The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1959-09-11

this man Jonah
argues with God -. -
and shows very Or. Foreman
plainly that he does not think vel
Of Gods attitude. Indeed, excep,
when inside the. Ash. where thu
man was very pious indeed. Jonah's
remarks are with one exception
rather peevish.
8liad Prophet
Nevertheless the reader learns a
great deal from this book. Jonah
is generally wrong. but God is
right. The trouble with this frao-
tious prophet was that he could
not see things as God saw them.
Maybe this makes him no prophet.
some one will ask To be sure, he
is never called prophet in this
book. but he must be counted ono,
for he did finally say what the Lord
told him to say. And still, his stub
born peevishness is much more in
the picture than his obedience.
For one thing. Jonah could not
see the repentance Of Nineveh
Nineveh was the capital of As
syria, a nation which brought great
disasters on the 1sraelites. Jonah
evidently shared the general opin-
ion Of his fellow Israelites at that
period, that the only good Assyrian
was a dead AssyriAn. The sins OF
Nineveh were plain enough to
Jonah. What he could not see was
the peoples repentance and faith.
It is a strange contrast We have
here: the people Of Nineveh who
believed God, and Jonah who did
not; the people Of Nineveh who re-
pented and Jonah who $50 far as
the story goes) never did repent
OF his attitude to Nineveh. Jonah
had what - now called 1 "stereo-
type. In his mind when he thought
Of . Ninevite. that Is. a fixed pic
ture which he could not change,
a picture Of hopelessly goddess
and wicked man A repentant Nine
wife. weeping for his sins. was
something 80 strange to Jonah that
he could not see It.
No Eye for Children
At the end Of the story. where
God is explaining to Jonah why
he tGod) took pity on the great
capital city, 10000 persons are
mentioned who do not know their
right hand from their left" It is
generally supposed that this refers
to children. God even speaks of the
cattle: the divine interest in ami
mails comes out in this book as no.
where else in the Old Testament.
It Is clear that Jonah had never
thought Of the children, much less
Of the cattle. What he wanted to
see was fire from heaven. burn
ing city. That there would be inno-
cent sufferers IN the flames does
not seem to have occurred to the
man. Again Jonah had his stereo-
type Of Ninevites.
"Vos Orr Inst9vetiea"
These things were written fol
our instruction, said New Tesla
ment writer about the Old Tesla
ment. Certainly the book Of Jonah
has something strong to say to U,
here and now; 20 strong that II i
hard to take. fThe Israelites never
did take" tho message Of the book
Of Jonah.) We also have our favor
ito stereotypes, we think Of people
in certain fixed ways and we sci
dom think they could be otherwise
Let the reader test himself. Wha'
do these words suggest to you IN
Negro, Russian, boss, farmer
banker, congressman. socialist. y
A. A. G. p, scientist, German
European. union organizer. bureau
crat? It Is safe to say that man.
readers have hxed ideas abou
some Of these, and perhaps SOM
fixed hatreds. In war especially
we always think Of the enemy, q
Jonah did Of Nineveh, in terms o
the harm the enemy has done t.
US. It IL 4 hard pill to swallow, an
we don't know whether even Jonal
managed to swallow it. but the fac
10, We love everybody except on
enemies, but God loves our enemie
too. Peace win never come til
Gods people Begin 70 love tn
people God loves.
(Dessd On outliDeG eep9Yighted B
Tie Division Of ChYistisA Edueataol
Na4lenal Council 81 ~ Churches (
Christ n She o. 3. 4. 1sleesed b
Community Press SeYvics.l