Wisdom 29 Jonah Refocused

[HKHaugan]

Wisdom 29 Jonah Refocused

 “Think again about my fraternity brother dragged into the darkness of the night terrified. In this sense then the world without God, people with no God, society without God, is the belly of the great fish. Our personal aloneness is the belly of the fish. The world of people without God is the dark belly of the fish. Sin, death and the grave are the belly of the fish (from Wisdom 28).”

This is repeated so we can feel Jonah’s condition. His condition is the great aloneness in the belly of the great fish in the middle of a great storm raging in a great ocean. It is our condition before we come to know God, the condition of all people everywhere, images of God running away and in need of the God who created them. Jonah knows his condition, alone, thrown overboard by the fear-gripped ship’s crew, then trapped in the belly of the great fish in the deep ocean. So, he reaches up to God and cries out this prayer:

“From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land (2:1-10).”

This great prayer, Jonah’s yielding plea, no longer running, avoiding, but humbled by circumstance, is lifted and the great fish of aloneness, despair and heart agony vomits him on to dry land. No matter how deep the fish went, nor how far, nor how big he was, it could not continue its embrace of Jonah who now saw in God his hope, his meaning, his purpose. He was no longer chained in the prison of sin’s self-centering fear and aloneness. The devil could no longer lay claim on his heart, nor anyone for that matter, who turns to the Lord. The devil and God cannot co-exist, God will expose darkness for what it is, and His light will bring spiritual sight. Once children of the night, the images of God are now children of the Light. The dark belly of the fish cannot understand it (Jn.1:5).

 But this is not the end of the story. Job vowed he would make good what God asked of him. He goes to Nineveh a city God proclaimed to be a very important city that would require a three-day visit. Note here the use of ‘three.’ We see Jonah in the belly of the fish for three days and nights. Now it will take him three days and nights to go through Nineveh and call the people to repentance. Let’s look at that ‘three.’ Liken it to the three days and nights Jesus suffered the agony of the Cross, died, went to the place of the dead and rose to life on the third day. Jesus’ suffering started on Thursday in the Garden of Gethsemane where He went to pray with his disciples. There His disciples fell asleep leaving Him alone. Then He was betrayed by Judas after which He was arrested. Three there; Judas betrays (personal), the disciples sleep (group), the arrest (society). The world arrests Him, His friends sleep, and a disciple betrays Him. His aloneness in the world, the belly of the fish. His aloneness on the Cross, the belly of the fish. His aloneness in the darkness of death and the grave, the belly of the fish.

 Jonah preaches repentance to Nineveh. Nineveh has been in belly of the fish. Each of its people completely swallowed, absorbed, consumed in aloneness. If in fact it was wrapped in relational separation, fear and terror of not surviving because of a false spirit, the fish god idol and its worship, the God of relationship wanted to restore His relationship with them. What more perfect evangelist than someone who had been swallowed by a fish? Jonah was the one who could identify with their individual fear, despair, isolation and aloneness. He warns them that in forty days they will be overturned. Possible allusion to Moses and the 40 years in the wilderness and 40 days Jesus spent in the desert?

 What happens next only God could have accomplished through Jonah. It didn’t take forty days for the Ninevites to change. The people and their king repent, and the king calls the whole city to repent in sackcloth and ashes which they do and the Lord God hearing Nineveh’s repentance, their worship and their vows, changes His mind. He forgives the people of Nineveh (3:1-10). By all rights this should have been the end of the story; Jonah feeling fulfilled and the people of Nineveh living happily ever after. But the Lord has something more He wants to tell us. That’s next.