Rev. Reddit Andrews - Jonah: More Than Just A Fish Story. Pt. 1
Our brother Reddit Andrews provides some wise and godly insight in a message from the book of Jonah. Also check out the message he preached from Jonah 1:1-6. Rev. Andrews serves as the pastor of Soaring Oaks Presbyterian Church in Sacramento CA.
“Jonah was a prophet, he never really got it.� The popular Veggie Tales song is only partially true. His enigmatic ending leads to the conclusion that he finally did get it and portrays himself negatively as a creative way of helping his reader ‘get it.’ Few biblical stories have raised as many questions and elicited as much fascination as the prophecy of Jonah. Unfortunately many treat it is especially suited for children missing the tremendous message it conveys. We desperately need the lessons Jonah imparts, because there are striking parallels between his time and ours.
Jonah, a contemporary of Amos and Hosea, prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam, II (793-753 BC). Assyria was both a military juggernaut and constant threat to the stability and national sovereignty of Israel. Jonah, concerned for the future of his nation, was greatly relieved when Assyria’s military machinery bogged down leading to national decline. He was just as alarmed when they suddenly recovered from decline and began to resume its reign of terror.
The moral and religious decline of Israel ran concurrent with Assyria’s resurgence but was masked by economic prosperity. The economic prosperity blinded them to their sin and led them to believe that the prosperity was a sign of God’s approval of the life they were leading. Taking God for granted became the accepted norm and the incredible privilege of Israel’s covenant relationship was supplanted by the notion that God was the private possession of the nation. They thought of God in terms that had nothing to do with His great purposes of world redemption and equated the short term national interest with God’s kingdom aim. This is the very same position we find ourselves in today as Christians in the Western World. The limits of God’s purposes are often thought to run parallel to the promotion of democracy (regardless of whether its ultimate goal is His glory or not) and the current unprecedented economic prosperity we enjoy is widely interpreted the obvious sign of God’s approval while we are blithely oblivious to our terribly sinful neglect of God’s glory.
It was in this setting that the last words Jonah ever hoped to hear struck his ears. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.� Jonah correctly reasoned that God was perfectly capable and would be justified in destroying Nineveh without the benefit of a prophet. He correctly concludes that his commission was a clear indication that God was willing to show mercy to the Ninevites, the inveterate enemy of his people. Whereas the prospect of Sodom’s destruction, no friend to God or His people, set Abraham to pleading for mercy the prospect of Nineveh’s pardon set Jonah to fleeing. What could explain this but that Jonah was affected by the truncated theological thinking prevalent in Israel? To this point “Jonah was a prophet, but he never really got it.� He could see neither the greatness of God’s purpose in His people, or the glory of His limitless compassion. We too must be careful, that we do not concentrate so much on the short term political affairs of the day (which we must give attention to) that we lose sight of the great purposes of God going on around us. The political aims of our nation are not the same as the kingdom aims of our heavenly Father, neither are the personal limits of our own compassion identical with the extent of God’s compassion. Are we sufficiently aware that God is capable of bestowing mercy on those who hate us and despitefully use us? Jonah was unprepared to accept the radical forgiveness of God when it applied to his enemies