Who are we to decide who is unreachable or unworthy? That’s a pretty serious question and one that is posed by the Old Testament book of Jonah. That very serious question is housed in an artful and vivid account that testifies to God’s character. In this tiny book of the Bible, written in the third person—an unusual tack for any of the prophetic books—Jonah and God come alive through the types of imagery and actions found in some of the best of literature.
The book of Jonah is indeed a fine piece of short literature, and so much more. Held within it are swift action, a great bevy of characters—both animate and inanimate—highs and lows, wit, wisdom, judgment and grace. Some feel that it could be an allegory, others a tall tale, and some (including myself) believe it to be an accurate account as viable as any of the accounts from other prophets. It is a book considered in the folio of minor prophets—not because it is less important, but rather because it is short. To be certain, its importance far outweighs its length!
Read the book of Jonah now. It won’t take you long.
Jonah was called by God to take a prophecy to the great city of Nineveh, the final capital of Assyria. Nineveh was indeed a real and very ancient city. In fact, it is first mentioned in the book of Genesis (Genesis 10:11). During the days of Jonah, it came with a storied and wild history as well. The name of the city means the “city of the fish” and was a great urban center for the patron deity Nina, the Mesopotamian river goddess.[i] And many more were the gods and pagan practices in Nineveh. Just like in the times of Noah, its 8-mile breadth of wickedness rose like a stench to God. God knows when his creatures are nearly too far gone.
We know little of Jonah’s origins or his precise place of residence when he was called by God to prophecy. We know that his father was named Amittai (1:1) and that is about all. We know he was a Hebrew (1:9). He lived somewhere between Nineveh and Tarshish. Nineveh was in our modern-day Iraq and Tarshish was in Spain. That’s quite a span on our globe!
What do we know of Jonah’s relationship with God? First, he was indeed in conversation with him and knew him well. Throughout the book, we see Jonah describing God, praising God, and talking and arguing with God. All of those are indicators that he was neither a pagan nor an unbeliever. He was locked into a relationship with the one, true, living God. He knew God’s Law, for by his own reflection on that Law, he reckoned the Ninevites as unworthy of God’s care. Secondly, we know that his understanding of God was rather limited. He felt, in some measure, that he could run away from God! Verse 3 gives us the first rather comical moment in this Biblical text. Running from God is a very humanistic effort, don’t you think? If we could really run away from God, why did our heavenly Father raise a concern about what all of those Ninevites were doing? No one is out of the range of our God—ever. To think that one could run away or escape God is an indicator that their understanding of God is quite limited. The farther we run, the more difficult it becomes. But God still pursues all people.
What do we know of all the other characters in this account? The list is spectacular. There were the sailors in Joppa. These were seasoned folk of the sea, accustomed to any sort of conditions as they ran their trade. They traveled in vessels that they trusted through some of the roughest of waters.
Then there was the great wind and a violent storm—powerful characters in the narrative. These elements were doing the bidding of God (v. 4). The seasoned sailors were both god-fearing and terrified. They cried out to their own gods, none of which were able to save them. They were fighting for their lives while Jonah slept. And the captain called him up short – Pray, man, pray! They did not care who anyone prayed to as long as there was some frantic supplication for protection. They threw everything overboard in a desperate effort to save themselves and to save Jonah.
Once he declared that he was the source of their problem, what did these sailors do? Even after Jonah told them that the storm would cease if they threw him overboard, they fought on bravely to save his life and theirs! While Jonah was fleeing the opportunity to save thousands, they battled God’s elements to save a few. Once Jonah was overboard, those mighty seas immediately ceased their heaving—just as Jonah prophesied that they would. And their response to God Most High was immediate and profound. They turned from their gods to Jonah’s God because they saw that the winds and the waves obeyed him. (1:16) Could it have been in God’s plan to save more than just Jonah and the Ninevites?
Enter the fish—the great fish. This was God’s fish, as are they all. But this one had a special purpose. It saved his life so that inside that fish Jonah could finally come to terms with the reality that he could not outrun God, nor did he wish to any longer. What a great hymn of salvation he sang! (2:2-9) “Salvation comes from the Lord!” While this was a singular song of salvation, God wanted to continue to teach Jonah that this salvation was for so many more. And then, by God’s command, the fish spat Jonah up on the shore.
Now, back to the city and its people—the other very important characters. Jonah entered the expansive city, set foot only into the first third of it, and declared just one phrase. No room for negotiation or bargaining. No delays. Their doom was imminent! Their response, like the pagan sailors, was to turn immediately to God. This is remarkable, wonderful, joyous and stunning! The people themselves initiated a fast—a time of profound sacrifice to this great God they had not known previously. They did not wait to see what their king would say, they immediately humbled themselves, seeking salvation. And the king then called them to further acts of repentance with astonishing openness to real salvation. "Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish."(3:9)
What was God’s response? To relent—wonderfully, graciously, completely. To give grace and mercy—immediately, powerfully and lovingly! Let us not forget that God’s judgment is always tethered to his grace. And Jonah knew this. “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (4:2) But the context for this truthful statement is deeply disturbing. Jonah stomped his feet at our gracious God! He raised a fist at God and still—still—declared that it wasn’t right that God was so full of grace and mercy!
This portion of the text is disturbing. Perhaps it is because we think that Jonah should know better. Commentators do not agree why Jonah responds the way he does. Perhaps he was angry because God puts him in a bad light for not following through on the word he spoke in the city—his own reputation being tarnished. Perhaps he just hated Ninevites. Perhaps he was ashamed of his fellow Hebrews who did not repent as quickly or as thoroughly as did these pagans. Perhaps it was all of these things. One way or the other, Jonah demonstrates his complete self-absorption! Why did he not dance and sing the same song over them that he sang over himself? Why did he not race down to the city and throw his arms around his new brothers and sisters? Why do we not do this when people from other countries, socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds come to saving knowledge of God through Jesus Christ? Who are we to decide who is unreachable or unworthy? Here is a truth: a reluctant prophet cannot stop the ever-reaching love of God! Isn’t it great to know that God can and does work despite our prejudices, bigotry, hatred and distaste?! Oh! Know God as he can be known! Understand that he does not require you to save his people from their sins, but he invites you into that journey to work with him and watch the wonderful acts of his judgment tethered to his wonderful grace!
Our final three characters in this Biblical literature are as inanimate as the storm and the fish—a vine, a worm and a scorching east wind. Again, these elements of nature work at the behest of God. God did his level best to get through to Jonah, as he tries his level best to get through to all who ignore, rebel against, or defy him. Time and again he uses whatever he can to reach all of his children who rebel out of their ignorance (as the pagans do) or rebel while in their relationship with him (as Jonah did)—no matter how uncomfortable it makes them. At each moment, God is grabbing hold of that tether, ready and waiting to bring grace in close for his redemptive work.
In this little book we already have discovered some profound and great things about God. He is
· Gracious
· Compassionate
· Slow to anger
· Abounding in love and
· Willing to relent.
And now, through the simple example of a plant, we see that he is the one who
· Tends us
· Grows us and has
· Concern for us.
Some might question the authenticity of the repentance of the Ninevites—particularly because it was completely destroyed in 612 BC. But, that kind of questioning puts in doubt the long and eternal purposes of God’s grace. In the 12th chapter of Matthew, we read about Jesus in the thick of a major religious squall. Religious leaders, those who like Jonah should have known better, accused him of being in league with the Satan while he delivered people from that enemy of their souls. He rebuked them in multiple ways as we read in verses 33-41 [Emphasis added.]:
“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.”
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you."
He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here."
Jesus strong words of rebuke are like that terrifying storm, the great fish, the perishable vine, the worm that ate that vine, and that scorching east wind in the book of Jonah. All of them were designed to bring a brood of religious vipers to their knees for the sake of their salvation! I am not sure how we might appreciate how confrontational this was, except to reflect on Jonah’s own response to God’s grace for a people. The men of Nineveh, the ones who God moved heaven and earth to reach, would judge them.
I will repeat this truth: a reluctant prophet cannot stop the ever-reaching love of God! God can and does work despite our prejudices, bigotry, hatred and distaste. Oh! Know God as he can be known! Understand that he does not require you to save people you might despise from their sins. But he invites you into that journey to work with him and watch the wonderful acts of his judgment tethered to his wonderful grace!
One final truth is to be displayed. That truth comes to us from the Revelation of John. God showed his faithful servant a picture of what heaven will be like. This is a place not filled with similar people with similar backgrounds, but a new heaven and a new earth born of God’s grace, which has always been tethered to his judgment to embrace all who believe.
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb."
All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:
"Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!"
~Revelation 7:9-12
Amen and Amen
M.R. Hyde
Copyright 2020
