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I am
a Presbyterian minister and found your comments and statements very illuminating
in my study of the book of Jonah. When I preach through a book, I always
try to ask “why” questions, to get beyond the surface issues to
the truth that sometimes hides on a deeper level. Jonah is certainly a book
about following God’s direction and leading, but I wanted to know why
Jonah made so many suicidal references in this short book.
I found in your comments about Depression and Suicide a helpful description
of Jonah. From a pastoral perspective, my observation is that Jonah definitely
had suicidal attitudes throughout the book. But the encouraging thing is
that even with Jonah’s sometimes skewed perspective, God used him to
communicate a very helpful message to the Ninevites. They heard Jonah’s
warnings and desired to make moral sense of their lives and to respond to
God’s mercy. Having at least two people in my congregation who have
attempted suicide, it will be an encouraging message (to them and others
in the congregation) that God often makes our lives a blessing to others,
even when we can’t see past our own struggles.
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 ou’re welcome.
Actually, the full theological
value of the story of Jonah goes deeper even than your interpretation. Look
at the part about the gourd plant near the end of the story. Jonah was
“happy” when it was growing; he became “angry” when it
died. This is a perfect example of the “love-hate flip-flop” that
I describe on the
Sexuality—and Love page of A Guide to
Psychology and its Practice. When the infant’s needs are met,
it “loves” the mother; when its needs are frustrated, as when the
mother gives attention to something—or someone—else, the infant
“hates” the mother. And, as I say on the
Depression and Suicide page of A Guide to
Psychology and its Practice, this
hate is so unconsciously repugnant that
the infant can turn it all against itself in
depression and suicide.
So why was Jonah
angry with God? Well, let’s go back to the
beginning of the story. Jonah was jealous that God would want to show mercy
to Nineveh. He was jealous that God would turn His attention away from Israel
and show concern for another people. And so Jonah ran from God, in
anger—and with feelings of suicide. The suicidal feelings, if put into
words, would have said, like a jealous child, “I’m angry that I
am not the center of your attention. If you can care about Nineveh, then
I am worthless and deserve to die.”
Hence God, in His mercy, gave
Jonah a bitter taste of death—and then He rescued him. Momentarily
encouraged by this, Jonah went to Nineveh as he was commanded and called
the city to repentance as he was commanded.
Astonishingly, everyone in Nineveh actually repented. They repented even
before Jonah got a third of the way through the city. Jonah was shocked.
And he fell back into jealousy.
God, then, had to use the gourd
plant to show Jonah what the mission was all about. It was about
love. “As you loved that plant, so I love the
world,” God told him. “And I love Nineveh, and I love even the
cattle of Nineveh.” And we can understand here God’s unspoken
implication to Jonah: “And I love you.”
Thus the true nature of
mercy was revealed: To deny mercy to others
is to deny it to yourself.
But this isn’t
all.
Mercy—and love—are
not just a matter of all-inclusive acceptance. It’s not just a psychological
matter of saying, “I’m OK, you’re OK.” Yes, God loves
us, but our sins separate us from Him.
True love, therefore, calls us away from sin and
into repentance. True love doesn’t just say, “Come, and join us.”
It also calls people to repent their sins. God
used Jonah to preach to Nineveh, and then, using the gourd plant as a metaphor,
He preached to Jonah himself. Real love calls people to you so you can preach
to them to change their behavior.
This is a very heavy obligation
for anyone who claims to live the Gospel today.
It really means that you have to stand up to everything in the entire
society—to all of “Nineveh,” even the cattle—and preach
the truth about sin. Divorce is legal, but it’s
still sin. Abortion is legal, but it’s still sin. Contraception is legal,
but it’s still sin. Sodomy is now legal, but it’s still sin. Even
Playboy magazine is legal, but it’s still sin. Our whole
culture is rooted in sin.
And you, being an instrument
of God like the worm in the gourd plant, have to show people that the things
they “love” are, first of all, just
illusions that hide their unconscious resentment
and anger at God. In addition, all these illusions
are just a way to deny God’s mercy to others. Because if you fail to
tell others that they are living in sin they can’t repent, can they?
And if you fail in this, they will be destroyed—and you, through your
obstinate disobedience, will die a slow spiritual
suicide and will be destroyed as well.
  
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