Jonah

Well I warned you, I gave you a chance to turn away..but you looked anyway. If you hate the idea of reading a bible study then run, run away now. But please do come back, I will only be posting studies on a Saturday. If you can bring yourself to stay, then please read on, and let me know your thoughts.

I relate to Jonah, he seems my kind of a man, with a father who was a sea fairer, who’s eyes seem to reflect the sea, and now lays in the deep the tail of Jonah seems as good as any place to begin.

JONAH RETOLD

We are told that the word of the Lord came to Jonah. We are never completely sure how it came to him, but for a moment we can imagine Jonah sitting down for his morning coffee, and a letter arriving, the postmark is Heaven, and the envelope shimmers in the morning light, the envelope is delivered by the Angelic Postal Service, who are making full use of their trumpets. Jonah opens the envelope and slowly reads the instructions; they are crystal clear, “Go to Nineveh and tell the people there to sort their lives out, tell them that I am aware of all the evil things they are doing. Tell them that I have heard the cries of the people they have caused to suffer and that I am going to bring destruction on them.” Signed God. X. Ok, well maybe without the kiss but you get the general idea.

Jonah’s response is swift, he packs his bags, and leaves the house, he goes to the port and takes the first boat he can in the opposite direction, he wants nothing to do with this. There is no way on this earth that he is going to the Ninevites, one of two things would happen if he went there; either they would kill him, or worse still they would repent and God would not wipe them out. Far better to leave them to it. Jonah thinks carefully about where to go, and settles on Tarshish, a place where the people haven’t even heard of God, clearly a safe place to go where God won’t find him. Jonah finds a boat, pays the fee and jumps on board.

Out at sea Jonah is feeling rather pleased with himself. Sure, he has turned his back on God but he has escaped a job which was never going to turn out well. God, however, had other plans, and hurled across the sea a huge wind as if skimming a stone across a lake. The sea exploded into the mother of all storms; the hardened sailors are chucking up, and are all crying for their mothers. They are praying to their gods, to each other’s gods, to every god anyone has ever heard of. Jonah knows exactly what needs to be done - he finds a corner curls up, pulls the covers over his head and goes to sleep. He could not have been clearer in his message to God if he had stuck his fingers in his ears and shouted “I’m not listening”.

The captain of the ship is organising; shouting out orders. The cargo is being thrown overboard to lighten the ship, and in amongst the storm and the chaos he notices that Jonah is curled up asleep. He is absolutely stunned, he shakes him, wakes him and says to him, “What on earth are you playing at? Don’t you see we are all going to die! Call on your god! Who knows he might be listening, he might save us!” The storm keeps getting worse, no one has ever seen weather this bad, and they know that this is more than a freak of nature; this is a god who is very, very unhappy. So the captain says, “Right, let’s find out who has upset the gods!” They ask the gods to reveal who it is who they are angry with and they each pick a straw, whoever picks the short straw will be the one that the gods are angry with.

It doesn’t come as a shock to anyone when Jonah picks the short straw. He is the only one who hasn’t even called on his god for help; so the sailors ask him who he, what god it is that he has upset, and how. Jonah replies to them the he is a Hebrew and that his God is the God of everything, the creator of the Heavens, of earth and Sea, He is the God above all gods - and then he tells them that he is running from this God! The sailors are stunned. If they were scared before, now they are petrified, they ask him what his God will require to stop the storm and spare them.

Jonah could have answered “Get on your knees with me and pray”, he could have answered “I will cry out to God and ask Him to forgive me”, but instead Jonah said “He wants me, not you. Throw me in the sea, get me of the boat and God will leave you alone.” Instead of asking for forgiveness Jonah just wishes he was dead. The sailors do all they can to save the ship, to save the lives of those who are on board, but when it’s clear that there is no choice they cry out to the God of Jonah, they cry out to him and say, “We have tried everything, but you say this is who has made you angry, that this is what you want? We will throw him to the sea but we do this only because its what you have shown us you want, please don’t hold his death against us” and with that, they hurl him into the deep.

Almost as soon as Jonah has vanished under the waves the storm melts away, the sea becomes calm, the clouds clear, letting light stream onto the sailors’ faces. If the sailors were not convinced beforethat Jonah’s God was the one who sent the storm, they were now; they fell to their knees and prayed, they thanked God for saving them and vowed to follow Him for the rest of their lives, they pledged sacrifices to him and abandoned the carved gods that failed to save them.

Meanwhile in the ocean deep, God sent a fish of gigantic proportions who opened his mouth wide and swallowed Jonah whole, saving him from death but providing accommodation that did not suit his tastes. For three days and for three nights Jonah stayed in the dark belly of the fish as the fish made his way across the ocean towards land.

So begins the tale of Jonah….