Sean Wykoski

Jonah and Free Will

Jonah and the whale is a classic biblical story about how Jonah is given a mission from God, but instead chooses to run away from God. Through his disobedience he learns the wrath of God and puts the lives of innocent people in danger because of his selfish actions. Later, he comes to realize that he was the one who created the situation, so he thus throws himself overboard to solidify him self to God. He gets swallowed by a large fish, most likely a whale, where he comes to realize that he cannot run from God and that God is truly his way to salvation. He then thanks the lord for a rather odd "wake up call" and determines that those who run away from god are really only running from his love. Is this really all about free will or is it just a crazy case of stock-holm syndrome?

 When we think of free will, we tend to think of having the freedom to do as we please, and the bible tells us that the greatest gift we receive from God is the gift of free will. Of course, I feel as though the writers of this biblical text created this story as a means of comfort and reassurance. To say that even when we tend to run from God, he/she will always find us and remind us that he/she is only trying to love us. They also made it clear that Jonah had a choice in the beginning. He was told by God to go to Nineveh, but he chose, instead, to run to Joppa and hid from God on a ship. This would be an example of him using his gift of free will. Instead of listening to God, he chose to take a different path. Here's the part where I'm not so sure he truly had free will. When he was on the ship God began to make the sea turn into a crazy storm. God was angry at Jonah for disobeying him. Jonah realized this and had the crew toss him overboard to spare their lives. If Jonah truly had free will then why would God be angry at him for not wanting to follow his will? It seemed like Jonah really only had one choice and that was to follow the will of God, because as we saw, the other choice led to crazy storms and him being engulfed by a rather large fish. This really reminded me of The Adjustment Bureau and the scene where David Norris had asked Thompson what happened to free will? And Thompson replied that it was just an illusion. Is God's free will really just an illusion? It sort of seemed like it in Jonah's case. It was either "Follow the path of God" or "Don't follow it and suffer God's wrath", he had a choice, but it seemed like there was only one option. What kind of puzzled me was at the end of the story, Jonah realized that all along God was just trying to show him that he loved him. It seemed a bit like a sign of stock holm syndrome. I'm not trying to diss on the bible at all, but I know I wouldn't be to happy with God if he/she started a crazy storm and had me eaten by a fish all because I didn't want to do what he/she told me. The story really just reminded me of that scene from The Adjustment Bureau and got me thinking if we really have a choice or is just that there are two options, but we can really only choose one.