The book of Jonah, read on Yom Kippur, is more than a tale about a reluctant prophet. It is a mirror held up to Israel, especially the northern tribes who tasted the brutality of Assyria. Imagine how deep their resentment: this nation that had uprooted them, scattered them, and desecrated their land was now being invited into covenant mercy. Like Israel, Jonah flees God’s call to be a light to the nations and instead runs from the presence of Adonai.

The book traces Israel’s story in miniature. Jonah offers himself: “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” surrendering to judgment as Israel once did when exiled. The sea, the ancient symbol of chaos engulfs him. Reeds wrap his head as if crowning him with his own rebellion. He descends to She’ol and like David, he cries from the pit, “I have been banished from before your eyes, yet I will look again toward your holy temple.” Even in exile, Israel’s longing is for the Holy Temple.

The fish that swallows Jonah is not some kind of marine monster. In the ancient imagination, it is a chaos-creature represented by Assyria. Jonah inside the fish is Israel inside exile—swallowed by the power it despises. Yet from within, he prays. Adonai speaks to the fish, and it vomits him onto dry land representing stability, fertility, security. It is a rebirth, a chance to fulfill the mission he had fled.

Jonah preaches a forty-day warning. The people of Nineveh fast, don sackcloth, and even the king humbles himself, removing his robe like an ANE enthronement ritual: humiliation before exaltation. But Jonah seethes. Like Israel watching its oppressor repent, he resents God’s mercy: “I knew you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger” (Exod. 34). Under his sukkah, he broods as God exposes his heart.

Jonah stands as Israel’s mirror and really our own mirror: chosen to bring light to the nations but resisting that call. The message of Jonah reminds us that God’s covenant purpose is much larger and His mercy extends even to those we would rather see judged. His grace reaches much further than even we can imagine. That’s our reminder this Sukkot…it’s the Festival of the Nations—all nations—a call to join God’s covenant.