“Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he cried ‘Forty days, and Ninevah shall be overthrown.’ And the people in Ninevah believed in God;” Jonah3:4-5
Every person who does not speak his or her own piece as to what God is calling them to say as a covenant people it leaves a dark hole in the world. This spiritual empty hole is often filled with idols, evil or attractive lies. Jordan Peterson in his book, “We Who Wrestle with God,” argues we make our own journey away from or toward Eden as we choose to let our light shine or hide it (Matthew 5:14-16). This is not the creator God’s will for us.
Since my childhood, the major debate over the book of Jonah was rather a person can literally be swallowed up by a big fish or whale for three days, or is this some sort of symbolic metaphor? Peterson argues we are allowing ourselves to be firehosed over the larger point that when God calls us to speak our piece, we need to do so, or we will indeed feel as if we are in the darkness of the body of a whale. If we do not speak our piece, sailors are sea, as in the Jonah story will wonder what we have done to anger God so as to cause storms that disrupt people’s lives.
What is most difficult is to speak to people and go to places we bitterly despise! Jonah and his people despised Ninevah. This is the capital of Assyria who nation caused hardship for Israel. God still calls Jonah to go and speak his piece. Later we would discover that Jonah preferred the people to ignore him so they might be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. They did not.
If any Pastor or Bible teacher in Fayette County could speak only one sentence that leads to massive repentance, they would jump for joy! Not so with Jonah. He wants to hold his words from God. Peterson invites people of faith to wrestle with their beliefs in God while using the various biblical narratives as working models. This enables us here in Fayette County, Iowa to speak our piece and pointing people toward the Kingdom of God. This might lead closer to Paradise (As with the repentant thief on the cross with Jesus in Luke 23:43).
Why do we hold our piece? Could it be fear or reprisals as the prophets such as Elijah and Jeremiah experienced. Could it be we fear being cast out into a wilderness as the children of Israel who fled Egypt (Exodus), or Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew and Luke 4? Possibly we tend to take easiest, least resistant path to our destinations. Doing so leaves an inner spiritual emptiness in our souls. This results in a history of religious people seeking (false) idols, immediate gratification in many forms, and temptation to explore our dark side, which also causes us to allow our inner demons to ruine our lives. (Such as Anakin Skywalker/ Darth Vader in Star Wars).
The houses of worship are available with people who have travelled many bumpy paths in life to advise us. We have leaders of faith in our churches who have had experiences of wrestling with God. Let us take advantage of such churches. We do not need to be in the dilemma I am reading about in the latest book the West Union library group is reading, “Catch 22.” Our God wants us to have life and have it abundantly…this is good news for all of us. (John 10:10). Amen