Jonah: like it or lump it, mercy prevails

I thought I understood Jonah. Although I puzzle over Israel and Judah's shortsighted kings, I had no such barrier when it came to understanding Jonah. The Lord commands him to go to a large foreign city, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it." The Net Bible commentary notes that this phrase contains a double imperative of verbs, more along the lines of "Go, immediately." 

Jonah's reaction is almost comical in its unpremeditated clarity:

"But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord." Jonah 3:1

The notes describe the word play in these lines--the Lord asked Jonah to "arise," so he did "arise," but in the opposite direction! I was "with" Jonah.  Who wants to travel to a large foreign city to tell a groups of unfamiliar people that they are living in sin and far from God?  

But actually, a sense of self-preservation, fear of the people, was NOT Jonah's motive.  We are not given the reason for Jonah's flight until three chapters later, but then it is made crystal clear. Jonah shares his motive with us first-hand, so there is no room for misunderstanding:

This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “Oh, Lord, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish! –because I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment. So now, Lord, kill me instead, because I would rather die than live!” The Lord said, “Are you really so very angry?”  -Jonah 4:1

Jonah fled God's order because he didn't want the Lord to have mercy on Assyria, a nation that was one of Israel's enemies.  This is exceedingly hard for me to relate to.  Even if we were at war with a nation---or perhaps thinking of terrorists as an example---I don't blame the people as much as I blame their leaders.  It's hard for me to relate to someone who resents God's mercy toward a nation so completely.

It also makes a great example of the way that we always bring our own presumptions and "who we are" to the text.  I read Jonah's emotions through my own.  There is a danger in over-personalizing our readings.  We are quick to want life application to the point where we can misunderstand the text entirely in this pursuit.  Application is a piece of our goal, but we should step back from the text almost the way that you step back to see a large painting in a museum.  We need to see the whole landscape first instead of prematurely stepping forward to share "what it means to me."  A hard thing, no doubt, in such an individualistic age.

Understanding Jonah's motive also strengthens the internal unity of the story.  The vine and worm are not an additional development.  Jonah's stewing is the fruition of the entire text up to that point. 

An Illustration by Eyeteeth/Stix, I love that he does research and depicts this as a Castor Bean plant here. 

The larger question is----who is the Lord pointing His finger at here?  Jesus references Jonah when he foreshadows his own resurrection, so there is definitely a prophetic element to it.  In addition, is it a reminder that the Lord's mercy is great and that our own toward others is often sorely lacking?