invitation to
Jona h
This book relates how God sent the prophet Jonah, who lived during
the reign of Jeroboam II (783–743 or 793–753 BC), to warn the people
of Nineveh that their city was about to be destroyed. This book’s form
is unique among all the prophetic books. It presents a narrative about
a prophet, rather than a collection of his oracles. In this whole book
there’s only one sentence of prophecy: Forty more days and Nineveh
will be overthrown.
The book of Jonah is written with a great deal of literary care. It’s
structured into two main acts, with two scenes each. The repetition
of God’s command to Jonah, Go to the great city of Nineveh, marks
the beginning of each act. Act one, scene one is set on a ship at sea
as Jonah tries to avoid the mission God has sent him on. The second
scene takes place in the belly of a huge fish that has swallowed Jonah.
Both scenes of the next act are associated with the city of Nineveh.
Act two, scene one takes place within the city itself as Jonah preaches
and Nineveh repents. Scene two takes place just outside the city as
Jonah struggles to accept God’s grace and mercy for others.
Biblical scholars offer varying estimates of when the book of Jonah
was written. Because it relates several significant episodes from the
life of a prophet who lived in the eighth century BC, in this edition it’s
placed with the books that record the words of other prophets who
lived at that time. But these episodes from Jonah’s life may actually be
recounted in order to speak to the situation of a later generation. In
the book, Jonah seems to represent the attitude that many people in
Israel took at various times toward other nations. This is not a minor
matter but concerns Israel’s original calling to be God’s agent for
bringing blessing to the world. Instead of recognizing their mission
to help these nations come to know the true God, they considered
them their enemies and expected God to destroy them. And so God’s
question to Jonah at the end of the book—should I not have concern
for the great city of Nineveh?—is also being posed to any readers who
share Jonah’s hostile attitude to foreigners.
This suggests that Jonah may represent Israel more generally in the
book. God did tell some of the other prophets to act out signs in which
they represented their nation. For example, Ezekiel lived on rationed
food to show that Jerusalem would come under siege (pp. 368–369).