Based on Jonah and the Minors: Chapter 5—The Grumpy Prophet
Juliette Alvey
Dear Grown-up,
The fifth chapter in Jonah and the Minors is called “The Grumpy Prophet,” and this is indeed an accurate description of Jonah. God sent him on a mission to preach to the Ninevites, and instead of doing what God asked, he ran in the opposite direction. We know from history that Nineveh was an enemy of the Hebrews, but when it comes down to it… why was Jonah so grumpy?
Was it because he didn’t think his mission would be successful? Nope. Was it because he was afraid of the Ninevites? Not really. Was it because he just didn’t feel like going through the trouble? Maybe, but not the root cause of the grumpiness.
He was grumpy because he totally and completely understood the nature of God’s love and mercy. You might think, “Wouldn’t that make him happy, not grumpy?” But Jonah did not want his enemies to be loved or forgiven. They didn’t deserve it. He did not agree with God’s choice of who he wanted to love, but through the story of Jonah, God shows that his love is for his whole creation.
In fact, Jonah knew God so well… that he ran away.
There’s another seemingly contradictory statement. You would think that if he knew God, he would know that he couldn’t outrun God…
Exactly!
Those of you who have had little children know how bad behavior and running from a parent is normal, even from “good” kids. I remember that my daughter’s kindergarten teacher explained to us to not be surprised if the kids keep it together all day at school and then completely fall apart when they get home. Why? Because they were safe to fall apart at home. As a mom, sometimes I feel beat up and like the recipient of my child’s worst behavior, but I have heard that this is because they feel safe to be at their worst with me. One of my kids was a runner, which could be very scary when we were in public places and I feared for his life. But he was super confident in my love. He was safe to run as fast as he wanted in the opposite direction because (thank God!) I always caught him.
I wonder if Jonah ran the other direction, not because he actually believed he could outrun the God of the Universe who created the land and the sea, but because he knew that God would catch him.
Now, I don’t know if Jonah would have run away if he had known that God’s method of “catching” him would be so stinky and unpleasant, but that is par for the course… when we run away, we usually make life harder on ourselves than it needs to be.
Does this explanation excuse Jonah’s bad behavior and his rebellion against God? Of course not. But sometimes we look at Jonah from the outside and get a little self-righteous. We may think, “Why would he do that? Why doesn’t he just do what God says?” But if we picture Jonah as a little kid running from his mom, we might realize we are more like this grumpy prophet than we’d like to admit. And that’s good news because God’s love is for us, too!
