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Why did Yahweh commission Jonah
to go on foreign soil and preach to the Assyrians? Since God of the OT is the
same God of the NT, I will suggest to you that God so loved the world (Jews and
Gentiles) that He was unwilling that any should perish. Salvation is of the LORD.
Did not Jonah touch upon this while cruising in the whale (Jon 2:9c)?
This was a radical mission to
Jonah, going beyond the pale, stepping outside the box of his Jewish understanding.
We may gain some insight into why Jonah wanted the Assyrians dead rather than
repenting. The Assyrians were analogous to going to the stronghold of the
Islamic State today and preaching a message of repentance or being destroyed.
Unthinkable, right? The Assyrians were
legendary for the brutal atrocities of their captors. It is possible with
Jonah’s Gentile bias that these cruel infidels did not deserve salvation. This could
be another possible reason to explain why Jonah fled from God’s will.
Now, God may not use a great
wind on the sea (Jon 1:4), a whale (Jon 1:7), a plant (Jon 4:6), a worm (Jon
4:7), or a vehement east wind (Jon 4:8) as He did with Jonah for us to come to terms
in doing His assignment, but He will wisely and lovingly do whatever He
deems necessary to get us aligned to His will which will always be lined up
with Scripture, always. Jonah is proof that a believer could
be willing to die rather than obey the will of God in a matter.
Reader, do not
consider this so extreme that you assure yourself this will never happen to you.
When we read of the honor of believers today being persecuted for Christ around
the world, it is rather odd to read of a true prophet of God willing to die
than obey the LORD! There is little data for us to go on as to why Jonah reacted
the way he did. All we have is speculations as to why Jonah fled for Tarshish. The
motive to run is irrelevant because it cuts against the grain of Yahweh’s will.
God doesn’t make any mistakes; He never miscalculates for He is all-knowing and
all-wise.
I believe most of us have at one
time or another run from God’s will in some matter and are not immune from
doing so in the future. His will may be perceived as regular or radical by us,
but the will of God is always consistent with His eternal, immutable, and infinite
nature. And so, it was with Jonah’s commission.
The God of Jonah is the same God
of us (Psa 90:2; 102:27; Heb 1:12; 13:8). We may not have caught a ship (plane, train, or car) and headed for a 180-city, a place in the opposite direction of God’s will, as the city of Tarshish represented to Jonah, but such
a flight or unwillingness, regardless of the motivation, is a major disrespect
to the Majesty of Yahweh, the Eternal One, and this is the point I am making.
Never underestimate the
potential expressions of disobedience by our sinful nature. We are still connected
to the world by the flesh. Naturally, we are not a victim of our sinful nature,
but it is the dark side of each of us. It was our connection with the world
before salvation; it is our nexus to the world we had left for God (Jn 17:16),
but God in His wisdom will not remove our sinful nature from us until the rapture
or R.I.P.
In Christ, we are a new creation
(2 Cor 5:17), and we are given another nature to live for Him. Being in the
flesh reveals our disobedience to God and walking in the Spirit reveals our obedience
to Him. The fruit of our walk reveals either our natural nature or our supernatural
nature; we cannot reflect both at the same time (cf. Gal 5:16). We have the
Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and the fruit of our walk to inform us if we are
in His will or not.
Jonah’s response to Yahweh’s will
was radical and extreme, but we cannot rule out such a reaction in us either. If
we are running from the will of God in a matter, it is sin and a serious thing
that we do. We simply do not see the seriousness of sin in the way that God
does or appreciate the holiness of God as we should (Eph 4:30; 1 Pet 1:15).
You don’t read in Jonah’s prayer
to God while inside the belly of the whale (Jonah 2:1-9) about any attitude
adjustment, only an honoring of paying his vows. He is a prophet of God, no
less; good and true prophets go and say whatever it is that God commands them to say and do. As a prophet, Jonah predicted the future; we proclaim what
we know from biblical history which is inclusive of the future already revealed,
forth-telling rather than foretelling.
The test of a true prophet was a
simple metric; his predictions were 100% accurate. Anything short of that
standard would or should be considered a false prophet. All “A
broken clock is right twice a day” prophets are false prophets, having just
enough truth to deceive the ignorant.
Being wrong in an interpretation
of non-cardinal doctrines should not qualify a person as a heretic. For
example, I do not avoid fellowship with those who have a different eschatological
view than mine. Now, if one flatly denies the return of Christ, I would have a
problem with that person because that would make Jesus’ promise to return a lie
(cf. Titus 1:2); I am banking on His return!
It appears that Jonah still felt
the same way before, during, and after the whale experience; he quickly deduced
while in the belly-of-the-whale suite with all the fish, squid, and what not
whale-meals, that it is far better going to Nineveh than going out the wrong
end of the whale. He would not survive that egress. There was still that
possibility that the Assyrians would reject his message from Yahweh. He may have
determined, “Why should I die on a 50-50 chance that they may or may not repent.” Jonah
is operating under the idea that Those who
regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy (Jon
2:8). He
may have been betting on this?
He fled from the presence of the
LORD (Jon 1:3, 10; cf. Jon 4:2), and we find the reason for that is found in
Jon 4:2. He wanted the Assyrians dead not alive (cf. Jon 3:10 to Jon 4:1, 2)! The
only indication that we have of Jonah willing to die than obey Yahweh's will is his eagerness to be thrown overboard to save the mariners which is
rather odd (Jon 1:12). This offer was too unsettling and unsatisfactory to the
crew; so, they rowed hard to return to land,
but they could not (Jon1:13). There is no
indication Jonah was aware of any giant sea creature swallowing him to prevent
him from drowning once thrown overboard – the
LORD had prepared [appointed] a great fish to swallow Jonah (Jon1:17).
After being thrown over the side,
the whale scooped Jonah up with impeccable timing; you might say the timing was
rather miraculous. Jonah’s stay in the living submarine changed his direction
but not His attitude (contrast Prov 4:23). God is omniscient, so he knew what was
going through Jonah’s heart and mind from start to finish.
After the three days and nights
ordeal in the whale, Jonah is vomited on an Assyrian beach, and he is off to Nineveh. The logistics of
getting cleaned up, food and water, and clothing and transportation are unknown;
he may have had money on him for he did pay for his fare to Tarshish (Jon 1:3).
How many times have we paid for things out of God’s will…?
The forty-day clock probably
started when Jonah arrived in Nineveh, which explains the shelter and waiting “what would become of the city (Jon 4:5). His anger (Jon 4:1, 3) revealed that he sensed that the
Assyrians were going to turn rather than taking the path of “forsaking their
own mercy.”
Therefore now, O LORD, please
take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live (Jon 4:3)!
Then Jonah gets all upset over the plant that came up and provided him shade to deliver him from his misery. But during the night God prepared a worm that killed the plant. God then prepared a vehement east wind to beat upon Jonah’s head. Jonah grew faint and said for the second time,
It is better for me to die than to live (Jon 4:8).
At this juncture, this sounds reminiscent of Elijah who also wanted to die while running from Jezebel (1 Kgs 19:4). God said to Jonah,
Then Jonah gets all upset over the plant that came up and provided him shade to deliver him from his misery. But during the night God prepared a worm that killed the plant. God then prepared a vehement east wind to beat upon Jonah’s head. Jonah grew faint and said for the second time,
It is better for me to die than to live (Jon 4:8).
At this juncture, this sounds reminiscent of Elijah who also wanted to die while running from Jezebel (1 Kgs 19:4). God said to Jonah,
Is it right for you to be angry
about the plant? And he said, It is right for me to be angry, even to death (Jon 4:9).
Yahweh reasoned with him,
You have had pity on the plant
for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and
perished in a night (Jon 4:10).
Keep in mind the LORD is talking
about a plant that Jonah had no investment in that died and made Jonah angry
even unto death! Is he losing it? Now we come to the last words in the book of
Jonah. It is the only book in the Bible that ends with a question,
And should I not pity Nineveh,
that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons
who cannot discern between their right hand and their left [probably referring to children] – and much livestock?
Something incredible happened to
Nineveh; many repented from their sins (cf. Mt 12:41)! And it ends with Jonah’s
anger and wanting to die because Yahweh relented from harming the Assyrians! Who
would have anticipated that reaction?! I would like to believe that Jonah came around eventually, and maybe he did, but the Bible doesn’t say; rather,
we are left with an unanswered question.
He was not the first person willing
to die rather than obey God’s will. Frankly, such an attitude is common in the lives of unbelievers; the number has to be in the billions who have rejected His will to repent and stepped out into eternity without God. Tragically, there will
be more to come. The world sees no value in doing God's will; Jonah's treatment of the will of God was unbecoming of a believer and a prophet of God! Do we value God's will above all? By Jonah
delivering God’s message to the Ninevites, the city was spared, but to his
dismay.
In Jonah, we have a testament of
a believer who would rather have died than do God’s will in the matter of
offering the pagan Assyrians a way out from being utterly destroyed. Have you
questioned God’s love or wisdom lately? <><
You cannot run from the
presence of God, only from obedience.
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| End of Series |
