Meditation on the book of Jonah

Reading the book of Jonah one may find many answers to different problems in our society. Most people are familiar with the beginning of the story when Jonah rebels and flees to Tarshish after God calls him to go to Nineveh. As children we grow up hearing the story of Jonah and the whale. This story’s conclusion usually ends for most people when Jonah is spit out of the whale onto shore. We think…wow! God is amazing and gracious! How great of God to have mercy on a rebellious child like Jonah. But there is so much more to this story besides bringing God’s child back to Him and the idea of grace. There is a vast amount of deep theology embedded in the story of Jonah.

Really we need to look at the whole picture to understand what is actually happening here.

The enactment of the story of Jonah narrated in Hebrew (it will be translated into English).

Throughout the story we are able to find that God is omnipotent. Jonah in the beginning of the story flees and buys a ticket to sail to Tarshish. Jonah goes under into the belly of the boat and falls asleep. He is awakened abruptly by the sailors to find that they have cast lots to find out who is responsible for all the calamity, and it falls upon Jonah. The sailors ask why he is creating trouble for them and ask him a few questions. Jonah says to the sailors that he is a Hebrew and worships the Lord who is the God of heaven, maker of the sea and the dry land. In this statement, we find that Jonah is affirming God as Creator and having power over all creation. Throughout this story God as Creator and having power over all creation is affirmed by the repetitious use of the word minah meaning commanding or appointing. God hurls a wind over the sea and then calms the sea. This is also seen through the images of God appointing the fish, the plant, the worm, and the winds throughout the story of Jonah. God uses His power to create space and time for people to come into a deeper relationship with Him and creation. God created a space (the belly of the whale) to save Jonah and to give him time to pray and meditate. Now this is not to say that God will send great storms into all of our lives that will produce large fish to swallow us and give us time to stop and pray. But it does say that we each need to be aware of the presence and power of God in all aspects of our lives, in every place we go, and with each relationship we make with others because God has provided spaces, experiences, and time for this in each of our lives. God is creator over all the earth and his omnipotence is found throughout creation: the sky, the wind, the land, the sea, the roaring waves, all living creatures, the breath of all creatures, all the vegetation of the earth, etc. We should be able to find the image of God dwelling among ALL of creation/nature for God is the sustainer and redeemer of all things.

We then move on in the story to find that Jonah is spit out of the belly of the whale. God is merciful, gracious, and abounding in steadfast love. At this point, Jonah has had time to pray and think about what God has called him to do. Jonah decides to follow God and go to the city of Nineveh. Jonah proclaimed the prophecy of God to the Ninevites, saying that they shall be overturned. The Ninevites gave up their evil ways, repented, and looked to the Lord God, and God had compassion on them. One would think that after seeing the Ninevites repent and believe in the Lord, Jonah would be pleased that the Lord worked through him to save a nation. Jonah is still angry though!! Here we see Jonah proclaim to the Lord that He is compassionate, gracious, and abounding in steadfast love but still protests and tells God he would rather die right now than live! Jonah goes east of the city and made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen. At this point God creates a vine to provide Jonah with shade. Then God created a worm that chewed the vine so that it withered. Go provided a scorching wind and and the sun to blaze upon the head of Jonah. Jonah would have rathered died than lived. God says to Jonah do you have a right to be angry? For you did not tend to this vine or care for it, but allowed it to die. How do we understand this scene?

There is an ancient view that the world is seen as a garden and in this garden are trees, the nations of the world. If we go back to Scripture, we find references to ancient nations referred to as trees in the garden of God. For example, Isaiah 5 (speaks of a vineyard and vines growing) , Ezekiel 31(speaks of Egypt as a tree in the garden of God) , and Daniel 4 (speaks of Babylon as a tree in the garden of God). God may be trying to say to Jonah that this plant that grew over you to give you shade and save you from the scorching elements of creation, you missed it once it was destroyed. Nineveh is like a tree in the garden of God and gives shade. Just as Jonah missed the plant and its shade, so God would miss Nineveh if it were to have been destroyed. (Dr. Boogart’s Interpretative Reading of Jonah4)

God is the Creator of all nations, and has given life to all creatures. Even though God chose Israel to be the “chosen people,” he also anointed all people to be the rulers over creation and to carry out His purposes in the world. I do not mean that as rulers over creation, we should do what we want with creation, but we should protect, preserve, and care for all of creation. In order to do this, we must live in communion with one another and with all of creation. As God created all that exists in the whole of creation, so as creatures we are meant to coexist and live in mutual interdependence with one another. Migliore in his book Faith Seeking Understanding states that “The world was created by God not as an assemblage of solitary units but for life together, and its structure of existence-in-community reflects God’s own eternal life in triune communion.”¹ We are humans created in His image and live only by the relation to Him and by the sustainment of Him. As we come to partake in the Lord’s Supper today, we think of coming together in fellowship around the table to feast together as creatures sustained and redeemed through the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and united in Christ.

This morning we have learned a few major points about God and Creation through the story of Jonah.

We are able to learn from the story of Jonah that each of us needs to stop and listen to God’s Word and his calling for us. We should pay attention to how God is creating spaces and time to worship Him and follow in His Word around us in our every day lives. We learned that the world is like the garden of God and we (the nations of the world) are the trees that make up this garden. God has appointed all of creation to carry out His purposes for the world. As trees that grow in this garden, we should be merciful, gracious, and loving to one another as God has and continues to show us compassion and love.

1Migliore, Daniel, Faith Seeking Understanding [Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.], 104.

~ by jennmatthews on November 4, 2008.