Jonah’s God who has done what he has determined
"So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging" (Jonah 1:15).
This week I read the book "From Embers to a Flame: How God Can Revitalize Your Church" [Harry L., III Reeder] and I had time to stop and think about the "Prayer and Predestination" section. The reason is that I was stimulated in my mind by the connection between prayer and predestination that the author is talking about. When I think about the connection between this prayer and the predestination, it reminded me that I challenged my church members to pray. The way of prayer is to hold onto the promise of God and proclaim it. For example, when I pray for Victory Presbyterian Church, I hold on to the promise of the Lord, Matthew 16:18 ("... I will build my church ..."), and proclaim to the Lord like this: ‘Lord, Victory Presbyterian Church is Your church. You have promised that You will build Your church. May you fulfill that promise in Your time and in Your way.” Also, when I pray to God for myself, I hold on to the promise I received from God through the Church College Retreat during my first year of college. And that promise Word of God is John 6:1-15. Although I am like two fish and five loaves of bread, if I surrender my life to the Lord, I believe that the Lord will use me to accomplish the miracle of two fish and five loaves. In the midst of proclaiming the Word of God's promise and praying to him, I could not help but sympathize with the Pastor Reeder’s writing in "Prayer and Predestination" section of his book. In particular, for me, who believes in John Calvin's predestination, Pastor Reeder’s message to trust God’s predestination in prayer not only made me to sympathize with what he said but also challenged my heart. When I thought about God has chosen me before the foundation of the world in love and planned my entire life in this earth, and accomplishing what he intended to do in my life, I have gained peace, strengthen and security. After receiving this precious grace, I was studying Jonah 1: 7-17 in our Church Leader Bible Study, and God helped me to realize that God had done what he has determined even through such disobedient and unfaithful servant of the Lord, Jonah. So I am meditating again on this Word of God under the heading of "Jonah’s God who has done what he has determined” based on Jonah 1:15.
As we have already meditated, Jonah’s God is the God who calls on Jonah and gives him mission. The mission was “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it” (Jonah 1: 2). But Jonah did not fulfill God's mission but rather disobeyed the mission and ran away. He ran away to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, the opposite direction of Nineveh (v. 3). Perhaps the reason why Jonah ran away to Tarshish was so that he could be far away from Nineveh, the destination God had commanded him to go. It seemed that he wanted to run away from Nineveh in the opposite direction, perhaps thinking that if he flew away far away from Nineveh, God would raise up another prophet and send him to Nineveh. But Jonah's thoughts were gradually broken down by God. The reason was because God wanted to use his servant Jonah to fulfill his will.
Jonah’s God worked in the Jonah’s life in order to accomplish what he had determined even through the disobedient Jonah. First thing that God did was to throw a great wind on the sea so that the ship that was heading toward Tarshish was about to break up because of a great storm (vv. 3-4). The reason why God gave the storm of discipline to Jonah is because God wanted Jonah to confess his sin and repent and go to Nineveh, to cry out against the great city Nineveh which was God’s given mission to Jonah. But Jonah went down to the bottom of the ship and was sleeping deeply, even when the ship was nearly broken (v.5). But God used the Gentile captain of the ship to remind disobedient Jonah in order to accomplish what he already determined to do through Jonah. How did God do this to Jonah? God used the Gentile captain. The captain of the Gentile went to sleeping Jonah and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god!” (v. 6) and this was God’s reminder to Jonah God’s command “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it …” (v. 2). Obviously, God told Jonah to go and cry against it, but Jonah rose up and ran away. He also went down to Joppa and went down to the ship (v. 3). He also went down to the bottom of the ship and was deeply asleep. To this Jonah, God used the words of the Gentile captain to make him arise. And though Jonah did not go to Nineveh and cry against it, God was making Jonah cry out to God (ch. 2). Now, before going to Nineveh, Jonah had to realize the sin of his disobedience through the storm of discipline, to confess his sin to God and to repent his sin to God. In this process, God used not only the Gentile captain but also the Gentile sailors, so that Jonah could confess and repent his sins. Not only did God awake Jonah up from his deep sleep through the captain (Of course Jonah awoke from sleep and didn’t cry out to God right away in Jonah chapter 1. But he did so in Jonah chapter 2 when he was inside the great fish), but he also made Jonah to confess and repent his sin of disobedience through the sailors. In order to fulfill their responsibility the sailors cast lots to find out whose account the calamity had struck them. And the lot fell on Jonah (v. 7). Then the sailors said to Jonah, “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). I am sure this four questions pierced Jonah’s conscience. For example, when the sailors asked Jonah, "What do you do?", I am sure Jonah’s conscience was pierced because as prophet who feared God (v. 9) was disobeying God’s command and running away to Tarshish, the opposite direction of Nineveh. So when the sailors asked Jonah “who is responsible for making all this trouble for us?” (v. 8) Jonah could not help bur confess that “it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you” (v. 12). Jonah, who had been harming even the non-believer sailors because of his disobedience, eventually told them that “he was running away from the Lord" (v. 10). So in order to accomplish what he had determined through Jonah, God made disobedient Jonah to confess his sin of disobeying the God’s command and of running away from God’s presence even to Gentile sailors. And God did not stop here. In order to accomplish what he had determined through Jonah, God made Jonah not only to confess his sin with his lips but also make him to repent by making him to say “Pick me up and throw me into the sea” (v. 12). At that time, the sailors did not throw Jonah into the sea, but they did their best to row back to land (v. 13). But they couldn’t because “the sea grew even wilder than before” (v. 13). Isn’t it interesting to see the sailors wrestling with the Creator God in order to save Jonah? What do you think, when God who made the sea become gradually wilder than before when the sailors did their best to row back to land?
When we are disobedient to God's command and are running away from the Lord, God sends a storm of correction in our lives, not only that the ship of our lives is nearly broken, but also he raises storms in our hearts. The more we do not show we are truly repented but just mere confession of our sins, more and more the storms in our hearts become faltering and we will never enjoy peace. The stormy sea will not stop. Until we have shown our repentance, both the internal and external storms will become increasingly stormy. In the end, we see in Jonah 1:14 that the sailors surrendering and crying out to the God of heaven who made the sea and the land. Isn’t it amazing? Is it not surprising that the sailors who cried out to their own gods (v. 5) when the ship was nearly broken (v. 4), they cried out to Jonah’s God, the Lord God of Israel (v. 14)? God not only made Jonah to proclaim to the sailors that he is the God of heaven who made the sea and the land (v. 9) but also enabled the sailors to experience the God of heaven who made the sea and the land so that they cried to the God of heaven instead of their own gods. God even used disobedient Jonah, who supposed to go to Nineveh and proclaim God’s message, to proclaim who God is to the sailors in the ship and eventually made the sailors to cry out to him. God, who does what he determined to do, not only worked in disobedient Jonah’s life but also with the sailors’ through his disobedient servant Jonah. What amazing grace and providence of God this was? Finally, the sailors were no longer against the will of the Lord (v. 13) they threw Jonah into the sea (v. 15) after praying to Jonah’s God (v. 14). Then the sea stopped its raging (v. 15). The stormy sea that swallowed Jonah became calm.
Our God is the God who does what he has determined. God, who loves us and chose us before the foundation of the world, is God who gives us mission and uses us to accomplish his will. If we are like Jonah, disobeying God's command and avoiding our calling and fleeing the mission given to us, we must immediately confess our sins and repent and turn to God in obeying the Lord's command. We must commit ourselves to fulfilling the mission the Lord has given us. If we are like Jonah, fleeing from God's presence, then God will throw a storm of discipline into our lives. And when we go through God’s discipline, we must not be like Jonah who went down to the bottom of the ship and fall in deep sleep. We must not be deeply asleep without even knowing the storm of the discipline that God is giving us. We must listen to the voice of God, even through a non-believer around us whose words echo God’s command in our hearts. And as the captain who told Jonah to get up, we must get up from our deep spiritual sleep and seek God. We must pray to the God of salvation who is pleased to forgive our sins. How should we pray? We must confess our sins and repent. We must not confess our sins only with our lips. Instead, we must make a decision like Jonah. God requires us to act in repentance. If we confess our sins to God and repent, God will instantly calm the stormy sea of our lives that troubles our hearts. We will enjoy the peace of mind that the world cannot give.