Jonah 1:1—2:10
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the sailors were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up; call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.”
7 The sailors said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 “I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were even more afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17 But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called to the Lord out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3 You cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
how shall I look again
upon your holy temple?’
5 The waters closed in over me;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped around my head
6 at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the Pit,
O Lord my God.
7 As my life was ebbing away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
8 Those who worship vain idols
forsake their true loyalty.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Deliverance belongs to the Lord!”
10 Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto the dry land.
…so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
When God commanded Jonah to go and proclaim the Word of God to the people in Nineveh, he said, “thanks anyway, but no”. Jonah’s people didn’t like the people of Nineveh. They practiced a strange religion and behaved in ways that Jonah’s people didn’t approve of. Jonah didn’t believe that there was any hope for the people of Nineveh and he didn’t believe that they deserved God’s loving care. So he went the other way as fast as he could. Of course, we all know the end of the story. One way or the other, God was going to get Jonah into Neneveh…
It’s easy to see how short-sighted Jonah was, and how disrespectful he was to God. Once you’ve seen God send a whale to swallow a guy and vomit him up where God wants him to be, you kind of can’t miss the point. It’s quite a bit harder to see ourselves in Jonah’s position.
Who is God commanding the Church to proclaim the Word of God to today? Who do we run away from as fast as we can go? Who is too uncomfortable to come into our churches, or too uncomfortable to stay after they’ve visited? Who do we believe is too different, unclean, scary, for us to approach? Who do we subtly label as less than human to ease our guilt over marginalizing them?
Prayer: O Lord, Our God, woe to us when we disregard your call, daring to despise your beloved children. AMEN