Although the prophetic period in Israel's history came to a close and it was no longer possible to make a direct declaration concerning the word of Yahweh, the ideals that were proclaimed by the earlier prophets still persisted. However, finding new literary forms for their expression was necessary. These new forms included the short story, in which an author's message could be concretely illustrated. Many advantages were gained from this type of writing. Because it was not necessary to report accurate historical events in every detail of the story, the author was free to construct the characters and events in a way that would illustrate precisely the lesson he wanted to teach. For example, in the Book of Jonah, the author selected a person who reportedly lived during the times of the prophet Amos. The story concerning this man was designed to show the attitude that the Jewish people had taken toward foreign nations. Jonah behaves so badly in the story that the average reader becomes quite disgusted with him. By making it obvious that Jonah's behavior toward the Ninevites typifies the Jewish nation as a whole, the writer hoped that his story would counteract the narrow nationalism of the Israelite people.
Jonah's call to go to the people of Nineveh was analogous to what the author believed Yahweh wanted the people of Israel to do. Like Deutero-Isaiah, he held that it was Israel's function to proclaim religion throughout the world. But Israel tried to run away from its responsibility. In the end, it was swallowed by Babylon, but just as Jonah survives his experience in the whale, so the Israelites returned to their own land. Still, Israel felt reluctant to carry out its mission to the other nations. When it did come into contact with foreign nations, its only message was a warning of coming destruction. The author of the Jonah story did not believe that the foreign nations were inferior to the Hebrews or that Yahweh was prejudiced against them. If they were given the opportunity to learn of Yahweh's ways, they would respond as well as the Hebrews had done. It was absurd to think that Hebrew pride was more important than the welfare of vast numbers of people.
