Why Did Jonah Run?

November 13
Boy! I read Jonah through Zechariah 2 today and that makes it difficult to decide about what to write. One could preach two or three years worth of sermons onthose books alone. I think I’ll focus on Jonah 2. Since this is supposed to be a daily devotional and I know we here in America have trouble focusing on anything more than two or three brief paragraphs, I’ll focus on the thoughts contained in Zechariah 2:4-6. Most people don’t have a clue why Jonah wanted to ignore God’s call, so I’ll provide a brief background here. Nineveh was a pagan nation that practiced intimidation warfare. They captured the leaders of a nation, cut off their heads and hung them in a public place to intimidate their subjects. There were a perverse, idolatrous people who had no knowledge of use for the God of creation. At the time Jonah was asked to go prophesy to them, they were in the process of enslaving Israel and doing rather perverse things to their women.

Jonah knew God is slow to anger and full of compassion, so he didn’t want to warn them of impending judgment for fear they would repent and God would forgive them. And lo, that is just what happened. The story is an incredible image of Christianity in America today. Like the Jews of Jonah’s day, we have a “Go get ‘em God and punish ‘em,” mentality. We think all those bums living in streets and the beggars on street corners don’t deserve God’s compassion and forgiveness. We think they just need to pee or get off the pot, to put it nicely. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with the idea that some are just too lazy to work. I used to offer to pay them for working around my home if they really wanted to have something to eat. That sent most of them packing.

I just saw one of the most realistic and least Hollywoodized versions of the gospel I think I have ever
seen. In it, Jesus was condemned because He took the gospel to sinners. I know we read it, but seeing it really takes the message home. The attitude of the Pharisees was so much like what I see in many churches today that it was scary. I really do think Jesus expressed righteous indignation often in His earthly ministry. He became angry but did not sin because His anger was directed at sin and He offered a solution to that sin immediately. Pharisees, Sadducees, and Lawyers thought they were righteous; they were proud of their humility.

The point for today is that Jesus rescues each of us from the pit. He drags some of us screaming and clawing into His glorious presence and places in us a heart of flesh that yearns to bow down to His magnificent glory and majesty. At least that’s how He got me into His kingdom. Like Jonah, I was sinking into the oblivion of my sin.

"The great deep engulfed me; water encompassed me to the point of death. I was wrapped in seaweed; the water engulfed me to the point of death. Weeds were wrapped around my head. I descended to the roots of the mountains; the earth with its bars was around me forever.”

And God, in His magnificent grace reached down and lifted me out of the pit. For 38 years now I
have lived in His grace and majesty and I can testify that is the only way to experience the life He intended us to live. I’m not sure Jonah ever learned the point of this story. It leaves us without a clue on that point. But I also know the story has an everlasting truth we need to absorb.

God sends us out to preach the gospel to the lost. It matters not what their state in life. He saves the rich, the poor, the blind, the lame, the downtrodden of society. We have no clue into which category anyone to whom we speak fits. That’s His problem. It is our responsibility to preach the gospel in and out of season. When He says he will not allow His word to return void, it doesn’t mean those listening will all get saved. It means everyone’s eternal status will be determined by the amount of information they received. It is our responsibility to preach he word. It is His to do with it what He wills. And that’s God’s word for us today.