Hello, My Name Is Jonah: So Is Yours

By Lynette Carnahan Gray

Get swallowed up in this remarkable collection of insights on the prophet whose name everybody knows, but whose remarkable story is as much about us as about Johah. For preachers, there are sermons for a lifetime! For each of us, it's a personal journey to our own "spiritual Ninevehs" from which we cannot return unchanged.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CrossLink Publishing
• Release date: May 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781633570313

Book preview

Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

SO IS YOURS

Lynette Carnahan Gray

Hello, My Name Is Jonah: So Is Yours

CrossLink Publishing www.crosslinkpublishing.com

Copyright, © 2015 Lynette Carnahan Gray

Cover design and illustrations copyright, © 2014 Boone Gray

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in reviews, without the written permission of the author.

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law.

ISBN 9781633570313

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright © 2000; 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

S T AR T HERE

You do not know me unless you have read a book by the name of Jonah while perceptively pondering it free of tunnel-vision assumptions. If you have kept me as a flat figure clinging to a flannel board, you have conned yourself out of the kinship we share. However, by the time we complete the book in your hands, with new perspectives you will surely sigh,

Did previous Bible classes distance you from Jonah or digress into an ichthyology lesson on whether AWOL Jonah was swallowed by a fish or a whale? As you peered into the book of Jonah, did the book of Jonah peer into you? If studies of Jonah have not challenged you to look at your own Ninevites, your calling, your devotion to God, your frustrations with God, your attitudes, evangelism, and active compassion for the lost, you need a deeper look at Jonah.

Some readers remain with the Veggie Tales version of the vacationing evangelist who was flung from a vessel to become fish food. Regardless, not even the title character is the lead player in this drama. No, the Lord is the most initiating, stimulating, nurturing, and graciously nimble character. In forty-eight verses, God is mentioned approximately fifty times. Jonah’s overarching story shows us the heart of Sovereign God and various ways in which we each respond to Him.

Jonah’s events display that his will often opposes his Sovereign’s, so spread throughout the following book are expressions to reveal that we, like Jonah, can be annoyed with God. We hesitate to speak such ire, but when our secret angsts are rendered in a snarly font, we see how ridiculous they are. Hence, we’ll look at dangers and strengths found in what Jonah, you, or I say to self.

Imagine that you arrive in Bible class, and spread out before you are: a book of poetry, a romance novel, a history book, a biography, a book of quotes, a manual on the law, a philosophy book, song lyrics, and a letter from a relative you never met. Would you read the laws the same way you read the songs? Our Bible contains such varied types of writing. One of the Bible’s sixty-six books may have multiple purposes, structures, styles, and speakers. Read scripture prayerfully, discerningly, heedful of what is written and sensitive to its diverse types of writing.

When you think of Jonah, does Jaws or Cast Away come to mind? In summer blockbuster form, Jonah’s story has elements similar to: exotic travel, a menacing shark, a superhero, and a love story. During bitter Jonah’s fling with a sea cruise and sea creature, the Lord fulfills and exceeds the Superhero role. As God responds to each character, He also makes this a love story.

While a blockbuster and Jonah’s book may both use great storytelling, what makes Jonah extravagantly more? Truth. The tale of Jonah is totally true. Its text is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and told and/or written by Jonah himself. Its telling is purposeful, methodical,instructional, and to be motivational. We can relate to Jonah as factual because Jesus did. The Spirit’s omitting some historical details we might like to know can help us recognize Jonah’s story as like our own.

The Holy Spirit Storyteller takes us across terrains, through time, circumstances, and hopefully even inward. Jonah helps us visualize the events, the moods, and his annoyance. The renegade’s text is rich with numbers and superlatives. The sights, sounds, and smells from the sea and the city can penetrate our senses, hearts, and memories. Divinity sends us a series of mental picture postcards featuring Jonah’s frightening voyage far from his formerly popular preaching post. Rebellious because he cannot correct God’s theology, Jonah attempts defiance, then contradictory compliance, but he lambastes his Lord.

Unfasten Jonah from the flannel board and see his drama as engineered with the richness of parallelism, contrasts, and the echoic repeats of intertextuality. Jonah imports boatloads of biblical allusions which replay specific words from former Old Testament narratives. Jonah’s events and well-chosen words also tether his story to the future earthly life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Thus, how insufficient to consider the story as only for children. In his book Jonah: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text, Dennis Tucker writes that because Jonah is a well-known narrative, it is often one of the first books translated by students of Hebrew. Most of us remember the plot; we have mastered the lowest step on Bloom’s Hierarchy of Cognition. Some can paraphrase all of the book. Yet, how do you use Jonah’s story to make decisions based on insights learned from him?

Telling us the facts of Jonah in narrative form, the Holy Spirit and the author use chronology, action, dialogue, mystery, pathos, irony, flashback, satire, and questions. These engage us, inform us, and surprise us. Masterfully, we’re pulled along by the story which shows us wisdom God wants us to absorb, appreciate, and apply. When truth runs out onto the stage totally exposed, spiritually sensitive observers are ready to internalize it. In contrast, if we, the audience, choose to be lazy listeners or disengaged readers, we won’t see God’s global and eternal perspectives, we won’t cherish His heart, or do what He calls us to do.

Various Outlines of the Book of Jonah

The Commissions Outline by Russell BradleyJones

The prophet’s first commission (Chapters 1-2)

His Disobedience (1:1-3)

His Punishment (1:4 - 2:10)

The prophet’s second commission (Chapters 3-4)

His obedience (Chapter 3)

His anger rebuked (Chapter 4)

The Running Outline by Homer Hailey

The God Outline by Warren W. Wiersbe

God’spatience with Jonah — Chapter 1

God’smercytoward Jonah — Chapter 2

God’spower through Jonah — Chapter 3

God’sministry to Jonah — Chapter 4

Attitudes and Actions in Jonah by Lynette Gray Chapter 1. Jonah running, reclining, roused, and thrown Chapter 2. Jonah religious, but not repentant

Chapter 3. Jonah re-sent, souls repent, God relents of His intents Chapter 4. Jonah enraged; God engaged in reasoning

The Timetable Outline*

DEPARTURE FROM      DESTINATION      ARRIVAL

* Modified version of an idea from J. Vernon McGee

The Chart Outline*

* Modified from Nelson’s Open Bible

The Salvation Outline

Chapter 1 Physically saving the sailors Chapter 2 Physically saving Jonah Chapter 3 Physically saving Nineveh

Chapter 4 Salvation as God’s objective to question Jonah

How is one of these outlines eye-opening to you?

When I sought an authority on the minor prophets—a scholar’s scholar regarding the nuances of Jonah’s native tongue, the acceptance of the book of Jonah into the canon of Scripture, plus its genre and theme, I went to Jack Lewis. After earning Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University and Hebrew Union College, for fifty years he taught graduate students at Harding School of Theology. He also authored many books on: the prophets, Bible archaeology, translations, difficult passages, and church leadership. Voluntarily, Jack gifted me with his many unpublished pages on Jonah. After honing that technical work for decades, he invited me to use any portion I needed. So, while I scrutinized ungracious Jonah, Jonah scholar Jack Lewis was to me a praiseworthy example of graciousness. Thanks Jack!

Jonah the Book

The nation of Israel had been divided into two kingdoms, the northern tribes (Israel) and the southern tribes (Judah). The non- writing prophets Elijah and Elisha had died. In the eighth through the fifth centuries BC, the Bible’s sixteen literary prophets ministered. During the reign of Jeroboam II (793-753 BC), the Galilean prophet Jonah from Gath-hepher received words from God which helped expand Israel’s borders. The nation flourished in size, wealth, and power.

Hebrew scholar Hassell Bullock provides two factors for assessing Jonah as the optimal introduction to all of the Old Testament’s writing prophets: (1) Jonah transitions readers from the lives of Elijah and Elisha to the lives of Amos, Hosea, and later prophets. Elijah and Elisha had prophesied to Israel’s kings and courts. Amos and other literary prophets would address society. Transitional Jonah spoke to both the king and society. (2) Jonah’s story establishes the fact that although a prophet’s career would be demanding, frustrating, and traumatic, if he disobeys God, he will be punished. Old Testament prophets called people to repent. Similarly, Jonah’s God-given message instigated a call for people to repent, but his God-assigned location was among Israel’s enemies. Later, in 722 BC, after Israel repeatedly spurns the Lord’s warnings to repent, God will allow Assyria to exile the people of the Northern Kingdom.

Place in the Canon by Jack Lewis

Traditionally considered among the eighth century (Assyrian Period) prophets, the book of Jonah had already found a place in the canon of the Twelve at the time of our earliest witness. Jonah is represented by manuscript fragments spread over several centuries beginning in the second century B.C., attesting to its canonical acceptance, for scraps of the book were found in Cave 2 of Qumran. It is also represented in the leather Greek text found near the Dead Sea. The book of Jonah gives no date concerning the time of its composition, its provenance, or its authorship. Yet, there appears no controversy over its canonical standing. In the synagogue, it is part of the liturgy for the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

The early Christian church took over the canon of the Old Testament from the Jewish community out of which its earliest members came, and with the exception of a few heretical figures like Marcion and the Gnostics, who rejected the entire Old Testament, history has no record of any early period debate concerning whether Jonah should be in the canon.

==      ==      ==

Literary Genre and Theme

Regarding the literary genre of the book of Jonah, Lewis’s research reveals that the only consensus among the chaos of modern interpreters is that many believe the book is not historical. They assert that it is folklore, allegory, parable, or satire. However, just because a historical event contains one element of a genre does not make the narrative that genre. Unlike folklore, Jonah is for instruction, not entertainment, and unlike folklore, the book deals with a historical person and places. When the Old Testament gives an allegory, the context makes that clear. Plus, many details of the book do not fit an allegorical interpretation. Unlike a parable, Jonah reports miraculous events, it states no explanation, and it is longer than a parable. Elements of satire are seen with Jonah himself as its brunt, but satire is not the intent for the entire book. Lewis’s research details what famous Christian writers in the first through fifth centuries emphasized about Jonah. From First Clement, Ignatius, and Justin Martyr, to Jerome and Augustine, some focus on examples of repentance and some on Jesus’ statements about Jonah. Others stress Jonah’s disobedience, that God is long-suffering, or that He hears deep-sea prayers. Both Origen and Jerome wrote commentaries on Jonah. Jerome translated the book of Jonah into Latin and often sprinkled lessons from Jonah throughout his fourth century writings. Jerome and Augustine debated what type plant shaded Jonah. However, by the time of Augustine (AD 354-430), many people laughed at miracles in the life of Jonah. Augustine insisted

Reviews for Hello, My Name Is Jonah

[gospelfocusbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Book Review of HELLO, MY NAME IS JONAH: SO IS YOURS

I don't like reading and reviewing the same kind of book all the time. Recently, I ran into the author of a strikingly unusual book. Lynette Gray introduced her book on Jonah based on the things that were unusual about it, and those were the 5 things I like best about it.
1. It's outside the "norm" for books written by women. I appreciate the fact that Hello: My Name is Jonah includes excerpts from preachers and scholars as well as an entire chapter of background on Jonah and his world. Theological topics (more on this later) and even the Hebrew itself are commented on.
2. It's right brained. Although there's enough research and quotes to make this a full on academic paper, Ms. Gray spends time focused on poetry and song. This conjunction runs parallel to Jonah---a 4 chapter book with an entire chapter of poetic prayer. Sometimes she refers to well-known hymns like Fanny Crosby's "Rescue the Perishing" and asks the readers to analyze the relationship of the lyrics to certain scriptures. Other times she includes short poems of her own.

Jonah's Pronouns by Lynette Gray
Pampered and hampered by his own self-talk,
Jonah's voice says a lot of "I, mine, and me,"
But Father God calls him to think, speak, and do
For the loving benefit of "them, they, and you."
3. The questions: I am not sure if Ms. Gray intended the material for group study or for individuals reading more devotionally, but I enjoyed the questions that she left the reader to ponder. Her questions focus on the way Jonah might call us to repent. For example,

"When was the last time you read the Bible and laughed, cried, or repented? Do you read Scripture in a monotone? Do you hear it as sometimes sweet and other times tragic, mournful or lyrical, emphatic, dramatic, inviting or indicting? Originally, Scripture was read aloud. Still today, its words need to be in our ears and in our minds so we will envision the story and then store the words in our hearts where the Spirit can help us appreciate and apply them. How do you hope to be improved by Jonah?"
4. The humor: Each chapter has wonderful “quotes” from that snarky voice that haunts the back of our mind and provides a counterpoint to our more public feelings. Like this one: “God is so annoying when He thinks that like Him, I should show grace to ungracious people.” For those of us who have wrestled with backtalk all our lives, it's nice when someone says it out loud so we can see how ridiculous it is. Besides letting her own sense of humor shine through, Ms. Gray even includes an analysis of the way that Jonah as a short story uses humor to drive the story.
5. The marrying of application and complex theology. In several sections, Ms. Gray takes time to work out the details of theological issues brought up by the book of Jonah. For instance why does Jesus compare himself to Jonah? How are we supposed to understand the "relenting" of God? What can we understand about the connection between grace and obedience in the book of Jonah? She works each question out in a revealing and challenging way (I personally found the sections on grace and obedience/works especially lovely. It's a difficult topic and she offers neither license nor room for boasting.) Yet despite being willing to tackle these difficult topics, the driving force of the book pushes the reader to see him/herself as Jonah. Reluctant, prejudiced, graceless, and disobedient-just like Jonah.

Unlike most books written by Christian women, I highly recommend it for a mixed gender audience or for anyone who loves hymnology or poetry. I would also recommend it to anyone looking to dig deeper (or perhaps teach about) the book of Jonah!
Helene Smith; www.maidservantsofchrist.com