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BY Glenn Pease
CONTENTS
1. JONAH THE DESERTER Based
on Jonah 1:1‑3
2. JONAH'S FLIGHT LESSONS Based on Jonah 1:3
3. AWAKENED BY A PAGAN based on Jonah 1:4‑6
4. THE LORD OR LUCK Based on
Jonah 1:7
5. THE FEAR OF GOD Based on
Jonah 1:8‑10
6. SCRIPTURE AND SUICIDE Based on Jonah 1:11‑12
7. PAGAN PIETY Based on Jonah
1:13‑17
8. A HOPELESS SITUATION Based
on Jonah 2
9. THE SHORTEST SERMON Based
on Jonah 3:1‑5
10. GOD'S REPENTANCE Based on Jonah
3:10
11. BECOMING WORLD CLASS
CHRISTIANS Based on Jonah 3:10‑4:11
12. DOWN IN THE DUMPS Based on Jonah
4:1‑4
13. THE PRIORITY OF PERSONS Based on Jonah 4:6‑11
14. ARE ALL WHO DIE IN INFANCY
SAVED? Based on Jonah 4:11
15. WHO CARES ABOUT CATTLE? Based on
Johan 4:11
1. JONAH THE DESERTER Based on Jonah 1:1‑3
Jonah is
one of the most famous books of the Old Testament. It is known of by masses of people who never read any of the
Bible. Strange as it may seem it was
the first book of the Bible to be translated into Chinese. The trouble with all the widespread
knowledge about Jonah is that it is all trivial and centered on the non‑essential. The great issues of Revelation are neglected
and ignored. To most people the book
has no connection with foreign missions and God's universal love. To most people it is just about a whale and
whether or not such a creature can swallow a man.
It
has been proven beyond a doubt that a whale can swallow a man, but this is a hollow
victory if it leaves us thinking that God devoted one whole book of the Bible
to reveal the swallowing capacity of a whale.
There is a whale of a lot more to this book than that. No book in the Old Testament is so clear as
to its missionary message. It is the
clearest revelation of God's concern for the Gentiles, and that He has no
pleasure in the death of the wicked.
The power of God's Word is nowhere seen to be so effective, and the
value of repentance is nowhere seen to be so effective in pleasing God. Eislen says Jonah "..is the most
Christian of all Old Testament books."
It is
not a prophecy, but an autobiography.
The only prophecy in the book is the warning that judgment is coming,
and it was not fulfilled in the 40 days predicted because the people
repented. It is among the prophets
because Jonah was a prophet, and their task was as much to forth‑tell as
to fore‑tell. We want to look at
Jonah's commission to be a foreign missionary, and his cowardly attempt to
evade his duty. First we look at‑
I. HIS DUTY DECLARED.
It
was the word of the Lord that came to Jonah, and this made his duty
obvious. There was no uncertainty as to
the source of his orders to justify any hesitation or disobedience. His duty was clear and simple‑"arise
and go." With this commission
Jonah becomes the Paul of the Old Testament.
He was the Apostle to the Gentiles.
The other prophets were sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
but Jonah was to leave his people and go to the Gentiles. It was this distinction that discouraged him
from doing his duty.
"Go to Nineveh." We
can hardly find an equivalent in our day to help us imagine the shock of such a
commission. It was contrary to the
whole system of prejudice in the Jewish mind.
The Gentiles were not chosen people, and they deserve only the judgment
of God. When the heathen were destroyed
it was considered a blessing to Israel.
The goal of Israel was to have all nations subject to her, but God did
not always share the view of His people.
The Jews had God given evidence to know that He had a plan for the
Gentiles as well, but they did not want that evidence to get in the way of
their theology.
That
was Jonah's problem as well, and God refused to abide by Jonah's theology. Nothing is so aggravating to a theologian as
having God demonstrate His ability to act contrary to His system. Men like to get God defined and confined so
they know exactly what He is going to do, but God refuses to submit to the
theology of men and remain in the box where they want to confine Him. Paul in Rom. 10 makes it clear that Israel
knew God had a plan for Gentiles. In
verse 19 he asks, "But I say, did not Israel know? First Moses said, I will provoke you to jealously
by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger
you." Then in verse 20 he writes,
"But Isaiah is very bold, and says, I was found of them that sought me
not; I was made manifest unto them that asks not after me."
Why was
Isaiah so bold to say that? It was
because it was heresy to the theologians of the day. It was heresy to Jonah, and he wanted no part of foreign
missions. God is the God of the Jews,
and we are going to keep it that way.
Keep the heathen out of this, and especially the Assyrians of
Nineveh. God made it clear to Abraham
that his plan was to bless all nations through his seed, but the Jews were
continually fighting to keep God exclusive.
In
spite of his prejudice, however, God gave him orders to go and cry against
Nineveh. Those are interesting orders
for they reveal God's attitude.
Sometimes the most effective approach is negative. Jonah was to go there and be against their
wickedness, and to warn of the wrath to come.
As far as the record goes there was nothing positive he had to say. There was no Gospel. All was negative and pointed to
judgment.
If
Jonah would have been told to go and deliver a lecture on contemporary ethics
and moral values at the University of Nineveh he probably would have gone
gladly. He knew that all men can stand
a polite sophisticated recommendation that they cease to live for the
devil. If you can just dress up
condemnation of sin with politeness and qualifications, the devil himself will
praise your eloquence. It is like the
man who did not want to step on toes and so he preach, "Repent‑as it
were, and be converted‑so to speak, or you'll be damned‑to some
extent." Jonah feared the power of
negative thinking and preaching because he was afraid it might work.
Jonah
could have obeyed if his message had been different, but he was told to cry out
against the people. He could have
preached a social gospel gladly, for had he done so he knew the result would be
judgment. He also knew that if he
preached judgment the result might be a moral transformation of the
society. Men must turn to God before
they can be godly men. They must be
saved before they can live saved lives.
They must be changed in character before they can be pleasing to
God. Jonah was fearful that his message
might produce these very changes. But
here were his orders, and they were as clear as a bell.
II. HIS DUTY DESERTED.
In
verse 3 we see Jonah rose up to flee.
He didn't waste any time making a response. He obeyed God's first word to the letter. He arose, and technically he did the second
also, for he went. But the problem was
that he went the wrong way, and he headed, not to Nineveh, but to
Tarshish. He missed the boat by
catching a boat going the wrong way. If
he had gone the right way it would have been by land, but he headed for the sea
in the opposite direction. He dodged his duty and it was a downward spiral. He
went down to Joppa, and down into the ship, and then down into the sea and down
into the whale. Fleeing from God is a downward road all the way.
The
first thing we can learn about his rebellious desertion of his obvious duty is
that rebellion does not always indicate that what is rebelled against is evil. Sin began as rebellion against God, and we
see it again in Jonah. Evil rebels
against good as well as vice versa. The
secularist tends to think that if the majority of people rebel against a
standard of morality it must be that the standard is wrong. They fail to consider the reality that man
often rebels against God's standards, which are ideal. They are not subject to majority vote.
Even
God's own servants can rebel against His will, and it is usually, as I said,
because God refuses to share their provincialism, and He insists on
contradicting their theology. Jonah
knew God loved all people, but he didn't like it, and he was going to do all he
could to keep God exclusive, and limit His blessings to Jews only. This is not just a guess, for you can read
his own confession in 4:1‑3. It
is not right, but there are many of God's people who are prejudice against all
other peoples.
The
miracle of being preserved for 3 days in a whale cannot compare with the
miracle of God using such a prejudice man like Jonah so successfully. He was a deliberate, determined, disobedient
deserter of duty, and yet he was an instrument of God for the salvation of
many. That is the real wonder, and not
the whale experience.
Jonah
is running from revealed responsibility.
He is dodging divine duty as he flees to Tarshish. What a picture of the sin of believers. What he was doing was as amoral as anything
could be. He wasn't doing anything
wrong. He wasn't a stow‑away, for
we see that he paid his fare. Jonah's
sin was like so much of the sin of believers.
He was doing what was right at the wrong time. The only reason it was sin for Jonah to be where he was had to do
with the reality that God's will for him was that he be somewhere else. We so often think we can't sin if we don't
do anything wrong, but this is not so.
Even good activities are wrong if they are known substitutes for God's
appointed duties. A trip to Tarshish
after going to Nineveh could have been a blessed vacation in God's will, but
not when it was a dodging of His will.
Duty
is not always desirable. He who thinks
that obeying God is always pleasant clearly reveals how seldom he obeys. God's ways are often in conflict with our
own desires for ease and softness.
Someone said, "I slept and dreamed that life was beauty; I woke and
found that life was duty." Doing
that which is dutiful is not always beautiful.
Sometimes you will need to grit your teeth to do the will of God, and
then cry out for mercy because you are so far from being like Him. It was miserable for Jonah to be in the
center of God's will. He was happier in
a state of disobedience, and it is often the case that the backslider enjoys
the relief of not being in the will of God.
You
may wonder why God uses man at all. He
is so weak and often unwilling, but as the book of Jonah makes clear, God has
no other plan. "How shall they
hear without a preacher?" They
won't, and that is why the story of the whale.
God must by His providence and miracle get Jonah to Nineveh, for He has
no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
Jonah deserted the most important duty a man can ever have. It is the duty of bearing witness to the
lost of God's provision for salvation.
Jonah could only write this book about his desertion because he finally
learned his lesson. The purpose of the
book for us is to warn us against taking the same foolish path he took. May God help us to respond to God's
commission with the attitude of the poet who wrote,
Take the task He gives you gladly. Let His work your
pleasure be.
Answer quickly when He calls, Here am I, send me,
send me.
Here are
some of the lessons we can learn from this book of Jonah:
1. God is willing to save anyone who will repent.
2. God's love is universal.
3. Miracles are no problem for those who spell their
God with a capital G.
4. It is better to obey disagreeable orders than to
try and escape them.
5. God can bring good out of evil and disobedience.
6. God does not give up on achieving his purpose.
7. God's people do not always like what they believe
about God.
8. God's people can be very un‑Godlike in
their attitudes.
9. Missions is a universal duty of all believers.
2. JONAH'S FLIGHT LESSONS Based on Jonah 1:3
Many of
you have no doubt heard several times of the boy who drew a picture in Sunday
School of an airplane with four people in it.
The Sunday School teacher asked him what part of the Bible he was
illustrating, and he said it was a picture of the flight of Mary and Joseph
with Jesus into Egypt. When she noted
that there were four and not just three in the plane, she inquired who the
fourth one was. He responded,
"That was Pilate." We are
using that same pun in reference to Jonah's flight to Tarshish. Mary and Joseph fled to escape the enemy of
God's plan, but Jonah fled to escape God's plan itself. There are two important lessons we can learn
from this flight. The first lesson is
on‑
I. THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD.
The
lesson on providence in this verse is unique in relationship to all that the
rest of the book teaches. All through
the book we see how God works by means of nature in storms, growth of plants,
in living creatures, like the great fish, and by means of a worm to accomplish
His goal. In this verse, however, the
emphasis is not on what God did, but on what He did not do. Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish in direct
opposition to God's command, and God does not interfere immediately to stop
him. He lets Jonah carry out his own
plan.
Notice
that Jonah knew where he wanted to go.
He wanted to go to Tarshish, and with that in mind, he goes down to
Joppa, and there he finds conveniently and coincidentally, a ship going, of all
places, to Tarshish. What luck! That is just where he wanted to go. Things couldn't have worked out better for
Jonah in his effort to successfully disobey God.
The
lesson that many point out here is that we learn by this experience that good
timing, and all things working out to aid you in your plan, is no necessary
proof that it is God's will. Even the
most evil of schemes can work like a charm, and have all the breaks in its
favor. Therefore, we must beware of
judging God's will only by the smooth operation of our plans. Sometimes Christians just assume if the door
is open and the way is clear to act, that that means it must be God's
will. This is not necessarily the case
at all.
Charles
Spurgeon was a zealous Calvinist, who preached a high concept of the providence
of God, but also pointed out how providence can be distorted and used to
justify anything. He said, "If you
sit down and try to find in the ways of God to you and excuse for the wrong
which you mean to commit, the crafty devil and your deceitful heart together
will soon conjure up a plea for providence." In other words, sometimes evil plans work out great, and God does
not stop them. Jonah could say,
"Well, I must not be so bad to flea after all. Things are working out just fine. It is almost as if it was providential.
The
racketeer who sees a perfect setup by which to gain a great deal of money
illegally could as well plead providence.
So also with the thief who finds the back door unlocked, or the keys left
in the car. It makes his theft so much
easier and with less risk. But who
would be so foolish as to consider it providential? The value of seeing the way things worked out well for Jonah in
disobedience is that it wakes us up to do some serious thinking about God's
will. We are hereby warned against
trusting too much to circumstances, and we are trust back to depend upon the
Word of God.
David
had an experience which is a perfect illustration. You recall that when Saul was chasing him, David found him lying
down asleep. Saul was out to kill
David, and now David had the perfect setup to take Saul's life. Abishai even encourages him to see the hand
of providence in this situation, and he said, "The Lord has delivered him
into your hands. Let me pin him to the
ground."
(I Sam.
26:8). In spite of the favorable
circumstance and advice, David chose to let him live because the Word of God
said it was not right to lay your hands on God's anointed. He made his decision based on God's Word,
and not on other factors that were strongly in favor of acting contrary to that
Word.
You
might be in a situation where you have an urgent need for five dollars, and suddenly
you find yourself in a situation where the clerk has forgotten to take the
money of a previous customer. He has
left the room for a moment, and you are all alone with a five dollar bill in
front of you. You could well argue that
the Lord knows how you need that five dollars right now. The circumstances seem perfect for you to
take it, and no one would know the difference.
The Word of God, however, says that you should not steal, and this out
ways all the other factors. Convenience
does not determine God's will, but just the opposite when it is convenient to
do what God forbids. It is never God's
will to do wrong and call the success of it providential because it goes so
smooth.
No
matter how amazing the combination of coincidences might be it is not God's
will if it is opposed to His Word.
Everything that goes well is not of God. Spurgeon cried out, "No!
No! There are the devil's
providence’s as well as divine providence’s." God's providence is always at work to bring men back to Him, as
the following verses of Jonah illustrate.
He is not responsible for the convenience by which Jonah, or anyone
else, succeeds in their flight from Him and His plan.
E.
Stanley Jones received a letter from a woman to whose husband he had given his
book, The Way. It was laid on a shelf
where it gathered dust. She went to a
university where she became very negative and cynical. She began to trust no one, and became
hateful and bitter. She became so
depressed she decided to take her own life.
She bought some pills and hid them until her plan was perfected. When the day came she got her pills from the
drawer and headed for the bathroom to get water. She stumbled on the rug and bumped the bookcase, and that book
that sat for years on the top fell to the floor in front of her. She thought it was strange, and so she
picked it up and read it. She was
transformed by what she read. She
became a convinced Christian with a new life.
This is what we mean by providential.
God is working in lives all the time to confront them and bring them
back to Himself. The end result is what
matters. If circumstances lead us to
God, then it is truly providential. If
circumstances lead us away from God, it is the devil's providence. We need to keep in mind always that bad
things can go well, and not assume that they are providential because they go
well. The second thing we want to look
at is‑
II. THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
Notice
that two times in this verse it is stated that Jonah's flight was for the
purpose of escaping the presence of God.
Jonah was the first missionary who tried to take his furlough before he
even reached the field. Some try an suggest
that Jonah had such a limited concept of God that he thought he could really
escape his presence. The heathen had
many gods like that. A god for each
country, and one for the sea, etc. They
were territorial gods whose power only extended to certain boundaries. We know that Jonah was not thinking like
that, however, that the God of Israel was limited to Israel. It is true there was progress in the Jewish
mind as to the greatness and omnipresent nature of God, but Jonah had reached a
high concept. He was no babe‑he
was a mature Hebrew and in v. 9 he states his fear of the Lord: "The God of heaven, who made the sea
and the dry land." He knew God as the creator of all, and knew He was over
all, and was everywhere present.
The
omnipresent nature of God was revealed in Gen. 28. We read there of Jacob's dream and of God's promise to be with
him wherever he goes, and then in verse 16 we read, "Then Jacob awoke from
his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know
it." He, and all the chosen
people, had to learn that Jehovah was the one God and creator of all, and was
everywhere present, and not just in Israel, or in the temple, as was the case
of the gods of the heathen. They often
forgot this, however, and because of their small and weak concept of God they tried
to escape their loyalty to Him, and the result was judgment.
David
gives us the clearest description of a high concept of the omnipresence of God
in Ps. 139:7‑10. "Where can
I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee
from your presence? If I go up to
heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I
settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your
right hand will hold me fast."
Certainly Jonah knew this Psalm and the theology behind it. He was not so foolish as to think he could
really escape the presence of God, and yet the text says that was his object.
The
first thing we can learn is that our theology does not always direct our
actions. You can honestly believe one
thing, but then act contrary to it.
That is why knowing the truth is not enough if one does not act in
accordance with it. Jonah did not lack
knowledge, but he lacked wisdom which is the ability to apply knowledge
practically to a worthy end. How often
we lack wisdom, and, like Jonah, rise up to flee from Him whom we know to be
everywhere. Like Jonah we become
completely inconsistent. He was to go
to the Gentiles to warn them, but he did not want to, and so he goes to the
Gentiles for help to escape. Jonah did
not mind receiving the services of Gentiles, nor did he mind their presence, as
long as they were not his equal before God.
Many
people feel this way about those of another race. Their theology says all men are created in the image of God with
eternal souls, and all are people for whom Christ died. They do not mind receiving the services of
these people who work in hospitals, businesses, and public facilities, but they
still do not want to accept them as equals.
Jonah was not opposed to anything but this one thing that God commanded,
and that was that he should go and give the Gentiles the same chance as the
Jews have had to repent and be forgiven.
The hardest barrier to break is that of putting all men on your level in
relationship to God.
If that barrier is broken down, it will destroy all
others, and that is why it becomes the last strong hold of prejudice.
Jonah
is proof that one can be a man of God and still be controlled by prejudice
toward other people. He could not give
up his prejudice, and at the same time he could not stand to have it revealed
by being in the presence of God. Jonah
was trying to escape the consciousness of God's fellowship, for the presence of
God was a rebuke to his ungodlike attitude.
He was, in effect, resigning his office as a prophet. He wanted to be a secret believer from now
on. Prejudice and prophecy just did not mix, and he chose to give up his duty
rather than sacrifice his prejudice.
God, however,
did not accept his resignation, and pursued him to teach him the folly of
trying to act contrary to his theology.
God showed Jonah that theology is the most practical thing in the world,
and those who think they can ignore it, and escape it, are preparing themselves
to be fools. God is everywhere present,
and that fact together with His providence makes it both sinful and senseless
to try and escape His command. Let us
remember that it holds true for our standing orders as well‑"Go into
all the world and preach the Gospel."
3. AWAKENED BY A PAGAN based on Jonah 1:4‑6
Jonah
and Paul were alike in that they were both commissioned by God as missionaries
to the Gentiles, and both were alike in their desire to go to Spain. Both of them had the experience of being on
a storm tossed ship with pagans. These
superficial similarities, however, become material for a study in contrast when
we consider the motives involved. Jonah
fled to the sea to escape obedience, while Paul went to the desert to prepare
for obedience. Jonah wanted to reach
Spain to avoid serving God, but Paul wanted to get there to serve Him, and to
proclaim the good news to those in
darkness.
Paul on
the storm tossed ship was the source of the pagan's deliverance, but Jonah in
the same situation was the source of their danger. Paul was wide awake directing and assuring the pagans, but Jonah
was fast asleep and had to be awakened and directed by the pagan captain of the
ship. In this event it is the children
of darkness who are active and central, while the rebel believer is passive,
and even an obstacle. It is no wonder
that the conclusions of these two sea stories should also be in utter contrast. Paul's situation was such that the only hope was to remain with the ship. In Jonah's case the only hope was for Jonah
was to be tossed off the ship. We want
to look at this story that reveals how even a pagan captain can be used of
God. We want to consider three things
about this captain. First‑
I. HIS REBUKE OF THE PROPHET. v. 6
Just
why it was the captain who came to awaken Jonah is not certain, but it is
likely his authority was needed, for Jonah had paid his fare, and was a model
passenger as far as staying out of the way. If one of the sailors had gone and awakened him he may have told him to get lost. There is
nothing wrong with sleeping in a storm at sea.
Jesus did so Himself when He was exhausted. His disciples rebuked Him because they felt sleep in such an hour
of danger seemed like a callous indifference to their safety. This was likely the motive that brought the
captain to wake Jonah as well.
Jonah
was sound to sleep when every hand was needed on deck. The sailors were likely aggravated as they
had to sacrifice their cargo by throwing it into the sea, and Jonah sleeps as
if nothing was wrong. Even a pagan has
enough sense and fight for life. After
all the racket of hauling things up and throwing them into the sea did not wake
Jonah, the captain felt it was his duty to go and wake this foolish
sleeper. Jonah was fleeing from God,
and yet he was not deeply troubled, but could sleep soundly. Even a godly man can be going in a direction
out of God's will and not necessarily be troubled by his disobedience.
Jonah
was not the first servant of God to be rebuked by a pagan. Even Abraham, the father of the faithful,
was rebuked by Abimelech because he lied about Sarah. He said she was his
sister, and because of that lie Abimelech almost took her as his wife. When he learned the truth he rebuked Abraham
in Gen. 20:9 by saying, "What have you done to us? How have I wronged you that you have brought
such guilt upon me and my kingdom? You
have done things to me that should not be done." Can it be that sometimes the world can justifiably rebuke the
church? It is a sad day when it is so,
but such sad days do come. Almost all
of the criticism that the church has received has been valid at some
point. Christians need to pay attention
to the rebuke of unbelievers, for often they are correct, and Christians can
learn from this rebuke.
I once
talked to an atheistic professor of history who said the church in his thinking
is totally irrelevant. He said, "I
live in a world of desperate need and anxiety, with great ignorance and
prejudice on every hand. I am
constantly compelled to disillusion my students about the glories of history
and their heroes. I try and shatter
their illusions so they can see life as it really is‑tragic, fearful, and
awful. All the church does is to try
and support their illusions." He
was thoroughly disgusted with the church's lack of concern for the critical
problems in the world. Even though he
was compelled to admit his agreement with Christ's principles, and with the
fact that only theology could give ultimate meaning to values, I could never
bring him to change his view of the church, for his view is often true that it
is hard to refute.
Here was
another pagan rebuking the church, and we need to be awakened by such
rebuke. The Evangelical Church was at
one time the greatest social force in America.
This was during the Great Awakening under Jonathan Edwards, and again
later under the revivals of Charles Finney.
Thousands upon thousands of people were converted, and the whole
character of society was changed. But
today the church is often asleep as the world is tossed about by raging
storms. The church is in the world just
as Paul and Jonah were in pagan ships, but the church must cease to follow
Jonah's procedure, and put Paul's into operation. It needs to become a leader, and give direction as Paul did, and
save itself as well as the pagans. Paul
gave leadership, but Jonah was part of the problem instead of part of the
answer, and he deserved rebuke. Next we
see‑
II. HIS REQUEST OF PRAYER.
Imagine a
pagan pleading with a prophet to pray.
It is not surprising that a pagan would pray in such a situation, but it
is surprising that he should have to urge a servant of God to do so. The storm was unusually fierce, and even
these men who had been at sea for years were fearful. The Hebrew root of the word mariners in verse 5 is salt. They were old salts, and if they were
afraid, it was time for everyone to start praying.
Each of
them had his own god he cried out to, and the captain urged Jonah to pray to
his God also. It was probably with the
thought that the more gods the better.
One of them will certainly be able to stop the storm. Matthew Henry said, "He who would learn
to pray let him go to sea." All
men recognized when they are at the mercy of natural forces that if there is no
God to help, there is no help, for only supernatural power can save from such
forces.
The
captain was ready to bow to any god who could help them, and so he requests
that Jonah pray to his God. What would
you do if you were asked to join in on a pagan prayer meeting? Jonah, true to his rebellious nature,
probably did not honor the request. If
he had, the storm may have been stopped, but Jonah was not going to admit he
was wrong. He would rather die than do that.
A faithful servant should be able to join any group in prayer. If they are pagan and superstitious, it will
not affect the validity of his prayer.
Jonah was
supposed to go and rebuke the heathen, and now the heathen are rebuking him,
and pleading for he cooperation. We see
a picture of the tragic results of prejudice and a false sense of superiority. Jonah, because of his ungodlike attitude,
becomes a poorer example of piety than the pagans he looked down on. They at least seek God's help, but Jonah
does not. They care for his life, but
he has no great love for their souls.
Never argue with people who say there are non‑Christians who are
better than Christians because it is a fact of life, and the Bible supports it.
The
pagans may be pleading in ignorance, but the fact is God heard their prayer and
they were spared. We have no right to
expect pagans to be theologically trained.
We must begin on their level to lift them to where we have been lifted
by revelation. The only way we can aid
people to grow from their inadequate ideas of God to mature concepts is by
starting where they are. God
condescends to use even their superstitions to guide them. This does not mean we are to become like
them, but that we condescend to their form of communication in order to relate
to them, for only then can we ever lead them to higher and true concepts of
God. Next we look at‑
III. HIS RECOGNITION OF GOD'S POWER.
Even a
pagan has a concept of the providence of God.
He knew that God was behind the storm, and that only He could stop it,
and like the Greeks of Paul's day, he was willing to turn even to the unknown
God for help. He was right, and God did
think of them, and had no intention of seeing them perish for the disobedience
of Jonah. God is not the author of
arbitrary destruction. He sent the wind
and storm, but He did not take their lives.
We must
beware of universalizing what the Bible does not. This whole event was an act of mercy. God must display His displeasure at deliberate disobedience. He needs a man to bear His message, but He
can use nature to get His man. If we
say, however, that all storms are the result of a wicked act on the part of
some person, we are thrown back to paganism and superstition, which compels us
to go witch hunting to find the guilty party, and then sacrifice that person to
placate the anger of God.
We see
no such thing here. This is a
particular case in which God acts uniquely in nature. The timing is what makes it special providence. The storm itself is natural, but the timing
is for a specific purpose. If you argue
that all storms are for a specific purpose you are in the difficult position of
saying that God tries to teach us certain things without telling us what it is,
so that we are never really sure. As a
method of teaching it is not very appealing or effective. When God wants to teach us something through
trial and suffering it is usually clear, and if it is not, there is not likely
a message being taught.
In
Jonah, the purpose is obvious, and so it is helpful to all involved. Both Jonah and the pagans knew there was
purpose and power behind this storm. Jonah,
however, had the advantage of revelation, and was superior to those who had
only the witness of nature. Man can
know that God exists by nature, but he cannot by nature know the God that does
exist. Martin says that you can go to
an art gallery and by reason and observation know that the paintings there did
not just happen, but are the products of skill. You can learn of the style, taste, and love of design of the
artist, but for all this, you cannot by this method know the artist. Only as he reveals himself can you know
him. Reason falls short of
revelation. Even a pagan can recognize
the power of God, but only by revelation can he know the person of God.
All it
takes for many pagans to become children of God is a faithful prophet who will awake
at their rebuke; pray for their preservation, and begin to proclaim the person
of Christ. The story of Jonah ought to
make all of us aware that sometimes the heathen of the world are closer to the
kingdom than many professing believers.
May God help us to wake up to the message of His Word, and not wait to
be awakened by a pagan.
4. THE LORD OR LUCK Based
on Jonah 1:7
A
speculator, who won and lost money by instinct, was discussing success with a business
man who had done very well. They were
discussing whether success was attained by planned judgment, or by mere
luck. The business man said judgment,
but the speculator held out for luck.
He pointed out to the business man that he was a forty‑niner, and
that that was an adventure, but he responded that it was not so for him for it
was planned. "Well then,"
said the speculator, "You came to New York just when the investment of
your money would bring the highest returns, that was luck." "No," insisted the business man,
for it had been his own wise judgment.
After several more examples to which he received the same reply, the
speculator concluded, "Well, you'll have to admit you are mighty lucky to
have such good judgment."
The whole issue of providence and chance; sovereignty and free will; the Lord or luck, is a complex one, but one that we must think about seriously since it governs much of our attitude toward life and circumstances. Lack of thought at this point causes many Christians to be very inconsistent in their ideas. Sometimes we are like the professor who was going to lecture on the III World War. He announced his two major points in his introduction. First he said we will consider why there will be no war, and second we will consider what to do when it comes. Christians get i