Jonah and God

I'm going through Jonah for my Elements of Bible Study class and realized a difference between Jonah and the Ninevites and the men on the ship with him. While Jonah would "pray," even when he was in the belly of the fish, the Ninevites are encouraged by their king to "call on God earnestly." And do you remember when the sea was all stormy?? The men on the ship came to Jonah and said, "Call on your God."

I was listening to an emergent podcast (I don't, by the way, endorse all of their stuff) and the topic was "finding God in the other." The idea was that sometimes we can learn something about God through the eyes of those who don't quite believe the same as we do. Take Paul and speaking to the Greeks, for example, about the unknown God. While the Greeks didn't have a complete understanding of God, they knew something of the awesomeness and powerfulness of this unknown God. Well, I am learning something about communication with God by observing how those in the story of Jonah communicated with God. Jonah was too flippant about God. He was completely disrespectful many times, and at others, he just prayed and asked for the salvation that he knew would come from God. The men on the ship and those in Nineveh saw an urgency that only God could meet and sought to implore him for salvation!