Living with Jonah: Mad as Hell

From my new book, Thus Sayeth the Lord — I''m sharing a sample chapter this week. (Previously: part 1, part 2.)

Let's dig into Jonah's story and see what it can tell us about our own lives, here and now.

Living with Jonah

Mad as Hell

Let’s face it: Jonah himself is not a great person. He hates the Ninevites so much. It’s hard to blame him, because the Ninevites are the worst, a lot like ISIS and the Nazis rolled into one. So he runs.

Jonah isn’t simply being disobedient. He knows Scripture well enough to deeply disagree with God’s probable attitude to the Ninevites. In Exodus, God gives Moses the tablets and describes his nature: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.”

It’s the only place in the Old Testament where God describes his own nature,* and you can bet Jonah knew it. Did Jonah want that for the Ninevites? Heck no!

It’s ironic that Jonah’s absolute faith in God’s true nature is horribly justified when God forgives them at the first opportunity. Jonah comes right out and says, “Is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repentest of evil.”

Mic drop.

What a powerful message this is for the Israelites reading this book. Their whole culture revolves around being God’s chosen people, whether or not they actually obey him very well. Now this clever book preaches a subversive message of God’s equal love for all peoples, all nations, and all creation.

Unfortunately, I understand Jonah all too well. I haven’t had a lot of violence enter my life, but his feelings about the Ninevites match the thirst for vengeance I felt on 9/11. I hated the terrorists, and I equally hated the Middle Eastern women I saw on TV exulting in the death and destruction of my beloved countrymen. How dare they!

It seems to be human nature, doesn’t it? We want justice. Mercy isn’t even on our radar. The troubled look in a gentle friend’s eyes when I told her my feelings finally made me stop and reconsider my lust for vengeance. I was able to let my hatred go when I leaned on the truth expressed by God at the end of Jonah: “And the Lord said … ‘And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’” Those women didn’t know any better, and I did. That made it my responsibility to take control of my feelings.

* J. Carl Laney, “God’s Self-Revelation in Exodus 34:6-8,” Bibliotheca Sacra 158 (January-March 2001): 36-51, https://www.galaxie.com/article/bsac158-629-03

Tomorrow in part 4 we'll see what Jonah shows us about God's nature toward us and looking at our own behavior compared to Jonah's.

Thus Sayeth the Lord comes out on March 31. Preorder your copy now!