Musing About Jonah

Last night we arrived at Jonah in the Story of God. Here a few thoughts I carried away from the study....

• Jonah's desire to flee from the presence of the LORD is mentioned three different times but is shown to be impossible by the storm (and the fish...and plant....and the worm....and the wind).
• Even though sailors did not want to throw Jonah overboard, when the storm immediately settled with his expulsion, they did not circle around to pick him back up.
• It is not clear when Jonah came to his senses. When the hit the water? When he hit the ocean floor? When he was attacked by a giant fish? Or on the first, second or third day inside the big fish?
• Jonah's biggest problem was he did not find the character of God trustworthy(4.2).
• Jonah is the only person who can tell this story. He seems conflicted at the end of the story...and it does not seem to have gotten any better by the time he tells his story to others.

If one studies the book to understand Jonah one will be surely disappointed. If we study to discover God, we will be enlightened. Jonah is not about Jonah, it is about God.

But maybe the biggest question to consider is why this mission trip to Nineveh? It seems so out of context with this point of the Biblical narrative. Even in the gospels Jesus is not ready to launch a Gentile mission. There is no other similar Gentile mission in all the Old Testament. What is going on here?

I believe that God wanted to show the Israelites back home that He would forgive. He forgave the Assyrians. He would certainly forgive His own people.

He also wanted to point out that even the horrendous Ninevites were willing to repent. Why wouldn't His own people repent?

Jonah is not about Jonah and the message is not entirely about Nineveh.