Jonah and the Mystery of God’s Mercy
Part 1: Running from God
This is a summary of my notes for a 6-part Sunday School lesson I recently led. It is an adaptation of my previous posts on Jonah along with some points based on the book, The Prodigal Prophet by Time Keller.
Why study the Book of Jonah?
Jonah is one of those books of the Bible which seems all too familiar. We all know that Jonah runs from God and is swallowed by a great fish after being cast into the sea. But there is so much more depth to this short book. Jonah tells his story in this book to share deep life lessons of faith and compassion.
I want us to consider and engage with the life of Jonah as we compare it to our own experiences. Over the past couple of years, God has been using this story to engage my heart on a deeper more intimate level and my hope is that he will do the same for you.
There are three important areas where I have seen God using the life of Jonah to reveal himself to me and I want you to keep these at the forefront of your mind as we go along.
- Jonah reveals my heart toward God.
On the surface, Jonah has it all together. He’s been called to an important role as a prophet of God. Faithfully bringing the words of God to the people. But as we will see, Jonah has a giant blind spot that causes him to misunderstand the very heart of God. - Jonah reveals my heart towards others.
That blind spot of Jonah is his heart attitude toward “others” – people outside the covenant family of God. Jonah’s pride and arrogance led him to believe that if you are an enemy of Israel, then you are an enemy of God – justly deserving his wrath and displeasure. - Jonah draws me to Jesus.
This is a story of God pursuing Jonah as a wayward child. It’s the loving patience of a Father wanting his child to know His Father’s heart. As we read and contemplate the failures of Jonah, keep in mind that there is a better Jonah. There is Jesus. The One who answered the call of his Father to come to an enemy land and preach the Good News of salvation. Both willingly and sacrificially.
The Book of Jonah is written as a two-scene play and has been told as mirror-image stories that demonstrate how Jonah regards and relates to people who are racially and religiously different than himself.
Tim Keller notes that these two scenes play out in such a fashion that we can view Jonah as playing the role of both the Prodigal Son (Scene 1) and the Older Brother (Scene 2) from the parable found in Luke 15:11-32.
As we work our way through this book, we will hopefully see that Jonah is not only conveying his journey through the Mystery of God’s Mercy but is speaking to each of us directly. We should see something of ourselves in Jonah at every point along the journey.
There are three points to consider at each stop along the way.
- Jonah is wanting a God of his own making.
This is a key principle of the book, and we need to look at how Jonah is continually getting tripped up by this desire over and over again. - Jonah struggles with how God can be both merciful and just.
- These insights into Jonah’s wrong thinking that leads to his poor decision-making can make us bridge builders, peacemakers, and agents of reconciliation in the world.
The Unlikely Emissary
The Famous Patriot
Jonah was a famous well-known prophet to the original readers. He would not only have been known by name but would have been quite an important figure among the people. The original readers would have known Jonah as an intensely patriotic and partisan nationalist. Meaning, Jonah loved his nation as God’s chosen people, and he hated the enemies of Israel. For in his mind, they equated to the enemies of God.
- “Arise and go to Nineveh.” This call was nothing less than asking Jonah to betray his country’s interests.
A Shocking Call
- Jonah’s mission was unprecedented. God was calling him to prophesy to not only a foreign nation but one hostile to His people Israel. (p.10)
- Assyrians of Nineveh would be categorized as a terrorist state for their recorded history of cruelty and brutality.
- Nahum had prophesied that God would destroy Nineveh for its evil.
God’s Missionary Outreach
We don’t easily see this in this original call to arise and preach a message of wrath to Nineveh, but Jonah understood that this message was a warning to Nineveh. It was a call to repentance. Jonah wanted nothing to do with even the possibility that the enemies of Israel and God himself could ever be given a chance to avert the necessary judgment and wrath. He was looking forward with anticipation to their eventual destruction.
Think about God giving you this calling to go to the epicenter of the country that is the sworn enemy of your home. Not only an enemy that wants to destroy you, but one you and your fellow countrymen hate. For Jonah, it was even more than that. Nineveh represented not only the enemy of Israel but also the enemy of God.
Now, personalize this calling for yourself. What’s your reaction? How is it different than, or the same as Jonah’s? Maybe it’s not a country, but a group of people or even a specific person.
Mistrusting God
Refusal by way of Opposites.
Jonah chose to go in the complete opposite direction than where God had called him. A complete 180-degree turn. It wasn’t that Jonah just decided to disobey, but that he decided to go in the complete opposite direction than what the Lord said.
- Called to go east, he goes west.
- Called to travel over land, he went to sea.
- It would be like God calling me to go to San Francisco, and me then going to Jacksonville, FL to board a ship for London.
Jonah clearly knew he couldn’t escape the presence of God, so what was going on here?
It brings us back to the Garden. After Adam and Eve had sinned, they realized they were naked and felt ashamed. So, when they heard the Lord walking in the Garden, they hid themselves. Did they really believe they could hide from God?
They were in essence fleeing the presence of God.
Doubting the Goodness of God
Along with Jonah, we are tempted to doubt that God is good, or that he is committed to our happiness. Therefore, we often conclude that if we can’t see any good reason for something God says or does, we assume that there aren’t any good reasons.
Genesis 2:16-17 God has given no reason as to why it would be wrong to eat from the tree. Yet, Adam and Eve are called to obedience.
Take a moment and reflect on this question: In what ways do you find yourself doubting the goodness of God?