Welcome to an Introduction to the book of Jonah. Today you will be taking a whale of pop quiz. Don’t worry, it’s open book and the grades don’t matter. So let’s jump in, have fun, be curious, learn something, and encounter God – together. I want to give you a taste this morning of this amazing, confounding, and challenging book.
1. Jonah is the only prophet . . .
a. to be played by an Asparagus
b. who wants to die
c. to encounter a wild animal due to his disobedience
d. All of the above
The answer is a. The Veggie Tale movie Jonah has the prophet as an Asparagus. It’s probably fun to envision the story as a silly story for children but the message is anything but childish. By the way, Elijah also wanted to die, and 1 Kings 13 speaks of unnamed disobedient prophet who gets eaten by a lion.
2. TRUE or FALSE The Book of Jonah is like most prophetic books in the Old Testament which begin with the “word of the Lord” given to a flesh and blood person who is called to a prophetic task and shares a prophetic word with the Jewish people.
FALSE – There is very little in Jonah that is typical for a prophetic book. He’s the only prophet sent to proclaim the word of YHWH in a foreign land. Furthermore, we don’t have the recorded prophecies of Jonah, which is why he’s often referred to as a “third-person prophet.” We know that there was a prophet Jonah who lived during the reign of Jeroboam II (8th century BC), one of the worst kings of Israel and that Jonah, in utter distinction to Amos, who prophesied Israel’s destruction during Jeroboam II’s reign, helped the king to reestablish Israel’s boundaries. The book of Jonah appears to have been written much later than Jeroboam II’s reign (500s BC) and unlike most prophetic books functions more like the book of Job as wisdom literature telling us a story, in an almost satirical or comedic way at times, to confront the reader with a theological dilemma. In other words, this is a story about Jonah rather than a vehicle for his prophetic words and it ends with a question that the reader is to grapple with.
3. TRUE or FALSE Historically, the Assyrians were quite peaceful and moderate and hardly deserving of harsh judgment for the success of their empire.
FALSE – This question is important because it’s quite common to portray Jonah as a “really mean and nasty prophet” (the Bible Project, which I unabashedly love BTW). And while I don’t question the fact that Jonah has not done what the LORD asked it’s helpful to provide some historical reality about “why” this would have been difficult and how the charge of nastiness might be too simple of an explanation. During a campaign against the kingdom of Judah, the Assyrians attacked a town called Lachish. They later depicted the victory on a 39-foot stone relief in Nineveh demonstrating how they treat their enemies. Etched in stone are pictures of people being flayed alive, victims being impaled and left to die slowly, people buried alive up to their necks, limbs cut off, eyes gouged out, and crucifixion (they invented it). They even forced victims to grind up the bones of the dead to symbolize their utter obliteration of their enemies. By the time Jonah was written, Assyria had already fallen. But in the collective memory of the Jewish people, Nineveh would still be the most brutal regime in the kingdom’s history. A few books later in the Old Testament the prophet Nahum will declare: “The Lord has given you a command concerning you, Nineveh: ‘You will bear no descendants to bear your name. I will destroy the images and idols that are in the temple of your gods. I will prepare your grave, for you are vile’” (Nahum 1:14). The fact that Jonah was not rejected, banned and burned by Jews for its distasteful sympathy toward a diabolically evil regime may be more miraculous than anything having to do with a big fish.
4. The book of Jonah is an artfully, stylized theological story. This is best illustrated by . . .
a. chapter four where both God and Jonah each get exactly forty-seven words connecting to a debate about judgment and mercy.
b. the Hebrew letters in chapter two which offer an acrostic spelling “It’s not a fish. It’s a whale.”
c. the Veggie Tales movie where Jonah is an Asparagus and declares to the Ninevites “play nice, do good, and wash your hands.”
d. Fish vomit.
The answer is a. Apart from debates about Jonah’s historicity, which often miss the point, it’s important to recognize that in numerous ways the story is heavily stylized in order to make a number of points in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Each character in the discussion are given the same amount of words and Jonah begins with thirty-nine and YHWH ends with thirty nine. There is a sense in which Jonah’s critique is not dismissed but honored even as it is challenge. So we should neither dismiss Jonah’s words nor ignore their importance. We should also note that the last words of YHWH are a question asked to which an answer from the reader is expected. We as readers are honored and invited into the discussion in which God honors dissent.
5. Circle all the letters which are true of the Hebrew words used in Jonah.
a. Sometimes the writer of Jonah uses YHWH (the personal name of God ); other times, he uses Elohim (the more generic term for “god”).
b. In 3:3, prior to its repentance, Nineveh is possibly described as belonging to God.
c. The word used by Jonah in his prophecy against the Ninevites being “overthrown” can also mean “transformed” or “changed.”
d. The fish that swallows Jonah experiences a sex change.
e. The name “Jonah” comes from the Hebrew word for seaweed.
You should have circled a, b, c, and d.
In some instances God is referred to as YHWH and other times simply in the generic sense of God (the NIV tries to show this by using LORD for YHWH and God for God). If we pay attention to the words an interesting pattern emerges. In 2:1 YHWH appoints a great fish and in 4:6 appoints a plant. In 4:6 Elohim appoints a worm and in 4:8 appoints a scorching east wind. The first two items, the fish and the plant, are appointed by YHWH for salvation – relief, life. The second two items, the worm and the wind, are appointed by Elohim for judgment. Reading closely thus reveals an interesting artistry which links the true name of God with salvation seemingly in distinction with judgment, which is sort of the point of Jonah. He himself says, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” quoting Exodus 34:6.
In 3:3 already presents a potentially challenging idea often overlooked. The literal translation of the Hebrew is “Now Nineveh was a great city to God, a journey of three days.” It’s interesting that almost every English translation leaves out the clause “to God,” assuming that “to God” is just an idiom to emphasize how big the city is. However, many Rabbis have pointed out that if you look up this phrase “to God” in other places it doesn’t emphasize the size of something but in 29 instances indicates that the referent belongs to God. Are we to understand that Nineveh belongs to God in the same way that Israel belongs to God? What about the fact that this is stated prior to any repentance?
Letter
C reflects nice word play and can mean either "overturned" or "transformed"
Letter D once again shows why asking whether this is a literal story or not is not always a fruitful question. When YHWH appoints a huge fish in 1:17, it’s a male fish (dag). However, when Jonah prays from the belly of the fish in 2:1, it’s now a female fish (dagah). Then, when Jonah is vomited back onto dry land in 2:10, the fish becomes male again (dag). Most commentators, ancient and contemporary, suggest that the fish’s sex change appears to be literary device reinforcing the concept of Jonah’s salvation being poetically and spiritually reborn.
Letter E is false. Jonah or Yonah in Hebrew actually means “dove” which is also interesting to the story. It connects the story to Noah in Genesis 8 who sends the dove three times to look for land. Once it comes back with nothing. The second time it comes with an olive leaf. The third time it does not return. The dove succeeds and finds land on its second try, just like Jonah. There are other elements which connect the story to Noah but that’s enough for now.
6. God sends the fish to swallow Jonah . . .
a. immediately when he hits the water as judgment for his disobedience
b. to save him from the realm of the dead
c. it’s not a fish – it’s a whale! Sheesh!
d. a and b
e. a and c
The answer is arguably b.
Now, every reading of Jonah will end up with some head-scratchers. There are simply some gaps in the story that demand to be filled. But ancient readers and interpreters have long puzzled over a number of features of the story that often get lost on us because we don’t read Hebrew and are unfamiliar with certain literary conventions and cultural realities of the ancient world. I truly think that b is the answer because of “when” the fish swallows Jonah. For a number of reasons, some commentators (not all) think, rather than reading 1:17-2:10 chronologically, we’re meant to read 2:3-6 as a flashback to what happened before the fish. Jonah 2:2 is a summary of what Jonah is about to share, which is a common Biblical convention, like Gen. 1:1. Jonah 2:3-6 is a flashback in which Jonah recounts his harrowing experience of descending to the depths (the realm of the dead), leading to the climax of 2:6b when the fish rescues him from the realm of the dead. Jonah 2:7-9 in Jonah’s prayer of gratitude inside of the fish. When seen in this light the fish is the vehicle for salvation who brings Jonah back from the dead, which explains the “three days” motif – a common Near Eastern idea that sheol, the place of the dead, required a journey of “three days.” It’s telling us where Jonah has been. Is this literal, metaphorical, spiritual, psychological? We don’t know and doesn’t really matter but it reveals the intricacies of reading Scripture carefully and artful perspective of what it means to hit "rock bottom."
7. The following stories or Biblical passages are referenced in Jonah, except
a. various Psalms
b. Genesis 8
c. Near Eastern mythology
d. the books of Nahum and Zephaniah
The answer is d.
In some places Jonah feels like a plagiarism of certain Psalms, particularly in the prayer of chapter two. For example, if we compare Jonah 2 with Psalm 18.
|
Jonah |
Psalm 18 |
|
He said, “In my distress I called to YHWH, and he answered me (Jonah 2:2a) |
In my distress I called to YHWH; I cred to my God for help. (Psalm 18:6a) |
|
The engulfing waters threatened me (Hebrew apapuni) the deep surrounded me (Jonah 2:5a) |
The cords of death entangled me (Hebrew apapuni) the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me (Psalm 18:4) |
|
. . . and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple (Jonah 2:7b) |
From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears (Psalm 18:6b) |
We’ve already noted some of the elements related to Jonah as well as the Near Eastern idea of a three day journey to the underworld.
The books of Nahum and Zephaniah are direct and blasting judgments of Assyria and Ninevah’s doom. They speak of utter destruction in distinction to it’s rescue in Jonah. They should be put into conversation with each other but Jonah doesn’t reference them.
8. TRUE or FALSE When the sailors learn of Jonah’s disobedience to God, they immediately agree to kill him and quickly toss him overboard.
FALSE – In perhaps one of the more shocking elements of the story, the sailors, like the Assyrians, are not heartless humans but actually continue to try and save Jonah despite him having told them to throw him overboard. 1:13 says, “Instead, the men did their best to row back to land”. They disobeyed Jonah and try to save his life even though he is a foreigner. They even pray to God and asked not to be held accountable for Jonah’s life – they don’t want to kill him.
9. TRUE or FALSE I am okay loving my enemies, believing that God loves them and wants to redeem them?
That’s the question that this book is inviting you to consider. That’s what you are being asked to wrestle with but I fear that we are often too cavalier and opt for easy answers which give us the ability to opt out. So if your answer comes easy without wrestling, two other realities might help. The first is to situate the question into a context of actual horror rather than abstraction. The American novelist Norma Rosen helps us by saying, “Show me a text that speaks of God’s unbounded mercy and images of the Holocaust appear before my eyes. It’s not anything I can help. Theology doesn’t help.” Second, while it’s tempting to cast ourselves into the role of Jonah, it’s worth asking if, given the corollaries of empires, if we aren’t better found as the Assyrians. It’s the recognition that our own global standing and power have not come without a certain brutality. I’m asking, in other words, for you to consider the challenging question, “Am I the enemy?”
10. What’s one thing that makes you curious from this quiz? Share that with someone.
What do I want to leave you with? What is the good news of our time together this morning?
This sermon has aimed to bring you to Jonah and the Bible by introducing you to how the Bible actually works rather than theories of why. Let me be clear, I believe the Bible is the Word of God but that that word is far messier, challenging and confounding than we’ve made it with our tidy theories. So I want to invite you into its orbit first with a poem and then my own poetic challenge.
Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Friends, I invite you to listen to my “let.”
The Bible is a big fish – let it swallow you. The Bible is about reckless love – let it wreck you. The Bible is wonderfully intricate – let it inspire you. The Bible is filled with questions – let it interrogate you. The Bible complains – let it give you permission. The Bible is conflicted – let that comfort you. The Bible is historical – let it inform you. The Bible is more than historical – let it transport you. The Bible is God’s Word – let it chase you. The Bible is filled with faithful pagans and unfaithful prophets – let it surprise you. The Bible is sacred, holy, comedic, confounding, mysterious, and pointed – let it bring you to the God who is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. This God is relentless – will you let?
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