What’s In a Name?

In a previous blog I said that Jonah seemed to have a hidden agenda which led him to resist God and run away from what he was being called to do. To reach some understanding of what that was I had to dig a little deeper into his overall situation and influences.

 I have come to realize that the information which is given in Biblical stories always has relevance beyond what immediately meets the eye.  I had to put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and play at being a detective. The first clue that was given in the story was that Jonah was the son of Amittai. In Scripture the name of a person often represented their character or some other significant reality of their life. By looking in reference books I discovered that in Hebrew Amittai means “Truth”. So Jonah was literally the “Son of Truth”. After praying into and reflecting on this I saw that Jonah had been formed by the truth of his father. He had taken on the values, beliefs and worldview of his father. That had happened through a natural process of socialization; and he had taken this aboard in most part unconsciously. Through this Jonah had developed various take-for-granted attitudes. To recap from a previous blog, attitudes can be seen as predispositions to behave which affect the way we think, feel and act. I came to see that herein lay the problem.

The problem was that the ‘Truth’ which Jonah was formed in through his father was that of his social group and their values and beliefs. This social group, like any other, had a particular perception of reality; which defined reality for him. Apart from this social definition of reality he had no way of knowing what was true or untrue. A complicating factor was that this group perception of reality was a mixed bag of true and distorted understandings of reality. How could Jonah therefore tell what was truth and what was illusion?

There was however a solution to his dilemma. Like a good Hebrew (and indeed a Prophet), his primary education consisted of learning the Hebrew Scriptures by heart. His Hebraic social group had been given these Scriptures by God for instruction, guidance and correction. The problem was their interpretation. This was influenced by the fact that there was conflict between, on the one hand, the aspirations and fears of his social group; and on the other hand, the message that was contained in these Scriptures. Invariably, in this conflict the aspirations and fears of the group took precedence over the message that was given to them by God to embrace. That was the reality that Jonah was confronted by.

Nineveh, the city that the Lord was sending Jonah to call to repentance, was the capital of Assyria. There was a history of Assyria dominating and oppressing the nation of Israel that Jonah was a member of. The ‘Truth’ that Jonah had taken on from membership of his Israelite social group was to both hate and fear the Assyrians. Jonah therefore wanted Nineveh to be destroyed and not come to repentance and be spared by God from its impending destruction. Jonah later went to Nineveh and his call to repent was taken to heart and Nineveh received God’s mercy and was spared from destruction. Jonah was angry and disappointed about this. This response revealed the hidden agenda that Jonah harboured. This is given expression by Jonah in Chapter 4, verses 2-3: …”Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. I knew how easily you could cancel your plans for destroying these people. Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive because nothing I predicted is going to happen.” I saw here how the agenda of hatred and fear which Jonah had taken on from his social group took precedence over the compassion and mercy that the Lord was inviting Jonah to embrace. The Lord’s response is given in 4:4, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”    

Jonah was prepared to literally die rather than let go of the hatred and fear that his social group had instilled in him. He had been formed in the mould of his society; which acted like an injection mould which forms a durable, unchangeable, plastic object.

Contrary to this social mould the Lord was calling Jonah to adopt a higher, more expansive, perception of reality. A clue to this reality is given by the meaning of Jonah’s name. His Hebrew name means “Dove.”   The image of a dove points both backward and forward. Looking backward it points to another maritime story; that of Noah and the Ark.  This is a story of new beginnings, hope and a Covenant of Blessing. In this story when the flood water was subsiding Noah released a dove to establish whether it was safe for all who were the seed of new life to disembark from the Ark.   

The dove image also projects forward to Jesus, the incarnate, visible image of the invisible God. At the Baptism of Jesus, whereafter he began his public ministry, the Holy Spirit came down upon him in the form of a dove. The dove is an accepted image of the person and work of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God.

 I believe that identifying with the image of the dove which his name depicted was the true identity that the Lord was leading Jonah to live into. This was his true identity which was buried beneath the mould that his society had formed him in. His society pressurized him to be a hawk; God was calling him to be a dove. Yet it is clear that he strongly resisted this. The Lord had to do something drastic to move him beyond the false reality he was trapped in. As we saw in my previous blog, Jonah had to be thrown into the sea for this to take place.

Some questions for reflection:

·         Are you aware of the mould that your society (social group) has formed you in?

·         Do you experience a conflict between the expectations of your social group and what you sense the Lord is calling you to?

·         How have you resolved this tension?

·         Are you ready for a swim in the sea? (Ha, ha, ha!!)