The Book of Jonah –21 Jan 2024 O’Connor Uniting at St Margaret’s Uniting Combined Service
Call to worship
God of the sacrificing sailors, God of the surging seas, God of the terrifying tempest, God of those who sleep, who run and hide from your presence, who reject you, to you YHWH we come today, to listen to your voice and to follow your call.
Reflection
I hope you were able to follow Phyliss Tribble’s approximate Hebrew-English translation of the story of Jonah (see below). I hope even more so, you were able to appreciate and enjoy it. To hear the richness of the language, and that some of the story’s rhythm and colour came to life for you.
I know the closer-to-original Hebrew translation I used is a little clunky. Our modern translators have smoothed out a lot of the clunkiness for our 21st century ears, but in doing so, I think they have lost the sense of fun and the vividness of this larger than life four chapter book. For example, the word “great” is mentioned in the Hebrew text 15 times but in the NIV this is reduced to 7 mentions – less than half the original mentions. For the statisticians and accountants that may be with us, this is definitely significant deviation and material variation territory.
The 15 mentions of great pertain to the city of Ninevah – the first and last and the most often mentioned great thing. And also to the wind, storm, fear of the sailors including of YHWH, the fish, the important people of Ninevah, the evil that Jonah saw God relenting/repenting from as he turned from repaying evil with evil. And then there was the delight Jonah experienced in the plant that grew rapidly to shelter him, and of plant itself. Also lost in translation is the animation of phrases such as “the ship thought to break up” or Jonah’s description of God’s patience and kindness as being “long of nostrils”, echoing the King of Ninevah’s use of the same phrase. And the description of Jonah’s anger as “burning”, as in it being described as a sensation rather than just labelling the emotion.
You may ask, isn’t it enough to just get the gist and not be too pedantic about the words used? Sure but I think you miss some of the fun, the colour and the author’s creative story telling that way. You miss some of God’s character too. And I don’t think these aspects were lost on Jesus when he read and engaged with the story of Jonah in Hebrew. Jesus himself was an extraordinary story teller, and he probably greatly enjoyed the fun in what is arguably the best good news story in the whole Bible. By this I mean written in the Bible, not extracted and extrapolated by us.
Just think about the reaction to thousands being added to the faith in Acts 2, and how that warms our hearts. Here in Jonah chapter 4, once we work out the approximate referenced population of the city of Ninevah, we have 120,000 people mentioned. The story shows Ninevah on its knees, king off his throne and sitting upon the ashes, royal robes cast aside for sackcloth, repenting of the violence of people’s hands, daring to hope and believe and to thereby experience God’s amazing grace. I challenge you to find anything outside future visions in Revelation that so positively transformed so many people in our Bible. Because that is a true test of whether something is good news. Is it making a real difference in someone’s life? Has it changed the hearts and minds and behaviours and attitudes of people? Has it transformed people and their image/s of God? (Peter Howe - Preachfest)
Now I want to focus some time on the Prophet Jonah. What do you make of him? What is revealed about his character in the story and its conclusion? Think about his first call and response, think about his futile attempt to escape from the presence of the Creator God who he knows made the sea and the dry land. Think about the prayer that finally came not in chapter one but in chapter two when Jonah was unable to sink down any further in life – a prayer that you could reasonably assume took him three days to come up with, when the mariners, in chapter one, were praying and also asking Jonah to pray to his God during the storm.
And what of Jonah’s second call and the message he delivered: at it’s most concise, five words in Hebrew “In forty days Ninevah overturns” – the shortest sermon in the world - but most effective. And what of the response to God’s grace and compassion, shown in Jonah’s chapter four emotional rollercoaster? The bitterness that comes out in the story as a strong death wish. I want you to take all these aspects of Jonah’s behaviour and come up with one word in your mind that sums up Jonah’s character flaws. That captures the essence of his attitudes and reactions. I’m not going to get you to share these in the service but please, take a moment to think about what makes Jonah tick.
Now leaving aside Jonah for a moment, let’s look at the actions of the sailors, the first people who Jonah the Prophet’s poor choices endangered and on whom Jonah nonetheless had a profound influence. Although heathen, worshipping a range of gods not YHWH, what a shining example these sailors were for Jonah. Faced with the great tempest, the sailors are fearful and cry out to their gods while Jonah retreats to sleep. The master mariner comes to wake Jonah using the exact word God used to start his encounter with Jonah: Arise. He then tells Jonah the most useful thing that Jonah could do: call to his own God. So to this irony I ask you, who is the true Prophet? Who has the words of God in his mouth and who speaks them out? And another question for you, who in chapter one has Godly intentions, digging in those oars, working hard in an attempt to avoid having to throw Jonah overboard? Who wants to spare Jonah’s life even though they know he is the cause of their troubles? Who seeks to look after the stranger in their midst? Who, having been introduced ever so briefly by Jonah, prays immediately and humbly to YHWH, and are changed dramatically by the great things they are experiencing?
How do the sailors pray to YHWH and what was the effect of their prayer? “Ah! YHWH” sounds almost like a sincere first-time recognition of the one true God, with an earnest and polite request following: “not, pray, let us perish for the life and soul of the man the this; and not give upon us blood innocent” or in other words please God, we don’t want to die in the storm but we don’t want kill this man either. Please forgive us for what we are about to do. We’ve tried our hardest to row this ship to shore and not throw this man overboard. But we can’t escape the storm. We hear your prophet’s words saying we must throw him overboard, we don’t want to but we think we must. And to the sailors’ concluding words “For you, YHWH, as you wish you do.” Almost a precursor of “not our will but yours be done”. Yours is the power YHWH. A four lined prayer, 32 words in Phyliss Tribble’s translation that ceased a storm and brought what we might label salvation.
Having hurled Jonah overboard and witnessing the sea cease its raging, the sailors are even more scared of YHWH and they sacrifice to him and make vows to him. Transformed by their encounter with Jonah and God.
And now let’s compare Jonah’s eventual, much more wordy prayer, in chapter two. A prayer prayed from the belly of the great fish in the depths of the sea. First, the good things about Jonah’s prayer: he realises he has hit rock bottom, and even there, he has not escaped God’s presence. Jonah has been on a downward journey since we first encountered him. In the Hebrew, Jonah “went down” from Joppa, found a ship bound for Tarshish, which after paying the fare, he “went down in.” As “YHWH hurled a wind great to the sea and there was a tempest great in the sea” “Jonah went down to the innards of the vessel” to sleep. As the sailors undertake their act of hurling Jonah, God stops his act of hurling the wind. Stillness but a further descent for Jonah as he finds himself going deeper still to “the womb of Sheol”, “being cast toward the depths, into the heart of the sea” as “all your waves and your breakers over me pass” “deep surrounds me” “to the roots of the mountains I go down. The netherworld, its bars about me forever.” Jonah correctly calls it – I’m sunk and you are my only hope God, now I am finally talking to you, finally seeking you, finally desiring your presence. Truly now as I turn to you in prayer “You hear my voice.”
But in the prayer Jonah gets some things wrong. For example, was it God that cast Jonah towards the depths or drove Jonah out from before God’s eyes, or were these in fact consequences of Jonah’s own actions. Still however Jonah wants to recollect what has happened between him and God, he does correctly acknowledge that it is absolutely YHWH his God who brings up from the grave Jonah’s life. Deliverance is brought about by YHWH for the sailors, the ship, and the God fearing Hebrew who finally voices his short-lived intention to imitate the sailors as he concludes his prayers “I with a voice of thanksgiving, I shall sacrifice to you. What I vow I shall pay.” Having earlier reflected on Jonah’s character, my question to you, having heard the ending of the story, did Jonah continue with a voice of thanksgiving, an attitude of sacrificial service, paying his vows? In chapter three we do see him arising, going to Ninevah and calling to that great city: “Yet forty days Ninevah overturns.”
And in that one word, overturns, Jonah foresees one possible outcome. The destruction of Ninevah. He is a prophet with a message of doom that he really wants to see come true for these Ninevites are the cruellest of people, violent, aggressive oppressive enemies. Bring it on Lord. Smite them. And don’t let me waste any effort in this message. I’m not even going to mention your name, maybe I could have even used less words “40 day – Ninevah overturns”. But why oh why did I use that word overturns. With its double meaning – because you did overturn that place God. You used my few words to challenge and change those people, from the greatest to the least they turned indeed, to you in repentance. Woe is me, Jonah. A whole city whose lives were changed, who according to Jesus will rise up to judge those of Jerusalem the city of the great temple in Jesus’ time, because mostly those of Jesus’ time did not recognise the something great happening in their time right under their noses. Instead, like Jonah, the religious leaders of Jesus time had their hearts burning in anger at God’s own son as he set about demonstrating God’s amazing compassion, grace and ability to be present with people in the grime of their life and to bring about transformation. Jesus, breaking down all prejudices and barriers to God’s love, universalising access to God, creating a pathway that all can walk through turning people’s hearts, minds, focus, lives to God. Showing people how to become increasingly aware of the pervasive presence and good purposes of God in all the world that he so loves.
Let’s wrap this message up with a quick consideration of chapter four. The conclusion. God has worked through Jonah’s ineptitude and rebellion and grudging obedience, to deliver the sailors and a great city, and in part Jonah himself. Yet as Jonah despairs of all the good things that have happened because of his actions and God’s providence – that is the protective care of God, which none of us deserve and yet all of us can access - as Jonah fails to see the transformed lives as in fact good news, we see a dispirited, despairing Jonah who delights greatly in a short-lived plant because through that plant he finds for himself physical comfort. And here comes God again to teach him and all of us a lesson. The story’s punchline. A rare book in the Bible to end in a question.
“And I, shall not I have pity for Ninevah the city the great,
Which is in it to be many
More than two ten of ten thousand human
Who not know between his right hand to his left,
And animals many?”
And I will finish with a question too. What kind of God calls to you to arise and go in North Canberra?
Translation by Phyliss Tribble (close Hebrew to English translation)
Act 1, Scene 1
And was the word of YHWH to Jonah, son of Amittai, saying:
“Arise
go to Ninevah the city the great
and call to her because has come up their evil before my presence.”
But arose Jonah to flee to Tarshish from the presence of YHWH
and he went down to Joppa
and he found a ship
returning to Tarshish
and he paid her fare
and he went down in it
to return with them to Tarshish from the presence of YHWH.
But YHWH hurled a wind great to the sea,
and there was a tempest great in the sea,
and the ship / thought to break up.
And feared the sailors,
and they cried, each man to his gods,
and they hurled the wares that were in the ship to the sea
to lighten from upon them.
But Jonah went down to the innards of the vessel,
and he lay down,
and he slept.
And drew near to him the captain of the mariners,
and he said to him:
“What to-you, sleeping!
Arise, call to your god.
Perhaps will favour the god to us so not we perish.”
And they said, each man to his neighbour:
“Come and let us cast lots
and let us know
on whose account the evil / the-this / is to us.”
And they cast lots
and cast the lot upon Jonah.
And they said to him:
“Tell, please, to us
on whose account the evil / the-this / is to us?
What is your occupation
and from where have you come?
What is your land
and where from this people are you?”
And he said to them:
“A Hebrew am I.
And YHWH, God of the heavens,
I am fearing
who made the sea and the dry land.”
And were afraid the men a fear great.
And they said to him:
“What is this you have done!”
for knew the men
that from the presence of YHWH he was fleeing
for he told to them.
And they said to him:
“What shall we do to you
and may be quiet the sea from upon us?”
Indeed the sea was going and storming.
And he said to them:
“Pick up me and hurl me to the sea
and may be quiet the sea from upon you,
for knowing am I
that on account of me
the storm the great the this is upon you.”
And digged the men to return to the dry land,
and not were they able.
Indeed the sea was going and storming upon them.
And they called to YHWH and they said:
“Ah! YHWH, not, pray, let us perish
for the life and soul of the man the this;
and not give upon us blood innocent.
For you, YHWH, as you wish you do.”
And they picked up Jonah
and they hurled him to the sea
and ceased the sea from its raging.
And feared the men a fear great of YHWH
and they sacrificed a sacrifice to YHWH
and they vowed vows.
Act 1, Scene 2
And appointed YHWH a fish great to swallow Jonah,
and was Jonah in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
And prayed Jonah to YHWH his God from the belly of the fish.
And he said:
“I call from the distress to me
to YHWH and he answers to me.
From the womb of sheol I cry.
You hear my voice.
You cast me toward the depths,
into the heart of the sea,
and the current surrounds me.
All your waves and your breakers
over me pass.
But I, I said, ‘I have been driven out
from before your eyes,’
Nevertheless I continue to look
to the temple of your holiness.
Enclosed me waters up to the neck;
deep surrounds me.
Weeds entwine to my head
to the roots of the mountains I go down.
The netherworld, its bars about me forever.
But you bring up from the grave my life,
YHWH my God.
When ebbing away to me myself
YHWH I remember.
And comes to you my prayer
to the temple of your holiness.
Those obeying idols empty
their loyalty forsake.
But I with a voice of thanksgiving,
I shall sacrifice to you.
What I vow I shall pay.
Deliverance to YHWH!”
And said YHWH to the fish and it vomited Jonah to the dry land.
Act 2, Scene 1
And was the word of YHWH to Jonah a second time, saying:
“Arise
go to Ninevah the city the great
and call to her the calling that I am wording to you.”
And arose Jonah
and he went to Ninevah according to the word of YHWH.
And Ninevah was a city great to god, a walk of three days,
and began Jonah to enter into the city a walk of one day.
And he called and he said:
“Yet forty days and Ninevah overturns.”
And believed the people of Ninevah in God,
and they called a fast,
and they put on sackcloth, from their great to their small.
And reached the word to the king of Ninevah.
And he arose from his throne
and he removed his robe from upon him
and he covered himself with sackcloth
and he sat upon the ashes.
And he cried and he said:
“In Ninevah
by the authority of the king and his great ones, to say,
the human and the animal,
the herd and the flock
let not them taste anything;
let not them graze;
and water let not them drink.
But let them cover themselves in sackcloth,
the human and the animal,
and let them call to God with strength,
and let them turn, each one,
from his way of the evil
from the violence that is in their hands.
Who knows,
may return
and may repent the God
and may turn from the burning of his nostrils,
and not we perish.”
And saw the God their deeds,
they turned from their way of the evil,
and repented the God about the evil
that he worded to do to them,
and not he did.
Act 2, Scene 2
And it was evil to Jonah an evil great and it burned to him.
And he prayed to YHWH and he said:
“Ah! YHWH!
Was not this my word while I was in my homeland?
Therefore I hastened to flee to Tarshish
because I knew that
you God are
gracious and merciful
long of nostrils
and abundant of faithfulness
and repenting about the evil.
And now, YHWH,
take, please, my life and soul from me,
for better my death than my life.”
And said YHWH: “Is it good it burns to you?”
But went out Jonah from the city
and he sat down from the east to the city.
And he made for himself there a booth
and he sat down under it in the shade
until he should see what would happen in the city.
And appointed YHWH God a plant,
and it grew up from upon to Jonah
to be a shade upon his head
to deliver to him from his evil,
and delighted Jonah upon the plant a delight great.
And appointed the God a worm,
when came up the dawn on the next day,
and it attacked the plant
and it withered.
And it came to pass when to rise the sun
and appointed God a wind, east strong
and attacked the sun upon the head of Jonah
and he fainted
and he asked his life and soul to die and he said:
“Better my death than my life.”
And said God to Jonah:
“Is it good it burns to you about the plant?’
And he said:
“It is good it burns to me unto death.”
And said YHWH
“You, you pitied for the plant,
which not you planted it
and not you caused it to be great,
which a child of the night became,
and a child of the night perished.
And I, shall not I have pity for Ninevah the city the great,
which is in it to be many
more than two ten of ten thousand human
who not know
between his right hand to his left,
and animals many?”