Jonah is a topsy-turvy theological story. It wants to subvert, to challenge, to up-set, and so to read it rightly and well – as people in the present – is to read it in a topsy-turvy way with a topsy-turvy God. And, in case it isn’t obvious, while topsy-turvy can sound like a cute word, a nice word, a silly word. It isn’t. In fact, the origin of the word “turvy” means to be thrown down, to dash. No wonder Jonah wasn’t happy about it. But to ease your pain, I’m going to do something I generally don’t do. I’m going to work verse by verse through our passage. Expository preaching – See! Topsy-turvy!
1Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” 3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.
The book of Jonah is divided into symmetrical halves – Jonah’s flight from God and then of his mission to Nineveh. Each part has three sections – God’s word to Jonah, then his encounter with the Gentile pagans, and finally Jonah talking to God. We’re going to see then that Jonah – twice – finds himself in a close encounter with people who are ethnically and religiously different. In both cases, the prophet is sullen and struggling, while the pagans act responsibly and admirably. Topsy-turvy.
Vs. 1 of chapter 3 begins exactly as vs. 1 of chapter 1. And Jonah is given a second chance And this time, Jonah obeys and goes. Two things are worth noting at this juncture. First, it is no small feat that Jonah obeys and goes. He is a Jewish prophet, far from home, walking the city of an incredibly powerful foreign empire with harsh news. So regardless that he’s begrudging, his decision at least deserves our respect. We need to constantly remind ourselves that Jonah is the weaker party, the more marginal voice, and one of the oppressed minority. So we must question any interpretation that would suggest that Jonah is a “mean and nasty prophet.” Of course, we should also question the all too easy interpretive lens that Jonah is us. Second, the fact that God comes to him again is probably even more important. God offers Jonah a second chance. By the way, never forget that God is the main character of this story and gets the last word. And that even though Jonah is disobedient, belligerent, moody – God still wants to partner with him. Topsy-turvy.
Vs. 3, however, might be one of the more significant verses of this passage. Most translators omit the Hebrew phrase that “to God” in vs. 3. The literal rendering of the Hebrew is something like this: “Now Nineveh was a great city to God, a journey of three days.” Most translators leave off “to God” because they believe that its use aims to signal enormity of size, that Nineveh was a big city. And there is certainly plenty of warrant for understanding it in that way. However, if we choose to read Jonah in a topsy-turvy way, it’s also possible to read “to God” being a more discombobulating remark about God’s relationship to Nineveh. When we do that, we see that that there are 29 instances where that phrase means “belongs to God.” (c.f. Jeremiah 7:23, 11:4, 30:22, 31:1, 31:33, 32:38; Ezekiel 11:20, 14:11, 34:24, 36:28, 37:23, 37:27). When we accept a topsy-turvy God we see a people who respond God more quickly than Jonah. When we listen to a topsy-turvy story, we are reminded once again that in the heart of God and with an empire known for excessive cruelty, violence, and wickedness, there still is no “us vs. them.” What would it be like to go through life saying of everyone you meet – “A great person to God.” Topsy-turvy
One final remark. We have this interesting use of a “three day” journey. Archaeological surveys of the region question the notion that Nineveh was large enough to require a three-day walk. Why else give us this detail? In such a short book, details matter. The literary real estate is scarce making every word count. I’ve already spoken to you about this notion of three days, which we also encountered in chapter two, that in the ancient Mediterranean world, across different cultures and religions, it was commonplace to understand the journey to the underworld as a three-day journey. It would seem then that rather than being once again a question of size, we have a clever, topsy-turvy rendering that tells us that Jonah is on another journey toward rock bottom, as he encounters a Nineveh-loving God. And friends, everyone must go, will go, on this journey. The spiritual journey is always a three-day journey and there you will encounter God. But, it turns out this time, Jonah is the fish – the vehicle for Nineveh’s salvation. Topsy-turvy.
4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
Jonah wins the prize for shortest sermon – 5 words in Hebrew. And the topsy-turvy continues. The Hebrew word haphak could be translated either “overthrown” or “changed or transformed.” Interestingly, both also have the potential to be true. And both are emblematic of God’s judgment and wrath, even though those words are never mentioned. But, always remember, judgment is God taking what has lain destructively in the dark and bringing it to the light.
The writer of Jonah and prophets like Isaiah held a complicated and nuanced vision of what God’s wrath was and how it functioned in the world. They did not simply assert wrath to be human anger on divine steroids: “Well, you done messed up and now God’s gonna git ya!” For example, Isaiah prophesies: “Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no one spares another . . . they devour . . . but are not satisfied . . . Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh . . .” (Isaiah 9:19-21). Likewise, Ezekiel understands that sin generates a snowballing effect with its own internal consequences. God declares, “I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath,” and immediately states what that entails: “I have returned their conduct upon their heads.” (Ezekiel 22:31).
Jewish writers through powerful symbol and metaphor carefully attribute the misery and social unraveling perpetrated by a group of people (which Isaiah expresses as metaphorical cannibalism) as the outworking of God’s wrath. The point is not so much to suggest that God stomps around heaven raging at this and that but to argue that in a world created by a good God, evil and injustice are inherently self-destructive. Social disintegration or political upheaval are not so much God pulling the levers of destruction but a cause and effect process clothed in the religious language of Yahweh’s sovereignty and might that essentially express God’s responsibility of creating and sustaining the world. Such a process also aims to bring people to their knees, to make people aware of what is actually killing them. You can’t eat yourself and survive, is the point. And God, well God doesn’t want to eat you either. Either way – you will be overthrown or changed – both are always true. Topsy-turvy.
5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. 6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
It's interesting that the sermon of Jonah did not call for the Ninevites to believe and respond, they believed and responded anyway. What exactly are the Ninevites repenting from? Vs. 8 says, “their evil ways and violence.” The most common Hebrew word for violence is used almost exclusively for human violence and is almost always condemned. The prophets will constantly call out violence: “do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan and the widow” (Jer. 22:3); put away violence and oppression” (Ezekiel 45:9); and do not do “violence to the earth” (Hab. 2:8, 17, Zeph. 1:9). Moreover, violence isn’t simply physical but also exercised through words as well as social and environmental concerns. Even the reality of poverty is conceived of as a product of violence. Micah 6:12 puts it without qualification: “Your wealthy people are full of violence.” The prophets will repeatedly declare that God wants to bring an end to violence (Isaiah 2:4; Hosea 2:18; Micah 4:3)
What’s interesting about the repentance is that while Jonah will reference the group as a whole, the Assyrians themselves will also acknowledge personal responsibility. There is an interesting reality that, even before the king decrees it, people from all levels of society “from the greatest to the least” repent. But there is also a sense in which individuals are each to “call on God” and give up their own evil and violence (it’s worship and justice; spirituality and social concern). And the community that is invited to repent is all of creation. Topsy-turvy.
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
Jonah gleefully preached certain destruction - didn’t offer an invitation, didn’t ask for a response. And this wicked, destructive, pagan, violent city – people – empire was shown mercy. And God saw. Crisis averted. And the prophet? Well the prophet was mad. Are you mad at God’s mercy or are you perplexed by Jonah’s anger? I want to invite you into a topsy-turvy reality of joining Jonah, to getting in touch with your anger at love in the face of torturous killers, at recognizing that love is not syrupy or romantic or sweet. I want you to wrestle with real evil and real forgiveness and remember that if you live real love – God’s love, Jesus reminds us – it very well could get you killed.
No comments:
Post a Comment