The Samson Connection
But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord . . . Jonah 1:3a NASB
To flee – Everyone know the Jonah story. Probably everyone knows, or thinks that they know, the Sampson story as well. We have those Sunday school memories of the whale (big fish) and the long hair of the strong man. Maybe our teachers skipped over some of the details, but we remember the highlights. The question is whether we ever understood the meaning. Does the story of Jonah or the story of Samson have any more significance than just another Jewish historical event?
When Jonah runs from God, he initiates an act of rebellion. He doesn’t just run in any direction. He actually decides to go in exactly the opposite direction that God’s command expects. This action is described in Hebrew with the verb bāraḥ, a verb that is used sixty-six times in the Tanakh and nearly always as a description of fleeing from an enemy. As far as Jonah is concerned, the real enemy is not Nineveh but God. He simply does not want Nineveh to escape destruction, and he knows that if he should warn them, they might repent. God might change His mind. But for Jonah, Nineveh must suffer. Therefore, they must not be warned. Jonah’s personal animosity toward these people overrules God’s commission.
There is only one other biblical character who acts in this way. That man is Samson. He too avoids God’s commission and turns what should have been a holy war against the Philistines into a personal love affair. Neither Jonah nor Samson care about God’s purposes so much as their own agendas. The only real difference is the intensity of their disobedience. Samson simply follows his own desires. Rather than act according to the Nazirite vow which is supposed to be voluntary, Samson demonstrates that he is unwilling to remain consecrated to God in virtually all respects. He just doesn’t care. Jonah, on the other hand, cares a lot—for the fulfillment of his own sense of justice. Samson is passive-aggressive. Jonah is deliberately rebellious.
The Hebrew text makes this abundantly clear by contrasting the use of the verb qûm in the command and in the subsequent action. “Arise and go to Nineveh,” says the Lord. Jonah rises, but he goes in the opposite direction. Jonah arises to escape rather than fulfill. As Uriel Simon mentions, “Here we have an echo of the Elijah stories (this time inverted). The earlier prophet’s utter obedience is expressed by the full linguistic coincidence of ‘Arise and go to Zarephath’ and ‘he arose and went to Zarephath’ (1 Kings 17:9-10). Jonah, by contrast, does indeed arise and set out—but in the opposite direction.”[1]
Is this more than just ancient history? Are we so enamored by the miracle of the fish or the muscles that we don’t see the point? Samson and Jonah give us two examples of rebellion. We can consort with the enemy or pretend that the enemy is really the Lord. Both stories come to the same conclusion. In the end, personal agendas won’t survive. It’s either bāraḥ or bārak (to kneel, bless, praise). The difference is only one small letter, a fence (Chet) or an open hand (Kaf).
Topical Index: bāraḥ, flee, qûm, arise, Jonah 1:3a
[1] Uriel Simon, The JPS Commentary: Jonah (JPS, 1999), p. 5.
