So I’ve raised the simple question as to whether the book of Jonah naturally raises questions that any reasonable individual would ask in simply reading the text. Or perhaps, more precisely, that the author has deliberately written in such a way as to compel us to ask specific questions. I think he does, and once we see these obvious questions, it’s not difficult to be pulled into asking many (and more subtle) questions. As I said, the book of Jonah is full of them.

We’re going to take our time (“How blessed is the man… who meditates day and night…”), so let’s start with just the opening verses (verses 1-3). We learn that the Word of the LORD comes to Jonah, that he is the son of Amittai, that Jonah is to go to Nineveh and cry out against her because of her wickedness. Jonah’s immediate response is to flee in the polar opposite direction of Tarshish from God’s very presence, his intentions then reiterated a second time: “to flee from the presence of the LORD.” The next verse (v. 4) switches scenes with the LORD as the focus: “And the LORD hurled a great wind…”

It seems to me that any first time reader of the story, who is a thoughtful, fair-minded individual, will immediately be puzzled. Why does Jonah react as he does? Why does Jonah flee?

This much is obvious: how can you not ask this question? But why does this question feel obvious? How does the text– its contents and structure– create this feel? The answer seems just as obvious: Jonah the author is able to create a palpable and surprising (incomprehensible?) disconnect between the evident person and status of Jonah and his apparently reflexive response.

Who is Jonah? A prophet, one privileged to have the very Word of YAHWEH come to him. He is an Israelite, a member of God’s own chosen people, one who’s father’s name (Amittai, or “My truth”) reminds the reader of the untold privilege this people have enjoyed in possessing the very oracles of God for centuries. They know Yahweh’s truth and have been shaped by it- no, defined by it.

Furthermore, Jonah is not just a prophet of YAHWEH, but a prophet of YAHWEH. This covenant keeping God brought a moral law to His people as a reflection of His divine person. Their very lifeblood was to love God, fear Him, and reflect His goodness, righteousness, and holiness. This being the case, what would be more “natural” than for this Holy God to send one of His own prophets from His holy people to cry out against Nineveh’s great wickedness? What would be more “natural” than for Jonah, shaped by this culture and tradition and religion of holiness, to immediately rise and obey? Given who he is and should be, why wouldn’t Jonah want to see God’s holiness and righteousness extended throughout all the nations? Isn’t God holy? Aren’t His people holy? Isn’t Jonah holy?

The text goes further in that it doesn’t appear to give a sufficiently accurate account of Jonah’s motive (and it actually doesn’t, as we will see). Jonah’s reasoning appears opaque, or better, the reasoning that Jonah the author provides in this opening context for Jonah the character doesn’t make sense in light of who he’s told us Jonah is and who we know he should be. The motive given is that Jonah is attempting to flee the presence of the LORD.

So we keep pushing: What exactly does this mean and why does Jonah respond as he does? We will definitely need to go much further into details later, but for now we can note that the literal Hebrew points beyond Jonah merely attempting to escape God’s presence to Jonah fleeing His relationship with the LORD and resenting in some sense the very person of God. The Hebrew reads: “to flee from the face of the LORD”– the face. This is a much more serious, deep-seated problem in the heart of Jonah than mere stubbornness and unwillingness to comply with a command. Unwillingness to comply with one’s God can involve many motives that yet acknowledge the essential goodness of one’s God. Maybe it’s just a matter of paying the costs of obedience? Jonah instead appears to have turned on the question of God’s very goodness. He does not want to be before the face of his God. He does not want to be in the presence of a God like YAHWEH. Sadly, he has abandoned the essential command God gave Abraham long ago: “Walk before me and be thou wholehearted” (Genesis 17:1) Jonah does neither. He has undone his Abrahamic roots. Jonah has lost his Abrahamic meaning and purpose.

In bringing this musing towards an end for now, what are some further ways in which the text underscores the importance of this implicit question as to why Jonah is fleeing? The quick answer is the author’s use of deliberate repetition: Verse three gratuitously repeats Jonah’s inexplicable motive: “…but Jonah rose up (1) to flee… from the presence of the LORD…. So he… found a ship… and went down into it… (2) to go from the presence of the LORD.” Jonah the author doubles down. But if that’s not enough– and we’ve been sleep walking through the text– he even takes two further steps within a few verses by having the very characters in his story force the question upon us. Jonah the author is not going to let us bypass the central question of Jonah’s motive. If we won’t ask the question, his peeps will.

First, then, we have the captain bring the central question to us indirectly when he finds Jonah sleeping and asks what Jonah is doing? (vs. 5-6) Indeed, what is Jonah doing sleeping in the bottom of this boat during this perilous storm? Has he succeeded in his intention of fleeing the face of his God? Is he now content alone in his solitude? The captain drives us back to the question with his all-too-reasonable exhortation: “Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned for us…!” But really? From the unenlightened reader’s perspective how likely is it that God cares? Hasn’t He been rejected? Isn’t He the one who sent this storm? We know the truth: Something mysteriously poisoning is wrong with this “apostate,” Israelite prophet.

Finally, it’s not just the captain. Jonah has his sailors drive us directly back to his point. For if we (against all odds) haven’t a clue as to what Jonah the author is up to, he has them do us the service of reacting to Jonah’s own verbal brazen assertion about his motives. They ask the one question Jonah the author is begging the reader to ask: “Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him: ‘How could you do this?‘ For the men knew that he was fleeing the face of the LORD, because he had told them.”

Indeed, dear Mr. Jonah, how could you do this– all the while asserting: “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.”

We’ve been reading carefully. The author has done his job. We’ve got his question. We’re on track and ready for more.

For Your Own Musing

1. It’s hard to think that an author could do more than Jonah does to help his readers home in on his intentions as an author. Or at least do more than explicitly tell his readers directly what he is up to. So this said, do you think it would have been better spiritually and educationally for Jonah to have just stated his intentions explicitly? Why or why not? Is the book of Jonah proof that great literature and great spiritual teaching are essentially connected? Finally, can Jonah actually do more implicitly than he has done?
2. At a practical level, we all fight God and His commands from time to time. It’s a miserable existence, but it happens. Have any of these times in your life tempted you to take a step further and resent God and His very person? If so, what in your circumstance or your person or God’s revealed character drove you in this direction? How did you make it back to spiritual sanity and what are some things that you learned as a result?