Heart of Jonah

Imagine if all Christians in our community would be in one place – and how many people would be there – and what that would say to the rest of our community.  Can you just imagine every Christian standing on the football field at Live Oak High School – and would we fit?  Would it overflow into the bleachers?  Beyond?  Can you just imagine?  So we are starting with a ladies’ ministry where we pull together ladies representing all the various versions (denominations) of Christian faith standing together in our community – regardless of where the we church.  So here is us – starting small!!  Can you see the potential? 

As I started the group on FB and this started to look real – God said Jonah.  And I said nah.  And God said Jonah.  I started typing up my thoughts on Jonah – and was not enjoying it – and I said nahhh and just exited out without saving.  And God said Jonah.  Throughout I was having a lot of trouble sleeping so I would wake up with Jonah on my heart and start putting thoughts on my notes app on my phone.  But I tried again to write out a lesson on the lady that the Pharisees threw at his feet, caught in adultery. And God said Jonah. So I prepared my lesson on Jonah.  And Sunday morning as we were in worship, my 4 year old grand daughter was emptying her church bag (our church puts together bags for the kids to occupy them during church) and I've never seen them put in a full size book – but Baylor emptied her bag and there was this full size book.  On Jonah.

Yes. Lord.  I got it. We are going to talk about Jonah.

First off – if you read the book – it does not end.  It just stops.  I forget when haven’t read Jonah in a while and then when I go back and read it that it just leaves you hanging.  And since I forget – I read my Bible on my ipad – I keep hitting the little arrow and it is goes to a different book.  And I go back and try to scroll down my page and there is no more.  It just leaves you hanging.

And you are like – but what happened????  Does Jonah change?

We first hear of Jonah in 2 Kings chapter 14 – when God spoke through Jonah to restore the borders of Israel under King Jeroboam II.  Israel is successful – and Jonah is in a really good comfortable place in his successful homeland of Israel. 

Anytime we hear the word comfortable in a Bible lesson - little alarms should go off in your head – God isn’t really looking for us to be comfortable and we will see that God is going to make this person uncomfortable. I’m feeling a little uncomfortable right now.  For Jonah - God called him to go to an uncomfortable place.  Ninevah. 

Jonah 1:1-3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.  He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port.  After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

Ninevah was a bad place, the capital of Assyria and the people there were bad people.  The whole reason God was calling Jonah to go there was to try to get them to turn to God, give them a chance before He destroyed them, He wanted Jonah to deliver the message.

And Jonah wanted NO part of this.  Nothing. He would rather run 2500 miles left than head the 500 miles right to Ninevah.  Why?

There could be several reasons – patriotism because Nineveh as capital of Assyria was Israel’s enemy, people of Nineveh were not Hebrews – they were not Jewish, but probably more so because Ninevah people were bad – they were known for torturing and killing people and had done so for generations.  And Jonah knew this. It could also have been fear – afraid  they would do to him what they had done to other Israelites.

But God wanted Jonah.  You see Jonah disliked people that God loved and wanted to turn back.  Jonah needed to understand that God’s mercy reaches people that he – and we – feel should not receive mercy.  We see people that have done bad things, and they need punishment - they should pay – that’s justice right?  But God sees people needing grace.  And He gives them an opportunity to be clear of their past – and Jonah says – no way.  God is offering the very same grace to them that He offered to Jonah – to us.  And when we start comparing someone else’s wrongs to ours – we think – how do they get the same grace?  Because God offers grace to all. Thank GOD He does!!

So Jonah is saying no.  As much as Jonah may have loved God – there was a section in Jonah’s heart that was off-limits to God’s will and that was witnessing to the people of Ninevah. 

So Jonah gets on a boat and heads toward Tarshish – and this storm comes – Jonah is sleeping, and the crew on the boat look to each other to see who had angered their god.  And they remember Jonah.  Captain wakes him up and he admits he is running from God. Now the crew is worried because this God was different because He can control the storm and the sea.  Jonah convinces them to throw him out into the water –and they are like uh no - because this God has a power that their gods don’t have, and this man Jonah is God’s man, and they don’t want to kill God’s man.  But they throw Jonah overboard and immediately the storm settles.  Jonah is sinking in the water and along comes the big fish.  And it eats Jonah – but it does not digest Jonah.  Jonah hangs out in the belly of this fish for three days praying and reflecting on his decision. Jonah chapter 2 is this long discussion that Jonah has with God.  Vs 1 says I called to the Lord and He answered me. 

After 3 days the fish spit Jonah out – onto the dry land.  And God again tells Jonah in chapter 3 – Go to Ninevah and proclaim the message that I have for you.  So Jonah goes.  It takes him 3 days to travel through the city – telling them to repent – turn from their wickedness, or the Lord will destroy the city in 40 days.  And the people repented.  They put on sackcloth.

 Ya’ll every time I read about the Bible people ripping their clothes, putting on sack cloths, I think of my sister.  Years ago, we were doing a Bible study on Esther, and she made this comment – “I don’t think I have ever felt the longing to cover my hair in ashes and rip my clothes and put on sackcloth”.  yeah – hopefully we won’t get there.

Anyway – all the way up to the King – the people are wearing their sacks and fasting.  He even ordered the animals to put on sackcloth.  For real – Ch 3 vs. 8 says: 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. And the people did so.

So you would think the man of God would celebrate.  Rejoice – they are repenting.  Not Jonah. He delivered his message – and then he went out and watched from a distance – hopeful they would not turn back to God – hopeful they would be destroyed.  So, he sat a ways out and expresses his anger. 

4 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

It’s bad when your heart is so set on hating people you would rather die than see them restored. Jonah is being forced to deal with this off-limits section of his heart. God wants Jonah to see that He loves the more than 120,000 people that are lost and wants them to turn back.  And Jonah cannot fathom the compassion for this level of evil that he sees in these people.

And it ends there.  Just stops.  I mean there is this discussion about a plant that grows up really fast and shades Jonah and then it dies, and he gets mad at God and God responds.  But that is the end.  There is no wrap it all up ending. 

You know - A lot of us have restricted areas in our heart - for whatever reason – we have in our heart this blemish from some person or some thing that happened to us – maybe recently – maybe a long time ago – maybe continually for years. 

On a bigger scale there are so many people carrying dislike for entire groups of people - and almost imagining or trying to convince themselves that those people won’t be in heaven when we get there.  You know what I mean?

Anybody?   Who do you see as people that do not deserve God’s love – God’s grace – God’s forgiveness? 

They have a bad history.  They have done terrible things.  They have hurt someone you love, or they hurt you.  And you just cannot find yourself cheering them on toward redemption.  You can’t.  They don’t deserve it.  For some people it is an entire race – a nationality – maybe a political party – even another denomination. 

And for some it could be yourself.  You did something – made a bad decision, and you just will not forgive yourself.  Girl – ask for forgiveness – and let God restore you with His grace – His redemption – and stand tall.  God wants you confident and not ashamed.  He wants you restored.

What would happen if those people that you have something against showed up wanting to grow closer to God?  God called Jonah to deal with his heart – because it was keeping him back from being the best he could be.  And Jonah fled.  It got him thrown into the sea where he thought he would die – then swallowed up by a fish where he hung out in all the digestive juices, and then spit up on the land.  Jonah was crying out to God from that fish belly. 

For us to be the absolute best we can be, we must let go of the grudges or the biases, or the prejudices that we carry.  For us to stand in community – united – we need to join with all Christians.  So many times, we mark off an entire race or nation because some of them are bad. I’m asking you to not to lump the whole group with those bad people.  And I’m asking you to pray for your heart – that you would trust God enough to deal with the bad people.  And if God sees a place to offer mercy to those people – that you trust God enough to be okay with that. And you offer mercy too.

How might it look to see a sinner through God’s eyes?  A murderer – a molester – a cheater – thief – or some other lifestyle sin that you can’t agree with – what does God see in that sinner?  Does he focus on what they did?  Or does he focus on what they need?  Mercy – forgiveness. God looks on the sinner – the lady at the well – the lady the pharisees threw at Jesus’ feet – us - and He doesn’t focus on our sin – He sees our need for forgiveness and grace – He hurts for them.  Yes, he knows what we did. But if we repent, he separates our sin from us – and looks to what we can be when we follow His will.  He does the same for the other sinners – even the “worst” sinners.  God wants us to trust Him to deal with their sin.  And for us to just offer grace and love them.  Not what they do.  I’m not asking you to love any sin.  I’m asking you to consider loving the person that sinned.

If I told you that the people of Ninevah tortured someone in Jonah’s family – would that change God’s expectation of Jonah?   (we don’t know this, but some scholars speculate)  Does it change anything?  It doesn’t.

God wants us to trust Him with the people in our communities that don’t align with you.  That look or act different.  Or believe different. It means be open to the idea that they can turn from their sin – and turn to God – and be redeemed. But it takes Christians willing to look beyond the sin and see as Jesus did – and to share God’s grace.  Are you willing?

How would it feel not to have the grudge or the dislike that you carry?  How would it feel not to have to feel this angst against someone or some people? 

We really have just one job.  Spread the gospel – love God with all your heart soul and mind – and then love the people.  Give Grace.

We are here to be united. And that may mean uniting with someone that believes a little different from you. You're not uniting in those beliefs – but in grace – in that you both need grace.  We are here to say we allllll neeeeedddd Jesus.

See we don’t need to point out our differences. Cause God knows – we alllll got some differences.  We alllll have history.   Some of us may be Jews. And some of us may be Gentiles. And some republicans. And some democrats. And some ex convicts and some have never seen the inside of a jail.

Someone may say – you don’t understand my hurt.  and you are right.  I do not.  But Jesus does. 

What did Jesus feel as He was tortured? Betrayed by His dear friend? Betrayed by the same people that he had fed when they were hungry. Or healed. Or loved. Jesus felt the hurt. He experienced the fear of being hurt and murdered. He knows.

Do you trust God? Do you trust God to care for you and your best interest?

Why did God want Jonah? Couldn’t He have chosen someone who didn’t carry the hate for Ninevah? Because Jonah’s heart needed restoration. Jonah’s broken heart was keeping him from being the best he could be. And God wanted the best for Jonah.

You see – sharing God’s love and mercy is not just for the people receiving the mercy.  Each time you submit to God’s will and do what God wants – whether that be teaching, praying, witnessing, ministering – whatever God is calling you to do – there is something in it for you.  It may be addressing some need in your life – addressing some burden – some baggage.

 God wanted the best for Jonah. He wants the best for you! God needs you restored.