Jonah 3b

Turn to Jonah 3. As you do so, remember,

The main theme: God’s love and mercy extends to all people.

– even “those people.” We ended last week discovering that God is a God of second chances, a God who pursues (God never gave up on Jonah, pursued him and gave him another opportunity), and God is looking for people of courage. For as much flack as Jonah has received over the years, it took an enormous amount of courage to travel through enemy territory and do what God asked of him.

Have you ever experienced something like this: you believe God gave you some instructions – whether it was to go somewhere, say something, do something, stop doing something, or whatever. “I think God’s tell me, but it didn’t make a lot of sense?” Then there’s a struggle to follow through and obey because we don’t see the purpose, we don’t understand how this will work.

I think that’s where Jonah found himself.

Jonah received a mission from God that required him to push aside common sense and embrace absurdity.

Common sense says don’t go to Nineveh. It’s too far; too dangerous; they won’t repent. The whole thing is absurd.

I’m reminded of a story a missionary told years ago. Grocery story. Cartwheel. Didn’t make sense and definitely absurd. Yet, she did it. The clerk stared in shock. Had just prayed, “God, if you’re real ….”

I wonder if much of the American church has

Has the American Church elevated common sense over obedience and replaced absurdity with comfort and respectability?

We want a safe faith that doesn’t call us into danger or to “those people.” We want a respectable supernatural worldview, but we don’t want to go too far because some of what’s in the Bible is absurd, too difficult to believe. So, Jonah was confronted with a choice – and so are we – “Do I go with common sense or obedience? Do I trust in the absurdity of the command, or do I trust in my own limited and imperfect understanding?”

Let’s look at Jonah.

Jonah 3:1–9 ESV

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 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!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “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.”

A few things here.

1) There is Freedom and Power in Partnership with God.

Jonah traveled nearly 700 miles through enemy territory - 35 plus days – to deliver a message from God to the enemies of Israel. Almost guaranteed that Jonah was the only Jewish man around, yet Jonah was not alone –

Jonah was never alone.

Yahweh was with him during his entire journey. And when God is for you, who can be against you? God does not forsake His people. So there’s power in partnership with God. I don’t know what journey you’re on – but if you are following Jesus, His power is with you? His power and presence create freedom.

What does that mean? Jonah had a mission to accomplish, but the outcome was not Jonah’s responsibility. Jonah was a messenger, a servant, a partner of the Living God.

Jonah’s responsibility was simply to obey and then trust God with the results.

You and I are not responsible for results – we are responsible to obey – and that is freedom. We are free to obey.

Let’s expand this. As far as we know, Jonah went to Nineveh and spoke only 5 words (5 in Hebrew / 8 in English). “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Five words and the whole town, including the king, was in an uproar. They feared judgment, so they repented, confessed, fasted, prayed, and turned to God – there was a revival. No eloquent well-crafted 3-point sermon, no theatrics, no Christian celebrity speakers or bands. Jonah didn’t promote his latest book – “I Survived The Fish and You Can Too.” It wasn't about his strengths, weaknesses, talents or skills – so many things that we often depend on and assume are necessary for the mission of God to succeed.

There was nothing Jonah did in his own power or wisdom that caused “those people” to turn to God.

This was possibly the worst sermon in history – so there’s no “Preacher of the Year” award for Jonah. So what are we left with? The revival in Nineveh was God’s doing – Jonah just opened his mouth and said what God told him to say. That’s the freedom and power of obedience and partnership with God. You know what this tells me?

God can do more through one obedient person than thousands of people who merely attend church.

Imagine the conversation between God and Jonah as he approached Nineveh. Jonah said, “Ok God, I’m here. What do I do?” And God replied, “Tell them, yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” “What? Come on, really? I walked 700 miles and that’s it! That’s the message! That’s absurd! That’s too simple. There’s got to be more. Hey God, how about some plagues like Moses? We don’t have to do 10 – how about 5? 3? 1?” Crickets. “I don’t see how this will work, God. They’re going to kill me. But I’ll do it.”

Do you see how Jonah had to push aside common sense and embrace the absurdity of what God was asking? How many of us say, “Doesn’t make sense God – not doing it. That’s absurd God, so I’ll add some personal flare ….” That’s not for us to decide.

So not only is there power and freedom in partnership, but

2) There is Freedom and Power in Trusting God.

Think about the amount of trust Jonah had to exercise to stick to the plan. “I’m just going to say 5 words and then shut my mouth.” I wonder if this is where many of us get into trouble. We say too much when we shouldn’t, and we remain silent when we should speak. We fail to trust in the guidance and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. What did Jesus tell his disciples in Mark 13?

Mark 13:11 ESV

And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.

We who claim to follow the Spirit probably need to stop and listen to the Spirit before we open our pie holes.

One more thing to consider. Many moons ago I mentioned that

3) The author intentionally makes a contrast between God’s people and outsiders (between Jew and Gentile, Christian and non-Christian). The author reveals how God’s people can sometimes be less responsive to God than outsiders.

God’s people can be more stubborn, hardhearted, more inconsistent and more difficult to deal with than outsiders.

Where do I get that? Besides real life, think through Jonah’s journey. Who is the only character to disobey God? Jonah. Which character lacked holy love, mercy, compassion? Who became furious when God granted grace and forgiveness to “those people” (chapter 4)? Jonah. Jonah dug in his heals – and when he obeyed, he did so begrudgingly and with gritted teeth. He was the most hardheaded stubborn person in this whole story.

Consider all the other characters. The storm (nature) obeyed Yahweh. The pagan sailors repented, worshipped, and made vows to Yahweh. The fish obeyed Yahweh. Nineveh – more pagan people – repented, fasted, turned to God.

The author is not implying that all followers of God are like Jonah, and neither am I. However,

When we read Jonah with humility and an openness to learn, we will find ourselves somewhere in the story.

and we will probably discover that his journey is our journey, and in some ways, we are more like Jonah than we care to admit.

Jonah eventually came around and obeyed the Lord - pushed aside common sense and embraced absurdity. How far are we willing to obey God? What do our answers tell us about our hearts, our relationship with Jesus and our love for Him? Know this -

Love and obedience are inseparable.

John 14:21 LEB

The one who has my commandments and keeps them—that one is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

If God has called you to be someone or do something, then do it. Otherwise, it’s disobedience, and it’s not loving God with your whole heart, mind, and soul.

What does is Jesus saying to you this morning? What are you going to do about it?