The most shocking element of the Jonah narrative is not the fish that swallows the cantankerous prophet. It is the providential mercy of God who saves both the cantankerous prophet and the people of Assyria.
Why Was Jonah’s Sin?
When Jonah receives word to go to Ninevah, he disobeys God and heads into the dark hull of a ship destined for the other side of the known world. Though some scholars believe Jonah’s revulsion to the Assyrian empire was driven by racism and cultural prejudice, the author of Jonah makes no such claims. Jonah most certainly did not view the culture that made a name for itself by creating towers with its captives’ skulls favorably. But he did not run from them because of unsubstantiated fears about what they might do to him. He ran from his God because he desired to save the wicked.
Though Jonah’s nebulously short sermon might appear to be an early Bible-thumping, fire and brimstone message, it was nothing of the sort. It contained illusions to both God’s wrath and his mercy. The word translated ‘repent’ in Jonah 3:4 could also mean to overturn or change. In other words, Jonah’s message could have had a double meaning: destroy sin or be destroyed by sin. Moreover, Jonah’s mention of 40 days would have also reminded the original Hebrew listeners of both Moses and Noah. After 40 days, Moses came down from the mountain and condemned the nation of Israel for having worshiped a golden calf. Conversely after 40 days, Noah emerged from the Ark having survived the flood. Thus, number 40 contained both the potential for death and salvation. And it was this very possibility of forgiveness that troubled Jonah’s soul.
When the prophet gives us unfiltered insight into his motives, he says, “That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster (4:2).” Jonah ran not from geopolitical realities but from the idea that God would save the sinners…sinners who cared nothing for the laws and regulations of God’s word
In other words, Jonah took no issue with the salvation of those who offered sacrifices and faithfully read the Torah. When God miraculously sent a great fish to save Jonah from his suicidal embrace of sin, the prophet rejoices in God’s salvation. We too rightfully rejoice in the knowledge that God saves believers who wander into the darkness of sin and unbelief. Many a Christan can say with Jonah: “Out of the belly of Shoel I cried, and you heard my voice (Jonah 2:1b).
Why Did God Save Jonah?
The struggle comes not when God extends the grace to our friends or to those share our political affiliations or to those sit next to us at church. The struggle comes when God saves those that we hate because they have unquestionably sinned against us and those that we love in the cruelest of ways. It’s one thing to see your friend’s marriage restored or to praise God for liberating the hostages taken by Hamas. It’s quite another thing to pray for the salvation of the man or the woman who almost destroyed your marriage or to encourage you child to share the gospel with the leaders of Hamas. It is this tension that drives us into the crux of Jonah’s anger and into the gloriousness of the gospel. God’s mercy is undeserved.
Jonah did not make it to Nineveh on his own merits or efforts. When Jonah threw his second temper tantrum because God had killed the plant that had shaded Jonah from the hot sun the day before, God reminded Jonah of the plant’s origin. Jonah 4:10 records God saying, “You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.” In other words, the earthly salvation that Jonah so loved came freely from the Lord and not from Jonah. Similarly, the only thing that Jonah brought to the story of the great fish was his suicidal bent towards destruction that made God’s saving grace necessary. Jonah had no more right to lay claim to God’s mercy than any sinner in Nineveh. God’s mercy is always underserved, unmerited, and freely given. Since Jonah deeply longed for even little displays of God’s mercy, he could not begrudge God for extending that same mercy to even worse sinners. In short, the message of Jonah is that we should praise God for saving us and our enemies. Same mercy that saves the kid in Sunday school saves the terrorist abusing his neighbor.
How Do We Apply Jonah to Our Lives?
At this moment, the realities of God’s love shatter the imperfections of our love. When God calls us to love our enemies, he calls us to do more than avoid overtly sinning against them (which for many of us is the summation of our love for our enemies). We cannot slander or rage against those who have campaigned against our political party, disrupted our family get-togethers, or destroyed our marriages. But love demands that we must do more than refrain from doing them evil. We must work for their salvation. Those whom we can’t stand are the very men, women, and people groups that we should be praying for and evangelizing. Augustine compared the Christian’s love for his enemies to the physician’s love for the sick, writing, “He loves the sick, not that they remain sick men but so that they may become healthy instead of sick.” To love as God loves, we must long to see our enemies saved from the wrath to come. This is the most radical aspect of the book of Jonah…the sovereign mercy of God. May God give us the grace to love the Ninevites in our life as God loved us.
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