Jonah: Not only a big fish, but loving your enemies

In this episode, we explore one of the weirdest and most fun books in the Old Testament. Most kids are told about how Jonah was swallowed by a big fish for three days and then vomited back on the beach. That is a fun image, but it is not what the book is really about. Instead it is about bullies and how God loves everyone, even them. Jonah is just a drama queen. He hates the bullies in Ninevah so much that he willing to go to the ends of the earth to not follow God's command. Instead, Jonah becomes a bully himself. The story is so absurd, but the fact of God's love is so much deeper than our own prejudices and hatred is the real story.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome to the Real Bible Rob team cast. Once again, uh today uh we'll talk about Jonah. Uh Jonah is one of the weirdest and most fun books in the Old Testament. Uh you probably heard about it. Um uh, you know, it depends, but uh, you know, most kids heard uh the story about Jonah being swallowed up by a big fish for three days and then being vomited back up on the beach. Now, this is kind of a fun image. Uh, you know, uh it's kind of gross, and uh, but um, it's not what the story's really about, but that's what everybody always remembers. Instead, um, let me ask you a question. How do you feel about bullies? Do you are you a bully? Do you how do you feel about the way bullies treat other people? Well, if you're like me, I hate bullies and they drive me crazy. Um, when I see them, and they especially when they just feel like they're just better than everyone else. Well, bullies is a big part of the book of Jonah because uh Jonah is uh responding to the fact that these people that he God asked him to go see um were big time bullies. And Jonah hates bullies big time, but as a result, he ends up um by avoiding what God wants him to do. Jonah becomes a bully himself, and um the story is so crazy. It's um, you know, it's not really there wasn't really a Jonah, it's not a real story, it's more like a fable, you know, it's like a story to give you a message, and it was written uh by Jewish people to criticize themselves. And I'm gonna explain that to you, but let's get started by talking about how this um story uh begins and then how uh, you know, of course, the famous fish part of it, but then what really happens with the bullies. Well, uh Jonah, which is only four chapters long, so it's real easy to read. It's toward the end of the old testament. Um, and I'm gonna read from the CEB, the common um English Bible, uh, which is uh has a great way of uh describing this. So if you have a chance to read it in the CEB, uh um you can follow along. But uh Jonah 1 says, the Lord's word came to Jonah, and he said, Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their evil has come to my attention. Well, Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, uh, back uh in the old ancient times of the of the Hebrew Bible of the Old Testament. And Nineveh was the capital, and it was a huge city, and it was very, very powerful. Now, to the Jewish people at the time, they go, those Assyrians, they were bullies. They came down and they conquered us, and they're so arrogant, and you know, they they're they um kill people, you know, just like left and right. They're just the worst peace people possible. So Jonah grows up as a Jewish man, grows up and says, uh, I hate those Assyrians. I hate that capital city, Nineveh. So what does he do when God says, go to Nineveh uh to tell them about it? He hates them so much that Jonah got up to go away. Nineveh is to the east from uh where uh Jonah is. And what does Jonah do? He gets on a ship, uh, he pays the um the ship person, you know, the captain of the ship, and he says, uh, take me as far away as you can. And he says, I'm gonna go to a place called Tarshis. Now, Tarshus doesn't, we don't know what that is, right? But it's Spain. So if you ever look at a map and you see where Israel is on the west side or on the east side of the Mediterranean Sea, and you can look at Spain all the way on the west side of the Mediterranean Sea, that's over 2,000 miles away. So it's just absurd. He goes gets on a ship and he goes and he goes, I'm just gonna go the other way that God tells me to go. So, but as the he gets on the ship, and as the ship is rocking and rolling, it be you know, gets into a storm. And the storm uh really terrifies everybody there. And everybody starts on the ship, starts praying and going, you know, please help us, but their gods aren't listening. So they go to Jonah and Jonah says, Well, I'm you know, maybe my God will listen and stop this storm. And they they do all kinds of stuff. They start throwing cargo over the side of the ship to make the ship lighter. Um, and then finally Jonah says, You know, you can pick me up and you can hurl me into the sea. Maybe um, maybe I'm the problem. And sure enough, they picked them up, they hurled them into the sea, and they were saved. So it seems kind of like, well, maybe God made the storm storm happen because Jonah was on there and they didn't, he didn't, God didn't want Jonah to get away. So guess this is when uh God, it says God provided a great fish to come and swallow Jonah up. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Now we can talk a little bit about what that means because it does mean something. It's a lot like people later used it uh to talk about Jesus being uh, you know, but Jonah's nothing like Jesus, but this idea of being away uh and um you know being kind of like dead to the world for uh three days and three nights is kind of a uh something you see in the Bible. But then the very next thing it says is that um then talks about how Jonah, when he's inside the fish, makes a big long prayer. Oh God, you know, he's so instead of being like the arrogant Jonah or the Jonah that was afraid going away, all of a sudden Jonah's very um righteous and pious, and you know, he he's he's praying a good way, and he says, Please get me out of this fish, God. Please, I promise I'll do whatever you want, and everything. So then it says at the end of chapter two, it says that um uh that are and then the Lord's uh that he was vomited out uh onto the onto this uh shore. So Jonah didn't get very far. That's the fun thing about this. Yeah, the he just goes out for like a day, there's a big storm. Uh, he's not gonna make it the 2,000 miles all the way to Spain. No, he's gonna get thrown overboard and swallowed by a big fish and then make this big prayer. So then the Lord said, Okay, Jonah, for a second time, it says, get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and declare against them that what I'm commanding you. And so, okay, Jonah agreed. And he said, he got up and he went to Nineveh, the other direction, finally. Okay, he finally obeyed. And then it says that he that Nineveh was huge. It says it was a three days across walk, uh, you know, that it would take, you know, uh, three days would be like what 60 miles or something like that. Well, we know that Nineveh wasn't that big, but it was a big city for sure in that time. But they made the numbers really huge just to make a point, right? And um, so he goes there and he cries to the city. He says, Um, you know, in four days, just walking from one one day into the city, four days, you are going to be overthrown, that this city will be destroyed by God. So, you know, they so they actually listened. And the king of Nineveh listened to Jonah. Totally unexpected. Jonah didn't care, he wanted them destroyed, he hated them, right? He hated them so much he wasn't gonna do anything to say try to save them. He was gonna get in a boat and go to far away. He was gonna go and and walk in there and just say, okay, you're gonna be destroyed in four days. That's it. You know, and you can just imagine him just not caring. But the king actually listened and he mourned and he put he put on um uh sack cloth, which is you know, like those mourning, those clothes, you know, kind of like a sack. And then he covered himself with ashes. That's what they did back in those days when they felt really, really sorry. He said, Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry to God. And um, and God listened. Another time when God listens. So God said, Okay, all right, all right, I'm not going to destroy you after all. This is one of those times in the Bible when anybody tells you that God doesn't change God's mind, he doesn't change his mind at all. Uh, this is one of those times when God changes his mind, and you see it uh a couple of times in scripture. And guess what causes God to change his mind? And that is um prayer. And I'm sorry, God. Well, that means that God listens. So um, because he listens, he says, you know what, since they're not gonna, they're not so bad after all, I'm going to save them. And Jonah's response, you go, oh, well, you know, Jonah will go, okay, well, then maybe that's fine. I did my job, I can go home now. No, Jonah is so mad at God, he goes, wait a minute, you're gonna actually forgive them? So here's Jonah, who's part of a people who've been bullied by by this big bully people in Nineveh in Assyria, and he doesn't forgive them at all. Not like God, God forgives them. He goes, No, I am uh I I'm angry. I'm this is why I didn't want to come here, God. You know, he's just angrier and angrier. And then God says, Um, the Lord says, Is your anger a good thing? But then Jonah went from the city and sat down on the east side, on the other side of the city, and he made himself a hut. And here's like uh just what a um stubborn guy um Jonah is. And he goes, Then God provided a shrub for him, and it grew up over Jonah, like in one day, and it provided shade for Jonah, and it saved him from the really strong sun from being burned by the sun. And Jonah was very happy about that shrub, it says. So here's Jonah angry and angry, angrier at God for you know saving those Ninevehes, but um, but then God provides um some shade for Jonah, and then he's happy. But then God also provided a worm to get into that tree for the next day. So Jonah was covered by the shrub for one day, but then the worm gets to the shrub and it dies the next day, and then the sun came up again, and it was really dry and sunny and hot, and uh, and then Jonah began to fate, and he goes, He's begging with God. He goes, Just let me die. He's like Jonah is such a drama queen, you know, and he goes, Well, just let me die, God. You know, I am worthless. And even after being in a fish, even after God uh took care of him and provided for him, and then God said again, is your anger about the shrub a good thing? You're angry at me about the people, now you're angry at me about the shrub. And then Jonah says, Yes, my anger is good, and even to the point of death. Isn't that crazy? He's so stubborn, he's so um, he becomes so he's kind of like the the bully that he hated, and then he throws a a fit, um, a temper tantrum against God. And then this is really interesting. The last um two verses of um Jonah, Jonah chapter four, is are some of the most interesting in the whole Bible. But the Lord said, You pitied the shrub for which you didn't work for and you didn't raise. It grew in a night and then it perished the next night. Yet for my part, I can't pity Nineveh, that great city, which has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people in it. And you want me to destroy them, but but in instead of a shrub? So this is isn't that interesting. So why this is important is that God is showing um mercy, he's protecting people who the Jewish people who wrote this, people like Jonah who wrote this, hated. So God didn't hate the people that his that his chosen people hated. So God wasn't just for these people, God even hated those bully people in uh Nineveh. Isn't that amazing? It's one of the times because so many times in the Bible we're talked about how God is gonna protect Israel and the the Jewish people, but God is going to, you know, uh destroy enemies or be against their enemies. Well, this is one time when God protects and saves the enemy and kind of humiliates and makes Jonah, who represents the Israel people, the the Jews, and makes and makes him humiliated and puts him down. So it's it's a complete change. And this story is so important because it you see this a lot in the Bible. Things happen that you don't expect. You expect God to be one way, and then this often this is usually how it's taught. It's taught that the Bible is just one story, it's consistent, and that God only loves the people that God chooses. And sometimes Christian people today think that they're chosen by God and that God will love them more than the Muslim person, or um, even the Jewish person or the person who doesn't have a religion, you know, like an atheist or the Buddhist person or whoever. So a lot of Christians today have been taught, no, God loves us, but not other people. But this is a story that shows that's not true at all. And in fact, if we're not careful, we might be the bully instead of the people that we're against. That's such an important lesson. That's something that um you'll hear about a lot in churches, and that's and the wrong message is being given instead of just saying it's only about us, it's really about everybody, and that God loves everybody, even the people that we don't. So uh I hope that's uh uh uh an interesting story for you. I hope, you know, uh like I said, Jonah is only four chapters long. You can read it in about 10 minutes, and um, it's um a fun story, like many of them. And uh with that, I'll say uh thank you for listening and God bless you.