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Well, it's a familiar story isn't it? Jonah is told to go and
preach to the people of Nineveh, to warn them of God's judgement and what
does he do? He heads off in the opposite direction, to Tarshish in Spain.
But he doesn't get away with it. God knows where he is! He sends a great
storm, so that the ship is foundering, until the sailors discover the truth.
Jonah is running away from the Lord who made the sea and the dry land. So
they throw him overboard, the storm stops and a great fish comes and swallows
up Jonah, only to spit him out on the shore of Assyria three days later.
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But you know,
there's a bit more to this story than just a morality tale of someone who
brings bad luck to those he travels with because he's disobeyed God. Jonah
is one of those Old Testament books that point forward so clearly to the
gospel and it's implications for us as Christians. |
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You see, Jonah
isn't your everyday prophet. As you're no doubt aware, prophets were highly
esteemed in Judah and Israel. They were the ones that God used to speak
to his people. If God had something he wanted to tell the people he'd use
one of his prophets to speak to them. That made them very important in the
life of the nation. So even when they had things to say that were critical
of the behaviour of people, they were allowed to say it; even if the things
they said made them unpopular. Why? Because the people wanted to know what
God was saying to them. Because this was part of their identity as the people
of God. |
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But here was Jonah
being given a message, not to the people of Israel or Judah, but to the
people of Nineveh. Now Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. Assyria was one
of the great world powers of the time and an enemy of God's people. Through
the second half of the 8th century BC, Assyria had attacked Israel and Judah
until finally they defeated the northern kingdom of Israel and took their
people captive. |
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One of the characteristic
methods of Assyrian conquest, as a matter of fact, was that once they'd
defeated a country, they'd take the population away and replace them with
people from another nation that they'd also conquered. You're probably aware
that that's how the Samaritan people came into existence. |
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Well, you can
imagine how that sort of policy was received by those they defeated or who
were potential victims. Not only would they lose their fathers and husbands
and brothers in the fighting, but then, when it was over they'd be taken
away from their homes as slaves and relocated to another country altogether.
So Assyrians weren't very popular in the surrounding nations. |
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Well, here's Jonah
being told by God to go and tell the people of Nineveh that their wickedness
has become known to the Lord and he's about to judge them. Why is God sending
them this message? So they'll repent before the judgement comes! We'll discover
that next week, when we look at chapter 4. So you can imagine what Jonah
is thinking when he hears this call. The Ninevites being judged is exactly
what he'd wish to happen! He doesn't want them to be warned of it. That'd
spoil the surprise. No, give them some more rope so they'll hang themselves.
Don't warn them of the error of their ways. |
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Racism has been
in the news a bit lately hasn't it? There have been questions of whether
our cricket umpires are racist. Are they harder on Pakistani or Indian or
Sri Lankan bowlers than on our own? On a far more serious note, there have
been numbers of examples over the past decade or so of attempts at what's
politely called ethnic cleansing. Genocide is what it really should be called.
Killing people because they don't belong to the right racial group. Then
we see retaliation on the part of the victims or the victims' compatriots.
We've seen it in Ireland for countless years. We've seen it in Rwanda. We've
seen it more recently in Kosovo, where first the Serbs killed the Ethnic
Albanians and then the Albanians were killing Serbs. I was talking to someone
the other day about the New Years Eve TV coverage and he was remarking how
they went all around the world and there wasn't one place where the celebrations
were marred by fighting or civil unrest. Well, I thought, maybe that's because
they avoided those places where the explosions might have been from mortar
blasts rather than from fireworks, or because they didn't want the New Years
Eve hype spoilt by too much reality. |
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The trouble is
that racist attitudes seem to be ingrained in people. Even here in Australia.
Dare I say, even among nice people like us. It's so easy to fall into it
isn't it? Looking at a particular racial group and thinking in stereotypes.
Particularly thinking that they're in some way inferior to 'us', whether
morally or intellectually, or culturally, or whatever. Thinking how much
better we are because we think in a particular way, or live in a particular
way, or because we don't do certain things that other people do. |
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I wonder, does
that sort of thing happen with the preaching of the gospel? Do we sometimes
think, even subconsciously, that certain people don't deserve to hear the
gospel? Or wouldn't listen to it even if we told them, so why bother? I
don't necessarily mean a racial group. Are there socioeconomic groups that
we discriminate against with our preaching of the gospel? Those who are
not educated enough to understand what we're saying? Those who are too
educated for us to approach with any sort of confidence? Those we think
mightn't have gifts to offer to the work of the church? In our area, perhaps
it's the yuppies with the successful careers and the busy lifestyles that
we think won't have time to be committed to God. It's an easy trap to fall
into isn't it? |
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Well, that's certainly
the trap that Jonah fell into. It doesn't seem to have taken him long to
make his decision either. No sooner has he been given his message, than
he hops on the first ship going in the opposite direction. But when God
decides to do something, he does it. It's no use Jonah trying to get away,
because God is watching. As Jonah himself says, 'He's the God of both the
sea and the dry land'. No-one can escape his reach. So Jonah is turned around.
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Just as an aside,
notice that even in that moment of despair and humiliation Jonah is an agent
for the gospel. We're told "Then the men feared the LORD even more,
and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows." Here's Jonah,
running away because he doesn't want the Assyrians to repent and on the
way he becomes the cause of these sailors turning to God. |
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Well, God sends
a great fish which swallows Jonah and for three days and nights he's inside
the fish, before being spat up on the shore. It's not a very pleasant way
to learn a lesson, is it? What must have been going through his mind as
he lay there in the fish's stomach? What a fool I am! Why didn't I do what
God told me? It wasn't such a difficult message. I was afraid of the Assyrians,
when it was God I should have been worried about! Then we're told he called
out to the Lord in his distress. He repents and reaffirms his vow of service
to God, and God hears him and rescues him. |
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You know, God
had to do the same thing with Peter, though in Peter's case the lesson wasn't
quite as smelly. Do you remember the incident in Acts 10, when Cornelius
sends his servants to ask Peter to come and tell them about Jesus? There,
God prepares Peter beforehand. He gives him a vision. Do you remember what
it was? It was of a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners
with all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds on it. And Peter's told
to get up, kill something and eat it. Well, Peter is a good Jew, so he'd
never eat anything that was unclean and he says so. But God says to him,
"Don't call anything impure that God has made clean." Peter sees
this vision 3 times, just to make sure he's hasn't missed the point. Then
Cornelius' servants arrive and Peter realises that the vision isn't about
food, but about sharing the message of the gospel with people of other nations.
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Now there's a
strong parallel between Jonah and Peter in this instance isn't there? Just
as the Assyrians were the sworn enemies of Israel, so Cornelius was an officer
in the Roman army of occupation. So it wasn't only that Cornelius was a
Gentile. He was also the oppressor. Yet Peter was told to go and share the
gospel with him, because the gospel is for all the nations. It's for those
who are enemies as well as for friends. |
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Well, Jonah provides
us with an example of how God wants the gospel to be preached. God doesn't
want anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance. The gospel is meant
for all people irrespective of race or education or income or gender or
employment status or whatever. |
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Like Jonah, we've
been given a commission to go and tell people that God has seen the way
they live and is going to judge them. Unlike Jonah, though, we have a greater
message to proclaim. That is, that God's judgement has been taken away through
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ so that we can now be reconciled
with God through Jesus Christ. |
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Jesus last words
to his disciples were "19Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything
that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end
of the age." (Mat 28:18-20 NRSV). Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5 (2
Cor 5:18-20 NRSV) "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself
through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that
is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their
trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to
us. 20So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his
appeal through us." |
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How are you responding
to the call of Christ to preach the gospel to all the world? Are you running
in the opposite direction? Are you in hiding, scared to raise your voice
in defence of the gospel? Or are you acting as one of Christ's ambassadors,
sharing with your friends the incredible good news that God has reconciled
us to himself? Next week we'll see what happens when the gospel is preached
boldly and without fear. For now remember that when you speak the words
of the gospel, you're speaking the very words of God, and that his word
never returns to him empty but accomplishes that which he purposes. |
