The Great Escape
But Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship that was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and boarded it to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord. Jonah 1:3 NASB
To flee – Apparently Jonah hadn’t taken courses in theology, especially not in the attributes of God. How could anyone think he could flee from the presence of the Lord? Ah, but that question fails to recognize the particular oddity of ancient religious views about the gods. You see, in the ancient world, gods were territorial. The gods of Egypt only had power and presence in Egypt. That’s why Pharoah can say, “Who is YHVH? I don’t know him and I won’t let you go.” YHVH was a foreign god who had no power in Egypt. At least that’s what Pharoah thought until the God of Israel showed him otherwise. But Jacob had the same limited view. Remember when he declares, “I didn’t know God was in this place”? He left Canaan and accordingly, the God of his people was still back there in Canaan, not where he was. Of course, this same idea was true in Babylon, Assyria, and all over the ancient world. It’s no surprise that Jonah, forgetting the lessons of Exodus, thinks he can run off the Tarshish and leave God behind.
Now that we understand his plan, we must ask why. Why did he want to get away from God? What difference would it make to him if he followed God’s command to go to Ninevah? But Jonah decides to flee. bāraḥ, “to run away, to chase, to drive away, to put to flight, to hurry away.” Impulsive. Usually associated with escape from an enemy. From Egypt. From Babylon. Now, from God. This doesn’t make sense. Forget the issue of omnipresence. If Jonah is a man of absolute justice, why wouldn’t he want to go to Ninevah and watch them suffer for their sins? God isn’t that unpredictable, is He? Didn’t He promise in that great self-revelation of Exodus 34:6-7 that the wicked would not go unpunished? If you had the opportunity to witness the destruction of a city already judged by God, would you run away from the spectacle? No, I don’t think so. We all want the wicked to get what they deserve, to watch them suffer for their sins. What’s Jonah doing?
This question introduces a correction to another ancient belief. Jonah ran because he believed that only punishment could cleanse sin, but he knew that if he preached destruction to Ninevah, they might repent. And repentance always involves unpredictable outcomes. In Jonah’s theology if Ninevah isn’t punished, the moral calculus of the universe would be disrupted. Righteousness would not prevail because righteousness demanded that the wicked be punished. Jonah ran because he didn’t want the moral order upset, and God, who was a bit unpredictable, just might do something that would upset that moral order. Jonah is a man who believes in justice, not mercy, for mercy is the enemy of moral order. The entire story of Jonah is the biblical lesson that atonement does not always require punishment. In the case of repentance, midda keneged midda doesn’t apply.
If you thought Jonah’s story was about a miraculous fish and a city’s submission, you missed the point. Jonah’s story is a lesson about the divine balance between justice and mercy. It’s a lesson that everyone needs to know.
Topical Index: flee, bāraḥ, moral order, justice, mercy, atonement, Jonah 1:3
