Over the years the question has been posed, “Is the book of Jonah a tale of a whale or a whale of a tale?” Something tells me if it was simply one of the above, it would have been forgotten a couple millennia ago and not in either Jewish or Christian scripture.
There is another tale of a great whale: Moby Dick. This story has been read and re-read, told and re-told countless times since its publication in 1851. It seems fans of the novel are in disagreement as to the meaning of “Moby Dick”, but are in solid agreement that it means something and that the something is very important.
Jonah actually does not mention a whale, instead it simply calls Jonah’s temporary home under the sea a big fish. The locale of Jonah is in the Mediterranean, a sea in which there are no whales. Regardless, the book of Jonah is neither tale of a whale nor whale of a tale.
Jonah is a story of humanity that knows what God wants, it has a pretty good idea of what God wills and what God does not will, but for very self-centered reasons humanity fails to do what God wills. Too often it lives out its own personal desires instead.
How many times have you said or heard someone say, “What’s wrong with the world today…..” Never do we or other say what is wrong with the world today is us or something about us. What could be said is what is wrong with the world today (and yesterday and tomorrow) is we too often follow our own will, not God’s. You and I have a very limited perspective of life and the world that cannot see far beyond our own personal world and personal world view. God, the creator, has a much grander view that can see how even small infractions of God’s desire for all the world can harm that world. God sees clearly how what happens in Tempe Arizona can affect people in Africa, and those living in Uruguay can make decisions that somehow can effect people in Tempe.
There is more to Jonah’s story then simple, human narcissism, that seemingly innate drive for self-preservation that too often shifts into overdrive. There is also a story here that says when we overcome our self-indulgent ways, God’s will works! The wicked Ninevites repented right down to their dogs, cats, hamsters and cattle.
True to the Biblical record, the story of Jonah also has a very persistent God. Jonah was, it seems, rather creative in his methods to escape God and God’s will for him. God did not give up. God’s creativity far exceeded that of Jonah. I mean, C’mon…a fish??
I wonder what creative idea God might have in store to bring you or me back to the fold when we go our own way. In Moby Dick, the narrator was called Ishmael. In Jonah, the reluctant prophet may be called us. Certainly the God in Jonah is called ours.