More than a Fish Story


Jonah 1:1
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

One of the most fascinating and famous stories in all of the Bible is that of the prophet Jonah. Even those who do not know much about the Bible will be able to tell you that Jonah “got swallowed by a whale.” While the text never calls it a whale but a “great fish”, I suppose that a whale is how people see the story because that’s how our imaginations can grapple with it best. We’ll handle that in more detail later.

While this book only four short chapters, it is a literary masterpiece of history, satire, irony and structure. It ends not with a satisfying summation of the story or a happy ending, but instead with a question that leaves the reader truly wanting more. That’s probably one of my favorite aspects of the story. As I was doing some of the background work for this post, I found this schematic in Jonah: The Concordia Commentary by Dr. R. Reed Lessing. (You will find numerous quotes from Dr. Lessing throughout my posts about Jonah, as his commentary is pure gold.) As a person with a background in literature, I’m fascinated by things like this. I share this with you just so that you can get a small feel for the brilliance that is this piece of work.

Chapters 1–2                                       Chapters 3–4
Word of Yahweh comes to Jonah (1:1)             Word of Yahweh comes to Jonah (3:1)
Content of the Word (1:2)                                  Content of the Word (3:2)
Response of Jonah (1:3)                                   Response of Jonah (3:3–4)
Gentile response (1:5)                                      Gentile response (3:5)
Action of the captain (1:6)                                 Action of the king (3:6–9)
Sailors and Jonah (1:7–15b)                            Ninevites and God (3:10b)
Disaster averted (1:15c)                                   Disaster averted (3:10c)
Response of sailors (1:16)                               Response of Jonah (4:1)
Yahweh and Jonah (2:1–10)                            Yahweh and Jonah (4:2–3)
Yahweh’s response (2:11)                                Yahweh’s response (4:6–11)
Lessing, R. R. ©2007. Jonah (p. 34). St. Louis, MO: CPH.

Jonah's story is met with an incredible amount of skepticism in 2017. Most people would call it a cute story and nothing more than myth or fable. I do not stand on that ground. This is an historical narrative. Jonah was a real person who spent real time in the belly of a great fish so that God could garner his attention and his obedience. But this is not a story about Jonah. It is instead a story of God’s tenacious love for everyone. While Jonah really has very few lines in the book, God speaks many times and His name is mentioned 10 times more than Jonah’s.

. . . prophetic stories in the OT often glorify the prophet in the sense that he is revealed as a faithful mediator of Yahweh’s Word. But Jonah is no hero; he is portrayed throughout most of the book in a very poor light. Gerhard von Rad puts it this way: “God is here glorified not through his ambassador, but in spite of his ambassador’s complete refusal.” Jonah is a highly sophisticated literary masterpiece that fits the genre of historical narrative. The structure and use of key words convey numerous ironies that are intended to satirize Jonah, and those like him, who seek to limit the grace of God to themselves and who resent the God of Israel extending salvation to all—even Gentiles—through faith.
Lessing, R. R. ©2007. Jonah (p. 2, 38). St. Louis, MO: CPH.

And so, we begin with God’s message to Jonah. Go to Nineveh and give them my warning. With those words, God sets Jonah upon a path which he immediately jumps off of and heads in his own direction. But God’s plan will not be thwarted and thus the stage is set for this incredible story not of a man swallowed by a fish, but instead of a God who will go to extremes to see that His love is fulfilled. It's a good day because I'm always excited to start something new!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

יהוה שָׁמַר--Yahweh Shamar (God Watches)

Image
Psalm 121 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. There are numerous passages I cling to when stress takes over my life. I would be hard pressed to declare a favorite, but this psalm would come close. So this morning I listened to Psalm 121 about 20 times as I meditated through the verses. First, I want to point out that the word or idea of shamar appears in every verse expect 6. The NIV uses the word "watch" while the ESV uses "keep". The...
Read more

Excusez-moi

Image
2 Kings 23:31-37 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there. 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-fiv...
Read more

Narrow Door

Image
Luke 13:22-30 22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them , 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at tabl...
Read more