The Extravagant Mercy of God
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
If I were to ask you to tell me about Jonah, I wonder what you’d say? You might tell me about the big whale that swallowed him whole. You might even tell me that he was supposed to go to Ninevah to preach there. If you grew up on Veggie Tales, you might tell me that the Ninevites used to smack each other with fishes. And you would be right (well, except for the hitting each other with fishes part). Those are things in the story of Jonah. But what if there is more to it than that? What if the book of Jonah is trying to tell us something about who God is? And what if that could change our lives?
Scene 1 - The Call
Scene 1 - The Call
The story of Jonah jumps right in. There is no preamble, no set up, and no historical markers to tell us when it is set. It just begins by telling us that the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jonah. But that’s not an unusual thing. As a prophet, it was his job to hear from God and then to tell the Israelites, God’s people, what God said. But in an interesting flip, this time, the message wasn’t for Israel.
2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
And that message messes with Jonah for two reasons. First, Ninevah was the capital of Assyria, one or Israel’s enemies and I can’t imagine Jonah wanting to go to this foreign nation to preach a message from Israel’s god. Second, Jonah knows something about the character of God and he doesn’t want the Ninevites to experience it.
So Jonah runs away. He heads down to the harbour at Joppa and books passage on a boat going to Tarshish, which is about as far in the opposite direction as one can go. Have you ever tried to run away from God? How did that work out for you? Probably about as well for you as it does for Jonah.
Scene 2 - The Ship
Scene 2 - The Ship
We don’t know how far into the journey they got but the ship took off from port and headed out to open sea. Jonah heads below deck and takes a nap and while he’s sleeping a huge storm comes out of nowhere and the boat starts pitching and yawing and crashing into the waves. The sailors are terrified. They start praying to their own gods. They throw the cargo off the ship in order to try and lighten it so it won’t capsize. These sailors knew that if something didn’t change soon, they were all going to die.
And in the middle of it all, in a move I respect and I can identify with, Jonah keeps on sleeping. The captain wakes him up to pray for them all and the sailors, in essence, throw dice to figure out whose to blame. And the dice reveal that its Jonah. It’s fascinating that Jonah doesn’t own up to the problem until he’s called out on it. But he tells them
Jonah 1:9 (NLT)
9 ...“I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
This terrifies the sailors even more so they ask what do they have to do? And Jonah tells them that they have to throw him overboard. Well, they don’t like this idea so they try rowing back to land but the wind is so strong, they can’t get anywhere. So the sailors pray to Jonah’s god - to Yahweh and then throw him into the sea. The sea instantly went calm and the sailors started worshipping God, who had saved them.
Scene 3 - The Fish
Scene 3 - The Fish
Jonah is now bobbing along in the water, getting further and further from the boat. And if that were me, thoughts and fears of drowning would start to enter into my mind, knowing that there is only a certain amount of time before the inevitable happens. But then, out of nowhere, a huge fish breaches the water and swallows Jonah whole. But this isn’t the end of Jonah - this fish that God sent is actually a gift - its what kept Jonah from drowning and forced Jonah to do some business with God.
So Jonah is hanging out in the stomach of this giant fish. And if I’m honest, the scene in Pinocchio with Ghepetto’s boat in the whale’s belly is what enters my mind. But the reality of the situation was probably far more claustrophobic than that.
Soaked to the bone - surrounded by the squishy, smelly inner stomach lining - sitting uncomfortably in complete darkness for three days and three nights. This was not a good place. But sometimes, its the horrible, terrifying and dark places of our lives where God works the greatest transformation in us.
And that’s what kind of happens to Jonah. While in the belly of the fish, Jonah stops running away from God and finally runs towards God. He’s hit rock bottom and he turns to God in prayer.
And because of who God is, he commands the fish to spit up Jonah onto dry land and gives Jonah a second chance to proclaim God’s message to the Ninevites. And that’s what Jonah does.
And if that was the end of the story, it would be a lovely little story of second chances, wouldn’t it? But there’s more to it.
Scene 4 - The City
Scene 4 - The City
Jonah finally arrives in Ninevah to preach the message God gave him. And in what is one of the worst constructed and delivered sermons of all time, Jonah’s message was
Jonah 3:4 (NIV)
“Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
That’s it. That’s the whole sermon. And I’m sure some of you wish my sermons were that short, but the fact is that by all human standards, Jonah’s sermon shouldn’t have worked. But it did. The people believed God and they repented - they turned - from their evil ways. They fasted from food and drink and they put on sackcloth, which was an uncomfortable, itchy garment that symbolized grieving or repentance. Even the King of Ninevah put it on and commanded the repentance of all his people.
And what was God’s response to their repentance?
10 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.
A lot of people, when they think about the character of God, focus on his anger. Maybe it’s because some Christians grew up under a “hell and brimfire” style of preaching that came across as judgemental and angry. Maybe its because many Christians have been fighting a culture war that shows us as being “against” certain people, ideologies and groups. Whatever the source, there is a significant section of people who believe that God is angry all the time.
And to some extent, they are right. God is angry. But he’s not angry at people - he’s not angry at you or me - he’s angry at how sin and evil have wreaked havoc among the very people whom he loves. God is angry at sin, but he’s merciful towards people.
That’s why he offers to us the chance to repent - to turn away from evil and experience life and wholeness in Christ! God doesn’t want us to live under his anger at sin, he wants us to live in his mercy because God is merciful. That’s the main point of Jonah - that God is merciful. And it’s the main point of the death and resurrection of Jesus: God, acting in mercy towards us, takes all the punishment for our sin and takes it into himself - into Jesus - so that you and I can be forgiven, reconciled to God and enjoy the everlasting and abundant life Jesus wants for us. Our God is a merciful God - he does not give us what we deserve, but he offers us eternal life.
The people of Ninevah were doing evil in God’s sight and they deserved the destruction promised to them. But when they repented, God’s mercy kicked in and they were spared. And that’s where the story should have ended. But it didn’t.
Scene 5 - Outside The City
Now the story turns back to Jonah himself. And Jonah is ticked off. Why? Because Jonah was hoping against hope that God would act in a manner different from his character.
2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
He knew that God was merciful but he didn’t want mercy for the Ninevites. He wanted justice for his enemies. He wanted destruction. Have you ever been like that? You want and appreciate mercy for yourself but you want justice for others. Even now - even after God asks him “Do you have a right to be angry?” Jonah wants payback. So he goes outside of the city, sits down and waits, hoping to see fireworks from heaven rain down destruction on Ninevah.
And even as he sits in this petulant, stubborn state of vengenance, what does God do? He shows mercy by sending a plant to provide shade for Jonah.
But Jonah doesn’t let the mercy of God penetrate his heart, so the next day, when God sends a worm to eat the plant, Jonah whines and complains again.
10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 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?”
And that’s where it ends. We don’t get to know Jonah’s response to God’s mercy for the Ninevites. Because that’s not the point of the story. The point of the story is: what’s your response? When you see how God has been merciful to you, how does that influence how you worship God?
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
What about how you see others? Does God’s mercy prompt you to offer mercy to others? Is there someone that you need to be merciful to because God has been merciful to you?
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Jonah experienced the mercy of God but we don’t get to see if he eventually allows it to change his heart. I pray that you and I will see God’s mercy, worship him for it and allow it to make us more merciful to others.
Pray.