mission? At the beginning of the story, Jonah may want no part of Nineveh or its king, but more than that, he does not want God to forgive. He wants divine retribution upon them for all the evil they had done. I would suggest that he accepts rescue from God, but in no way wants that same grace extended to the Ninevites. I think it possible, perhaps likely, that Jonah is engaging in a little prophetic sabotage. He does the minimum, hoping they will ignore him, not repent, and thus not find forgiveness or grace. Besides, the world would be a better place without the Ninevites. This hypothesis is consistent with the trajectory of Jonah’s behavior before the great fish, and, as we will see in Jonah 4, consistent with the behavior there.
Abraham interceded for Sodom
but Jonah couldn’t have cared less
if Nineveh had harbored one
relatively innocent inhabitant
or even one hundred and twenty.
They all looked alike to him—
seeing he hadn’t tried to see them.
But God’s vision is better than twenty-twenty.
(Thomas John Carlisle, The American poet and Presbyterian minister, from his commentary on Jonah)
But then, the vision and the power of the words of the prophet were never about the prophet.
“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” (Jonah 3:4) I think it noteworthy that Jonah does not announce the reason for the destruction or by whose hand, what the Ninevites can do to avert disaster, only that there is a set time of 40 days. What was the reaction of the Ninevites to Jonah’s proclamation? “When the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.” (v.5) It does not seem as though it took a whole lot to get Nineveh to repent.
Notice that the text does not say they believed Jonah. The text literally translates as ‘the men of Nineveh believed in God.’ These simple words have been understood in two ways: (1) the Ninevites believed God’s word (the following English language bibles – NEB; AV, RSV, GNB, NIV); or (2) the Ninevites believed in God (JB, NAB). The Hebrew idiom he’ĕmîn bĕ, ‘believe in’, denotes more, however, than just believing what someone has said; it expresses the idea of trusting a person.
I wonder if this short passage strikes the original Jewish hearers “right between the eyes.” If they are faithful Jews with a knowledge of their own history with God in which trust/belief is the very thing that God asked of and expected from his own people – the covenant people.
Looking to the past of the covenant people, the response of the Ninevites is contrasted against their own stories. Consider Ex 14:31, the people watching the waters of the Red Sea destroy Pharaoh’s army “saw the great power that the LORD had shown against Egypt, the people feared the LORD. They believed in the LORD.” This is but one example from their own stories. And there are other stories when God asked the people to trust him, but they did not. In the Book of Numbers, the people are at the threshold of the Promised Land, but the spies sent to reconnoiter the land came back with stories of giants and armies that could not be defeated. Only Joshua and Caleb called the people to trust in God, but to no avail. “And the LORD said to Moses: How long will this people spurn me? How long will they not trust me, despite all the signs I have performed among them? (Num. 14:11)
The Hebrews in the desert, on the banks of the Jordan River, and many other times they received great signs and wonders so that they might trust God. Nineveh got a single, possibly unenthusiastic prophet – and the response is instantaneous. “They proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.” (3:5b-6) It is as though the Word was so powerful, that it “went viral.”
Something to think about be you prophet, reluctant prophet, sinner or saint.
Image credit: Jonah and the Whale, Folio from a Jami al-Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), Metropolitan Museum of Art | PD-US