Life + Faith – joncoombs.com

Tag: Old Testament

  • 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?

  • Published: The Servant Songs And The Greatest Service Of All

    With Christmas only a few weeks away there are plenty of Advent readings and articles written. I had the opportunity to add to this through a little Christmas series Rooted Ministry are doing, focussing on how the OT prophets speak to Jesus’ birth. I planted myself in Isaiah, with particular attention on the four ‘Servant Songs’ (Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-13; 50:4-9; 52:13-52:12), and took some time to reflect through Isaiah 42:1-4.

    It will probably become the basis for my sermon on the weekend before Christmas.

    You can read it here.

    Through his birth Jesus comes as the great justice-giver. Jesus comes to bring justice to the nations, and establish justice upon the earth. Jesus achieves these words of justice through his life and ministry, ultimately turning that justice upon himself, making himself the conduit of justice by taking upon the sins of the world. Through the cross Jesus achieves and establishes justice for the nations, and for us personally. He serves as the Servant-King, reminding us of the words of Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

  • Published: The Book of Ruth, Critical to God’s Narrative of Redemption

    I’ve recently been preaching through the book of Ruth. It’s been really exciting and energising to do so. For one thing, I’ve been fascinated by the various levels of meaning the author uses throughout the narrative. Anyway, in reading and re-reading the story of Ruth I put together a post, which has been published on Rooted Ministry.

    I imagine in the work you do as a youth minister – the people you have conversations with, and the crises you get called into – there are similarly tragic moments you’re involved in.

    The student who loses her best friend to suicide and didn’t know she needed help. The young man in high school whose father passes away suddenly. The family who is effected by a car accident, or by cancer, or by an illicit liaison.

    As youth ministers, we often have the privilege of being part of people’s lives at the worst of times. And often we ourselves don’t know what to say or how to handle such events and experiences. But we sit there, we listen, and we show our love and care for them.

    You can read the whole thing here.