Bible Study Brief: Zephaniah and Jonah

Sunday, March 13

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Jonah 1:1-2:1  

These stories are from the minor prophets (so called because the stories from and about them are shorter in length); there are 12 of them rounding out the Hebrew Testament. Even in shorter form, the minor prophets follow the classic pattern of announcing condemnation to a city or nation, followed by promises of what God will do when they repent (sometimes what God does is make the repentance happen).

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Zephaniah provides a brief but harsh criticism against the establishment in Jerusalem. They are trusting in their own wealth and power and are creating international alliances and turning toward other gods. The result of this is that the poor of Jerusalem are not being cared for and are being taken advantage of, contrary to God’s law. The punishment for this will be thorough: chapter 1 describes an undoing of creation similar to the Great Flood (Gen 6-9). After this “Day of the Lord”, God will remove the judgment against the people and will rejoice over them, saving both the nation as a whole and individuals from disaster, illness, and exile, restoring the land, the community, and their fortunes (sounds a little bit like Job, too!).  Once again, there are themes of restoration after devastation, life after death, promise fulfilled after despair. 

Jonah 1:1-2:1 

Jonah is a very different kind of prophetic book. It is more of a story than the other prophetic books are, and it is about Jonah rather than a collection of his words. In fact, Jonah has very few words at all in this story. His longest speech is not against the city of Ninevah, where he is sent to prophesy, but while he is in the belly of the great fish, and calls to God in the words of a very eloquent psalm-like prayer.

This first chapter is the Big Fish part of the story, the part we know best. God has called on Jonah, who is never identified as a prophet per se, to travel to Ninevah and warn them that God is aware of their wicked ways. Jonah doesn’t want to go because Ninevah is an enemy of Israel. If he goes, he might be killed by these Assyrians who earlier decimated the Israelites; or they may repent, since God is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and ready to relent from punishing” (4:2). Neither of these options is appealing to Jonah, who decides to disobey God and run to the other side of the world (Ninevah was in what is now Iraq; Tarshish in modern Spain; see map on 1498 of Lutheran Study Bible).

This story is probably included in the Easter Vigil readings because of the resurrection theme of Jonah being disobedient and running from God, then being swallowed by a great fish, where he stayed for 3 days and nights before being brought to “new life” when the fish spit him out, alive, on the shore. These are parallel themes with the other prophetic writings we’ve studied previously, and with the resurrection details of Jesus being in the tomb for 3 days and nights before God raised him from the dead. This story also broadens God’s interest in salvation for all nations, not only for Israel. God notices people outside of Israel, even their enemies, and desires repentance and salvation for them.  

To see a performance of this story, click here