Jonah Talk 4

The Lord Appointed!
Jonah 4:4-4:11
Context, Setting and characters
Well today we continue with the story, of that most enigmatic of God’s prophets from the Old Testament Jonah, and today we look at scene four of his story that is set just outside the city of Nineveh.

Now as you may remember scene 1 of Jonah is set upon the sea, and the scene ends for Jonah with him facing a watery grave at the bottom of the ocean. Jonah has ignored the direct command of the Lord to go to Nineveh, and as a consequence Jonah is staring death in the face.

But in Scene 2 of the book, Jonah comes to his senses and prays to his God. And as a consequence the strong hand of the Lord is lifted from him, God delivers Jonah from the deep via a large fish. So Jonah finishes scene two upon dry ground, and Jonah now knows the truth with a great personal conviction that ‘Salvation is from the Lord’.

And then Scene 3 as you may remember is really a take two of scene 1, only this time Jonah obeys God and goes and preaches to Nineveh. And Jonah’s preaching has an amazing effect as we read of the gracious and compassionate Lord from 3:10.

10 When God saw what they did and
how they turned [turn] from their evil ways,
he had compassion [renounce] and did not bring upon [do] them the destruction
he had threatened [to do].
NIV Jonah 4:1
But Jonah was greatly displeased [grieved] and
became angry.
2 He prayed to the LORD [YHWH],
"O LORD [YHWH],
is this not what I said when I was still at home [in the land]?
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 [hesed],
a God who relents [renounce] from sending calamity.

3 Now, O LORD [YHWH],
take away my life,
for it is better for me to die than to live."

So Jonah finishes scene three wanting to die!
So did you catch that, scene 1 he is going to die, scene 2 he prays and is saved from death, scene 3 he changes his mind again and this time prays for death.
So what will happen in scene 4 we wonder, will Jonah want to live or die? Or will he in fact be given any choice in the matter?

Telling the Story
So today we get to the fourth scene and we start with something of a transitional question by God to Jonah, and it’s a question with some intent behind it, it seems. The whole of scene four of Jonah, is this fascinating exchange between God and Jonah, everyone else seems to have left the stage, and our attention is drawn almost by spotlight to focus upon Jonah as he sits alone on the stage before us and God speaks to him.
4 But the LORD replied,
"Have you any right to be angry?"

This is a question that Jonah will be asked twice by God, ‘have you any right to be angry?’, and when a Hebrew story teller says something twice or even more, they are trying to get your attention. This question at the beginning of this whole scene is something of title for this scene I suspect. As we read on.

5 Jonah went out and
sat down at a place east of the city.
There he made himself a shelter,
sat in its shade and
waited to see what would happen to the city.

Now a couple of questions come to mind here don’t they?
Do you reckon that Jonah heading out of the city here, is a little like scene 1 where Jonah headed for Tarshish?
I mean at least this time he has the sense not to go near water, and the sense to not try and flee too far from where God had told him to be, but why do you reckon he head out?
It’s intriguing isn’t it?

Well the focus of this little clause is that Jonah wants to see what will happen to the city. And the question we have is why would he do that?
I mean didn’t the end of scene 3 already answer this 3:10?
God has relented from what he had threatened to do. But Poor old Jonah is so bent on seeing justice, so bent on seeing judgment, he is holding out it seems, just to see if God will change his mind.

Now as you maybe aware Jack Gibson’s funeral was this week, and as a Parramatta supporter who has very fond memories of the early 80’s, I thought we’d let the supercoach have a quote for old times sake. Jack reckoned that ‘waiting for Cronulla to win the premiership, was like leaving the porch light on for Harold Holt!’.

I think Jonah is in the same category here, God is determined to have compassion upon Nineveh and has told everyone that in the story already. And in Jonah’s action we can see a great twist of irony, that while Jonah waits to see what God will do to the city, we wait to see what God will do with Jonah.
SO Jonah waits. Maybe for 40 days, maybe just to see if a leopard like Nineveh can change its’ spots. And as Jonah waits

6 Then the LORD God provided [appointed] a vine and
made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort,


Now the last time God ‘appointed’ anything in this story, it was a fish back in 1:17. And it is safe to say that the fish was a great, great comfort to Jonah, in the time of his distress. Now interestingly Jonah prayed to God in his distress and received deliverance by the fish, at the hand of the Lord, back in scene two of the story.

This time however in Jonah’s distress, he doesn’t pray, and yet God still generously appoints another comfort to him, this time of a vine, and a fast growing one at that!

And then something amazing happens in the story. Last week we were amazed as Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord in 3:1, well this week we are dumbstruck as:
.. Jonah was very happy [rejoiced with a great rejoicing!] about the vine.

Jonah literally (in a typical Hebrew idiom) ‘rejoiced with a great rejoicing!’
And he did it over a plant, which is odd really because he didn’t really get this excited when he was saved from his watery grave by the fish!!
I mean he was definitely relieved after that escape, but he certainly didn’t wind up doing some sought of Bavarian thigh slapping gig and then ‘rejoice with a great rejoicing!’, and yet he did over this plant. It is an odd response isn’t it?

I mean it does tend to look a little over the top, Jonah doesn’t care if he himself dies, but gee he loves this vine. But like most things in life it doesn’t last long.

7 But at dawn the next day God provided [appointed] a worm, which
chewed the vine so that it withered.

And so as we continue God again ‘appoints’ something else for Jonah, only this time it isn’t for comfort? But we need to be careful here, I mean to be fair, God doesn’t appoint it for evil either does he?

God was generous to Jonah and gave him shade for one day, and now he has put things back to their natural state. And you kind of wonder, is this God’s way of telling Jonah, that ‘there is nothing to see here, move along!’.
But Jonah doesn’t seem to get the hint, which isn’t surprising really, he is a stubborn person as we know.

8 When the sun rose, God provided [appointed] a scorching east wind,
and the sun blazed [struck] on Jonah's head
so that he grew faint.

So it seems that Jonah didn’t get the hint, and now God is making sure he has Jonah’s undivided attention, this time God ‘appoints’ a scorching east wind. And just incase it won’t do the job, (lets face it Jonah likes to be dramatic, after all being thrown into the sea wasn’t enough last time, he needed weeds to wrap around his head before he got the point and saw that God was serious.)

Well this time his head is ‘struck’ by the sun, and the last person to be ‘struck’ by anything in the story was the King of Nineveh by the word of the Lord back in 2:6. God got the kings attention when he was ‘struck’ by the word, and now the Lord is going to get Jonah’s attention when he is ‘struck’ by the sun, with no cover from his precious vine.

And in a not unfamiliar way, doesn’t Jonah respond well to the events that happen?
I say facetiously!
Which lets face it is a little bit of a precious response by Jonah when he is the one who has overstayed his welcome upon the generosity of God. So Jonah speaks to God, and in something of a reiteration of his pray for death back in 4:3 we read.

He wanted [asked] to die,
and said,
"It would be better for me to die than to live."

Which does seem a trifle melodramatic for mind, just because he didn’t get his way! Jonah has more than a passing resemblance to a teenager who has had their TV and internet privileges removed.

But to be fair he does seem quite resolved about this doesn’t he? As this is the second time he has prayed for death in the last 6 verses, and in fact when you look he hasn’t actually said anything else has he?

And God’s response (like a good parent) is essentially the same message as what he said last time this happened in V4, which is where we started today.

9 But God said to Jonah,
"Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do,"
he said.
"I am angry enough to die."
[lit. It would be better for me to die than to live]

There is a real Emphatic-ness about Jonah’s resolve for his answer, three times he has said, ‘It would be better for me to die than to live’. Three times!
And these are fact Jonah’s last words in the book that bears his name, we never hear from him again.

And so from the start of Jonah’s story to the end, you do wonder, has he changed at all?

But the parallel questions of God, ‘Do you have any right to be angry?’ in v4 and ‘Do you have any right to be angry about the vine?’ in V9, tip us as readers off, as to what is the heart of the problem for Jonah before God. Jonah doesn’t know everything about God’s purposes in the world, and at the moment he is unwilling to trust that God can actually do good in all this, in a way that is consistent with God’s character.


And finally in v10 God goes on to last movement of the scene and the book, where the issue of the book is resolved. God has the last word and in it he explains some home truths to Jonah about his view of how God is supposed to act. Jonah’s big problem is that he doesn’t know everything like God does, and he doesn’t always do good like God does, and in this particular case Jonah doesn’t know what pity is for, or more to the point, who pity is for.

10 But the LORD said,
"You have been concerned [pity] about this vine,
though you
did not tend it or
[did not] make it grow.
It sprang up overnight and
died overnight.
11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people
who cannot tell
their right hand
from their left,
and many cattle as well.
Should I not be concerned [pity] about that great city?"

And we supply the answer to the question don’t we!
Should I not be concerned [pity] about that great city?"

And we all say, ‘of course you should!’
Except Jonah, who in the back yelling in his best mel brooks voice, ‘no save the plant, save the plant instead!’. But then isn’t Jonah just like his countrymen of the time Israel, ‘not the gentiles God, not the Gentiles, we’ll take the plant at least it’s kosher!’.

The final scene of Jonah’s story paints for us a stark contrast of the difference between God’s pity and Jonah’s pity. Jonah in this last scene is painted as a picture of self interest because of a quite satirical obsession with a vine. Where God cares for the city of 120,000.

Interpreting the Story
Jonah Vs God
God twice asks Jonah, ‘have you any right to be angry?’
The implied answer is of course, ‘No!’.
But Jonah’s basic problem seems to be that his knowledge of God and God’s exact purposes is limited, limited because he is finite, but then limited again, because he like all humanity is sinful.

Throughout the story we see that Jonah does in a profound and deep way understand God’s character, he often tells us great theological truths about his God, but Jonah just can’t seem to understand how God’s character relates to what he is seeing in action. Why would God want to save such a wicked and evil people as the Ninevites?
But then Jonah wouldn’t be alone in finding it difficult to reconcile what he sees this world would with the character of the God he knows would he?

I’m sure we have all had moments when we wonder, ‘Why would God choose these things to happen?’ we cannot fathom what God is doing in his world, or more poignantly in our lives. The message of Jonah is an encouragement to trust in the character of God, even when we find it hard to join the dots on His cause and effect of this world. Jonah encourages us that despite our partial knowledge of the events of this life we do know truly that God is gracious and compassionate, and we can trust him to act in keeping with his character.

In Jonah’s adventures God is shown to be absolutely sovereign and yet merciful, and we are challenged to be obedient before him. And why? because God is worthy as our creator and our saviour, of our obedience and trust.

Jonah knowing the character of his God personifies for us the struggle to trust that God is acting truly in the world. Jonah should have rejoiced with a great rejoicing over the repenting of Nineveh, not rejoice over the plant!

Jonah should have been like Paul over God’s compassion and salvation of the Gentiles, Paul who did rejoice with a great rejoicing and said:

Rom11;32 For God has consigned all to disobedience,
that he may have mercy on all.

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34 For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?
35 Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen.

Now that is to rejoice with a great rejoicing over God’s compassion isn’t it?
Now as a slight aside, let me ask you a question, Why is this book a narrative and not in the form of an oracle, like the other minor prophets?

The form of the book of Jonah, tells you something about the intended message of Jonah. The writer uses narrative to tell us about these prophecies and events, because narrative allows for characterization. At the heart of this book is the story is about the interaction and the relationship of God with Jonah.

Even in the midst of their disagreement there is a personal-ness of the relationship between God and Jonah. God clearly loves Jonah and is amazingly patient with him, like a parent with a young child, you could even say like one who barely knows his right from his left it seems.

And From their interactions in the book of Jonah it is clear that God and Jonah have a robust relationship don’t they? I think it is fair to say that they speak pretty frankly with each other, in a way that reveals a depth to their relationship.

The Theological implications of the Story
God is both the creator and the merciful saviour
God has made all of creation and his desire is to show mercy to them all. He shows mercy to them everyday, with sunshine and rainfall, food and air, in fact in the very gift of life in the first place. But most especially God desires to have compassion upon his creation in salvation.

If you think about how the story starts at 1:1 in judgment, but finishes at the end of Ch 4, in mercy and salvation. Jonah is the story of the gracious and compassionate God whose desire is to save.

Mankind should Pray in times of their distress about this world
Our knowledge of God and his exact purposes before us in life, and our capacity to trust him in the midst of this is often limited. I think the book of Jonah encourages us to see the value of prayer, it is after all chock full of them.

And quite amazingly really, in these prayers God seems to allow the genuine, (if not a little impetuous), questioning from his servants in their time of difficulty. God is no tinpot tyrant who will not tolerate questioning.

Jonah encourages us to bring real, heart felt prayer to God in the times of uncertainty or distress, much like Jesus did upon the cross in quoting psalm 22.
I suspect if your like me, this is quite a confronting concept of what you do in prayer, if your like me you’re unlikely to bring up problems in life, because it’s probably my fault anyway. SO instead in my prayer I give God the polite cold shoulder really, not my real heart felt frustration, because of my lack of understanding about what he is doing in his world.

Jonah does give us real confidence to understand that we do have a robust relationship with God, ( and clearly the NT tells us this truth with more clarity because of all that Christ has done) and in light of this we should pray real prayers to him. God is good, and his action are good, so we should pray when we find it hard to understand how this can be true in our world and in our experience.

The Application of the Story today
Jonah is a story of forgiveness, in which we see God’s mercy spilling forward across his creation, and God’s mercy becomes a flowing river in salvation. Jonah is also a story of the implicit value of all life because it all came from God, but more than that a hope for all people in their creator God, a hope in a compassionate God, a God who holds the gift of salvation in his hands.

The NT
But the world needed a better prophet than Jonah, a Prophet who truly understood God, one who understood that God really is gracious and compassionate full of love in all his actions, a God who holds salvation in the palm his hand.

A Prophet who didn’t turn and run from the gentiles, but the prophet who gave himself up to the gentiles upon a Roman cross. The prophet who cried out not for the Gentiles ruin, but cried out father forgive them, they know not what they do!

The prophet who stopped the winds and waves without needing to call on his God, because he was God.
The Prophet who did not just conquer the belly of a fish, but the prophet who would conquer the belly of sheol, the prophet who would conquer death and be resurrected from the grave after 3 days.
The prophet who would not just preach a message of judgment to save a city of 120,000, but a prophet who would preach a message of grace and truth to save a multitude that were too large to count.
The prophet who would pray not for his own death but the prophet who would be wholehearted in his obedience to God the father, that not his own will, but God’s would be done, even if it was to cost him his own life.
The prophet who would was not a picture of self interest, but a picture of humility as he knew he would save others, but to do so he could not save himself.

The Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the True Prophet, was delivered over to human hands. He was killed and after three days he rose so that salvation could be preached to the ends of the earth.

Jonah - Talk 3

‘The Lord is Gracious and Compassionate’
Jonah 3:1-4:4

Context, Setting and characters
Well as you may remember last week we finished scene 2 with our ‘hero’ Jonah, being vomited onto dry land. This of course followed his descent from Israel to the bottom of the ocean and then Jonah’s prayer from a watery grave, with his head enclosed by reeds. Jonah’s prayer is answered by God he is taken to a salvation upon dry land.

From start to finish in this story God’s strong hand has been revealed upon Jonah, first in a hard discipline for his disobedience in the form of a storm, and then secondly, in a profound and wonderful salvation in the form of a fish.

From beginning to end in this story, we see something of a tour de force of God’s sovereignty in his world, but in particular in the life experience of Jonah.

And so today we come to the third scene of Jonah, a scene which is predominantly set in the city of Nineveh, which you may remember is the capital of Assyria, who is Israel’s ‘friendly’ nearby superpower.

And in something of a surprise to us as readers, scene 3 begins, in exactly the same way, that scene one has commenced. God calls to Jonah to go to Nineveh.

Let me ask you this question, Why do you reckon they put this take two for Jonah in the book? Why is it here?
Or more to the point, why bother having two essentially parallel scenes?
Why did the writer bother having the scene of the failure of the prophet, and not just the later successful trip?
It’s and interesting question and I’ll let you contemplate that as we get back to the story. And this scene 3 of the story breaks up into 4 parts.


Telling the Story

A – Jonah’s call and obedience!

NIV Jonah 3:1
Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
2 "Go [Get up Go] to the great city of Nineveh and
proclaim [Call] to it the message [words] I give you."

3 Jonah obeyed [got up and went] the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh.
Now Nineveh was a very important city [great city of gods]-- a visit required three days.
4 On the first day, Jonah started into the city.
He proclaimed [called]:
"Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned."

The crowd cheers, they here the words. ‘Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord’.
Go on admit it, you were beginning to wonder weren’t you?
Things are on track, God speaks and the prophet does, that is a little more like how these stories are supposed to go isn’t it!

In an act of profound mercy God speaks to Jonah a second time, Jonah gets a second chance. And God’s commands to Jonah are the exact same three things God has commanded Jonah back in chapter 1. ‘Get up, Go and Call to Nineveh’.
So Jonah gets up and this time he goes to Nineveh.

[aside] Now as the action continues with Jonah in Nineveh, there is an interesting aside about Hebrew story telling here, that happens nearly every time in the OT. In that the writer, or narrator of the story, often doesn’t tip us off as to whether the actions of a person in the story is a good or a bad thing, we are left to decide for ourselves. The writers of the OT, are not like our journalists today, whether it’s the likes of Today Tonight or those apparent bastions of the truth and right the Sydney morning herald (just ask them, they’ll tell you!), what we really get today is editorial comment, an analysis of the people involved and the outcomes that are desirable, not just a reporting of the events or facts of the matter, (but this is probably a rant for another day!)

But in the OT generally, and in Jonah in particular, we are left to decide for ourselves when we read about the action. Like, is it a good thing or not that Jonah walks only one day into a city that is three days journey across?
What do you think?
What do you think given what you know of Jonah?

The commentaries I looked at try to solve the problem by explaining the history of the situation in terms of the cities size or lay out, or grammatical insights, blah blah blah. It seems to me in doing this, it is a little like trying to explain the joke just after it has been told!
I think we are supposed to feel some uncertainty and tension at this point from Jonah’s actions.

And in a compounding effect we have Jonah’s message,
‘"Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned."‘.

Is this the message he was given from God?
We don’t know from the text, but what are your suspicions?
Is this the proper message, is it a good thing or not?
What do you think?

Well irrespective, under God’s sovereign hand, it seems to have the desired effect.

B - The call to Nineveh and their repentance

5 The Ninevites believed God.
They declared [called] a fast,
and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When the news reached [struck] the king of Nineveh,
he rose [got up] from his throne,
took off his royal robes,
covered himself with sackcloth and
sat down in the dust.
7 Then he issued a proclamation [cried out] in Nineveh:
"By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste [graze] anything;
do not let them eat or drink.
8 But let [jussive or command?]man and beast be covered with sackcloth.
Let everyone call [call] urgently on God [elohim].
Let them give up [turn] their evil ways and their violence.
9 Who knows?
God may yet relent [turn] and with compassion [renounce]
turn [turn] from his fierce anger
so that we will not perish [destroy]."


What a result – 8 words of Judgment and that happens!
Usually I get two ways to live out and the great riches of the forgiveness available in Christ, and they respond with – so did you see the cricket on the weekend..


But the Ninevites knew that the words of the prophet, were the words of God to them. The Kings response is nothing short of staggering. Can you imagine if someone had of gone to Saddam Hussein and sad, ‘knock it off or God will judge you!’ And he said, ‘fair enough’ and actually stopped it!’. It almost laughable isn’t it. And even that wouldn’t paint fully enough the picture we have going on here.

The king gets up from his throne and sat in the dust, and called to Nineveh. So, are you getting this? The pagan king at the words of Jonah, ‘gets up’ and ‘calls’ to Nineveh – sound familiar? But the king calls on Nineveh ‘to repent!’. The king realized he was in the presence of a power he could not defeat. And he knew this from 8 little words, from our little stubborn mate Jonah!

Just How powerful is the word of God?

But when you think about it for a minute, How did they know to repent?
Jonah certainly didn’t tell them!
Did you think Jonah was supposed to tell them that bit of critical information?

The King goes from his throne to ashes and fasts, and from the greatest to the least do the same, in a sign of mourning over their wrongdoing before God. The King himself calls out to Nineveh, with only the word of Jonah to him, how silly does Jonah look, who wouldn’t call out to Nineveh, when told to by God. The King rightly sees that Jonah the Prophet is speaking God’s words.

We see the extent of the Kings seriousness, from the decree that neither man nor beast can eat or drink, but even they must be covered in sack cloth. From the least to the greatest, for every living thing in land. They are taking this very seriously aren’t they?

I suspect however, this image is supposed to be at the same time both extremely earnest, (that the nation from top to bottom will be committed), and yet at the same time it is supposed to be another satirical almost comical like image in Jonah.

I mean How do you stop cattle from eating and drinking? Much less dress them in sack cloth – I don’t think the ancient Ninevites invented the cattle prod.
We are supposed to get this as a satirical and serious I think.
I suspect it is a little satirical against our friend Jonah, that even Gentile beasts repent better at of the word of God than he did!

And so the story continues and the call of the King, is for all his people to call upon God, in the time of their very real and life threatening distress. Just like the sailors did in the time of their real distress in scene 1 of Jonah. Or indeed as Jonah himself did from his watery grave in scene 2. And now the Ninevites are doing exactly the same thing in scene 3 of this curious little book.

The King calls for the people to turn around, to repent from their evil ways and their violence. Now up to that point in the story, did you have any idea what they had done, what their wickedness before the Lord was to quote 1:2?

Well It’s seems Jonah did, and they really were not nice people, and they know that they have done evil. This King of Nineveh had something of guilty conscience though I think, I mean he doesn’t protest his innocence or even argue the point, he just affirms it as true as says to his people ‘Turn from your evil and violence.’

9 Who knows?
God may yet relent [turn] and with compassion [renounce]
turn [turn] from his fierce anger
so that we will not perish [destroy]."

And then in V9 he has this great little statement of the grounds of his prayer, and interestingly it isn’t about what he has done is it?
He doesn’t presume upon God’s answer does he?
It’s not mechanistic, in terms of, if we perform this ritual and appease God, he looks like he cares about injustice, and everyone can be happy and go home.
He doesn’t even presume there will be some way out for them. He doesn’t say, well if we just do the right thing and say we are sorry.. we will have made up for our wrong and it will all be ok.

In quite an amazing way for a pagan King, the grounds of his prayer are totally and solely based upon the character of God, he knows that God is compassionate and may turn aside his anger. But then, that is exactly the same reason that God heard stubborn Jonah’s prayer in scene 2 isn’t it?

God can’t be bought off, but his desire is to be gracious

C – God’s response is to turn and have compassion

10 When God saw what they did and
how they turned [turn] from their evil ways,
he had compassion [renounce] and did not bring upon [do] them the destruction
he had threatened [to do].

It’s an amazing parallel really in God’s response to the pagan’s prayer. The pagans seem to know the exact nature and even the words of God, they call on God to be God. And God is!


They turn from their evil, and call on him to relent. And in response God then sees the genuineness of their repentance or turn, and so God desires of his own choosing, to act in almost the identical words of their prayer and he turns from his anger to have compassion on them.

God is not embarrassed to act in accordance with his mercy and compassion, even when hard liners like Jonah are calling for justice only!

And what has Nineveh discovered, well they understand the same truth Jonah discovered in 2:8,
‘"Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace [hesed] that could be theirs.
And they turn from their idols.

They understand the great theme of Jonah from 2:10, they Learn that
‘salvation belongs to the Lord’.

And in response, Jonah is not happy about it!


D – Jonah’s new prayer – not for salvation this time, but for death.
NIV Jonah 4:1
But Jonah was greatly displeased [grieved] and
became angry.
2 He prayed to the LORD [YHWH],
"O LORD [YHWH],
is this not what I said when I was still at home [in the land]?
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 [hesed],
a God who relents [renounce] from sending calamity.

3 Now, O LORD [YHWH],
take away my life,
for it is better for me to die than to live."

Michael Carleone in Godfather 3, in trying to finish his dirty work with the Mafia so he can have the fairy tale happy ending, said
‘Just when you think you are out, they pull you back in!’.

And that is exactly how Jonah feels right now. Jonah thinks he has done the right thing with his message, and now Nineveh are going to get every last drop of what they deserve!

But instead the plot thickens, and Jonah gets pulled deeper into a story he wants no part of, and as a response Jonah loses the plot.

There are many satirical images in this story, beasts wearing sackcloth is one of them, but poor old Jonah is the most comical of the lot really. He is hoping mad here in a irrational tirade, that has faulty towers-esq overtones about it!
If he had a bit of a tanty in going towards tarshish, he has an ear piercing, foot stamping, plate smashing wobbly, at this, when he sees that God has mercy on Nineveh.

But in this little section, we are given an insight into the meaning of the first scene of Jonah, that Jonah’s flight from Nineveh to Tarshish is because…. He knew this would happen, he knew God would have mercy upon them. But up to this point he has kept this truth to himself. Which makes you think, maybe he didn’t tell Nineveh all of the message after all.

But despite Jonah’s best evasive efforts otherwise, the pagans by the grace of God seem to know about Exodus 34:6
‘6 The Lord passed before [Moses] and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, ‘
Despite Jonah not telling them of their chance to repent, it seems God really is sovereign and merciful over all of Jonah’s escapade.

And as the story continues we see Jonah has two profoundly contrasting prayers in the space of one chapter, the first one back in chapter 2 was begging to be saved from death because life is better, and the second in chapter 3 is a prayer to be saved from life because now Death is better. It is truly an ironic scene.

Jonah knows the truth about his God, he just can’t stomach seeing it in action.
He can’t stomach seeing these pagans get a second chance. Jonah quotes exodus 34:6, Where we see the profound mercy of God towards Israel in the time of their disobedience, a mercy towards Jonah’s own people where God gives them a second chance. A mercy that Jonah has now experienced first hand in his second chance from God, to be obedient and deliver the message he was told to give in the first place.

Jonah of all people should be the champion of second chances from God, but instead he is so grieved that Nineveh is spared, he despises the second chance he has received from God.

So scene one ends with Jonah in the throws of death at the bottom of the sea. Scene 2 ends with Jonah praying to live and him being saved. And in another ironic twist scene 3 of Jonah ends with Jonah praying for death. Where will Jonah take us next?

Interpreting the Story
Well the heart of this scene 3 of Jonah, is again a continuation and development of the themes and message of the early scenes of the book, which is hardly surprising given scene 3 is such a parallel of scene 1. And what are these themes, well:


A - Jonah Vs Gentiles
Jonah is such a contrast to the gentiles in this story isn’t he? The gentiles repent at the words of Jonah, knowing the Lord has spoken to them through him. Jonah in contrast has the Lord speak to him directly and he is obstinately disobedient.
The gentile cows repent in sack cloth better than Jonah.
The fish is more obedient than Jonah, the gentile sailors are more obedient than Jonah, and even the sea is more obedient than Jonah and does what the Lord commands it to do.

But at its heart I don’t think the book of Jonah is just the story of one man, it seems it is something of a parable for the whole nation of Israel.

B - Jonah the prophet as representative Israel to the nations
Jonah is just like his countrymen in this regard, stubborn before God, and ungracious with all the good things they have received. And in this regard Jesus understood that with Israel some things never changed, which is why he castigated his own generation that,
Matt 12:41, 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Based on that rational, the gentile sailors will get to judge Israel, in fact even the cows would get to judge Israel, but I suspect that is a little facetious, and proud, which is the one thing this book seeks to cut out of its readers.

But Israel have always had a problem. Even after Jonah and before Jesus the Prophet Zechariah said:
Zech1:1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, 2 The Lord was very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. 4 Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds. But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. 5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers?

Israel have always had a problem of obedience towards God, and Jesus would come to deal with this problem once and for all.

The Theological implications of the Story
The theological centre of this book is the unimpeachable rightness and Sovereignty of God in his Judgment and his Mercy. The rightness of God in his distribution of salvation that is his gift alone to give.

The refrain of this scene of Jonah is that the Lord is a ‘Gracious and compassionate God’, and everyone in the story seems to know it. From The Gentiles King to the Gentile cows, and even now Jonah says it out loud too. God, Our God is gracious and compassionate.

In short this scene today gives us great confidence to proclaim, that Our God is a God of Second chances. Second chances for wayward prophets, and second chances for evil and violent people. Our God is gracious and compassionate.


The Application of the Story today
When we look at Jonah, we should be able see ourselves at least just a little. I think many people see Jonah as being this exceptionally disobedient and selfish man.

But I suspect Jonah isn’t exceptionally disobedient, as Israel the nation isn’t exceptionally disobedient, the reality is they are both just exceptionally human, it seems to me. Because to be human is by definition to be a bit broken, and to struggle with that gap between what we believe, and what we do! The gap between the way we know we should live before God and the way we actually live. But I’m sure Jonah isn’t alone in that is he?

Well the good news is that God is gracious and compassionate with Jonah, as he is with the ignorant gentile sailors, as he is even with the wicked Nineveh, and in the same way he is gracious and compassionate with us also. God paid a great price to demonstrate it, to give us a second chance, and to give those around us who we might think are beyond the pale, he paid a great price to save them too.
Romans 5:8 but God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jonah called out Eight judgment riddled words, and God saved a city. That’s a challenge isn’t it?
But it is an encouragement also, if God is willing and able to save people through Jonah, what do you think he is prepared to do through you?

If God can save people through eight words of Judgment, what can he do with the wonderful Gospel message of his son, the one who loved the world enough to die for it?

Our God is gracious and compassionate God, Our God is a God of second chances!!

Jonah Talk 2

‘Salvation belongs to the LORD’

'Some people believe football is a matter of life and death.
I'm very disappointed with that attitude.
I can assure you, it is much, much more important than that.'
Bill Shankly – manager of Liverpool Football Club

We live in a society that is somewhat glib in it’s view of death don’t we?
At best we set out to numb the specter of it, by the endless pursuit of ever increasing doses of pleasurable experience, whether they be physical, natural or even artificially induced using chemical means. As a society we have a mantra to try and ‘suck the marrow out of life’, which seems to at a subconscious level be the means of cheating death, or at least last ditched attempt to belittle its impact. An Attempt, so at least we can utter those apparent words of great comfort that, ‘they died doing what they loved’. Like that helps at all!

But as Christians, we can be guilty of being a little glib about death ourselves can’t we?
It’s alright, I’m right with God, we’ll be resurrected.. and that’s true, but you do have to go through the door that is marked death first, and that is a thoroughly unpleasant concept isn’t it?
You do actually ‘walk alone’ through that door, in contrast to the song.

Death for everyone is a deadly serious business, even the death of someone else is nothing to be trifled with, and that is what our ‘hero’ or maybe I should just call him our ‘protagonist’ Jonah is finding out now. Death is really a deadly serious business for everyone, Jew and Gentile a like. A serious business for Jonah, but then again a serious business for you and me just the same.

Summary
And that is the predicament we left Jonah in last week, at the end of Scene 1 which finishes in verse 16, he is heading toward the bottom of the ocean. As you may remember in scene 1, Jonah has been told to go to Nineveh to preach against them for their wickedness has risen up before the Lord, and instead, Jonah runs in exactly the opposite direction, he heads for Tarshish. He directly and defiantly disobeys God and heads in the other direction. It would be fair to say, Jonah throws a bit of a tanty really.

So in response the LORD throws a storm at Jonah, and Jonah was then thrown into the sea in response. And as we start scene 2 found in chapter 2 of Jonah, we join him as he hits the water’s surface, and then he describes for us his predicament, in poetic terms.

Jonah has been told to by God in 1:2 to talk, but up to this point he has said very little. And only now, when there are no people to hear it, Jonah decides to wax eloquent with his speech, in his own Psalm, a Psalm that seems to borrow on the language of the other Psalms from King David’s time as well.

[aside] Chapter 2 is primarily poetic in form, which can make it a little unusual for us to read really, because Hebrew poetry is not about rhyme or meter like English poetry, but is about parallel ideas and a kind of symmetry of structure and words.

Hebrew poetry often uses parallel phrases that sometimes are directly next to each other, but at other times the structure is more widely related. For instance the parallel ideas or phrases can be at either end of the poem, and the poem tends to work from the outside in towards the middle. I guess it is like using sets of brackets or parenthesis in a equation or an sentence if you like, and you look for the pairs to work their way into the middle point.

This poetic technique is called a chiasm, and I suspect Jonah uses some of this technique in its poetry, which helps to explain why the poem doesn’t seem to unfold in a linear fashion of logical and temporal order. What you can notice is that the poem seems to jump the perspective of the writer from one situation to another.

Now as usual with these soughts of things, don’t sweat the details of it, reading poetry is much like reading the Australian constitution, it is all about the vibe.

Now the as we look at the overarching shape of scene 2, we can see it has a piece of narrative at both ends, so 1:17 & 2:1 and then 2:10. In between these narrative comment is poetry.

It seems likely to me (although this is not categorical by any means), that the poem breaks into two parts, the first part from verses 1-6 and the second from verses 7-9 and both of these two sections seem to be using a form of chiasm or parallel structure to help convey their message.

So as we look to try and flesh out the meaning of this second scene of Jonah’s story, it seems the easiest method of approach is to try and follow the chronological chain of events for Jonah. He is the main reference point of the story after all. In order to do this we are going to commence by looking at the first piece of poetry, the story of Jonah’s descent to the bottom of the sea.

1. Jonah’s Descent
Jonah started his descent to this most hairy of predicaments when he ‘descended’ to Joppa back in 1:3, and now because of his rebellion against God’s direct command, Jonah is literally in dire straights, and he is descending to the deep depths of the ocean. And this is the situation in which we find Jonah explaining in his Psalmic prayer to God that is something of a lament in v3-5 where we are going to start.

3 C You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers swept over me.

4 D I said,
'I have been banished [driven out] from your sight [your eyes];
yet [how?] I will look again
toward your holy temple.'

5 C’ The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.

I think it is a fairly safe assumption that if Jonah attended a NSW state school, when it came to summer time, he would have been placed in the group marked ‘non-swimmer’.

Jonah is flung into the water by the sailors under God’s design, and only then does he start to realize the gravity of the situation, the reality that he is as good as dead. The waves crash over him and the weeds are wrapped around his head. Jonah realizes he can’t fix this on his own. Jonah laments his predicament.

This is one of those horrible moments in life, which I’m sure we’ve all experienced in life at some level, (whether it was physically or relationally), a moment when we know we have done the wrong thing. We have caused damage, and there is absolutely nothing humanly possible we can do to repair it.

Jonah knows that from the depths of the ocean, with weeds wrapped around his head, his only hope is the Lord. But then isn’t the Lord the one whose hand is acting against Jonah at this time?

Jonah has been banished from God’s presence we learn in v4, in language that is identical to how Adam was banished from the garden in Genesis 3 because of his sin. It doesn’t look good for him.

Jonah’s very real question is ‘How can I pray, how will God hear me?’.
And his problem is two fold, firstly, God hears Israel’s prayers when they pray them at the place where his name dwells, when they are presented at the temple in Jerusalem, not at the bottom of the ocean. And secondly, why would God want to here Jonah’s prayer anyway?

Jonah is being punished for his direct disobedience of God. His submerged journey is God appointed, why would God relent and save him?

Well despite these two difficulties Jonah (probably realizing he has nothing else to do) prays to his God. And to his great amazement and delight, the Lord is not only able to hear Jonah’s prayer, the Lord is willing to hear Jonah’s prayer, and not only is the Lord able and willing to hear Jonah’s prayer, even more than that, the Lord answers it!

2. Jonah’s Prayer
The distinct petition portions of this first section of Jonahs prayer are found in v2 and V6.
2 A "In my distress I called to the LORD,
and he answered me.

B From the depths of the grave [Belly of Sheol] I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.


6 B’ To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.

A’ But you brought my life up from the pit,
O LORD my God [YHWH Elohim].

In the outside parallel parts of this first piece of Jonah’s poetry in V2 & 6, we see a clear answer to his predicament. The Lord who has disciplined him in this most dramatic of ways, will be his Saviour. The Lord will not reject his prophet in his time of his need, God hears his cry for help. God is able and willing to save Jonah even from the depths of the grave, literally ‘belly of sheol’, the place where the dead reside in the OT.

Jonah is (in a profound way) raised from the dead, raised from the pit by the Lord His God. And as a result, Jonah no longer talks of the God who made the heavens and the earth, in some generic sense or national sense, but Jonah calls on the Lord, ‘MY God’. Jonah now has a personal understanding of God and what he has done for him directly. Jonah knows personally of the God who is the creator, but more than that the Lord who is the saviour. The one who ‘brought’ Israel out of slavery in Egypt has now ‘brought’ Jonah out of the grave.

In the second piece of Jonah’s poem, he seems to develop the message of the first piece of the poem. Jonah is now certain that God hears his prayer as is clear from the contrast of V4 and V7, now Jonah is sure his prayer reaches God in the temple.

7 "When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, LORD [YHWH],
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.

8 "Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace [hesed] that could be theirs.

9 But I, with a song of thanksgiving,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.

This second piece of poetry seems to contrast the heart of the problem in the first. In v4 Jonah sees the problem, as his descent to the bottom of the sea, but in v8 he curiously sees the problem as idolatry. But we’ll get back to that in a minute.

In response to Jonah’s prayer we see the final movement of this second scene of Jonah’s story.

3. Jonah’s Deliverance
Finally Jonah’s poem of prayer raises to God himself and Jonah seems to discover the heart and the truth of the matter, you could even say that this line is indeed the thematic centre of the book (in fact the centre theme of the whole Bible really). Jonah now understands with new conviction that:
Salvation [yeshua] comes from [belongs to] the LORD."
Now not only does he know it to be true with renewed vigor, because of his prayer, he experiences it first hand.

The Lord has provided a great fish to pull him from the weeds at the bottom of the sea. (Now At the time do you reckon he this was the answer to prayer he was looking for!)
Do you reckon at the time he thought being swallowed by a fish was a good thing?
What if the unspecified fish, was actually a great white shark!
Would that have seemed like manna from heaven?
Something about frying pans and fires comes to mind!

But we know the fish is a good and merciful thing from the Lord. The salvation of the Lord from the ‘belly of sheol’ (which is ironic again), and almost at once the hard discipline of Jonah’s object lesson is over. After the profound eloquence of his prayer, Jonah is then dumped upon dry land, in a most unceremonious way.

I’ve been out to sea and as a result found myself intolerably sea sick once, and I can assure you that I found getting back on dry land a great relief, but it could not compare to how much of a relief as it would have been for Jonah I suspect.

Interpreting the Story
What is this scene two of Jonah all about, Well it seems key to the story is the contrast that started in scene 1 of:

Jonah Vs the Gentiles
The Sailors in scene 1 knew they were in peril, great peril actually, and they needed no convincing to pray. After their prayer, they were obedient, (with a little trepidation which was understandable). Obedient to the Lord’s command and then they were delivered. Following on from their salvation, their response was to offer sacrifices and vows we learn from 1:16.

Jonah who was an Israelite, and not just an Israelite, but a prophet non the less, was (in contrast to the gentiles), some what presumptuous with his position before God. The storm that convinced the Gentiles to repent, didn’t seem to scare Jonah straight, he instead traded on the mercy of God, that it would be ok for him. It took quite some doing to get his attention, like being plunged into the valley of the shadow of a watery death..

But it did get his attention, God’s original command for Jonah to, ‘Get up, GO and to call to the gentiles’ was a matter of life and death for them. And Now finally Jonah understands this with a new tangible clarity.

And now ironically we see Jonah imitating the gentiles experience. Of praying, being delivered and then offering sacrifices and vows in response as we learn in V10.

The story of Jonah of so far has been one of irony, that the Gentiles seem to understand better, and need less provocation than the Jewish prophet, on how to live the right way before the Lord.

But there is something more profound than just the deliverance of Jonah going on here I suspect. You see Jonah’s madness was to run from the command of the Lord and it required his deliverance from the watery depths we read in V4, which is all clear enough, but why is there the mention of idols in V8?

Well in a real way, in this story Jonah is symptomatic of all of Israel at his time. He is in a sense representative Israel, and if there is one thing all the prophets tell us, it is that Israel was rebellious against God, just like Jonah.

Jonah’s madness lead him to need to be saved by the Lord from the sea, Israel would need to be saved from the Idols of the nations around them, that they were enslaved to.

The message at the heart of Jonah’s psalm is that ‘salvation belongs to the Lord.’ Salvation from deep water and salvation from idols, which is salvation from death, and salvation from sin. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation for the Jew and the Gentile alike.

The Theological implications of the Story
As you may remember when we were talking about v4, the question that seems to have been at the forefront of Jonah’s mind, is ‘how can I pray to God, when I am so far from the temple?’

The real problem for Jonah however is not how can God hear, but:

Why would God listen to Jonah’s prayer?
Well in short in V8, Jonah talks of the grace of God that would be theirs, that belongs to those who turn to him. The grace of God has been something of a focus for us over the last couple of weeks, but the expression here is the ‘Hesed’ of God. In the OT this a confident acclamation of the covenant faithfulness of God. This is exactly what the psalmist means when he says ‘His steadfast love endures forever’. Jonah knows he can trust in the character and consistent action of his God. The God of Israel who had promised that he would be their God and they would be his people. This God would be faithful to his promise.

Jonah knows personally of the robustness of God’s character and his unquenchable commitment to those he loves and to those he has promised good things.


God’s steadfast love for his people, was the grounds and guarantee that he would hear Jonah’s prayer. God’s steadfast love for us in Christ is the grounds and guarantee that he will hear our prayer too, despite the brokenness and weakness of ourselves and our lives before him.

Sovereignty of God
Most people when they conceive of the Sovereignty of God, are doing well they acknowledge that ‘God says’ and ‘it is’. That seems to be the rules of the game when it comes to God. But in lots of ways it is hard not to convince yourself that this kind of view is essentially fatalistic, or a determinism if you like.

But we see in Jonah that God’s sovereignty is far superior to this view, because God’s will is certain to be done (just look at the fish and the storm for examples), and yet in the same breath he does it while genuinely interacting with his people and their prayers. God is SO sovereign, his will, will be done and at the same time, (because of great mercy), his people’s prayers will be heard and answered as is good for them!

God’s sovereignty is greater (much greater) than some third world dictator who rules with an iron fist. God is entirely sovereign in all things, and yet in a real way his sovereignty is personal as our heavenly father, who is willing, able and concerned to genuinely interact with his people through their prayers.

And God’s sovereignty is a good thing, for God has to be entirely sovereign if he is to be able to save. And the clear affirmation of Jonah after his escapade is that the greatest expression of the personal sovereignty of God is that, Salvation Belongs to the LORD. Salvation is God’s gift to give.

Interpreting the Story in light of NT
Well the NT most directly talks about our friend Jonah in relation to Jesus himself, which is an odd coupling as we discovered last week, but most noticeably they are connected in Jesus words about the Sign of Jonah which we read in a couple of places. Matt 12:39-41 – Sign of Jonah + Matt 16:4 (Luke 11:29-30)

Matt12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. 39 But he answered them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Matt:16 1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red. 3 And in the morning, It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.

Now Jesus shows from his response, he is no circus performer who provides tricks on cue, he points for these people to the past, and in particular to Jonah. Jesus tells us, that just as Jonah was dead and raised by God, so he will be also. HE goes on to say in ch16, it seems the Sign of Jonah is not just the event of his resurrection but the preaching of the resurrection also. Jesus helps us to see that signs and explanations need to go together!

And in the greatest twist of Irony, the men of Nineveh (who we will talk about next week) will condemn Jesus faithless contemporary Israelites (the Gentiles get it, while the Jews miss it all together). It seems for Israel some things never change.

The Application of the Story today
What does scene 2 of Jonah’s story say to us today, well two things:
Firstly, Salvation is from the Lord, and
Secondly, Pray Confidently.

V10 Salvation [yeshua] comes from [belongs to] the LORD."
The Salvation of God that appeared Jonah, has now appeared to all men and is a sign to them. The salvation that is found alone in Jesus Christ and his cross, the one who was raised from the ‘belly of sheol’ like Jonah.

There can be no doubt that for humankind Death is a serious business, and in light of the apparent certain hopelessness of being in the situation of having no word of salvation from God, what else can we expect from people, than a flippant casualness on one hand or a deep despair on the other.

Well we can offer them a certain hope in the face of death, a Gospel message that Salvation comes from the Lord. The gift of God the faithful promise of God that Christ has defeated sin on the cross. And in a more amazing and a greater way than Jonah, Christ has defeated death as he was raised from the dead.

Pray confidently.
Jonah’s story is one of the sovereign and merciful God, who desires to save people, a God who also desires to hear the prayers of his people. And all of these things are based on His good character, not ours, as Jonah demonstrates to us in a pretty emphatic way.

So from Jonah’s story we should be encouraged to pray confidently!
If God can deliver Jonah, and God can deliver Jesus, well God can deliver you, and God can deliver those you love – so pray to the Lord, Because Salvation belongs to him, as salvation is only found in his son.

If God will listen to Jonah (of all people) in his prayers, we can have a real confidence that God will listen to us because of Jesus.

At Mt Riv, we are good in praying for the sick, and this is important, because it can in fact be a matter of life and death. But we shouldn’t let this distract us from the primacy of praying for the salvation of the lost.

Because, Salvation is not a matter of life and death.
It is much, much more important than that.