As we continue our journey through the Trei Asar, we come to one of the best-known prophets in the entire Bible: Yonah (Jonah). Now, sadly, some Jews (admittedly, me included!) have a bit of a negative taste in our mouths when it comes to Yonah. And I’m being a bit “tongue in cheek” here because Yonah is a book that we traditionally read in the synagogue on the afternoon of Yom Kippur – when we are pushing hard to make it to the end of the fast. Perhaps rather than “negative taste,” I should say “no taste!” Alright, enough of my personal musings. Let’s go ahead and take a look at this powerful prophet.
Yonah is an incredible book that can be understood on multiple levels. As we know, it makes for a good story that children can enjoy. But we should not let that mislead us into thinking that Yonah is a simple book. It is actually quite deep. And Yonah has massive prophetic significance. So let’s start with Yonah himself. Who was he?
Yonah 1:1 refers to him as “Yonah, son of Amittai.” Interestingly, there is a Jewish tradition that Yonah was the widow’s son whom Eliyahu (Elijah) raised in 1 Kings 17. And then, much later, there is a prophet in 2 Kings 14:25 named Yonah, son of Amittai. Naturally, many think this is the same Yonah from the book of Yonah. The fact is, we’re not sure. What we do know for sure is that Yonah was charged with traveling to Nineveh with a message of teshuvah (the Hebrew word for “repentance” or “return”) for that city. Verse 2 of chapter one says:
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” (Jonah 1:2)
So right from the start, we see something important. Jonah’s message is not addressed to the Jewish people. It is addressed to Nineveh. So what do we know about the city of Nineveh?
Nineveh was located in modern Iraq and served as the capital of ancient Assyria. It was one of the greatest intellectual and cultural centers of its time and was also famous in the ancient world as a center of worship for the goddess Ishtar. But the big question is why did HaShem send a Jewish prophet to Nineveh?
Well, as we just saw, God tells Yonah to go because “their evil has come up before me.” The Hebrew word translated “evil” is ra’ah, a general Hebrew term for evil. But the specific crime of Nineveh becomes a little clearer in Jonah 3:8, when the king says that everyone must turn from the violence, or hamas, in their hands. You can think of hamas here as a Hebrew term meaning “violent robbery.” In other words, Nineveh was characterized by corruption and violence. So let’s pause for a moment and consider what’s happening in the text. Sefer Yonah is illustrating something important and transformative in the prophets. And we’ve already seen this in the earlier articles in this series covering Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obadiah:
The God of Israel is not just a local deity.
Rather, the God of Israel is the God of the entire world. Put differently, Sefer Yonah shows that God is concerned with the conduct of all nations. God is not pleased when corruption is found anywhere under the sun. And Yonah was God’s man to deliver that message to Nineveh. However, famously, Yonah was not as enthusiastic about this assignment as HaShem was!
All of chapter 1 describes Yonah running from HaShem and his prophetic calling. Now, many sermons and books have been written to pounce on Yonah for running from God. And of course, running from HaShem is never a good idea. But I think it’s important to consider the human side of Yonah’s behavior.
Can you sympathize with Yonah’s reluctance to preach teshuvah to Nineveh?
It was well known in the ancient world that along with Nineveh’s greatness, it was also a wicked city. Some Jewish sages in rabbinic literature sympathized with Yonah and understood his questioning the justice of this move. How about you? Can you sympathize with Jonah?
Why not just destroy them? Why should I go and preach teshuvah? Maybe they will actually repent…and then be blessed?
Honestly, I can understand if these were some of Jonah’s questions.
On a related level, some think that Yonah had prophetic insight that Assyria would eventually destroy and exile the northern kingdom of Israel. If that’s the case, it would be a hard pill to swallow to go and preach a message of mercy and teshuvah to a people who would eventually destroy his own land and people. So Yonah runs. And famously, he ends up on a boat, and then in a fish. Chapter 1 ends with Yonah spending three days and three nights in the belly of that fish.
And of course, this text finds its way into the Gospels in a very significant place. In Matthew 12, Yeshua compares Yonah’s three days and three nights in the fish with His own time in the grave. But let’s get back to Yonah.
While he is in the fish, all he can do is pray. And eventually, Yonah does teshuvah himself. Near the end of his prayer, he says:
“What I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” (Jonah 2:9)
It seems to me that Yonah has now accepted his original assignment. My take is that “what I have vowed I will pay” is communicating something like, “I will now be the prophet that I agreed to be.” And “salvation belongs to the Lord” seems to reflect Yonah’s willingness to bring God’s salvation to Nineveh. So chapter 3 begins with HaShem giving Yonah the assignment a second time. And this time, Yonah goes.
Really, all goes beautifully in chapter 3. Yonah goes to Nineveh, tells them that the city will be destroyed in forty days…and Nineveh listens to him! The people fast, put on sackcloth, and do teshuvah. And then we get to the peak moment in Jonah 3:10:
“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.”
This verse is one of the big reasons we read Yonah every year on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, as I mentioned earlier. This is a powerful picture of how HaShem responds to teshuvah – which naturally is a great thing to emphasize on the afternoon of Yom Kippur!
Now, if Sefer Yonah ended at 3:10, we would have a nice, neat book. At this point, Yonah is on track…the Ninevites are on track…and all seems well. But chapter 4 throws a major wrench into things!
Yonah is angry that HaShem has shown mercy to Nineveh. In fact, he tells God that this is why he ran in the first place. He knew that HaShem was “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Honestly, after many years of reading and studying Yonah, I have yet to get my mind fully around what is happening in chapter 4. But at the same time…I love chapter 4! I love it because it is raw, and I can relate to the humanity of it.
Spiritual progress does not always happen in a straight line. And I think chapter 4 reflects that.
Sometimes we run from our destiny, or God’s best for us, only to find it once we have reached a point of helplessness (a big theme Rabbi Jason often emphasizes). Once we return to HaShem though, we experience His blessing and then can serve as a conduit of blessing for others. But as chapter 4 indicates, sometimes even after some major spiritual steps forward, we find ourselves in knots again. And HaShem has to guide us toward a deeper level of understanding His mercy toward us and others. That’s one of the things I love about Yonah.
Wherever we find ourselves in the Yonah story, there is no pit so deep that HaShem’s mercy cannot raise us out of it.
God raised up Yonah. He raised up Yeshua. He will raise up the Jewish people. And ultimately, He will raise up all humanity as we return to Him and put our confidence in His mercy.
