Jonah: God’s Reluctant Prophet

“When God saw what they did and how they turned from their
evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had
threatened.” (Jonah 3:10)

I have always liked the book of Jonah.  It was my first choice whenever teaching
children in another country, such as India or Haiti.  The prophet Jonah lived in the Galilean city
of Gath-hepher, about four miles north of Nazareth, during the reign of
Jeroboam II (793-753 B.C.), king of Israel. (See 2 Kings 14:23-25)   Assyria
was located five hundred miles to the east and was a constant threat to Israel.
 The fact is, due to Israel’s rebellion
toward God, the prophets Hosea and Amos, contemporaries of Jonah, had declared
that Jehovah would use Assyria as an instrument of punishment against His
people. (See Hosea 11:1-9; Amos 5:16-27)  Any patriotic Israelite would have longed for
Assyria’s destruction!

Though there are many fascinating themes in the book of Jonah, for
Jews it is primarily about repentance and redemption.  This is why they read it every year at Yom
Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.  They
see Jonah’s story as a reminder that we can never run away from God and His
judgment, and confirms that He seeks our repentance and desires to forgive us
and shower us with His love.  Yom
Kippur is important because it is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar
and it marks the culmination of the High Holy Days, which begins with Rosh
Hashanah (the Jewish New Year).  Jews
see Yom Kippur as their final opportunity of the year to repent of their
sins.  

To focus on this important task, they fast from food and water,
engage in intense soul-searching, and spend much of the day in the synagogue
beseeching God for forgiveness.  They
prepare for this day with a mikvah, or ritual bath of purification, and with
extra acts of charity, all in an attempt to help atone for their sins
throughout the year.  It is with this
heightened awareness of our fallen nature, of the punishment we deserve and our
desperate need for God’s mercy, that Jews hear the story of Jonah on Yom
Kippur.

Who was Jonah? He was a reluctant prophet who runs from God’s clear command
to go to Nineveh and preach His truth.  He was
a defiant believer who wanted mercy for himself but not for the people of
Nineveh, and admits to his shipmates that he worships “…the LORD, the God of
heaven, who made the sea and the land” even as he’s trying to flee from God
in a wooden ship. (1:9)  He was a forgetful
man who, even after he was miraculously saved from the sea and the great fish, had the audacity to get angry with the God who rescued him.

We find all these unpleasant qualities in ourselves, sinful,
broken, selfish, disobedient, and desperately in need of God’s forgiveness.  Biblical scholars disagree on who Jonah was,
when the book was written, and who wrote it.  But the book of Jonah makes us painfully aware of
our need for atonement and all the more grateful for a God who, as Jonah
reminds us, is a “…gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and
abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity..” (4:2)

It is easy for us to forget that God is a God of love.  As humans, we often want judgment carried out
right away, especially when we feel we are the victim!  But we must yield our desires to God’s wisdom
and justice, being careful to remember that we too often stand in need of His
forgiveness and compassion when we are in the wrong.