A Lesson in Grace

Jonah 4

CORRIE TEN BOOM: Forgiveness

It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken, moving along the rows of wooden chairs to the door at the rear.

It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives.

It was the truth they needed most to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture. Maybe because the sea is never far from a Hollander’s mind, I liked to think that that’s where forgiven sins were thrown.

“When we confess our sins,” I said, “God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever.”

The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe. There were never questions after a talk in Germany in 1947. People stood up in silence, in silence collected their wraps, in silence left the room.

And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones.

It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were!

Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp where we were sent.

Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: “A fine message, fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!”

And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course–how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?

But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. It was the first time since my release that I had been face to face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.

“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me.

“But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein”–again the hand came out–“will you forgive me?”

And I stood there–I whose sins had every day to be forgiven–and could not. Betsie had died in that place–could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.

For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality.

Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.

And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion–I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

“Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”

For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.

Forgiving is not always easy. It’s something that’s often easier said than done. Easier to tell others who have been wronged that they ought to forgive and move on, but much harder to forgive and move on when you are the one who has been wronged.

Perhaps if the wrongdoer shows that they are penitent, they apologise and show remorse for their actions forgiveness becomes easier. But what if they don’t? Something deep within us cries out for retribution.

punishment inflicted on someone as vengeance for a wrong or criminal act. - Oxford DIctionary

When God showed mercy to the Ninevites Jonah’s true feelings were laid bare. Verse 1 of chapter four tells us that it displeased him greatly! But that translation doesn’t quite get to the heart of it. The Hebrew literally says that it was evil in Jonah’s eyes.

How incredible is this? That a man who has been so used of God can be completely out of step with God’s heart?! So much so that he is ready to charge God with doing evil?! The man at the centre of a citywide revival is also a man who knows and understands so little of God’s sovereign purposes.

“God uses people who fail, because there aren’t any other kind of people around!” Spurgeon

Never put men or women who are used of God on pedastals, no matter how holy or gifted they might appear to be! We are all in debt to God’s grace and sometimes it’s those who God uses most who are the most flawed and broken.

“God can strike a straight blow with a crooked stick.” - Sye Ten Bruggencate

The final chapter of Jonah breaks down into 3 parts;

Jonah’s Complaint (1-4)

Jonah’s Booth (5-9)

God’s Query (10-11)

JONAH’S COMPLAINT (Verses 1-4)

To me, one of the clearest evidences that the Bible truly is the word of God is that it is unfailingly honest about the failings of mankind. Apart from Jesus Christ, every hero in scripture has their sins and misdeeds recorded in detail, and Jonah is no different.

We do, however, see something of an improvement in Jonah here compared with his behaviour in chapter 1. This time, instead of running away, he prays.

Even though this has to be one of the most manipulative prayers I’ve ever read, we still must commend Jonah for praying. He turned to God in his moment of anger and confusion.

God is big enough to handle us at our worst, He knows we are not perfect, He is gracious to us in our weaknesses.

Jonah essentially tries to pin the blame on God for His disobedience ‘see, Lord! This is why I disobeyed you! For I knew that you are a gracious God!’

Despite the awful, condescending pride of Jonah’s prayer he tells us four incredible truths about God that He is:

Gracious and merciful

Slow to anger

Abounding in steadfast love

Relenting from disaster

Joel 2:12–13 ESV

12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

Jonah would have rejoiced in these truths as they applied to him and to his people - but when they were applied to the Ninevites these wonderful truths displeased Jonah greatly! So much so that he wanted to die! These people weren’t deserving of God’s grace and mercy, their inclusion in God’s grace somehow cheapened it for Jonah. He became bitter and angry. What should have been a moment of great rejoicing Jonah turned into a valley of self-pity and despair.

That’s what pride and ingratitude will do to you; they will rob you of your share of joy in what God is doing in your life - because they will have you wanting to police what God is doing in everyone elses life.

“It’s not fair, God! How can you show kindness to that person?! They haven’t shown they truly love you! Look at how they’ve behaved...”

Jesus told a parable in Luke 15 about a wayward son who ran away and squandered his share of his father’s inheritance. Eventually he resolves to return home to live as one of his father’s servants. But when his father sees him coming he runs to him, embraces him and celebrates him with a banquet and welcomes him back as his son. But actually the focus of Jesus’s parable wasn’t really the younger son, it was the older son. Who reacted just like Jonah did, he wouldn’t come in to the party preferring to stay outside and seethe. Why? Because he felt his younger brother didn’t deserve his father’s grace!

What this exposed was the older brother’s view of grace - he believed that his father’s favour was something that needed to be earned.

And it was that same ‘older-brother mentality’ that had laid hold of Jonah. And don’t be deceived into thinking that it can’t lay hold on you too! We must always remember that the minute we start talking of grace as something that needs to be earned, we aren’t talking about grace any longer. There’s only one man who has ever lived well enough to deserve God’s favour and He doesn’t begrudge forgiveness to anyone.

John 6:37 ESV

37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

Each of the three sections ends with God asking Jonah a question; in verse 4 he asks him “is it right for you to be angry?” Whenever God asks a question, it’s not because he doesn’t know the answer, it’s to give whoever he is questioning an opportunity to search themselves. When Job questioned God’s goodness, God asked him a series of questions. When the pharisees questioned Jesus, Jesus responded with questions of his own. In Romans 9:18-21 Paul responds to those questioning God’s sovereignty in salvation:

Romans 9:18–21 ESV

18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

Being on the receiving end of questions from God isn’t usually a good indication! The first thing Adam and Eve heard from God after they sinned was a question.

JONAH’S BOOTH

Jonah went straight through the city and out the other side we are told. This isn’t where he should have been! He ought to have been inside the city with the people to whom he has just ministered, but here he is standing apart from them, building himself a little booth and still hoping against hope that God might destroy the city.

This is the kind of attitude that many Christians in our day have sadly taken towards the fate of the world. They are sitting at a distance and watching it, waiting for it to be destroyed instead of trying to win it for Christ.

Despite Jonah’s sulking, God prepares a plant to grow up and give him shade from the sun. Jonah loved the plant and was very grateful for it. Then we read that God prepared a worm to devour the plant at dawn the next day. And then as the sun arose, God prepared a strong east wind to blast Jonah as he sheltered in his booth.

Once again we see that God is sovereign over all things; over nature, over weather, over times and seasons and over even the smallest details of our daily lives.

God prepared this plant to be a comfort to Jonah, even in his disobedience. And it was a great comfort to him, he loved it. God showed Jonah grace again, though he didn’t deserve it. Again Jonah becomes a picture of Nineveh.

Every comfort that comes into our life comes from the sovereign hand of God.

James 1:17 ESV

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

And truly, whatever comforts and blessings we are given in this life don’t truly belong to us, they belong to God. He is able to give them, and He is able to take them away again.

Job 1:21 ESV

21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

We are not to love the comforts of life more than the comforter Himself.

Why did God give this comfort to Jonah only to take it away again? To reveal to him how self-centred he was being, to save him from his own ego centrism! God never takes things away from us for no reason - he isn’t some big meany who just likes to squish us like ants under his thumb for a bit of fun! He is a loving Father - and He disciplines those He loves, for their own benefit. God showed Jonah how unreasonable he was being - when God showed mercy to the undeserving Ninevites it was evil! But when God showed favour to undeserving Jonah it was totally unfair when God took it away again!

GOD’S QUERY

Again we see parallels with another one of Jesus’s parables, the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:27-35

Matthew 18:23–35 ESV

23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

In closing, there are two things to say:

You are never too far from God’s saving grip while you live. No matter how bad your life has gotten, no matter how much of a mess you have made of things; if God can save Nineveh then He can save you.

Remind yourself of the gospel each day - that Christ died for you while you were an enemy of his. He didn’t save you because of your good works, or because of your right beliefs, or because of anything found in you. He saved you because of His goodness, because of His works alone.

“You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin which made it necessary” Jonathan Edwards

So the next time you feel that elder brother mentality rising up inside you - knock it on the head with the gospel. Not one of us deserves salvation, we all deserve hell, but God who is rich in mercy has seen fit to set His love upon us.

So forgive, for you have been forgiven much.