In its 1981 debut, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” made $384 million US worldwide. There didn’t seem to be a country that didn’t fall in love with character Indiana Jones. Kids everywhere were swooping around playgrounds cracking imaginary whips and humming the movie’s theme song as they “uncovered” hidden treasure they then fought hard to keep out of the hands of “bad guys.” Admit it. You were one of those kids. Who hasn’t dreamed of being a resourceful adventurer like Indy Jones?
Over the next few weeks I want to reintroduce you to a real person who got into his share of Indiana Jones-like tight spots. Independent Jonah, as I’ll call him for his I-know-what’s-best attitude, lived over 2,700 years ago in Israel. He’s most famous of course for having spent three nights in the belly of a fish. We’ll get to that but today let’s find out what led to the adventure we’ll call: “Independent Jonah and the Sailors of a Floundering Ark.”
Like Indiana Jones, Independent Jonah was not a full time adventurer. His day job was that of prophet. He preached God’s Word like a pastor does. One thing I find interesting about Jonah is that he may have been a disciple of the famous prophet Elisha. Independent was from Gath-Hepher, a town just 5 km northeast of Nazareth where Jesus would grow up. He lived during a time of political stability. In fact Jonah himself had prophesied this period of peace (2 Kings 14:25). It was perhaps while he was hanging out in his hometown of Gath-Hepher enjoying the peace when his next assignment came. The Old Testament book of Jonah begins: “1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me” (Jonah 1:1, 2).
It seems like such a simple assignment. Jonah had been given a specific destination and a specific message to preach. There shouldn’t have been much chance of Independent botching the mission. Jonah didn’t exactly botch the mission; he just didn’t want any part of it. So instead of setting out for Nineveh, which lay 800 km to the east in present day Iraq, Jonah headed for Tarshish, a town 4,000 km to the west in present day Spain. Tarshish was about as far as you could go by ship in those days. It was the “end of the line” at the end of the then-known world. Jonah was running from God and his mission as far away as he could.
Why did Jonah run? Did it have to do with Nineveh’s reputation? Nineveh was an ancient city already by the time of Jonah. It had been founded by Nimrod, a great-grandson of Noah (Genesis 10:11, 12). It eventually became the capital city of the Assyrians – a warlike people known for stacking the skulls of the vanquished on stakes. It was to these violent people that God wanted Jonah to go and tell them to repent. I suppose that would be like if God called you to go preach to a terrorist training camp in the mountains of Afghanistan. Wouldn’t you be hesitant to go?
It wasn’t his safety, however, that Jonah was worried about. He knew well how God had kept his mentor Elisha from harm when the whole Aramaean army had surrounded the town of Dothan to capture the prophet. God had sent an army of fiery angels to protect Elisha by striking the invaders blind (2 Kings 6). What would the Assyrian army be to God? They wouldn’t be able to touch Jonah if God didn’t want them to. No, there was another, more sinister reason for Jonah’s hesitation: God’s mercy (Jonah 4:2). Say what? Yes. Jonah wasn’t interested in preaching to the Ninevites because he knew how it would most likely end: God would forgive their sins and not bring upon them the punishment they deserved! Jonah didn’t want any part of that, especially since the Assyrians were bitter enemies of the Israelites. To put it into perspective what God was asking Jonah to do would be like Dr. Jones befriending and helping the Nazis in the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie. Such a thing would be unthinkable!
Let’s pause here to summarize what we’ve learned about God so far, after all, the Old Testament book of Jonah isn’t really about the prophet, the fish, or the Ninevites. It’s about God. It’s about his hatred for sin. If the Assyrians thought they could do whatever they wanted, they were mistaken. God was keeping tabs. As far as he was concerned their sins had piled dangerously high like a stack of dirty dishes teetering on the brink of a shattering collapse. God is keeping tabs on you too, you know. You may have hidden your thieving ways from your boss or parents but you can’t hide them from God. He knows what you’re up to and he isn’t impressed. Oh you may think that your sins aren’t as bad as what the Assyrians were up to with their wanton killing and pillaging. OK. Let’s say that for every sin you commit God only gives you a “ticket” written out on a single sheet of paper. How many tickets would you be holding by the end of the day? 100? 500? That sounds like a heavy load already considering there are 500 sheets of paper in a standard packet of photocopy paper. How many packets like that can you hold? Would you even still be standing by the end of the week or would the weight of your accumulated tickets have crushed you by then? We may take our sins lightly but God does not. The stench of our sins has reached heaven and the righteous God cannot ignore it.
While God wasn’t about to ignore the Assyrians’ sins neither did he want them to have to suffer for them. That’s why he wanted to send Jonah to Nineveh. He wanted the Assyrians to learn how offensive their sins were and to turn from them. So what else do we learn about God? We learn that he is merciful and desires sinners to enjoy his forgiveness. God’s own Son, Jesus, earned this forgiveness when the crushing weight of our sins was dumped on him at the cross. A weight so heavy it caused Jesus to cry out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Yet a weight Jesus bore and carried away from us that he could declare of our salvation: “It is finished.”
Since God has been so merciful and forgiving, he wants us to have the same attitude towards others. Sadly that wasn’t the attitude Independent Jonah displayed. He didn’t want the Ninevites to be forgiven. I mean they were the enemy, weren’t they? No, the Ninevites weren’t the enemy anymore than Eve was Adam’s enemy when she gave him the forbidden fruit to eat. Satan was the enemy. He was the one who had tricked Eve. Have we perhaps forgotten this in our struggles with one another? We refuse to forgive because we see those who hurt us as the enemy instead of Satan who is eager to shatter the peace and harmony God wants us to enjoy as brothers and sisters in Christ. This sinful attitude carries over in our lukewarm support for outreach among people who are different than we: the drug addict, the Muslim, the homosexual, those of different color. When we ignore these people, when we don’t think they are worth our time or effort or even worse, that God’s grace is not for them too then we’re doing what Jonah did – running away from God’s will.
Running away from God’s will is never a good idea. For one thing it’s impossible. The storm that blew in after Jonah boarded the boat for Tarshish was no coincidence. God had sent it (lit. he “hurled the wind”). The storm was so bad that even the seasoned sailors started praying to their gods for help. What about Jonah? He was fast asleep below deck. In one of the more ironically shameful scenes from the book of Jonah, a heathen sailor had to urge God’s prophet to pray. Do you see what sin does? When we ignore God’s will in one matter, no smatter how small it may seem to us, it affects our overall spiritual health – even our prayer life. It’s no wonder Jesus urges us to guard and treasure all of his teachings (Matthew 28:19, 20).
When it became clear that Jonah was the cause of the storm, he readily confessed what he had done reminding us that the storm was actually a blessing for Jonah. It wasn’t God’s hammer meant to destroy the prophet but an alarm clock meant to wake him for his spiritual stupor. So when God allows challenges into your life, dear Friends, have confidence that it isn’t punishment but chastisement. God is just trying to lovingly draw you closer to him.
When the sailors of the floundering ark asked Jonah what they should do to calm the storm he directed them to throw him overboard. They were unwilling to do this. Imagine that. These heathen sailors were unwilling to see Jonah die even though he had caused them so much stress. You would think they would be all too eager to get rid of Independent. Again God’s prophet needed to learn a lesson from these heathen sailors. They were showing him the compassion that he, a man of God, had been unwilling to show the Ninevites.
But try as they might the sailors couldn’t row to land. The wind and the waves were too strong. So with resignation and requests for forgiveness, they hurled Jonah into the sea. Immediately the sea grew calm. When the sailors saw this they “feared” the Lord and offered prayers to him. We pray that this wasn’t just a superstitious change of attitude, for if it was saving faith, it’s awesome to see how God worked good from Jonah’s sin.
While you and I may never get the chance to play the part of Indiana Jones, resourceful adventurer, we unfortunately all too often play the part of Independent Jonah, selfish child of God. We too foolishly think we can run away from God and his will and suppose he won’t notice. We show little concern for the eternal welfare of others – even if they are our enemies. All we can do is ask for forgiveness and trust that we are forgiven. For just as the willing self-sacrifice of Jonah saved those heathen sailors when he was thrown overboard causing the violent sea to calm, so the willing self-sacrifice of Jesus on the cross calmed God’s wrath over our sins saving us for eternity. What happened to Jonah? Come back next week and find out when we discuss: Independent Jonah and the Rescue from Doom. Amen.
