Jonah’s ‘Nineveh Moment’
Jonah is not history, nor is it based on history, and probably was never intended to be taken literally. Described by one scholar (Meik Gerhards) as ‘a didactic novelette’, it raises deep and sensitive issues about monotheism, race and culture in the context of a small nation with a large ego, surrounded and out-played by many bigger fish, which suddenly finds itself face to face with people whose understanding of God and experience of faith is totally different from theirs.
Usually dated in the 4th century BCE (or a little later) when Jews who had been living in Babylon for two or three generations started to return. Some were of a generation which had never known Jerusalem. Some may have been Babylonians (foreigners) taking the opportunity to make a new life in a new world. Some who had never left Jerusalem were not enamoured of the newcomers and resented their tendency to arrive as if they owned the place, causing hurt and unrest among those who had been left behind and felt they had carried many of the burdens. Ezra and Nehemiah, two of the returnees, were trying to re-build life as it once was (or as they thought it once was) whereas some returnees found it all very different from what they remembered and were not all were sure they wanted to abandon everything they had left behind. In all the tensions the faith of Judaism was being shaken to the core as it wrestled with the problem of one faith and one God coming sharply into contact with alternatives that showed no sign of going away.
Four different attitudes are reflected by the principal characters in the drama: Jonah, the Sailors, the Ninevites, and God. Read, reflect and pray to see if you find yourself in the story, and if so, where exactly and whether you are content with what you see.