Jonah, Part 2 (Rated R)

You didn't know the nice little Sunday School story about Jonah and the Big Fish was rated R, did you?  Neither did I!

This isn't my usual light and fluffy blog fare, so proceed at your own risk.

Jonah 4:2 is an intriguing verse to me because it tells us why this whole fiasco with the fish and storm and everything started...why Jonah ran from God's presence and why he didn't want to go to Nineveh. 

Usually I forget about this verse, and just assume Jonah ran away because he was afraid...or just didn't feel like going to Nineveh.  Maybe he didn't like the food there?

Nope.

Jonah ran from God's presence because He was angry with God.

That makes sense.  Lots of us run from God's presence because we are angry with Him.

Here's the part that was really hard for me to understand:  Jonah was angry with God because he knew that God was loving and gracious, and that He was going to forgive the people of Nineveh if they turned from their wicked ways.

So he prayed to the Lord, "Ah, Lord, was this not what I said while I was still in my country?  Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm" (Jonah 4:2).

Seriously?!  That's why he was angry at God?  What the heck was Jonah's problem?  I realize Nineveh was Israel's enemy, but still...how cruel and bitter could Jonah be to not want God to show them any mercy?

I tried to find an application in this verse for myself, but it was hard.  I have some people I don't really like that much...I guess you could sort of call them my enemies...but I don't wish God wouldn't ever show them grace and forgiveness.  Gosh Jonah, you're a prophet.  Get it together.

I kept thinking about this verse for a couple of days after I read it.  It just didn't make sense to me.  There had to be something I was missing.  So I asked Josh what he thought about it.

Josh pulled out some notes from a class he took and showed me something I will never forget.

Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was a WICKED city.  Grotesquely, horrifically wicked. 

So that you can see what I mean, here are some actual historical quotes from Assyrian leaders boasting of their own brutality.  And they are pretty awful.  I copied them from an article titled "Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death" from the Biblical Archeology Society.

"I slew one of every two.  I built a wall before the great gates of the city; I flayed the chief men of the rebels, and I covered the wall with their skins.  Some of them were enclosed alive within the bricks of the wall, some of them were crucified with stakes along the wall; I caused a great multitude of them to be flayed in my presence, and I covered the walls with their skins."

 

"I felled 50 of their fighting men with the sword, burnt 200 captives from them, [and] defeated in a battle on the plain 332 troops...With their blood I dyed the mountain red like red wool, [and] the rest of them the ravines [and] torrents if the mountain swallowed.  I carried off captives [and] possessions from them.  I cut off the heads of their fighters and built [with them] a tower before their city.  I burnt their adolescent boys [and] girls."

"In strife and conflict I besieged the city.  I felled 3,000 of their fighting men with the sword...I captured many troops alive: I cut of some of their arms [and] hands; I cut off of others their noses, ears [and] extremities.  I gouged out the eyes of many troops.  I made one pile of the living [and] one of heads.  I  hung their heads in trees around the city."

"I cut their throats like lambs.  I cut off their precious lives [as one cuts] a string.  Like the many waters of a storm, I made [the contents of] their gullets and entrails run down upon the wide earth.  My prancing steeds harnessed for my riding, plunged into the streams of their blood as into a river.  The wheels of my chariot, which brings low the wicked and the evil, were bespattered with blood and filth.  With the bodies of their warriors I filled the plain, like grass.  Their testicles I cut off, and tore out their privates like the seeds of cucumbers."

Um, yeah.

All of a sudden, I "get" Jonah.

I'm no longer wagging my finger at him, wondering what his self-righteous problem is.  I'm standing with him now.  If those atrocities were happening anywhere near me I wouldn't want God to forgive those people, either. Even if they did turn away from their evil ways, and stop their violence (and they did; history shows that Nineveh stopped her cruelty at this time for about 100 years)!

How can God be willing to forgive and change even REALLY horrible people like those described above?

He saw a glimmer of something...crushing guilt, fear, desperation, a yearning for something true and pure and beautiful...deep in the hearts of that generation of wicked Ninevites...that no one else could see.  

There is no partiality with God.  He is, beyond anything we can ever comprehend, a God of love.

11 Quick Lessons from Jonah 1-3

Last week I read Jonah.  I love that book!  But it had been a long time since I actually read it (unless you count looking at the pictures in Knox's picture Bible). :)

I was really challenged as I read through it this time, so I thought I'd share some of what I learned.

Today I'm sharing the notes I scribbled in my Bible margin from chapters 1-3.  There are millions of things we could get from these verses, but I'm focusing on what happens when we run from God's presence. 

In my next post I'll tell you about the huge question I encountered in Chapter 4 and the (shocking!) answer Josh helped me discover!

Jonah 1-3

Am I running from God's presence?

1.) Jonah was running not just from Nineveh, where God had asked him to go. He was fleeing from God's presence.  Sometimes the "best" of us turn our backs and run from God.   

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me."  But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish [which was in the opposite direction from Ninevah]  from the presence of the Lord. (1:1-3a)

2.) God notices and mourns when we turn away from His presence.  He will do whatever it takes to get our attention back. Sometimes He sends a big storm into our lives.

But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. (1:4)

3.) When we run from God, we become apathetic.  Tired.  We don't care any more.  We try to hide.

But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. (1:5)

 4.) But we can't hide from God.  I can just imagine what was running through Jonah's mind as the sailors began to cast lots: "Surely they won't find out this is all because of me.  Surely this casting lots thing won't actually work." But God allowed it to.  And all fingers pointed to Jonah.

And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. (1:7)

5.) God can use our hugest failures to show others His strength and power. 

So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased its raging.  Then the men feared God exceedingly and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. (1:16)

6.) We never surprise God.  He is already ready and waiting - with grace! - for the worst we can throw at Him.  And His grace sometimes comes in...unlikely...forms.  Sometimes we don't recognize that the big fish that just ate us is a gift of grace and deliverance.

Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. (1:17)

7.)  Eventually, when God finally gets our attention again...we reach out to Him.  We respond once again with an expression of faith.  We turn back toward His presence.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly...Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple. (2:1,4)

8.) God sees our change of heart.  He hears our prayer and He rescues us!

So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (2:10)

9.) God gives us a second chance!!!

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you." (3:1)

10.) We end up exactly where God wants us to be.  Why do we sometimes choose to take the hard way?

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh... (3:2)

11.) God wants to use us...imperfect, hard-headed us...in big ways, for His glory!

So the people of Nineveh believed God...! (3:5)