"The Prodigal Prophet"

Tim Keller says this “The careful structure of the book revealed nuances of the authors message. Both episodes show how Jonah, a staunch religious believer, regards and relates to people who are racially and religiously different from him. The book of Jonah yields many insights about God’s love for societies and people beyond the community of believers; about his opposition to toxic nationalism and disdain for other races; and about how to be “on mission” in the world despite the sublet and unavoidable power of idolatry in our own lives and hearts…Yet to understand all of these lesions for our social relationships we have to see that the books main teaching is not sociological but theological. Jonah wants a God of his own making, a God who simply smites bad people, for instance, the wicked Ninevites and blesses the good people, for instance, Jonah and his countrymen. When the real God—not Jonah’s counterfeit—keeps showing up, Jonah is thrown into fury or despair. Jonah finds the real God to be an enigma because he cannot reconcile the mercy of God with his justice… that question is not answered in the book of Jonah. As a part of the entire Bible, however, the book of Jonah is like a chapter that drives the Scripture’s overall plot line forward. It teaches us to look ahead to how God saved the world through the one who called himself the ultimate Jonah so that he could be both just and the justifier of those who believe. Only when we readers fully grasp this gospel will we be neither cruel exploiters like the Ninevites nor Pharisaiacal believers like Jonah but rather Spirit-changed, Christ-like women and men.”