#28 - Jonah and the Whale: Jonah 1-4; Reflection by Greg Von Wald

God tells us to, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). However in this story, Jonah simply cannot bring himself to go to the Nineveh and confront the people he hated. Instead, Jonah tries to run away from God! Jonah hops onto a ship and tries to sail away from his troubles with God. Of course this doesn’t work and Jonah gets thrown overboard. Well Mr. Jonah, you see what you get for not loving your enemies?

Eventually, Jonah is able to bring himself to Nineveh and tells the people of Nineveh that unless they change their ways, they will be destroyed. Surprisingly enough, they do just that; change their ways. In fact, the city of Nineveh undergoes a complete 180 degree shift and turn from their evil ways! Because of this, God does not destroy the city.

Now comes the part that I don’t remember reading in my Children’s Picture Bible when I was a young boy. “But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.” Jonah is mad at God for not killing people! Jonah is so wrapped up in his hatred of these Ninevites that he would like to see them get destroyed! I’m sure we’ve all had moments where we really wish God would just do something awful to the people that we don’t like. But the point of this story is that you need to look past the hatred and adopt an attitude like God’s. God loved Nineveh and did not want to destroy it. (For the record, Nineveh later returned to their original evil ways and was destroyed for “endless cruelty” in 612 B.C)

It is tough to love your enemies though. I will be the first, but certainly not the last, to say that I have had moments where I really wish God would just smite some of the people I know. I’ve been just like Jonah and have hoped that my enemies continue their evil ways. When Jonah is first told to go to Nineveh, he does not want to because he knew that if he warned them about their impending doom, they would change their ways and repent. Jonah, however, did not want this to happen. He wanted the Ninevites to be destroyed, so he ran away from God.

In our own lives, we are always going to be faced with people who are straight up jerks, but we need to learn how to love them. We must learn from Jonah’s mistakes and never try to run from God, because if you do, you just might end up in the belly of a whale.

Jonah-Chapter 1

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ²Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me. ³But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
⁴But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. ⁶The captain came and said to him, "What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish."
⁷The sailors said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸Then they said to him, "Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?" ⁹I am a Hebrew, he replied. "I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." ¹⁰Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, "What is this that you have done!" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them so.
¹¹Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?" For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. ¹²He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you." ¹³Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. ¹⁴Then they cried out to the LORD, "Please, O LORD, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man's life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you." ¹⁵So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. ¹⁶Then the men feared the LORD even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
¹⁷But the LORD provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Chapter 2

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, ²saying,
"I called to the LORD out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
³You cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
⁴Then I said, 'I am driven away
from your sight;
how shall I look again
upon your holy temple?'
⁵The waters closed in over me;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped around my head
⁶at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the Pit,
O LORD my God.
⁷As my life was ebbing away,
I remembered the LORD;
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
⁸Those who worship vain idols
forsake their true loyalty.
⁹But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Deliverance belongs to the LORD!"
¹⁰Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.

Chapter 3

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, ²Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you. ³So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across. ⁴Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" ⁵And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
⁶When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. ⁸Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. ⁹Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish."
¹⁰When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

Chapter 4

But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. ²He prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. ³And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." ⁴And the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?" ⁵Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.
⁶The Lord GOD appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. ⁷But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. ⁸When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live."
⁹But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die." ¹⁰Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"