Bible Study recap: Jonah 3.1-5, 10

We again encounter the reluctant prophet (falling in line with Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel ...), someone who unwillingly is called to God's work. Come to think of it Jonah was more than reluctant, he was actively resistant. Most of us are familiar with the back story of how he tried to avoid going to Nineveh and was swallowed and spit up by a whale ... this passage deals with the immediate aftermath.

It's amazing that an entire city would embrace a foreign prophet's message so quickly and thoroughly. For a city that had the corrupt and evil reputation that Nineveh did, it reminds us how appearance and reputation can be deceiving.

Several connections to last week's readings were made: why is the entire city of Nineveh able to benefit from God's change of heart while Eli and his sons were doomed to punishment regardless? Small towns like Nazareth were slandered last week, this week we talked about the crime and corruption of the big cities. We contemplated modern-day Ninevehs, how the megacities of our time, seem too big for their own good.

Looking back, it was an easy job for Jonah (notwithstanding the 3 days in the belly of a whale) and we wondered if perhaps he didn't really want the people of Nineveh to repent. Did he relish the thought of seeing some good old Old Testament vengeance in the spectator-mode of "at least it's not me"? Or was he overwhelmed by the seeming futility of his mission, trying to convert an entire foreign metropolis to God's way?

In the end, we see the power of proclamation prevailing and the echo of a Star Trek slogan: "Resistance is futile."