Chapter 13 God calls Jonah
I love the story of Jonah because it is the story of so many of us! ”If only God would speak clearly to me!” is what many of us say, yet here God does speak clearly to his prophet and Jonah decides that he does not like what he is hearing or what he is being asked to do.
When did Jonah live? We are told that he was active around 800BC. What of Nineveh the city Jonah was asked to go to with a message from God? This city was the main city of the sworn enemies of Israel and its people were well known for their cruelty. Yet God was concerned about these people and wanted Jonah to go and warn them to change their ways.
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.”
3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish.”
Don’t you just love it? God speaks clearly to Jonah and off Jonah goes in the opposite direction! It might seem bizarre to us yet are we not often guilty of doing the same thing?
- Jesus tells us not to be anxious about anything and trust him in all things – do we do what he says, or do we do the opposite?
- Jesus tells us as a church that we are to go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel – do we do what he asks or are we reluctant evangelists?
- Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for them – are we doing this?
- Jesus tells us to forgive people when they hurt or offend us in any way – is this what is happening consistently in our lives?
The list could go on! There is a gap between what God asks us to do and what we are willing to do. Indeed there are maybe areas of our lives where we are very clearly living in conscious disobedience to the clear will of God. So maybe we are not all that different from Jonah after all!
So off Jonah goes. But although he is running from God, God has gone with him! Do we find that thought comforting or threatening? I suppose it depends where we are in our relationship with God.
4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship .But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.” 7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)
11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the LORD, “Please, LORD, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, LORD, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.
17 Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Here is a life-threatening situation, yet it is one in which Jonah shows some integrity. He offers himself up as the reason for this whole sorry state of affairs and is, it has to be said with some reluctance on the part of the sailors, thrown overboard!
There is a great deal of the gospel and Jesus in the book of Jonah [by Jesus’ own admission] and we see the first instance of this in this first chapter of Jonah. Jonah offers himself as a substitute in order to save others! Let us not be too hard on Jonah because as we go through this story we will see many redeeming images.
The wonderful thing about God is that he is so gracious and will always give us another chance: Here we see this with Jonah.
1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 2 He said:
“In my distress I called to the LORD,
and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
3 You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
4 I said, ‘I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’
5 The engulfing waters threatened me,[b]
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, LORD my God,
brought my life up from the pit.
7 “When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, LORD,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
8 “Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD.’”
10 And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
It is incredible, but here in chapter 2 Jonah is like a changed man – he is praying and his prayer is full of faith. He is confident of God’s goodness even after he has failed! When was the last time you failed? Ten minutes ago, an hour ago, a day ago? It will certainly not be more than that! The danger is always that when we know we have failed God we avoid speaking to him. Is that how God wants it? Never! God always wants to be on speaking terms with us – especially during our times of disobedience.
Jesus referred to this passage as a sign of the Cross and Resurrection. Just as Jonah was in the bowels of the great fish, so Jesus would be in the tomb for three days. The sign of Jonah that Jesus refers to was the fact that he would be released from death just as Jonah was released from the great fish.
Well it’s good that Jonah is back on speaking terms with the Lord and the prophet is a great deal more humble and obedient, as we shall see:
1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.”
Something incredible has happened. A city of 120,000 sinful people – a vast city for its day – hears Jonah and takes him seriously! Here is a man who is now the envy of every evangelist and preacher in the world! Was there ever a response like this? God has been vindicated and proved his power both to Jonah and through Jonah. However, the story does not end there:
1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, “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 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?”
Is this not the most astonishing retort by Jonah. He is clearly happy to be the messenger of bad news, if the judgement of God is going to be the outcome! He does not care in the least bit for the people of Niniveh and is offended that God does.
I want us to walk through the events of this last chapter of Jonah and clearly grasp the dynamics of what is happening.
First of all Jonah understood God to be gracious and compassionate. How did he know this?- from personal experience. Jonah was the willing recipient of the forgiveness, grace and compassionate understanding of God. Here we are at the nub of some of the most significant teaching of Jesus. In Matthew 6 in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus tells us that we are to ask for the forgiveness of our sins. How is this possible, but for our understanding through Jesus, of the compassionate and gracious nature of God. However, Jesus also tells us that a forgiven person is to be a forgiving person and then goes on to warn us that if we refuse forgiveness to other people God will withhold it from us!
So, what was Jonah’s problem? God had obviously spoken to Jonah in his heart and mind and impressed upon him the nature of his grace. Jonah had willingly received this from God but it had only penetrated so far. The depth of Jonah’s experience of God’s grace had only reached Jonah’s ego where he became assured and self-satisfied. He would have no problem singing “Amazing Grace” as so many of us enjoy to do – and we sing it with a real sense of personal faith. But we have got to be in the place where God’s grace reaches beyond just us as individuals and colours the way we see everything and everyone. For many of us religion is something that satisfies us but does not challenge or change us. The depth of our relationship with God will be directly proportional to the quality of our relationships with other people. The heart that has been touched by grace sees everything through the lens of grace and imparts it willingly and freely in its relationships with other people.
Simply put, Jonah did not want the people of Nineveh to be saved! Simply put, many in our churches will never have a sleepless night or an uncomfortable moment as they consider the plight of the vast majority of people around them who are indifferent to the gospel – we are like people holding a lifejacket, watching a person drowning and keeping it to ourselves. God is clearly speaking to us about the needs of people around us – clear and urgent spiritual and personal needs- and we so often are simply deaf to the urgent calling of God or the needs of these people.
Jonah “went in the huff” – he was genuinely angry with God. Now, we might try and understand Jonah’s anxiety and the reasons for his response but God has no sympathy for how his prophet is feeling and accuses him of being angry. God then exposes Jonah’s anger. Jonah sits down to watch what will happen to the city, still hoping that it will be destroyed – hoping that God will go back on his word. The Lord provides a shelter for Jonah and then takes it away – this time Jonah gets really angry to the point that he wants to now die. He is like a child having a tantrum and there is nothing reasonable or sane about his response.
Then the Lord speaks to Jonah and cuts him right down to size:
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?”
These words just tear into Jonah and admonish him for his shallowness and lack of concern. But just a moment? Before we go any further, what are some of the things that preoccupy us and even make us angry? Think about our whole attitude to life and especially life in our churches:
- Do we get angry at the minor inconveniences of life and allow them to cloud some of the bigger, more important issues?
- Are we self-preoccupied to the extent that we do not see things from God’s perspective?
- When God says that we are to be angry at the poverty of the poorest and do something about it, is that anger greater and more effective than some of the relatively minor issues that preoccupy our minds? Is it an anger that leads to action?
- Are we concerned about the lack of evangelism in our churches or are we more concerned about the internals of church life and politics or even theological differences?
- Do we ignore the great and the good and invest our energies in the relatively trivial?
When God speaks to Jonah he reproves him for not being concerned about the fate of the people – and even the fate of the animals – of Nineveh. We might be saying that we are not hearing God speaking to us when in fact it is us who are not hearing [or choosing, not to hear] the concerned voice of God as he speaks to us about his lost world and our responsibility to be active in doing something to change it. Over 80% of Scotland is un-evangelised! What are we doing about it?Take it down to the micro level and in the parish of St. Margaret’s over 5,500 of our parish population has no living or even tenuous relationship with a Christian Church – are they our number one priority?
Did Jonah change? Did he choose to listen to the voice of God and embrace the responsibilities that God was directing him towards? I think that even this bigot did change – after all, who is telling the story other than Jonah himself? Who else would know the details and why would he speak of what had happened unless he was wanting to communicate a vital truth to those who heard his story? I believe Jonah changed and acted on this new understanding of the extent of the grace and compassion of God. There is an encouragement for all of us to realise that we too can change and act upon the clear and compassionate voice of God who is calling us to reach out to people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.