Click here for audio.
Back about five years ago, as I was preparing for my ordination exams, I was being reviewed by another pastor about my knowledge in the area of biblical content. This pastor was going over with me several commonly asked questions of people who were being examined to become Teaching Elders in the EPC. As we were going through the list of questions, he asked me perhaps the oddest question that I had heard or read during my preparation for the exams. He asked me, “Do you believe the book of Jonah to be real, or merely a story that was told in order to teach something of the nature of God?” Now, typically, our sessions were just a rapid-fire succession of questions and answers with little-to-no explanation. However, I had to stop the session and ask, “Are there really Christians that believe that Jonah is merely a story?” In other words, are there folks who truly believe that all of the 66 books of Scripture are true, historical accounts except for Jonah? He got on his computer and pulled up a recent article that had been making its way around the internet that was written by one very liberal seminary professor about how the book of Jonah was merely a story that was used to illustrate the resolve of God. Or as we might call it, the fact that if God wants it to happen, then it’s going to happen.
Now, anyone who has ever read the book of Jonah can tell you that that is one of the major themes that you take away from this book. However, it’s so much more than that. Obviously we hold the book of Jonah to be factual and a true historical account, but we do understand how one could think that it is a story about how God’s will always comes to pass. We have to admit that there is a certain level of surrealness to this book. However, we must know that if it were meant to be interpreted as merely a story, then Scripture would indicate it like we see with Jesus and his use of parables for teaching. As we read through this book, we’re going to see violent storms, a man get swallowed by a big fish only to be vomited back onto dry land, a plant spring up to shade someone, and several other things that seem like they would come out of a book written by the brothers Grimm and not God Himself. In fact, if you’re familiar with the Vegetales franchise, they even made a movie out of the account of Jonah because it lends itself to a cinematic storyline so easily. Ashby watched it so many times when she was a little girl that she literally melted our copy of it and we had to buy a new one. I’ve heard/watched it so many times that you shouldn’t be surprised if I reference that movie instead of the actual historical account contained in Scripture at some point over the next few months. However, as we walk through this account of how God’s will is always accomplished, we’re going to see that it’s much more than just a story. Perhaps my favorite summation of what we’re going to see in the book of Jonah comes from Sinclair Ferguson. He writes, “Jonah is not a book about a great fish! It is really a book about God, and how one man came, through painful experience, to discover the true character of God whom he had already served in the earlier years of his life. He was to find the doctrine about God come alive in his experience. It is this combination of doctrine and experience that makes Jonah such a fascinating, instructive, and practical book. The teaching of Jonah searches our hearts and consciences in a special way because it is the [account] of a man who was on the run from God. It traces not only the path of his journey, but unravels the inner workings of his heart—his fears, motivations, and passing moods. Christians today still experience these ‘Jonah-syndromes’.”
I think that the best place for us to start in our journey through this account of one man coming to know the true character of God is with developing an understanding of the main figure in all of this, Jonah himself. What do we know about the man known as Jonah? Well, we know from our text that he was the son of a man named Amittai (who is mentioned nowhere else in Scripture other than this lineage of his son). We know that Jonah’s name in Hebrew means dove. We know that he was a prophet of God. Whenever we see the words, “Now the word of the Lord came to…saying…”, then we know that we are dealing with a prophet of God. It may be a prophet who has had a long tenured ministry or someone who served in the role for a specifically short period of time. Now, we can assume that Jonah is not the latter, but the former of these two types of prophets because we do find his name mentioned one other time in Scripture outside of this account of his battle with what God called him to do. 2 Kings 14:25 mentions Jonah as having served as a prophet, or servant of God, during the reign of Jeroboam II in Israel. So, putting all of this together, we start to get at least a little bit of a clearer picture of who Jonah was and how the world was at the time of his ministering.
You see, Jonah wasn’t just some run of the mill guy who was walking down the street one day and was suddenly called to go and deliver God’s word to a group of people. He was someone who was specifically called to the office of prophet. We hear all the time about some random person running from God and trying to deny God’s calling upon their life, only to have God ultimately convict them and have them follow His call. That wasn’t the case with Jonah at all. As we mentioned just a second ago, being a prophet was who Jonah was. 2 Kings tells us that, plus our being told in our text about the word of the Lord coming to him. Jonah was part of that exclusive and privileged group known as prophets. We talked a little bit about the privilege of prophets during our advent series when we stated that prophets were spokesmen for God towards His people. Many of the Old Testament prophets are specifically referred to as God’s servants. Amos 3:7 says of God’s prophets, “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secrets to his servants the prophets.” Jonah was part of this group of men who had stood in the presence of God and felt the pressure of his will upon their spirits. They heard his unmistakable voice telling them what he was about to perform among the nations (Ferguson). So, when we think of Jonah, we need to think of him as being from the same line as Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and all of the other prophets that are recorded in the Old Testament. He’s not just some random guy, but someone specifically called by God.
You know, one of the common misconceptions of all of the Old Testament prophets is that they came from complete obscurity; that they emerged from some completely unknown place and assumed the role of prophet. Yes, there are prophets that we’re told were doing something else one day and then are beginning their ministry the next. There are also prophets who seem to come on the scene and then disappear as quickly as they came. However, that isn’t the case most of the time. The truth of the matter is that there was typically a training period for those serving in the office of prophet. Think in terms of Timothy serving under Paul for all those years as a means of training for the role of apostle even after he had felt God’s call upon his life. I can personally testify that the time between my feeling God’s call upon my life to gospel ministry and my becoming a pastor was roughly about 6 years. Old Testament prophets living during the time of Jonah were commonly part of a school for prophets prior to their time spent in active ministry. This was a place where they spent much time in fellowship, prayer, discussion, and study of God, while being trained in all of the skills and equipped with all of the tools that were useful for ministry. Now, it’s not known whether or not Jonah was actually a part of such school, but it was around for his generation. There are some non-biblical sources out there that place him in one of these schools, but we cannot be certain since they do not have the authority and inerrancy of Scripture to support their information undeniably. So, not only is it true that Jonah was a prophet of God, but he had more than likely been trained by older and wiser prophets for the specific ministry that he was called to perform.
Lastly, Jonah was a prophet who had seen God work through even the direst of circumstances. As we mentioned earlier, Jonah served as a prophet during the reign of Jeroboam II in Israel. You see, Israel grew under Jeroboam’s reign, and it wasn’t because he was a good king or a Godly man who followed after God’s heart. In fact, he was just the opposite; he was a very wicked king. However, despite Jeroboam’s wickedness, Jonah had seen God expand the land of His people to a level that it had not seen since the reign of David’s son Solomon. Jonah was accustomed to dealing with a people who seemed to just not get it. That’s not to say that they didn’t trust God and honor Him, but that the wickedness of the people never seemed to go away. He was always having to draw them back to God and remind them that God was the sole reason for their prosperity and not Jeroboam’s wise ruling. You would think that this would have been a wonderful time to minister with a message that everyone wanted to hear. However, Jonah ministered during what was a hard time to minister. The powers-at-be were corrupt and evil, the people cared primarily for their own personal success, and God was mainly on the forefront of their minds only when there was punishment or hardship for their wickedness. Doesn’t that sound frighteningly like today? Now, the biggest difference obviously is that Israel was a theocracy (a system of government where priests rule in the name of God under His direction), whereas we are not. However, one cannot miss the connection between the waywardness and wickedness of God people both then and now. But the crazy thing about it is that Jonah had seen God’s faithfulness in leading people to Himself all the while. He had seen God overcome the wicked and hardened heart. He had seen God drive someone to repentance and complete reliance upon him. So what caused Jonah to go in the complete opposite direction after God called him to go to Nineveh?
Over the next few months, we’re going to see why Jonah ran, what God did in calling him back to his appointed task, and how God worked through even Jonah’s reluctance to accomplish great works for His kingdom. But for now, take the person of Jonah as a warning that none of us are above the power of sin. Jonah, even the most dedicated of prophets, who had seen his share of ministry during dark times, was not immune to straying and running from God. Even the most devout and devoted follower of Christ is not above the clutches of Satan. Over the Christmas break, Amy was texting with the ex-wife of a former mentor pastor of mine. She was telling her how he didn’t attend their daughter’s wedding and how he even married his new wife (the reason for their divorce) on the same day. Several other things were discussed about the man that I used to strive to emulate in ministry until we were all just looking at each other in disbelief. Finally, his ex-wife sent Amy the message, “the devil has control of his soul now.” Truer words were never spoken. Sin is a powerful enemy. Jonah’s own personal sin caused him to run from God. My friend’s sin crushed his marriage, his ministry, and his family. Don’t ever think that you are above Satan’s grasp. However, know that God can use even your sinfulness and stubbornness to accomplish great things for His kingdom. Just ask Jonah…or better yet, let’s see for ourselves together in the coming weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment