SUMMARY
God calls Jonah to deliver a prophetic message to Nineveh, but Jonah flees in the opposite direction from Nineveh.
ANALYSIS
When God commands a prophet to deliver some message, the expectation is that the prophet will obey. God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh, which was the capital city of the Assyrian empire and therefore the source of great evil and suffering. Jonah, however, flees in the opposite direction of Nineveh. So the question of the narrative becomes, “What will God do with a rebellious prophet?”
