Jonah: God’s Runaway
I’ll go but I won’t like it
Jonah 3:1-4:4
A young high school football player realized his size and ability would restrict his chances of playing, so he decided to try out as a punter. His team happened to be one that punted the football a bunch, so he figured he’d get plenty of playing time. The day of kicking tryouts, he stood in line with a dozen or so other guys. Every guy got just one kick to impress the coach -- if the coach liked what he saw, the player might get the chance to show him a few more kicks.
This kid was confident in his kicking skills. He figured he had a good chance of making the team. When it was his turn, he took the ball in his hands, extended his arms, swung his foot forward and -- the ball lobbed off the side of his foot and landed about six yards from where he stood. The coach shook his head and yelled, "Next!" Needless to say, he was disappointed in his performance. He waved and said, "Hey coach. It went off the side of my foot. I can do better than that. Gimme another shot.� The coach looked at him for about one second and said, "Next!� His kicking career ended before it started. One chance and he blew it.
There are a plenty of times in life when we get only one chance to get it right. Maybe you borrow money from the bank, or a relative and don�t pay it back. Might be tough to get another chance. A job promotion may be tied to a project that you muddle -- you might not get another chance at a promotion.
You disappoint your friends by not being a person of your word. They don�t trust you because you�ve blown the opportunity. The appeal in those kind of situations might be, "I�ll do better next time," -- but very often, with other people, the appeal is ignored -- no second chance is forthcoming.
Jonah has taught us a bunch about the character of God. One character attribute gets reiterated in our text today. God�s mercy. God is a God of second chances -- with His man Jonah, He has already been unexpectedly merciful. God�s mercy comes to the fore again today.
You remember that when God called Jonah to represent Him to Israel�s enemies, Jonah bailed -- he scooted off in the opposite direction -- he aimed for an objective which was 2000 miles removed from God�s assignment. What we have yet to discuss is that God had already used this prophet Jonah effectively in ministry to Israel. Jonah is the mouthpiece through which God spoke to the wicked king, Jeroboam II.
But Jonah struggles with God�s purpose with the people of Nineveh�.after all they�re wicked, violent idolaters. The very thought of communicating with them was too much, so he tried to sail away from God. Jonah discovered God is much bigger than the Mediterranean.
There was that horrific storm at sea -- Jonah�s confession to the sailors that his God was the Maker of the land and the seas -- that awful experience of going over the side and sinking into the churning waters. Then the great fish -- God�s means to both rescue and confine His prophet for a few days.
The lesson? -- God never gave up on His prodigal prophet. He chased him, He saved him from drowning and, God gave Jonah some serious time to think and pray. Jonah�s prayer in chapter 2 is poetic, like we saw, but it fell short. It�s focused on him and his dilemma and God�s deliverance, but there was nothing about God�s assignment nor any real repentance.
But God -- God Who is so unexpectedly merciful, gave the word to the fish and he spit Jonah out on the beach. There he lay -- no doubt with a thousand thoughts pouring through his mind. That�s where the account picks today -- in 3:1. Jonah continues his story:
. . . the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 �Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.� 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord.
I want to make three observations and then we�ll talk about lessons here.
First, 1. God re-commissions Jonah to deliver His message. (3:1-4)
God provides Jonah a second chance. He repeats the failed assignment: Go to Nineveh -- deliver My message. This time -- Jonah goes. We�d say, S.R.G. Shows real growth! Jonah�s done with running from God -- he�s become convinced that that is an exercise in futility.
But, like we�ll see even though Jonah�s body goes to Nineveh, his heart is somewhere else.
God describes Nineveh like He did in chapter 1 -- it is the great city. Great, not in terms of fame or culture, but in size. Verse 3 tells us, Nineveh was big enough that it would take Jonah three days to walk through it, stopping to preach as he went. Archaeologists say that the circumference of Nineveh�s inner wall, was just under eight miles. That would make it from side to side. But add to that, surrounding towns which depended on Nineveh.
So, Jonah would have taken 3 days to wind his way through and get the message out along his way. Jonah obeys -- just as God said, he preached, Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed.
He�d have watched upwards of 600,000 people going about life. Like we said, Nineveh was known for its huge number of shrines and temples. The Ninevites worshiped lots and lots of gods. They were also hooked on astrology. But Jonah begins -- he starts the first day, walking through the city, and proclaiming God�s message to the people.
God�s message. We get a condensed version -- there was likely more to it. But here�s the kernel of it: Forty days and God�s judgment will fall. Ancient Near Easterners would have heard that as an unmistakable call to anticipate God�s activity. When they heard that it was time-bound, that destruction was coming in short order, it was like a trumpet blasting a warning: Jonah would have had every ear.
He proclaimed Nineveh�s absolute destruction as a result of God�s wrath. God had told Jonah back in chapter 1, the Ninevites� wickedness has come up before me. The Sovereign Lord of all, the One to Whom every creature is accountable, is about to deal with them as their sins deserve. Every man, woman, child and animal would die because God is offended at their blatant lifestyles. That�s Jonah�s content. Not a lot you can do to make it more attractive -- but it�s consistent in Scripture: Sin results in judgment, for individuals, communities and nations.
It�s a poignant message. No room for misunderstanding and none for compromise. God is revealing that the gods of Nineveh might be numerous but they�re not good enough. The Ninevites� lives are full of sin, their worship is wrong and God is coming against them.
There�s a turning in the book now. Hundreds of thousands of people are now the issue. Jonah�s no longer a book about God�s dealing with His man. We may not realize it at this point, but God cares about these wicked Assyrians who throw themselves into astrology and pagan worship and brutality and sins of all kinds. They had gods of the water, the sky, the wind, the land. But like animists today, they lived under fear, because their created gods were greedy and demanding; they demanded sacrifices but were never satisfied. So, their gods controlled their destiny -- just like with anyone who worships other gods.
Like people in Lincoln, these are religious people. They�re keenly aware of supernatural powers and beings and destinies -- and they�re aware of the stars and how they moved in the heavens. And right into the center of a religious -- but pagan community -- Jonah lays it out: "In 40 days, the True and Sovereign God is going to reign destruction on this city and everyone in it."
Then, to Jonah�s dismay, something happens.
2. God displays mercy in the face of repentance. (3:5-10)
Itinerant preaching throughout the city was the scope his mission. The response didn�t take three days. God�s power flowed from His throne to the hearts of people --- through His man Jonah -- and from person to person. After one day, the people believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.
What�s going on? How does this simple but ominous message get such a powerful response?
First, because it was the Truth of God.
If you will engage people with the declared Truth of God, some of them will respond. Paul teaches in Romans the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God for salvation. That�s power of the gospel is True no matter how hopeless or helpless we might assume people to be. Jonah -- and you and I -- handle the very Truth of God. There is no more powerful message in all the Earth.
There�s a second reason they responded. Over in Luke 11, Jesus tells us ...Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites
-- Jesus said to illustrate how He Himself would be a sign to Israel.
Like Jesus, Jonah gave physical evidence that God meant what He said. Jonah�s sin was dealt with. He ended up in the ocean and the belly of a fish. And here he stood before them, most likely with his skin and hair bleached white from the stomach acid -- he was walking, talking proof that God deals very seriously with sin. But he�s also proof that God is a God of mercy and compassion.
Jonah delivered the message: sin would be judged -- and the population responded.
Notice verse 5: it doesn�t say �they believed his preaching� -- it says they believed God or, they believed in God. They heard God through His reluctant mouthpiece. And they began to believe in the true God and they made a response of faith.
Their faith made them want to express their repentance outwardly -- they fasted -- they put on rough sackcloth. Jonah�s warning that they only had a few weeks led them to assume, it was possible God would allow them to repent. So, they practiced the expressions of repentance. The whole city responded sincerely; the phrase from the greatest of them to the least of them includes young and old, rich and poor, powerful and weak--every level of society.
It was a revival from the bottom upward. The king got the word -- and he also responds. He gets off the throne and takes off his robe puts on sackcloth and sits in ashes. He ordered fasting for every person and every animal.
He puts in words what the people hoped -- that God might be gracious, that he might turn and relent and withdraw His anger.... And God does. They turned from their lifestyle of wickedness -- verse 10. And, Then God relented of the calamity which He was going to bring on them.
Then comes another problem with Jonah in the first verses of 4:
3. God�s mercy enrages God�s messenger. (4:1-4)
4:1 . . . it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry. Verse 2
. . .he prayed. . . Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? .. . . I knew that Thou art a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger. . .abundant in loving-kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.�
We saw the first week that Jonah rejected this assignment early on, because he had an inkling that God might be merciful to these people. These were enemies -- hated, abusive, wicked people. Lived like animals. And now that God�s anger has turned, Jonah�s anger burns.
In chapter 2, Jonah prayed and struggled to survive. Here in chapter 4, he prays to die. Anger consumes him to the degree that he can�t imagine life with a God Who can be so gracious. Death is better to me than life. Lord, please take my life.
If you�ll compare Jonah to the parable Jesus told of the prodigal son -- in Jonah 1, Jonah is the prodigal. Now in chapter 4, he�s becomes the jealous older brother. The brother in the prodigal story witnessed the Father forgive the undeserving and rebuked his father in anger.
Again, this arises because Jonah doesn�t grasp that he himself did not deserve God�s kindness. He�s angry with God and his mercy because he can�t see that he too requires mercy. Titus 3:5 slices right through that pompous attitude. And it�s the same dirty rotten attitude we get -- especially after we�ve been Christians for a time. Paul wrote to Titus, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us..... (Titus 3:5, 6)
There�s not a person among us who hasn�t labeled someone else as worthless or hopeless. And there are people -- who, if they walked into our fellowship, some of us would hope they�d never come back. They might be people we know at work or at school or see on the street -- the sort of people we�d never dream of sharing Christ with -- in part because, we assume there�s no chance they�d be interested, but in part -- because they don�t deserve mercy.
They�re too far gone. They�re completely pagan. Sometimes there�s the gut feeling that that says, "they deserve God�s judgment on their lives". Druggies. Adulterers. Gays. We�re so much better. We�ve worked hard and done things right. Gone to church. Kept our marriage vows. We give. We�ve been good employees. Paid our own way. We deserve God�s attention and blessing. We deserve hell!
How often do we remember, that when God found each of us, we were completely lost -- Scripture says dead in our sin -- enemies of God? How often do you remember that apart from His mercy and grace, you�d still be a child of another kingdom, without hope for eternity in God�s presence?
We were going our way and doing our thing. And here�s the Truth we�ve got to keep in front of us: it never mattered that we were nice people -- or church people or good workers. We never deserved God�s grace. Those hardened, abusive and lost souls you see or meet or put up with at work are no different. The thing is, we need an major attitude adjustment like Jonah is in the process of receiving. We need a heart transplant.
We need God�s heart for all kinds of people. And we�ll talk more about His heart next time. That�s what Jonah is teaching us by negative example -- you can never be righteously angry at God�s mercy, because that attitude asserts, �I have higher standards than God, I am better than He is�.
There are some significant Implications from this chapter.
First, God�s message remains without compromise.
It�s universal. It�s good for all times and for all cultures. It doesn�t matter if you meet someone from a different culture or different religious persuasion, like the Ninevites. The God of Heaven has entered His Creation through His Son, to rescue people from their sin. All over the world, in every place, people must trust in the death Christ died for sin, if they are to have eternal life.
You cannot tone down the message and -- it�s time for us to stop hesitating to offer the message to people who look like they�re the furthest from God. Along with that, we must
Never discount the power of God�s Word to impact people.
When God�s Truth gets proclaimed, even some hard-core pagans react. Not everyone. But more than we would anticipate. People need to know God�s Truth. When it�s communicated, God�s Spirit works to convicting of sin, of righteousness and the coming judgment. And people we thought were hopeless will get their eyes are opened and some of them will turn from darkness to light.
Finally, However God chooses to work, rejoice!
Jonah�s anger isn�t rare. Sometimes we get irritated because God can and will use people or churches or programs we just don�t like or ones we can�t agree with. All my life I�ve heard Christians critique other Christians and Christian organizations. Usually the best critics know a lot but do very little themselves.
This much I know to be true. God�s Word says, behold, I do a new thing. People think they�ve got God in a box -- or that He will perform just as they want Him to. He won�t. What God will do is work in many places and through many people we might just write off. God doesn�t need our permission to work in and through others. He does not restrict Himself to using a method He used in the past. Our huge need is to get on His wavelength and regularly make certain we�re not blocking what He is doing.
Steps I will take
I wonder if I�m talking to someone who has forgotten that God is the God of second chances?
Do you know without doubt that God is slow to anger and full of mercy and grace and compassion? Have you assumed the worst about Him, in your life, or as He deals with other people?
Wrong assumptions about God will put distance between the two of you. When you assume wrongly about His intentions toward you, you will assume the worst about others as well.
Let me urge you -- know Him as He is. Memorize some verses like Jonah 4:2. Meditate on them. Wrap your mind and heart around Truth about God�s character. Then, let Him re-mold your thinking to align with Truth instead of faulty assumptions. God�s not finished with you, any more than He was with Jonah.
