Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose 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 the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. (Jonah 1:1-3)
I Won’t Do That: Will I Answer God’s Call
Jonah 1:1-3
The book of Jonah has so many interesting elements that captivate our attention. We can probably see parts of ourselves in the wayward prophet, hearing the call of God and then heading in the opposite direction. The effectiveness of Jonah’s disobedience in the lives of the pagan sailors is ironic; after tossing him overboard, these hardened men “feared the LORD exceedingly” (1:16). Jonah’s Psalm-fueled prayer from the belly of the great fish through which God was delivering his wayward preacher from the storm-tossed sea has a lot to teach us about using the prayerful language we find in our Hebrew Hymnal to guide our ongoing commune with God in good times and bad. We gag a little when the great fish vomits Jonah onto the shore and can imagine the prophet’s bleached skin and foul odor being the first thing the Ninevites noticed about him when he entered the city, finally being obedient to God’s call. His crabby use of 5 Hebrew words in a judgment sermon says a lot about his headspace, even in this season of obedience: “40 Days Until Nineveh Toppled!” Remarkably, the Ninevites respond with a complete, sorrowful, repentant fast, turning away from their wicked violence in hopes that God will change His mind about this sentence of judgment. God responds to their repentance by mercifully answering their cries, delivering them from the promised doom.
Jonah’s angry response to God’s mercy toward the Ninevites and God’s response to Jonah reveal what this whole episode of fleeing the presence of the LORD, being swallowed by a great fish and spit up on dry land, and crankily responding to the call of God has been about. The Message renders this interaction in the light of the sparing of Nineveh like this: “Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, ‘God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness! So, God, if you won’t kill them, kill me! I’m better off dead!’” (4:1-3). Jonah fled from the LORD’s presence, because he was afraid God, in His great mercy, would deliver these hated enemies from the judgment Jonah predicted. Jonah didn’t want to be wrong, and he didn’t want these terrible people to be saved. God then sends a here-today-gone-tomorrow plant to give Jonah shade and takes it away to initiate a conversation with his unformed prophet:
God said, “What’s this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can’t I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?” (4:10-11)
Did Jonah have any right to be angry about the death of a plant that he neither planted nor watered, whose life and death was completely in the Creator’s hands? Didn’t the Creator of the universe and Redeemer of Israel have the prerogative to forgive, redeem, and restore whomever He wanted?
We’re not given Jonah’s response, because it doesn’t matter how Jonah responded to God’s questions. What’s at issue in this story is how we the readers will respond. Will we answer God’s call? What if God calls us to do something we don’t want to do? What if God calls us to go somewhere we don’t want to go? What if God wants to use us to bring forgiveness, redemption, and restoration to people we’d rather see experience something more along the lines of fire and brimstone? Jonah’s story reminds us that God is calling us in just such a direction. God wants to use us to show lost, broken, hurting, sinful, and misguided people His merciful love. That person or group that we tend to see as beyond the scope of redemption is precious in God’s sight. In the light of that important reminder, I hope we’ll each ask ourselves: will I answer God’s call or respond like Jonah by saying, “God, I’d do anything for you, but I won’t do that!”