Title: IS GOD’S CONCERN MINE?
Focus: God’s compassion and concern for the nations should be the concern of God’s people.
Function: To encourage the people to consider the needs and the plight of the nations.
Text: Jonah 4:1-11
When you consider the political concerns of American evangelical Christians, you will get the distinct impression that our concerns center primarily on ethical, moral, and national considerations. For example, issues such as abortion, family values, including same-sex unions, and patriotic values relating to illegal immigration and the war on terror—these seem to be the hot concerns of American evangelical Christians. To be sure, I share these concerns as well.
But as a Reformed evangelical Christian I do encounter ambivalence or a tension with some of these concerns. These concerns—though legitimate—are narrow in scope. What about the pursuit of justice in national and foreign policies? What about the Scriptures’ emphases on the plight of the poor and care for the hungry, the weak, and the sick? And what about Jesus’ mandate to the church to make disciples all over the world, to preach the gospel, and to spread the good news that Christ is coming again to bring justice and to restore all of creation? You see, God’s concern for me and the church and America includes God’s concern for all of creation and for all the nations of the world.
The question I want to raise this afternoon, then, is this: Is God’s concern mine? Yours? And I want to encourage all of us to consider the needs and the plight of the nations through the eyes of God’s compassion and concern as shown in Jesus Christ. I say these things in light of Jonah’s story.
As we consider the last chapter of Jonah’s story, I make some key observations. The first one deals with
1. God’s Policy Reversal: The
text says: “When God saw what the Ninevites did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.” In other words, God changed his course of action. This has happened before. For example, when the Israelites made and then worshiped that golden calf, God was about to destroy them all. But Moses interceded for the Israelites, and God relented from destroying them all.
Also, the prophet Jeremiah declared God’s sovereignty as creator and ruler over all by pointing to a potter and saying (Jer. 18:6-10) “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?…Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned….” God’s policy reversal was hard for Jonah to swallow. Yes, God’s reversals have precedence. Yet, Jonah chose to ignore them and became angry.
My second observation concerns some of
2. The Dynamics in the Story.
For example, did you notice the parallel experiences in Jonah’s story? Just as the praying sailors on the ship were delivered from the fatal effects of the storm, so now Nineveh is delivered from a certain doom. God saved them from death.
Here is another example: the experience of the Ninevites comes very close to the personal experience of Jonah. At one time, Jonah was the object of God’s wrath; so were the Ninevites; at one time, Jonah was under the sentence of death and very conscious of his guilt before God. So were the Ninevites. At one time, Jonah was saved by God’s action—he sent a whale of a fish, and after Jonah repented God commanded the fish to spit out Jonah. Likewise, God spared the Ninevites in response to their repentance.
These are striking parallel experiences. Yet, somehow the prophet Jonah did not seem to be moved by these parallel experiences. You would think that Jonah would recognize the repentance and joy of the Ninevites in light of his own repentance and subsequent joy of having been spared from a certain death. How interesting those dynamics in the story! Here’s my third observation:
3. Jonah’s Anger: Why is
Jonah so angry? From my studies I can come up with a few possible reasons. For example, Jonah may feel that his reputation as a prophet is at stake. A true prophet speaks truth and he is judged by the outcome of his prophecy. As Jonah prophesied the doom of Nineveh, and as Jonah’s prophesy has not materialized because of God’s compassionate policy reversal, Jonah may be deeply embarrassed and feel that no one will ever take him seriously again.
Another possible reason may be Jonah’s frustration with his own people, Israel. Just think, Jonah has preached his heart out to his congregation called Israel, and they blow it time and time. They do not repent in response to Jonah’s preaching. That’s why Israel has been in so much trouble during the days of Jonah. And now, Jonah has preached to a foreign congregation, and they repent. They take God’s Word seriously. How frustrating that must have been for Jonah!
Perhaps the most obvious reason that Jonah is angry is due to Jonah’s nationalistic fervor. He sees the Assyrian empire with its headquarters in Nineveh as a threat to his own nation Israel. So, it would be a nice touch on God’s part if God should wipe out Nineveh. That would be the end of Nineveh’s threat toward Israel! But God does not oblige. And Jonah is as angry as a hornet.
Here’s another observation:
4. Jonah’s “Old Man: Listen to
Jonah talking to God: “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee 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 is the voice of Jonah, the rebel. Here we see the “old man,” the sinful human nature in a rebel mode.
Selfish, self-centered Jonah. Oh, how I see you within myself! Just when I think that God is on the throne of my will and heart, I discover that my “old man,” my sinful human nature has pushed the “new man,” the Spirit of Christ, into a corner of my inner being. Congregation, there is a rebel called “Jonah” in our hearts. Watch out! He is a sneaky old devil. He’s always bent on fighting God’s will and ways.
This “Jonah” in our hearts will always try to keep us from making God’s compassion and concern for the nations our concern. Therefore, learn from Jonah’s story and view God’s lesson to Jonah in light of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The story unfolds and God reveals himself as a Master teacher. God sets the stage with his question: “Jonah, have you any right to be angry?” There is silence. No response from the rebel other than that we notice that Jonah decides to built a make-shift shelter for himself outside the city of Nineveh. Jonah is eager to see the downfall of the Ninevites taking place before his eyes, and he is concerned about his own comfort. He wants to protect himself a bit from the burning sun.
The Lord takes advantage of Jonah’s selfish concern for comfort. He helps Jonah. The Maker of the heavens and the earth, who earlier rocked the sea and called forth wind and waves and a huge fish, now calls forth a monstrous castor-oil plant to provide shade for Jonah. Jonah welcomes this added bonus to his make-shift shelter and is delighted with his good fortune—for which he did not do anything, and for which Jonah had not invested any care or concern.
Now God has his rebel where he wants Jonah to be—in a position to get knocked over the head with a lesson: God’s compassion and concern for the nations must be the concern of God’s people.
The Lord now calls forth a monstrous weevil or worm. The castor-oil plant dies on the spot; then God send the sirocco or hot desert wind to Jonah. The wind and the blazing sun bring Jonah to the verge of a sun or heat stroke, so that Jonah grows faint and says, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” Jonah said that once before—then in anger toward God’s compassion for the Ninevites. Now, in response to having lost his physical comfort.
It’s at this critical juncture in Jonah’s life that God makes his point to Jonah: “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” “I do,” said Jonah, “I am angry enough to die.” Here’s the punch line: “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
God has compassion on all his creatures, including such people as the Ninevites; God created them, organizes their lives, shapes their affairs and guides their destinies. Made in his image, the Ninevites have a place in God’s heart. God has a vested interest in them. And that’s why God’s compassion is also for them.
Jonah’s anger is out of place; he did not tend the vine or make it grow. Neither can Jonah take any credit for Nineveh’s existence or place in history. Our heavenly Father’s compassion and concern for the nations has nothing to do with our allegiances, biases, and likes or dislikes. But this much is clear: God’s compassion and concern for the nations should be ours!
Consider then God’s lesson to Jonah through the eyes of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus:
First of all: God sent his Son for the sake of the world and all who live in it: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus took on Adam’s flesh—our human nature—the flesh that all nations have in common.
And Jesus died—and rose again from the dead--to pay the wages of our sins. Jesus shed his blood and atoned for our sins, so that we may be reconciled with God the Father. Does not the scripture say: (I John 2:1,2) “...if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” The good news of Jesus Christ concerns all the people in the world throughout history. God’s compassion and concern for all the people in the world must be on our radar screen of concern as well. View God’s lesson to Jonah, then, in light of Jesus Christ.
Lastly, take note of Jesus’ mandate to his very own people, the church, you and I included: (Matthew 28:18-20) “Go and make disciples of all nations….” Through his Word and Spirit, the Lord Jesus gathers and forms his own people—“a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God….” For what purpose? “…that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (I Peter 2:9ff).
You and I who put our trust in the saving work of Jesus Christ have first hand experience with God’s compassion. In light of Jesus’ work and mandate to his followers, and in light of God’s lesson to the prophet Jonah we learn today that God’s compassion and concern for the nations should be our concern as well.
So, here’s what we do: we get out of our comfort zones and see people—all over the world—as people who need Jesus.
Whenever the opportunity arises, we tell them—in word and deed, of God’s work of reconciliation—of forgiveness of our sins, of the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ, and of the new life that we are to live already today.
We befriend them and we disciple them and help them to be part of God’s people the church. That’s our mission: to lead people to a growing and committed relationship with Christ and his church.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.