A God with a Wider Heart

“Jonah, Jonah!” The voice was soft but clear. Jonah was still on bed in the morning when the call came.  He was on an on-call duty. Jonah was working for Yahweh. His job was to take the message of Yahweh wherever he was sent to.  

Jonah got up from the bed and listened carefully to the message to be delivered, and also to the destination. Jonah had been doing this for several years, and he had become an expert at this.  

The destination: The city of Nineveh

The message: The city will be destroyed in forty days. 

The message is perfectly right, Jonah thought. The people of Nineveh are not the people of Yahweh, and Yahweh must destroy the city. That is exactly what Yahweh is supposed to do because they are the enemies of Israel. This is something Yahweh should have done long time ago.  

But…wait a minute. Why should Yahweh send me there with this message? Jonah wondered. Why can’t Yahweh just destroy the city? 

Jonah grew restless. His brain began to work in a faster pace. He analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of going to Nineveh and delivering the message.  The disadvantages were obvious. There is a possibility for those people to repent, and thus be forgiven by Yahweh. If they are not destroyed, they might come back to destroy the people of Israel. Moreover, going there could be extremely risky. Who would want to hear a bad news? But there were advantages as well. This is an opportunity to scare the people in Nineveh. Also they will know that the destruction is from Yahweh, the God of Israel.

Finally Jonah made himself believe that what he heard was a miscommunication, and he decided against going to Nineveh. Soon Jonah found himself in a ship that was going to Tarshish, a place which he thought was far away from the dominion of Yahweh. Soon Jonah would realize how foolish it was to make such a decision.  

Yahweh was greater than what Jonah’s mind could contain, and Yahweh’s dominion was vaster than what Jonah thought. Yahweh didn’t want to let Jonah escape like that. Yahweh sent two of his servants -- a wind and a fish—to catch Jonah and take him to Nineveh by force. They obeyed Yahweh perfectly well, and Jonah found himself on the seashore of Nineveh.  

This is how it happened. When Jonah was in the ship, the wind blew fiercely, and the ship was almost going to sink. All the crew and the passengers of the ship began to cry aloud to their gods to save them, except Jonah, who was sleeping comfortably in the lowest deck. They cast lots to find out by whose fault the gods were angry, and it fell on Jonah. They demanded an explanation from Jonah, and Jonah admitted his fault. He asked them to throw him over to the sea, so that they all could be safe. Reluctantly they did so, and suddenly the wind stopped. Once Jonah was in the sea, the other servant of Yahweh, the big fish, took over. The fish gave him a free ride to Nineveh in its belly, which took three days and nights.

Jonah felt very upset. He felt justified at what he did, but he couldn’t justify what Yahweh did. What Jonah had learned since his childhood was that Israel was the nation of Yahweh, and the Jewish people were the chosen people of Yahweh. If this is true, why does Yahweh want to give an opportunity to the Ninevehites to repent and escape the imminent destruction?  

Unwillingly, Jonah went to the city, and proclaimed the message of imminent destruction. The people of Nineveh responded positively to the message. All people and animals fasted for three days and repented of their evil ways. The king himself gave the initiative and leadership to a nation-wide repentance.

Jonah left the city, and waited in the seashore to see the destruction of the city. However, as Jonah suspected, the city was not destroyed. Jonah felt cheated. He even thought that Yahweh was a liar. Yahweh said the city was going to be destroyed, but it did not happen.  

Jonah was very upset and utterly desperate. He wanted to end his miserable life. Yahweh tried to talk to him. But he was very angry at Yahweh. “Take my life!” he shouted with despair.

Yahweh, the great teacher, made use of that teachable moment. Yahweh brought before Jonah a teaching aid that Jonah could see and touch-- a vine that grew up over him to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort. Jonah felt happy about the vine. The next morning Yahweh sent a worm to chew its root, and it withered. Jonah was very upset and angry.  

"Jonah, do you think you have a right to be angry about the vine?” Yahweh asked.

“Yes, I am angry enough to end this wretched life!” Jonah replied.  

Now comes the moment. Yahweh compared Jonah’s concern for the vine to Yahweh’s own concern for the people of Nineveh.  

“Look at this vine,” Yahweh said, “You did not plant this vine. You did not water it. You did not do anything for it. But it grew up over your head to give you shade and comfort. And you are upset to see it got withered.” 

“Now look at this city,” Yahweh continued. “It has more than a hundred thousand people and even more cattle here. I am the one who planted this city. I am the one who watered it. Do you think I want to see it destroyed?” 

From Nineveh, Jonah went back home with a new vision of Yahweh—a Yahweh with a wider heart than he thought. 

Back to Contents