OT: Jonah
This message was preached on Sunday morning July 12, 2009 at Pulaski Presbyterian. It was part one of a three part series on Christian Love. You can listen/download the audio of the sermon here. You can find the entire series by searching the archives, for July 2009.
Introduction
“Jesus I believe in you, and I would go, to the ends…of…the…earth”
“I would give the world to tell your story, because I know that you’ve called me…”
We just sang those words, but I wonder how many of us really meant them. Do we know that we’ve been called? Are we that eager to share his story, the gospel, with the world? Would we really go to the ends of the earth? Would we go to our enemies even?
How would you respond if God called you to go to Afghanistan, find Al-Qaeda, and share the gospel with them? Would you go eagerly, hoping they would repent and be saved?
Perhaps more difficult. How would you respond if God called you to go to the neighbor or coworker or classmate that you don’t like and don’t get along with? Would you eagerly share the gospel, hoping for their salvation? Or would you look for excuses not to start that conversation? Would you say something halfhearted and secretly hope they reject God?
This morning I want us to look at the story of a man in Scripture who behaved much like we do.
Background
On Wednesday nights we’ve been working our way through the Old Testament one book each week. We’re currently in the Minor Prophets. This morning I’m bringing that study to you as we look at the book of Jonah.
We’ll be continuing this study for the rest of the year, we’re not going through the OT in the same order it appears in your Bible, and anyone is welcome to join us.
Right now we’re in the minor prophets, and I’m skipping ahead just a bit, but I want us to look at the story of Jonah. God called Jonah to go to a certain group of people and share God’s message as a prophet. One thing we’ve learned in this study is that the prophets have three primary tasks.
- Expose sin and idolatry
- Announce God’s judgment, call to repentance
- Give hope for the future
Jonah knows this. 2 Kings 14:25 mentions Jonah as being a prophet of the Lord who’s words come true. Jonah is a prophet, and he knows his responsibilities as a prophet, but in this particular case, he doesn’t want to do these things. Why? Let’s read his story and find out.
Read Jonah
Overview
First, let’s just get this out of the way, this a real historical account. It’s not just a mythological story intended for our instruction. This really happened. In the belly of a giant fish for three days? This sounds pretty fantastical right?
But it’s here in our Bibles with no indication that it should not be taken literally.
Jonah is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible in a way that indicates he was a real man, a prophet, during this time period.
In Luke 11:32 Jesus mentions the men of Nineveh repenting at the preaching of Jonah.
So this is a real historical account of something that really happened. And we can learn two primary things from this story.
Goal
Here’s my goal for this sermon. I’m just going to tell you up front what I hope to accomplish. My goal is to make real to you the overwhelming, awesome, and abundant love of the Almighty God, for people. Since you’re people, I know most of you and I’ll vouch for the fact that you are people, this overwhelming, awesome, and abundant love is for you. I want you to see that.
I also want you to see that it is for other people. People you may not like. And that is my secondary goal, to stir up in you a desire to experience that love in your own life, both from God to you (if you don’t know him), and from God through you to other people (once you do know him).
Background
Let’s go back to Genesis and grab a bit of background on this story. In Genesis we see God creating mankind. Then in chapter 3 we witness the Fall. Our first parents rebelled against God and sinned. The rest of us were born into slavery to sin and death. God promised Adam and Eve that he would send a redeemer to rescue us from this situation.
Later in Genesis 12, God called Abram, changed his name to Abraham and promised to make a nation out of his descendants.
18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (ESV)
Sometimes it seems the Jews forgot this. God did choose Abraham, with the intention of blessing all people, not just one people. Sometimes we forget this. We adopt an “us and them” mentality. Yet we see from the book of Jonah that God’s heart is global, not national.
There are three different types of people who experience God’s mercy and grace in this book.
The first is Jonah himself. God gives Jonah a mission which Jonah does not want. Jonah tries to run from God and from the mission. God doesn’t let him run too far. But God shows mercy on Jonah. He answers Jonah’s prayer in chapter two and uses him for the mission despite his rebellion. This is extremely comforting. Jonah already knew God, but he rebelled. We rebel all the time. We attempt to run away from God, to ignore what he has called us to do. Yet he is still willing to restore us and use us in his mission.
Jonah is type 1:
- Poor
- Rebellious (saved)
- National (Hebrew)
Along the way, God shows mercy on some Phoenician sailors. These men were pagans, but they were “good” people. Even knowing that Jonah’s rebellion was the cause of their troubles, they didn’t want to throw him overboard, but tried hard to save themselves and him. They showed concern for Jonah’s life, and made an effort to rescue him from the situation. They witness the power of God and end up fearing and worshipping him, and God spares them.
These sailors are type 2:
- Working class
- “good” (unsaved)
- Foreign (neighbors)
Finally, God shows mercy on the people of Nineveh when they repent. You need to understand just how wicked these people were to understand the depth of God’s mercy in this situation.
Ninevah is the capital city of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians were very cruel. After capturing a city, they would place a hook in the nose or lip of each captive, tie them together in a line and lead them away as slaves. Part of their strategy for world domination was to be so cruel in war that many smaller nations simply surrendered rather than suffer the consequences of a war with the Assyrian army.
In other words, these are not nice people. And yet, God shows mercy on them and spares them from destruction.
The people of Nineveh are type 3:
- Rich
- Wicked, evil (unsaved)
- Foreign (across the world)
So we see God showing mercy on his people who do know him but disobey, showing mercy on “good” people who didn’t previously know him, but come to knowledge of him and worship him, and showing mercy on wicked, evil people who repent and turn from their wickedness and toward him.
God’s love is not limited to people of a certain nationality, ethnicity, socio-economic status, moral uprightness, or any other measurement.
Jonah knew this going into the deal. He quotes Exodus 34:6 and says,
This is one of Scripture’s great revelations concerning God. He is merciful and loving toward sinners. Consider the most often quoted verse from the Bible.
God loved the world, a world full of rebellious sinful people, in this way. That’s what it means when it says “God so loved.” We generally assume, at least I always have, that “so” should be defined using the first definition in the dictionary, “to such a great extent.” Greek is a wonderfully accurate language though. Our dictionary has four definitions for the word “so.” The Greek word used here corresponds with the fourth one, “in the way described or demonstrated.” In other words, God loved the world in this way, he sent his own Son to suffer the punishment for our sins in our place.
2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (ESV)
If you don’t know Jesus, if you haven’t had an encounter with the living God, you are spiritually dead. You are serving Satan, living in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of your sinful body and mind, and by nature, you deserve the just wrath of a holy God.
…like the rest of mankind.
No one is exempt from this. We are all in the same boat with those “good” sailors. Paul says in Romans 5 that we are God’s enemies. But!
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (ESV)
God loves us even when we don’t deserve it, in fact we deserve the opposite. We deserve to be punished. But he chose to love us instead.
That is the nature of our God.
What does this story teach us about ourselves?
Contrasted with that picture of God’s character, is Jonah. We’ve already seen Jonah’s attitude toward God, he rebels. He attempts to run away from the mission God has given him. But why? God’s mission was to save people, but the people he wanted to save were people Jonah did not want to see saved. Jonah had a very different heart toward Nineveh, than did God.
I said this before, but let me repeat myself. God’s prophets always have three tasks.
- Expose sin and idolatry
- Announce God’s judgment, call to repentance
- Give hope for the future
Jonah doesn’t do these three. In fact, he only does #2 halfway. He doesn’t announce the people’s sin at all. He doesn’t issue a call to repentance, and he definitely doesn’t give them any hope for redemption. All Jonah does is say a few words concerning judgment. In English it comes out as 8 words, in Hebrew it’s only 5.
They know themselves and so we see the king of Nineveh issue a call for prayer and fasting, along with a call to repentance.
Why did Jonah not issue a call to repentance and offer the people hope of redemption? Why did he not point out the specific sins they needed to repent of? Why did he preach so halfheartedly? The answer is given to us by Jonah himself in chapter 4.
At the end of chapter 3 God shows mercy to the people of Nineveh, then chapter 4 opens with these words.
4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (ESV)
Why is Jonah displeased and angry over people repenting and God showing mercy?
He’s really torn up over this. He tried to avoid even going on this mission because he knew if they repented that God would show them mercy. He didn’t want the people of Nineveh to receive mercy! Think about that for just a second. Jonah himself was a Jew, one of God’s chosen people who had received mercy and grace from the hand of God, but he did not wish for these people to experience that same mercy and grace.
Jonah viewed the Assyrians in Nineveh as enemies who deserved punishment and he wanted to them to “get what they deserved” from God. He didn’t get what he deserved, instead he got grace and mercy. What a selfish hypocrite!
Are we any different? I don’t think so. We tend to wish the worst on our enemies, or those we dislike or view as “bad people.” How many times has someone cut you off or sped past you on the interstate and you thought to yourself, or even said out loud!, “I hope he gets a ticket.” Are you blameless as a driver? Have you ever gone over the speed limit? Have you ever wished that you would get a ticket? Do you see what I mean? We do the same thing Jonah did. We want one kind of treatment for ourselves, and another kind of treatment for those we dislike.
And look just how bad it is.
Jonah goes outside the city, builds a little shelter and sits in the shade waiting to see if God just might destroy them after all. What an attitude!
God causes a plant to grow up and provide some additional shade and comfort for Jonah. Jonah appreciated the plant. Then God kills the plant, provides a scorching hot day, and how does Jonah respond?
8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” (ESV)
Have any of you ever talked to God that way? Be honest! I think we all have at one time or another. Something goes “wrong” or at least doesn’t go the way we wanted it to go, and all the sudden we’re angry at God and feel our anger is justified, as if somehow God owes us something.
10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (ESV)
Jonah had compassion for the plant, but not for people. So God asks if possibly he (Jonah) might have enough compassion for the cattle in the city to want to see it saved for their sake. It’s a cutting bit of sarcasm.
Do you see the contrast here between how God loved people and how Jonah did not? That’s what the book of Jonah is all about. If you don’t know Jesus I want you to see the love of God for all people and know that He wants you to experience that love as well. Scripture says that God’s love was manifest to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
God loved the world in this way, this is how he loved the world, that he gave his only Son, Jesus, while we were still sinners in rebellion, at war with him, He gave his son as a ransom for many. Jesus lived the life we should have lived, because we don’t, and died the death we should have died because of our sin, as a substitute taking our place and suffering the penalty for our sins. That is how God loved the world. So that, anyone who believes in Jesus, anyone who has as the object of their faith, Jesus. You see we all have faith in something. Some have faith in Allah, or Mohammed, or some other god, or ourself, but their is only one faith that saves, and that is faith in Jesus.
Anyone who has faith in Jesus will experience eternal life.
If you already know Jesus, then I want you to see the love of God for all people, recognize that you have experienced that love, and that there are others who have not. They need someone to tell them about it! You are God’s adopted child, created in his image, meant to reflect his love to an unsaved world. So ask yourself,
Do I share God’s heart for the nations? God’s love for people? Even those who are my enemies? Am I more concerned about my garden than I am about the state of people’s souls? Do I have love toward my enemies like God had love toward me?
I want you to go home this week and ponder the magnificent love of God. He loved you while you were his enemy, enough to sacrifice his own son in your place. Are you going to share in that love for others? Or are you, like Jonah, going to hope God gives them what they deserve?
If you know Jesus, then God gave you what you didn’t deserve. Your mission is now to go into the world and love people, who don’t deserve it, the way God loved you, who didn’t deserve it, sharing the good news of Jesus with joy!
Imagine if we all did that! Imagine if just the Christians right here in our church would get excited about loving people in Pulaski the way God has loved us. What would be different? About your life? About our church?
