The Book of Jonah is one focus of this year's Presbyterian Women's Bible study. The story is so familiar and so fantastical! I thought I knew it well Jonah running from God, three days in the belly of the whale, warning the Ninevites, angry at God -- but I had missed one important detail -- why was Jonah so determined not to do what God commanded?
It turns out Jonah, like his fellow Jews, absolutely hated the Ninevites. They were pagans, after all, not part of the Chosen People. Why should Jonah deliver God's message of warning? Why should God care about them? As pastor and author Anne Robertson writes, Jonah feels God should have higher standards.
Maybe the lesson of Jonah's story is that God decides who He cares about and who He will save -- not Jonah, not man, not us. Pastor Robertson asks, "What would it be like if we showed an ounce of compassion rather than a ton of judgment? What would it be like if we forgave as we have been forgiven?"*
Our job is to do God's work wherever, whenever, and for and with whomever He decides. Jewish tradition says that, at the end of the story, Jonah fell on his face and said, "Govern your world according to the measure of mercy, as it is said, `To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness.'" (Daniel 9:9)
God, help us to show mercy and forgiveness and love to all your children, not just the ones we think deserve it! Amen.
Diane Falconer
*Robertson, Anne. Blowing the Lid off the God-Box: Opening Up to a Limitless Faith. Morehouse, 2005. p. 43.
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