(Jonah 3:1-5) The word of the LORD came to Jonah
a second time, saying, {2} "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great
city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." {3} So
Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the
LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days'
walk across. {4} Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's
walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall
be overthrown!" {5} And the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on
sackcloth.
(Jonah 4) But this was very displeasing to
Jonah, and he became angry. {2} He prayed to the LORD and said,
"O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own
country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I
knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and
abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.
{3} And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better
for me to die than to live." {4} And the LORD said, "Is
it right for you to be angry?" {5} Then Jonah went out of the
city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself
there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would
become of the city. {6} The LORD God appointed a bush, and made it
come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from
his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. {7} But
when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked
the bush, so that it withered. {8} When the sun rose, God prepared
a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so
that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It
is better for me to die than to live." {9} But God said to
Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?"
And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die." {10} Then the
LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you
did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a
night and perished in a night. {11} And should I not be concerned
about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a
hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right
hand from their left, and also many animals?"
SERMON
What do you think about when you think of Book of Jonah? Most people
think- it's the story of the Giant Guppy who swallowed Jonah. The debate
in many of the commentaries is one side trying to prove a man could live
in the belly of a whale for three days and the other trying to prove
that it cold not happen- that it is only a fish story.
Could God have saved Jonah by sticking him in the belly of a whale?
Sure! He's God. But this is not the point of the story. After reading
the story through a few times (it is very short) I find that the
important thing about the book of Jonah is not the whale but Jonah. The
story is about Jonah and his God. That is why I left the whale stuff out
of the reading.
So- the Word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai. Good.
"Jonah, go to Nineveh and preach against its wickedness." O.K.
Great. Jonah then bought a ticket for a cruise, not to Nineveh, but in
the exact opposite direction- to Tarshish. What went wrong? Well- let's
take a look at Nineveh. It was the capital of Assyria in the 8th and 7th
centuries BC. The Assyrians repeatedly invaded the Jewish people-
raping, burning, pillaging, murdering and deporting people [taking
people from their homes and making them live in a foreign country]. The
Northern Kingdom of Israel was wiped out of existence by the Assyrians
in 722 BC under Tiglath-Pilser. The Jews had reason to hate the
Assyrians more than any other people. They were godless. Pagan.
Bloodthirsty. Violent. Destructive. Exceedingly cruel. They were
terrorists. Terrorists with a big army.
Jonah wanted nothing more than to see the Assyrians wiped off the face
of the earth. Nuke 'em. Blow them all away. But that was his will, not
God's. God wanted to issue the Assyrians a warning and invite them to
repent. And if there is a warning there is a hope that people would
listen to the warning- otherwise why give it? Jonah knew this- in
chapter 4- Jonah says to God- "I know that You are a gracious and
merciful God...One who relents from doing harm." [Undiscovered
Country "let them die" Klingons- bony foreheads, long hair,
wear lots of leather and love to fight- killed David, Kirk's son]
Jonah's attitude toward Nineveh was the same- "let them die".
God's peace and power and love and mercy were for Israel- his kind of
people. The last thing Jonah wanted was to be God's ambassador of peace
to the Assyrians. "Let them die". It was like God telling you
or me to go be a missionary to Afghanistan.
God's desires and Jonah's desires were two very different things in
regard to Nineveh. Things were great as long as God wanted what Jonah
wanted. When God called Jonah to do something he didn't want to do, he
would not do as he was told. Instead of traveling the 500 miles
northeast to Nineveh- he hopped a ship going as far away from Nineveh as
possible. He chose Tarshish- a quiet resort on the coast of Spain- 2000
miles west. Tarshish was a place where Jonah thought he could escape
what God and what God wanted Jonah to do.
Sound familiar? On the one hand we have our Ninevehs- those calls to do
something that calls into question the things in us that needs to
change, that next hard step, that next difficult movement toward putting
God first. On the other hand, we have our Tarshishes- the place of
escape. We often go to Tarshish by filling our lives with so much
activity that God gets squeezed out and time to do what He requires of
us...whoa- look at that time gotta go- I'll do my prayers later- when
things calm down- we'll get back to worship after soccer season- I'll
study the Bible when I have more time. The central business of the
Kingdom of God is to go out and love people and share our hope with
them. God has a mission for us and a purpose for us.
Well, Jonah opted out. Jonah was finished with this God of mercy but God
was not finished with him. Jonah was to find out that you can't flee
from the presence of this God. Chapter 3 verse 1- after the whale
incident- the Scripture reads- "Now the Word of the Lord came to
Jonah the second time..." The second time. God is the God of the
Second Chance. O.K. the first time didn't go so well. Let's try it
again. The marriage failed- the holy promises broken. God is not done
with you. The child has gone down some strange and dangerous path. God
is not finished with you... or them. The personal integrity was lost-
cheating, lusting, abusing, lying, pretending. God is just warming up
for round two. Count on it.
Jonah went ahead and preached to the Ninevites- a message of doom.
"Forty days and you are dead." He must have loved that
message. But to Jonah's great surprise and distress- the Ninevites
repented and called on God for mercy! From the king on down. And God
relented. God hates sin but loves us. We cannot thumb our nose at Him
with impunity. There is judgment. God warns us and forcefully until we
turn to Him. The Ninevites repented and God offered mercy and
forgiveness. You see, justice will be done. 150 years after Jonah's time
the Assyrians had gone back to their old ways and the Babylonians, also
aggressive and warlike, took out the Assyrians and destroyed Nineveh. It
was ugly and brutal. You would think Jonah would have rejoiced with God
at the Assyrians repentance. But no! Prejudice. You see- Jonah's God was
not God but himself. Jonah was his own idol. He was more committed to
his ideas of how God should be and act than to God Himself. When push
came to shove he was not all that interested in what God wanted. "I
believe God ought to be like this and not even God Himself is going to
change my mind."
I suspect Jonah was like many of us. Jonah wanted a tame God- a God he
could control- a comfortable religion that reflected his values- not all
that interested in what the real God wanted. So when Jonah found he
could not control God - that God would not let him have his own way nor
keep his old attitudes and values- he got mad- really mad.
C.S. Lewis put these words in our Lord's mouth talking about
"counting the cost" before coming to Christ. "Make no
mistake," the Lord says' "if you let me I will make you
perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are
in for… And it is very important that we realise that. If we do not,
then we are very likely to start pulling back and resisting Him after a
certain point…He has done all we wanted Him to do, and we should be
obliged if He would now leave us alone." In one last attempt to
control God- Jonah says- "I know what is best, O Lord, and you
should kill me."
God, even then, does not write off his dear child Jonah. He tenderly
asks- "Is it right for you to be angry?" Jonah's answer was to
walk away and sulk.
God, then, prepares for Jonah an object lesson. In the heat God provided
a shade vine for Jonah. The plant was God's gift of mercy to Jonah from
the scorching sun. Jonah was grateful for the plant. The God appointed a
worm to kill the plant. And, again, Jonah wanted to die. We should not
miss the contrast between Jonah sulking under the withered plant and the
King of the Assyrians fasting and begging God for mercy. The bad man
humble before God and the good man full of pride and prejudice.
Then God asks this question- "Do you have any right to be angry
about the vine?" The question is a trap. If Jonah says no- he is
admitting he was wrong in his prejudice against the Assyrians. If he
says yes- he is admitting that the Lord should be a merciful God. Jonah
cannot have it both ways- mercy for me and mine and harsh judgment for
them and theirs. Jonah still thinks he deserves mercy and the Assyrians
do not. And still God does not give up on Jonah.
God then stings Jonah with these harsh words- "If you have the
right to have pity on a plant- should I not have the right to pity on
thousands and thousands of people?" Jonah lacks pity. God has pity.
Jonah lacks mercy. God is full of mercy. Is a servant above his master?
How will Jonah answer this kind of God? We don't know. The book ends
with God's question hanging in the air. What about us?
amen
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