Four questions God asks Every Believer
Where Are You Going?
Where Do You Come From?
What Are You Doing?
What Do You Care About?
This morning we return again to the Old Testament story of Jonah… Jonah and the big fish. And again this morning, I would encourage you not to get bogged down by whether you are to read this as story, allegory, parable or factual history. Instead, let’s listen to what God might teach us this morning.
Last week as we looked at the first two chapters of the story, we learned from Jonah’s failure. And just to remind you of what we talked about, I’ve chosen three quick mental snapshots.
Snapshot one is of Jonah’s back, because he’s running away, robes flapping behind him. He was running away from God’s assignment to go to Ninevah and preach. Instead, he ran diametrically opposite, across the Mediterranean on a ship bound for Tarshish.
The second snapshot is completely black. It looks like you messed up with the camera. But the picture is black because it was taken in the belly of a whale. Jonah had been unceremoniously dumped off of the ship, and God provided a big fish to swallow him. And we saw that God used Jonah’s three days and nights in that unpleasant place to shape Jonah, to change him. In fact, he ended his time in the whale with a hymn of thanks.
And finally, the third picture is of Jonah lying on a beach. Not in a chaise lounge with a margarita in his hand…but literally lying on the beach where he has been spit up by the whale. Yecchh. And with that pleasant picture in our minds, let’s pray as we come to the scriptures.
What Are You Doing?
"I have done many things in my life that conflicted with the great aims I had set myself - and something has always set me on the true path again."
Alexander Solzhenitsen
(cited in Peterson, E. H., Under the Unpredictable Plant, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992, p.9).
Again God’s call comes to Jonah, exactly as it had before, "Get up and go to Nineveh!"
Here we see Jonah being set back on the true path, not the path determined by aims that he had set for himself, but the path determined by aims that God had set.
You can’t really ever run from God. C. S. Lewis speaks of how God pursued him from agnosticism into becoming a believer in his writings.
God cares about you
I fled Him down the nights and down the days
I fled Him down the arches of the years
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind, and in the midst of tears
I hid from him…
Francis Thompson’s poem, “The Hound of Heaven”
So begins Francis Thompson’s famous, but difficult, poem entitled "The Hound of Heaven." The author sets the poem in the context of a life spent running from God. The poem pictures God like an old bloodhound sniffing our scent, always in the distance, occasionally letting out a howl to remind us that he is on our trail.
As the lengthy poem goes on, Thompson says he fled "across the margins of the world," but the refrain always comes back:
Still with unhurrying chase and unperturbed pace
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
Came on the following feet, and a Voice above their beat…
He cares about what you are doing and he cares about why you are doing it.
God had gotten Jonah’s attention and his obedience but he had yet to get his heart.
Let’s Read the 3rd chapter of Jonah together.
Jonah 3
1 The LORD spoke his word to Jonah again and said, 2 “Get up, go to the great city Nineveh, and preach to it what I tell you to say.”
3 So Jonah obeyed the LORD and got up and went to Nineveh. It was a very large city; just to walk across it took a person three days. 4 After Jonah had entered the city and walked for one day, he preached to the people, saying, “After forty days, Nineveh will be destroyed!”
5 The people of Nineveh believed God. They announced that they would stop eating for a while, and they put on rough cloth to show their sadness. All the people in the city did this, from the most important to the least important.
6 When the king of Nineveh heard this news, he got up from his throne, took off his robe, and covered himself with rough cloth and sat in ashes to show how upset he was.
7 He sent this announcement through Nineveh:
By command of the king and his important men: No person or animal, herd or flock, will be allowed to taste anything. Do not let them eat food or drink water.
8 But every person and animal should be covered with rough cloth, and people should cry loudly to God. Everyone must turn away from evil living and stop doing harm all the time. 9 Who knows? Maybe God will change his mind. Maybe he will stop being angry, and then we will not die.
10 When God saw what the people did, that they stopped doing evil, he changed his mind and did not do what he had warned. He did not punish them.
What are you doing?
Jonah Gave God Heartless Obedience
So after Jonah’s long trip, we’re right back where started. Jonah is the only Old Testament prophet to be given the same assignment a second time. God tells him virtually the same thing as the first time, except He doesn’t give Jonah the words to the message. Jonah is to go to Nineveh and preach what God gives him.
And guess what? This time Jonah obeys! Now, you may think, “Great! Last time we had to learn from Jonah’s failure, but this time we can learn from his success!” Don’t hold your breath. Jonah’s obedience is strictly the obedience of duty and obligation.
It’s not what God desires for their relationship. Imagine another relationship. Let’s take my marriage with my wife, Donna.
Imagine if I said, with all the enthusiasm in the world, “Honey! I am SO in love with you! Marrying you was the greatest thing I have ever done!” And imagine if she replied (after a long sigh and looking down, in a flat, dull monotone): “Yes, honey. I love you too.” That’s not the way it should be. It’s not what God wants for a relationship. Not what he wanted from Jonah. God wanted Jonah’s heart.
And so God says again, “Go to Nineveh,” Go to the capital city of Israel’s worst enemies. When the scripture says here that Nineveh was an “important” city, it means “large.” Archeologists have discovered walls that are nine miles around the outside. Historians think there were 120,000 to 300,000 people living in the vicinity, or province, of Nineveh. And God wants those people! He wants them to know Him.
I’m told that there is an outdoor mural on a wall in a German town that depicts this Jonah story. And much like a stained glass window somewhere, the mural shows various scenes from the story: the ship, the fish, the plant, Jonah on the beach. But the interesting thing is that the city skyline in the background of the mural is not Ninevah, but a neighboring modern city in Germany. And underneath the mural are these words: “Nineveh is the city nearby that needs to hear the…word.”
God wants people to know Him. This could be the Lansing skyline in the background. It could be the silhouettes of houses in YOUR neighborhood. God longs for people to know Him.
So Jonah goes just part-way into the city, just sort of sticks his big toe in the water, and then stops. He proceeds to deliver the shortest sermon ever, way shorter than I have already talked: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” Overturned as in destroyed. You’ll notice there’s not much grace here. Not much hope, either. When I first read it, it made me wonder if Jonah had really given the whole message. He KNEW the whole message. After all, we just read about him being saved, about God shaping him in the whale’s belly. We just heard his song of thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness and salvation. But maybe he wasn’t supposed to say more right here. The message to Nineveh was: 40 days to decide, to change.
What are you doing?
Nineveh Gave God Heartfelt Repentance
And guess what? Much to Jonah’s surprise and chagrin…it works! Jonah’s word gets amazing response. He can’t believe it. It’s really something of a comedy here. Jonah is trying his very best to thwart God. And finally, in a full pout, he says, “Fine, God, fine! You want me to go, I’ll go. Fine. Hey Nineveh: 40 days and you burn! There, I said it. How was that, God?” It’s like Jonah has knocked over the front domino, and all the others begin to fall. The next thing Jonah knows, all of the Ninevites are busy repenting. The KING himself sits down in the dust of the street, not on his throne. He wears not the royal robe, but sackcloth.
The whole city is called to repent. And they start this Great Acknowledgement of the truth – in three parts. It’s a wonderful model for us:
The difference between heartless obedience and heartfelt repentance
First, comes the Honesty
They hear the truth, the word from the prophet…and immediately admit they are wrong. Confession. The king calls everyone to acknowledge and give up their evil ways, and rid the city of its violence.
You know in all the story of Jonah we never hear him confess his failure – only God’s power and salvation.
We need to be honest with God and with ourselves about what we have done with our lives.
Not because it is humiliating but because it is cleansing.
1 John 1:9 tells us that as long as we are confessing our sins he is faithful to forgive us our sins.
AV translates as “confess” 17 times, “profess” three times, “promise” once, “give thanks” once, “confession is made” once, and “acknowledgeth” once. 1 to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent. 2 to concede.
Can I stop here for a second and ask you a question.
Have you been honest with God in this matter. Have you acknowledged and confessed your sin to him and before others.
Second, comes the Mark
When people in Nineveh (as well as in the Israelite culture) suffered loss they participated in a ritual of humility. This involved fasting, public confession, and the wearing of sackcloth. If the loss was substantial they would tear their clothing, pour ashes from a fire gone cold on their heads and bodies. Often they would sit in the ashes and wail loudly. It was humiliating. It was uncomfortable. It was important.
It is these outward signs that would powerfully say that a profound change was going on inside. Heartless obedience does the minimum. Heartfelt repentance puts it all on the line.
God has given us the mark of baptism. It powerfully connects us to the death, burial, and resurrection of his son. It is humbling – even humiliating. It is uncomfortable. It is important because it is how we pledge our lives publicly to God.
Years ago in Ishpeming, Michigan I got into a long conversation with a guy about baptism. I don’t know why some people get so adamant about this issue and how it fits into our faith but he was firm about how it just didn’t matter.
I asked him if he had committed himself to Jesus as his Lord. He said, yes. I asked him if Jesus had commanded all who would follow him to be baptized into him in the name of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. And he immediately said yes, but… But it just wasn’t that important. I said he is either your lord or he isn’t. Fish or cut bait. We can argue about a lot of doctrines but baptism is a wonderful gift from God to us. It is the sign of the cross. Why wouldn’t you accept this sign and pledge – unless like Jonah you are just doing the minimums and getting by?
Let me stop again and ask if you have put on this sign of submission and of the cross in your life. If you were dedicated or sprinkled as a baby this is not the same. That was your mom and dad’s decision. It was a good thing but it is not your decision to commit your life to Jesus and to take upon your self his name, and his gift of life. If you have never been baptized in this way I would love to be a part of you giving your heartfelt repentant life to God.
Then, comes the Faith
They put it in all in God’s hands (the kings says, “God may have compassion…who knows?”). That’s faith. They handed themselves over to the God who created the universe and gave them their breath.
There is a huge difference between belief – and faith. Belief is focused on what you know. Faith is focused on what you do!
Hebrews 11 says that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” James says that Faith without works is dead.
Can I say something her that is just a little shocking to us. Especially if we see ourselves the way we should – you see we are Jonah and the people of Nineveh are the world that surrounds us – yet when they repented they were more pleasing to God than Jonah! Are you following what I’m saying?
Now let me ask again…
What are you doing?
Imagine how the story might have been different…
If Jonah had really acknowledged his rebellion
If Jonah had really repented
If Jonah had really trusted God
Jonah does everything God says…BUT…his heart is not there. He drags his feet, and obeys only because he has to.
The fact is that Jonah to some degree represents God’s chosen people Israel. But they can’t hold a candle to these Assyrian non-God people in terms of repentance. God’s chosen ones have the hard hearts, they have no desire for forgiveness of their enemies. But they are missing the one thing God wants the MOST…for ALL people to know Him! We can’t read this story without seeing that it is the story of God’s desire to reach out. God’s people shouldn’t be hardened by arrogance. Not His people Israel. And not us in the church.
God’s desire is for us all
Yet what happened to Jonah also happens to us.
We can come on Sundays, experience God, be touched, go home, come back in another week for another dose, and just kind of hoard it for ourselves.
But what God wants most if for ALL people to know Him: cynics, skeptics, fallen, broken people. And those of us who have experienced God’s presence and compassion are to be giving it away as fast as we can…to be light in darkness and salt in the world. “Shouldn’t,” Dallas Willard asks, “a quarter pound of salt be having more impact on a pound of meat?”
God has relented, honoring the heart-felt repentance of the Ninevites. God wants to do that in here and his only way is to do it through me and you. He wants to do that in Europe, in Asia, in Iraq and he is doing it in powerful ways everywhere we care to look.
Why not here? Could it be that we are too much like Jonah – may it never be!
Let’s pray…
