A pastor who receives grace from the non-believers
“Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before” (Jonah 1:13).
Today, when I was preaching the Word of God, the Spirit gave an insight. So after I had prayer time, I came into my office, set in front of the computer and started writing this Quiet Time. The insight was God showed his grace to disobedient Jonah through the Gentile sailors. And that grace was God let Jonah know that ‘God is gracious’. The reason God gave grace to Jonah was so that Jonah, like his God, could be also gracious to the people of Nineveh.
How did God cause Jonah, who was disobedient, to receive grace from the Gentile sailors? We can see in the text Jonah 1:13 that the sailors are gracious to Jonah. Jonah said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea” (v. 12) because he knew that the sailors had met the great storm because of himself. But sailors strive to save Jonah rather than throw him into the sea (v. 13). This is the grace that the sailors had given to Jonah because the sailors should have thrown Jonah into the sea. Since the ship was about to break up due to Jonah’s disobedience and Jonah told them to pick him up and throw him into the sea, the sailors could pick Jonah up and throw him into the sea. But they didn’t. Instead, they tried to save Jonah. Isn’t this grace that the sailors had given to Jonah? Think about it. If all the non-believers have fallen into a crisis because of a pastor and the pastor told them to throw him into the sea, then what should be the normal respond of the non-believers? Shouldn’t it be ‘Because of you pastor we are in crisis now’ and throw the pastor into the sea? But instead of doing so, if the non-believers try to save the pastor by doing their best to row back to land rather than throw it into the sea, isn’t this grace? Isn’t this the grace that the non-believers give to the servant of the Lord? Don’t you think something has changed? Isn’t it normal that Jonah, the servant of the Lord, should give grace to the non-believer sailors? Why did God allow disobedient Jonah to receive grace from the non-believer sailors? I think there is God's amazing love and grace. That amazing grace and love is that God was telling Jonah that God is a gracious God. Therefore, God wanted Jonah to be gracious to the people of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian, the enemy country of Israel.
But the question is, “Did Jonah know that his God was a gracious God and gave grace to the people of Nineveh?” The answer seems to be "yes" but in reality it is "no". In other words, it seems like Jonah, who prayed inside the belly of a great fish (chapter 2), was saved (2:9-10), a second chance was given (3:1), went to Nineveh and proclaimed to the Ninevites “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned” (v. 4), gave grace to the Ninevites. But when we look at Jonah chapter 4, Jonah “was greatly displeased and became angry” (4:1) because God had compassion and didn’t bring upon the Ninevites, who repented and turned from their evil ways, the destruction he had threatened (3:10). So this was how Jonah prayed to the Lord: “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live” (4:2-3). In this prayer, Jonah seems to know that God is gracious by his head but not actually in his heart. In other words, the servant of God Jonah didn’t imitate the gracious heart of God. That was why Jonah was greatly displeased and angry, even to the point of wanting to die, because God showed grace to the Ninevites instead of sending calamity to them. Jonah's anger was not right in God's sight (v.4). Although God gave grace to such disobedient servant Jonah through the sailors, Jonah greatly disliked giving grace to the Ninevites. Although God gave Jonah the second chance, but Jonah didn’t want to give the Ninevites a second chance. That was why Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry because God gave the Ninevites the second chance. How selfish is the servant of the Lord who does not know the grace of God?
The more I think about Jonah, the more I see myself. A disobedient pastor, nevertheless, God gives grace to such unworthy servant of the Lord like me through the non-believers around me. Especially, I am receiving a lot of grace and love through my long-time friends. Because I cannot pay back to them, I am just praying to God for them. Why does God give grace to me even through the non-believer friends around me? It is because not only that God is teaching me that God is gracious, but also to build me up to be his servant who imitates the gracious heart of God so that I can be gracious to others. Isn’t this the grace of God?