“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
The Book of Jonah is one of the shortest, on the one hand, and the most controversial on the other hand of all the Books in the Bible. Since my childhood I’ve been attending church services, I’m a church member with almost 40 years of experience, a choir conductor, and a minster and during this time I’ve heard plenty of sermons, in which Jonah was invariably mentioned as an example of someone engaging in negative behavior. One gets the impression that this book was written specifically to let us know what we shouldn’t do.
It’s surprising that God is for some reason especially patient with Jonah, letting him get away with things other prophets didn’t get away with. For example, Moses, the greatest prophet, a famous leader of Israel, struck the rock twice, instead of once, and it didn’t go unnoticed in the eyes of God. He was condemned from above and didn’t enter the Promised Land. (Deut. 32:51. Num. 20: 7-12) Jonah, on the other hand, shows blatant disobedience, persists in it and seems to be okay. Alive and well. It’s difficult to understand why God is babying
Jonah so much, as if he was a small capricious child. It would seem that such a person can’t by any means be called a prophet. Prophets usually proclaim God’s will to people, while Jonah is doing the opposite. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, but Jonah goes to the port. God tells Jonah to preach there, but instead Jonah gets on a ship and goes in the opposite direction from Nineveh.
Could it be that God gave Jonah an unusual command to do the things that prophets shouldn’t do? No, nothing of the kind. God tells Jonah to go and preach. This is precisely the prophets’ direct responsibility.
Anyway, whatever the case, the Book of The Prophet Jonah is full of extracts contradicting common religious sense. Moreover, many of Jonah’s actions contradict common sense in general. Instead of going to Nineveh, not only does Jonah go in a different direction, but he tries to get as far from Nineveh as possible: he finds a ship and goes to Tarshish (a town located on the territory of modern Spain.) It was the farthest point of civilization at that time.
It’s getting worse and worse. A strong storm is coming in at the sea. I think everybody understands that it’s not the best time to sleep. This turn of events should make people anxious and worried about the way they can be saved from possible death. They think over their options for salvation in case the ship sinks, etc. Nevertheless, Jonah climbs into the hold of the ship and falls into a deep sleep. That’s exactly what the book says: fell into a deep sleep! This happens when a terrible storm is making the ship pitch and yaw, when all the other people on the ship, fearing for their lives, are doing everything possible and impossible to survive. At this time Jonah is soundly sleeping in the hold.
You can fall into a deep sleep at your summer home, or at your grandfather’s apiary smelling the tall grass and hearing the buzzing of the bees, after a good hot session in a banya, after a hearty dinner, etc. But during a terrible storm, when at every moment the ship is facing its demise, when every next wave could be the last – how could you lie down and fall asleep?! It goes beyond any human understanding. What kind of person is this Jonah? He always does the opposite of what he should.
Then the sailors, having exhausted all human capabilities of fighting the waves (they strenuously rowed with oars, they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship), each started to pray to his own god, realizing that there was no hope for salvation. Meanwhile, they find Jonah sleeping in the hold (apparently, when they went down into the hold to get more cargo to throw overboard). One can only imagine how surprised they were.
As they say, a drowning man will clutch at a straw, as did these sailors. Having taken Jonah to the deck, they started asking him who he was, where he was coming from and going to etc. Jonah honestly tells them that he is a Hebrew and he worships the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. He says that he is running away from the Lord, and this terrible storm is his fault.
In this situation we see Jonah as an honest and brave man. Before the astonished sailors came to their senses, Jonah shocked them again. He offers them a way out of this dire situation: “Do you want to make the sea calm down for you? (And who doesn’t want that?) – Throw me into the sea!”
It’s so easy to read these lines, while sitting on a comfortable sofa, in a warm living room, by a burning fireplace. But when the roaring elements of the sea rock your ship and each new wave hits you with a cascade of salty splashes and drench you from head to toe, these words won’t come easily. It’s the same as saying: kill me.
Even for experienced sailors it came as a shock. How?! Is it that simple to just throw a man into the sea with ones own hands? Leave him to die? No, it was too much for them. They’re making another desperate attempt to break out of the deadly embrace of the sea (Jonah 1:13). But, unfortunately, to no avail.
Then they, for the first time in their lives, made an appeal to the true God. All the gods to whom they prayed before became unnecessary and useless after they faced the mighty power of the true God. Their first prayer was filled with fear and humility before His power. Ponder over their words: “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for You, Lord, have done as You pleased.” Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm (1: 14-15).
This ends the sermon of the Lord, which He spoke to the sailors with the language of the sea. The result is obvious. They feared the Lord (the fear of the Lord is a very good foundation for further life), offered a sacrifice to Him and made vows (1:16). I think that all their former gods, in the form of various idols, also flew overboard. Humanly, it was time to end the story. Jonah was under water, the sea had died down, and life went on. (I wonder if the sailors saw the whale coming up to Jonah and how he disappeared into its mouth). I think they could probably have seen that because Jonah hadn’t drowned yet and the whale swallowed him alive. In a boiling cauldron of the raging sea, a person wouldn’t last
long.
But for Jonah, a new stage in his life began: in the belly of a whale. Scripture says: Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights . You can’t imagine a place “better” than that. As the Russian saying goes: warm, light and flies don’t bite. It’s like a real tomb, but worse. Imagine pitch darkness. You can open your eyes, or close them – either way it will be completely dark. Wet, cold, mucus-covered walls of the belly, and it’s unclear where the top or the bottom is – it’s all the same. With every movement of the whale Jonah rolled from one slippery wall to another. Do you remember what whales feed on? That’s right, plankton. It consists of small marine organisms, moving in groups in the ocean.
And how does it get into the belly of the whale? Very simple. Whales have their own method that they have developed over the centuries. A whale comes up to a plankton cloud, opens its huge mouth and swallows plankton with water, as much as will fit. After that, the whale filters out the water through its teeth and all the living organisms remain in its mouth. So, time after time, many kilograms of this “fortune” mixed with algae and remnants of sea water fell on poor Jonah’s head.
Apart from that, a whale is not a cruise ship that smoothly floats in the sea, enjoying the island views. A whale is a fish. Looking for food, the whale dove into the depths, now and then changing direction, then surfacing to get some air, and then going down again, and then up, to the left, to the right. It went on and on, time after time, Jonah slides in one direction of the belly, then rolls in to the other, surrounded by plankton, seaweed, wet smelly mucus (if you have had to cut a fish at least once, you very well understand what odors Jonah smelled in the belly all
that time), and don’t forget about the pressure and earache from overloads, lack of air and pitch darkness, darkness, darkness… I think every minute dragged on for Jonah as if it was an eternity. Someone said well: “It’s not scary to die, but it’s scary to be dying!” This was precisely the state that Jonah was experiencing – The terrible minutes of dying. All the three days, Jonah was waiting for death like a best friend, but it wasn’t coming. Every minute he wanted to feel the cold embrace, but it just didn’t come. Finally, after a three-day fight Jonah understood that he
couldn’t fight God any longer. His prayer to God poured from the belly of the whale: “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God… And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.” (Jonah 2: 2-11)
Let’s imagine an early morning. The sun has just gilded the edge of the sky. The weather is calm and peaceful, as it often is after a strong storm. On the shore, several early fishermen are preparing their nets and boats to go to sea. They can hear the lazy splashing of waves and suddenly a distinctive hissing sound of air and water emitted under pressure. This sound is usually made by whales, floating on the surface of the sea. After a while, they saw a fountain of water very close to the shore.
And then the incredible happened: right in front of them, the fishermen saw a huge body of a whale that was like a big black submarine slowly moving towards the shore. They backed away from the water and were stunned still, unable to take their eyes off of the huge fish, whose head was almost buried in the sand. Then they saw something absolutely shocking. The whale slowly started to open its mouth, huge as a cave, and lo and behold! They didn’t believe their eyes: some living creature crawled out of its mouth on all fours.
At first they couldn’t understand what or who it was. But when the whale slowly moved away from the coast and retreated further, the fishermen cautiously approached the creature trying to examine it and their amazement knew no bounds. At the very edge of the water lay a man. Apparently, he was extremely exhausted and couldn’t even get out of the water. His head, arms and legs were wrapped in pieces of seaweed, small plankton crustaceans and fish were stuck in his hair and beard. Breathing heavily, in his last effort he struggled to get to the shore.
Having grabbed him by the arms, the fishermen dragged Jonah out onto the sand. “Give me some water,” – he asked in a raspy, ragged voice. After drinking the water he thanked them, sat down and started cleaning his hair and clothes from the remnants of the whale’s belly. They helped him bathe in the sea, gave him some food, and in astonishment listened to his story…
It would seem that such a disobedient prophet couldn’t be found in the whole Bible, but on the other hand, Jesus Christ Himself speaks very respectfully of Jonah, without a shadow of condemnation, and moreover, he twice draws a parallel between Himself and Jonah, referring to Jonah as a prototype of His mission.
How could Christ illustrate His ministry with the help of such a “disobedient and wayward” prophet? Let’s look at the situation through the eyes of Jonah himself. Biblical Nineveh at the time of the prophet Jonah was the capital of the prosperous Assyrian state that put a yoke on the Israeli people. We can only guess how many prayers Jonah said and how long he fasted, crying out to God and asking Him to remove the heavy burden from his people. Robberies, violence, oppression, injustice, blood and tears – these things become the destiny for all enslaved people. Apparently, many of his fellow tribesmen turned to Jonah as a prophet of God, shared their grief and misfortunes and asked him to pray to God
for help and deliverance. This went on day after day: tears, screams, crying and grief.
And finally Jonah hears from God something he desired to hear for a long time: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Oh joy! In only forty days my people will be free from the hated yoke. God has started the countdown clock. The only thing that could stop God’s intention was deep repentance of Ninevites. Thus, Jonah’s heart was torn: What to do? Should he defy God’s will and refuse to preach in Nineveh? Or should he go there and warn them about God’s upcoming justice and damnation. Good, if they don’t pay attention, but what if they repent? Then everything will remain the same. The suffering of my people will continue and who knows for how long.
On the other hand, disobedience and refusal to go to Nineveh would mean certain death for me. It’s not a person I’m dealing with here, but the Creator of all the land and the universe. It’s a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. This is true. Of course, I won’t get away with it, but Nineveh will be destroyed and my people will be free.
Here Jonah makes a choice and sentences himself to death. God has spoken the word and He will not change this number. I may perish, but in forty days my people will be liberated. Eventually, Jonah goes in a different direction from Nineveh and picks the ship bound for the furthest point of the world. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)
It becomes clear why when the storm breaks out Jonah is calmly and soundly sleeping in the hold. Jonah made his choice. He no longer feared death, for there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear (1John 4:18). Jonah fearlessly tells the sailors: “Throw me into the sea”, – not yet knowing what awaits him there. Humanly, Jonah thought it was the end: I’ll drown and that’s it. The deed is done. But God’s plan went further than human plans. God’s capabilities cannot be compared with the human ones. In his worst nightmare Jonah couldn’t imagine the continuation of three days in the belly of a whale!
Therefore, there’s a good reason why Christ speaks of Jonah respectfully and draws a parallel between Himself and Jonah: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40)
Jonah laid down his soul for the sake of the deliverance of his people and the Lord laid down His soul for the deliverance of all people.
Jonah wanted to relieve his people of temporary earthly sufferings, and our Lord relieves all the people of the eternal torment of hell.
Jonah wanted to improve people’s temporary life; our Lord improves the eternal life of all people.
What can the Book of Jonah teach us?
In this book we can see how great God’s knowledge is. The whole earth and what fills it, everything is controlled by God. He commanded and the storm broke out, and didn’t abate until God achieved what He wanted. The result of the lot was also in God’s hands.
God commanded and the whale swallowed Jonah, He commanded and the whale threw Jonah to the shore. God made a plant grow in one night; God told the worms to chew its roots. God provided a scorching east wind, etc.
In the Book of Jonah we can also see the great importance of repentance and humility in the eyes of God. We can see that till the last moment God didn’t wish death to sinners, that God is very merciful and regrets calamity.
We can also see that God is fair. No evil done by people will go unpunished. Sooner or later, there will be retribution, for He is just.
Sometimes we can become a kind of “little Jonahs”. Jonah was very upset that his plans hadn’t been fulfilled. How little a man needs: he could sit in the shade and was happy about it (Jonah 4:6). On the next day, when the shade disappeared, Jonah became so upset, he wanted to die. Sometimes in the same way we get upset if our plans fail. The Book of Jonah teaches us to trust God and believe that everything He does will be for the good of us and other people.
It’s interesting that the Book of Jonah is written from the third person. As if someone was constantly next to Jonah, heard his words, saw everything he did, and even knew what Jonah’s thoughts were. Many other books of the Bible are written differently. For example, the Epistles of the Apostles, Psalms, Proverbs are written in the first person, unlike the Book of Jonah. The Book of Job and some other books are written in the same style.
Israeli rabbis put Jonah on a par with other heroes of the faith. I wish all Christians to see Jonah not as a wayward and disobedient prophet, but as a person who passionately loved his people and laid down his soul for them. Jonah is an excellent example of deep selfless love. It’s an example that is worth learning from, imitating the faith of our mentors.
