Jonah 3:1-5. 10
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, repented. When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
Last week I spoke on “call” stories – particularly Jesus, newly emerged from the wilderness, teaching and healing around Galilee and calling his first disciples to “come and go with me.” This week’s reading references another call story, but this one is from the Old Testament. I’ve preached on Jonah before — it’s one of my favorites stories — but I’ve always focused on either the beginning or the ending of the book. Today’s short reading comes from the middle - and I haven’t really spent a lot of time on this part.
In the first part, Jonah is called by God to prophesy and save the people of Nineveh . Now, so far this is a fairly standard call story. God picks someone to be his next “voice” and sends them somewhere to deliver a particular message to a particular people.
But this turns into a different kind of story because when God calls on Jonah, Jonah responds with a loud and fervent, “NO”. Prophets don’t generally say “no” to God. The Ninevites had in the past proven themselves to be enemies of Israel which, of course, did not endear them to the Israelites. They were also a powerful, rich, and thereby arrogant people and Jonah flat out doesn’t want them to be saved. He goes through all manner of trouble trying to avoid doing God’s will — including getting tossed off a ship and ending up in the belly of a whale.
In today’s reading he finally gives up and does what God wants and the Ninevites are saved. At the ending of the book they’re still saved and Jonah is still royally angry because God used him to save the folks he hated so much that he spends the whole fourth chapter sulking. Jonah is an odd little book about an odd little prophet.
In the past I’ve always looked at what Jonah did or did not do. Today, in reading this middle piece, I see that it is more about what God does, than anything Jonah thinks or feels. Now, that should be obvious to anyone doing exegetical work on a scripture passage, but Jonah is so entertaining that I’m always distracted by his crazy antics.
It is God, of course, who initiates the whole story. God who chose Jonah in the first place for a role in this story by calling him to do something that he will do absolutely anything to get out of doing. And it’s God who chides Jonah at the end of the story when he still just wants to sit and sulk.
But here in the middle, it is God, who after all Jonah’s attempts to avoid his calling, patiently sends Jonah out a second time, to do what he wanted him to do in the first place. And this time Jonah goes, grumbling all the way, and ends up walking the streets of Nineveh crying out, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
And here is the amazing piece — the Ninevites listen—and they repent—and they are saved! Who would have seen that coming? Well, obviously God did. The Ninevites believed God’s word and they were shown mercy.
Oh, and by the way, just in case you missed it -- Jonah believed God’s word, too. That’s why he ran so hard trying to get away from it. As he explained it to God: That is what I tried to forestall by running away. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
He “knew” this would happen. He “knew” this is who God is. But his anger was so strong that he decided the Ninevites didn’t deserve mercy and so he would be no help in getting mercy for them. He set his own judgement over God’s mercy.
Our country has a lot of people running about these days who claim to believe God’s word, but still refuse any thought of mercy to those they have, for whatever odd reasons, determined to be “the enemy.” They, like Jonah, place their own judgement over God’s. May our country soon find healing for this sad affliction.
Jonah believed. He just thought his own wisdom was better. He believed God’s words but he did not, apparently, trust that God had a right to make his own choices without consulting Jonah. That didn’t work out very well for Jonah, although even he received mercy at the end.
May we all be open to both offer and receive that same love and mercy.
In the first part, Jonah is called by God to prophesy and save the people of Nineveh . Now, so far this is a fairly standard call story. God picks someone to be his next “voice” and sends them somewhere to deliver a particular message to a particular people.
But this turns into a different kind of story because when God calls on Jonah, Jonah responds with a loud and fervent, “NO”. Prophets don’t generally say “no” to God. The Ninevites had in the past proven themselves to be enemies of Israel which, of course, did not endear them to the Israelites. They were also a powerful, rich, and thereby arrogant people and Jonah flat out doesn’t want them to be saved. He goes through all manner of trouble trying to avoid doing God’s will — including getting tossed off a ship and ending up in the belly of a whale.
In today’s reading he finally gives up and does what God wants and the Ninevites are saved. At the ending of the book they’re still saved and Jonah is still royally angry because God used him to save the folks he hated so much that he spends the whole fourth chapter sulking. Jonah is an odd little book about an odd little prophet.
In the past I’ve always looked at what Jonah did or did not do. Today, in reading this middle piece, I see that it is more about what God does, than anything Jonah thinks or feels. Now, that should be obvious to anyone doing exegetical work on a scripture passage, but Jonah is so entertaining that I’m always distracted by his crazy antics.
It is God, of course, who initiates the whole story. God who chose Jonah in the first place for a role in this story by calling him to do something that he will do absolutely anything to get out of doing. And it’s God who chides Jonah at the end of the story when he still just wants to sit and sulk.
But here in the middle, it is God, who after all Jonah’s attempts to avoid his calling, patiently sends Jonah out a second time, to do what he wanted him to do in the first place. And this time Jonah goes, grumbling all the way, and ends up walking the streets of Nineveh crying out, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
And here is the amazing piece — the Ninevites listen—and they repent—and they are saved! Who would have seen that coming? Well, obviously God did. The Ninevites believed God’s word and they were shown mercy.
Oh, and by the way, just in case you missed it -- Jonah believed God’s word, too. That’s why he ran so hard trying to get away from it. As he explained it to God: That is what I tried to forestall by running away. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
He “knew” this would happen. He “knew” this is who God is. But his anger was so strong that he decided the Ninevites didn’t deserve mercy and so he would be no help in getting mercy for them. He set his own judgement over God’s mercy.
Our country has a lot of people running about these days who claim to believe God’s word, but still refuse any thought of mercy to those they have, for whatever odd reasons, determined to be “the enemy.” They, like Jonah, place their own judgement over God’s. May our country soon find healing for this sad affliction.
Jonah believed. He just thought his own wisdom was better. He believed God’s words but he did not, apparently, trust that God had a right to make his own choices without consulting Jonah. That didn’t work out very well for Jonah, although even he received mercy at the end.
May we all be open to both offer and receive that same love and mercy.
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