Life + Faith – joncoombs.com

Tag: Jonah

  • The Scandal of Grace

    Scandals are usually thought of in negative terms like the sports star who is caught out or the celebrity news on the gossip pages. It’s negative, possibly something immoral to the world, and breaks the internet for a day or two. 

    In preaching through the book of Jonah recently I’ve continued to have it pressed home to me just how scandalous the grace of God is. God’s free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ offered to all who receive it is a scandal. Scandalous. It sounds odd to hear as we never name it as such, but it really is. 

    In Jonah 4 we find the prophet outside the city of Nineveh, sitting at a lookout point, watching and hoping that God will bring fire and sulphur down on this city like he did on Sodom and Gomorrah. Jonah has just preached his short, reluctant sermon to the Ninevites, seen an entire city turn from its evil ways, and watched God relent from the judgement they deserved.

    But Jonah is furious. He’s so angry. You’d think he’d be happy, after all, he is a missionary! 

    He says to God in verse 2, 

    “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”

    Jonah knows exactly who God is. He knows his character and he has experienced the breadth and depth of grace himself. He was rescued from drowning, delivered from the belly of a fish, and given a second chance when he had run as far as he could in the opposite direction. God showed grace to Jonah, and ironically, when that same grace is extended to Nineveh he cannot bear it. 

    It’s a reaction we might understand ourselves. The Ninevites weren’t just a bunch of foreigners Jonah happened to dislike. These were the Nazis, the al-Qaeda, the ISIS of the ancient world. The Assyrians were vicious, brutal, and violent. They had God’s people in their sights and everyone knew it. Within a generation they would conquer the northern tribes of Israel (2 Kings 17:6). Jonah knew what these people were capable of and he seemed to know what was coming.

    Yet, God showed them grace anyway.

    This is the scandal.

    This event and the story of Jonah asks a question of us, it turns the mirror toward us and asks, “How far does our love and grace really extend?”

    Perhaps as an illustration we might think of that Navy Seal team who was brought together to take out Osama bin Laden all those years ago. Let’s imagine that instead of this team the US President sent a crack evangelist team to convert him. And in so doing they didn’t kill him, but they reached him with the good news of Jesus. Let’s say he repented, placed his faith in Jesus, and became part of God’s family. 

    How are you going to respond to that? 

    If you feel a twinge of discomfort, anger even, while reading that then you know exactly how Jonah felt sitting outside Nineveh.  

    The scandal of grace is that God’s compassion and mercy is open to the most ghastly serial killer, the most despised paedophile, the rapist, the war criminal, the dictator, the murderer. If I’m honest, there’s a part of me that is angry at God right now, just like Jonah. It’s not fair. It doesn’t feel fair to respond to such evil and wrongdoing with grace. It’s outrageous. My human understanding struggles to believe this.

    Alongside this scandal of grace we also need to hold onto something. God is not letting anyone off the hook. He is not being unjust. In fact, in order to even offer this grace, God provided his Son Jesus Christ as the one who absorbed the full force of the justice and judgement that is rightfully deserved by all who have sinned, all who have done evil, all who have broken God’s law and God’s ways (Isaiah 53:5; Romans 5:8). Every murderer and rapist, every liar and adulterer, every person consumed by anger or greed or pride — the judgement they deserve was placed on Jesus where God dealt with evil fully and finally at the cross.

    It is at the cross where the grace is offered and it is at the cross where it remains. This isn’t cheap grace. It’s not grace that ignores wrongdoing. But it is costly, blood-bought grace that has dealt with sin at its epicentre and is now extended by invitation to all people everywhere.

    This is why we call it amazing grace. This is why I’m calling it scandalous grace. 

    God’s final question to Jonah, “Should I not have concern for this great city?”, is a question that exposes the limits we place on grace. It exposes the idols we carry in our hearts. It is that attitude of silently deciding others don’t deserve it. 

    In Luke 15 Jesus tells a story along similar lines. A father opens his arms and offers grace to a son who has wasted everything. Standing outside the celebration, unwilling to go in, is the elder brother who has been faithful and dutiful all his life. And there he stands furious that grace has been shown to someone who in his view simply doesn’t deserve it. The father comes out to him and says: everything I have is yours, but one who was lost has been found. 

    Like the book of Jonah, the parable of the Prodigal Son ends without answer. The scandal of grace toward the Ninevites and the younger brother is the same grace that God gifts us and is ours to receive. His arms are wide open. 

    The mirror has turned toward us, and the question remains, “How far does our love and grace really extend?”

  • More Than Anger

    What do you get angry about?

    Is it after hearing the news of the day and all that is going on in our world? Is it while driving and you must let other road users know about it? Is it when your footy team loses or circumstance or other people?

    Jonah has just watched the entire city of Ninevah repent. As a result God relents from the judgements he planned and Jonah is so angry about it.

    You’d think he’d be pleased, wouldn’t you? It’s a successful ministry in my book, a whole city turning away from evil and toward God! Yet, Jonah is angry. Very angry.

    In Jonah 4:1-2, we read:

    But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 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.’

    This book is full of irony, and here is a great example of it again. Jonah wasn’t running away from God the first time because he was worried he would fail, he was running away because of his fear of success! He knew God was merciful, but he did not want Ninevah to receive that mercy.

    Jonah goes and sits outside the city and again God provides for him, this time in the form of a plant. It gives shade to Jonah and he is well pleased. God then provides a worm and the plant withers and Jonah’s ridiculous response is again anger, so much so that he wants to die all over a plant!

    So, God asks him a question to try and get some sense into him. God asks,

    “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

    “It is,” says Jonah. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

    God’s response to Jonah is gentle but it cuts to the heart of the irony and what’s going on here. Jonah cared about the plant, which he neither planted or looked after, which appeared and then disappeared. Should God not care then for a city of 120,000 people!?

    We aren’t told Jonah’s response. Perhaps he didn’t have an answer. The book ends here and there is no resolution to the question. What we’re left with is that question hanging, which is addressed to us just as much as it is to Jonah.

    Are we genuinely concerned for the people God is concerned for? Or are we more invested in our own comfort, our own shade, than in the mercy God extends to others?

    The anger we hold reveals what we value. Jonah’s anger revealed his heart shaped by nationalistic pride than divine compassion.

    The question for us is whether our hearts look more like God’s or more like Jonah’s.

    For Reflection:

    1.     What does your anger tend to reveal about what you truly value? Is there a place where your priorities need to align more closely with God’s?

    2.     Is there a group of people that you find it difficult to want God’s mercy for? What might it look like to bring that before Him?

  • More Than A Second Chance

    “Can I have another go?” is an often-used phrase in our house when we’re playing games. Whether it’s darts, chess, or a card game, this phrase is used in hope by one of our kids after they’ve realised they could’ve made a better decision. They want a second chance at it.

    Jonah gets a second chance, which we read of in Jonah 3:1-2,

    Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.’

    Notice it was not, “Jonah got himself together.” Nor was it, “Jonah decided it was time.” But it was for the second time, “…then word of the Lord came to Jonah.” God speaks again. God initiates again. The mission Jonah ran from the first time is offered again. There is no change to the mission. It’s the same city, the same message, and the same calling. And this time Jonah goes.

    Jonah walks into Ninevah and delivers the message that the Lord has given him. It’s only eight words long, “Forty more days and Ninevah will be overthrown.” That’s it. The entire sermon. No explanation. No illustration. No application. It is quite an amazing scene.

    The result of this message is that the city repents. The king gets off his throne and sits in dust. There is a decree issued for humans and animals to fast and cry out to God. The message of the Lord has had an impact on the city.

    And God relents.

    In contrast to Israel, God’s own people, here is a pagan city who turn toward Him. God’s own people continue to rebel and refuse to repent are outdone by the Ninevites.

    This passage reminds us that God is the God of second chances. There’s a second chance for Jonah, for Ninevah, and for us. The call God gives to us in our lives doesn’t expire the moment we fail to answer it. He calls again and again and again, offering us a second chance at life, love, and hope.

    It also challenges our expectation of who can be transformed through responding to the message of God. Ninevah was the last city anyone would expect to repent, but God is always at work in the places our human minds have given up on.

    The gift of the second chance is for us!

    For Reflection:

    1.     Is there an area of your own life where you need to receive God’s second chance? Are you open to accepting God’s invitation into what you may have been avoiding?

    2.     Is there a person or situation you have mentally written off? How does the repentance of Nineveh challenge that assumption?

  • More Than A Prayer

    I suspect most of us know what it’s like to pray when we’re in a panic.

    That crisis moment when we receive a phone call with bad news, the family member requiring urgent help, the conflict and crisis at work. In these moments prayer comes quickly and easily. We reach for God because we know we can’t reach for anything else.

    Jonah is in one of these moments, praying on the inside of a big fish, like clutching for a wall in the dark.

    In Jonah 2:1-2, we read:

    From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”

    What follows is a poem, a psalm, a prayer of help and hope.

    Jonah uses the language of the Psalms to describe being cast into the deep. He even talks of the literal currents swirling and the seaweed wrapped around his head. It might not be the valley of the shadow of death, but it’s certain the belly of the shadow of darkness. He’s as low as a person can go.

    And it is in this event that God hears.

    Notice that Jonah’s prayer is not confession. Nor is it total repentance. He doesn’t say, “I’m sorry I ran”. He doesn’t repent of the disobedience to the call of God. He thanks God for saving his life, but there is still some deep work of the heart to come.

    When we need rescuing it’s easy to call on God. It’s hard to come to Him when things are calm, settled, and stable; when there’s no crisis to drive us to our knees.

    In v9 we read the heart of the chapter: “Salvation comes from the LORD.” 

    This is a declaration of faith. Jonah is aware of where his rescue comes from. The question is whether he will allow that same salvation to transform his heart that first ran away from the Lord.

    Prayer, in any moment, is a good place to start. But God wants more than crisis prayers. He wants ongoing conversation, connection, and worship. He loves for us to come to Him, to daily turn to Him in all things. Are we honest enough of where we are and how we are react to be open to God’s work in us?

    In the end the Lord sets Jonah’s feet back on solid ground, which He also does for us when we call on Him.

    For Reflection:

    1.     Do you tend to pray more in crisis than in calm? What might it look like to foster a more consistent conversation with God?

    2.     Is there something in your heart that you have not yet brought honestly before God?

  • More Than Running Away

    Jonah is full of humour if we’re on the lookout for it. And in the first chapter we find one of those funny moments being when Jonah thinks he can run from God.

    It’s funny.

    Jonah legitimately thinks he can flee from God, that he can outrun God. God tells him to go east to Ninevah, but instead Jonah heads west to Tarshish. He finds a ship, he pays that fare, he goes below deck. Jonah is so committed to running away that he falls asleep while a storm threatens to break up the ship.

    In Jonah 1:3, we read:

    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.

    What is of particular interest here in chapter 1 is the contrast between Jonah and the sailors. These are pagan men, they worship various gods, and they begin crying out to them the moment the storm hits. These men are terrified, but they are also sincere. They recognise the spiritual while God’s own prophet is asleep!

    The sailors end up throwing Jonah overboard; after discovering he is the source of their trouble, but very reluctantly. They evidently fear the Lord as they make sacrifices and vows to him. It’s quite amazing really, their pagan sailors become worshippers of Yahweh despite the sleepy reluctant prophet. Jonah was running away from sharing the message God wanted him to share to heathens in Ninevah but ends up drawing these sailors toward Him.

    God has a way of working around our resistance and defiance.

    There is something to reflect on here. How often do we resemble Jonah more than the sailors? These sailors had no scripture, no tradition, and no covenant with God. Yet, when that moment came for them, they cried out, paid attention to the Lord, and responded. Jonah had all these things, but he ran.

    Running from God isn’t just blatant disobedience. It can occur in quiet ways; that prayer we put off, the conversation we avoid, that step of obedience we keep meaning to take. We find ourselves running in all sorts of directions.

    The good news in this chapter is not that the storm is stilled, it is that God is sovereign over all of it. He is sovereign over the storm, the sailors, and the fish that is in the water.

    God doesn’t abandon His mission because the messenger runs from it, nor does he abandon us when we run too.

    For Reflection:

    1.     In what area of your life have you been sleeping through the storm rather than responding to what God might be saying?

    2.     What might it look like to take one step back toward God this week, rather than continuing to head in the opposite direction?

  • More Than A Mission You Can Refuse

    There is something rather Mission Impossible about the book of Jonah. You can vibe God saying, “Your mission, Jonah, should you choose to accept it, is to go and share my message with the Ninevites.”

    In Jonah 1:2, God calls Jonah to share what all prophets of God are to share, the message of God:

    “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

    For those of us who know the rest of the story, or can catch up by reading the rest of chapter 1, we know that this is not what Jonah does. Instead, Jonah flees. He wants to get as far away from Nineveh as he can, and away from the Lord’s presence, by running away in the opposite direction.

    When we sense danger around us we tend to stop, turn around, and flee from whatever that danger might be. Here Jonah is doing the same thing. He is turning and fleeing in the opposite direction to what God wants him to be doing. He doesn’t want anything to do with the mission that God has for him.

    There’s something understandable for us in this. We don’t always follow God’s instruction, nor take the steps forward into the calling God has for us. This can be as simple as avoiding taking the step to follow him completely, to ignoring the explicit truth and teaching of his Word, to turning back to sin that we enjoy.

    Now, the time in which Jonah receives this call is when Assyria is one of Israel’s most hated opponents. Assyria are the superpower of the day, and there is no love lost between them and God’s people the Israelites. One reason Jonah is no doubt reluctant to even go to Nineveh is because he hates the people. His nationalism for God’s people is so ingrained in who he is as a prophet and person of God. Yet here is the Lord calling him to go to people who are his enemies, to go and give them a message and see if they will repent and believe.

    This mission that the Lord gives Jonah is quite extraordinary. It highlights just how much God has concern for all people, not just his own chosen people. God’s care and compassion isn’t for a select few, it’s not for a holy enclave of people who keep to themselves, but it is for all. As 1 Timothy 2:4 reminds us, we worship a God who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

    God’s heart is for all to come to know him.

    This call of Jonah to the Ninevites foreshadows the commission and promise Jesus gives his disciples in Acts 1:8, that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit and be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The mission that made Jonah run is the same mission Jesus gives to his people.

    Unfortunately, we can be so taken up by what we are doing ourselves, among our own Christian cohort, that we forget the mission of God is to others. It takes effort, intentionality, and compassion for others to go and share the message of Jesus. But it’s not about us, it’s about God and his love, grace, and concern for all.

    Let’s not forget the mission of God, which each of us are called to as his disciples.

    For Reflection:

    1.     Where in your life are you currently running away from something God might be calling you toward?

    2.     What would it look like for you to take one intentional step toward someone outside your usual Christian circle this week?