I am a Hebrew!
How the prophet Jonah has relevance to the Jewish nation today.
Who was the most successful prophet in the Old Testament? Which book is listed among the prophets and yet has virtually no prophetic content? And which Old Testament individual spends most of the book named after him doing exactly the opposite of what God asked him to do?
If you didn’t get it on the first two, you probably got it on the third. Good old Jonah, a byword now for running off in the other direction. And yet it is more than just a personal story which we can apply to our circumstances.
All of you Bible students out there will know that Jesus refers to Jonah three times in the Gospels and it is always in the context of ‘a sign’ to Jesus generation. But why Jonah?
The weekly Torah portion places the Book of Jonah on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year. Think about this: the sun is setting, worshippers have spent the whole day in repentance, fasting and prayer. As the light fades people’s thoughts return to their everyday life, a place where God’s presence may not seem quite as immanent as He is on the year’s most sacred day. The attitude of repentance, which has been the focus of their attention, is fading too. So here they are, presented with the account of Jonah, you cannot get away from the presence of God no matter how far you go.
A question of identity
Territorial deities were a common belief in Jonah’s time, powerless beyond their own borders. Did Jonah honestly think that Yahweh would lose him outside the borders of Israel? He was fleeing God, ‘he told them so’ (Jonah 1:10).
Had he forgotten who he was? His identity was not bound up in some local deity, but the God of the whole world. As Jonah said ‘I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land’ (Jonah 1:9).
Here, in Jonah, is where Jewish identity is summarised:
Ivri anokhi! ‘I am a Hebrew’.
The identity of the Jewish people cannot be taken away, it’s a covenant thing. We always tend to think as we battle replacement theology, and contend for the covenant faithfulness of God with those believers that just don’t see it, that it’s about that aspect alone. But of course, another side of this multifaceted mystery of God’s purposes with Israel is that the Jewish people cannot shake this promise either. God has bound the Jewish people to Himself, and they don’t have any choice in the matter.
The wicked generation, embodied in Jesus’ rejection by the religious authorities, had really suffered some type of collective amnesia. They were supposed to be a light to the world, and yet they rejected the Light of the World. It was a case of identity crisis on their part. What does it mean to be a Hebrew? To fear the Lord, the God of heaven. The creator of all things.
God is to be found anywhere, at any time. It is the lesson taught by the book of Jonah, and its message to all who hear it on Yom Kippur is that we have to live our lives accordingly.
What a prophet!
Jonah, wherever he goes, causes repentance and revival. Now I know I’m blowing some revival theology out of the water here. Isn’t it those who pray and fast and live in perfect obedience who do great things for God? So why is it that this sleeping prophet opens his mouth to say he is running from his God and then a load of idol worshipping sailors turn to the Lord with exceeding fear, offering sacrifices and making vows?
Following this our ancient Aquaman emerges from the Sea to give one prophetic utterance and 120,000+ people repent. A prophet he was indeed, no one had a success rate like him in one sitting.
Those who claimed to own the monopoly on religious knowledge in Jesus time must have understood the significance of the three days by their understanding of Jonah. Jonah’s watery experience would have reminded the people of Ninevah of not only their fish god Oannes, but also Inanna-Ishtar. A god, their legends told them, who rose from the dead after three days, and whose temple stood in their city.
For cultures at that time, 3 days was an accepted death to life timescale. We see this in the Bible too. Abraham’s journey to sacrifice Isaac took 3 days; in Exodus the Israelites wander in the desert for 3 days without water before God provides it in Marah, another death to life experience. Hosea reminds us of the significance of three days:
He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. (Hosea 6:1-2)
3 days was an established concept in the time of Jesus. Jewish tradition states that it takes 3 days for a person’s spirit to depart their body after they die. Why else did Jesus leave Lazarus in the grave 4 days other than to make the point of His absolute power over life and death?
In Luke Jesus says: ‘For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation’ (Luke 11:30).
Chosen for what?
To me this is a picture of Israel today. If you have travelled in Israel enough you will have met us, Jewish people who, though we may not always be the best example of humankind, carry a promise, one that we cannot escape. I have known people who have said, ‘Do you know you are God’s chosen people?’, only to be met with the reply. ‘What, chosen to suffer!’, or ‘Why doesn’t He choose someone else?’. Yet God chooses to use rebellious, stubborn and downright difficult people. No one else can claim the glory but God alone as He works out His purposes.
Despite their rebellion and lack of interest in the Lord and His promises (over 50% of Jewish people in Israel do not believe in God), the Jewish people continue to be a ‘Light to the World’. Of course the most obvious way that light is demonstrated today is through technology and innovation. I don’t need to tell you about the fact that 20% of all Nobel prizes have been awarded to Jews, who make up 0.2% of the world’s population. The website israel21c.org showcases the amazing array of technological advances that Israel has blessed the world with in her short modern history.
Senor and Singer’s book Start-up Nation tries to answer the question about Israel’s success. They ask why a nation only formed in 1948, with a small population and very little natural resources produces more start–up companies than countries like Japan, Korea, Canada and the UK.1 In September 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly and said these words:
‘As the prophet Isaiah said, “I have made you a light unto the nations, bringing salvation to the ends of the earth.” Today, 2,700 years after Isaiah spoke those prophetic words, Israel is becoming a rising power among the nations. And at long last, its light is shining across the continents, bringing hope and salvation to the ends of the earth’.
A National calling
Of course the salvation he spoke of was physical, the impact of Israeli technology and research that has contributed to medicine, agriculture, technology, and the Israeli medical teams that are nearly always first on the ground at international humanitarian aid efforts.
The salvation we think of is so much more than that. When Paul speaks of stumbling Israel in Romans 11, we know that’s not the end of the story. Israel, even in her current situation of darkness to their Messiah is serving the purposes of God for the salvation of the whole world.
The Jewish nation has a calling upon it which cannot be taken away. Jesus was trying to make them see that. The original purpose of the covenants that God made with them was to be a blessing to the nations.
Even in their rebellion this has happened.
But what about this modern Jonah? A nation, largely in rebellion against God’s purposes, and yet there as a physical, undeniable, obvious fulfilment of the covenant promises of God. The outcome of 4000 years of God’s faithfulness, in spite of their unfaithfulness.
Ultimately the sign of Jonah is death and resurrection. The only true power over sin is the glorious resurrection of the Messiah. Jonah is a reminder to the Jewish people that wherever they go, God is there and He does not change. He is a reminder to the rest of the world that God will always do what He said He will do.