Jonah’s God (2)
[Jonah 1:7-17]
We Koreans seem to be good at lying. When I watch the Korean dramas, I don’t know why people are lying so much. Even if it is a lie that cares for a loved one, a lie is a lie. But I don’t know why it is called 'a good lie'. Especially I don’t understand why they keep on denying after their lies got exposed rather than acknowledging their sin of lying. Maybe it is because they think that people are unwilling to forgive them even though they confess their lies honestly. So what they do is they keep on denying the fact that they lied until people find that they lied. For example, the Korean politicians keep on denying their lies even though those lies get exposed (I am sure not all the Korean politicians are like this). The reason is because they may think that even they confess honestly, it is difficult to avoid blame. So it seems that some of the Koreans have developed excuses. For Americans, it seems a little different. For example, American politicians confess honestly what they done wrong and ask for forgiveness rather than keep on denying it (I am sure not all the American politicians are like this). Maybe there is a cultural difference. How about Koreans and Japanese? We Koreans tend to blame on others while the Japanese tend to say ‘It’s my fault'. When a Japanese corporation goes bankrupt, its bosses are entirely responsible, but if a boss in a Korean corporation takes responsibility, he is not forgiven and is buried, so he does not acknowledge his own mistake. Do Koreans really lie a lot? Do you think the Korean society (culture) is the society (culture) that cannot but lie? Is it often the case that even in the church, when we confess our sins (wrongs), people condemn us without forgiveness? Also, do Koreans really say "It’s your fault” more than to say "It’s my fault”? We are seeing many negative things happening in Korean society and Korean church right now. Are we saying that this is “my fault” and “my responsibility”?
We have learned three things about God last time based on Jonah 1:1-6: (1) God wants us to join his mission, (2) God is calling us on his mission, and (3) God is demanding our obedience to his calling. But if we disobey God’s calling, God disciplines us. I am going to think about two things about Jonah's God based on Jonah 1:7-17: "(1) Jonah' s God is the God who makes us to be responsible for the consequences of our disobedience and (2) Jonah’s God is the God who makes us to confess our sins before men.
First, Jonah’s God is the God who makes us to be responsible for the consequences of our disobedience.
Look at Jonah 1:7-8: “Each man said to his mate, ‘Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us’ So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, ‘Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?’” In the background of today's text, when the ship on which Jonah was aboard was about to break up due to the great wind that God had sent and the great storm, the Gentile sailors were crying out to their own gods and there was no answer (vv. 4-5). So the sailors cast lots to find out who was responsible for this calamity (v. 7). The act of casting lots had two meanings in the old days. First was to find out whose fault is it (1 Sam. 14:41-42). And second was for divine guidance (Esth. 3:7; Prov. 16:33). In today's text Jonah 1:7, the reason why the sailors cast lots was to find out whose fault was it. In contrast to Jonah, who avoids responsibility, the sailors cast lots to find out who was responsible for the calamity. In Jonah, the Hebrew word for ‘responsibility’ comes out four times (Jonah 1:7, 8, 12; 4:10). What does this teach us? It teaches us that our God is a just God who asks our responsibility when we are disobedient like Jonah and running away. What was the result of casting lots? Look at Jonah 1:7 – “Each man said to his mate, ‘Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us.’ So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.” Because Jonah didn’t go to the pagan city Nineveh to reprove the Ninevites, the work was reversed, and the Gentile sailors reproved Jonah for his sin of disobedient (Park Yun-sun).
We are often irresponsible in our actions. In other words, we have an instinct to not take responsibility for the wrong behavior we have committed. We often lie or make an excuse to rationalize our irresponsible behavior when our wrongdoing is known to others. An example is King Saul (1 Sam. 15:22-23). When Samuel rebuked the disobedience of Saul (not destroying Amalekites), Saul lied to Samuel (vv. 13, 20) and also made irresponsible excuses (vv. 15, 21). Jonah was irresponsible. To what extent is Jonah irresponsible? Look at Jonah 1:5 – “… But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.” How could Jonah have slept in a situation where the great storm caused the ship to break up? Jonah went down to the bottom of the ship and was deeply asleep, not because of the tiredness of his journey, but because his spirit was dark. This was Jonah's irresponsible sleep. How could Jonah fell in sleep deeply without any remorse of conscience while the captain and the sailors on the ship were afraid that the ship might be break up completely? (Park Yun-sun). Jonah was deeply asleep spiritually. How can we know this? A spiritually awake person runs toward the Word of God. In other words, the spiritually awake man obeys God's command. But a man who is spiritually sleeping, like Jonah, is fleeing from God's command. Don’t we, like Jonah, sleep this irresponsible sleep? Aren’t we disobeying God’s commands by running away from God and are spiritually darkened, unable to feel the remorse of conscience? To Jonah, God spoke through the non-believer captain: "How can you sleeping?" (v. 6).
Do you know the secret of the survival of "rodents" who dig the ground and live under the ground?
Their olfactory is very developed. The smell plays an important role not only in the search for food, but also in protecting themselves since their bodies are small and they don’t have weapon to defend themselves. So their olfactory is an indispensable shield to protect themselves. From the standpoint of the rodents, whether they go out of the house or in the house, there are full of their enemies who have their eyes on them. In the sky, hawks are paying attention to their movements with a sharp eye, and on the ground they have to face wildcats, badgers and weasels from time to time. They cannot be relieved when they come into their house because the snakes attack them without making any sound. So when rodents like rats and squirrels fall asleep, their olfactory is awake without falling asleep. If a snake raids into the entrance of their house, does the smell of the snake come in first by the wind blowing into their house. Although are sleeping, they can smell the snake because their olfactory is awake. So they quickly wake up and deal with the dangerous situation. So the important problem of life and death depends on their sense of smell. It is not only the rodent that needs the sense of smell to be awakened. We the children of God need an organ that should never fall asleep. We must always keep our spiritual senses awake. The world we live in is a sinful world. There are hidden temptations here and there that try to attract us and to drive us into sin and death. They are all deadly temptations that are like the land mines on the battlefield. And the devil is watching the opportunity to swallow us more actively. The devil is more sharply looking at us than the eagle on the sky, looking for opportunities to attack us without making sound like a snake. Therefore, it is our spiritual sense that has to be always awaken even when we are asleep. And we must not avoid being responsible when God exposes our sins through our awakened spiritual senses. Rather, we must make a decision of faith. That decision of faith is that we are to take responsibility for the consequences of sin that we committed to God. We Christians should be responsible before God. God asked Jesus to take responsibility for our sins. That’s why Jesus bore our sins and died on the cross. Therefore, we as disciples of Jesus must be Christians who are responsible. A true Christian is someone who takes responsibility.
Second, Jonah’s God is the God who makes us to confess our sins before men.
In today's text, Jonah 1:7, the sailors cast lots in order to find out who was responsible for this calamity. And the lot fell upon Jonah. At that time, the sailors asked Jonah these questions: “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” (v. 8) These questions reminded Jonah God’s calling as a servant of God. The questions functioned as a good reminder to Jonah in ways:
(1) The question “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us?”(v. 8) is a question that reminds Jonah of his irresponsible behavior (Compare the Jonah's irresponsible act of running away from God with the sailors’ responsible act of casting lots to find out “who is responsible for making all this trouble for us”).
(2) The question “What do you do?” (v. 8) means ‘What is your occupation?’ and this question reminds Jonah that he is a servant of God who has received God's calling (Compare the Jonah’s unfaithfulness in fulfilling his job to go to Nineveh and to proclaim the Word of God with the sailor’s faithfulness in fulfilling their job in bringing people safely from one place to another).
(3) The question “Where do you come from?” (v. 8) is a question that reminds Jonah the God’s command to go to Nineveh instead of fleeing to the opposite direction of Nineveh, Tarshish.
(4) The question “What is your country? From what people are you?” (v. 8) is a question that causes Jonah to remember the responsibility of obeying God's commandments as God's chosen Israelites.
What was Jonah's answer to these questions? Look at Jonah 1:9 – “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.” If we divide the content of this Jonah’s answer into two, they are first the Jonah’s confession about himself and the second is the Jonah’s confession about God.
(1) There are two confessions about Jonah himself:
(a) First, "I am Hebrew" (v.9). It is likely that this Jonah's confession is understood by the Gentiles. The reason is that the ancient Near Eastern people knew that the Israelites were Hebrews.
(b) Second, “… (I) fear the Lord” (v. 9). This is a little questionable. The reason is if Jonah truly feared God, how could he disobey the God’s command and running away from Him? Jonah's actions and confessions disagreed.
(2) There are two confession about God:
(a) First, “the LORD” (v. 9). Jonah’s confession that “I worship the LORD” does not agree with his action in disobeying the Lord’s command and running away from Him.
(b) Second, “the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land” (v. 9). Here Jonah made this confession about God because he was watching the great storm on the sea that God raised. In addition, Jonah was proclaiming that the God of heaven is the most powerful creator God and he is the God of Israel in front of the sailors who cried out to their own gods. Although he supposed to go to Nineveh and proclaim the Word of God to the Ninevites, instead he proclaimed “the God of heaven” to the sailors in the ship. What an amazing God’s grace and providence? I am amazed that God used even disobedient servant of the Lord Jonah to proclaim who God is to the Gentile sailors in the midst of Jonah receiving God’s discipline.
As to these Jonah confessions, we can see three responses in the text today:
(1) The first is the sailors’ response.
Look at Jonah 1:10 – “This terrified them and they asked, ‘What have you done?’ (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so).” Here the word “terrified” in verse 10 is derived from the same root with the word “fear” in verse 9. But in verse 9 Jonah was speaking about fearing God, but in verse 10 the Scripture speaks about the sailor’s fear. This word 'fear' comes out three times in Jonah (vv. 5, 10, 16). The sailors were “extremely frightened” (v. 10) because not only saw the great storm (v. 4) but also they heard from Jonah about “the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land” (v. 9). Compare the Jonah’s response in running away from the Lord even though he said he feared God with the sailors’ response in fearing God after they heard Jonah’s confession about God. So the sailors say to Jonah, "How could you do this?" (v. 10). After all, the prophet who sinned against God was rather rebuked by non-believer sailors. How embarrassing is this? The servant of God was rebuked by the Gentiles. This was Jonah's first discipline. The rebuke from the mouth of the sailors, "How could you do this?" would have certainly struck Jonah's conscience at that time.
(2) The second is the nature’s response.
Look at Jonah 1:11b – “… for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy.” Even though Jonah confessed his sins publicly, the storm of the sea did not cease, but rather became increasingly stormy. Why? The reason was that Jonah didn’t make true repentance. The true repentance doesn’t end in confession by opening your mouth. The storm that came because of the sin of the Jonah, which eventually harmed the sailors, required a decisive repentance from Jonah to calm the stormy sea.
(3) The third is the sailors’ response.
Look at Jonah 1:11a – “So they said to him, ‘What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?’” This question of the sailors urged Jonah to show decisive repentance without ending in just mere confession of sin anymore. What was Jonah's answer to the sailors’ question? Look at verse 12: “He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.” Here, the interesting thing is that the word “on account of me” (v. 12) is the same word with “account” in verse 7. In verse 7, the sailors “cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity had struck us.” And in verse 12, Jonah acknowledged that he was responsible for that calamity and confessed his sin in front of the sailors. So Jonah told them to pick him up and throw him into the sea because he knew that on account of him the great storm had come upon them (v. 12). This was Jonah's action of repentance.
As I saw this Jonah's action of repentance, the writing of Dr. Hwang Sung-joo's ‘Bible Health’ came to my attention: ‘People who like baths are generally progressive and often active. So it is not unusual for them to live healthy and long. Those who do not like baths are somewhat shrunken and lack the will to self-management. It is necessary to keep in mind that in the reality that there are all kinds of false health myths, simple habit of cleaning oneself as well as cleansing the surrounding is the cornerstone of health. In recent years, it has been scientifically proven that 2 to 3 times of warm-cooling alternation (3 minutes in cold water and 1 minute in cold water is effective in relieving stress. Since ancient times, bathing has been widely used as fatigue recovery and relaxation that relieves body fatigue and mind tensions. And bath makes a good progress of the blood circulation, activates metabolism and promotes skin respiration. In particular, in the case of warm-cooling alternation, it maximizes the expansion and contraction of the capillary vessels, supplying nutrients and oxygen to the whole body, and making the blood vessels younger and fresher. In addition, there is so-called exercise effect of discharging waste by sweating. However, if you are exposed to hot bathing or sauna for a long time, your body may be irritated, which may result in physical exhaustion and side effects. Regular bathing is also necessary for Christian life. Christian life without confession and repentance will fall into the stage of helplessness. How can we expect a lively spiritual life if the ability to remove waste products is paralyzed? Incomplete human beings cannot avoid sinning as they live in conflict with neighbors with distorted personalities in distorted social structures. It is impossible not to sin in this world, but the way to acknowledge sin and turn away from sin is always open. As a child who fell on the mud floor runs immediately toward his parents, a mature Christian who realized his sin immediately confesses his sins before God. Confession is our work and forgiveness and cleansing is God's work in Christ. There is a saying that the maturity of faith depends on the depth of sin confession. The retired pastor’s sermon ‘Knowing God deeply is to realize how sinful I am’ is in my ear’ (Internet). This is what John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We must acknowledge, confess, and repent of our sins before the Holy God. And when we repent our sin, we must do so like Jonah who not only confessed his sin but also show the action of his repentance. In particular, we must be Christians who are responsible for the damage done to the people around us because of our own disobedience. And we must confess our sins honestly not only to the God, but also to those around us who have been hurt or harmed because of us. When we do that, the "big storm" that has come to all of us will grew calm.
Jonah’s God and our God is God who makes us responsible for the consequences of our disobedience. Also, Jonah’s God and our God is God who makes us to confess our sins before men. However, our God did not ask us about our responsibility for our sins and asked Jesus, his only begotten Son. God asked Jesus to bear responsibility for our sins by crucifixion of his begotten Jesus. Before Jesus died on the cross this is what he cried out to heavenly Father God: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk. 23:34). This is the grace of God. We should know this grace of God. The more we know this grace of God, the more we will obey God's Word. But when we are not filled with grace and disobey God's Word, we must confess our sins to God by relying on the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. We must confess our sins to God with the assurance of forgiveness. Then God will forgive our sins.