The behavior of prophet Jonah: a theological and psychopedagogical problem

The story of the Jonah is more than a biographic sketch of the historical prophet (2 King 14,25) who tried to desert when called to a difficult and unpleasant task.It is more than a miraculous tale of a huge sea monster and a strange plant in a faraway land. It is a divinely inspired masterpiece systematically developed along the lines of that we know today as a short story. We have a figure of a nationalistic prophet who tragically attempted to escape his duty. His resentment toward God’s universal love mirrors the narrow exclusiveness of all who would limit divine favor to a select few in any age. Very little is said of the prophet Jonah outside of the Book of Jonah itself. In 2 Kings 14,25, Jonah is said to have prophesied than the southern kingdom of Israel would expand its borders during the reign of Jerboam, a wicked king.It does seem safe to conclude that this «Jonah» is the same person as the «Jonah» who is the subject of the Book of Jonah, especially since both are identified as «the son of Amittai». Jonah refuses to go to Nineveh, although God tells him to warn Nineveh of God’s anger. Instead, Jonah goes to sea and when a storm arises, Jonah is thrown overboard.God sends a fish to save Jonah,and Jonah responds with a psalm of thanks that God has delivered him.(Jonah 1,2) Reluctantly,Jonah goes to Nineveh and warns the people of coming destruction.All the people promptly repent in the hope that God will spare the city.God decides to save the city and Jonah is angry (despite the fact that earlier God had saved Jonah).The prophet shows more concern for a plant that shades him than he does for the inhabitants of Nineveh.(Jonah 3,4) For some people the story is allegorical. Jonah, swallowed by the fish for his disobedience and vomited out to fulfil his divinely appointed mission of converting the heathen, symbolizes the Jewish people,swallowed up in the Babylonian Exile for their disloyalty to God, but brought forth again in the Return that they might lead the nations to God. On the other hand many interpreters feel that Jesus would quite naturally have chosen to communicate with his listeners in terms of their traditions and concepts without entering into involved questions of interpretation, or without intending to confirm the literalism of the story. Jonah’s three days in the belly of the fish are a prophecy of the three days that Jesus would spend in the grave. For painters throughout the ages, Jonah and the fish and Jonah under the vine have been favourite motives, just as oratorios have been composed about his adventures. Jonah means «dove». A proper name in Hebrew and it is also a term for Israel in Rabbinical Literature.The dove suggests a faint-hearted animal, prone to escape and whose cooing is likened to cries in distress.In this way the name of the hero of the story becomes a portent of his character. Today for psychoanalysts Jonah is a symbol of the development of the ego. No man can escape God and God’s mercy and forgiving reach everyone that leaves his evil ways and returns to Him. Between Jonah and God there is a conflict which stands as a tragic example of personal failure.He is a wayward, willful, stubborn patriot with little perception of a prophet’s task.He loves God and yet seeks to escape his duty.He is deeply concerned lest God make a tragic mistake in forgiving the hated Ninevites, and yet he is willing to offer himself lest innocent sailors perish for his disobedience.He has unusual powers as a preacher, yet he does not love those to whom he addresses his message. Jonah is not known for his piety, but for his prodigality. In his rebellion and disobedience, in his hardness of heart, is a man who typifies the rebelion of the nation Israel. The problem of the prophet was self-righteousness. The only person who despises grace is the one who thinks that he is righteous. Jonah and his people, the Israelites, had forgotten that God’s blessings were the product of God’s grace, not the result of Israel’s righteousness or superiority over the Gentiles.They had also forgotten that God had promised to bless all nations through Israel: «And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed».(Gen.12,13) Jonah has much to say to 21st century Christians, as well as to Israelites of all ages.Christian become angry with God today, and for the same wrong reasons as Jonah.We are just not as open and honest as Jonah to admit it. The book ends with a striking contrast between God and Jonah.God would save all while Jonah would save some.God’s outlook is universal while Jonah’s is particular. The story ends leaving the reader with a most uneasy feeling.The book is not written to leave us with a warm fuzzy feeling, but rather to leave us very discomforted, for just as the book closes with no solution to Jonah’s sin, so the Old Testament closes with no solution for Israel’s sin. Only the coming of Christ gives us the sense of relief, repentance and restoration which God wants us to experience