The Unwilling Prophet

Jonah is one of the most interesting prophets in the Bible. This little ancient book is more than a history lesson; it is more like a mirror in which we can each see ourselves. Jonah most likely wrote this book after everything had transpired. The book could be called “The Confessions of a Missionary.” This book shows the great contrast between God’s greatness and man’s smallness.

God told him to go to Nineveh and preach repentance, but he did not want to do that. Instead, he bought passage on a ship bound for Tarshish—the opposite direction. He did not want to go to Nineveh, and he did not want to preach to them. Likely, Jonah had negative experiences with these people, or he knew of them and how bad they were. He probably felt his prejudice against his enemies was justified. The Assyrians were famous for their cruelty to the people they conquered.

It is not unlike today when we harbor prejudice for some hurt that occurred to us years ago, so we are justified today. Jonah seems to have had no trouble disobeying God, so strong were his feelings against the Ninevites.

Jonah found himself in a horrific storm, and all on board were fearful of their lives, but Jonah was in a deep sleep. The captain woke him and asked, “Who are you, and where do you come from? Why are you not calling on your gods to save us, as all the others are?” Jonah told them that he served the living God, but to calm the storm, they would need to throw him overboard. That is how much Jonah hated the Ninevites. He would rather die than see them repent. The greatest deterrent to Christianity is the incongruence of Christians. When we don’t live up to what we preach. He said that he worshipped the God of heaven who made land and sea and everything else, but at the same time, he was running away from the same God.

He admits that the storm is his fault, and they should throw him overboard if they want to save themselves. He is running from God because he knows God might forgive his enemies, and he can’t have that. He did not even think about repentance but preferred to die rather than go to Nineveh. God in mercy prepared a whale to be at the right spot at the right moment to catch Jonah and save his life. We know Jonah wrote the book because he gives us his prayer from inside the whale: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me” (Jonah 2:1-4).

In this moment, God answered Jonah, and Jonah could distinguish what was real from what was not: “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs” (Jonah 2:8).  If we put our confidence in anything other than God, He will not give his grace to us. These are the deciding moments of our lives when we realize that hanging onto worthless idols causes us to forfeit God’s grace.