![]() ![]() God replied "You took pity on a kikayon for which you did not labor. In response, all the pent up feelings of agony poured forth from Jonah's lips. But God sent a worm to eat through the branches and kill the tree. It was a source of consolation to him in his anguish, and made him aware of God's compassion. He answered by deed.Īfter Jonah left Nineveh, he went to the outskirts and made himself a shelter in the shade of a kikayon tree. God did not answer Jonah's request with words. The fact that the Jews would not take example from Nineveh would be the final act of callousness that would seal their fate. He had only one further request that he be spared of seeing the destruction of his own people, which he knew would come eventually and at the hands of the Assyrians at that. The contrast that he dreaded was more vivid in reality than it was as a prophecy. Nineveh's destruction was postponed for 40 years.Įverything that Jonah had feared had come to pass. The king himself led the people into a total reformation. The changes in Nineveh happened with speed and drama. He told the residents of Nineveh what awaited them: In forty days they could either make radical changes in their lives, or the city would be destroyed by God's wrath. The whale spit him out at the shores of Nineveh. He was now ready for the most significant undertaking of his life. Once he recognized this truth, he was willing to open the gates that he had closed so resolutely – the gates of prayer. Now he recognized that no matter how painful the contrast between the Assyrians and the Jews would be to him, that God's motivation could only be one of mercy. It was then that Jonah did teshuva – he repented, returning to God and the best in himself. But recognition of the depths of God's mercy was. He was a prophet and awareness of God was not a novelty to him. In the dark fetid innards of the whale, he recognized what he had never truly been willing to see, in his most exalted moments of prophecy, God's intimate knowledge and care over each life and each moment. He was swallowed by a whale, and miraculously survived. Jonah thought his story had ended.īut it had just begun. At that point, they listened and threw him into the turbulent depths. As decent people they resisted this suggestion until the critical moment when it became clear that within seconds they would all die. Knowing he was the cause of the storm, he implored the sailors to toss him overboard so they could save themselves. He believed in God, yet he was running away from Him. His apathetic behavior aroused the curiosity of the sailors. It was he who had already cut himself off from God there was nothing to say and nothing to pray for. In the midst of calm waters, his boat was tossed in a tempest until it was on the verge of breaking. But a storm at sea forced him into the recognition that no one can escape from God. Jonah fled from Israel by ship to silence the voice of prophecy that can only be heard in the Holy Land. Therefore, he attempted to escape from his destiny. How could he bear to witness the contrast of the Assyrians returning to God in the face of his prophecy, with the Jews stubbornly resisting any chance for spiritual self-preservation. ![]() Jonah actually dreaded success of this mission far more than he dreaded failure. How bizarre the assignment sounded to him! His own people were falling uncontrollably into a chasm that seemed to have no bottom, yet he was sent to save others – the archenemies of Israel! He was sent to the capital of Assyria, Nineveh, to urge its population to repent. The mission that God gave him was one that he could not open his heart to accept. His were stormy times the Jewish people were trapped in a pattern of spiritual decline that ended with first the conquest and expulsion of the Ten Tribes by the Assyrians in 607 BCE, and finally with the destruction of Jerusalem, which was followed by 70 years of exile.Īs a prophet, Jonah knew far better than we can imagine what the inevitable end would be if no transformation would take place.Īfter the failure of his second mission, to rebuke Jehu's successor, Jeroboam the second, he was given his final mission. His first mission was given to him by the most famous of first Temple prophets, Elisha – he was to anoint Jehu as king in the year 705 BCE. Jonah was a prophet who lived in the first Temple period. ![]()
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