JONAH THE DISCIPLE

Rev. Dr. Isaac Augustus Agyare

"...the word of the Lord came to Jonah.... 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.'  But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." Jonah 1:1-3

 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it." In other words, the word of the Lord comes to the prophet and tells the prophet to go and do something. What's unusual about this is that Jonah is called by God to go and speak to someone who isn't from Israel. This is unusual. Usually prophets, even if they are talking about other countries, they are talking to Israel about these other countries. But here, Jonah is being sent to someone else entirely. It's unusual because of that. It's also unusual for another reason and that's because Jonah is sent to preach to Israel's enemies and Jonah decides the heck with it. I am not going to do that. It shows that even servants of God have a choice. God can actually be calling us to do something, and we run away from doing it. And that's exactly what Jonah does. Jonah thinks these are Ninevehites. I hate Ninevehites. They are the enemy of Israel. They have hurt my people. So he decides not to do it and he decides to run. And so when he decides to run what happens to him after that is what makes the Book of Jonah so famous. So God says, "Go to the northeast to Nineveh" and Jonah decides no, I am going to go west to Tarshish, which to a Jewish person would be the farthest, imaginable, end of the earth sort of place; let me get as far away as possible. Now, I can't figure out exactly what Jonah is thinking here. You know he is a good Jewish prophet. I don't think he thinks that God is like cell phone service; that if you get far enough away the signal will drop out. I think he has enough sense to know that wherever he goes God is going to be there. But maybe he figures he can get far enough away that he can make in inconvenient for God to use him. You know, if I get far enough way, if God has any kind of timetable at all, he will have to call somebody else to do it. Maybe God will give up on this sort of crazy plan. I don't know what's in his mind. What I do know though is that what Jonah struggles with is something that many of us struggle with. And that is, God asks us to do something and we really don't want to do it, and so we start scrambling for ways to get out of it. Have you ever had that experience?

So Jonah has an experience we understand, even if we don't know what Jonah has in mind when he runs away. Now the thing about Jonah is Jonah is famously unable to get away from God. That is what makes the book famous, is that he tries to get away from God and God does all kinds of things to make that absolutely impossible. So he gets on a boat and he is trying to get away. A storm hits the boat. The people in the boat are wondering what's going on. They throw things overboard to try to stay afloat. That doesn't even work. They are in danger of sinking and they finally decide that they have to figure out who is at fault here and what God is angry at us, because from their perspective it could have been any one of many gods. And so finally they cast lots, which is kind of like throwing dice or pulling straws, and Jonah wins or looses, it depends on how you look at it. And so they ask Jonah, "What's going on here?" And so Jonah with his own voice says, "Yep, I am the cause. I am running from God, I am guilty." And they say, "Well, how can we solve this?" And he tells them, "Throw me over the boat. Throw me overboard off the boat." They don't like that idea and do everything they can to avoid it, but finally they realize that there is absolutely nothing left to do so asking God's forgiveness they toss him overboard.

Now, then God provides a giant fish to swallow Jonah and uses that fish to save him. Now this is the part of the story that a lot of people find the hardest to swallow as well. You know they think this is what makes it a children's story. This is a fairy tale. Well, I don't think so personally. I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe the Red Sea parted. I believe that Daniel was preserved in the lion's den, and I believe that God did this too. But I want to give a caution to us. This book is so carefully written, this book is so carefully designed to confront Israel that there is a lot of things about the way it is written that remind us of the parables of Jesus, and so there are some good Christian people who believe in the resurrection of the dead, who believe in miracles, but still think that this was specially written as a story to confront people. Now that's not my position. What I believe is that a prophet had a real experience that later was carefully written for us to learn from. But let's be charitable with one another about something like this.

So a big fish comes and swallows Jonah, but unlike so many of the children's impression, the fish is not there to judge him. The fish is there to keep him alive. In fact, there are actually accounts in secular circumstances of people being found alive in the bellies of whales, or at least one account that I am aware of. Of course, they don't look too good coming out. So Chapter 1 Jonah is running from God. Chapter 2 God preserves Jonah as he's running and so Chapter 2 is this wonderful psalm of calling out in terror and how God has wonderfully answered, and now Jonah is going to commit his life to God because salvation comes from God. Now I am sure that this was written so beautifully and carefully once Jonah's feet were safely on dry land, because there is no screaming in the psalm, there is no, "Hey, it's dark in here, God why me?" You know, there is none of that in there that I know was there in his experience. But here is a distillation of the critical, spiritual thing that happens. He calls out to God for deliverance, God delivers him and so now he is going to commit himself to the God who loves him this much, who has been this patient and compassionate.

Chapter 3

The first verse of Chapter 3 is right the same as  were in Chapter 1, exactly the same words.

"Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you."

But this time Jonah obeys the word of the Lord. Now, Jonah goes to Nineveh. Nineveh is a huge city by their standards. It has a wall around it that is eight miles in circumference. There are 20 or more miles in every direction of small vassal, villages and towns that surround this city. It's a power center for Assyria; Israel's sworn enemies. And so Jonah goes in to this city and proclaims his message. This famous eight word message, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned."

Now the biggest miracle in the Book of Jonah is that this city repents. This gigantic city with over 100,000 people in it all of sudden from the king all the way down, they say this is a real word from God and we have got to listen to it. Maybe it's because Jonah has just been inside the belly of an animal and his hair is bleached and he looks terrible. They might have viewed that as sort of a sign. Who knows what's involved in all of this. But Jonah goes in, he's obedient, he preaches the message and the city repents. 

Chapter 4

"But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the Lord, "O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee 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. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." But the Lord replied, " Have any right to be angry?"

Jonah is not happy at all. He's angry. Why is his angry? Because God is going to show mercy on people he hates. The reason why Jonah didn't obey God wasn't because it was going to be dangerous to go to Nineveh; he didn't run away because he didn't like to be the bearer of bad news to anybody, forget about all of that. He didn't go, because he knew that God sending him there was giving them a last chance that if they would turn around, even at the last minute, God would be compassionate and gracious and he did not want that to happen. Look at the words he says.

"I know that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity."

These words were part of what they held on to, just like we hold on to things about Jesus saving and the cross and the love of God. God is love. We say that over and over. Well, this is what Israel said over and over. This is what they rejoiced in. This is what they went and praised God for. You are a compassionate and gracious God and so here is Jonah saying the fact that you are compassionate and gracious God, the thing that I praise you for again and again in the temple, I am angry because you are being the same way with other people I don't like. Jonah is a hypocrite. Jonah the prophet. Jonah the hypocrite. The whole book of Jonah sets this up for us. Chapter 1, Jonah disobeys God and through his own words says I am deserving of judgment. Chapter 2, God shows mercy to Jonah and he praises God for that mercy and commits himself to serve God. Chapter 3, Jonah goes to a people who are disobeying God and deserve judgment. Chapter 4, God shows mercy on them and here is Jonah again, but instead of praising God, Jonah is angry. The whole book sets this up for how absolutely inexcusable Jonah's attitude is at this point. And when Israel was reading this and when we read this, we've got to look at Jonah and say "Where are we in Jonah?"

Jonah rejoiced in being forgiven, but he wasn't willing to forgive. And some people carry around hate like that. Rejoice at being forgiven, but just are not willing to forgive. Sometimes it somebody, some specific individual that has hurt us deeply. We are not willing to forgive and we hope that God doesn't do something in their life; that they are forgiven. We are like Jonah. Sometimes it' s a group of people, maybe a nation. So maybe some people are struggling with a whole ethnic group, town or nationality that they don't want to forgive, that they don't want to see God bless. Maybe it's some individuals there. There are all kinds of things that stay in our hearts and that we struggle with and since Jonah, a prophet of God, struggled with it, I can confidently say that the people of God struggle with it. But you know most of the things that we struggle with are a little more subtle than that. Jonah had this obvious prejudice and hatred for these people.

"Jonah went 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. Then the Lord provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so it withered. 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." But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?" "I do, he said. I am angry enough to die" But the Lord said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"

Okay, Jonah has preached. Jonah goes outside the city. There is not a whole lot of wood in the area, so he stacks up some rocks and builds as much of a shade as he can get under so he can kind of squat down where he can see the city, and maybe they haven't repented enough to be forgiven. Maybe God will still judge the city, so he sits to watch the show. C'mon God, it could still happen. But God has forgiven and as Jonah is sitting there waiting for what might happen, he's hot, but then a plant grows and shades him and he says, "Okay this is good. Glad this has happened." But then overnight the plant disappears, it withers away and the next morning it is dried up and it's no good at all and Jonah gets really, really angry. Now God decides to make a little lesson out of this. Jonah, you didn't tend this plant, so you are not concerned about this plant because of all of your effort that is gone into growing it, and it's not that you value this plant and love this plant. The reason you are angry is because you are uncomfortable. The reason you are angry is because I have called you here. I have sent you through all of this. Here you are outside of this city where you don't want to be and you are hot besides and that's just too much. And so, he says if you have all this concern about your own comfort, about all the things that surround your own life, your own concerns, shouldn't I be even more concerned about the hundred and twenty thousand plus people who will perish if they don't hear the news of my love and of my judgment?

The same mercy we have received, we can share. We can share it here. We can share it out there somewhere. We can share it to the ends of the earth. The one thing we want to learn from the Book of Jonah is that we don't want to be like Jonah. Let's not be like Jonah was in hiding the whole way. Instead our call is to be like Jesus Christ who willingly gave up all that was due to him and took upon himself the shape of a servant, became human and suffered willingly. He was even willing to face the cross in order to be God's person for the rest of the world. That is our Lord. That is our Savior. That is what we rejoice in and that is the pattern we are called to follow.

Matthew 12:39-40

"But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here."

 2 Kings 2:3

"And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace."

 2 Kings 14:25

"He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher. "