Jonah

A disciple and I have been working our way through study of the so-called Minor Prophets. This week we looked at Jonah, the most well known of them all. Several themes emerged. One was the compassion of God on those who did not believe in Him nor follow His commands. Although Jonah is one of three of the Minor prophets who were in the Northern Kingdom of Israel ( Hosea and Amos are the others), he was not sent to the people of Israel but rather to the people of Nineveh, a major city of the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians were infamous for their savage cruelty towards those whom they conquered, the ancient world's equivalent to Isis today. Along the way God responds to the reverential fear of the pagan sailors of the ship that was carrying Jonah away from Nineveh. The second major theme is God's extraordinary patience with Jonah. He clearly knows God's will but does the exact opposite. After being involved in a storm and then swallowed by a great fish, Jonah goes to Nineveh to preach repentance in probably the shortest sermon ever preached. "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown." ( Jonah 3:4 ESV) When they respond Jonah complains angrily to God, first for God's mercy and then that the plant which God used to shelter him has withered. ( Chapter 4) Yet after all this disobedience and ungodly anger God reasons with Jonah, asking him several questions. ( 4:4,9,11) These interchanges lead to a third theme. Jonah does have a personal relationship with God and feels the freedom to be very candid and expressive with Him. This is a good example even if the sentiments expressed by Jonah are not in accordance with His nature and goodness. The story of Jonah is also convicting. Jonah did not want to get out of his personal comfort zone. He did not have compassion on the perishing but was content with his own relationship with God. Are we not often like this? Are we not unwilling to make sacrifices of our time, energy and comfort so that God might use us to usher people into His family? Last year a pastor from Nigeria mentioned to me that the greatest sin of the Church in America was that we rarely minister the gospel other than to those already saved in our comfy church buildings on Sunday.