Rediscovering my love of writing I have had to familiarize myself again with some terminology I had completely forgotten. Flashbacks to a junior high English class are induced when I touch on the words, alliteration, allegory, simile, or metaphor. I was reminded of one of these words this past weekend when, because of my church music playing duties, I got to hear the story of Jonah twice.
Definition: allegory (noun) æl lə gɔ ri 1. Symbolic work; a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically expressing a deeper, often spiritual, moral, or political meaning. 2. Symbolic expression of meaning in story; the symbolic expression of a deeper meaning through a story or scene acted out by human, animal or mythical characters. 3. Genre; allegories considered as literary or artistic genre. 4. Symbolic representation; a symbolic representation of something.
I grew up in a home where the Old Testament stories were familiar tales. I knew the names Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego before I went to kindergarten and was keenly aware that they didn’t perish in a fiery furnace. So, to hear the story of Jonah some forty odd years later was akin to an AMC classic in terms of Bible stories. I loved the Old Testament imagery and prose as a child! What I didn’t understand then was how Jonah’s story was one shrouded in controversy among adults. The epic Homeresque quality to Jonah’s journey to Nineveh questions an adult rationality and penchant for wanting a literal interpretation of this tale. Our brains read that Jonah is swallowed by a whale and then spit out whole and so question what reasonable person would believe this could actually happen.
Some would argue: “Who is to say that God, in all-knowing, infinite wisdom, doesn’t use a variety of literary forms of expression to bring home a point?”. Others may contradict, “If the Bible contains metaphor and allegory doesn’t that cast a shadow of doubt on Jesus as the Son of God?”.
I loved Jonah’s story as a child and its Odyssey moments of trouble at sea, appeasing an angry god, a giant fish that vomits up whole people, and a plant that grows and dies overnight. However, as an adult I appreciate the bigger message it brings.
Listen and follow directions.
I can relate to Jonah more now than I could as a five year old. Jonah is asked to do something he doesn’t want to do. “Go and preach to the people of Nineveh.” This is putting Jonah in an uncomfortable position. Why he doesn’t want to do this is much easier for me to fathom now as an adult. It’s a treacherous three days journey just to walk through Nineveh (Jonah 3:3) and he doesn’t like the people. We know this because he is downright furious at God for making him the vehicle by which the people of Nineveh are saved (Jonah 4:1). He walks away from Nineveh so he can view its imminent destruction and is beside himself with anger that God isn’t wiping the entire place off the planet. God uses a plant to shield Jonah from the elements and then takes the plant away (Jonah 4:6-8) to try to get Jonah to understand how important the people of Nineveh are to Him.
I have been Jonah in many circumstances. I have resisted a call to do what was right. I have a penchant to avoid uncomfortable situations. I have wished for my own desires to be filled instead of the will of God. I have lost perspective while consumed in my own story of how things should go. I’ve been angry at God. God has always been compassionate to me and to those I don’t especially like.
This is the point of an allegory; taking a story and using its imagery and symbolism to help us identify God’s role in more significant and practical ways to our lives.
Listen to God, follow directions ….it’s really not about the whale.
Originally published 2015, edited March 2024
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