Minor Prophets #8

JONAH: GROWING A HEART FOR LOST PEOPLE

Have you seen the new movie “Hell is for Real”? No? You probably won’t see anything like that in theaters. Heaven is more acceptable subject in our culture.

            We don’t talk much about people going to hell these days. It is not politically correct to speak of hell let alone suggesting anyone deserves to go there. There are a couple of reasons for this according to Jonathan Merritt of the Religious News Service:  

            Hell doesn’t feel fair to the contemporary mind. Some compare the punishment of hell to a 5000 dollar punishment for a 50 dollar crime. Unless your name is Hitler, Pol Pot, or Pinochet, most people don’t feel they deserve to go to hell.

            Hell sounds harsh. The only people who talk about hell are hateful Christians. Think of Westboro Baptist Church and you get a glimpse of popular opinion regarding “hate” and “hellfire Christians.” Hell is bad news; we’re hooked on good news and positive messages.

            Hell scares off spiritual seekers. So the church avoids talk of hell for the sake of drawing people “in.” We’re trying to attract new followers, not repel skeptics.

            What then, is our motivation for sharing the good news of Jesus with those we call “lost”? What are we trying to save them from if there is no hell? If there is a hell, why are we so loathe to talk about it? Jesus plainly taught that believers and unbelievers will be separated on the last day, the “cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). Is this our motivation for evangelism?

            In the story of Jonah, the Lord never mentions hell. He does say, “Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh…who cannot tell their right hand from their left?” The Lord’s main concern is their moral lostness. These people can’t find God and thus don’t know him. Since God has compassion on lost people, shouldn’t we have the same compassion?

1. God’s Grand Scheme of Grace for every race

We have read Jonah 3, and a quick review will reveal that after the fish spit Jonah out on the shore, he went and obeyed the Lord and went to Nineveh. Jonah preached an eight-word sermon of judgment on the people (3:4). There was no hope offered, just a simple condemnation that in 40 days they, their city, and all their animals would be destroyed.

            Nineveh’s response is the envy of every preacher – revival! They repented! First the common people, then the king, and then a royal decree proclaiming a city-wide fast. Most important, the king decreed that everyone give up their evil ways and violence (3:8). Note that they did not need to be told what their sins were, they simply knew.

            This is what touched God’s heart. Their confessions and their sackcloth were all very well and good, but what the Lord noted most was their change of behavior, that they were willing to turn from wickedness. We don’t know why the city was so compelled to repent, but the result was amazing.

            The key verse is the Lord’s response, “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” (3:10). Did God change his mind? Some of us may be appalled to think that God can be swayed. Biblically and theologically we must remember that God does not change. Yet his program of grace for every person and nation has been clearly taught in the OT. Consider the prophecy of Jeremiah (read 18:5-8). Here, the Lord specifically declares that a nation, including but not exclusive to Israel, that repents will not be destroyed.

            Like the Ninevites, anyone who shows genuine repentance can be saved. This is not the recitation of mere words, no trite “I’m sorry,” but a change of heart and mind and resultant behavior. Turning to the Lord and acknowledging his right to be God leads to abundant grace. And God wants to show this compassion to everyone.

2. Jonah’s small-minded plan for man

But that is exactly what infuriates Jonah. Jonah does not believe that his Lord should show compassion on anyone but an Israelite. There are those who are “in” and those who should and never will be “in.”

            Jonah should have been overjoyed that his preaching produced these amazing results for God. Preachers dream of congregations falling down before the Lord because their messages were so powerfully felt. Not Jonah. He gets angry. Why?

            His worst fears have been realized – God was consistent with his character – God was gracious. See how with such ironic petulance he blames God for being God (4:2-3). This, Jonah says, is why he fled for Tarshish, to keep God from making a theological mistake (as if he could). Jonah practically quotes Exodus 34:6, the orthodox doctrine of God’s character. Knowing all this, Jonah is still embarrassed.

            Jonah is angry at God because he is surprised by grace. His idea of what God is supposed to do and what God actually did were radically different. His imagination was stunted by his prejudice and pride. He feels like a failure as a prophet because he predicted the destruction of Nineveh, and it didn’t happen. His competence as a prophet is in question.

            Jonah is angry at God. Anger can be a useful diagnostic tool. When we are angry, it tells us something is wrong – an evil or incompetence or stupidity. Anger is infused by a moral/spiritual intensity that carries conviction. What it fails to do is tell us whether the wrong is outside or inside us. A spouse or a child or a friend may do something that angers us. But if we track the anger, we often find that it leads to a wrong inside of us – wrong information, poor understanding, a small-minded heart. If we can admit that, we can move past being angry with God and begin to understand his grace. Like Jonah, the wrong may not be in our heads, but in our hearts. God’s grace and mercy are beyond our comprehension.[i]

3. Jonah’s rant about the plant

Does anyone find it strange that when God relents and shows compassion to Nineveh, Jonah goes outside of the city to watch God destroy Nineveh? He builds a shelter, waits the 40 days we presume, and awaits the fireworks. Jonah fully expects that the Ninevites will mess up and tick off God. Then – then look out!

            Isn’t that the way the suspicious nature of the self-righteous works? Someone comes to Christ who was a “lost cause” and we fully expect them to revert back to their addictions and bad habits. Or not. Frankly, our problem may be that once they’re “in” we’re satisfied with their being “in” so long as they don’t rock the boat.

            God doesn’t leave Jonah alone. He wants the prophet to understand grace. Jonah’s shelter is sparse, so God causes a leafy plant to grow up over Jonah and shade him. For the first time in this book, Jonah is happy – exceedingly. Next day God sends a worm (a weevil) to kill the plant. Jonah is angry again.

            You would think that Jonah would identify more with the worm than the plant. Jonah, like the worm, found greater fulfillment in the destruction of God’s creation than in bringing pleasure or relief. Jonah is more like the worm than like God. Consider the contrasts:

-          Jonah had compassion on the plant; God had compassion on people.

-          Jonah had compassion on the plant in which he had no investment; God had compassion on people whom he created, whom he wanted to bless.

-          Jonah was upset with the destruction of a plant; God was concerned with the eternal damnation of people.

-          Jonah had compassion on himself; God had compassion for others. Jonah did not really care about the plant, but for what the plant did for him. The plant made him happy. If the plant did not make him happy, he wouldn’t have cared if it died. God cared for people, even people who had sinned and greatly offended him.[ii]

The Lord showed Jonah how tiny the prophet’s heart was and how immense his own was in comparison. One would hope that like the Grinch, Jonah’s heart grew a little.

4. God’s Passion for Compassion

God’s grace can be as offensive as hell. Why would I need forgiveness if I believe that I am not that bad? Why would I need grace unless God saw something in me that wasn’t right? Grace presumes that there is a deep-seated need in me born out of sinful existence and offensive behavior to God. So grace is offensive.

            The Lord tells Jonah, “And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left – and also many animals?” (4:11). What is wrong with the Ninevites? They have their shoes on the wrong feet? The right-left word picture describes their inability to tell right from wrong. Didn’t Jesus say, “Forgive them Father for they don’t know what they do?” Sounds like our world today. Isaiah said, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (5:20).

            But God does not want to leave people in such ignorance, even though they deserve it. That’s the whole point of grace. Grace is unmerited favor, a blessing undeserved. Jonah didn’t like grace because it was not something a person could earn. Recipients of grace are exactly that – unworthy of grace. Jonah did not want to see himself as unworthy, and it’s possible many of us don’t think we need grace (and so don’t show it to others). God is not like us in this matter, as God put it, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion” (Ex 33:19).

            The Lord does not simply shower grace on the unworthy and then leave them to their ignorance. The goal of God’s grace is holiness (as opposed to happiness); the ultimate goal is fellowship with God. By his grace he declares us acceptable to come into his courts and know how holy he is, so that we can be holy too.

            God’s passion for compassion didn’t fit Jonah’s program. Jonah was unwilling to admit that, even though he was a Jew, he did not deserve God’s blessings. If our program doesn’t fit God’s, we gotta change the channel.

There is a world of lost people all around us. Do we have God’s compassion for the lost? Do we believe they are lost in their moral and spiritual direction?

            Tony Campolo once drew his audience to attention about their priorities when he made a rather shocking statement. As part of his message he angrily said, “Yesterday 30,000 children around the world starved to death and you don’t give a “blank about it.” And the pastors that were there admitted that they were thinking, “Oh Tony, you shouldn’t have said that. You’re only going to get us mad at you.” And many of the pastors admitted that they were indeed angry at his cursing. But then just as all of them moved up to the edge of their seats in sort of a defensive posture Campolo said, “The sad thing is you pastors are more upset that I said ‘blank’ than you are about 30,000 children who starved to death yesterday.” Silence descended over the room and they said that almost in unison all of the pastor’s slunk back into their seats thinking, He’s right! O God, how did our priorities get so mixed up? When did we become so calloused to human need?

            My concern is that followers of Christ have lost their concern for the lost. And I stand among those Jonahs who are more concerned about the plant than about the 120,000 lost souls. So how do we change that?

            By growing a heart for lost people; by understanding the heart of God who longs to show compassion on all people, including you and I; by realizing that we need grace and are as undeserving as anyone of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins. But here we stand – covered in grace.

            This is the heart of God: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

                                                            AMEN

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[i] See Eugene Peterson’s Under the Unpredictable Plant, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1992), 157- 158.

[ii] Bob Deffinbaugh, sermon “Nineveh’s Repentance and Jonah’s Wrath”

Minor Prophets #7

JONAH: WRESTLING WITH A SPIRIT OF RELUCTANCE

Last Sunday, I thought that I was reluctant to jump into my brother’s pool. I knew that it was 75 degrees and that means “cold.” But I did it. I had to steel my mind and body to receive the shock of cold water and get used to it. I thought I was reluctant but in truth I was just hesitant. Big difference. Reluctance is stubborn unwillingness; hesitancy is a mixture of willfulness and apprehension.

            Imagine a firefighter who is reluctant to enter a burning building to fight a fire and save a life. He’s not hesitant; he’s unwilling. The fire is raging but the firefighter says, “Nope, I’m not doing that.” This person is deliberately turning his back on everything he has been trained to do for whatever reason (PTSD, fear, risk/reward ratio) and choosing to reject his calling.

            Jonah is known as the reluctant prophet. As we will see in this study, Jonah was not only reluctant, but prejudiced and unrepentant. He completely shirks his role as a prophet of the Lord and makes us despise him. That’s what the narrator wants us to feel. This little book was written in such a way that we would judge Jonah and find him wanting.

            However, Lesley Allen’s commentary on Jonah calls us to empathy for the prophet before we unload all our harshness on him. He writes, “A Jonah lurks in every Christian heart, whimpering his insidious message of smug prejudice, empty traditionalism and exclusive solidarity.”[i] That is the writer’s trick – get you to spurn the main character only to find that he is us.

            The challenge for us in this story is to consider the command of God to us that we struggle most with, that is most difficult to hear, that causes us to panic and say, “Anything but that, Lord!”

            How do you respond when asked to be a representative of Christ to individuals or groups whom you fear or find difficult to love? Are we reluctant to go when God commands us to share his Word? What happens when we refuse?

1. God chooses Jonah despite himself

Our narrator begins this prophetic book like any other prophetic book: “The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai…” (1:1). What you may not realize is that the original audience was already grimacing.

            Jonah was a prophet from the northern kingdom of Israel and the audience was from Judah. At this point, David’s kingdom has been divided for quite some time between the north and the south. Jonah prophesied that the borders of Israel would be expanded, something Judah was not too keen about (2 Kings 14:25). So they already don’t like Jonah.

            The Lord then tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, a city 500 miles to the northeast, and preach against it. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, a cruel and wicked people who showed no mercy and deserved none in return. Nineveh stood for the essence of human self-exaltation and anti-Yahweh power. God has a word of judgment for these people.

            Here’s where Jonah’s prejudice emerges. Jonah has no desire to leave Israel, because he sees himself as a prophet of Israel exclusively. Prophets would speak out against other nations but they never went to those nations to preach. This was quite unusual. In his heart, Jonah was saying, “I am a prophet of Israel. I don’t do windows and I won’t go to Assyria for anything.” In his mind, Jonah believes that Israel is the favored nation of God – why would God care about Assyria?  

            Jonah runs. He flees from the LORD. Jonah knows he cannot get away from God. So we must understand that travelling to Tarshish (Spain) is like Jonah resigning his commission and handing in his prophet’s robe. If he’s 2000 miles away he can’t prophesy.

            The Judean audience will agree that Nineveh is horrible, but God commanded him to go. So here is another reason to despise Jonah. They’d say, “That’s just like a northern prophet.” Amos, contemporary of Jonah wrote, “The lion has roared – who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken – who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8). That’s the proper attitude of a prophet.

            God could have chosen someone better suited, more ideal, but he chose Jonah. And God will choose whom he will choose. You may not be the ideal choice in your mind, yet God’s choice is no mistake.

2. God chases Jonah with a storm

It is not recommended that you run when God calls. Jonah runs, boards a ship for Spain, and tries to escape his calling.

            The word that the narrator uses in v. 4 is “hurls.” The LORD hurls a storm in the path of Jonah’s ship. It is such a tremendous storm that the “salts,” as the sailors are known in Hebrew, experienced and veteran seamen, have never seen a storm like this. They are actually afraid for their lives.

            What do you do when you are afraid? I hope you pray. The sailors prayed to their gods. They may have prayed to gods of the sea or the wind, or to some favorite deity. Then they throw (hurl) the cargo overboard. This is their livelihood, but there is no need for money if they have no life. Nothing helped. Their religion failed; their works not enough (Religion and works do not save).

            What does Jonah do? He sleeps. Jonah is emotionally spent, depressed from his dereliction of duty to God, so he sleeps deeply through a storm. When he stepped on that ship he thought he was finished with God. But God chases him, will not let him get away with this nonsense, because he loves Jonah and, as we will see, God loves the Ninevites.

             In one of many strange twists in the story, the Gentile, idol-worshiping captain outshines Jonah in his grasp of divine truth. “Get up and call on your god!” the captain pleads. If only the captain knew how far spiritually Jonah was from God and what little claim he had upon Yahweh.[ii]

            A pagan urges a believer to pray. A story in Our Daily Bread mirrors this irony. As the convoy waited to roll out, a young marine rapped urgently on the window of his team leader’s vehicle. Irritated, the sergeant rolled down his window. “What?”

            “You gotta do that thing,” the marine said. “What thing?” asked the sergeant. “You know, that thing you do,” replied the marine.

            Then it dawned on the sergeant. He always prayed for the convoy’s safety, but this time he hadn’t. So he dutifully climbed out of the Humvee and prayed for his marines. The marine understood the value of his praying leader.[iii]

Last week I went to visit a church member in the hospital. I closed our visit with a prayer. The roommate of our member smiled and told me "That was a beautiful prayer." It was sweet and somewhat odd that I wondered if this lady was a believer. But underneath our preconceptions about the unchurched is that they really do appreciate prayer.

            But regarding Jonah and his attitude towards God: Don’t make God chase you down so that he has to yell in a storm.

3. God Exposes Jonah’s hypocrisy

Sometimes we need to be shaken. Sometimes we need to see our true selves. In those times we are humbled and we realize we are not as holy, as godly, or as consistent in our faith or even our character, as we think we are.

            The sailors cast lots to find out who is responsible for this storm. Casting lots can be done in several ways: drawing the short straw, the roll of the dice, flipping a coin. The sailors might have had a bag with several white rocks in it and one black rock. Draw the black rock and you are in trouble.

            Jonah draws the short straw, the black rock, whatever. And they pepper him with questions. Basically, what do you do for a living and where are you from? They want to understand why this calamity is happening.

            He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship (fear) the LORD (Yahweh), the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (1:9).

            Jonah’s answer is odd. He proudly declares he is a Jew (a Hebrew to Gentiles) and practically quotes scripture. Psalm 95:5 declares, “The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.” What Jonah confesses is that he knows Yahweh and knows the truth of God’s Word. He KNOWS it! But he RAN! His confession is inconsistent with his actions. He claims faith in God but does not act out that faith.

            The response of the sailors is startling. “This terrified them and they asked “What have you done?” (1:10a). It’s like they knew Yahweh, the Almighty God. Least ways they realize that Yahweh sent the storm. But they also see the hypocrisy and guilt of Jonah. That question, “What did you do?” penetrates. That question reminds me of a time when we were doing renovations in our Winnipeg house. Both our dads were there to help (Sharon's and mine). Her dad was doing carpentry and a little plumbing. My dad was doing some electrical. When my dad was done his task, he went home while Sharon's dad lingered. Finally he came up looking like the cat who ate the canary. Sharon asked him, "What did you do?" He had fiddled with my dad's work so that it suited his own tastes. But guilt was written all over his face.

            The sailors latch on to his declaration about God and they must have practically begged him, “If your God is responsible for this storm, pray to him! Call him off! Jonah, if this is the God you believe in, how in the world could you act like this? What kind of an idiot are you to offend this God?”[iv]

            But have you noticed, Jonah does not pray, even when begged. When unbelievers are praying, the prophet sleeps. When sailors are working to save the ship, the prophet shows no care. And now, when they ask him again to pray, Jonah does not call on Yahweh. He knows the LORD, but he is reluctant to call on his God for the sake of sinners.

4. God uses unwitting Jonah to save sinners

I believe that God will use us without our even knowing it. I would rather cooperate with God’s will, but even if I don’t, he is Sovereign, and he will do what he wants to do through me, and even in spite of me (and you).

            The storm is getting rougher and rougher. The sailors ask Jonah, “What should we do to make the sea calm down for us?” (1:11). Jonah replies “hurl me into the water.”

            I would have done this a long time ago. When they cast lots and found Jonah guilty, I would say “chuck him in the water.” When they saw his hypocrisy – chuck him in the water. When he admits his guilt and offers to be a sacrifice – chuck him in the water.

            The sailors are way more gracious than me or Jonah. First they try to row back to land and that fails. Then they pray to Yahweh. “Please LORD do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, LORD, have done as you pleased” (1:14). They actually try to save Jonah’s life, even though he has done nothing for them.

            Finally, they hurl Jonah into the sea and the sea grew calm. No coincidence. The sailors knew it. As the fury of the storm abated, the yelling, screaming, and praying ceased. The sea was quiet. And these sailors believe with all their heart that Yahweh is indeed the Creator and LORD over the storm, just as Jonah told them. They offer sacrifices to Yahweh and make vows to believe in him.We could say they got "saved."

            It is a very strange twist in the story. Jonah won’t go to Nineveh to preach to those Gentiles, but in running away in an attempt to escape his calling, he is unwittingly used by God to lead Gentile sinners to believe in the one true God. Even despite his hypocrisy, prejudice, and hard-hearted disregard for others, God uses him. That’s all God.

            The story of Jonah slightly foreshadows the story of Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4. Jesus is sleeping in the boat as the storm rages and the disciples ask, “Don’t you care if we drown?” Unlike Jonah, Jesus does care. He tells the storm to be quiet and it does. The disciples were terrified, just like the sailors, and ask, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (Mk 4:41). And like Jonah, Jesus will be hurled into the storm for our sakes, even though we don’t deserve it. Jesus is the answer for the storm of sin and guilt in our souls.

5. God continues to choose Jonah

As Jonah sinks into the sea, he presumes it is to his death. He would rather die than go to Nineveh and preach God’s Word. He would rather die than pray to Yahweh on behalf of the sailors. He would rather die than obey God. He could have. How different the story would have been if he had prayed and asked God to calm the storm and if he had recommitted himself to God’s call and gone to Nineveh. But he would rather die.

            Here comes the fish. When you think of Jonah you think of the fish. But the fish is such a small part of the story. The fish is a vehicle of God’s grace to Jonah. The story is really about God and his grace. He does not abandon his servant to death. The gracious gift of God is life, life that he freely gives to Jonah despite his reluctance and unrepentance (Jonah never truly repents in this book).

            God is gracious to you his servants. God will show us his grace and call us again and again to his purposes. He is calling even now. Are we reluctant to answer?

Bill Hybels wrote, “Every single day we make choices that show whether we are courageous or cowardly. We choose between the right thing and the convenient thing, sticking to a conviction or caving in for the sake of comfort, greed or approval. We choose either to take a carefully thought-out risk or to crawl into a shrinking shell of safety, security and inactivity. We choose either to believe in God and trust him, even when we do not always understand his ways, or to second-guess him and cower in the corners of doubt and fear.”[v]

            There is a song I struggle to sing with a line that reads “Jesus, I believe in You, And I would go to the ends of the earth…” And the truth is, if we are all honest, that we would not go to the ends of the earth. So I choose to see this as a hyperbole, an exaggeration to make a point. The point is “Lord, I would do anything for you.” But is that true?

            Jonah was reluctant to go to the ends of the earth. He failed to show love and grace to Nineveh. He failed to lift a finger or pray for the sailors, but rather opted for death. And though we could harshly judge Jonah for all of this, the author wants us to see that Jonah is “us.”

            What keeps us from loving people with the gospel? Our busy schedules? Our dislike for certain individuals? Can we love people in the LGBTQ community for the sake of Christ? Can we relate to First Nations people without disparaging their race or judging them for their fiscal inability? Does not Christ call us to love people by the same grace and mercy which he showered on us?

            Let us confess that there is a little Jonah in all of us and wrestle with that reluctance to obey God. And as we learned from this story, God is not interested in how well we know the Bible but in how well we practice what we know.

                                                AMEN

           

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[i] Lesley Allen, The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah, NICOT, 235.

[ii] Allen, 208.

[iii] Our Daily Bread, August 18, 2016.

[iv] Doug Goins’ sermon, Jonah: Rejecting God’s Call, April 18, 1993.

[v] Bill Hybels, Who Are You (When No One’s Looking)