Jonah
Yesterday, when I called this “a big fish story,” I was trying to be clever. Contrary to some Bible scholars, I believe Jonah is fact, not fiction. It’s a story about a big fish, but it isn’t a “fish story” in the manner of fishermen’s exaggerations. Here’s why I think so:
Jesus twice spoke of the Jonah account, and both times he assumed its factuality:
“For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40) Jesus assumes the factuality of Jonah’s 3-day fish adventure.
“The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” (Luke 11:32) Here, Jesus upholds the factuality of Jonah’s preaching adventure! Can you imagine the fictional repentant inhabitants of Nineveh rising up to condemn anyone?
And so, I am happy to assume and uphold the factuality of Jonah. Nevertheless, Jonah doesn’t read like the other prophets. In fact, we have very little of Jonah’s actual prophetic preaching. How little? “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” That’s it. That’s all we know of Jonah’s prophetic utterance. Yet, his account is here, among the prophets. Perhaps the account is preserved to teach succeeding generations of believers just what being a prophet is all about.
If you’ll read it again, this weekend, you’ll see that Jonah is about responding to God’s call, experiencing God’s sovereignty and finding God’s heart for lost people like the Ninevites!
Monday, we begin a few days with the prophet, Micah!
Pastor Gary
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