It's Not Really About the Fish

When 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.

But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.

He prayed to the Lord and said,

"Oh Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country?"

"This 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."

"And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."

And the Lord said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"

-Jonah 3: 10 - 4: 4 (NRSV)

I know what you learned in Sunday School, Jonah was a prophet, God sent him to Nineveh and he didn't want to go, so he tried to run away, God sent a storm, the boat Jonah was on almost sank, but they threw him overboard at his own request, but God sent a fish to swallow Jonah, and save him for three days, then vomit him up on a beach and finally Jonah goes to Nineveh and then they listen to God, everybody lives happily ever after.

Here are some things that your Sunday School teachers didn't teach you, in fact they may not have even looked at it this way at all.  The book of Jonah, even though it is stuck in between Obadiah and Micah, who are prophets, is not at all like any of the other books of prophets.  In fact, it is not so much a book of prophetic oracles as it is a rather clever story about a certain prophet named Jonah, who is just about the worst prophet ever.  Despite being disobedient and obstinate and half-hearted about his calling, Jonah is also perhaps the most successful prophet ever, in that his prophecy to the people of Nineveh actually works, the whole city, from the lowest to the highest, even the stupid animals, repent and is saved from God's wrath.

The Big Three (Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel) can't boast of a record like that, the most their prophecies ever produced was a stay of execution.  They had some good ones too, some beautiful oracles and visions.  Jonah was just all grumpy and said, "You are all bad people and God is going to kill you, I'm out."  Somehow that worked on Nineveh, natural enemy of Israel, somehow people listened to Jonah's half-witted proclamation of doom and repented for real.

There is very little historical information to back up anything about Jonah, and his story reads like the sort of Sunday School lesson for which it is commonly used.  Jonah is a colorful character, and so is the fish that swallows him.  Jonah is remarkably stubborn in his resistance to God, even after he becomes fish vomit.  Jonah also may be suicidal, at least he seems rather more ready to die than most healthy, well adjusted people at several points in the story.  Anyhow, the moral of Jonah's story is not really what we usually think it is.  Most of the Sunday School curriculum out there teaches that Jonah is an example of how people can try to resist God, but God will get them to do what he wants even if it takes a giant fish.  They frame it a little more friendly than that and usually add in some platitude about how good God can be to us even when we try to go the wrong way, but the only place that Jonah even comes close to seeing it that way is in the belly of the fish, and even then, you have to stretch his famous prayer to read it as though he is truly happy with God's deliverance, he seems rather like he has just finally resigned himself to go and do what he doesn't want to do.

His response to Nineveh's repentance seems to confirm that notion.  He still just wants to die, and that's not the last time he says so. The actual moral of the story of Jonah probably doesn't make such a great Sunday School lesson.  The actual point of this whole story is that we should care enough about everyone, even our natural enemies, to want them to be saved from destruction.  The moral value comes from God, not from Jonah.  God is the one who relents and turns from his anger, not Jonah.  God is the one who asks the question: "Is it right for you to be angry?"

There's a lot of anger out there in the world, much of it comes flowing out of people who claim to love God, read the Bible and follow Jesus.  I get anger, I learned years ago that it's actually one of my core emotions.  Because of that though I have had to work with my anger, to learn to be healthy about my anger and wrath, to try and use it constructively instead of destructively.  One of the most important things that I have had to learn to do is accept God's mercy for myself and for others, when what I really want is his wrath.  Yes, I mean even for me.  There is a scene in  Cool Hand Luke where Luke stands outside in a thunderstorm daring God to strike him with lightning because then he would know he was for real.  I get that.  Sometimes God can become so abstract in my own mind that a good old bolt of lightning would be a welcome refresher.  I have been through enough pain to learn that God is more real and present (to my own understanding) in the belly of the fish than on the sunny hillside above the city.

God is Love though, not wrath.  God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  The Bible says that an awful lot, even in the pre-Jesus parts.  I wonder why people who claim to love God and the Scripture so much seem to so easily ignore the message when they get called to go to Nineveh?