Understanding Futures Thinking: Story of Jonah 

By Oliver Locke

What is the purpose of “futures thinking?” You might assume the goal is to predict the future accurately to give you some advantage – maybe to invest in the right stocks or start a successful business. Although that might be the motivation of certain people, thinking about the future is less about ‘predicting’ and more about critically reflecting and considering a range of possible future scenarios – some that are quite probable, and some that are possible but less likely. Futurists also evaluate these possible scenarios as preferable.  

The Cone of Plausibility is a helpful diagram to illustrate how there are several possible futures scenarios that could come from our present:  

Source: https://prescient2050.com/the-cone-of-plausibility-can-assist-your-strategic-planning-process/  

The purpose of futures thinking, therefore, is not to predict one certain scenario, but to consider the range of possible scenarios and then to make strategic decisions today which will lead toward a preferred future.  

The story of Jonah illustrates this kind of futures thinking. The prophet proclaims a future scenario to the Ninevites: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4, NIV). 

When the Ninevites consider this future scenario, they evaluate it as not preferable, and they take action in the present to avoid such a future. The whole city humbles themselves before God—they put on sackcloth and fast, calling out to God. “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3:10).  

This is a great example of the purpose of futures thinking. It should be noted that it is different from typical futures research because God does not always reveal the future supernaturally as with prophecy. However, He has given humans the ability to consider the future. God has given us this gift of futures thinking so that we might consider the outcome of our present actions, and alter our course if necessary so that we might bring about God’s desired future. 

There is a second insight for futures thinking in the story of Jonah. It cautions God’s people not to presume they know God’s desired future. The Hebrew term translated in 3:4 as “overthrown,” (נֶהְפָּֽכֶת nehpakhet) can mean overturn in the sense of destroy, but it can also mean to turn in the sense of having a change of heart (BDB, see also Douglas Stuart, Hosea–Jonah, vol. 31, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1987), 489). Jonah heard these words from the LORD, and he interpreted them in terms of his preferred future: the destruction of the gentile Ninevites. Jonah chapter four shows us that Jonah wanted the Ninevites to be destroyed. However, his preferred future was out of alignment with God’s heart. God’s desired future was that the Ninevites would repent. And although many of our English translations make it appear that the prophecy in 3:4 did not “come true,” in fact, what happened was actually within the possible meaning of God’s words – “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned (turned upside-down, turned on its face in a change of heart).” 

This cautions the people of God to be aware that what we deem to be a preferred future might be out of alignment with God’s heart.  

At the Futuring Hub, our aim for Theo-Futures Research is to give the Church helpful strategies and tools to consider possible futures, and then make informed and prayerful decisions that (we hope) will lead to a preferred future.