Jonah

The story of Jonah and the Whale is one of the best known stories in the second half of the Old Testament.  It was interesting for me to read it again in context.  It really is a dramatic departure from what comes ahead of it and what comes after.  Before and after are prophetic works where the authors are worried about Israel's wickedness and warning of impending destruction because of it.  The story of Jonah is set earlier and it seams it would have fit in better with the stories of the Judges. It almost seems like a parody of the Judges stories. In those there is a need for deliverance, and the Lord raises up a champion to save Israel.  In each, the deliverer, though flawed, answers the call and is courageous in defeating the foe. 

The opposite happens in the book of Jonah.  Jehovah calls Jonah to preach, not to Israel, but their their sworn enemies, the Assyrians.  Jonah, instead of answering "here am I" as the other Hebrew heroes did, turns tail and runs the other direction. The Lord causes a storm to threaten Jonah's boat, and the crew end up throwing him over to save the ship. While in the belly of a large fish, Jonah repents and decides to do what the Lord wants by going to Nineveh. The Lord performs a miracle by allowing Jonah to survive in the whale, but the miracle is not performed by the hero for the people, it is from the Lord, meant to humble the prophet.

Jonah's reluctant preaching yields enormous success. The people of Nineveh instantly repent so completely, they not only clothe themselves in sackcloth and ashes, they clothe their animals as well.  But does Jonah rejoice in his success?  No, he goes up on the hill to sulk. The story reads and feels like a parable, and a satirical one at that.

So what is this satire doing in the middle of the minor prophetic works.  The podcasts I listened to this week gave two clues.  One is that this story, according to the Jewish Calendar of worship, ends up being read during the week of the Day of Atonement (or Yom Kippur).  This is a time when Jewish people are supposed to analyze their lives and repent of their sins.  I think this story was used as a way to make people think about what it means to repent and be forgiven.  

The story of Jonah introduces several new ideas into the Jewish cannon.  It is the only instance when an Israelite is sent to non-Israelites as a missionary.  In the Old Testament, the worship of Jehovah is primarily a family affair.  Jehovah is the god of the descendants of Abraham.  It is kind of a private party, no Gentiles allowed.  But here, in Jonah, not only are non-Hebrews invited to repent, they do so much more rapidly and completely than the Israelites.  The message is, that it is not who you are but what you do and how you behave that is important. The Lord will accept even the most heinous of nations if they truly repent, and punish even the prophets of Israel if they do not obey and repent. 

It also counters the idea I have mentioned before, that Jehovah is a regional deity.  We see Jonah's attempt to flee from the Lord as ridiculous, but remember that the Abrahamic Covenant gives the Jews the right to claim a specific piece of land.  It is not surprising that people thought of Jehovah as connected

to the land, and less powerful outside of it.  Hence, Jonah thought he could run away from the Lord.  The story disavows the reader of that idea. 

Finally, this story might have been a way for Jews to make sense of the fact that Assyria, an idolatrous empire, was allowed to defeat the Israelites, the people of the Lord.  This story suggests, that at one time at least, the people of the capital of Nineveh repented and turned to the Lord better than the Israelites were doing. It reinforces the idea that God really does favor the obedient, and punish the wicked. 

Most of all, I kind of think this was a story placed where it is in the cannon, as a kind of tongue-in-cheek parable to remind Jews of God's insistence on obedience, but lovingkindness to those that repent.  I bet it is the children's favorite part of an otherwise serious festival of Yom Kippur. I can imagine a lively Rabi reading it with a lot of animation, and drawing laughs when they get to the part of the people putting sackcloth on the animals. When we laugh, we open a little window in our soul that can let truth in.