Positive Faith in Scripture: Jonah
“Then they grilled him: “Confess. Why this disaster? What is your work? Where do you come from? What country? What family?”
He told them, “I’m a Hebrew. I worship God, the God of heaven who made sea and land.”
At that, the men were frightened, really frightened, and said, “What on earth have you done!” As Jonah talked, the sailors realized that he was running away from God.
They said to him, “What are we going to do with you—to get rid of this storm?” By this time the sea was wild, totally out of control.
Jonah said, “Throw me overboard, into the sea. Then the storm will stop. It’s all my fault. I’m the cause of the storm. Get rid of me and you’ll get rid of the storm.”
But no. The men tried rowing back to shore. They made no headway. The storm only got worse and worse, wild and raging.
Then they prayed to God, “O God! Don’t let us drown because of this man’s life, and don’t blame us for his death. You are God. Do what you think is best.”
They took Jonah and threw him overboard. Immediately the sea was quieted down.
The sailors were impressed, no longer terrified by the sea, but in awe of God. They worshiped God, offered a sacrifice, and made vows.”
Jonah 1:8-16, Message
First off, let me apologize for having you read such a lengthy passage. I skipped the first 7 verses though- you’re welcome. Long story short, God asks Jonah to go preach to Nineveh so that they might turn towards God (because they were misbehaving), and Jonah runs away, leading to this fiasco with the boat. God sent a storm after Jonah in order to coax him to fulfill his mission.
Unlike yesterday, here is a story where God did establish some cause and effect. Jonah ran, so God sent a storm. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves- no one was harmed. In fact, again, God does not even express frustration Jonah. He sends the fish to swallow Jonah up- where Jonah prays and asks God for help (was this is an actual literal fish? or part of the imaginative way of telling stories that was so common in the Old Testament? I don’t know!).
When Jonah prays for help, God does not admonish him or rub Jonah’s face in his own pee (as I’ve seen people do to potty-training puppies). No- God’s response to Jonah’s prayer is something like: “Get going to Nineveh because I can’t ignore them any longer.” It’s almost as if God is taking responsibility for the lack of resolution in Nineveh.
God does not speak incredibly harshly about Nineveh or Jonah. In fact, God seems to have high hopes for both in spite of themselves and, in both cases, he is correct. Jonah fulfills his mission (though he’s not happy about it) and Nineveh turns towards God.
I don’t want to belabor the point, but what we see is not, actually, an angry God who can’t possibly be pacified but, instead, a gentle God, slow to anger and quick to forgive. A God who glosses over the shortcomings of his followers in order to encourage them to move forward.
What would change, for you, if you knew your shortcomings were things God just glosses over in order to help you move forward?
