Jonah

June 30, 2019

Even people who’ve never darkened the door of a church know the story of Jonah and the whale. Apparently getting eaten by a fish and puked up on shore makes for a good bedtime tale. What’s usually missing however, is the point of the story.

Jonah was commissioned by God himself to preach judgment upon the city of Nineveh, capital of Assyria. While few people relish the thought of proclaiming hellfire and damnation on others, it was a particularly odious task for the Jewish Jonah. In more modern times, it would be akin to God ordering a Jew to head to Berlin in 1941 with a message of judgment on the Nazi party, not exactly a cushy calling. So he did what anyone in his right mind would do—he boarded a slow boat going in the opposite direction, and the rest is as they say, history.

What we usually miss is the rest of the story, so I’ll play a little Paul Harvey here. 

Jonah was swallowed by the fish, spit out on dry land, and reluctantly marched his way to Nineveh. He preached, and the entire city from the king to the pauper repented, which didn’t set too well with Jonah. “I knew this would happen!” he complained to God. “You are gracious, merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.” This is the only time I can recall a preacher being angry when the people he preached to actually listened and repented. Jonah was a bit odd that way. Maybe those three days and nights inside the fish messed with his head. He was so upset at the success of his mission that he wanted to die.

He still held out hope that maybe God was just pulling his leg with all this repentance, so he went and camped out on a hillside to see if fire and brimstone might after all rain down on the city. He even built himself a little shelter to keep the sun off his neck. Here’s where the story gets interesting.

The text says God “prepared” a vine that grew up to provide shade for Jonah. That made him happy. But the next morning, God prepared a worm that chewed the vine, making it wither. That made Jonah mad. Later that day, God prepared a hot east wind that made the sun seem even hotter, to the point that Jonah was about to faint. He was so distraught he wanted to die, which was right where God wanted him. He didn’t know it at the time, but he was in God’s crosshairs.

You see, there were four things God prepared: the fish, the vine, the worm, and the wind. Only one of the four was even the least bit pleasing to Jonah. Three out of four were rather unpleasant experiences, yet it was God who was behind them. Too often when trouble comes our way, we chalk it up to the activity of the devil, when in reality, the irritations, interruptions, and inconveniences of life are tools in God’s hands to prepare one more thing—our hearts. 

The story isn’t about a man who got swallowed by a fish; it’s about you and me, and God’s relentless pursuit of us even when we are running away from him. He prepared these experiences because Jonah needed converting as much as the people of Nineveh. And even today, God pursues people through tragedy, failure, brokenness, and discouragement. He refuses to give up, even when like Jonah in the belly of the fish, his own Son was crucified and buried for three days and nights so we could be delivered from our incessant self-centeredness that keeps us from caring for others as much as we care for our own comfort and well-being. If when facing trials and troubles you ever doubt God’s love for you, just remember Jonah. And Jesus.