Jonah
Although often classified with the prophets, the Book of Jonah is not a prophetic book. The story, about a prophet named Jonah, was written to criticize and rebuke the narrow spirit of nationalism that Jonah observed among so many of the Jewish people. To accomplish this purpose, he constructed a story that would illustrate the spirit he wished to counteract. In the story, Jonah acts in a manner that is similar to the way the Jewish people behaved in their attitude toward foreign nations. Anyone reading the story cannot help but see how foolish Jonah’s actions are. The author hoped that the Jewish nationalists would see themselves in the role that Jonah played.
Jonah is told to go to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, and deliver a message that Yahweh entrusts to him. Refusing to go to Nineveh, Jonah instead flees to Joppa, where he boards a boat that is bound for Tarshish. The ship on which he is riding encounters a storm, and the sailors in charge, in order to save themselves, throw Jonah overboard. Jonah is swallowed by a whale. However, he not only lives inside the whale but is carried to shore and thrown out onto the land.
When the call to go to Nineveh comes to Jonah a second time, he very reluctantly obeys. The only message that he proclaims is one of destruction that will be visited on the Ninevites because of their sins. When the people of Nineveh hear what Jonah has to say, they repent of their sins, expressing their remorse by sitting in sackcloth and ashes. Their repentance makes the threatened punishment unnecessary, which greatly disappoints Jonah, for it means that he has not judged them correctly. He starts to feel sorry for himself and complains to Yahweh of his bitter lot. At this point, Yahweh rebukes him in no uncertain terms, explaining that the fate of one hundred and twenty thousand people is a matter of more importance than the comfort and vanity of a single individual.
Ruth
Like the Book of Jonah, the Book of Ruth, a masterpiece of storytelling, has a moral lesson, but this lesson may not be the chief reason why the book was written. It is a story about a Hebrew woman named Naomi who lives during the period of the judges, prior to the establishment of the monarchy. After the death of her husband, Naomi accompanies her two sons to a land occupied by the Moabites. Here the two sons marry Moabite women. Later, after both of her sons have died, Naomi decides to return to the land of the Hebrews so that she might dwell among her own people. She urges her two daughters-in-law to stay with the Moabites. One of the daughters-in-law, Orpah, yields to Naomi’s request and bids farewell to her mother-in-law. The other one, Ruth, refuses to let her mother-in-law return home alone. Her affection and loyalty are expressed in the words “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”
As Naomi and Ruth journey back to the land of the Hebrews, they come near Bethlehem at the time of a grain harvest. Naomi’s kinsman, a wealthy Hebrew named Boaz, owns a large field of grain. Ruth asks that she be allowed to work with the gleaners, who gather the grain that the reapers have missed. Boaz grants Ruth’s request, giving instructions to his servants to see to it that plenty of grain is left for Ruth and her mother-in-law. Because Naomi is a relative of Boaz, she and Ruth are treated generously. In time, Ruth becomes Boaz’ wife; their son Obed will be the grandfather of King David.
