The Fact of My Ignorance

Michelangelo's Jonah from the Sistine Chapel

Well its been a while since the last post, but I assure you its not because my blogging enthusiasm is waning.  Our son Jonah was born last Saturday, and that combined with an unusually packed school schedule has left me with less free time than usual.  Not that I’m complaining though.  Jonah is happy, healthy, incredibly cute, and just about the most amiable baby anyone could ask for.  You can see videos and pictures of him at our family blog GayLynnAndRyan.Blogspot.Com.  Now I said when I started this blog that it wouldn’t be one of those “online diary” kind of blogs and I’m still committed to that idea.  But I can’t let something as life-changing as the birth of our first child go by without some kind of acknowledgement on this website.  And I thought a good way to approach this would be to provide a little bit of insight into our choice of the name “Jonah” for our son, since we’ve had a few questions about it.

Of course there’s a lot that goes into choosing a name for a child.  Its got to sound nice when paired with the last name, its got to be something that isn’t too easy for kids to make fun of, it needs to be a name that won’t be considered a “grandpa name” or something like that when he’s still in high school, and of course there’s also the meaning of the name to consider.  The sound of a name is a subjective judgement and we personally think its got a nice ring to it, and we liked it because its unique while not being unpronounceable or difficult to spell.  The meaning of the name initially gave us pause but after much contemplation its become one of my favorite aspects of his name.  Let me explain…

So most readers are probably at least somewhat familiar with the scriptural Jonah. His story is told in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim texts.  He was a prophet, but he was kind of an unusual prophet, in that his story as presented in the scriptures doesn’t necessarily portray him in a very favorable light.  For those who need a refresher, here’s a summary from Wikipedia:

According to the book of Jonah, he was the son of Amittai (meaning ‘My Truth’). God orders Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh to prophesy against it “for their great wickedness is come up before me”. Jonah seeks to flee from “the presence of the Lord” by going to Jaffa and sailing to Tarshish. A huge storm arises and the sailors, realizing this is no ordinary storm, cast lots and learn that Jonah is to blame. Jonah admits this and states that if he is thrown overboard the storm will cease. The sailors try to get the ship to the shore but in failing feel forced to throw him overboard, at which point the sea calms. Jonah is miraculously saved by being swallowed by a large fish specially prepared by God where he spent three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17). In chapter two, while in the great fish, Jonah prays to God in his affliction and commits to thanksgiving and to paying what he has vowed. God commands the fish to vomit Jonah out.

God again orders Jonah to visit Nineveh and to prophesy to its inhabitants. This time he goes and enters the city crying, “In forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Probably to Jonah’s surprise, the people of Nineveh believed his word and proclaimed a fast. The king of Nineveh put on sackcloth and sat in ashes and made a proclamation to decree fasting, sackcloth, prayer, and repentance. God saw their works and spared the city at that time .

Displeased by this, Jonah tries to excuse his earlier flight to Tarshish and asserts that, since God is merciful, it was inevitable that God would turn from the threatened calamities. He then leaves the city and makes himself a shelter, waiting to see whether or not the city will be destroyed.

God causes a plant (in Hebrew a kikayon) to grow over Jonah’s shelter to give him some shade from the sun. Later, God causes a worm to bite the plant’s root and it withers. Jonah, now being exposed to the full force of the sun, becomes faint and desires that God take him out of the world.

But God says to him,

“Are you really so very angry about the little plant?” (or “The good is what you are angry at!” – according to a traditional Jewish translation)

“You were upset about this little plant, something for which you have not worked nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up overnight and died the next day. Should I not be even more concerned about Nineveh, this enormous city? There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, as well as many animals!” (Jonah 4:9-11 NET)

So basically Jonah is commanded to go do some prophesying, he runs away, repents while in the belly of a fish, prophesies, gets angry when the people actually do repent, then pouts in the wilderness, spites God, and wishes he was dead.  So is that really the kind of person we want to name our son after?

Well first off I think its important to remember that Jonah, despite his very apparent flaws, was a prophet, and so was obviously a pretty stellar individual overall.  We’re only getting a very small glimpse of his life, and we’ve just happened to catch him during a moment of weakness.  Similarly its pretty safe to assume that most, if not all, of the other prophets in recorded scriptures had similar faults.   They were, after all, imperfect human beings.  But in the end it wasn’t the person of Jonah, but the story of Jonah that we found inspiring.  I guess we named him Jonah, not with the intent that he emulate Jonah’s actions, but with the hope that he would remember the lessons that the story of Jonah teaches.

I think one of the biggest lessons we can draw from the story of Jonah is that God is patient and merciful.  Its really a strikingly merciful story if you think about it, especially for its era.  The city of Ninevah is really quite wicked, yet God wants to give them another chance.  When Jonah runs away and is cast into the sea, God sends a fish to swallow him, not as a punishment, but as a protection.  When Jonah sulks in the wilderness God sends a plant to give him shade.  I mean Jonah is repeatedly blessed, even while he’s in the act of defying God.  And its often that way with us as well.  The story of Jonah really highlights God’s great mercy towards us, even when we mess up repeatedly, and it can hopefully help us recognize and be thankful for those acts of mercy in our lives and inspire us to be similarly merciful to our fellowmen.

Another big lesson from the story of Jonah is that nobody’s perfect.  I think there are really two ways your progression can be halted in this life, the first is by not caring enough about becoming a better person, and the second is to paralyze yourself with unrealistic expectations.  And I think sometimes our (inaccurate) conception of ancient prophets as near-perfect demigods can fuel our unrealistic standards and lead to depression and hopelessness.  The story of Jonah, on the other hand, provides an unflinching and thorough report of the pretty significant faults of a prophet.  I think this can serve as a reminder that if this imperfect man can be used as a tool in the hands of God, then we shouldn’t think that our many imperfections disqualify us from being his servants either.

Which isn’t to say that you can go off and reject God’s will outright and not expect consequences, but in reality its important to remember that we all reject God’s will on a daily basis.  Everytime we think a bitter or hateful thought about someone, display a lack of charity, allow ourselves to be lifted up in pride, pine for some new material thing, refuse to forgive completely, act selfishly, show a lack of love towards anyone including our enemies, take it upon ourselves to judge others, or betray our integrity, we’ve rejected God’s will.  But as was outlined in the paragraph above God is patient and merciful, and I think this story teaches us that we can still be used as a tool for good in the world despite our imperfections, if we have a humble heart and are striving to be better.

The other reason we really like the name Jonah is because of its definition.  Now it has multiple translations and the most literal meaning is “dove” or something like that but the meaning we like best is “man of peace”.  The world is often a tumultuous place, and there are few problems more universal these days than a lack of personal and familial peace.  We hope that Jonah’s name will be a reminder to him of the importance of peace and being a peacemaker in his community, his family, and in all his relationships.

So I hope that gives some insight into our name choice.  Choosing a name for our son was difficult for us, but we were finally able to agree on a name that we both felt was unique, practical, and meaningful.  Plus we think it sounds really cool.

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