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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