Deeper Reflection
IN THIS WEEK LEADING UP TO BLESSING SUNDAY, WE consider the story of Jonah. This story is well-loved and included in children’s Bibles everywhere because of the appearance of the great fish (Jon 1:17)! But it is really not about the fish. In the first three verses of this masterpiece, the main cast is introduced – the LORD who commands and Jonah who rejects the command. The book of Jonah⁶¹ is a unique prophetic book for two reasons. First, it focuses more about the personal experiences of Jonah, rather than Jonah’s message. This is very different from all the other Old Testament prophetic books.⁶² Second, the prophet Jonah is portrayed negatively. Biblical scholar Douglas Stuart tells us that we can boil down the overall message of the book of Jonah to a simple warning: “Don’t be like Jonah!”⁶³Jonah was perhaps the original “running man”. Twice in verse 3 it was mentioned that Jonah sought to run “from the presence of the LORD”. It was also mentioned twice that Jonah “went down” (v.3, NAS) – to Joppa and into the ship that Jonah believed would take him to freedom. Jonah’s life was indeed rolling downhill because of his rebellion against the LORD. Puzzling why Jonah thought that he could escape God (see Psa 139:7!). Jonah may have believed that if he stayed in Israel, he would have heard more from God, but if he left, he would have been let off the hook.⁶⁴ Have we ever done the same – shut our ears to God’s voice and (secretly) told God to leave us alone? There is a bit of Jonah in all of us.

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⁶¹Located within the collection of the minor prophets in the Old Testament. ⁶²Douglas Stuart, Hosea-Jonah (Dallas: Word, 1987), 431. ⁶³Ibid., 434. ⁶⁴Ibid., 450.