Admittedly, it is an abnormal
question to ask a believer. But before dismissing such a question as too
extreme, what if that same question was posed to an unbeliever? What might his
or her answer be?
Since an unbeliever is
spiritually blind due to unbelief (2 Cor 4:4), the answer from a religious
person might be, “It depends on what it is that God wants for me to do.” For an
atheist or agnostic, the question in and of itself would be nonsensical. Given
the nature of those who do not the Holy Spirit (Jude 1:19), the answer would
be a predictable, “Yes.” The staggering number of unbelievers in hell would
attest to this as being true.
We know that those without
Christ are condemned already because of unbelief (Jn 3:18). Read where God gives “a
permanent command of perpetual force” in Acts 17:30 that is largely ignored by the
lost,
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now
commands all men everywhere to repent.
God commands the lost to repent.
In their spiritual blindness, they would rather die than repent for they see no need for salvation or anything warranting a change in lifestyle. Jesus warned the
Jews,
…if
you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins (Jn 8:24).
Many in this world without
Christ would rather die in their sins than have a saving belief in Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6). Jesus commands them to be saved, but the
number of unbelievers refusing the command has to be nothing short of
astonishing. They would rather hang on to their ungodly lifestyle and attempt
to tip the scale in their favor by good works instead (contrast Eph 2:8-9).
So, what we see in the world are
a vast number of people clinging to their sins so tightly that they reject God’s
offer of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. Since a believer is already
saved, is it possible for a believer to choose death over obedience?! Who in their
right mind would be that stupid? Jonah (cf. Rom 15:4).
Whenever we disagree with God,
and Jonah definitely had a disagreement with Yahweh, this can happen. We think
we know better than God on how a situation should be handled, and I am not
talking theoretically. The way Jonah conducted himself after the word of the
LORD came to him to go to Nineveh and preach repentance or be destroyed in
forty days is evidence enough that he would rather have died than offer life to
a warrior-people who delighted in the death and suffering of others (Jon 4:2).
Recall Jonah took off for the harbor
town of Joppa, located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea about 34 miles NW
of Jerusalem after receiving his marching orders. He paid the fare to sail to
Tarshish. There is disagreement on the identity of this city. What can be
agreed upon was that Tarshish wasn’t Nineveh!
Jonah had apparently told the mariners
why he was going to Tarshish; that he was running from the presence of the LORD (cf. Jon 1:10b). Yahweh’s manifested presence was
generally understood to be located in the Holy of Holies in the temple of
Jerusalem for those who knew anything about the God of the Hebrews, but you
cannot bind a God having an attribute of omnipresence.
Jonah was not a false prophet by
any stretch because he disobeyed God. He knew God was omnipresent or everywhere
all there (consider that he prayed while in the belly of this great fish,
probably a sperm whale, Jon 2:1-2; also cf. Psa 139:1-12). He knew it was
impossible to run from God, but He could run from His will or die trying... God’s
will for Jonah was to go to Nineveh; he chose to run in the opposite direction.
Have you ever run from God’s
will as a believer? You did it because you disagreed with Yahweh about something.
Why else would you have to run? You can say you ran out of fear, but that is only
because you either didn’t want to do it, or you figured that God had made a
mistake. You thought your weakness was greater than God. We could go on and
entertain countless reasons why people run from the will of God, but the
reality is that whenever we run from God’s will we are in disagreement with Him
about something.
In short, it is sinful to disagree
with the all-knowing, all-wise God. Thankfully, there is 1 Jn 1:9. The verb confess here means to
agree. If we agree with Yahweh about our sins, He
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all
unrighteousness.
How intent was Jonah on not
going to Nineveh? When the crew had already jettisoned their cargo and was in
fear of capsizing, Jonah suggested to the mariners to throw him overboard for
the storm to cease its raging (Jon 1:12). That didn’t sit well with them. They
chose to attempt to row out of the storm back to Joppa instead, but the more
they tried the worst the storm became (Jon 1:13). Jonah was finally thrown
overboard per his request, and the sea immediately became calm once again (Jon
1:15). The sailors would live to sail another day, but Jonah was thought to
have drowned.
After getting some whale time under
his belt, we see that Jonah didn’t really want to die. I guess time in a sperm whale
can change a person’s disposition in a matter. He agreed to do God’s bidding –
I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is
of the LORD (Jon 2:9). So the LORD spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah onto
dry land (Jon 2:10).
After making his Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown
(Jon 3:4) proclamation to the people of Nineveh, Jonah
was angry. He sounded like Elijah,
Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it
is better for me to die than to live (Jon 4:3; cf.
1 Kgs 19:4)!
Then the LORD said, Is it right for you to be angry (Jon 4:4: cf. Jon 4:8, 9)?
The book of Jonah is the only
book in the Bible that ends in a question mark. Jonah’s response to the Divine
will is dark and disturbing to me because every believer carries the potential
to be dark and disturbing rather than to be light and a blessing to others! We
go dark and things become disturbing whenever we elude God’s will for our
lives. On the lam doesn’t pay.
Even after going to Nineveh and
delivering God’s message to them, Jonah had shown no divine love for the
Assyrians, only anger but also anger directed at God for showing mercy to those
he thought did not deserve grace or mercy! Tell me how you really feel, Jonah?
Is it possible that a believer could
choose death over obedience to God? Yes. Is it stupid? Absolutely. We do not
know how many truly repented on that day when Jonah made his grand entrance
into the capital of the Assyrian Empire, but Jonah’s concern became a reality; God
relented from doing harm. He knows the heart of man (Jer 17:10); we do not. He
knows the difference between true and false repentance. Yahweh can see the
condition of the heart before any fruit is visible to the naked eye of one with
spiritual discernment.
Jonah was familiar with Yahweh
being gracious and merciful, slow to anger
and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm (Jon 4:2). His fear was unwarranted and at the same time, he was spot on about Yahweh!
Did you catch Jonah’s attitude? Jonah’s
attitude was anything but like the God he served, and God would not allow Jonah’s
attitude toward the Assyrians to violate who He was/is. It is called impassibility,
not to mention immutability.
Here in Jonah, we have a salient illustration
of Yahweh reaching out to Gentiles who on all accounts deserved to be destroyed
due to their legendary atrocities against their enemies. The leading dissent in the
matter was Yahweh. If they had not repented, however, they would have been
destroyed ca. 759 B.C., the year that Jonah delivered Yahweh’s message to the
Assyrians.
Is Yahweh a God of love? Yes. Is
Yahweh a God of wrath? Yes. Because of God’s eternal attribute of immutability,
the God of the OT and the NT are one and the same. It is heresy to advocate God
is mutable or makes a false claim that the God of the OT is not the same as the
God of the NT.
Jonah’s story reveals that it is
impossible to run from God, but you can run from His will. Jonah learned the
hard way; it doesn’t pay to run. You can learn the soft way or the hard way. We
are free to choose but not free of the consequences of our choices. It’s best
to simply trust and obey Yahweh and express our freedom in Christ responsibly:
run in the direction of His will according to the Scriptures, never away from
it! Whale said. <><
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