62: POISON (!) & PARABLE (?)

Based on the books of Obadiah (Ob) & Jonah (Jon)…Read more there

OBADIAH

The Edomites whom Ob attacks with such vitriol in this short (only 21 vv.) book that bears his name are descendants of Esau, Jacob’s (Israel’s) twin brother. Though the two had ‘made up’  [GEN  Ch.33] there were always ongoing tensions between their descendants. When the Babylonians over-ran Judea & took many of the Jews into captivity (BC. 586-7) instead of coming to their distant relatives’ aid the Edomites joined with the Babylonians! PS 137, from the days of captivity, ends with a burst of raging hatred. This is the back-ground against which Ob spells out the bad things he believes YHWH will do to the Edom-ites before & after Judgment Day! Many of these predictions come to pass. The infamous N.T. Herod dynasty were Edomites! Still at it frustrating what God was doing among the Hebrews, but for everyone, in the Person of His Son, Jesus.

JONAH

It’s most likely Jon is a ‘parable’ & like Daniel to be read imaginatively, not literally. Let’s look at it that way now.Ch.1: Jonah is sent by God as a ‘missionary’ to Nineveh, once the capital of the Assyrian empire. Jon, though, is probably from the 4th C. BC, & Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC! But the memory of the Assyrians destroying the old Northern Kingdom, Israel is still strong even after the eventual return from exile in Babylon. The ‘half-caste’ (as the Jews saw them) Samaritans were one legacy of the Assyrian conquest. Instead of going to Nineveh as God requires of him, Jonah takes passage on a boat sailing for Spain to avoid his mission. When a storm blows up & the ship is in danger of sinking, Jon is eventually thrown overboard by the crew. That the storm calms & they survive impresses the sailors, who are deeply shocked at Jonah’s running away, & they are ‘converted’ to YHWH who can catch up like this with those who go AWOL as Jonah does [1].

Ch.2 relates the biggest & hardest to swallow ‘fish’ story of all time. Note Jonah’s psalm-like & prayerful meditation in the belly where he expects to die. After three days & nights, on YHWH’s instruction the ‘fish’ vomits Jonah up onto dry land! Jesus makes much of this [MT 12: 39-41 & 16:4] as He foretells his own incarceration in a tomb & resurrection.

Ch.3: YHWH again directs Jonah to go to Nineveh & preach to its people. He goes this time & the result is a mass-conversion leading YHWH to have compassion on the Ninevites. Ch.4 ends the saga with Jonah being angry at such compassion on God’s part. (Jon’s a recruit-in-waiting for today’s hard-line religious right!) But God has his measure & by using a castor-oil plant & the shade it temporarily gives Jonah shows him how he needs to look at things God’s way & not his own way. The tale ends with Jonah still not getting it!

While Jon is primarily a ‘parable’ about the Hebrews & their captivity by Assyria & Babylon, & being freed by the latter, ‘coming to life’ again, other possible scenarios include: being  compassionate towards all peoples; responsibility for outreach to others; & not trying to run away from God! And still they come…63: Micah…Gospel in a Nutshell.

Notes: [1] In its introduction to Jon [p.1189) the NJB likens the succession of ills that befall him to a series of practical jokes played by YHWH God!

Q. Are we ever guilty of going AWOL from God by looking at things the wrong way?