People often wonder if a story as incredible as “Jonah and the Whale” actually happened or if it’s simply an allegory. While there is no question that God can do anything, what’s more important is that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16 Let’s not get hung up on whether it physically happened but rather, on what it teaches us. Either way, Jonah is rich with insights.
God chose Jonah for the important mission of warning the 120,000 people in Nineveh, the capital of the powerful and intensely wicked Assyrians. Their gory wartime practices against their military conquests were well known and Jonah was concerned that they just might listen to his message and repent. Here is a prophet with a single line to speak, “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” but he refuses to do the deed. What kind of a prophet does that? One who, in his limited vision, believed there can be no redemption for the Ninevites living in such darkness. One who believed forgiveness should only be offered to the Israelites and no one else.
Taking the scenic path, Jonah eventually delivers the 8-word warning to the Ninevites and, just as he dreaded, they repented immediately. In fact, the king of Nineveh exercised much faith in the true God by believing the warning and leading his people into repentance. From the other side of the cross, the bottom line is that “…God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” Acts 10:34b-35 Further, that God’s driving principle is that He “desire(s) mercy, not sacrifice”. Matthew 12:4
When God clearly calls us to a thing, He will bring it to pass. Whether we learn the easy way by being quick to obey, or whether we walk in the opposite direction, sooner or later God’s will is going to prevail. Let’s determine not to be hardened in our hearts but to, like God, desire mercy more than sacrifice. In so doing, we pave the way to be effective evangelists of God’s love and mercy and for those in darkness to enter into His marvelous light.