Just Like Jonah

“The Lord gave this message to Jonah, son of Amittai: ‘Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.’”
(Jonah 1:1-2 NLT).

Like any great book, the opening line is one of the most critical parts of the story. It’s often referred to as the hook. The writer is trying to hook the audience from the start, hoping to keep them engaged throughout the story. Here are some some of the most incredible hooks in the history of literature.

“Call me Ishmael.”—Herman Melville, Moby-Dick. This line was, in fact, at the top of every list I researched. Interestingly enough, this story is also about a man and a whale.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”—Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. I have never read the book but have seen the movie. My wife made me watch it. Don’t judge. I happen to like a romance drama every now and then.

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”—J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I imagine a lot of you recognized that one right away. The Harry Potter novels have easily claimed their spot in the most remarkable stories of all time.

“The Lord gave this message to Jonah, son of Amittai: ‘Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.’ But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord” (Jonah 1:1-3 NLT).

The book of Jonah begins with God sharing an excellent plan for the people of Nineveh and chooses Jonah to deliver the plan to those people. God wanted to demonstrate His love by forgiving a metropolis of sin and rebellion. He wanted to showcase His great love for humanity. He was going to do it by using one of His best prophets and a man who had shared God’s love for people and kings alike. Choosing Jonah was a no-brainer for God. What happens next is mind-blowing. Jonah says no. Before we jump all over Jonah and begin to judge him and say, “How dare he deny the plan of God?” Let’s look at the context of what is happening here.

Jonah, Son of Amittai

Do you know how powerful a name is? In his book, The Power of Names, Mavis Himes shares, “Our proper name is as much a part of us as our skin. It travels with us like a passport, testifying to our unique presence on this earth. The articulation of our name rolls off our tongue with ease and familiarity, yet we rarely turn and examine the part our name plays in what makes us who we are. Our first name reflects the hopes and dreams of our parents and family, our culture, and our sense of self, while our surname carries our ancestral history, a branding of both affiliation and transmission.”

We have three children, Knox James, Quinn Renee, and Letty Lee. We spent a great deal of time and research while deciding on their names. We first decided what personality traits we wanted them to have. I’ll share with you how we decided on the name of our firstborn— Knox. We knew we wanted him to be strong and courageous and have strong leadership traits. We began by searching for a Bible verse that reflected that vision. We landed on a verse found in the book of Joshua that states, “Be strong and courageous because you will lead these people.” We prayed that verse over him as much as we could during the pregnancy. We then researched strong names that resembled leadership. The name Knox means “first on the top of the hill.” We couldn’t have found a better name for our first little man. He is six now, and I can confidently say that everything we hoped and prayed for regarding his name is spot on. He is the leader of his sisters, and we are constantly blown away by his intelligence and bravery when it comes to every adventure and challenge he encounters and the way he takes them on.

I say all this because the statement from Mavis Himes has been true all along. Even in the days of Jonah. The name Jonah means “dove” in Hebrew. The dove symbolizes peace, as in Noah’s sending out a dove from the ark, signaling the end of the flood. So, this was God’s plan for Jonah all along. He would be the bringer of peace. When God saw Jonah, he saw a brave prophet (a prophet is defined as someone who speaks on behalf of God—I believe there are many still walking and talking on this earth today). Which isn’t as weird as you may think. God knew that Jonah would help people understand the nature of His peace.

Let’s briefly talk about Nineveh and the Ninevites. I say briefly because we will get to know them more as the book goes on. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, a longtime enemy of Israel and what is now modern Iraq. Nineveh was the most crucial metropolis in Assyria. Assyrian soldiers dominated it. Nineveh is what we call a modern-day Las Vegas, Chicago, and L.A. all wrapped into one. Nineveh was full of crime and hatred towards others, a party city, a mob city. Overall, a dangerous place to live and survive. Their wickedness was so great that God could not tolerate it anymore. It was a city that was against God and lived and worshipped false gods. The false god they worshiped was named Dagon—a big surprise on that later. Some researchers have found that if you were to speak about the one true God—the one that Jonah believed in—you would be imprisoned without a tongue, just to make sure that you wouldn’t be able to speak out about Him ever again or about anything else, for that matter. Safe to say, they hated everything that had to do with the one true God. Another note that has to be said for context is that it is extremely likely that Jonah’s own father was killed at the hands of the Ninevites—which made this all the more personal to Jonah.

Jonah believed that there was nobody least deserving of God’s love and forgiveness than the people of Nineveh. Can you imagine how personal this must have felt to Jonah? They were the greatest enemy of him and his people. We can understand now why Jonah was called the “Reluctant Prophet.” He knew the message of grace like the back of his hand and he knew how to obey, but he was also human and human nature wants justice. Of course, he would be reluctant to bring grace and peace to evil people. However, what Jonah will realize—and since we are just like Jonah, what we will realize—is that we can run from God’s plan for our lives, but we cannot hide.

An assignment from God was given to a man whose name means bringer of the peace, who must go and preach grace, mercy, and forgiveness to a city whose main objective is to live without God and bring death to anybody who even whispers about God.

Adventure always begins a little scary

I’ll never forget the day I decided to hike my first—and most likely last—fourteen-thousand-foot mountain. I had talked about doing it for years, and since I lived in Florida, the opportunity rarely presented itself—until it did. I had relatives who lived near the mountain so when I made a trip to visit them, I decided that was the best opportunity I was going to get. Since I have friends and family who care about my well-being, I heard a lot of “It is too big, and you haven’t trained enough,” “You have no idea how little air is on the mountain, and you will die.” (I have some pretty dramatic friends). Since I tend to lean on the optimistic side of life, I went against all proverbial wisdom and decided to climb the mountain.