When the belly of a whale sounds good
Jonah wants God to hate his enemy as much as he does.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses visit me monthly. Last month they brought me a flyer for one of their gatherings and showed me a trailer for their movie The Story of Jonah: A Lesson in Courage and Mercy. It looks pretty exciting. The woman suggested that Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh because the Ninevites were so violent.
Maybe. But it’s not his fear of their violence that sends him to Tarshish and eventually into the belly of a big fish. It’s Jonah’s hate.
Jonah chooses his hate for the Ninevites over his love for God—even to the point of death. The Bible talks about being faithful even to death, but Jonah is unfaithful to the point of death. He’s sort of a reverse martyr. Sure, he finally goes to Nineveh when the whale vomits him up on shore, but he doesn’t do it with a grateful and joyful heart. He certainly doesn’t hope for God’s miracle of redemption.
