Jonah and the Wail

Jonah 1:3  But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

            I have always been fascinated with the story of Jonah. As a child and teenager, of course it was the great fish (huge fish, NIV) that captured my attention rather than the primary message of forgiveness. And who among us doesn’t remember some artistic interpretation involving a whale? But it isn’t Jonah’s whale I want to discuss; it’s his wail (i.e., to express dissatisfaction plaintively; complain).

            You’ve heard the expression, “Location, location, location” and in the case of Jonah’s story, location was something I had missed until recent years. My previous assumption was that Jonah fled to Tarsus of Cilicia, but that is a city just a little over 300 miles northward up the coast from Joppa. I assumed Tarsus and Tarshish to be the same place but just a varied biblical spelling. Not so. Tarshish is a great distance of approximately 2,500+ miles westward of Joppa and beyond the border of the known Roman World of that day. Quite a difference! When Jonah ran away from the LORD, he fled in the complete opposite direction of where he was supposed to be going (i.e., Nineveh, approximately 400+ miles eastward) away from anything known within the Roman World at that time. As Jonah was soon to learn, one can never outrun the LORD.

Proverbs 16:9  In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.

            The other point I always seemed to miss was the reason Jonah fled. I always seemed to miss the fact that Jonah was fully aware of the LORD’s desire to forgive his errant creation! He knew in advance the LORD would forgive! Which brings us to Jonah’s wail.

Jonah 3:10-4:4 When God saw what they [Ninevites] did and how they turned from their evil ways he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” But the LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

            I think as I look back on this story, Jonah’s real problem was that he preached condemnation and when that condemnation did not take place, he viewed it as a personal insult to his own reputation. Jonah failed to see the victory in the repentance of 120,000+ people that day.

            And where do we stand in this story? One of the simplest lessons is that we can never outrun the LORD, our Heavenly Father. He is a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love! He is ready to forgive all who would come or return to him.

Gracious Heavenly Father,

            How thankful we are for the lesson of Jonah. We are so humbly thankful to be recipients of your compassion and love. Forgive us when we so often wander astray. Our hearts plead also for those who have fled from you as far away as they could—lead them back to your loving arms.

            In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Amen.

 

The devotional Jonah and the Wail appeared first on Write From My Heart at writefrommyheartblog.blogspot.com

email: Dotty Willmon, writefrommyheartblog@gmail.com