Jonah's God (Jonah 1:1-6)

Jonah’s God (1)

[Jonah 1:1-6]

I remember two movies with similar names. The two films are titled "Mission" and "Mission Impossible". Comparing these two films, we are more attracted to the movie "Mission Impossible" than "Mission". The reason is that the hero in the mission film "Mission" is killed in the end after suffering while he was preaching the gospel in the jungle, while the hero in the movie "Mission Impossible" ultimately defeat the wicked and win. We like the result of the movie that the hero defeats the wicked and triumphantly. But we do not like the hero dying. Our human nature instinct loves to live. We don’t like to sacrifice and martyr for Jesus and His mission. This is the image of Christians in our modern church.

Pastor William Chadwick used two words to describe the modern church Christians in his book "Stealing Sheep": "Church shoppers" and "McChurch”. This is what Pastor Chadwick said about “Church shoppers": ‘Church shoppers refer to those who come into the church for personal gain and leave the church for the same reason. The problem is that the modern church is filled with church shoppers and church consumers and thus it is not stable.’ And this is what he said about “McChurch”: ‘The McChurch is a church that allows the fast-food Christians to choose from a variety of programs, replacing traditional house churches and their relationship-centric values. Just as fast-food-loving customers go to McDonald's and choose their favorite foods from the menu, the fast-food Christians demand what they want from the McChurch. And after they experienced that the church offered to them, they go away like the McDonald customer who throw away a hamburger wrapper on the highway after they finished eating. This is what Pastor Chadwick said about the modern church Christians: ‘People are no longer loyal to the church that is rooting in church history and tradition. The consumer sentiment has changed the nature of the commitment to the church. The church has changed from serving to wishing to be served. When a family chooses a church, the denomination is pushed to a secondary problem and the question "Does this church fulfill our needs?” becomes the highest priority (Chadwick). What do you think of Pastor Chadwick's words?

As I look at Jonah's selfishness and disobedience under the heading of "Jonah’s God (1)" based on Jonah 1:1-6, I want to meditate on how God fulfilled his will even through such servant like Jonah. We want to receive lessons from God. I hope and pray that we may be obedient to what God wants from us.

First, God wants us to join his mission.

Look at Jonah 1:1-2: “The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me’.” This is the scene where God is calling Jonah. What was God's command toward Jonah? It was to arise, go to that great city, Nineveh, and cry against it (v.1). What was he supposed to preach to the people in Nineveh? It was “the message I(God) gave you(Jonah)” (3:2). Why did God command Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach against it? The reason is that Nineveh's wickedness had come up before God (v. 2). In other words, because the sins of Nineveh “have piled up as high as heaven” (Rev. 18: 5), God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach against it (Jon. 1:2).

The sins of this world we now live in are piling up as high as heaven. The sins that cannot be imagined are enormous in this world. So now God is calling us to join him in his mission. God is telling us to go to this world and preach against this sinful world. What does God want us to preach against this sinful world? Don’t you think God is telling us to cry out to this world, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt. 3:2)? We must arise and go to this world and preach the message of repentance and the message of the gospel. We must humbly join this God's mission. The surprise is that God wants to accomplish the mission of salvation through us who are like Jonah. As we know, the name "Jonah" means ‘dove’, ‘insensitive, and ‘senseless’. Interestingly, the name "Amittai," the father of Jonah, means "my truth, my faithfulness." I think these two names show the truth that appears in the whole flow of Jonah. The truth is that even though Jonah is insensitive and senseless, Jonah's Heavenly Father God is true and faithful to Jonah. We who live in this sinful world are as insensitive and indifferent as Jonah, but our Heavenly Father is truthful and faithful to us. And the true and faithful God wants to accomplish his sovereign will through us, like Jonah, who is insensitive and indiscreet. What should we do? We must humbly obey and participate in God's mission.

Second, God is calling us on his mission.

Why is God calling me and you on His mission? Is it because we are qualified? It is not. God never calls us conditionally. Aren’t we as insensitive and foolish as Jonah? Isn’t God calling us to missions, even though we are like Jonah who didn’t concern about the 120,000 dying souls of the Nineveh? Doesn’t God want to use such people like us who are insensitive and lacked the heart to save they dying souls? God calls us because our God is God who has abundant grace and mercy (Jon. 4:2). God wants to manifest his glory through us. Then how should we respond to God's calling?

We must have conviction in God's calling. But now many Christians are living a faith life without conviction of God's calling. Now we are living in this sinful world and forgetting that God is calling us. We are forgetting the purpose God has created us in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:10). We are not sure why God chose such people like us who are not wise by human standards, not influential and of noble birth but who are “the foolish things”, “the weak things”, “the lowly things” and “the despised things”(1 Cor. 1:26-27) . We are living without knowing God’s purpose of choosing us. Why did God choose us? Why did he call us? What is God's purpose? God's purpose is for us to participate in his mission to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and save God’s chosen people. Why? The reason is that God wants everyone to be saved and to know the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). This is the heart of our Heavenly Father.

What about our hearts? What is our hearts toward this sinful world? Do we, like our Father's heart, want everyone to be saved and to know the truth? So, are we heading toward this world with the heart of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:8)? We must have a conviction of God's calling. Many times we wonder why God called us. And one of the reasons why we wonder is because we look at ourselves rather than God. We cannot but doubt the calling of God when we look at ourselves who are unfaithful, rather than seeing God who is faithful and gracious. At that time, we must hold onto the Word of God. The God's Word Romans 11:29 tells us: “for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.” We must have conviction that God’s call is irrevocable. Also we must have conviction that God has called us to his mission and he wants to use us to save the dying souls. In doing so, we can have confidence in the Lord and courageously and consistently fulfill God’s mission. And eventually with God’s help there will be completion of God's mission.

Lastly, God is demanding our obedience to his calling.

God, who wants us to join his mission, is calling us and demanding us for obedience. God who demands our obedience is God who deserves our obedience. But the problem is that we are disobeying God's calling. Then we lie (including deceiving ourselves) and make excuses to justify our disobedience. As an example, look at King Saul in 1 Samuel 15:22-23. King Saul disobeyed God's command. God's mission to him was this: “… Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out” (v. 18). However, King Saul disobeyed this mission of God (v. 9). “But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs--everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed” (v. 9). Then he lied to the prophet Samuel: “I have carried out the LORD's instructions” (v. 13). So Samuel asked him: “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” (v. 14) At that time Saul's excuse was this: “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest” (v. 15), “The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal” (v. 21). What a plausible excuse? King Saul's excuse was that he disobeyed God's command in order to sacrifice to God. Aren’t we now disobeying God's command with this kind of excuse? If so, God's Word to us is clear: "... To obey is better than sacrifice ... "(v. 22).

How did the prophet Jonah respond to God's command? The prophet Jonah did not want to join the mission of God. He disobeyed God's command. Rather, he fled from the Lord. Look at Jonah 1:3 – “But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. ….” He fled to Tarshish, the opposite direction of Nineveh, the missionary place where God told him to go. He was trying to hide from the Lord. The phrases “away from the Lord” and “to flee from the Lord” do not mean that Jonah was trying to escape from the omnipresent God. This is impossible (Jer. 23:24). This means that Jonah ran away from the Lord as far as he could from Nineveh so that he thought God had to find another servant to send him to Nineveh (Park Yun-sun). Why then did Jonah disobey God's command? There are three possible reasons:

(1) The first possible reason is that Jonah doubted that Nineveh would hear the word of God that he proclaimed (Denison).

The prophet Jonah, who prophesied the Israel’s abundant blessings as a prophet for Israel (cf. 2 Kgs. 14:25, 26), proclaimed to the Israelites to repent and return to God. But the Israelites who were sinning did not obey the words of Prophet Jonah. So Jonah doubted that the people of Assyria, the Israel’s enemy, would hear him since his own people the Israelites didn’t hear him. Therefore, Jonah disobeyed God's command to go to Nineveh and preach against them.

(2) The second possible reason is that Jonah knew that God would use Assyria (the capital: Nineveh) as a 'stick' to discipline Israel.

Jonah knew that because of the progressive rebellion (sin) of Israel, God would discipline the Israelites with the Assyrian (Compare: Hos. 11:5; Amos 5:27) through his contemporary’s prophets Hosea and Amos prophets (cf. Hos. 1:1, Amos 1:1, 2 Kgs. 14:23). Therefore, if Jonah had patriotism as a prophet of Israel, he would certainly have hoped for the destruction of Assyria. So he disobeyed God's command to go to Nineveh and preach against them.

(3) The third possible reason is that Jonah knew that God is “a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jon. 4:2).

Jonah disobeyed God's command because he knew that if the people of Nineveh repented, God would forgive them (MacArthur). Jonah didn’t love the people of Nineveh, who were the Israel’s enemy and the dying souls, with the heart of God. Though God's thought was that the Ninevites would repent and be saved, the thoughts of God's servant Prophet Jonah was that Nineveh should be condemned. Maybe Jonah might have thought of this in his head: 'If Nineveh repents, God will bless rather than bring disaster on the Ninevites. But God will not bless the Israelites because the Israelites live in sin. Instead, God will bring disaster on the Israelites. Therefore, God will turn away his face from the chosen Israelites and turn his face toward the Gentile Ninevites.’ Maybe Jonah had this fear and may have disobeyed God's command. In the end, Jonah disobeyed God's command because he wanted his will be done instead of God's will. This Jonah's disobedience reflects the Israelites who disobey God's command, as though the godless Gomer of Hosea reflected the Israelites who were guilty of idolatry. Just as God's servant Jonah did not disobey God's commands, the Israelites, the people of God, was disobeying God's command. After all, Jonah is making the sad spiritual situation of the people of Israel. And the sad spiritual state of the Israelites is disobeying God's command and God's divine calling. What is the consequence of their disobedience? It is the discipline of God.

If we disobey God's calling, God will discipline us. The Creator God chastened Jonah, who disobeyed his call. Look at Jonah 1:4 – “Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.” Here we can think of two kinds of storms:

(1) Storm of Perfection

In Matthew 8:23-27, God the Creator has given the disciples of Jesus a storm to perfection. Although they were obedient to the Lord's Word, God gave them the storm of perfection for their faith to grow.

(2) Storm of Correction

This storm of correction is the storm that appears in Jonah 1:4. The Lord loved disobedient Jonah and gave him the storm of correction so that he might obey God's command. Here the "great wind" was used as a stick of God’s discipline to Jonah (God's first tool). Why does God discipline us when we sin? The Scripture Hebrews 12:4-11 reveals five reasons:

(a) Because God loves us (v. 6)

(b) Because we are God’s children (v. 6)

(d) Because God wants to train us (v. 11)

(e) God wants us to bear the peaceful fruits of righteousness (v.11).

God used the great wind as stick to discipline Jonah. The sailors and Jonah responded differently to this discipline of God. Look at the response of the sailors (means “salts”): “Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them” (v. 5a). The sailors called their god when the ship was about to break up (v. 4) because of God's discipline. In other words, they prayed to their god. Then they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship (v. 5). Isn’t it interesting that God ‘threw’ the storm in the sea (v. 4) and the sailors ‘threw’ the cargo into the sea (v. 5). It seems that unbeliever sailors are more likely to follow God's actions than God’s prophet Jonah. How then did Jonah respond to God's discipline, the great wind? Look at verse 5b: “But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.” Although God told him to “Arise, go to Nineveh” (v. 2), Jonah ‘went down’ to Joppa (v. 3), ‘went down’ to the ship (v. 3), and ‘went down’ into the hold of the ship (v. 5). He was doing the opposite thing from the command of God. To this Jonah, who was contrary to the Word of God, God once again echoed his command through the unbeliever's captain. Look at verse 6: “So the captain approached him and said, "How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.” Although God told him “Arise” (v. 2), Jonah ‘went down’ to Joppa (v. 3), ‘went down’ to the ship (v. 3), and ‘went down’ into the hold of the ship, “where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep” (v. 5). I cannot but wonder how Jonah could have been asleep so deep when the ship was about to break up because of the great storm that sent (v. 4). At that time, the captain of the ship said to Jonah “Get up, call on your god” (v. 6). God reminded Jonah the command of God “Arise” (v. 2) through the captain, "Get up" (v. 6). The captain of the ship was God's second tool [the first tool of God is "the great wind" (v. 4)]. Not only did God discipline Jonah who was disobeying God's command through the great wind and the great storm, God also reminded Jonah the command of God again through the Gentile captain. Nevertheless, Jonah was disobeying the command of God. When the Gentile sailors were crying out to their own gods, Jonah fell into a deep sleep. How should we think of this Jonah?

In the image of disobeying Jonah, we can see our own disobedience to God. Although God is saying to us, "Arise and go", aren’t we going to opposite direction? Aren’t we just keep on going down like Jonah, trying to run away from God? And when God throws a disciplinary storm in our lives, aren’t we just laying down and falling in deep sleep like Jonah without knowing that God is disciplining us? When we are spiritually insensitive and indiscreet, God still doesn’t give upon us. Instead, God even uses an unbeliever to remind us his command again and make us to cry out to God. What should we do? We must obey God's command. We must obey the calling of God. God is calling us to his mission. He wants us to participate in his mission. I hope and pray that we be obedient to God and live to fulfill God's will by participating in his mission.