Making a Miracle out of a Molehill

In the book of Jonah (and I hope most of us are familiar with the story), God sends Jonah to go warn Nineveh that He is about to destroy them. Jonah, either out of a severe dislike for the Ninevites, or just a fear of being the sacrificial messenger (killing the bearer of bad news was not uncommon in those days), or maybe a little bit of both, went the other way. He caught a ship to Tarshish, but, on the way, a severe storm blew in, threatening the ship. Jonah, realizing that God had sent the storm because of his disobedience, instructed the ship's crew to throw him overboard. God prepared a whale to swallow Jonah (and that must have taken some preparation, because normally a whale, even as big as it is, cannot swallow anything even close to the size of a man) and keep him alive until Jonah repented. Jonah did repent, and went to Nineveh, and the Ninevites repented, and God spared them. Jonah, not quite getting it, went to a nearby hill overlooking the city, and waited for the light show that never came. God had to deal with him all over again about being grateful that his work had paid off.

Now, I have had some people try to tell me that there is a hidden miracle in Jonah. They use to verses together to show that Jonah was able to go three days' journey in one day. The second part of Jonah 3:3 says, "...Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey." In Jonah 3:4, it says, "And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey..." So, apparently, Jonah was able to move at three times the speed that was humanly possible.

Or was he? Let's examine that a little more closely. First of all, a days' journey is not how far a man could run in a day; it's how far a man could lead a fully laden pack mule in a day (taking frequent breaks, stopping for meals, etc.). If it's urgent enough, you can maintain a pace three times faster than a pack mule (well, a lot of people could have, then, but with today's more sedentary lifestyles, not so much). It's generally considered that a days' journey was about thirty miles. For purposes of comparison, the Western States Endurance Run is an annual 'ultramarathon' held in California's Sierra Nevada. It is a 100 mile course, and you have to finish in thirty hours to get an award (a bronze belt buckle). If you finish in less than 24 hours, though, you get a silver belt buckle. Many people do. Think about that for a minute. Right here, in present-day United States, there are people that can run more than 3 days' journey in one day. Yet it's considered a miracle that Jonah ran three days' journey in one day.

Or did he? Let's look at the verbiage again. Jonah 3:3 tells us that Nineveh was an exceeding great city (how great was it?) of three days' journey. If the first part of the sentence is talking about how big Nineveh was, why would the second part of the sentence change the subject to how far away Nineveh was? I think part of the confusion here is cultural. We generally think of a city a bunch of buildings connected by roads. In ancient times, a city was everything enclosed by the city walls. What's the difference? Well, again, we don't think of farmland as being part of a city, but, if you leave the farmland outside the city walls, you're just inviting an attack at the beginning of harvest. If I have a grudge against you, or maybe I just don't care about you one way or the other but my crops aren't doing well, but your crops are outside your walls, all I have to do is attack you, and, while you and yours are huddled inside the walls, my troops and I can harvest your crops. Yes, you could put archers on the parapets, but I can have my archers shooting at your archers... The bottom line is, that Nineveh was a huge city, even by today's standards, but it was pretty much self-sufficient. They grew their own food, milled their grain, they had craftsmen building things that they needed, and all of that inside the walls of the city. That way, they could continue to live while under siege.

Now, Jonah 3:4 says that Jonah began to enter into the city a days' journey. Again, we are talking about a distance, not an amount of time. My best guess is that when Jonah got to the city, he got inside the gate, and (a) didn't find many people there (a soldier or two to make sure he didn't help himself to the food growing there), and (b) realized that if he started preaching fire and brimstone right there, one of those soldiers would draw a sword or pick up a rock to throw at Jonah, and he would be right back outside the gate headed for another whale... So he walked thirty miles into the city. Now there is a crowd to preach to, most of them don't have swords, and he's too far from the gate to make a run for it anyway. So he preaches; probably hoping that they will kill him quickly so that he doesn't have to suffer very long.