January 23rd, 2021

The Old Testament reading for the third Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord is, dare I say, quite exciting. And to get an even more exciting picture, might I suggest reading through an entire book of the Bible? It is not a long book, and this bigger picture might give you a perspective that you have not seen before, a perspective that was originally intended by the writer. How many letters do YOU write that you only expect a portion of them to be read?

Aside from the very special service of the Easter Vigil, this is the only time in the three-year series that the Old Testament text is from the book of Jonah [3:1-5, 10]. For you to read the entire book, only forty-eight verses long, may take less than ten minutes. Its storyline is well-known, and looking at it again as a whole may cause you to see something not noticed before. It is somewhat of an action-adventure drama that builds in intensity as it gets closer to the end.

In Hebrew writings, the end is not always the most important thing. The middle part of the book may include something even more important. Just for your information, in the middle of this book, there is also something important. There is the ‘psalm’ that Jonah prayed within the great fish. But there is a progression within that psalm as well. In 2:5, Jonah says that he will again look to ‘the temple of your holiness’. And in 2:8, Jonah says that ‘my prayer rose to you, to the temple of your holiness’. Some people see this second temple as a heavenly one, but even Daniel, when he prayed, faced the temple at Jerusalem (see Daniel 6, especially verse 10). So, there is a progression here, toward the LORD, within this middle point.

The action-adventure part of Jonah may be seen in a phrase that comes up several times within the entire book. There are four phrases that use the word ‘great’ and those phrases are translated somewhat literally, and also supplied with these four lines are short summaries of what happens before and after each occurrence. Note that each occurrence of ‘great’ is basically like this: ‘And he/they ____-ed a great ____.’

[The LORD wants Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach there; he goes in the opposite direction, on a boat, and a storm hits, and Jonah shares with the men regarding who the LORD is.]

‘And the men feared a great fear… (1:10).’

[Jonah gets the men to throw him overboard, and that stops the storm.]

‘And the men feared Yahweh with a great fear… (1:16).’

[Jonah eventually gets to Nineveh and preaches there; the people end up repenting, and God ends up not destroying them.

‘And Jonah was displeased with a great displeasure….(4:1).’

[Jonah goes to a place where he can look at the city, to see what happens to it; God commands a tree to grow and give him shade from his ‘displeasure’—yes, this is the same word that was used regarding Jonah’s negative response to God’s kindness toward Nineveh.]

‘And Jonah was glad with a great gladness…(4:6).’

[And God lets the tree die, and Jonah has to deal with that, and the LORD compares that tree to Nineveh.]

There seems to be a progression within the text. And instead of a progression that one might expect; one, for example, from an emphasis on fearing the LORD to one of loving the LORD, the progression eventually focuses on Jonah instead of LORD, but with the progression from displeasure to gladness. Is this a proper end, to focus on Jonah’s gladness, and just because of a tree?!

Reed Lessing, in the Concordia Commentary Series on Jonah [St. Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 2007, page 347], points out that there is a structure seen in the number of words from the quotes that are near the end of this book. At the start of chapter four, Jonah’s quote is 39 words long. Yahweh responds with 3 words. Jonah also responds with 3 words. Then God says 5 words. Then Jonah responds with 5 words. Then Yahweh responds with exactly 39 words, the same number that Jonah had at the beginning of the chapter.

Perhaps that is why Yahweh includes his concern also for the ‘many cattle’. You could also say that the LORD literally has the last word.