On the Mission of Jonah Bringing Prophesy to the Assyrians of Nineveh

It is easy to understand how the prophet Jonah would be recalcitrant about going to Nineveh to give the word of God to the Assyrians-people whose ancestors had destroyed Babylon and diverted the Euphrates River to flood the wreckage. A humble prophet might wish instead to be given a more secure post in the Torah-belt of Judah.

The symbolism of the book of Jonah seems to encapsulate the message that the prophet wandering off in recalcitrant digression from his mission to the Assyrian world was captured simultaneously by the immense alien political powers and the will of God journeying in the world before being transported to and regurgitated upon a beach and the road for Nineveh.

Jonah was affirmed as a prophet delivered by God to bring the word to surprisingly willing Ninevites enacting the orders pacifically. Though Jonah could not bring himself to directly let the Ninevite know that they had to change their ways, God could and did bring Jonah’s mission to fulfillment with on-time delivery of the prophet to convey the word.

Jonah completing his mission took rest outside town. A plant springs up providing shade; the word of God can produce quick growth evangelically when the time is right and shelter the prophet if necessary too.

We wonder if the way people of the ancient world used language was more developed toward illustrative analogies than discrete, impressionistic verb and noun morpheme pointillism or bureaucratese incomprehensible to many outside the loop.

In reading Jaroslav Pelikan’s book ‘Whose Bible is It’ that idea of Jonah’s symbolism develops naturally considering the insight that Jonah’s was one of the first missions of evangelization to the Non-Jewish world by a Jewish prophet. It has the plain sound of truth to it that ought not be troubling to those arguing about the capacity of a fish or whale to swallow a man That speculation, and the literal language meanings of the original Hebrew may miss the larger context in which the story is set of a lone prophet sent to bring the word of God to a warlike alien society in which he will be consumed by an unsympathetic crowd. God conserved Jonah’s life even through the inside of the socially immersive experience and the mission is concluded with what is to Jonah surprising ease. The most difficult part of Jonah’s mission was caused by his own lack of confidence or trust in himself and avoidance of potential risk in accomplishing the mission.

In avoiding walking directly with the Lord’s word into Nineveh Jonah ended up in the belly of the ‘great fish’ and was transported to the appointment at Nineveh to deliver the message.

Pelikan mentioned that the word ‘prophet’ is from a Greek compound of the word for ‘speaker’. A speaker bringing the authorized word of the Lord to a people ought not be reluctant to execute the work or lack faith and trust in God. That meaning may be the message we might take with us today reading the book of Jonah of the Tanakh’s Nevi’im.