God's covenant love
God’s Covenant Love
| Since I was a little shy when I was in high school, I didn’t ask many girls out on dates. So my friend came up to me one day and said, “Hey, I’ve lined you up with a great date for Saturday night. It’s all set.”“Who is it?” I asked. It turned out to be his cousin Doris. I had never met her. In fact, I had never met any girl named Doris. “Oh, no,” I said, “I’m not going on a blind date.”“Hey, don’t worry about this one,” my friend said. “Doris is a terrific girl. And trust me—she’s a real looker. But if you don’t believe me, I’ll tell you how to get out of the date if you don’t like the way she looks. This is what I do: I go to a girl’s front door to pick her up, and when she opens the door, I check her out. If I like what I see, then great, we’re all set. But if she’s ugly, I fake an asthma attack. I go ‘Aaahhhhgggggg!’ (Hold your throat like you’re having trouble breathing.) The girl asks, ‘What’s wrong?’ And I say, ‘It’s my asthma.’ And so we have to call off the date. Just like that. No problem.”“Well, I don’t know...but okay, it sounds easy enough. I’ll do it,” I said.So I went to pick up Doris. I knocked on the door, and she came to the front door. I took a look at her, and to my surprise, my friend was right. She was beautiful! I stood there not knowing exactly what to say.She took one look at me and went, “Aaahhhhgggggg!” Unlike my dating life, God did choose to love me based on what I looked like, or what I can do for Him. He just loves me because God is love. It is apart of who God is. Tonight, we finish our story of Jonah and we will see a picture of the love of God. |
| ReviewLet’s review the story of Jonah for some prizes. Let’s see who knows more the guys or girls. 1. Jonah was son of A. Hezekiah B. Hosea C. Ammittai D. Bro. Danny2. God told Jonah to go to what city A. Jerusalem B. Ninevah C. Nashville D. Couresant3. Jonah fled and boarded a boat heading for A. Tarfish B. Tarshish C. Tardish E. Yo’Mama4. Jonah was selected by the sailors as the cause of the storm when they A. Played Spades B. arm wrestled C. Cast lots D. played rock, paper, scissors5. Jonah was swallowed by a A. Whale B. Dolphin C. Barracuda D. Fish6. When Nineveh repented, they put on sackcloth and A. dirt B. sand C. ash D. poo7. Jonah’occupation was A. priest B. Wiseman C. prophet D. American gladiator |
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Jonah 4:1-11
Rapport
Chesed is the Hebrew word for God’s covenant love. It is the ultimate picture of who God is wrapped up in other Divine attributes like goodness, kindness, mercy and grace. “the nearest equivalent word in the New Testament is agape, translated “unconditional love.” Both God’s Old Testament “covenant” love and God’s New Testament agape love communicate God unrelenting love for his creation and his people. Both expressions of love will unconditionally receive the repentant sinner into reconciliation with God.
In general, one may identify three basic meanings of the word, which always interact: “strength,” “steadfastness,” and “love.” Any understanding of the word that fails to suggest all three inevitably loses some of its richness. “Love” by itself easily becomes sentimentalized or universalized apart from the covenant. Yet “strength” or “steadfastness” suggests only the fulfillment of a legal or other obligation.
The word refers primarily to mutual and reciprocal rights and obligations between the parties of a relationship (especially Yahweh and Israel). But checed is not only a matter of obligation; it is also of generosity. It is not only a matter of loyalty, but also of mercy. The weaker party seeks the protection and blessing of the patron and protector, but he may not lay absolute claim to it. The stronger party remains committed to his promise, but retains his freedom, especially with regard to the manner in which he will implement those promises. Checed implies personal involvement and commitment in a relationship beyond the rule of law.
God loves you not for who you are but just because he chooses to do so. Tonight we will see Jonah discover one of God’s main attributes-His love and this passage will teach us some things about God’s love.
1. Disagreement with God’s Love- Jonah 1-3
a. Displeased with God, not Nineveh
i. “but it displeased Jonah” is connected to “God relented from disaster” in verse above
b. Anger can be translated as “burning with fire”
c. I would rather die- Jonah was broken over the salvation of the Ninevites. He wanted them destroyed instead of saved. That is why he ran in the first place because he knew that God would save them.
d. So he thought that he would change God’s plans if he took himself and the message out of the equation. God’s plans are going to be carried out with or without you. Jonah did not stop God’s saving Ninevah by taking himself out of the picture. God could have still saved them without Jonah but God was patient with Jonah and Jonah needed to learn a lesson about God’s love for all.
e. Illustration: The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions.
But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stung with grief and anger. “God, how could you do this to me!” he cried.
Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him.“How did you know I was here?” asked the weary man of his rescuers.We saw your smoke signal,” they replied.
f. There are times that we will not agree with God’s plan for the world. We will see loved ones die unexpectedly. We will not have an answer for this tragedy and we will get angry with God. In those times in my life, like when my youngest aunt was taken from my family with cancer, I look to verses of scripture like, Prov. 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding” or Psalm 100:3,” "Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” Do you think a shepherd would lead his sheep off a cliff? Do you think it would be wise to end the life of one sheep to spare the lives of the whole flock? We may not always understand or agree with God, but we must always know that what he does, He does out of love for us.
2. Lesson on God’s Love- Jonah 5-11
a. God Love in Creation- God sent a plant to cover the head of Jonah and shield him from his suffering. Notice the tent Jonah made could not protect him appropriately but God’s plant could. One commentator writes, “ONLY GOD CAN SAVE. Jonah seeks safety in the belly of a ship but finds it only in the belly of God’s fish. He seeks protection by building a shelter, but God’s plant gives him true shade.” This is a aspect of God’s love- God’s protection. But why did Jonah seem happy with the plant. He was happy because what it did for him. He was thinking about himself.
b. So God caused that worm to kill that plant and then that wind to come and make Jonah suffer. I see here a picture of God’s love relationship with His creation. God created the heavens and the earth and everything on the earth. He created man and woman and enjoyed the relationship with them. They pleased God. But then sin entered the picture and withered that relationship between God and His creation. So God ultimately wants to be reconciled again to his creation. That is the lesson Jonah is to learn here.
c. Look in verse 10-11: Jonah pitied the plant that lived one day. It did not keep him company or make him feel loved, it just covered his head. Every Ninevite in that city God made individually. Everyone was his creation and he wanted to be reconciled to them regardless of the opinions of a prophet of God.
d. God did not need Jonah to understand His will in saving Nineveh, He just wanted Jonah to understand. God does not need us to understand His will , he just wants us to.
e. God’s message to Jonah and to us today is His love is eternal. God’s love is eternal in its aspect of time and effect. It lasts forever and it covers every scenario imaginable. God loved Nineveh, despite its wickedness. God loves you and I despite our wickedness. God wants us to accept His love and be messengers of that love to the world. Not our little bubbles of life but the world.
f. This past week we learned about God’s love for his covenant people in SS classes. We learned that God loves us not based on who we are, He just loves us-period. When we enter into that covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we are required to love in that same way, with no strings attached.
Shortly after World War II came to a close, Europe began picking up the pieces. Much of the Old Country had been ravaged by war and was in ruins. Perhaps the saddest sight of all was that of little orphaned children starving in the streets of those war-torn cities.
g. Early one chilly morning an American soldier was making his way back to the barracks in London. As he turned the corner in his jeep, he spotted a little boy with his nose pressed to the window of a pastry shop. Inside, the cook was kneading dough for a fresh batch of doughnuts. The hungry boy stared in silence, with his nose pressed against the window, drooling and watching the cook’s every move. The soldier pulled his jeep to the curb, stopped, and got out.
“Son, would you like some of those?”
The boy was startled. “Oh yes…I would.”
The American stepped inside and bought a dozen, put them in a bag and walked back to where the lad was standing in the foggy cold of the London morning. He smiled, held out the bag and said simply, “Here you are.”
As he turned to walk away, he felt a tug on his coat. He looked back and heard the child ask quietly, “Mister…are you God?”
