“Quarreling with God” (Jonah 4:6-11)

The Frog of the Well

There was a frog who lived in a well all his life. One day, a little bird landed on the curb. The frog asked: "Where you came from?" The bird answered: "I came from far away. I flew a distance of more than one hundred miles. Now I felt thirsty, so I flew down and looking for some water." The frog laughed and said: "You must be boasting, my friend. I know the sky is as big as the mouth of this well. How could you fly such a distance?" The bird said: "You are wrong, the sky is boundless!" The frog laughed again and said: "I'm sitting in this well all day long, and I can see the sky every time when I raise my head, I could not be mistaken." The bird smiled and said: "You'd better jump out of this well and have a look in person." Eugene Peterson said, “When sinners worship gods of their making, they drag the gods down to their level. When sinners worship a God of holiness, they are lifted to his level.”[1]

Jonah and the Frog
In today’s scripture Jonah is much like the frog sitting in a well. He had such a small idea of the world. He saw everything, interpreted everything through his cramped, confined experiences. So he had no idea what God was doing. He interpreted the large, gracious and righteous actions of God through his Jonah views, his Jonah desires. He worshipped a god of his own making. Jonah assumed that he knew exactly what God would do and what God should do – God should punish the wicked like the Ninevites and bless the righteous like the Israelites. But when the true God didn’t do it, Jonah was displeased. He was angry. The word anger occurs six times in this final chapter. He thought he had “righteous” anger. When God asked him, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah answered, “Yes, angry enough to die!” (v. 9)

When Jonah arrived in Nineveh, all he saw was a city full of sinners destined by his prophecy for doom. But as for God, all he saw was a people who were hurting and weeping in the dark, yet to be saved. Jonah doesn’t see God’s grace and mercy. But God continues to save him, be patient with him, work with him. God sends a storm. God sends a fish. God sends a plant. God gives Jonah second chances and commissions him again and again. God reasons with him, debates with him, asks him questions.

God’s Compassion

If we summarize the Book of Jonah into one word, it would be “compassion” – the compassion of God. B. B. Warfield wrote a remarkable scholarly essay called “The Emotional Life of Our Lord.” In his essay Warfield considered every recorded instance in the gospels that described the emotions of Christ. He concluded that by far the most typical statement of Jesus’s emotional life was the phrase “he was moved with compassion,” a Greek phrase that literally means he was moved from the depths of his being.[2] Jesus was moved with compassion, and he touched and healed a leper (Matt 8:3). Jesus was moved with compassion, and he raised Lazarus (Jn 11:34-38). When Jesus saw a great crowd, he was moved with compassion, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them and heal their sick (Matt 14:14). Jesus was moved with compassion, and he fed the five thousand (Mark 6:30-44).

In today’s text God was moved with compassion toward the Ninevites. He felt their pain. He felt their sadness. He was weeping for them. And he was saying to Jonah, “You are my prophet, why don’t you have my compassion?” But here Jonah was quarreling with God, saying, “God, how can you relent from judging the wicked? How can you forgive and not punish sin?” That’s a very important question. But we need to remember God’s compassion is complex. God’s compassion is holy compassion. In other words, God’s compassion is both merciful and committed to punishing evil. God’s compassion is both endlessly loving and perfectly just. God showed his holy compassion in and through Jesus Christ His Son. On the cross when Jesus died for our sins, God showed he is perfectly just, because all sin was punished there. On the cross God showed he is perfectly loving, because he took it onto himself.

In this story God calls everyone and invites everyone: Jonah, the sailors, and the Ninevites. Eventually everyone calls on God. And everyone who calls on God is saved. Jonah calls on God in the belly of the fish, and he is saved from himself. The sailors call on God, and they are saved from the storm. The Ninevites call on God, and they are saved from destruction. The apostle Paul said, “God desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 2:4, NRSV). The apostle Peter also said, “Don't forget this fact, dear friends: With the Lord a single day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a single day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some people understand slowness, but is being patient with you. He does not want anyone to perish, but wants everyone to repent” (2 Peter 3:8-9, ISV). That’s the heart of God. That’s the compassion of God.

An Open-Ended Story

The Book of Jonah is an open-ended story. It ends with a question. God asks one final question to Jonah, “You had compassion on the plant. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh? Think about all I’ve shown you, Jonah, in the storm, in the belly of the fish, under the plant. Should I not love these people, and should you not join me?” Jonah is much like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Unlike the younger brother, who left home and squandered the father’s money, the older brother stayed home always and obeyed the father completely. But when his father had compassion on the younger son, accepted him, and threw a party for him, the older brother was displeased and angry with the father. At that point it became obvious that he, also, did not love his father. At the end of the story, the father said to him, “Son, everything I have is yours. This brother of yours was lost and now is found. Shouldn’t I celebrate and rejoice? Should you not join me?”

God invites Jonah to jump out of his confined well, the well of self-righteousness, and to see himself how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of God, the compassion of God. God invites us to grow and to interpret everything through the lens of his compassion, not through our views and our desires. Then, what does it look like for Christian to live a life of compassion in our own time and place? Today we live in a deeply divided world. People ask implicitly and explicitly, “Which side are you on?” In the Bible we see Jesus radical in many ways, but he is neither conservative nor liberal. Jesus is outside the lines. Pastor Tim Keller rightly said, “The more we faithfully preach Jesus, the longer it takes people to figure out where we stand on politics.”[3] The political left and the political right both have good things to say, and by nature both ideologies have their problems and limitations as well. Historically, liberals have helped us to see the importance of human rights and social justice issues – racial, economic, environmental, criminal justice. Conservatives have also helped us to maintain historical continuity and traditional values, such as marriage and family, and religious freedom. So it’s possible to be a liberal and a good Christian. It’s possible to be a conservative and a good Christian. But always, our first loyalty must be Jesus and his Kingdom. “Seek first the kingdom of God…, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt 6:33). We Christians are called to jump out of our own “well” and to see people in the world with compassion and join God in his work. We are called to do no harm (to speak no evil of those on the other side). We are called to do good (to advocate for the poor, to take action for social justice, to honor those in authority, to love our neighbors and enemies, to pray for those who hate us). That’s what it means to live a life of compassion.

“I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow”

John Newton, the writer of the song “Amazing Grace,” had been raised in a Christian home, but he abandoned religion and became a slave trader, running hard from God. But during a great storm in the Atlantic, he prayed and began a new journey toward a faith. Like Jonah, he went to preach in the great city London. Like Jonah, God sent him a storm, a fish, a plant to help him to grow in character and to see through the eyes of compassion. John Newton shares his story in his remarkable hymn:

I asked the Lord that I might grow

in faith and love and every grace;

might more of his salvation know,

and seek more earnestly his face.

I hoped that in some favored hour

at once he’d answer my request,

and by his love’s constraining power

subdue my sins and give me rest.

Instead of this he made me feel

the hidden evils of my heart,

and let the angry powers of hell

assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with his own hand he seemed

intent to aggravate my woe,

crossed all the fair designs I schemed,

humbled my heart, and laid me low.

"Lord, why is this?" I, trembling, cried;

"Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?"

"Tis in this way," the Lord replied,

"I answer prayer for grace and faith.

"These inward trials I employ

from self and pride to set thee free,

and break thy schemes of earthly joy

that thou may’st find thy all in me." Amen.

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[1] Eugene H. Peterson, Praying with the Psalms . HarperOne. Kindle Edition. Location 2296 of 4206

[2] See “The Emotional Life of Our Lord,” in B. B. Warfield Person and Work of Christ, ed. Samuel G. Craig (Philadelphia: The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1950), pp. 93–145. Quoted in Timothy Keller, The Prodigal Prophet (p. 243). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[3] Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides (Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), 4.

“Revive Us Again” (Jonah 3:1-10)

Jonathan Edwards and the Revival

What is revival? Probably this is one of the church’s most abused terms. Some see it as a synonym for mass evangelism or a special week of prayer meetings. Others see it with suspicion and automatically associate it with bizarre happenings.

Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest theologians and pastors in church history, advanced and supported the Great Awakening in New England. But he viewed with suspicion the emotional excesses generated by the revival. While he encouraged repentance and heartfelt devotion to God, he was bothered somewhat by the shrieking, trances, and ecstatic deliriums that often accompanied the revivals. He felt some pastors placed an undue emphasis on outward signs. What are the marks of true revival? Edwards gives five marks of genuine revival based on 1 John:[1]

1. when the work is such as to raise the esteem of professed converts for Jesus and seems to establish their minds in the truth of the gospel testimony to Him as the Son of God and the Savior of men,
2. when the spirit that is at work operates against the interests of Satan’s kingdom, which lies in encouraging and establishing sin,
3. when this spirit operates to bring about a greater regard to the Scriptures and establishes them more in their truth and divine origin,
4. when that spirit operates as a spirit of truth, leading persons to the truth and convincing them of those things that are true, and lastly,
5. when that spirit operates as a spirit of love to God and man

So a biblical definition of revival can be summed up like this: Revival is to seek to know God, seek to know His Son, seek to know His Word, seek to know His truth and His love. Revival is a definite action of God. Revival is a surprising work of God. It always begins with God. God initiates; people respond. We see this pattern in all revivals in the Bible, including Nineveh’s revival under Jonah.

The Word of God

Everything in and about Nineveh’s revival begins with God. It was God who sent Jonah. It was God who gave Jonah the message. It was God who created a climate of faith in Nineveh. Revival begins with God. In particular, in every revival in the Bible and in church history we find the following truth: where there is a proclamation of the Word of God, there is revival. Sometimes God uses great men and women to preach His Word, such as Moses, Elijah, Deborah, John Wesley, George Whitefield. But, we also find God uses simple, ignorant, unknown, most ordinary people, like Amos (a shepherd, a dresser of sycamore trees), Peter (fisherman), and Jonah (reluctant, grumbling prophet). How many of you have ever heard of the name of David Morgan? He was a most ordinary, unknown man, but God used that man, made him like a lion, and sent revival to Wales. It may be a great person. It may be a little person. It doesn’t matter. It’s not about messengers, but it’s all about God and His Word (Message).

So here we are. God’s message is proclaimed through the messenger Jonah, saying, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (v. 4) It’s hard to imagine that Jonah would preach this message with passion and love. But instead, we can easily assume that he would actually want to see Nineveh overthrown. But against to all his expectations, the people of Nineveh responded. They believed God and His Word (v. 5). There was revival.

Probably one of the most vivid images of revival in the Bible is in Ezekiel 37, the Valley of Dry Bones. One day God took hold of Ezekiel, brought him out to the middle of a valley that was full of dry bones. Then, God asked him, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then God commanded him to prophesy to these bones. And he did, saying, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord God says to you! Pay attention! I'm bringing my Spirit into you right now, and you're going to live!” And as he was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. But there was no breath in them yet. God commanded Ezekiel to prophesy for the second time. So he said, “This is what the Lord says: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live!”” As he was prophesying, the breath entered into them. They came to life and stood up on their feet as a vast army.

Where there is a proclamation of God’s Word, there is revival. The Bible says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb 4:12-13, NIV). Jonah’s message was living and active, penetrating deeply into people’s souls, because it was God’s message. The Word of God is still living and active today. So let us come and listen to the Word. Let us allow the Word to penetrate to the very core of our being and let God in. That’s the beginning of revival.

Repentance

That’s what the Ninevites did. First, they paid attention and listened to God’s message. Then, there was an awakening – awakening to the situation. They became conscious of the seriousness of the situation. And they changed their lives accordingly. They proclaimed a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow. They turned from their evil ways. Everyone did it – rich and poor, young and old, leaders and followers. The Ninevites showed their genuine repentance.

This leads into the second principle of revival: where there is revival, there is repentance. To repent is to turn, turn to God. When revival comes, we come to realize that we are “dry bones” and “the slain.” When revival comes, the breath of life enters into us and we come to life, we change our lives, we turn to God. In his book, A faithful narrative of the surprising work of God, Jonathan Edwards shares his own story of revival that he experienced in his town, Northampton, MA, in 1735 in this way:

“…the town seemed to be full of the presence of God: it never was so full of love, nor so full of joy; and yet so full of distress, as it was then. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on the account of salvation's being brought unto them; par­ents rejoicing over their children as newborn, and husbands over their wives, and wives over their husbands. The goings of God were then seen in his sanctuary, God's day was a delight, and his tabernacles were amiable. Our public assemblies were then beautiful; the congre­gation was alive in God's service, everyone earnestly intent on the public worship, every hearer eager to drink in the words of the minis­ter as they came from his mouth; the assembly in general were, from time to time, in tears while the word was preached: some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbors.”

40 Days

Are you moved? This is God visiting his people. This is the surprising work of God. This is revival. In today’s scripture Jonah proclaimed, “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed” (v. 4 NLT). In the Bible 40 days is a spiritually important time period. Noah's life was transformed by 40 days of rain. Moses was transformed by 40 days on Mount Sinai. David was transformed by Goliath's 40-day challenge. Jesus was empowered by 40 days in the wilderness. And the entire city of Nineveh was transformed when God gave the people 40 days to change. Eugene Peterson rightly said, “Forty days is a period for testing the reality of one’s life — examining it for truth, for authenticity.”[2]

Although we may not hear the same message that Jonah proclaimed 2,800 years ago, somehow the COVID-19 pandemic makes us realize how fleeting our life is in this world and invites us to examine our life for truth, asking ourselves a question something like this: “If you had 40 days to live, what would you do? What changes must be made in your life?” We are now in a 40-day journey to spiritual renewal.

The God we see in Jonah’s story is not an angry judge who would set a high standard and punish those who fail. But instead, what we see is a loving father who is anxiously waiting for his prodigal son, ready to forgive with his arms wide open. If God could use reluctant Jonah, if God could spare the wicked Ninevites, then he can certainly send revival today. Come, let us return to God. Let us seek him. Let us press on to know him. Let us cry to him and say,

“Oh rend the heavens, come quickly down,

And make a thousand hearts thine own.”

                                                                         William Cowper

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[1] Kenneth D. Macleod, “Jonathan Edwards 5: Analyzing the Revival,” https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2006/jonathan-edwardssupsupbr5-analysing-the-revival-1/

[2] Eugene H. Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (p. 142). Eerdmans Publishing Co - A. Kindle Edition

“Inside the Fish” (Jonah 2:1-10)

What Can We Do?

Speaking about 1930s Germany, Pastor Martin Niemöller who is best known for his opposition to the Nazi regime said:[1]

First they came for the Jews; but I did nothing because I am not a Jew. Then they came for the socialists, but I did nothing because I am not a socialist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I did nothing because I am not a Catholic. Finally, they came for me, but by then there was no-one left to help me.

First coronavirus hit the Chinese. Then it hit Iran. Then it struck Italy. And all of sudden it arrived in the US. Covid-19 has gone from something that seemed far away to something that is directly impacting every aspect of our lives. And now we are forced to ask questions: “Why is this happening? Is God trying to tell us something? What are we supposed to do about it? What can we do?”

Inside the Fish

The situation we are in today is quite similar to Jonah’s. To Jonah, Nineveh was something far away. But then, all of sudden it became something that changed his entire life. His initial response was denial. He denied the situation and ran away. But God sent a great wind and a great fish. And now in the belly of the fish Jonah is forced to face reality and to ask questions: “Why is this happening to me? Is God trying to tell me something? What am I supposed to do about it? What can I do?”

It has been quite a journey to the belly of the fish. The text describes Jonah as “descending” – going down to Joppa, down into a ship, down into the depths of the ship—and now, finally, he goes even further down into the very depths of the ocean. Then he hits the bottom. Like Jonah, we feel like we are going down, down, down. This Covid-19 pandemic has impacted everyone one way or the other. Many jobs have been lost. Schools have closed down. Family reunions and social gathering have been discouraged. More than 134,000 people in the US have died from it. It’s like we are sitting in the dark because of a major power outage, waiting for power to come back and hoping to get back to normal. But we don’t know how long. We are still in the dark, isolated, uncertain, and even at risk of death. But there is good news! At the bottom, inside the fish, while Jonah was still suffering the difficulties and discomforts of an uncertain life, he became a new person. What happened to Jonah is a source of hope for all of us. So then, what happened to Jonah inside the fish?

Prayer

The first thing we discover from today’s scripture is this: Jonah prayed in the belly of the fish. Jonah 2:1 says, “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish…” Jonah’s first action was prayer. A Nobel Prize author Isaac Bshevis Singer said, “Whenever I am in trouble, I pray. And since I’m always in trouble, I pray a lot. Even when you see me eat and drink, while I do this, I pray.” For Jonah, it was a kind of forced, involuntary time out for three days. Probably there were not many things he could do in the dark, in constant motion, in the stinky belly of the fish. But he chose to pray. It is not simply being inside the fish that begins to change Jonah but prayer inside the fish.

The pandemic crisis created an environment much like the belly of the fish, which is a place of confinement – boring, lonely, isolated, restricted place. But when we pray, this very same place, “a place of death,” becomes “a place of re-birth” – a place of transformation, joy, thanksgiving and new life. Although there’s no easy answer to those questions, “Why is this happening? What can we do?” one thing we can be sure of is that here and now we are called to pray, to spend more time alone with God, really talking and really listening to God with brutal honesty.

Praying with the Psalms

So Jonah prayed. Inside the fish he prayed three days and three nights. In fact, the entire second chapter of the Book of Jonah is his prayer. There is one thing very remarkable about the way Jonah prayed. Eugene Peterson calls Jonah’s prayer a “set” prayer. Yes, Jonah probably had a lot of honest, spontaneous talk with God for three days. But the essence of his prayer written in the Scriptures is all from the Psalms. Not a single word in the prayer is Jonah’s original self-expression. He got every word, every form, every rhythm out of the Book of the Psalms. Learning how to pray is like learning how to speak new languages. We begin with inarticulate cries and coos, but after years of learning we are then able to articulate the complexity of our lives. Eugene Peterson describes the Psalms as the school of prayer in this way[2]:

Are infant sounds more honest than Shakespeare’s sonnets? They are both honest, but the sonnets have far more experience in them. Honesty is essential in prayer, but we are after more. We are after as much of life as possible — all of life if possible — brought to expression in answering God. That means learning a form of prayer adequate to the complexity of our lives.

The Psalms are our text. Without the Psalms our prayer is mainly about me and my people. But with the Psalms the Holy Spirit leads us to get away from ourselves, moving beyond ourselves into other lives, other worlds. With the Psalms we can find the way to talk and listen to God, whether our heart is full or empty. Inside the fish Jonah prayed “psalm-prayer.” Jonah had been to school to learn to pray. Now he is inside the fish. Circumstances tell him to lament. But instead, he does choose to pray a prayer of praise and thanksgiving:

“But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (Jonah 2:9, ESV)

A Journey from Self to Thou

Every Thursday Hodgdon small group meets. Each day we individually mediate on the same psalm. When we are gathered, we share our reflections and prayers. Normally, we begin with me, my story, my world. But as we listen to each other and pray psalm-prayer, we begin to see that our life is moved from self-pity, self-concern, self-preoccupation to God, God’s story, God’s world.

The Christian life is not about us; it is about God. The Christin life is a journey from self to Thou. This is slow work and a long process. Recently, I read about glaciers. A glacier is the most powerful force the world has ever seen. Nothing can stop a glacier. A glacier is formed by the falling of snow that accumulates over a period of time — an inch today, a quarter of an inch yesterday, a mere skiff of powder last week. As the snow deepens, the weight compresses. Ice is formed, and then more snow, which becomes more ice, year after year after year. Nothing happens for a long time, but when the glacier is sixty-four feet thick it starts to move, and once it starts nothing can stop it.[3]

This metaphor tells us that little things matter. Today somehow, we are in the belly of the fish. We are watching and waiting. There are little things that we can do. But there is one thing that we are called to do in this pandemic. It is to pray, pray continually, pray psalm-prayer in the school of prayer like Jonah. We may feel like nothing happens for a long time. But the day will come, must come, the ice will begin to slide. So, sisters and brothers in Christ, let us keep it up for a lifetime, and one day we will see ourselves steadfast, immovable, unstoppable, whether we are inside or outside the fish. Whether the pandemic is over or not, we will rejoice and sing a psalm of praise and thanksgiving to the God of our salvation. Amen.

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[1] N. T. Wright, God and the Pandemic (p. 1). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

[2] Eugene H. Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (p. 101-102). Eerdmans Publishing Co - A. Kindle Edition.

[3] Eugene H. Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places (p. 330). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

“Great Wind, Great Fish” (Jonah 1:1-3)

Who is Jonah?

Over the past few weeks we have studied Bible characters. On Father’s Day we listened to the story of David. How he struggled as a father, and how God was with him all the days of his life. Last week we explored the life of Job. The story of Job took us behind the scenes of suffering and showed us that there is an invisible world. And by this it explained the problem of suffering from a different perspective. By this time you probably have realized that the Bible is full of people who faced the same life situations you experience today, such as suffering, anger, anxiety, doubt, fear, pride, sickness, sorrow, death, etc. As we listen to their stories, we discover how God enables them to overcome those struggles and to live worthy of their calling as God’s people. That’s our aim. The aim of this study is to live a life worthy of our calling as God’s holy people. 

From this week we will explore the story of Jonah chapter by chapter. Probably many of us have been aware of the story of Jonah since childhood. On a superficial level Jonah’s story is kind of fun and attractive to all ages, because it has dramatic twists and miracles. On a deeper level this story has many layers of meaning. It is about race and nationalism. It is about God’s call to mission. It is about the struggles believers have to trust and obey God.

In order to dig deeper into the Book of Jonah a good starter question to ask would be “Who is Jonah?” Jonah was an extremely patriotic man. He was a highly partisan nationalist. The story of Jonah begins in this way: “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai…” (v. 1a). 2 Kings 14:25 tells us the same person Jonah as a prophet ministered during the reign of Israel’s King Jeroboam II (786–746 BC). In that text we find that Jonah supported Jeroboam’s aggressive military policy to extend the nation’s power and influence. Jonah believed that the kingdom of God was a Jewish kingdom. The providence of God was a Jewish providence. The triumph of God was a Jewish triumph. And now, God is calling this patriotic, nationalistic Jonah to go to Nineveh, the pagan city, in order to preach the message of repentance and forgiveness. Jonah is an unlikely candidate.

To Nineveh

If we knew who were the Ninevites, it would be even more shocking. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian kingdom. Assyria was known as one of the cruelest and most violent empires of ancient times. Assyrian kings often recorded the results of their military victories, gloating of whole plains littered with corpses and of cities burned completely to the ground. For instance, the emperor Shalmaneser III is well known for depicting torture, dismembering, and decapitations of enemies in grisly detail on large stone relief panels. After capturing enemies, the Assyrians would typically cut off their legs and one arm, leaving the other arm and hand so they could shake the victim’s hand in mockery as he was dying. They forced friends and family members to parade with the decapitated heads of their loved ones elevated on poles. They pulled out prisoners’ tongues and stretched their bodies with ropes so they could be flayed alive and their skins displayed on city walls. They burned adolescents alive. The Assyrians have been called a “terrorist state.”[1] They continued to threaten the Jewish northern kingdom throughout the lifetime of Jonah. And in 722 BC they finally invaded and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel.

Now God is sending Jonah to the very Nineveh, the most feared and hated enemy, to preach forgiveness and reconciliation, saying, “Go at once to Nineveh that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me” (v. 1b).

Why Tarshish?

What was Jonah’s response to this mission? He went to the exact opposite direction. He went down to Joppa, found a ship, paid the fare, went aboard, and set sail. He ran away from God. The question is, “Why did Jonah run?” Jonah ran because the Ninevites were not Jews. He thought the pagans did not deserve God’s mercy. Jonah ran because he did not want to be known as a false prophet. The prophet Nahum had some years before prophesied that God would destroy Nineveh for its evil. For Jonah and Israel Nahum’s prophecy made a perfect sense. Jonah didn’t want to prophesy against it and be found as a false prophet. Jonah ran because he feared the wicked Ninevites. His calling was like a suicide mission. It’s like standing on the streets of Berlin and calling on Nazi Germany to repent in 1941.

According to common sense principles there are hundreds of reasons why Jonah must not go to Nineveh. But I believe the true reason why Jonah ran away is because he cannot reconcile the mercy of God with his justice. In other words, Jonah asks, “How can God be merciful and forgiving to people who have done such violence and evil?” He wants God to be consistent: to destroy and punish the bad people like the Ninevites and to bless and prosper the good people like Israel. Jonah wants a God of his own making. But when the real God shows up, Jonah is furious and frustrated with God’s way of dealing with people in the world. Jonah has to die to his own desires, his own will, and his own conception of God. So God prepares two things to teach and deliver Jonah from himself: a great wind and a great fish.

Great Wind, Great Fish

As soon as Jonah sets sail to Tarshishi, God sends a great wind over the sea, causing a violent storm. In the storm Jonah encounters the real God. Up to this point he firmly believed that God was exclusively interested in Israel, but now in the storm he begins to see that God’s interest in Israel is for the sake of the world – “You will be a blessing, so that all the people of the earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:2-3). Jonah was trained and taught to believe that the climax of God’s salvation would be the salvation of Israel, but now in the storms he begins to see that Israel is a means to an end. The end is the salvation of all nations.

In the storm Jonah meets pagan sailors, who do not know God. But ironically, the pagan sailors seem to know how to have a relationship with God better than Jonah. In the midst of the storm they stay alert and call on their gods and ask Jonah, who is in deep sleep, to pray (1:6). When they discover by lots that Jonah is responsible for the storm, they don’t judge him but instead they are eager to listen to his story and to learn about his God (1:8). And until the end, they use every means possible to save Jonah rather than just throwing him into the sea (1:13). For Jonah, his encounter with the pagan sailors is an eye-opening and transforming experience. Deep in his heart he always thought that he and Israel were good people, deserving of God’s favor – “I am better than those pagan sinners.” But now he begins to see that he too is a sinner. He begins to realize that he too doesn’t deserve God’s mercy.

Then Jonah is now thrown into the sea. But God’s mercy pursues Jonah! The God who prepared a great wind to grow Jonah now provides a great fish to save him and protect him. Jonah is rescued and now he is in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. There Jonah is transformed by God’s amazing grace.

Timeless Mission

The Bible is full of stories how God offers a call to repentance and forgiveness to undeserving, unlikely people. This call begins with you and me. Like Jonah, we must experience God’s mercy and forgiveness first and then pass it on.

As I close, let me share the story of Corrie ten Boom on forgiveness. During the Nazi occupation of Holland Corrie was arrested for hiding Jews in her home and sent to a concentration camp. After the World War II, God sent her to Germany to preach repentance and forgiveness. One day after the service, one man approached her. Intuitively, she recognized him. He was a guard at the concentration camp. That man extended his hand and said, “A fine message! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!” Corrie described her feelings in this way, “My blood seemed to freeze… It could not have been many seconds that he stood there—hand held out—but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.” She knew what she had to do. But she couldn’t. So she prayed silently, “Lord, help! I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.” And then mechanically, Corrie held out her hand. Then an incredible thing happened. Surpassing forgiving love of God just flooded her whole being, bringing tears to her eyes. And she cried out, “I forgive you, brother, with all my heart!” Corrie concludes her story as follows: “For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then.”[2]

Jonah means “dove.” His name represents God’s mission of peace to all people of the world, even God’s people’s enemies. Jonah is an unlikely candidate. He struggles, but later he repents and follows God’s lead. Jonah’s story is a source of hope for us. We too often run away from God and his mission when we find it difficult to understand what God is doing. But in his mercy God pursues us with a great wind and a great fish. God’s storm is a storm of love. In the storm may we listen. In the belly of the fish may we repent. In this divisive world which we live in today may we be bridge builders and messengers who preach repentance and forgiveness. Amen.

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[1] Timothy Keller, The Prodigal Prophet (pp. 10-11). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[2] Guideposts Classics: Corrie ten Boom on Forgiveness (July 24, 2014)