Most people think the story of Jonah is being obedient to God. It is common to hear the story explained something like this: God told Jonah to go to Ninevah; Jonah wanted to do his own thing instead so caught a boat in the opposite direction; when the sailors threw Jonah overboard because of the storm, God sent the big fish to swallow him; while he was in the belly of the fish, Jonah realised he was wrong and became obedient to God’s command; when the fish spat him out, Jonah did what God told him to do and went to Ninevah to bring God’s message to the city. According to this reading of the story, God is telling us that we should always be obedient to him and do what he tells us to do, because if we don’t, he will always find a way to get us to do what he wants anyway.
Reading Jonah’s story as a story about obedience to God’s directions or commands makes a certain amount of sense. However, it doesn’t take into account the reason why Jonah disobeyed God and went in the opposite direction. We hear his reason in this week’s Old Testament reading, Jonah 3:10 – 4:11. After Jonah warned the people of Nineveh, they changed their ways and God spared them from destruction, Jonah said to God,
“Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.” (Jonah 4:2 NLT)
Jonah was upset with God because God showed mercy, compassion and love to people who don’t deserve it. Jonah wanted God to destroy Ninevah because of its wickedness. However, God wanted to show the people mercy and grace by sparing them from destruction. He sent Jonah to the city to warn them and give them the chance to turn from the wrongs they were doing in repentance and faith. Jonah didn’t disobey God because he wanted to do his own thing instead of what God wanted. Jonah disobeyed God because he knew that God wants to show mercy, compassion and love to people who deserve it the least but who need it the most, and Jonah didn’t want the people of Ninevah to receive that grace from God.
Jonah’s words shift the focus of the story from human obedience to God’s commands, to God’s desire to show mercy, compassion and love to people who don’t deserve it but who need it. Jonah’s story isn’t just about obedience. It’s a story about grace.
We can also see this in the final verse of the story. As Jonah watched and waited for God to destroy the city, God gave Jonah “a leafy plant” (4:6 NLT) to shelter him from the hot sun. When God sent a worm to kill the plant, and a hot wind to make life very uncomfortable for Jonah, the prophet got angry with God and wanted to die. God responded,
“You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?” (4:10,11 NLT)
God wanted to teach Jonah about compassion. Just as Jonah was upset about losing the plant that God gave to him, so the answer to God’s rhetorical question at the end of the story is that he felt sorry for the inhabitants of Ninevah and didn’t want them to die either. This again shows us the grace of God: he cared for the people of Ninevah and didn’t want them to perish like the plant. He sent Jonah to call them back to himself, giving them the opportunity to change their ways and find new life in God’s mercy, compassion and love.
God felt sorry for the people of Nineveh because they were “people living in spiritual darkness.” (4:11 NLT). A more literal translation of the original Hebrew text is “people who do not know their right hand from their left” (ESV). The New Century Version puts it well when it says, “people who do not know right from wrong.”
We can think of the people in our own time and place in a similar way. For various reasons, people in our society are growing up and living without a clear sense of right or wrong. We might look at the behaviours of the people around us and be critical of the choices they make and the things they do. However, when we look at people living around us in the same way God saw the people of Ninevah, it can change our attitudes towards others. We might not want God to get angry and punish them the way Jonah did, but we can find the same mercy, compassion and unfailing love for others the way God did for the people of Ninevah.
Jonah’s story challenges us to see ourselves as people who are called to bring the life-saving message of the Gospel to the people around us. Jonah’s story, and especially the life of Jesus, shows us that our God is “a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love” (4:2 NLT). As we heard in the Old Testament reading two weeks ago, God doesn’t want people to perish but to turn from their wrongs and live (Ezekiel 33:11). Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world, but to save the world (John 3:17) and give us “a rich and satisfying life” (John 10:10 NLT) through faith in his life, death and resurrection for us. even if we agree with Jonah in wanting God to get rid of the evil people in our world, God wants to redeem them, restore them, and give them life through faith in Jesus.
God has given us a message of mercy, compassion and unfailing love in Jesus to share with our towns, cities and regions. What are we going to do with this message? Do we join Jonah in rebelling against what God wants because we’re happier criticising and condemning people who we think don’t deserve God’s grace? Or will we trust in the God of mercy, compassion and unfailing love by bringing the good news of Jesus to the people of our towns, cities and regions? Jonah had to go through some very hard times to learn about God’s mercy, compassion and unfailing love for himself, yet he was still reluctant to share the good news of God’s grace with the people of Ninevah. I pray that the Holy Spirit will fill us with his mercy, compassion and unfailing love in Jesus, so we can live in his truth and share the good news of God’s grace for all people with those living in our towns, cities and regions, they can trust in him, change their ways and find a rich and satisfying life in Jesus.
More to think about or discuss:
- Do you tend to hear Jonah as a story about obedience or grace? What’s the difference? Which do you think better reflects the character of God as we meet him in Jesus?
- If you were Jonah, do you think you would have followed God’s instructions to bring his message to Nineveh? Or would you have gone your own way like Jonah? Can you explain why…?
- To what degree do you think God’s description of the people of Nineveh as “people who do not know right from wrong” also fits with people of our own time and place? Do you think that God wants to show mercy, compassion and unfailing love to them? How can we join God in his desire to save and rescue the people in our towns, cities and regions?
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