Can You Run From God? - Jonah Overview

Major Messages from the Minor Prophets  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Introduction

We all know the story of Jonah. We’ve heard it countless times in Sunday School, and we’ve even gotten to watch a major movie of the story told to us by talking vegetables. Jonah ran from God, got swallowed by a big fish, and then learned his lesson and did what God asked of him. That’s usually the way we talk about it, but there’s a lot more to the story than that. It actually contains a lot of humor and is intended to held up as a mirror for us to look into and see the truth of who we are.

Introducing Jonah

We do not know a whole lot about Jonah except that he had accurately prophesied before the story told in this little book. In 2 Kings 14:25 Jonah predicted the prosperity and the extension of Israel’s borders under King Jeroboam II. Does that name sound familiar? It should, because this is the king of the Northern nation of Israel that both Hosea and Amos prophesied to. However, different to those books, the book of Jonah is not about Jeroboam and Israel, but rather about Jonah and his call to prophesy to a pagan nation.
The book of Jonah is also different because it actually focuses on a narrative surrounding the prophet instead of the actual prophesy itself, and because of this strange feature (and some of the more fantastic elements) there are some who would argue that Jonah’s story never actually happened. They would say that we should read this in a similar light to how we would read a parable because the elements of the freak storm, a giant fish swallowing someone, the word choices, and the urgent speed with which many story elements happen are too much to believe.
However, when we really look at parables and how they are told, we see this is not like a parable at all. It’s detailed and specific about settings. It is extremely long for a parable and names someone we know really did live in the eighth century BC. But the most important argument against this view is that Jesus himself treated it as historical in Matthew 12:39-41. “What does it suggest about us - or our view of Jesus - if we do otherwise?” (Mark Dever)
We’ve also successfully excavated ancient Nineveh and have found evidence that lends itself to the historicity of this story. From the existence of prophecies to the records of natural disasters immediately prior to when Jonah would have prophesied that would have primed them to hear the proclamation of judgement that he was to bring. What’s more, some of the most prosperous decades of this city’s entire history came after the time that they were said to have repented. All of this may be circumstantial evidence, but it does point us to the truth of the historicity of this book.
Thinking back on the prior books, we see in Hosea that God loves his people dearly. In Amos we see that God will judge all people, but his special offer of hope to his special people. In Obadiah we see God’s judgement on the foreign enemies and, my goodness, it sure looks like God only extends grace to Israel right? The judgement on Edom was that they would be destroyed forever. It raises the question, does God care about anyone other than Israel? And Jonah answers that question, but it also should cause other questions to arise, like are you running from God’s will? And are you running from God’s love?
Let’s meditate on these as we are taught from Jonah together.

Are you running from God’s Will? (Chapters 1–2)

God Calls Jonah to Preach (1:1-2)

Jonah 1:1–2 (ESV)
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2Arise (“get up!”), go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, one of the rising powers of the time and it is said that it was the largest city in the world for about half a century. As the capital of Assyria, Nineveh would have been instrumental in completely conquering Israel just a few decades later. The Assyrians were not a pleasant people. They were well recorded as being violent and cruel. In the palace of Nineveh there were found carvings depicting and celebrating their cruelty. Interestingly, Nineveh was also the main subject of Nahum’s prophecy of destruction sometime in the following century.
To this city, to this people, Jonah was called to go preach against their sin and their wickedness within their own walls. You see, God cares about all of his creation and desires all of them to know him and to repent of their sin. It has never been just about Israel.
How would you respond if God called you to go speak to a people known for their cruelty? To go to people who you find reprehensible? To go to the Taliban or Hezbollah? To go to Gaza and proclaim the Word of God to the Muslims there? Many of us hear the story of Jonah and ridicule his choices, but when it comes down to it we would choose the same thing. When push comes to shove, most of us would rather see these people burn than to seek their salvation and risk making ourselves uncomfortable by selling our possessions in order to proclaim the word of God to them. Do not be too quick to cast judgement on Jonah, because the whole point of this story is to show us our own sins and the truth of who God is.
Notice as well how this entire thing starts. It starts with the word of God. And this is exactly the way that any story of any person who has been saved begins. Your Christian story did not start with you walking the aisle, it did not start when you prayed a prayer, it didn’t start when you got baptized. Throughout the book of Romans Paul emphasizes the centrality and necessity of the Word of God in the salvation of sinners. In Romans 10:13 he quotes the prophet Joel with the well known verse:
Romans 10:13–14 (ESV)
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
And if you stop reading there you would think you could argue that your Christian story began when you believed in Christ, but Paul doesn’t stop there! He moves to following the chain of events that leads to people calling on the name of the Lord!
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
Where does it all trace back to? Someone preaching the Word of God. Your Christian story began when you heard someone, whether your mother or father, your pastor or friend, your spouse or children, faithfully proclaim the Word of God to you. But your Christian story still did not start with them. It ultimately started when God moved in their hearts to stir them up to act in love for you and for Christ by speaking his Word!
God created Israel by his Word and he would save Nineveh by his Word. Today, we can thank God for those who are faithful to labor in his Word in faithful preaching. We can also thank him for those faithful saints who have been faithful to live and teach us in the light of the Gospel, who labored before us to till the soil. We can thank him for the faithful churches who helped send money to build our church building
Your salvation begins with God, and that is such a good thing because if it started with you, it could also end with you. If it begins with God, then it ends with God and all that God has saved will be saved.
Let’s continue reading in verse 3.

Jonah Flees from God (1:3)

Jonah 1:3 (ESV)
3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
Instead of following the Word of God, Jonah ran like he was trying to get out of God’s range of ability to speak, as if only had dominion over Israel and the closely surrounding lands.
I’m sure most of us remember the popular commercial with a man who was testing cell phone coverage. Each time he stepped further away he asked a now iconic question: “Can you hear me now? Good.”
It seems like Jonah was doing something similar, but trying to run to a place where he would no longer have to hear God’s voice. He hoped that running to a pagan nation would save him from having to hear those difficult instructions! It was all well and good when God was telling him good things for Israel, but now that it was about a rival outside of his nation’s borders he decided to test the service coverage of God by going the ! “Can I hear You now?” he asks as he goes to the port of Joppa, literally crossing the border of the opposite side of Israel from where he was supposed to go.
He commissions a boat to run to Tarshish, which was on the southernmost point of Spain, even further in the opposite direction. Instead of heading east to Assyria, Jonah reaches the westernmost edge of land and then keeps going.
It’s also interesting to note the word choices here. In verse 2 God says “get up!” and here in verse 3 it says that Jonah “arose,” but then what? He goes down to Joppa, and then down into the ship. Jonah’s path in running from God is downward.
And Jonah’s about to figure out the problem with running from God
You can’t get away. As the Psalmist says in Psalm 139
Psalm 139:7(ESV)
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
You cannot run from the one who made all the heavens and the earth and all who dwell in them.
Let’s read on in Jonah’s story to see what happens.

God Catches Up with Jonah (1:4-17)

Jonah 1:4–17 ESV
But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.” And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Now, if we rely primarily on our Sunday School or VeggieTales versions of this story then we’re going to miss all the twists that are here in the story.
To start, God doesn’t just let Jonah fade into sinful avoidance. In many of the Old Testament stories we do not see God taking direct action to stop people in their sin until the sin has been going on for generations. But while they were sailing away, Jonah and his companions were stopped by a great storm that was sent by God. Why would God act directly here and not there?
Then we see something else that should shock us. Who is it who acts in faith here? Is it the prophet from Israel who has heard the very voice of God? Or is it the pagan sailors? When the sailors heard in verse 9 that Jonah was running from the LORD, YHWH, the God who made everything did they think that they could join with Jonah in running from God? No! They asked him what could be done so that they may be saved from the LORD!
And when they did what they were instructed by throwing Jonah into the sea, and the sea stilled, what was their response? To fear all the more and to worship the LORD! In a very real sense, these sailors repented and believed. This should draw our minds to another storm that caused great fear in Mark 4. Jesus and the disciples were in a boat to head through the Galilean Sea and Jesus had fallen asleep. A great storm arose and caused great fear in the disciples, and finally they woke Jesus up and he stills the sea, and saves the disciples with just the power of the Word of God! “Peace, be still!”
And what was the response of the disciples to Jesus’ power? Mark 4:41 tells us that “they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’” They too responded with even greater fear of YHWH for his ability to calm the storm so quickly.
Isn’t it incredible what God can do? He saves pagan sailors and his own disciples in the midst of great storms, so why do we so quickly doubt his desire or his ability to save us from the difficulties we face? Why do we choose to face storms alone instead of calling on the God of the storm? If you think that you have created too much of a mess for God to save you from and that it’s pretty much hopeless for you, just look to the story of Jonah. God delights in stepping into our messes and saving us from them. I can attest to that in my own life and so can so many others here with us. Trust God to do the work of saving you. Just throw yourself at his feet and he will be merciful.
Finally, this shows us another way in which these pagan sailors were closer to understanding the will of God than the prophet of God. We’ll talk more about Jonah’s view of human life in chapter 4, but look to how the sailors respond to Jonah’s instruction to basically sacrifice him to appease his angry God in verses 13 and 14. They initially rowed hard to try to return to port seeking to spare Jonah’s life!, but the storm grew so bad that they had no other option than to throw him overboard. And as they were doing so, they prayed to God! “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.”
They recognized the value of human life, something our society that is quickly progressing into a secular paganism refuses to acknowledge. Something that many Christians today refuse to acknowledge. When we see wars crop up around the world, what is our prayer? That the LORD will save people through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ? Or that he will smite his enemies?
Do our thoughts and actions toward human life reflect these sailors? Because their position is the position that Christ wants his people to take. He says over and over again to “turn the other cheek,” “love your enemies,” and “pray for those who persecute you.” THroughout the Epistles we see direct instruction from the Apostles to value life and to live quiet lives.
From the very beginning of the Bible we see how much God values humanity by giving us his very image! We can be so quick to devalue human life because it makes us feel more worthy. Just something to think about as we continue learning from Jonah.
We all know what happens to Jonah next: a giant fish comes and swallows him and Jonah spends 3 days and nights in the belly of the fish. This is a significant number of days and nights, but we’ll talk about that in a second.
Notice, that though Jonah ran from God and deserved to drown in the sea, God delivered him by appointing a great fish to come swallow him and save his life.

Jonah Responds to God with Praise (2:1-10)

Looking at chapter 2 we see Jonah’s response from the belly of the fish. He responds in repentance and song! He cries out in verse 9, “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” and then after 3 days the LORD speaks to the fish and it spits Jonah out onto dry land.
Isn’t this incredible? No matter how you try to explain how these events happened, they were clearly fully orchestrated by the sovereign LORD. Jonah was saved and what was his response? To sing! You may have noticed that we tend to sing more than other churches and we sing in different ways from most churches. Some of this is out of necessity, but most of it is because the great importance of singing songs in response to the might works of God in us and in the history of the world! I would love to do more singing together.
Christians, when you think of how the LORD saved you, let it lead you to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs in response to his mighty works, just like what Jonah did from inside a fish. Sing for the salvation of the LORD! Sing because you know that you were as helpless as a man in the midst of the crashing waves of the sea until God saved you!
Now, if this was a parable this would be a great place to end because Jonah is now back on land (as of the end of chapter 2) and seems to have learned his lesson that you cannot run from God, but instead, the story keeps going because Jonah, Israel, and we have more to learn.

Are you running from God’s Love? (Chapters 3–4)

Chapters 1-2 lead us to think about if we are running from God’s will for our lives. 3-4 then lead us to ask a second question “Are you running from God’s love?” Put a different way, will you love the people who God loves?

God Again Calls Jonah to Preach (3:1-2)

In the first couple of verses we see more surprises as God repeats his command for Jonah to go prophesy to the Ninevites. This wasn’t over yet! And this story really is amazing if you’re willing to look at it as a new reader. God gives another chance to the foolish prophet and basically sets him in the same position he was in before his foolish attempt to escape the will of God. Would it have been better if he had never run away? Of course. But God still gave him another chance.
This same God who will judge every sin whether in thought, word, or deed, is also characterized by deep and boundless mercy. This does not mean we should presume on his mercy and kindness. Jonah did not run knowing that God would save him, but he probably knew it was a possibility. As we’ll soon learn, Jonah knew that God was forgiving and merciful to all who follow his ways.
Jonah Resents the Ninevites (4:1-11)
Christian, is there some responsibility, relationship, or situation that you have messed up and you feel terrible about it? Are you acutely aware of your sinfulness and its impact on the people around you in some aspect of your life? Remember that God is the same God who gave hope to Adam after the fall (and your sin did not plunge all of humanity into sin!). This is the same God who used the hatred of Joseph’s brothers to save the future Israel. This is the same God who forgave King David and Mary Magdalene. This same God died for whatever responsibility, relationship, or situation that you messed up. His righteousness has been accounted to you, and you will be treated not as you deserve, but as Christ deserves. This same God made you a new creation through being born again into new life through his Spirit.
Christian, this is the God you follow, and Jonah’s story should remind us of this. God has granted each of us so many second chances.
I pray that our church would take great care in both who we invite into membership, but also in removing them from membership whenever unrepentant sin warrants their removal. But I also pray that we would be a church that is eager to offer second chances. A place where broken sinners can be renewed in Christ and that we would reflect the great mercy that was shown to us onto others. May God make us known for our mercy and stubbornness for love, to his glory forever.

Jonah Obeys God and Goes (3:3-4)

Jonah 3:3–4 ESV
So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
God called Jonah again! And this time, Jonah obeys and goes to Nineveh. Now, this was no rural village, this was one of the greatest cities of this time. It required 3 days to journey through and there is a bit of irony in this statement. Jonah spent the same amount of time in Nineveh as he did in the belly of the fish. By saving a city in the same time that it took to remedy Jonah’s disobedience, was God teaching his people how many opportunities are lost when they run from him? And was he reminding Jonah of his own grace towards him?
Consider carefully how you have responded to the opportunities God has given to you. If you are not a Christian, how many more opportunities are you expecting to get?
Christian, resolve this day to obey God, especially in areas where you have been disobedient! God has been so gracious to us, may we respond with love and obedience.

God Delivers Nineveh (3:5-10)

So, Jonah goes and preaches a barebones message of judgement. What is this pagan city’s response? Look at verse 5: Belief and repentance! They believed God and called for a fast and every single person put on sackcloth (a sign of mourning and repentance) from the greatest to the least. In the following verses we see the king’s repentance and his royal proclamation:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
The Ninevites believed God’s message of judgement, repented, and God showed them mercy. It’s incredible what God can do with just a few faithful words, isn’t it?

Jonah Resents the Ninevites (4:1-11)

Now this is where the book should really end, right? Maybe you’re thinking this is where the sermon should end. This would be the clean ending, the happy ending to the story, and the point where the story ends in so many of our retellings. To be honest, the point of the story would be so much easier to understand if it did end here, but it doesn’t. We haven’t even reached the main point yet. After the salvation of God in chapter 3, we see a reaction from Jonah in chapter 4. Let’s read it together.
Jonah 4:1–11 (ESV)
But (the saving of Nineveh) displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 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. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
Friends, Jonah is throwing a temper tantrum here. I just see him shaking his fists at the sky, grabbing his hair, stomping his feet and crying out: “I knew it! I knew that you would save them! I even said it when we were back in Israel! You just can’t help yourself! You’re gracious and merciful, you overflow in faithful love, and you relent from your warnings of disaster! This is why I didn’t want to come! They deserve your judgement, not your grace! Just kill me now! I don’t even want to live anymore!”
And what was God’s response? “Do you really think you deserve to be angry? Can you hear yourself right now?”
But it doesn’t end there. Jonah walks outside the city, makes a makeshift shelter for shade, and sits down to wait for the destruction of the city. He still hoped God would destroy them. And in his graciousness to provide relief, but also instruction, God made a plant to grant Jonah relief through better shade. And look at the word choice in verse 1 for Jonah’s feelings about the salvation of Nineveh and then in verse 6 for his feelings about the plant. He was “exceedingly displeased and angry” in verse 1 and “exceedingly glad” in verse 6. You’re meant to notice those two reactions.
So then what does God do next? He sends a worm to eat the plant and as the sun comes up the same God who appointed the violent winds on the sea to teach Jonah he could not run from God’s will, now appoints a scorching wind to teach Jonah that he also can not run from God’s love. And as the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, he said “I wish I would just die already!”
And God again says, “Do you deserve to be angry for the plant?”
And what’s Jonah’s response? “YES, I deserve to be angry! Angry enough to die!
And here God makes the main point finally clear. Let’s read the last two verses together. Jonah 4:10-11
Jonah 4:10–11 ESV
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. 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?”
What a seemingly weird way to end this book, but it really is what ties it all together. In chapter 1, Jonah recognized God as the maker of the earth and the sea, but here he seems to have forgotten that God also made all of humanity and all the living creatures within the walls of Nineveh and throughout the world. Then, in his eagerness to watch the judgement of God unfold, Jonah didn’t realize that he cared more about a plant that provided him comfort than he did about the people who were about to be destroyed.
In fact, he didn’t just not care about Nineveh, he hated them and longed for God’s destruction on them so much that he would rather run from his duties than take the message of God to them. He cared more for his own comfort than he cared for 120,000 people who were lost in sin.
In verse 11 the phrase “do not know their right hand from their left” is a euphemism for them not knowing what is right and wrong because of their ignorance of the teachings of God. This is why Paul says in Romans 3 that the first century Jews had an advantage over the Gentiles: They know the will of God!
Where the king of Nineveh wonders on the compassion of God, Jonah knows it is true! Throughout the Scriptures we see this affirmation of God’s compassion for his creation! To Moses he said Exodus 34:6–7“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin...” Through Joel he says Joel 2:13-14 “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. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him...?”
Who’s the star of this story? God! But so often that’s not the way we tell the story! G. Campbell Morgan once observed, “Men have been looking so hard at the great fish that they have failed to see the great God.”
God is the compassionate one who cares for the lives of his creation! God is the powerful one who provides exactly what was needed in each situation! The word that the ESV translates as “appointed” that appears with the fish, the plant, the tree, the worm, and the scorching wind is manah, which can be read as provided. This manah, comes from the manna that fell from heaven to provide for the Israelites in Exodus 16. Just as God provided for his people in the wilderness, he provided again and again for Jonah, just as he is eager to provide for you.
But God’s provision doesn’t always look like what we want it to. God provides our salvation, but for Jonah that looked like getting swallowed by a great fish. God provides our comforts, as seen in the plant. God also provides our losses, as seen through the worm. And God provides great discomforts and trials, as we see in the wind. God is the one who brings all these things to fruition! We can trust him to work all things together for good for those who love him and are called to his purposes (Romans 8:28).
So if God is the star, what do we learn from chapter 4? We see Jonah’s resentment toward Nineveh and toward God. A resentment that would be mirrored by the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. Jonah did not run from God’s will this time, he listened and went to Nineveh. Instead he ran from God’s love. He ran from God’s love for all his creation, not just the allies of Israel. He chose to not love what God loves.
And as God draws Jonah’s attention to his pity for the loss of the plant, God asks a very important question, “Should I not also care for the people of Nineveh?” It’s almost a Great Commission of the Old Testament. God cares for all his creation and desires their repentance. What is our attitude toward the people of the world who do not know Christ? What about to the people of our nation? The people of our city? The people of our own families? Do we long for their salvation like God does, and so take the steps of humble obedience to proclaim the Gospel? Or do we hold resentment toward them. I think this season of politics will quickly reveal what’s in our hearts toward those who are lost.
But look at what God does, even through a resentful heart like Jonah’s! He saves a city of 120,000 people! Isn’t God amazing?! In his sovereignty he doesn’t just use storms and fishes for his purposes! He even uses people who hold sinful resentment in their hearts!
What could God do with with a heart overflowing with God’s love for the lost throughout the world? If you take away one application point today, may it be this: pray diligently that God would grant you his love for the lost. That to his glory, he might use even you, as messed up as you are, to bring sinners to repentance. Pray also, that to his glory, he would grant in our church an eagerness to proclaim the gospel to the lost.

Conclusion: God’s Expansive Love

The book abruptly ends with an unanswered question. “Nineveh has 120,000 people as well as many cattle. Should I not be concerned for them?”
We don’t know Jonah’s answer. We don’t know what happened to Jonah. Some say that Jonah wrote this book himself because he realized his sinful attitude and repented, intentionally painting himself harshly so that the rest of Israel would realize he is simply a mirror for them to look in. I hope this is the case.
We do know that Jonah paints a powerful picture of a man who ran from God’s will and God’s love, a picture that ultimately, shockingly, points us back to Christ.
At one point in Jesus’ ministry, when the Jews asked for a sign (a miracle-on-demand to prove that what he was saying was true), Jesus said that no sign would be given “except the sign of the prophet Jonah,” meaning the resurrection (Matt. 12:39; Luke 11:29). God delivered Jonah from the sea through the fish after three days. God delivered the city of Nineveh from destruction after Jonah’s visit of three days. And God will deliver all those who repent of their sins and believe in Christ’s death and resurrection, which also occurred after three days (Matt. 12:38-42; 16:4). Jonah, like Jesus, was a preacher from Galilee who brought, to God’s enemies, God’s news of a possible salvation from coming judgment. But the similarities end there.
Where Jonah was reluctant, Jesus was willing
Where Jonah complained, Jesus went meekly.
Where Jonah was merely uncomfortable, Jesus was scourged.
Where Jonah merely preached, Jesus died.
I wonder how Jonah looks to you right now.
I wonder if you can see anything of Jonah in yourself. You would never resent anyone’s salvation, would you? Consider this story in Luke:
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God” (Luke 18:9-14a).
Can you see your sin? Maybe you do not resent the thought of your enemies being saved (or maybe you do). Yet maybe you are strikingly unconcerned about their fate and the fate of so many of God’s creatures. Have you considered that your lack of concern for hundreds of thousands, even hundreds of millions, of people made in God’s image is a matter of great grief to God?
God’s love is expansive and ours should be too. If the book ended at chapter 2 we could simply say “God brings his people back to himself.” If it ended at chapter 3 we could say “he brings his enemies to himself.” Both of these are true, but the whole point of Jonah is found in chapter 4! The point is Jonah’s heart and our own hearts! God wants our hearts to better reflect his heart than they do the hearts of the people on the news from the television, the radio, or even podcasts.
We are not supposed to read Jonah in judgement of Jonah or the Ninevites, but in reflection on the state of our own hearts!
We must ask: “If the heart of a prophet of God could be so wrong, how much should I be watching my own heart? In what ways is my heart cold toward what the LORD loves?”
I know it’s getting long, but I want to give you some practical counsel:
First, learn about the “Ninevehs” around you. Learn what the non-Christians at your work or in your neighborhood care about and enjoy. It is difficult to care about people when you know nothing about them. So give them a chance by learning about them. Also, begin learning about foreign countries, the state of the church in those countries, and the prayer needs of those places. Many resources can help you to do this, but one of the best must be Patrick Johnstone’s Operation World.8 Buy a copy and begin praying through its daily calendar.
Second, show hospitality to all the “Jonahs” who travel through your city and circles. When you encounter people committed to moving to places like Nineveh to share the good news of Jesus Christ, welcome them, greet them, and help them on their way.
Third, give support to Jonah and his work. We have done that in our church by making foreign missions one of the line-items on our budget. We also do that in special ways like providing free housing for mission families on furlough. This housing allows missionaries to return to the United States for four, five, even six months to resuscitate and renovate without having to worry about housing. We could not do this if the church did not make the funds available.
Fourth, pray for the Jonahs who go. Pray for the Ninevites they are going to minister to. Pray regularly. Do not pray just about your own self and your own life. Let your prayers increasingly reflect the wideness of God’s love!
Fifth, reach out to Ninevites in your city. Many people in the United States come from countries where Christ cannot be freely proclaimed and where the gospel is not known. Yet while these guests are in the United States, you have the opportunity to freely share the gospel with them. As Christians, we should take advantage of this situation. When I consider how multiethnic many cities in the West have become, I sometimes wonder if God has not brought the world to us because we Western Christians have become too lazy and self-satisfied to go to the world.
Sixth, build a church to support all this work. None of these suggestions can be accomplished apart from local churches. If you have been attending a church regularly but have not become a member, I plead with you to go to a church that you will commit yourself to, and build up the body of Christ by carrying on his mission work through them.
Seventh, go to Nineveh yourself. Maybe you are Jonah! Maybe you are the one called to go to a foreign people. Remember what Paul says in Romans: “‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” (Rom. 10:13-15).
We read in Revelation 15, “Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you” (Rev. 15:4).
God will accomplish his purposes. Praise God!
How will you be a part of it? Are you running from God or for God?
Let’s pray.
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