anyway, we all know the story of jonah and the whale, to some degree. the story i heard when i was little missed out on some crucial details in the story. so many, in so many different places, so consistently, that i'm just going to have to retell the story (shortened/summarised) and then talk about it afterwards. or during. whichever.
so jonah was doing whatever he was doing, and then god told him to go to ninevah, and tell them He was going to destroy it, because it was wicked.
jonah was like 'you won't destroy it, you are a loving god. why should i go over there and tell them that something that isn't going to happen will happen? i'll be embarrassed, and ashamed. i'm going to spain, in the opposite direction.'
so he got on a ship in joppa and started on the journey across the mediterranean for spain. as is surprisingly common in the mediterranean, a ship-breaking storm rose up, and all the people on the boat prayed and asked for help from their own gods, and threw cargo out to lessen the danger.
during this, jonah was asleep in the hold, despite what i assume would be quite a din above, with thunder and rain and people yelling in weird languages and crying out, and cargo shifting....
anyway, the captain found him and told him to pray to his god/gods for mercy, and a safe voyage.
not much is said of that, but everyone then drew lots to see who was to blame for the danger they're in. jonahs name was drawn. he explained he was a hebrew, and that he was running away from the Lord.
the sailors were like 'ahhhh! what a terrible idea! what do we do?'
jonah told them to throw him into the sea. the sailors didn't want to kill him, so they tried with all their might to get to shore.
when that didn't work, they begrudgingly threw jonah into the sea, asking Gods forgiveness, and the storm stopped at once. and jonah was eaten by a giant fish.
to say the sailors were terrified is probably an understatement. they served Him til the end of their days.
jonah sang a song in the fish, and in three days was spat up on a beach somewhere, and promptly made his way to ninevah. running away from his task wasn't particularly constructive, apparently. when he told the ninevahnians that in forty days they would be destroyed, they believed him, and prayed and fasted and wore sackcloth and did anything to show they were sorry, so they would not die.
God saw it, and decided not to destroy them.
jonah was like 'i told you this is what would happen, didn't i? thats why i didn't want to do this stupid task! you are a patient loving god who does not want to punish. now, let me die, i'm too angry.'
jonah went east from the city and waited to see if anything would happen to ninevah. god made a tree grow to give jonah shade. jonah was happy. the next day, God sent a worm to kill the tree, and jonah was angry and wished he were dead again.
God asked jonah what right he had to be angry about the plant. jonah told him he had every right.
God told jonah he pitied the tree, despite having done nothing for it, or even made it grow. how much more pity He should show for ninevah, which has over 120,000 children and as many animals.
this post seems a bit big. i guess the big thing this story tells me is you can't run from your fate, the task god made you to do. and that task may make no sense in your mind. but you have to do it.
people sometimes say free will is an illusion. i guess that depends on your definition of free will, and there are many definitions, despite what people may think.
if your definition of free will is an illusion, is that a bad thing?
also here is a page from an avengers versus xmen comic. spidermans in there. thats funny in itself. but i like the comments from the random guy at the bottom. enjoy.
