Good Morning!
For today’s prayer/worship help we are going to talk a little bit about the Book of Jonah. Now, it is a history which out of all the stories of the Bible is probably the most well-known miraculous event of the Old Testament. Right up there with the Lion’s Den and the boys and the oven. Yet it’s also the one that tends to get cut off before the hard parts get in the way of a good tale. I highly doubt there are any Vacation Bible School lessons which focus on the gourd and the prophet’s going the way of Asa at the end. Talking about Jonah and not mentioning what happens after Nineveh repents is like teaching on the presidency of Abraham Lincoln and fading to black as he and Mrs. Lincoln get out of their carriage at Ford’s Theatre.
It kind of takes away from the message the Holy Spirit is sending to His people.
Everything that happens in Jonah’s life is a testimony to the fact that the LORD is the God of providence. There is nothing that we have brought into the world and there is nothing that we are going to take out of it. Whether it be the whale, the preaching of the Gospel, or the appearance, and subsequent disappearance of the gourd all that transpires in the days of Jonah is by the hand of the Lord. As each thing happens to him he should be learning this lesson. However, the same petulant Jonah who tried to run to Tarshish is whining that his will was not accomplished in the city. The evil, gross Assyrians didn’t do what they were supposed to. Jonah was on a martyr mission. He was looking forward to being castigated, mocked, and even killed for proclaiming God’s word, but the people repented! They went down in sackcloth and ashes and sought the Lord’s mercy. What should be a time of rejoicing is instead a time for lamentation in the heart of the prophet. It is a tale as old as time. Old prejudices get in the way of good. We’d rather our enemies receive their comeuppance than be partakers in the same grace we have been shown by our Heavenly Father.
Is that really what our attitude should be?
In the New Testament when Paul says in Romans 12:20, “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head”, the goal there is not for us to do good works so our enemies are punished. We don’t feed people and clothe them with righteousness so that bad things can happen to them. It’s not a quid pro quo. If someone has sinned against you, done something atrocious towards your person, you don’t sit around and say, “If I go pick up this cake and bring it to their house it will make them mad and I win!” That’s not a Christian attitude. All the Apostle is noting in that verse is that our decision to do well by others is a response to the love Jesus has presented to us at the cross. It really has nothing to do with them per se at all. Jonah’s call to go and bring the people of Nineveh to repentance is because the LORD has told Him to head up to that city, preach God’s word, and let it do its work among the nation. His going is for God’s glory and the reaction is for God’s glory. Likewise when we are given a task in the Christian life our motivation for accomplishing it is a response of thanksgiving and further as an act of gracious obedience to our Lord. It is also worthwhile to remember that the souls of all men are precious in the sight of God. While the Ninevites were not members of Abraham’s covenant family they still were made in His image. No matter how evil a person is or how mad someone makes you when you look in their eyes or think of them you should see them as God sees them, as a man or woman worthy of grace and mercy, not as an object to be destroyed in wrath. That is the attitude of the sons of thunder, not the prince of peace. As Ezekiel 33:11 reports the ways of the LORD we should probably take note:
“Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
I am sure there is a human being you have in mind right now as you read this. May even be a whole tribe of people. Folks you see all the time, or it might even be someone you haven’t seen in ages, but each occasion for them to hop in your brain (or eyesight) brings back all the anger and pain of whatever it was that caused them to be an enemy. As an aside this reminder to love our enemies never denies that they are an enemy. It is all about how we properly deal with them. If it is the case that our God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, then why do we think ourselves above the Lord’s desire? If Jehovah is going to send a man to preach faith in a land of covenant breakers and rebellious sinners then what do you think he is on about in constantly placing enemies in our steps?
In closing, consider for a moment what would happen if the person who riles up your heart and soul the most was to repent. How would you take it? Would you kill the fatted calf and toss a party or would you deep down be kind of upset that you don’t have that human to be angry at anymore? It is a question worth meditating on, but it is a question that begins with a reminder that at some point in time your were the Assyrian. Alien to the gospel, a stranger to grace. Yet someone loved their enemy enough to pray for them, seek them out, so that they would no longer be an enemy, but now a brother or sister in Christ.
For today’s extra reading here is a bit more on reconciliation:
https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2003/the-ministry-of-reconcilication-1/
Y’all be blessed.
In Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church