for the kingdom of heaven is at hand

Prepping for a class on Jonah tomorrow, and for the first time, I truly understand the book beyond the story of a man inside of a fish. The heart of the story can be found in your understanding: (1) what the true miracle of the story is, and (2) what point the Lord makes in ending Jonah as he does.

The miracle of the story has nothing to do with a man surviving inside of a larger-than-life animal. There is something truly astonishing about a creature large enough to house a man inside of it. There is something incredulous about a fish that can be where and when the Lord commands it to participate in a story. But the miracle is in a large, prosperous city en masse seeing the sin in their hearts and offering themselves up to the Lord. No matter how you estimate the population of the city, Boston or Toronto, for a city still in darkness to reach for the light is far more impossible than a regurgitating sea monster.

The Lord ends Jonah in ch.4 rather anticlimactically. It doesn't end after the fasting of a repentant city, credits rolling over an orchestral crescendo. It ends with the Lord playing with the temperature controls over a despondent prophet. But if you understand (1) above, you understand how 4 fits with 1-3. Lord never once cared for the comfort of Jonah -- not when he fled, not when he traveled, not when he longed to be tossed, not when he prayed within the slimy confines of his piscine shelter. Lord wasn't thinking of Jonah; Lord was thinking of lost Nineveh. And in 4 when Jonah pouts, the Lord reminds him of what had been at stake all along: souls in darkness needing the Word that doesn't go out in vain.

Last minute almost switched to Amos over Jonah. Lord had other plans. Lord wanted me to see (1) and (2), especially with events on the horizon.