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Jonah essay??

Jonah is my favourite book of the Bible at the moment and lives in my head rent free for the following reasons

Jonah is very unique among the Old Testament prophets in that he's openly rebellious against God (the others may still doubt or question, like Moses, Elijah etc but this guy straight up goes in the 180 degrees opposite direction of where he's told to go like 'nope!'). The book is unique among the prophetic books in that it doesn't focus on the message of the prophecy (which is literally just a short sentence), but on the character of the prophet himself. It's intentionally designed to contrast all the other prophetic books and paint almost a parody of them, with all the roles reversed (for this interpretation see the Bible Project video)

The main message of Jonah is actually a very radical view of grace and forgiveness, which may seem surprising given that this is an Old Testament book and it is surrounded by books only about judgement and condemnation. Instead, Jonah is faced with his most hated enemies, the Assyrians (Ninivites = those living in the capital, Niniveh), who were exceptionally brutal foes to the Israelites, engaging in sadistic torture aside from the usual killing and pillaging. (And mind you, the Assyrians are those who take the Israelites in the first exile, before the Babylonians do). We may assume Jonah is being weird for not wanting to engage with them, but if Jonah took place in the modern times, he'd be asked by the Lord to go preach the Gospel to the jihadis or North Korean authorities or something like that. Jonah is 100% justified to fear going to preach to his most beloathed enemies, and, from a human perspective, he is justified to hate his enemies. But the God we serve has a different view of things: love your enemies and bless those who curse you. It's absolutely amazing and wonderful to me that this message is so explicitly laid out even in the Old Testament. (see also Ezekiel 18:23)

This book spoke to me in a very personal way. I read this in a season in which it was very hard to keep a consistent Bible reading, but the Lord used that, too, as I ended up reading it around October. With the attacks being such a recent event in the news, I was forced to think about my attitude towards people whom I might consider my enemies. And, in truth, growing up seeing all sorts of terrorist attacks in the news and hearing about Christians in other countries being brutally persecuted, I imagined for a long time that jihadis are the most evil group of people out there. But since October I've finally decided to learn a bit about what Islam teaches and came to the conclusion that Muslims are deceived in the same way as any other false religion, and that they're, in some ways, close to the truth, believing in Jesus as a prophet, for example, but at the same time, so far away, denying the crucifixion, resurrection, and ultimately redemption brought by Christ. And in my summer school in August I had met two Muslim girls and they were much more moderate than I had expected etc. I did feel a lot of sympathy towards their struggles (one of them described such a painful path to works salvation, and she even said she doubts whether she'll end up in Heaven). But upon reading Jonah I was forced to confront the fact that it shouldn't even matter to me whether the Muslims in question are moderate and amiable, or extremist and violent, because Jesus died for both, and loves both, and wants both to repent.

As a more general principle from the above anecdote, if in the New Testament we have a violent persecutor, Saul (become Paul the Apostle) repenting and following the true God, in the Old Testament, in the book of Jonah, we have a violent persecutor group of people, an entire city of people Jonah was right to see as enemies - and yet God searched their hearts with even Jonah's minimal sermon, and they all repented in sackcloth and ashes! This shows that God can bring redemption on the individual level, but also on a much larger scale (see 2 Chronicles 7:14)

Jonah really really hammers home the point of how much God cares about ALL His creation, plants, animals and especially humans, made in his image. Jonah gravely misplaced his priorities in being upset at the tree withering, when the loss of the souls of that entire city would've been infinitely more painful to God (even though Jonah said he wanted to die just from seeing that the tree withered - more on that later). I find it very meaningful that the very last verses are "10 Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: 11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?" Jonah got the tree for free and still mourns for it, while God created every single human being, and knows their souls (and also created every single living being, and doesn't neglect to mention those either)

Jonah is, in essence, a parable about forgiveness and unforgiveness, not unlike the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:21-35. Jonah literally just had his life miraculously saved but he's still eager to see his enemies destroyed. God showed mercy on Jonah (and he acknowledged as much!!!) but Jonah shows no mercy to the Ninivites and actively wants to sabotage them. The unmerciful servant is full of hatred and rage towards his debtor, even though he had been forgiven so much, and Jonah is upset that his enemies had not been punished, and far too easily undervalues the mercy of God. Like the parable in Matthew, the book of Jonah is meant to make us reflect on our own attitude. God loves and forgives His enemies, yet we often act as if we are above such things.

Despite being the Rebellious Prophet, Jonah gets quite the spotlight among the other prophets, being directly cited by Jesus (as a metaphor). The sign of Jonah as per Matthew 16:4 is resurrection from the dead, and, even more specifically, resurrection on the 3rd day. On the one hand, this is yet another example of God using very imperfect people to send His message. But, more importantly, Jonah is a book about resurrection and redemption, in a much more explicit manner than other Old Testament books. While I wouldn't say Jonah is a Christic figure, on account of his open rebellion against God, he is a representation of resurrection that Jesus Himself uses as an illustration. God saved Jonah's life so as to preach to the Ninivites and bring them to repentance, not destruction. Jesus died but rose again the 3rd day to bring redemption to the entire world.

Also also also. Jonah 4:11 vs Luke 23:34. God directly telling Jonah that these people don't know left from right and Jesus crying out that they 'know not what they do'. Do remember that the Assyrians were brutal in their killings, going as far as to flay people alive. So were the Romans, with their crucifixions (the word excruciating comes exactly from this). These are examples of brutal, violent, hard-hearted people. Yet Jesus still loves them, still died for them, and even saw how deceived they all are by Satan's lies! This makes me think about verse 10 of Jonah 4 again. God tells Jonah he didn't even toil to make that tree grow. I wonder. This is only speculation. It's like God was thinking precisely of the crucifixion when He looked at the Ninivites and said those words. They know not what they do...

Jonah is an example of unbelievers being more humble and eager to repent than so-called believers. See Luke 18:13 (have mercy on me, a sinner!). Jonah shows himself to be quite prideful and hard-hearted, much like the Pharisees, but the sailors and the Ninivites repent and cry out to God the moment they realise they are in danger of death.

Jonah is one of the few Biblical characters to express suicidal thoughts (he repeatedly wishes to die when the tree withers and when he sees that his bitter enemies hadn't been punished), and, arguably, even an attempt (he is way too eager to have the sailors throw him into the sea, while they're extremely distressed to have his blood on their hands). God quite literally saves Jonah from himself, and forces him to consider his views on life.

And many many many more. It's only 4 chapters long but absolutely packed with meaning and symbolism. It's really really my fav book at the moment.

Black Cat, Brassaï, 1945

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