E COPTIC ORTHODOX PATRIARCHATE CONTEMPLATIONS ON THE BOOK OF JONAH THE PROPHET BY H. H. POPE SHENOUDA III 2 Title :Contemplations on the Book of Jonah the Prophet. Author. :H. H. Pope Shenouda III. Translated by :Mary & Amani Bassilli. Revised by :Mrs Wedad Abbas. Illustrated By :Sister Sawsan. Edition :The Second - February 1993. Printing :Dar El Tebaa El Kawmia. Legal Deposit No. :3939/1992 I.S.B.N. :977-00-3251-45 Revised :COEPA 1997 3 H.H. Pope Shenouda III, 117th Pope of Alexandria and the See of St. Mark 4 CONTENTS Introduction Chapter One The Problem of the Fleeing Prophet Chapter Two Gentile Mariners are better than Jonah Chapter Three Jonah in the Belly of the Fish Chapter Four Nineveh the Great City Chapter Five Saving Jonah from His Obduracy and Pride Chapter Six God in the Book of Jonah 5 INTRODUCTION The Book of Jonah the Prophet is full of wonderful spiritual contemplation. Our aim in this book is to tackle purely the spiritual side, and not the theological side. Our aim is to benefit and not to debate. We wish to take from this beautiful Book beneficial lessons for our life. We wish to benefit from God's work and from people's virtues and faults. How beautiful is the Church's choice! She chose this Book to be the prelude of the forty days of Lent! A beautiful story of repentance and fasting precedes the Great Lent by two weeks, that we may approach the holy forty days with a clean heart attached to the Lord. It is remarkable that many of those who study the Book of Jonah concentrate on the people of Nineveh and their fast and overlook the mariners and Jonah with his problem. 6 CHAPTER ONE THE PROBLEM OF THE FLEEING PROPHET Jonah's Problem In the Book of Jonah, God wants us to know an important fact: that the prophets were not of a different nature but were people "with a nature like ours" (James.5:17), having weaknesses, shortcomings and faults, and it was possible for them to fall like us. The only thing was that the grace of God worked in them and gave them power. It was not their power but the power of the Holy Spirit working in their weakness, that the power may be of God and not of us, according to the Apostle's words (2 Cor. 4:7). Jonah the Prophet was one of the weak persons of the world whom God chose to put to shame the mighty ones (1 Cor. 1:27). He had faults and he had virtues, and the Lord chose him despite his faults, worked through him, in him and with him, and designated him to be a great and saintly prophet, the dust of whose feet we are unworthy of. In so doing God also shows us that He can work with us and use our weakness as He did with Jonah. Falls in Jonah's Fleeing We shall see some of Jonah's weaknesses in his attitude towards the Lord's call. The Holy Bible says: 7 "Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amity, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry, out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me'. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord" (Jon. 1:1-3). Here we see the Prophet Jonah falling into a number of lapses. The first lapse was disobedience and rebellion. Jonah was not able to obey the Lord in this matter, whilst he was a prophet whose work was but to call people to the Lord's obedience. When we fall into the lapse of disobedience we ought to have compassion on those who fall into disobedience, putting before us the Apostle's saying: "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them"(Heb. 13:3). If God, the Holy One, who alone is without sin, has compassion on those who fall, how much more ought we who similarly fall do so. Even so, Jonah fell yet he did not have compassion! The fall of disobedience into which Jonah fell bid behind it a more serious fall which was pride, typified in his high esteem to his word. He was too aloft to say a word that would be disproved and not carried out. His esteem to his word was what induced him to disobey. Truly one sin leads to another in an unending sequence. Jonah knew for sure that God was merciful and compassionate, and that He would forgive the city if it repented. Here is the root of the problem! 8 In what way will it ail you, Jonah, if God is merciful and forgiving? It will greatly ail me: I will say something to people and my words will be disproved. I will cry out that the city will be overthrown because of its sins, but the city will not be overthrown. My word will be disproved and I will be stigmatised. I cannot walk with this Lord all the way. If He abided by His warning I would have remained with Him. I shall cry out against the city, the city will repent, and God will return and show compassion and spare the city, and my word will be disproved. Therefore, in order to safeguard my own honour, my reputation and the awesomeness of the prophecy, it is better for me not to go. To such an extent was Jonah self-centred! He was not able to abnegate himself for the sake of people's salvation. His reverence, honour and word were more important to him than the salvation of a whole city! He had no objection to working with the Lord on the grounds that the Lord would preserve for him his honour and the awesomeness of his word. That was why he fled from the presence of the Lord refusing to carry out this errand that would hurt his pride. He was honest with the Lord in revealing his inner feelings. For when the Lord upbraided him afterwards, he said: "Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? 9 Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, One who relents from doing harm" (Jon. 4:2). Jonah's fleeing from the presence of the Lord carried within it other sins, namely, foolishness and lack of faith. This one who flees from the Lord, to where will he flee when the Lord is omnipresent? O great prophet, do you not believe that God is present in every place to which you flee? God is present in the ship which you will board, and in the sea which will bear the ship, and in Tarshish to which you wish to escape. So where do you wish to hide from the presence of the Lord? Rightly did David the Prophet say to the Lord: "Where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hands shall hold me"(Ps. 139:7-10). Jonah was like his forefather Adam who thought that he could hide from the presence of the Lord behind the trees! Did Jonah think that God was not present in the ship or in the sea and that he could slip out of His hand? Was this not utter foolishness, and lack of faith in God's infinite omnipotence? Or was it a childlike behaviour of a helpless confused person who did not know what to do'? He did not know that God's command would pursue him everywhere. Indeed, sin extinguishes the light of perception in a man, making him forget even matters of intuition. 10 In Joppa, Jonah found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare and went down into it. How amazing that sin cost Jonah both money and effort; he paid the fare for the journey to accomplish his sin. As for grace, we obtain it free. It is amazing that we toil for our own hurt, expending money and effort. Perhaps it would have been a blessing to Jonah if he had not the money at the time to help him travel and disobey. When Jonah paid the fare of the ship, he suffered a double loss. He lost his money, his obedience and purity of heart. This is a glimpse of Jonah's faults when he fled and disobeyed. What was God's attitude? It is amazing that God used Jonah's disobedience for good. Indeed God is able to use all things for the glory of His name. 11 God Uses All Jonah disobeyed God's command and fled in a ship, but God who brings "out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet" (Judg. 14:14); God who is able to turn evil into good, was also able to make use of Jonah's disobedience. If it was through Jonah's obedience that the people of Nineveh were to be saved, it was through his disobedience that the mariners would be saved.