Contemplative Bible Reading

This contemplation is a little different. I have a friend who reads a lot of novels. Sometimes he reads one novel a day. One of the things he does to read so much is that he only reads where the characters are talking. He skips all the description of events that are not conversations.

Here is the book of Jonah with all the descriptions of events removed. I list only the conversations between God and Jonah.

Jonah (New International Version 2011)

1:2 God, “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

2:1-9 Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. ² He said:

“In my distress I called to the LORD,
and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
³ You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
⁴ I said, ‘I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’
⁵ The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
⁶ To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, LORD my God,
brought my life up from the pit.

⁷ “When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, LORD,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.

⁸ “Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
⁹ But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD.’”

3:2 God, “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

4:2-3  ² Jonah prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. ³ Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

4:4 God, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

4:8, Jonah, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

4:9, God, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

4:9, Jonah, “It is and I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

4:10-11, God, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. ¹¹ And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

What does Jonah say?

• Save me
• You are a gracious and compassionate God
• Take away my life
• It is better to die
• I wish I were dead

What does God say?

• Go preach
• Go preach
• Is it right for you to be angry?
• Is it right for you to be angry?
• You were angry about a plant while I was concerned about 120,000 people

God seems to be a bit more consistent than Jonah. That is a gross understatement as Jonah wants to live and then after being saved and being a wildly successful preacher wants to die.

Are we all like Jonah? Am I like Jonah? I am afraid so.

God, help me in my inconsistency.