Jonah The Deserter Series

Jonah is one of the most famous books of the Old

Testament. It is known of by masses of people who never

read any of the Bible. Strange as it may seem it was the first

book of the Bible to be translated into Chinese. The trouble

with all the widespread knowledge about Jonah is that it is

all trivial and centered on the non-essential. The great

issues of Revelation are neglected and ignored. To most

people the book has no connection with foreign missions and

God's universal love. To most people it is just about a whale

and whether or not such a creature can swallow a man.

It has been proven beyond a doubt that a whale can

swallow a man, but this is a hollow victory if it leaves us

thinking that God devoted one whole book of the Bible to

reveal the swallowing capacity of a whale. There is a whale

of a lot more to this book than that. No book in the Old

Testament is so clear as to its missionary message. It is the

clearest revelation of God's concern for the Gentiles, and

that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. The

power of God's Word is nowhere seen to be so effective, and

the value of repentance is nowhere seen to be so effective in

pleasing God. Eislen says Jonah "..is the most Christian of

all Old Testament books."

It is not a prophecy, but an autobiography. The only

prophecy in the book is the warning that judgment is

coming, and it was not fulfilled in the 40 days predicted

because the people repented. It is among the prophets

because Jonah was a prophet, and their task was as much to

forth-tell as to fore-tell. We want to look at Jonah's

commission to be a foreign missionary, and his cowardly

attempt to evade his duty. First we look at-

I. HIS DUTY DECLARED.

It was the word of the Lord that came to Jonah, and

this made his duty obvious. There was no uncertainty as to

the source of his orders to justify any hesitation or

disobedience. His duty was clear and simple-"arise and go."

With this commission Jonah becomes the Paul of the Old

Testament. He was the Apostle to the Gentiles. The other

prophets were sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,

but Jonah was to leave his people and go to the Gentiles. It

was this distinction that discouraged him from doing his

duty.

"Go to Nineveh." We can hardly find an equivalent in

our day to help us imagine the shock of such a commission.

It was contrary to the whole system of prejudice in the

Jewish mind. The Gentiles were not chosen people, and they

deserve only the judgment of God. When the heathen were

destroyed it was considered a blessing to Israel. The goal of

Israel was to have all nations subject to her, but God did not

always share the view of His people. The Jews had God

given evidence to know that He had a plan for the Gentiles

as well, but they did not want that evidence to get in the way

of their theology.

That was Jonah's problem as well, and God refused to

abide by Jonah's theology. Nothing is so aggravating to a

theologian as having God demonstrate His ability to act

contrary to His system. Men like to get God defined and

confined so they know exactly what He is going to do, but

God refuses to submit to the theology of men and remain in

the box where they want to confine Him. Paul in Rom. 10

makes it clear that Israel knew God had a plan for Gentiles.

In verse 19 he asks, "But I say, did not Israel know? First

Moses said, I will provoke you to jealously by them that are

no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you." Then

in verse 20 he writes, "But Isaiah is very bold, and says, I

was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest

unto them that asks not after me."

Why was Isaiah so bold to say that? It was because it

was heresy to the theologians of the day. It was heresy to

Jonah, and he wanted no part of foreign missions. God is

the God of the Jews, and we are going to keep it that way.

Keep the heathen out of this, and especially the Assyrians of

Nineveh. God made it clear to Abraham that his plan was to

bless all nations through his seed, but the Jews were

continually fighting to keep God exclusive.

In spite of his prejudice, however, God gave him orders

to go and cry against Nineveh. Those are interesting orders