Jonah and the Anti-Risk Risk
Jonah was NOT fleeing danger. He was fleeing something far more dangerous than danger.
In the RAM Training Neal and I facilitate, when we ask participants to think of examples of those in the Bible who risked and those who didn't, Jonah is often cited as a sinful example of someone who was supposed to go and risk the danger of going to evil Ninevites but didn't.
However, that's not what Jonah himself said. Assuming that Jonah wrote Jonah, and allowing the Bible to interpret the Bible, Jonah clearly identified why he didn't want to obey God and go to Ninevah.
In Jonah 1:3, Jonah "rose to flee from the presence of the Lord" by going and getting on a ship bound for Tarsus. He chose a much greater risk - disobedience to the Lord. In fact, he chose a much more foolish risk, if one compares the physical risk of seafaring in the ancient times versus traveling overland to Ninevah to preach a message of repentance. How could a prophet of God even entertain the idea that he could flee the omnipotent, omniscient Almighty?
Jonah is often considered a simple story of a prophet, a city needing to repent, a ship and a whale. But this book, one of the smallest in the entire Bible, is complex and raises many perplexing questions. This book and its theological implications do not really fit into discussions on cross-cultural theological risk, and a blog post can only point out a few highlights of a 2000-year old theological discussion on Jonah.
In Jonah 1:10, the text states again that "For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them." Jonah knew in his gut that the storm threatened to kill the entire ship of men because of his disobedience.
Jonah fled to the sea, because Jewish tradition understood that "on the sea and away from the land of Israel, the spirit of prophecy did not rest on man."(1) The reason for the rabbis to intuit this is that the Bible no where specifically says that God's glory is proclaimed at sea.
He fled to diminish his own receptivity to prophecy, because he knew that if the Ninevites repented, it would make Israel look like fools, because Israel was currently also rebelling against God in their behavior. They were an idolatrous nation, and so many prophets had been sent to preach and implore them to repent. Jonah prophetically knew that Ninevah would repent at the first preaching, and out of loyalty to God's people, Israel, he wouldn't participate in that so he fled. He fled, as the Bible says "From His presence", but this is an idiom - of course a prophet of God knew he couldn't flee from God's presence, but he was fleeing from being a tool in the service of Almighty God.
Jonah's fleeing was not to avoid going into a dangerous situation, but to avoid having the Ninevites repent, thereby making Israel look bad, and giving Israel a lesson of repentance. Quite soon after Ninevah's repentance, the Assyrians were used by God as a rod of his anger (Israel 10:5) to punish Israel for their adultery.
Jonah's act of disobedience also put the sailers on the ship into a horrific predicament - Jonah told them to throw him overboard. They begged Jonah's God not to hold them responsible for his death, not to view them as murderers. Once they threw him overboard and the sea became calm, they repented, sacrificed, and became followers of the Jewish God who was clearly God of the land and sea.
We see significant aspects of God's mercy and love for both Gentiles and the Jewish nation, as well as His care for the sailors and for His prophet, Jonah. It's imperative to realize that the Hebrew word used for God throughout the book of Jonah is Hashem - signifying His mercy. He is the same Hashem today - a God of mercy, but whose wrath will fall on those who do not repent.
(1) and much of this article influenced by: Yonah/Jonah: A New Translation with a Commentary Anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic, and Rabbinic Sources, ArtScroll Tanach Series, Mesorah Publications, August 1978.
