...or a Prophet?

Before we wrap up the book of Acts, we need to finish another conversation we left hanging. You will probably want to refresh your memory by going back and reading about it. In that part of the story, we discussed Saul’s meeting of Jesus on the road to Damascus, where he was headed to continue his persecution of the early Christians. We asked the question of whether or not Saul’s story was best understood as a conversion or a repentance. Did Saul change teams and join something new, or did he revise his thinking and align his service to a proper understanding of what the King was doing in the world?

It will also be helpful to go back and read the story in Acts 9:

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

But the question gets even better if we consider Saul’s own understanding of the incident in question. How did he see it? Did Saul understand that day as a conversion? Did he see it as a repentance? Is there something else entirely?

Fortunately, we have some help in that Paul mentions his testimony more than once. The way he talks about his experience may make all the difference in our properly understanding how to interpret that encounter.

Unfortunately, his testimony only seems to make things worse. It seems Saul has a horrible memory of the event and has embellished his story. The main testimony we will look at is found in Acts 26 as Paul shares his story with Agrippa:

“On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

“Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

“ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ ”

Apparently Paul can’t remember the details, and some of these may seem like minor details, but we have to consider whether they really are minor/harmless, whether Paul has a faulty memory, or whether he’s doing this on purpose. Remember, we aren’t dealing with a slouch in Paul; we are dealing with a highly trained Jew who is a former student of one of the greatest teachers of Judaism (Gamaliel). Let’s outline the details that have changed.

Paul seems to embellish the radiance of the light and the way it engulfed him and his companions.

Paul adds to the dialogue he hears from God. The phrase “It is hard for you to kick against the goads” is completely absent from the original story and seems to be an arbitrary addition by Paul.

Paul continues to add to God’s conversation by saying God told him to “stand on [his] feet” when that instruction was absent in the story.

If that wasn’t enough, Paul adds the entire conversation within his testimony about God rescuing him and sending him to his own people, bringing them from darkness to light, etc.

What’s going on here? Is Paul a liar, liar, pants on fire?

Our first clue might be the whole bit about the goads. For those who may not know, a goad is a cattle prod; to kick against the goads would be an expression of fighting against where God is trying to lead you. In Jewish thought, the idea of kicking against the goads is brought up commonly in the conversation surrounding the prophet Jonah. Jonah was the only prophet in the Tanakh not directly obedient to God’s call; he was the prophet who “kicked against the goads.”

And Jonah spent three days inside the belly of a fish. Fish have scales. And if you were inside a fish, you would experience blindness in a very unique way.

Saul was blind for three days, as well, and when it was done, scales fell from his eyes.

This idea might lead us to start looking closer at these details. Why the additions? Consider the calling of Ezekiel in Ezekiel 1 and 2:

Then there came a voice from above the vault over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.

This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says.’ And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious people—they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or be terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people. You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious people; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

It might feel like a stretch, but to have all of those varied phrases and “embellishments” pulled straight from the same passage in Ezekiel seems to be far too much of a coincidence. Furthermore, Jonah was sent on behalf of the Gentiles and Ezekiel was going to encounter the pushback of his own people.

You still might feel like that’s a stretch.

But then consider that Paul gave us another brief testimony in the opening of Galatians:

But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being.

There is no stretch on this connection. Any Jew who heard the phrase “set me apart from my mother’s womb” would immediately think of the prophets. Consider the following passage from Jeremiah:

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, 

    before you were born I set you apart;

    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

“Alas, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.

Or this passage from Isaiah:

And now the LORD says— 

     he who formed me in the womb to be his servant  

to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself,

for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD 

    and my God has been my strength—

he says: 

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant 

    to restore the tribes of Jacob 

    and bring back those of Israel I have kept. 

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, 

    that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

I believe it becomes clear at this point how Paul understood his calling that day on the road to Damascus. He certainly didn’t see it as a conversion. I would argue he associated that day with something much different than even repentance (although I don't think he would deny that repentance was taking place).

Paul saw his experience as something akin to the calling of Jonah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah. Like Jonah was called to the Gentiles, so he would be called to bring repentance to the nations. As Ezekiel was called to confront the stubborn people of God, so was he. As Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah would announce light to a world of darkness, Paul would join the rank of prophets who were called by God to remind His people of their calling to be a kingdom of priests and a light to the Gentiles.

Paul saw that day as more than repentance and different than a conversion. Paul saw that day as a prophetic calling. And it might help us interpret the story correctly if we saw it that way, as well.

From Five to Four

It may have been a little bit of a stretch to suggest to you that the feeding of the five thousand was actually a rabbinic story about numeric values and larger allegorical teachings.

And I may have asked too much of you in the last post to imagine Jesus had to learn about his calling.

But now I ask you to consider the next story in light of what Matthew is doing in his gospel. If you will remember, we suggested the following in the earlier post about the feeding of the five thousand:

Jesus takes the Law (five loaves [Books of Moses] and two fish [tablets]; this makes the complete law [5 + 2 = 7]) and he gives it to his disciples. His disciples feed the people of God (the Jewish people; five [Books of Moses] times ten [complete community] times ten times ten). When the people take and eat the Law that they received from the disciples as they received it from Jesus there is more than enough for all of God’s people (twelve [tribes of Israel] baskets of leftovers).

Jesus’s larger teaching point seems to be: “I am the second Moses. (Remember Jesus putting the people in groups of fifty? Think about the story of Jethro. What comes next? Moses gives them the Law.) When you let me interpret the Law and completely trust me with it, there is more than enough to go around for all of you.”

If we were to take those same principles and apply them to the next story, we might find something incredible about Jesus’s rabbinic methods. (NOTE: If you need to refresh your mind on what the numbers represent, please go back and read that post.)

First, consider the context. Jesus has now returned for the second and final time (as far as we’re told) to the region of the Decapolis. This time, he feeds a crowd of 4000 (compared to 5000 previously). If the number five was a Jewish number (“books of Moses”) and the number 1000 was meant to convey complete community, then we suggested that 5000 men would communicate a Jewish community in the Jewish region of the triangle.

But now we are in the Decapolis. We don’t have a community of “books of Moses” people; we have a community of pagan Gentiles. Hence the number is four (“corners of the earth” = the Gentile nations). Not only this, but we aren’t told how many fish there are, because apparently the Holy Spirit couldn’t remember this time (that’s a joke). Instead, we are told there are seven loaves. Jesus distributes the food to his disciples, who give it to the people. This time there are seven baskets of leftovers (compared to twelve).

I find it interesting that in the story which takes place in the Jewish setting, the feeding is full of Jewish numbers: fives, twos, and twelves. In the story which takes place in the Decapolis, the numbers change to the Gentile numbers: four and seven.

Jesus is tricky.

His point appears to be — after his startling revelation with the woman in Syrophonecia — “Not only am I enough for the Jewish people, I am enough for the Gentile nations, as well.”

Consider the story that follows this in the narrative of Matthew. The Pharisees and Sadducees come asking for a sign and Jesus tells them that the only sign he will give them is the sign of Jonah (the prophet sent to the Gentiles). While Matthew’s other reference (in chapter 12) to the sign of Jonah will add the note about Jesus being in the heart of the earth for three days and nights, that addition is mysteriously absent in this reference and all the other references in the other gospels. The “sign of Jonah” is about the Gentiles believing and repenting.

Jesus’s response to the Pharisees and Sadducees is, “You want a sign? I’ll give you a sign. The Gentiles are believing this stuff.”

Jesus then warns the disciples to beware the “yeast” (or teachings) of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Why? Because they teach you not to interact with these mumzers. Even to mention the name of the Decapolis will make you unclean for a week. They would never be caught dead in a place like the Decapolis.

And Jesus tells them to be careful of that kind of teaching, because you’ll miss out on what God’s doing to bring shalom into chaos.

The Sign of Jonah

A little later in the narrative of Matthew, Jesus is asked by the Pharisees to show them a sign. Jesus’s response is one that I think is taken for granted and glossed over far too often.

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.”

We often read this passage and think to ourselves: Jesus responded to the Pharisees’ request by saying, “You want a sign? No. The only sign you are going to receive is the fact that I’m going to be in the tomb and rise again after three days. That’s all the sign you’re going to get!” While there is certainly some truth in this reading, it misses the depth that lies at the heart of what this rabbi says to these Torah-trained teachers.

First, while the connection of “three days and three nights” to the resurrection is obviously there, this would not have been Jesus’s original teaching point. I think there are many tongue-in-cheek inferences to Jesus’s resurrection by Matthew that all the readers are going to catch as they read this gospel on the other side of Jesus’s resurrection; but as we’ve seen before, a prophetic teaching will not make an empty (or cryptic) statement about the future that could not be interpreted by the present listeners. Whatever Jesus is saying, it has to find its primary meaning in what the audience can glean and learn from the reference. So Jesus has to be saying something else about Jonah that is disconnected from His own resurrection.

Second, this typical interpretation misses and ignores the rest of the paragraph — namely, the mention of Nineveh and Queen Sheba — which is clearly an intentional reference by Jesus. Whatever we do with Jesus’s teaching, it needs to make sense of these two references.

So what was Jonah known for? As we looked at earlier, Jesus has already used Jonah as a great teaching point regarding Jonah’s ministry to the Gentiles. Jesus says the only sign that the Pharisees should need is “the sign of Jonah.” What was the sign of Jonah?

Why will Nineveh rise at the judgment and condemn that generation? Because they heard the preaching of Jonah and repented. Why was the Queen of Sheba referenced? Because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of the LORD.

Jesus responds to the Pharisees: “You want a sign? The Gentiles are believing this stuff! Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah and the Gentiles are repenting at the preaching of the Kingdom of God now! This is exactly what your Scriptures tell you will happen! Sheba came from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon; and the Gentiles are coming to hear from me! Someone greater than Solomon and Jonah is here and you’re missing it!”

Jesus’s answer is rooted in Text. His claim is that the very thing the prophets spoke of and sought out was happening before their eyes and they were missing it.

This story always gives me pause. I must ask whether or not I’m missing the obvious. I think of how often I hear people trying to explain away how “non-believers” can do good things. We go to great lengths to explain how all the people who aren’t wearing the right labels are not “in the Kingdom of God.” And I wonder how many times we set up camp with the Pharisees and ask God for things that are already happening around us.

Rob Bell likes to say, “What you look for, you will find.”

If we look to find the world corrupt and falling apart, we will find it. If we look for all the broken places and things that exist in disharmony, there are plenty of examples to see. If we look for everything that’s wrong and all the ways people mess up, failure abounds around us. What we look for, we will find.

But if we look for the Kingdom of God bursting forth in all kinds of places we’d never expect; if we try to find light shining in dark places; if we stay attentive to the work of God in people who don’t wear the T-shirts — I wonder if we would find God more than ever. I wonder if there are signs of Jonah all over our world, and we are missing it.

What we look for, we will find.

I want to look for — and be surprised by — God.

Get Out of the Boat

** It should be noted that I heard this lesson multiple times from Ray VanderLaan. I am indebted to him for the entirety of the content in this post.

After the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew moves on to speak of a few stories that deserve mention in passing. The next story is the healing of a leper, followed by the demonstration of a Roman centurion’s faith. In keeping with Matthew’s emphasis on the mumzer, he points out the interactions of Jesus with people who are unclean and unacceptable to this hyper-religious region of “the Triangle” (the region of northern Galilee, where the religious and orthodox communities lived). In fact, the refrain will become quite recognizable throughout Matthew, as we see Jesus’s exclamation in Matthew 8:10 that He hasn’t found faith like this in all Israel. We will consistently see Matthew point out a mumzer who has faith, followed by a mumzer who has faith, followed by a mumzer who has faith — then a religious person or community who doesn’t have faith.

Eventually, toward the end of the chapter, Jesus tells His disciples to get into a boat and they depart for “the other side.” This game plan would have struck the disciples as a horrible idea. First, there’s the ultimate destination: the other side of the lake would be the land of the Decapolis. Standing in stark contrast to the region of the Triangle, this area is completely pagan. There are no synagogues and no Jews — nothing good happens on the other side of the lake. We even have ancient oral traditions mentioning the fact that even uttering the word “Decapolis” made you unclean for seven days. This is the kind of place where each one of these talmidim’s parents told them never to be found. You can hear them thinking, “My mom is going to KILL me!”

And second, the mode of transportation is bothersome, as well. Walking around the lake (the Sea of Galilee) isn’t so daunting a task. The Jewish people are not “water people.” They have been desert nomads for centuries. If you think about it, water is always a problem in the Hebrew scriptures. It’s the representation of the watery chaos in the story of Creation. It’s what destroys the earth in the Flood. It’s the Red Sea which needs to be crossed in the Exodus. It’s the Jordan River serving as a barrier between them and the Promised Land. Water is not their friend. Now, I have many students come to me and quickly point out that the disciples are fishermen. This does not point to them being water people. This was a job which people in the Galilee took because it was a dependable living — not one which was sought after since childhood. Furthermore, you would fish only a few yards off the shore in shallow water.

The Jews called the sea “the abyss,” which is used by Luke in his telling of this story. It was the home of evil and the gateway to the underworld. This is NOT their preferred mode of travel.

But take off across the lake they do and — of course — a storm comes up. They find Jesus sleeping on a cushion in the bottom of the boat and they wake Him in order to plead with Him to save their lives. He awakes and tells the storm to be still. The storm obeys and most of us miss the greater point. When was the last time we saw someone sleeping in the bottom of a boat?

Jonah.

And who was Jonah called to? The Gentiles.

And where is Jesus heading? The Gentiles.

Jesus is retelling the story of Jonah. I picture Him “sleeping” with one eye open to see if his talmidim are paying attention to the rabbinic lesson.

They land on the other side and Jesus gets out of the boat. Immediately, a demon-possessed man comes to Him on the beach and they begin having a colorful conversation. Again, none of this would surprise the disciples, who know they are messing with evil; coming across the abyss to the land of the Decapolis is asking for trouble.

Jesus casts the demonic legion out of the man and into a herd of pigs who run into the abyss and drown. The herdsmen run into town and the people come out to see a formerly possessed man sitting dressed and in his right mind. The response is not one of joy, but one of fear and frustration. This strange, tasseled visitor is disrupting their social order and just put a considerable dent in their economy. They want no part in the shalom Jesus has come to bring.

Jesus gets back into the boat and begins to leave. The newly-redeemed man begs to go with Him. Now, we all know what we want Jesus to do. This is the perfect candidate for a new disciple. He has no true home; no family or friends have claimed him for quite some time. He has no Godly community or local synagogue to take him in. There is no job tying him down. He would be the ideal companion to teach the disciples about humility. He is set up in every way to drop everything and follow Jesus.

But Jesus tells him no. Jesus says that he needs him to stay and tell his story.

Now, you can hear my entire teaching of this lesson here, but this story leads me to make a couple of observations.

Apparently, having an encounter with Jesus is enough. This guy has no education and no spiritual community. Unless Jesus gave him a cursory course in Theology 101 on the beach (very doubtful), he has no trying in the Scriptures. This man has nothing except his story and Jesus leaves him to change the Decapolis. What a crazy idea. But it seems to work. Jesus will come back to this area only once more in the gospels. He does not send His disciples here and we aren’t told of any interaction with anybody from the Decapolis elsewhere after this story. But when Jesus swings back through this region, He’s going to be met by “a great crowd” who comes out to greet Him and He’ll feed 4,000 of them.

You don’t suppose this guy actually went and did it, do you? It’s hard to explain otherwise. Not only this, but the Nicene Creed, one of the most influential creeds of the Christian faith will be penned (according to church tradition) by the Bishop of Susita, the same city the demoniac called home. This guy, armed only with his story, may have had quite an influence on Christian history.

But not only this, as one begins to study the gospel accounts more and more, we begin to notice that it doesn’t appear the disciples ever left the safety of their own boat. The gospel writers have no problem in their accounts using the term “they” or “Jesus and the disciples.” However, the disciples are mysteriously absent from the pronouns of this story. THEY get into the boat. THEY sail across the lake and battle the storm. THEY get to the other side. But it’s JESUS who gets out of the boat. JESUS talks to the demoniac. JESUS interacts with the townspeople. JESUS gets back in the boat. And it will be THEY who go back to the other side.

Not one gospel writer put a single sandal of a disciple on the shore of the Decapolis. The disciples never get out of the boat.
The problem with being a follower of Jesus is that at some point we actually have to FOLLOW Jesus. When we find Jesus in places that scare us to death — when Jesus orders us to sail across the lake — our life-altering call is to follow Him wherever He goes.

Jesus is going to be found in the Decapolis of our world. He’ll bring shalom to the chaos. But in order to impact the chaos, we’ll have to enter the chaos and run hard after Jesus.

Jesus is looking for partners; but those partners will have to get out of the boat.

NAHUM: "Diyn"

Jonah is held in juxtaposition with another prophet that gets categorized in the Assyrian time period. The prophet Nahum is the other side of the tension, the other side of God’s nature in the cosmic equation of evil. As I have stated before, I adamantly believe that this tension between God’s love and God’s justice is not a matter of equal and opposing forces. God’s love far outweighs His desire to bring vengeance and wrath. I believe the Tanakh is incredibly clear on this point and it is our Western mindset that struggles with this way of thinking. For us, we either want one or the other or complete balance. Yet the message of Nahum stands as a testimony to the way life really is.

We have talked about mishpat, the idea of Eastern, patriarchal “justice.” We have repeatedly made the point that biblical justice is the idea of putting things in their proper place. Mishpat has very little to do with retribution. Mishpat is the rampant idea that runs throughout the Tanakh — much more than any other expression of justice.

And yet, there is another Hebrew expression of justice. Even though it’s used far less often, the word diyn is also used to communicate judgment. While even this word doesn’t carry the idea of retribution, it does have an air of finality. Diyn is a necessary part of mishpat. There are times and places where, in order to restore humanity, in order to pursue mishpat to its natural end, a judgment has to be pronounced and a decision must be made. There comes a time when discussion is over and we need to get on with restoring the world.

This is the message of Nahum. The problem with the book of Jonah is that, while the book explains God’s apparent inaction and unbelievable patience, it still doesn’t deal with the problem of evil that continues to exist. So, while God’s incredible patience is the very thing that gives us so much hope, and while His patience is the very catalyst for mishpat in most situations, our souls still look at injustice and cry out for deliverance.

And God is patient and patient and patient and forgiving and patient and mournful and patient and pleading and grieving and patient…

… and then God acts.

This is the book of Nahum. As the people of Israel look at the brutality of Assyrian warfare and the terrible rule of empire, they cry out for justice. As one more daughter gets raped and one more child is impaled on a pole and one more elderly couple is burned in their home, the people cry out for God’s rescue. And while God sees the incredible potential of each and every Assyrian and patiently waits for them to come to repentance, there comes a time where God announces their coming destruction.

And God sends His message through the prophet Nahum: “Enough is enough.”

And this message to Ninevah will be God’s message of hope to His people, who have now become the oppressed. God, through the voice of Nahum, will poetically announce that He has heard the cry of His people and will bring mishpat. Nahum is here as a proclaimer of God’s diyn.

And I have the same problem with Nahum that I had with Joshua. And yet, I’m left here being reminded of how glad I am that I don’t have God’s job. I would never even begin to know when to show patience and when to bring diyn. I would make a lousy god.

King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber;
    your nobles lie down to rest.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
    with no one to gather them.
Nothing can heal you;
    your wound is fatal.
All who hear the news about you
    clap their hands at your fall,
for who has not felt
    your endless cruelty?

And so we have to hold Jonah in one hand and Nahum in the other. We have to hear that God hears the cry of the hurting and promises us that He’s in the business of mishpat.  And He invites us to trust in His goodness and perspective. He invites us to trust in His wisdom and His timing.

He invites us to trust the story.

JONAH: Potential

After the Pre-Assyrian time period, things begin to shift. The Assyrians come in and destroy much of the civilized world, including the northern kingdom of Israel. As they are making their move on the southern kingdom of Judah, Hezekiah makes an incredible stand of trust and God sends the Assyrians back to their homes in the north. Apparently, Judah — for a moment in history — heeds the warnings of the prophets. Hezekiah repents of their disobedience and leads reforms from one end of Judah to the other. (Do you remember the story of Beth Shemesh?) I feel like this is an important point to make, because we always seem to hear the voices of the prophets as an exercise in futility. They don’t listen and God destroys them, right?

Wrong. Apparently, upon the repentance of Judah, God stays the judgment that is predicted in Micah and helps save the Jews from the Assyrians. Of course, it won’t last forever, and Judah will continue to receive warnings from God in this historical time period, as well, but it’s important to see the repentance of Judah and the patience of God.

The northern kingdom of Israel has been destroyed and taken captive by their enemies to the north; Judah is still dealing with what it means to walk the path faithfully. And the first Assyrian-time-period prophet we need to deal with is Jonah.

Jonah is one of those stories that we’ve heard a million times. For anyone who grows up in the church, Jonah is reviewed about every other month in Sunday School. And this is part of the problem with the story of Jonah — we miss the big questions. Here are a few observations about the book of Jonah:

Jonah is the worst prophet in biblical history. One of the first things to stick out to the original reader is the disobedience of God’s prophet; Jonah is the only prophet to run from the call of God! He does a poor job of repenting in chapter 2, has to be reminded of God’s call in chapter 3, and then delivers one of the most uncompelling prophetic messages known to man: “In forty days, the city of Nineveh will be destroyed.” Who is this guy?

The whole book is backwards. The prophet is disobedient. God is not in “paradise” (the meaning of Tarshish), but in Nineveh (the capital city of Assyria). The pagans in the boat worship God while the prophet is uncaring and wants to die. The Ninevites repent at Jonah’s simple message, including the king. God sends judgment on His prophet (more than once) and not on the enemy. This story is wacky.

The ending is completely frustrating, making the reader wonder if we lost a piece of the scroll. The last paragraph of Jonah leaves the reader hanging in complete disbelief that this would be the message for God’s people as they sit in captivity in Assyria.

Well, do you remember the days back in Genesis? Whenever we read a story that lacked particular details and was laden with problems, what did we begin looking for?

Chiasms.

Jonah is no different. See the theme map below to notice the chiasm:

“…the great city”
    Jonah wants to die
        Jonah repents
            3 days in the fish
                THE GREAT CITY
            3-day walk in Nineveh
        Nineveh repents
    Jonah wants to die
“…the great city”

So what’s the deal with this “great city”? Nineveh is most certainly not a great city. We know more about Assyrian warfare than we know about a lot of ancient warfare and what we know about the Assyrians is that they are brutal. They tortured captives, raped women, murdered babies. This is not a great city. One person wrote me the other day to point out how many times the word gadowl (translated “great”) appears in the book; everything appears to be “great” — the city, the storm, the fish. However, the one thing you EXPECT to be great — God’s anger/wrath, the east wind (representing judgment) — is strangely not. I think it is a wonderful observation.

Why does God not stand up and strike down the Assyrians?

One of the most interesting parts of the book of Jonah is the vine that God makes grow over Jonah at the end of the book. It’s interesting because Jonah has already made a shelter to give himself shade, yet God makes a vine grow to give him “more” shade? God then destroys the vine and the east wind comes and Jonah’s head is burned. The vine might remind Israel of their call to bless the nations (the midrash goes to great lengths to teach this point, numbering the leaves of the vine to 153… [more on this later]) and provide shade for the Gentiles.

Why does God not stand up and strike down the Assyrians?

Because the Gentiles have great potential. For more on fleshing this conclusion out, I invite you to find Rabbi David Fohrman’s teaching on Jonah (which has deeply influenced my own) or listen to a teaching I once gave here. The depth of literary tools in the book of Jonah and the history of its use are astounding.

In short, the book of Jonah is about the potential of people — particularly our enemies. The book of Jonah is a striking tale that invites us to consider what our role in the world is. It’s a call to remind us of our story and what God expects when he plants a vine (or a vineyard). As the people of Israel listened to the story of Jonah, they would have resonated with his anger, his frustration, and his retort to God. Yet, God’s message to His people remains steadfast.

“Should I not care about this great city?”

There’s so much potential that lies in His creation. He invites us to trust Him in that and help Him put the world back together, whether we find ourselves in Tarshish or Nineveh.