Topic 12 of 33 - Your Place in the Learning Journey
Jonah and Nineveh
The book of Jonah is unlike any other prophetic book in the Old Testament. Other prophetic books contain the prophet's messages and the responses to them. Jonah is a story about a prophet - a satirical, theologically rich narrative about a man who receives a divine commission, runs from it, is swallowed by a great fish, eventually fulfills the commission under protest, and then sulks because it worked. Its target is not Nineveh's sin but Jonah's attitude - and by extension, the attitude of any religious community that believes God's mercy is for insiders only.
The story's satirical edge cuts in a specific direction. Jonah is told to go to Nineveh - the capital of Assyria, the empire that was at that time the greatest threat to Israel's existence. He runs in the opposite direction because, as he admits at the end, he knew God would relent if Nineveh repented, and he did not want that to happen (Jonah 4:2). The pagan sailors on the ship treat Jonah with more dignity than he treats them. The fish obeys God. The Ninevites repent immediately and completely when Jonah finally delivers his five-word message. Even the animals fast. Everything and everyone in the story responds to God appropriately - except Jonah, the prophet of God.
The historical question of whether the events of Jonah literally happened has occupied readers for centuries and is ultimately a secondary question. The book does not present itself as historical chronicle in the manner of Kings or Chronicles. Its genre is closer to didactic narrative - a story crafted to make a theological point. The point is clear and profound: God's mercy is not restricted to Israel. If the people of Nineveh repent, God will relent - even if that is deeply unwelcome to those who regard themselves as God's own people. The book ends with God's unanswered question to Jonah: "Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons?" Jonah does not answer. The reader is left to answer instead.
Jesus twice refers to Jonah in the Gospels. In Matthew 12:39-41, he uses the "sign of Jonah" to refer to his own death and resurrection, and he notes that the Ninevites repented at Jonah's preaching while his own generation refuses to repent at the preaching of "something greater than Jonah." The reference assumes the audience knows the story and its point - that Gentile receptiveness to the divine message contrasts with Israelite resistance. That contrast, which Jonah raises directly, runs through the entire ministry of Jesus and into the expansion of the church in Acts.