Israel's story, according to Metropolitan Hilarion, is "a chronicle of our own soul, our falls and risings, our sins and repentance".
The Bible is not only the history of the Israeli people, but also a chronicle of a human soul, the soul that fell and rose before God’s face, that sinned and repented.
If we look at the life of the people mentioned in the Bible we can see that each of them is shown not as much as a historical personage, not as much as a personality who performed some deed, but more as a person standing in the face of the living God.
The person's historical services, as well as other achievements, get secondary importance; what remains is a more important issue, that is whether the person stayed faithful to God or not.
If we read the Bible from this viewpoint, we can see that much of what is being said about ancient just people and sinners is nothing but a chronicle of our own soul, our falls and risings, our sins and repentance.
[...] The story of Jonah is the story of many thousands and millions of people who have been commissioned by God to do something and who have tried to flee from God's face when they failed it.
Has it never happened to us that we've refused to perform God’s will and tried to hide from Him? Have we never found ourselves in the abyss of Godlessness and abandonment, like Jonah in the 'belly of the fish'?
Haven't we tried to call to God from this abyss when we finally realized there was nowhere to run away from Him?
In the psalms by David, another hero from the Old Testament mentioned in the Great canon, we read, 'Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast' (Psalm 139, 7-10).
It is true that God is everywhere, and there is nowhere one can hide from His face.
God is present even in places where we do not think him to be. He is always facing us, even if we think that He has turned His face away.
God never turns away from a man, but men turn away from God, this is the essence of human tragedy....
God is always within, but we find ourselves without; God is always near us, but we are often away from Him.
It is not God who sends a man into 'the belly of the fish', but the man himself tries to flee, boards a ship, gets caught in a storm, and then finds himself in the deep of Godlessness.
And then from this profoundness, from this abyss they would call to God, and God would come to their rescue.
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