my desk is a mess...

Jonah confession: I think ODD thoughts while reading the book of Jonah.

For instance, I get a little stuck on the whole-getting-swallowed-by-a-whale scene and I usually wonder what whale stomach acid does to a person's skin. (Too much exposure to Glamour & Seventeen magazine as a kid?) Then I hope there's an old flotsam crate to sit on so the acid doesn't burn. (This must be a scene from Disney's Pinnochio -- I always envision this in animation.) And finally: His skin was bleached out and raw when he got spewed on the beach, wasn't it? 

Other extraneous Jonah thoughts? I think about those poor sailors that had to throw him overboard. I'd hate to be in that situation. And Jonah's attitude bugs me. I don't know if I like him. And then there's the whole plant-wilting scene, where I briefly wonder how a plant grow fast enough to produce shade for a grown man. I mean, this is hardly a dandelion! 

But reading the story this year, I actually had a deep thought (for me) amidst my yearly random ones. I was struck by what Jonah assumes about God (Jonah 4:2). This is right after the people of Nineveh repent and in response, God chooses not to strike them with disaster: 

And he [Jonah] prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." 

Pouting prophet? (Something I've heard Jonah called.) Not quite. Jonah assumes the goodness of God. He gets angry with God. He runs away from God, but he does it from a true assumption of God. He acts and thinks from true knowledge of God's character. 

Whoa. I don't think I do that.  Do I always assume the goodness of God? Do I act out of knowledge of Him? Or do I respond out of my own fears, my own inventions of God? 

Jonah's assumptions must have greatly pleased God.