Article - Jonah

THE OUTRAGE OF GRACE

The enigmatic little book of Jonah with its 48 verses, carefully worded and skilfully constructed, is full of surprises and amusing improbability. It highlighted for the Jews, and no less for us in the Christian era, what has been called the ‘outrage of grace’. Before you read any of it, jot down what you remember about the story (if anything!), and what you think it is teaching us.
Read all 48 verses of Jonah, or if you do not have time, read 1.1-4,15-17; 3.1-5; 4.1-3,10,11.
As one of the minor prophets, it’s almost an oracle-free-zone! There are just 4 Hebrew words of prophecy(3.4). Voltaire and lesser known sceptics have mocked the apparently farcical elements of the book, and some famous Christians, like Martin Luther in his day, would rest easier at night if Jonah had just failed to get into the books of the Bible. But more important than the arguments concerning the events and the dating of the book is what God was saying, then and now.
There is an element of parable in the way the story is told. The opening chapter allows you to distance yourself from this foolish and disobedient so-called prophet. But, as in Nathan’s parable to King David (2 Samuel 12), the closing verses of Jonah round on you with that accusing “You are the one!” Like Jonah, you want to limit God’s love to the people who you think deserve it. You find it hard to believe that his compassion reaches out to all who repent and turn to him.
Perhaps the purpose of the book, like that of Ecclesiastes, is to pose questions that need to be thought through, even if no firm conclusions can be reached. Not only is there a debate between God and Jonah, but between the storyteller and God, and by invitation of the book, between us and God. What issues has Jonah already raised in your mind?

THE RELUCTANT MISSIONARY

Usually a prophet is a walking, talking advert for God’s power and glory. But here God is glorified, not through his ambassador, but in spite of his ambassador. The Story opens with a fresh commission for one of God’s oddly chosen men.
Jonah 1.1-3
Why did God choose Jonah? Let’s turn that round. If he chose someone as deliberately disobedient as Jonah, then he can certainly use you and me to carry out his purposes. Don’t let your own shortcomings prevent you from expecting God to use you today as his mouthpiece in the world.
Jonah was a privileged man who had already been used by God in his early years. He had prophesied the enlarging of his nation’s territory. (II Kings 14.25) When this actually happened, the people remembered Jonah’s prophecy. So he had had a successful ministry, but this had perhaps led to complacency. Past blessing is no substitute for present obedience. Stop now and ask God if there is an area in your life where you are heading in the wrong direction.
Towards the end of Jeroboam II’s long reign over Israel (793-753BC), Assyria’s power was on the decline. Still when Jonah thought of Nineveh he thought of the terrible cruelty of the Assyrians: “The usual procedure after the capture of a hostile city was to burn it and then to mutilate all the male prisoners by cutting off their hands and ears and putting out their eyes, after which they were piled up in a great heap to perish in torture from sun, flies, their wounds and suffocation; the children, boys and girls, were all burnt alive at the stake and the chief was carried off to Assyria to be flayed alive.” (HL Ellison) Try to put yourself in Jonah’s shoes. Is it any wonder that he was a reluctant missionary?

DISOBEDIENCE
God’s word had been unambiguous (1.1) and God cannot be ignored, even by a seasoned prophet who wanted to take early retirement because he had moral objections to God’s mercy.
Jonah 1.4.-16
But God’s word was not just for Nineveh. It was to shine light into Jonah’s own life and reveal his deepest doubts. (Heb.4.12, 13) His disobedience had devastating consequences for his faith:
• No Guidance - (3) he probably mistook the provision of a ship (going in the wrong direction!) as God’s blessing on his plans to let Nineveh to get its just deserts. Never be guided by circumstances and feeling when you are refusing to be guided by God’s word.
• No Conscience - (5,6) the dozing missionary is woken by a pagan captain who commands him to pray. Always be ready for instructions from the Lord from the most unlikely people!
• No Ministry - (8-10) He could answer questions but, unlike the enthusiastic missionary in Acts 27, he was unable to minister in a time of crisis. All your knowledge of God, when you are running for from him, only leads to greater unease in yourself and others.
• No Assurance - (12) “Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then I will finally be free from God’s pursuit. God has discarded me. He no longer has any purposes for my life.” But you don’t get God off your back in that way as the Psalmist (139.9,10) and Luther knew: “Not only the ship, but the whole world becomes too small for Jonah. He finds no nook or corner in all of creation, not even in hell, where he might crawl in…” Reflect on times in your life when God, ‘the hound of heaven’, has pursued you with persevering love.RESCUE
“Men have been looking so hard at the great fish that they have failed to see the great God.” (Campbell Morgan) This ‘walk on’ part played by the great fish points to the lengths that God will go in his grace to bring Jonah to repentance.
Jonah 1.17-2.10
Salvation shines through these verses. Can you find 5 places in this ‘psalm of Jonah’ where he points to God’s saving actions and answered prayer? Jonah was clearly not expecting to be saved from a watery grave. (“No - throw me in over the other side where the big fish are!”) So when he finds himself safe and unpleasantly secure in the fish’s digestive system, he cries out to God in amazement and thanksgiving, using many familiar verses from psalms he has sung since his boyhood. (Jonah 2.2-9. You can find verses similar to these in various Psalms: 18.6; 120.1; 86.13; 42.7; 31.22; 69.1,2; 30.3; 77.11,12; 11.4; 42.4; 50.14,23; 116.14; 3.8) Paul also new this relief and gratitude - and how to interpret a dreadful, near-death disaster. (II Cor 1.8-10)
God sometimes blesses you when you least expect or ‘deserve’ it, in the middle of a rebellion. And then you are overwhelmed with those mixed feelings of gratitude and shame. Suddenly prayer and God’s word come alive again in your experience.
You too can follow God’s example and ‘rescue’ those who are running from you. Those who have wronged you and know it; those who feel shunned by you and your ‘set’; those who are intimidated by your confidence and abilities; those who have misunderstood your motives and actions. Ask God to show you anyone like this. Reach out to them and by some act of sacrificial kindness and love, mirror God’s redeeming grace.

OBEDIENCE
Jonah 3.1-10
At last Jonah concedes to the High King of heaven, and we see how the restoration of this one sinner leads to the salvation of many sinners. We are tempted to believe that our ‘little disobediences’ only affect us. But just like our obedience, it can have great consequences for many others.
Sennacherib had made Nineveh the capital of Assyria and carried out an extensive building programme. ‘Cities’ in the middle east at this time were not much bigger than our villages, but Nineveh was seven and a half miles in circumference - a vast size. What could one small, reluctant, recently regurgitated prophet do? He could listen to God and repeat his message (3.1,2):
• A Clear Word (3.4) The sermon is unmistakeable. In New Testament terms it fulfils the instruction of Paul in II Cor 4.2 “we do not distort… we set forth the truth plainly.”
• A Powerful Word (3.5) The previous mention of the size of the city is not to intimidate but to enhance the miraculous nature of this preaching. This was more than just a renewed Jonah, it was the voice of the living God in a pagan city.
• A Fruitful Word (3.6-10) The king in this chapter is the counterpart of the heathen captain in chapter 1; a reminder to narrow Jewish minds of this period that the God of Israel has a missionary heart. To stop any racial prejudice or cultural snobbery the story tells of a total response - great and small, kings and commoners, people and cattle! (The ceremonial mourning cloths on animals was a Persian custom.) But God’s forgiveness is not automatic (3.9) as Jeremiah reminded the people. (Jer 18.7-10).
Pray for preachers you know today, and that you will be able to pass on a clear word from God wherever you are.

GOD’S JUSTICE?
Jonah 4
Was there ever a preacher that was so disappointed by such a marvellous response to his preaching? This is the missionary dream! But for Jonah it poses a serious theological question.
If in God’s world good is rewarded and wickedness is punished, how can God forgive Nineveh and overlook their barbaric sins? To let iniquity go unpunished is as unjust as punishing the innocent. In Jonah’s eyes, it is dishonouring for God to show mercy to obvious wrong-doers, even after repentance. For if God is the supreme moral being he must punish or at least demand some penitence or temple sacrifice to ‘make up for’ the sin. Like the psalmist, Jonah wonders how the wicked seem to have their cake and eat it, while he suffers in godly innocence (Ps 73.12,13). Jonah is outraged by grace - the apparent contradiction in God’s moral nature. He forgives people who don’t deserve it. And Jonah wants to die and be free from this confusion of mind, self-pity, and spoiling of his nice neat theology.
So God points out to the prophet, through the incident with the castor oil plant, that Jonah’s concern for the plant is motivated purely by self-interest, whereas God’s concern for all that he has created springs from the compassion which is God’s very nature - God is love. The old testament readers are left to wrestle in their own minds with the tension between crime & punishment and repentance & forgiveness. How could God justify his actions on the grounds of compassion alone? Jonah was not willing to trust obediently in a God whose ways could not always be understood. He was not willing to trust that there would be a chapter five, written by the Messiah in centuries ahead. Are you too narrow in deciding for God who can be saved?

JESUS & JONAH
Why were Jonah’s few words to the Ninevites so effective? Well, certainly it was because of the Holy Spirit’s anointing of Jonah and drawing of the citizens to repentance. But also, if you heard Jonah’s story of the miraculous vomiting up of the guest preacher on the beach, you would be inclined to believe that God really wanted to say something important to you. In fact, if Jonah had gone directly to Nineveh, they might never have listened! The prophet’s dramatic deliverance was a sign of God’s desire to deliver these pagans.
Matthew 12.39-42
When Jesus speaks of the sign of Jonah (also in Matt 16.4 and Luke 11.29) he is doubtless referring to his coming death and resurrection. If the Ninevites through the miracle of Jonah could turn to trust in God; then what excuse would there be for those who saw God deliver his Son from death and bring him back to life?
More than this, we can see in Jesus, a partial resolution of Jonah’s theological problem: how can a just and moral God overlook such dreadful sin without demanding ‘payment’? But God’s absolute holiness is satisfied by his overwhelming love; justice and compassion meet in the cross where:

Grace and love like mighty rivers,
Poured incessant from above,
And heaven’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love. (William Rees)

Receive the kiss of forgiveness from God today and don’t write yourself off as Jonah did. And have your eyes open to see the unusual ways God may use you to reach the most unlikely sinners. Pray today for the people you least expect (and least want?) to be converted.