Practicing Prayer When We Don't Like What God Has to Say

Introduction

Today, we’re beginning a four-week journey through the book of Jonah, so I invite you to open your Bibles to Jonah chapter one.

Many of us know the story of Jonah, the tale of a reluctant prophet who runs from God’s call and ends up in the belly of a great fish. Often this is all we know of Jonah, but there’s more to this story.

For example, each of the four chapters of this book are centered around a conversation with God. The familiar story we know is Jonah’s response to his conversation with God in chapter one. But what did God say that he disliked so much?

Today, and over the next three weeks I hope you will come to understand this book of the Bible more deeply.

My hope is that you’ll gain a deeper understanding of Jonah’s place in the Bible, the historical and cultural context surrounding his story, and above all, that you will see God more clearly as you come to understand what exactly God wanted Jonah to do and why Jonah didn’t like what God had to say.

Read Jonah 1:1-3

Jonah 1:1–3 HCSB

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because their wickedness has confronted Me.” 3 However, Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, from the Lord’s presence.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love and pray that today we will not run from you. That we will listen to your word, see you as you reveal yourself in the Bible, and we will heed your call to see others with the same love you have for them. -Amen

Understanding Jonah

In order to understand any story from the Old Testament there are two good questions to ask. We start zoomed out asking “where does this story fit in the storyline of the Bible?”

Then we zoom in and ask "what is the historical context?”

Story-line of Scripture

Jonah is part of the prophetic books of the Old Testament. To find its place in the Bible’s larger story, let’s briefly trace God’s work throughout Scripture.

Kickoff and Rebellion

The story begins in Genesis with Kickoff & Rebellion.

God creates the earth. It is a good creation and humanity, Adam and Eve, enjoy their purpose of being in relationship with God. But Adam and Eve sin by eating the fruit that God had forbidden and humanity’s relationship with God is fractured. Sin and death have entered the world. And thus the story of the the Bible, the world itself begins. God setting out to restore and redeem all people.

Instruments of Blessing

Next we have Instruments of Blessing.

In Genesis 12 God begins His plan to rescue and redeem all of humanity by calling Abraham and his family to be set apart to be instruments of blessing.

But this is important- God didn’t just bless Abraham but he called Abraham and his family to be a blessing so that:

“All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” -Genesis 12:3

This chapter of the story closes with Joseph moving this family to Egypt to escape a famine.

Nation Redeemed & Commissioned

The next section of the story is Nation Redeemed and Commissioned. It is a bit larger as it covers the Law, Exodus through Deuteronomy.

You could call this the story of Moses but it is really the story of God Redeeming, or rescuing back, Israel from slavery in Egypt, leading them through the wilderness, and then giving them the Law as a commission to live in the land as a light to all nations. God’s purpose for Israel is still for Israel to bless all nations.

Government in the Land

Jonah falls towards the end of the next section of the storyline of the Bible: Government in the Land.

You can trace this story from Joshua through 2 Chronicles

About midway through that story, after Solomon's death Israel had a civil war and divided into two kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom, called Israel, and Southern Kingdom called Judah.

During this time of a divided Kingdom God sent prophets to warn the kings and the people of Israel and Judah of their purpose to be in relationship with God and to be a light to the nations.

Historical Context

Jonah was one of these prophets. And now we turn our attention to the historical context.

Jonah lived in Galilee in the northern kingdom of Israel during its divided period.

Outside of the book of Jonah, we see him mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25.

It tells us that King Azariah restored Israel’s borders “according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, had spoken through his servant, the prophet Jonah son of Amittai.”

This isn’t a lot of information but it illuminates the story of Jonah 1. He was a successful prophet who did something most prophets didn’t. He was faithful to God and said things the king wanted to hear. His prophecies, from God, had led to the growth of kingdom, taking back lost territory and economic prosperity.

He was both popular, and at least up to the point of our scripture today, faithful to God. But when God called him in Jonah 1 with a new prophetic mission he would be be put to the test.

This time, God asks him to go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, Israel’s powerful and feared enemy. Nineveh was known for its cruelty and violence. And they were currently a nation spiraling out of control.

Israel was growing and secure. But Assyria and Nineveh were at a time of weakness. No longer a threat to Israel, but now Assyria was at risk of their entire empire collapsing.

God gave Jonah a mission to go to Nineveh- and he turned and ran.

Running From Sunny

This was pretty dramatic. It reminds me of a story of when Sunny and I were first married. She was preparing dinner and cut finger. She held up her bleeding finger and there is a difference of opinion on what happened next.

Her version is that I saw the blood, I screamed like a girl, then I ran away. Later I came back with a band-aid.

My version is that I saw the blood, exclaimed with surprise, and ran to get a band-aid.

Either, it was a dramatic response, turning and running.

Jonah

If we look at a map of the area we see Jonah’s was even more dramatic. This red line starts near Joppa, in Israel and travels North East to Nineveh. That’s what God told Jonah to do. The blue line represents what Jonah actually did, running from God as far and as fast as he good.

He was happy when God told him to prophecy blessings for Israel but he simply did not like, no that’s not strong enough, he HATED God’s new message. Because Jonah, understood God and he didn’t like what God had to say.

Understanding God

What Jonah understood from God may be less clear to us today. If you think the Old Testament message is of a judgmental God, quick to anger, then God’s call to go preach against Nineveh may seem like a perfect opportunity to go watch Nineveh burn.

But Jonah new the story of Scripture and the God of Israel better than that. He heard within these words a frightening message of grace and love.

Biblical scholar Douglas Stuart suggests that we may miss some nuances here that were clear to Jonah and offers a new translation to bring that to the surface.

Go to the Important City

Jonah is told to go to the “great city” of Nineveh. If we translate “great” as “important,” it sheds new light on why Jonah immediately became wary. This wasn’t just a “big city” but one that mattered deeply to God.

Important city reminds us that the greatness of Nineveh was that it was filled with many people and impacted the lives of many people. It already raises the question:

“what if Nineveh is important to God?”

Jonah knew God’s heart for all people. He knew that God had called Israel to be a blessing to all nations. He knew God to be slow to anger and full of compassion. He knew why God would send a prophet to an important city.

He knew that as much as he and Israel would love to see the judgement and destruction of their enemies - to God they were important.

Speak to It

Next God tells Jonah “preach against it.” But this phrase could also simply be translated as “speak to it.” Both match the original Hebrew well.

Imagine someone being sent to “preach against” someone you dislike. Now imagine if they were sent to “speak to” them instead.

Does it hit you a little differently?

Jonah understood he was being called to communicate a loving God’s message. Yes, it was a hard message that addressed Nineveh’s sins—a message “ preaching against” them—but it was also a message that Nineveh needed to hear spoken to them if they were to have any hope of rescue.

Their Trouble

God explains why He sends Jonah: “ because their wickedness has confronted me.”

Surely their is no way that THAT could sound nice to Jonah.

But there is… this may have even been the phrase that pushed Jonah over the edge because this is a word that he uses over and over again throughout this book.

The word wickedness here is the same word that we later see translated as trouble, disaster, and discomfort.

We don’t have an English word that means all of those things, Hebrew does. And Jonah knew a long story of a God who rescued people from trouble and even wickedness.

Concerns Me

God says that this wickedness, or trouble, “has confronted me.” The Hebrew here is literally “has gone up” and its similar to our English expression “brought up.” Their trouble has been brought up to God.

The idea here is that God is concerned with the trouble that Nineveh is causing and experiencing. Something is deeply wrong in Nineveh and God cares about it.

Listen to this verse again as Stuart suggests Jonah may have heard it:

“Go to the the important city of Nineveh and speak to it because their trouble concerns me.”

Why Jonah Ran

This is why Jonah ran. Because he understood God’s love and care for all people. He saw the reality of God’s judgement as a doorway to God’s grace and mercy through repentance. Jonah knew that as he was being sent to preach against Nineveh he being called to speak to them the words of life that could rescue them from their trouble.

This was the message that Jonah didn’t like, a message of God’s love for all people and invitation for all to experience life by turning to God.

We know this even more than Jonah, for we know that God so loved the world so much that he sent his only son that whoever believes in him will have eternal life.

Jonah responded by running in the opposite direction.

How will you respond to the message of God’s love?

Invitation

We are all like Jonah sometimes. Sometimes we don’t like what God has to say because the reality is that God’s grace and mercy and love far exceeds ours.

Jesus says:

Matthew 5:44 HCSB

44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

How will you pray when God wants you to forgive those you are angry with?

How will you pray in a season of political division?

How will you pray for those wicked sinners all around you when you hear God say to you- Go to the the important people around you and speak to them because their trouble concerns me.

During these closing moments I invite you to pray. Pray for God to share his love to those you think least deserve it, and even pray that God might share his love through you.

Let us pray.