Not Just Whale Rejects: Life Lessons from Jonah

          I was sitting on the couch the other evening with my husband. It was dim and quiet…in other words, the kids were already tucked in for the night. As much as I love my kids, I always look forward to the after-bedtime-hours hush that fills the house and the daily chatter fest I get to share with my husband. This particular evening, as he walked into the family room, ice water in hand, he asked an intriguing question, “Which prophet in the Bible is the only one whose prophecies never came to pass?” I sat and thought for a moment, my brain scrolling through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Elijah, Elisha…nope, none of those.

          “Which one?” I asked, curiosity piqued yet too tired after a hectic day to put much more thought into it. 

          “Jonah!” he said with a big grin, the kind that always makes me smile in return.

          “True…but his prophecies were more of a warning nature, and God, in His love, gave the people of Ninevah an opportunity to repent and change.”

          “Yes, but they still didn’t come true.” This led into a discussion about true vs. false prophets and prophecies, and then…God began to drop some revelations into my heart which all began with the questions Why did God send Jonah? Why not someone else?

          God gave Jonah a harsh word for the people of Ninevah, and if you decide to take the time to brush up on some ancient history, I’m sure you will discover why. Jonah, like everyone else in the region, knew what the Ninevites were like! Why do you think he ran away? First, he was probably afraid for his own life. Second, he wanted God to punish them! He knew God to be a God of love and mercy, and knew that if the people repented, God would forgive them—he said so himself in Jonah 4:2. Jonah’s heart at the time was such that he would rather see an entire city of people destroyed than repent and be restored. While I sat on the couch this particular evening, I believe God began to show me that this was the reason He sent Jonah. He was putting His finger on this area of Jonah’s life.

          Prior to releasing the prophecy, Jonah had no way of knowing for sure how the Ninevites would respond. It appears to me from reading the text that God was already preparing the king of Ninevah for this prophecy. Otherwise, he probably would have run Jonah out of town…and that’s the best case scenario, in reality, the king most likely would have demanded Jonah’s life. God could have sent anyone to deliver His word, but He chose Jonah. Jonah, a man that would rather see destruction than restoration and hardcore justice rather than mercy and peace.

I wonder how this attribute played out in his life. I wonder what kind of man he was like to be married to, to be a child to, a sibling, or what it would have been like to be his coworker or associate. My experience is that these type of people tend to be what I would consider “challenging”. Then I thought about how, as a prophet, oftentimes when I get a word for the church or nation, I literally have to walk it out. It’s almost like God threads that word through my soul until it becomes a part of who I am. This process looks and feels different each time, but it is certainly never ever boring…or fast…or easy.

As these two concepts rolled around in my mind, I began to think that maybe Jonah saw the way he conducted himself as an asset, maybe it helped him get what he wanted in various avenues in his life. But maybe God wanted something different for him, something that He knew would Jonah could be even better, but Jonah was resistant. Maybe instead of a gavel-slamming, hard-nosed my-highway type of person, He wanted an uplifting, healing servant with eyes that could see a vision of a prosperous future for others and someone who could appreciate the perspective of someone else. Maybe God sent Jonah not just to bring about a dramatic change in a bloodthirsty city but also to bring about a dramatic change in him. We’ll never know for sure because it isn’t spelled out for us in the Bible, but especially given Jonah’s conversation with God after the dramatic heart change in Ninevah, I have a sneaking suspicion that this is exactly what happened. I wonder how his day-to-day life changed with his family, his work, and in his community as a result of this singular assignment he was given.

So, yes, his prophecy to Ninevah didn’t come to pass. But what did was even better. A city experienced a dramatic change and turned toward God which brought restoration and life, and maybe even a shift in the region. And Jonah? He was given an extraordinary privilege to participate in it, and in the process received a greater revelation of the God we serve. From personal experience, these types of revelations and experiences are nothing short of life changing; I can only hope that this was the case for Jonah.

          What’s the take-away? Perhaps things in our lives don’t wind up looking the way we thought they would when we first received that God nudge. Maybe we don’t even like the God nudge. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t God. It also doesn’t mean we got it wrong. Maybe it means we had to learn and be shaped in a new way to bring greater glory to God in our day-to-day lives. But whatever we do, we definitely need to walk in obedience to His leading or else we risk learning the other lesson Jonah gave us…disobedience could make us whale rejects.

          Thank You, Lord, for Your plan for our lives and our communities. Thank You for Your heart of love and mercy that reaches out to us again and again. I pray that You would open our hearts to have a greater understanding and revelation of Your grace and that we would see others the way You see them. I pray that You would show us tangible ways to show Your love to those we come in contact with throughout the day. Amen.