Jonah

-read all of chapter 1-

The story of the prophet Jonah is one that we probably feel like we already know, and it’s one of my favorites. You likely heard it decades ago in Sunday School or VBS. And because of this, we’re tempted perhaps to think that while this story is good and true, it is more a story for kids. It’s good for picture Bibles and Veggie-tales, but I’m an adult. I’ve been walking with the Lord for years and I don’t need these children’s sunday school lessons. I don’t need a story about a prophet and a whale. I got it, I’ve graduated from that. But if we do that, we show that we don’t get it. Despite how often we’ve grouped them together, the whale is episode is ironically, a one tree of a very large forest. There’s a greater story going on here, and when we take the time to lay it out and consider the details, we find that the story is far more complex and far more convicting than what we’ve thought. What we see is that this is far less a fish story, and instead is the story of the sin in our hearts and the grace of God overcoming that sin.

So what I would like to do this morning as begin five sermons in the Book of Jonah, is just look at these early verses and set some context for us to help us understand. And while doing that what we will see is, even in this small section the grace of God that we have been given and what that calls us to.

First we should see the call of Jonah. Jonah is here mentioned as a son of Amittai, and while we know very little about his background, there are some clues to what his ministry has been before this. Jonah lived during the reign of Jeroboam II in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. We see in 2 Kings 14 that Jeroboam was a particularly wicked king, who like those before him rejected the Lord to worship idols. But he also restored the border the of Israel when some of it’s northern most territory had been conquered, likely by the Assyrians. But what’s interesting is that God told Jeroboam through Jonah that he would do this. Assyria was a constant threat to the kingdom but according to the prophecy of Jonah, the land had been restored and the kingdom remained free. And what’s interesting is that this small glimpse shows Jonah and by extension us, is that God dealt graciously and blessed Israel despite them not deserving it. Jeroboam didn’t repent. He was still a wicked king. The people didn’t change their ways, they still worshipped idols. But God dealt graciously to them anyway, because He keeps His word. 2 Kings 14:27 “But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.”

This is who God has called to go. A prophet of the Hebrews who has seen the grace and blessing of God poured out on those who don’t deserve it. He calls a preacher who has with his own mouth declared that God would be gracious to those who don’t deserve it. Jonah had already seen that when God calls him to speak wicked kings get blessed. And that wasn’t an economy in which Jonah wanted to be a part of.

So when God calls him to go and cry out against the sins of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, the author is wanting us to immediately feel the tension. It is likely that Jonah would have been considered a national hero, having declared the restoration of Israel. So now for God to tell him to go and preach to these people, is shocking. The Assyrians were the closest and strongest threat to Israel at the time, with a massive army. They had years before under a different king exacted tribute from Israel. They were at the time the great regional superpower, domineering and strong. But what the Assyrians are most known for is their own celebration of their cruelty to their enemies. They were known to attack and kill soldiers by the thousands, mutilating their bodies by cutting of noses, ears, and eyes. They would line the roads for miles to their cities with impaled bodies for all to see. They are the ones who first invented crucifixion and inspired Vlad the Impaler. They would flay victims, take slaves, and set children on fire. One account is of those who have been captured grinding up the bones of their loved ones to dust so as to wipe away the memory of their ancestors. And they did it for fun. They bragged about it. So we are not surprised when God says, their wickedness has come up before me. These are brutal, wicked people who glory in violence even against women and children.

When we tie the prophet and the people together we begin to see how shocking the call of God is for Jonah. The message that God has for this great city is that their wickedness has brought on them the coming destruction of God. We will see later that the Jonah simply declares that judgement is coming on them because of their great evil, and in forty days they will be destroyed. The call is to go and declare the coming judgement. But by sending Jonah, god is also offering a way of mercy and repentance. Jonah knows, and we should see, that the God who declares judgement, also loves to give mercy to those who repent.God could’ve just overthrown the Empire, wiped them out, made them a footnote on the page of history. But instead, He sends a prophet. But Jonah has no intention of being the one whom God sends.

He knows that if he does go,and they do repent, God will not destroy them. He will spare them, and could even bless them. This is why Jonah runs. In Chapter 4 he says Jonah 4:2 “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.” What’s astounding to me though is that we never see that Jonah gets it. What we will see is that when Jonah finally does go to Nineveh and declares the judgement and grace of God, the people immediately repent. They immediately go into sackcloth and ashes, from the King to all the cattle. But Jonah, who’s now led a massive city revival isn’t happy about it. He gets mad that they even repented. Jonah would rather watch his enemies be destroyed than to have them repent. Jonah would rather run from the presence of God and die than to be God’s prophet to a people bound in sin and misery. Jonah would prefer that Nineveh would burn. He is a prophet, He is a man of God. He understands God’s law, and can repeat His covenant faithfulness declared at Sinai. But he is resentful, angry, and bitter. He would rather watch thousands burn, than to see the nations repent because He doesn’t believe they deserve it. Because at the end of the day, Jonah doesn’t understand how deep and wide the fountain of God’s grace is.

And what we see is then is that Jonah is so much less a story about a prophet and a fish and more about the people of God. The people of Israel were sent prophets, including Jonah, to confront them with their sin. All of their idolatry, all of their covenant unfaithfulness. They rely on being the people of God by name, instead of by faith. When the Lord calls them to repentance, they shake him off and go on their own way, despite the mercy that He holds out to them. God is showing to them that His grace extends even to the most wicked nation to exist at the time. So then it also is held open for them.

But it also extends to us this morning. This book is about you and me. One way is that we are the recipients of amazing grace and mercy. The wickedness and evil of Nineveh is the same evil and wickedness that lives in our own hearts and in our own minds. Some of it we know. Some of them are the simple sins, the discontentment, the choice words, the bursts of anger that we struggle with. Some of them are secretive sins, the shameful ones we hope know one expects of us, but if we were to be exposed we would cover ourselves in shame. Some of it is the pride that we walk with, that we’ve thought we’ve killed but at the end of the day we know still lives there. This is mine. I swear to you I walk with so much pride, even when preparing for a sermon. I hope and pray that the Spirit works through me, but it’s so much easier to just rely on being smart. Or if I can really be honest, it’s the fear of you. It’s the desire to perform well enough that you’ll think “Man that intern, he’s so smart. He’s so gifted. He can really preach.” The sin that sits in me is that need, that addiction to you liking me. To you being impressed with me. It’s the cross word or the exasperation I have with Lindsey when she doesn’t check the grocery list and we’re off budget because at the end of the day, I’m relying on my frugality to be our hope and security and not God. All of that pride, all of that exasperation, all of that need to impress, is sin. And that sin leaves you and I as the wicked.

Or maybe we’re Jonah. Maybe we see the grace extended to those wicked Ninevites and are astounded. We cry out “Wait a second. God you’re going to forgive them? Do you not know who they are? Do you not know what they’ve done? They’re terrible. They don’t love you. They don’t respect you. They don’t walk in your ways, why would you show them mercy?” Do you have anyone who you can’t rejoice over? You don’t want them to walk God. Who is that to you? Who are your Ninevites? Who are the ones who, if we were honest, we would rather see them crash and burn than to get grace and mercy? The one who if we see them come to christ we say, “But I was good. I did all the right things, and they get in? That’s not fair.” Are they those who sit across the political aisle from you? Is it someone who has wronged you? Is it someone who has slandered you or mocked you? Who are you resentful against? This passage shows us that this resentment makes us no less than the Pharisee who see the tax collector and says “God thank you that I’m not like them.” But that self-righteousness, that arrogance, is sin.

But the good news of the Gospel for me and for you today is that there is Christ. God has sent His Son to be our true and better prophet. When the religious leaders of His day wanted a sign Christ offered them this story. And we’ll see the sign of Jonah in a few sermons, but notice he calls in Matthew 12, He calls Himself a greater prophet. Do you see the contrast that’s there in the narrative? Jonah is called to proclaim grace to sinner and he runs away; Christ is appointed to proclaim grace to sinners and He humbles Himself and willfully comes. Jonah begrudgingly goes to a people he hates; Christ willfully comes to a people He would die for. Jonah would rather die than to see his enemies repent; Christ lays down His life for the forgiveness of sins. Jonah gets angry at God for forgiving people who he believes don’t deserve it; Christ, the son of God, rejoices in giving free grace to people who know they don’t deserve it.

This is Jesus, this is our true and better prophet. This is the one who, as our catechism says, reveals the will of God to us for our salvation. He has, by His death in our place, taken all of those sins on Himself and brings us grace. This is what is offered to us this morning, the grace of God and the forgiveness of our sins. The same love that God loves Nineveh with, He has given to us. The same boundless, amazing, sin forgiving, pride conquering grace poured out for wicked sinners is the same grace we have offered to us this morning.

So what does that mean for us today? How should we respond?

First we are called to respond with repentance for our sins. We are called to ironically, respond with the same grief and repentance of our sins that Nineveh did. The call of grace, when confronted with sin, is not to excuse it. Not to justify it. Not to respond with “But I’m in the right.” Rather it is to be broken by it. It is to confess that we are sinners, that we do need the grace and mercy of God and to run to Him for that mercy. Christ says in Matthew 12:41 “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” The proper response when we rightly understand our sin is to repent. To turn from that sin and leave it behind and rest on the mercy of Christ as He is offered to us freely in the Gospel and seek obedience to Christ.

But second, it is to extend the grace that we have recieved to our neighbors, and even those who have harmed us and we don’t believe deserve it. This is in some ways evidence that we have recieved grace. When we fully understand that God has been gracious to us, we then are free to deal with others graciously, and are expected to. This is what we pray when we pray the Lord’s prayer: forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. I love our catechism here once again, in the Larger Question 194:

acknowledging, that we and all others are guilty both of original and actual sin, and thereby become debtors to the justice of God; and that neither we, nor any other creature, can make the least satisfaction for that debt: we pray for ourselves and others, that God of his free grace would, through the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, apprehended and applied by faith, acquit us both from the guilt and punishment of sin, accept us in his Beloved;continue his favour and grace to us, pardon our daily failings, and fill us with peace and joy, in giving us daily more and more assurance of forgiveness; which we are the rather emboldened to ask, and encouraged to expect, when we have this testimony in ourselves, that we from the heart forgive others their offenses.” If we understand properly that we’ve been forgiven much, we will forgive others as well. We will seek peace with those who have wronged us. We will let go of the pride that says “No I’m right” Because we have been given grace, we give them grace. Because Christ rejoices at our salvation and blessing, we rejoice at the salvation and blessing of our neighbors and our enemies.

Let’s pray