This week we begin our journey through the mass of Old Testament prophetic literature, starting with an oddball. For the remainder of the year we will engage the prophets in their oracles and premonitions, peppered by further narrative from The Chronicles and other smaller books such as Daniel and Nehemiah.

Jonah, an approximate contemporary of Amos (see Amos 1:1 with 2 Kgs 14:25), also serving under Jeroboam II in the northern Kingdom of Israel, provides the character basis for this story. A story that demonstrates very powerfully one of the new emerging themes: That Yahweh is not just the God of Israel, but of the whole world.

Jonah is one of the shortest books in the Bible, one of the funniest and certainly one of the most profound. His tale is one of extremes: To flee to Spain from Israel; to get thrown overboard by sailors; to get swallowed by a giant fish; to preach judgement on a foreign capital; to have them all repent; and to be so irrevocably angry about it!

In the tension created by these extreme moments, we are constantly provoked to question: Why is Jonah running? Why is he angry? What motivates this eccentric character? It is the answers to these questions that unlock the central message of this poignant black comedy.

Clearly Jonah is scared. To be asked to preach judgement on Ninevah would be the equivalent of an Englishman walking into Berlin during the height of the Third Reich and criticising Hitler. It was a ridiculous notion, with an almost certain chance of death. But oddly, and this is part of the comedy, there is an even greater reason he does not want to go. He doesn’t want Ninevah to be saved, and he has a hunch that God might do just that!

Jonah’s reaction in chapter 4 belies his true colours. Sitting down outside of the city he rails at God. His rantings have an almost Basil Fawlty feel to them. ‘I knew it! I go in there and tell them you’re going to burn them to the ground and what do you do?! Nothing! Well that’s just great isn’t it! “Our God is so loving, he’ll just forgive everybody.” What is the point?! I mean, tell me! What is the point!

Jonah cannot accept that God would relent so easily. We sense that his pride is hurt. But also there seems more to it than that.

Jonah, inadvertently, exposes the inherent religious-nationalism forged into the DNA of ancient Israel. To many Israelites, Yahweh is their God. The God who brought them out of Egypt was different to the Egyptian gods. The God who led them into the land of Canaan was different to the Ba’als, to Molech, to Ashtoreth or to Chemosh. They were the gods of the ‘surrounding nations’; Yahweh was the God of Israel alone.

It is understandable that in a world of tribal deities, Israel never really thought outside the box, to the reality that her great Suzerain was in fact God of the whole world. Within the constraints of this old thinking, her history simply reinforced the notion whilst her complacency with Yahweh and his fidelity to her grew unchecked. Jonah, then, exposes the tension felt by an Israelite prophet, carrying in his harsh message the path to salvation, when his audience are non-Israelite and, therefore, outside the Covenant. As far as Jonah is concerned – and much of the Old Testament so far would back him up – those outside the Covenant should die or be subjected (certainly a foreign capital should get destroyed), while Israel expands her borders and increases her influence. Yahweh’s decision to save Ninevah is confusing to say to the least.

Although Jonah is clearly a real prophet in Israel’s history, this story most likely dates from after the Exile when his exploits had taken on the status of legend and in their new multi-faith, reduced-power world, Israel was forced to wrestle far more intensely with to what extent Yahweh-faith and ‘outsiders’ could mix. The exquisite construct of this saga allows Yahweh to finish by posing his brilliantly penetrating rhetorical question ‘Ninevah has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left (i.e. young children), and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?’ (4:11)

Jonah thus leaves the reader hanging. Here is a new line of reasoning that sets the concerns of Yahweh far beyond Israel’s sectarian sensibilities. Judgement is not metered out solely on the basis of Covenant cohesion, but is restrained regardless because of innocent lives. We saw this before with Abraham and Sodom, but the difference here is Yahweh does the persuading; God himself is the one challenging Israel to a new way of thinking.

Western Christianity is pretty much happy with the idea that God’s grace extends to all. We’ve been without the trappings of tribal religion long enough to have shed that ugly skin. For us, the challenge of Jonah is perhaps not so much to examine how open we are to different people groups accepting the Christian Gospel of grace, but to enlarge our vision of how seriously God can engage with a culture different from our own. Will we judge other streams of Christian experience or theology on our own basis (as if that is the only valid version), or can we imagine a plurality of Christian faith where Ninevite expressions – read in African, Chav, Feminist, Post-modern, Gay – have a voice and may even posses something to teach us?

Jonah is designed to make its readers uncomfortable. God, in the story, is too radical for Jonah. How radical and uncomfortable is our ‘God’?

Suggestion for reflection:

Question: Which group of people, whether defined by location, social grouping, ‘issue’, philosophy or sexuality would you find hard to accept as a valid voice in Christian dialogue? Why?

Dare you! Go on the Internet and search for websites dedicated to Christian faith from this particular point of view. So for example search under ‘Christian Feminist’ or ‘Gay Christians’. Try and understand where this group is coming from (you don’t need to agree with everything) and what motivates them. Maybe use this prayer:

Lord, I’m trying to be open-minded
But I don’t want my brain to fall out!
I’m trying to have open hands
But I don’t want to lose my grip on you!
Help me to have the confidence of Jesus:
To have nothing to prove or defend that can’t be proved or defended by you;
To love unconditionally, to listen intently and to learn sensitively.
Amen