Trite Old Testament Moralisms

I stumbled upon a particular church website today and noticed their series description for Jonah. This is just a sampling of the kind of trite moralistic readings that many churches are well known for when it comes to the Old Testament!

"Jonah was a simple man with a simple message, but the world didn’t listen to him. So Jonah became angry, discouraged and lost his patience…something we can all understand."

Uh, really, Jonah was mad because the people of Nineveh didn't listen to him???

⁴ On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." ⁵ The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. ⁶ When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. ⁷ Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. ⁸ But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. ⁹ Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish."¹⁰ When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

Sounds like they listened to Jonah to me! The reason Jonah was mad was because the nation that he despised as a horrible, wicked people DID listen to his message, repented, and were spared destruction from the LORD.

But it doesn't end there....

"Yet the story of Jonah shows us that sometimes it takes a miraculous act, like being swallowed into the belly of a fish, for God to get our attention. We all have a mission to live out no matter what the world throws our way. Are you ready to pursue something greater than yourself?"

Really? This is what Jonah teaches us? A moral tale that sometimes God has to do something big to get our attention? I cannot think of a more self-centered reading of this text.

Could it be about:
-the necessity of God's judgment of evil?
-God working through His (reluctant) people to communicate mercy to others?
-God graciously granting mercy to people when they repent?
-The fact that God's "chosen people" may in fact be those who are unrepentant.
-Not getting angry at God when he shows mercy on those we see as incredibly wicked and deserving of judgment?
-God's great compassion upon everyone that turns to Him?
-A story teaching that Israel is forfeiting the grace that could be their by begrudging God's grace to the Gentiles and ways in which we may be doing the same thing?

No, of course not, it's a story about we've all got a mission to live out no matter what God throws our way!

What's worse than a church preaching a crummy reading of a powerful story is the fact that they are teaching their people every week how to read the Bible poorly! It's really discouraging to see stuff like that.