Jonah and the whale1/4/2024 Then, even after he has carried out his task, Jonah doesn’t see the significance of saving the Ninevites, whom he cares for little: God needs to show his prophet why everyone, if they undergo due penance and realise the error of their ways, can be saved. It’s only when Jonah prays to God in the belly of the fish that God realises Jonah will do as commanded. The plot of this very short book is tight and effective: Jonah tries to run away from his responsibility and so God engineers the storm, and subsequent tumbling into the fish’s mouth, in order to get Jonah’s attention and point out that he cannot escape his destiny. Indeed, Jonah has to be instructed twice by God: first, to get him to undertake his prophesying, and second, to show him why it was important. Jonah begs for God to kill him and put him out of his misery. ![]() God has given him protection and then showed him how easily he can take it away. While he sits outside Nineveh, waiting to see whether God will continue to spare them or whether he will change his mind, Jonah experiences a series of strange sights and sensations which God has arranged for him: a plant (probably a castor-oil plant, as is noted in the indispensable Dictionary of the Bible) shoots up next to him to provide some welcome shade from the hot sun then the plant is killed by a worm and finally a hot wind blows into Jonah’s face to torment him. He leaves the city and goes into a big sulk it turns out that the reason he was so reluctant to go and warn the people of Nineveh of God’s wrath was because he didn’t want them to have a chance of salvation! God accepts their act of penitence and spares them, much to Jonah’s disgust. ![]() Their king puts on sackcloth and sits in ashes, and others follow his lead. When he tells the inhabitants of the city what will befall them – delivering just a single terse sentence by way of prophecy (see Jonah 3:4) – they immediately repent, praying and fasting to demonstrate their penitence.
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