Please read Jonah 4
The story of Jonah and the great fish is one of the best known and most loved stories of the Old Testament. But being well known and much loved does not mean that it is understood, for Jonah is one of the least understood books in the Bible. When asked, ‘What is the message of Jonah?’ many people answer, ‘You cannot run away from God.’ This is indeed one lesson that we can learn from Jonah, but it is not the main message of the book. The message of Jonah is much higher and greater than that.
To understand the message of Jonah, we have to understand why Jonah baulked at preaching in Nineveh. Why, when God commanded him to go to Nineveh, did Jonah instead sail for Tarshish? Of what was he afraid? Was he timid and afraid to speak in public? Was he afraid that the people of Nineveh would not listen? Was he afraid of being attacked or martyred? Jonah was not afraid of any of these things. Of what, then, was he so afraid that, instead of going east to Nineveh, he headed west for Tarshish? Jonah’s fear is one that every man and woman at the time would have understood for it is a very common and a very human fear.
The nature of Jonah’s fear is revealed in the opening verse of the last chapter: ‘But it was a very evil thing to Jonah, and he became angry’ (Jonah 4:1, literal translation). What was it that Jonah considered ‘a very evil thing’? The answer lies in the previous verse: ‘When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened’ (Jonah 3:10). God had done just what Jonah was afraid he would do: he had shown compassion to the people of Nineveh.
Jonah ran away, not because he was afraid that the people would not listen to his message, but because he was afraid that they would listen; not because he feared that the people would attack him, but because he feared that they would believe him and repent. For Jonah did not want the people of Nineveh to repent and be spared the wrath of God. God loved Nineveh and wanted to save it but Jonah hated it and wanted it destroyed.
Though God had shown compassion to Jonah, Jonah found it intolerable that God might show similar compassion to the people of Nineveh. There were boundaries around Jonah’s compassion and he wanted God’s compassion confined inside the same boundaries. Centuries earlier, God had commanded the people of Israel, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:31) but they understood the word ‘neighbour’ to mean one of their own people. There were limits to their love; it did not extend to those of other nations. In the same way, Jonah’s love was limited to Israel.
Jesus met the same attitude in his day. When asked, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ he answered by telling the ‘Parable of the Good Samaritan’ (see Luke 10:25-29). The lesson of the parable is the same as the lesson of Jonah: there are to be no limits to our love and compassion. We are even to love our enemies (cf. Matthew 5:43-48). God loves all nations and he desires all people to be saved (see 1 Timothy 2:4) and our love is to be like God’s.
What is the message of this well known and much loved book? The message of Jonah is the great message of the Bible: God’s goal is that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. Christ's commission to his church is that we make disciples of all nations. Our God is a missionary God and he calls us to be a missionary people. In the eighth century BC God called Jonah to join him in his mission to save the nations. He ran away. In the twenty-first century AD God calls us to join him in the same mission. What will you do?
QUESTIONS FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION
• Is there a group of people that I hate so much that I want nothing to do with them?• What can I do to assist God’s mission to save people from every nation on earth?
Copyright © 2010 Ronald Nugent
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