Having preached through Jonah a number of times, I think a key danger here is saying that moral instruction about obeying the call of God is categorically a wrong application of this passage.

I am a huge advocate of redemptive historical preaching. I believe the primary interpretation of the Jonah narrative should take you to the ’sign of Jonah’and the use our Lord makes of it.

Furthermore, I think it is important to place Jonah into the ‘big picture’ of God’s covenantal program to bring Abrahamic blessing on the nations. Part of the purpose of Jonah is to challenge isolationist views of Israel’s role in the world from inside the covenant community. There is more than an echo of the message of Matt 28 19ff etc in the story.

But fundaentally I am distressd when I read simple ‘NO’ or ‘YES’ answers to this question. If by ‘yes’ people mean that it is OK to spiritualise the passage, reduce it to a mere allegory of their own expereince, apply pietistic and individualised interpretations etc then of course this is dead wrong. But if by ‘no’ folks intend to say that there are no lessons for Christian discipleship in the narrative then they too are dead wrong. The dominant note should be Christological but it should not leave us with an un applied Christ.

The charachter of Jonah is the typification of the “fool” charachter – that is he embodies what NOT to do. The book is in fact a comedy and you’re supposed to laugh at how foolish Jonah is. It’s obvious that he’s being a big dork and come on – he gets swallowed by a big fish!! Therefore, as a book, it is not about condemnation in the least. It’s an example of obedience and knowing that God’s knowledge is beyond our own cultures and practices etc.

This is shown through the various “voices” in the text – if you will – you can sense the cultural and personal tensions, in this a “lighter” look at obeying God.