Kingdom Keys - Jonah Series

So maybe you’ve heard it said, ‘read your bible’ so you tried and failed. Our hope as leaders is that all of us will pick up God’s word and come to understand the true nature of God. After all, the bible is God’s Word curated over centuries detailing His nature, His will, the meaning of life and humanity’s historical interactions with Him. The Bible details the hidden keys to the Kingdom. Hence, the reason we are reviewing a new book each week.

This week we move ahead to the book of Jonah. Now, you don’t have to be a Christian for long to know the controversy of the story of Jonah and the whale. Is the story true or a fable for teaching purposes.

There is a wonderful story from author, Rich Tatum from Carol Stream, about a little girl waiting to leave her Sunday school class when the pastor walked by and saw this 6 year old clutching a book. Feeling a little mischievous he stopped, stooped down and asked the girl, “What she was holding?” She replied, “A story book about Jonah and his whale.” The pastor asked, “Do you believe a man can be swallowed by a whale, stay in his belly for three days and be thrown up on dry land?” She looked at the pastor with a concerned brow and said, “Yes. We talked about it in Sunday school and it's in the Bible.” The pastor, feeling a little frisky said, “can you prove to me it’s true?” Her brow looked even more concerned when she answered. “Well, when I get to heaven, I'll ask Jonah.” Then the pastor quipped, “What if Jonah’s not in heaven?” The girl quickly retorted, “Then you can ask him.”

Many scholars have debated the factual nature of the story of Jonah. A fact that oftentimes mires the point of the whole book and the applications for our lives. The ending of the book leads us into our point for today. Take a listen to Jonah’s exchange with God after the Ninevites repent and Jonah is sulking. We will begin in chapter 4 verse 2, with Jonah’s words to God.

“Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

God is not doing what Jonah wants so he sulks. God asks the question, “is it right to be angry?” God then provides an object lesson using a plant. In Jonah’s continued state of sulking, God asks a second time, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Like a child having a tantrum in a grocery store when they can’t get the toy in the checkout line, Jonah utters an insult to the creator, “I wish I was dead.” A statement God could grant but chooses to use Jonah’s defiance as a way to convey the greatest of all the good news: God loves all his creation and longs for all of them to come to repentance and into relationship with him. None of us on earth determine the eternal fate of others. Only God has the power.