Week 28 Jonah 1
Once I get past the thirteen-word introduction the next thing I read is the Lord giving Jonah a very specific instruction: go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it.
The first thought that comes to me is that it’s rare for the Short Prophets to begin with an explicit actionable directive. I decide to test that so I quit reading Jonah and go back and scan through the opening verses of the other little prophets. I see that Hosea got a very definite actionable directive: go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her. But that’s it. Other than that and Jonah’s go to the great city of Nineveh I don’t find any other up-front orders. The books just jump right into the message:
hear this you elders…
the Lord roars from Zion…
we have heard a message from the Lord…
So it was just Hosea and Jonah. Each of them told to do a definite (and unpalatable) thing. And each taking action. But the difference was that Hosea did what he was told. Jonah didn’t.
I can’t think of any other prophet like Jonah. He just walked away. A real renegade.
In the end the coercive arm-twisting of the big fish forced Jonah to comply. But it never really changed his mind. A maverick to the end. Even when he did what he had to do he couldn’t be forced to like doing it.
Note: quotes from Jonah 1:2 Hosea 1:2 Joel 1:2 Amos 1:2 Obadiah 1:1 (NIV)