The book of "Jonah" is one of the funniest books in the bible, and, believe me, very few of those books can be called funny. "Jonah" is very much a comedy with a point. God pretty much has His way with his prophets whether they like it or not.
If you look through the previous book of the prophets, they all seem to have one thing in common: they're miserable. When God chooses someone to be His voice, they don't get a say in the matter. If they try to deny Him, God make their life even more horrible until they give up and just do what He wants.
Jonah was no exception to the latter. Comically, he tried to run away from God, and ended up in the belly of a whale... or was it a big fish? Let's be honest, if God wanted to super-size a fish, He could have easily done it. So don't be too quick to call it a whale. That said, there has been at least one incident of a man living inside the belly of a live whale that's been recorded in modern times. So neither is beyond reason when it comes to God.
The thing that kind of annoyed me about Jonah was that he was rather annoyed that Nineveh, the accused in this case of which he was to prophesy against, was not ultimately destroyed by God. But something really unusual happened with Nineveh. They listened. That... never... happens. In the grand scheme of things, Nineveh is the black sheep of history. Whenever I read it, it feels a bit surreal. Most people in the Bible don't learn anything for shit.
I totally recommend "Jonah." It's about a 7-minute read. I also want to point out that I originally read a rather amusing version of this book within the early chapters of "Moby Dick." Herman Melville retells the story in a clever way using a lot of sea-fearing language. I also retold the story in my book "Our Divine Comedy," pitched entirely for comedic effect. The idea of someone running away from God is very amusing to me. The point is that the book if very entertaining, short, and you should read it.
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Jonah was annoyed. God was amused. Jonah tried to hide. God was amused. Jonah was offended. God was amused. Jonah gave up and the people of Nineveh did the right thing. Jonah was indignant. God was pleased.
ReplyDeleteIt was amusing. The whole thing was kind of a comedy.
DeleteIt's easy to see how insulting it is to assume we can hid from our creator. God decided he was going to have some fun with Jonah.
ReplyDeleteMore fun than we usually see in the book. A giant fish? No wonder this one is so memorable. It's the first giant fish story.
DeleteIf someone repents, it should be celebrated. To be annoyed that they escaped their doom, means that he did not really care about them. So, why should anyone be concerned about his suffering?
ReplyDeleteI think he was just flat annoyed with everything. He did NOT want to be a prophet. Few do, if you think about it.
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