Shared Priorities
Rev. Res Spears
Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Today, in honor of tax day tomorrow, I’m going to start with a tax story.
Years ago, when I had my first real job, I found that I needed to start filing taxes. So much for the joys of being an adult, right?
Now, I was making the princely sum of $25 a day at the time, so there was no way I was going to owe back taxes. As you might expect, I got a small refund that year and promptly frittered it away on who-knows-what.
And then, the same thing happened the following year. Except THAT year, I somehow received my 1040-EZ form BACK from the IRS with corrections.
Now, I don’t know how long it’s been since you qualified to use the 1040-EZ form — frankly, I don’t know if it even exists anymore. But you should understand that it’s intended to be EASY. It’s right there in the name.
And so, when I received that form back from the IRS, along with corrections in red ink, I was both embarrassed and frustrated.
And I resolved then and there that I’d never file taxes again. And I kept that resolution for the next five years. I figured I was getting back only a few dollars a year from the government, so I’d essentially pay them to ignore me.
But by the end of that five years, I was making significantly more than $25 a day, My tax bracket had changed, and there was a good chance that I’d actually OWE taxes on April 15. And I kept imagining IRS agents pounding on my door in the middle of the night.
So, I got together with an accountant friend and asked him to do whatever it took to get me legal again in the eyes of the IRS.
And that year, I filed tax returns for six different tax years. I had to pay late-filing penalties for each year I’d missed, along with whatever my remaining tax obligation was for the current year.
Death and taxes. You might avoid them for a while, but sooner or later ….
Look, I’m certainly not recommending that anybody here follow my tax example. Indeed, now that I’m saved, I realize that my little act of rebellion against the government was SIN.
And I certainly don’t want you going away from here thinking Pastor Res was advocating for sin during his sermon this morning.
What I hope is that you’ll recall some instance in your own lives when you’ve HAD to to something you just hated the thought of doing, something you might even have opposed.
And that’s because, today, we’re going to begin a short series on Jonah, the Reluctant Prophet. Surely you’ve heard at least the children’s version of this story.
And, considering the childish behavior of Jonah the Reluctant, maybe it’s no surprise that this is such a favorite Bible story for kids.
But we’re going to see that Jonah has much to teach us about being mature followers of Jesus, no matter how old we are.
Let me give you some background before we get started.
Jonah lived in Gath-hepher in Galilee, north of Nazareth in the northern kingdom of Israel, where he served as a prophet of the Most High God during the reign of Jeroboam II, from 793-753 B.C.
In the book of 2 Kings, he prophesies that King Jeroboam would restore the former borders of Israel, which is the only time we hear about Jonah outside of the New Testament, except in the book that’s named for him.
And in the BOOK of Jonah, what we see is this prophet of God bringing the word of God not to God’s chosen people, Israel, but to the Gentiles of Nineveh.
Nineveh, the city to which God sends Jonah to prophesy coming doom, was one of the great cities of Assyria. Later, it would become the capital of that kingdom.
The city stood on the eastern bank of the Tigris River in what’s now Iraq. Its walls were 100 feet high and 50 feet thick, with the main wall stretching more than seven-and-a-half miles long, including 15 different gates.
This was a major metropolitan area. Scholars believe the city and its surrounding suburbs were home to 600,000 people. And those people, like most Assyrians, were idolators, worshiping Asur and Ishtar.
The Assyrians were known as fierce warriors, even though the nation was weak during the time of Jonah.
Eventually, under the rule of Shalmaneser V, the nation would attack and conquer the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C., bringing God’s judgment upon that kingdom for its unfaithfulness to Him.
The Assyrians were known for their brutality, and the nation of Israel would experience a taste of that brutality.
In fact, in warning the people of Israel about this coming attack, the prophet Amos, who prophesied in Israel around the same time as Jonah, warned them that they’d be led out of their land with hooks through their noses.
But this was all still to come when Jonah is sent to Nineveh. All he knows at the time is that the Assyrians are brutal, that they’ve long been a thorn in the side of Israel, and that they’re enemies, even if the conflict between their countries wasn’t currently an active one.
And so, with all of that as a backdrop:
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
4 The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.
5 Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.
6 So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”
7 Each man said to his mate, “Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us.” So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
8 Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9 He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, “How could you do this?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
11 So they said to him, “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?”—for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy.
12 He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.”
13 However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them.
14 Then they called on the Lord and said, “We earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O Lord, have done as You have pleased.”
15 So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.
16 Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish,
2 and he said,
“I called out of my distress to the Lord,
And He answered me.
I cried for help from the depth of Sheol;
You heard my voice.
3 “For You had cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the current engulfed me.
All Your breakers and billows passed over me.
4 “So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight.
Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
5 “Water encompassed me to the point of death.
The great deep engulfed me,
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
6 “I descended to the roots of the mountains.
The earth with its bars was around me forever,
But You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
7 “While I was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
And my prayer came to You,
Into Your holy temple.
8 “Those who regard vain idols
Forsake their faithfulness,
9 But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving.
That which I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation is from the Lord.”
10 Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”
3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.
4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.
6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.
7 He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water.
8 “But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.
9 “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.
1 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.
2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.
3 “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”
4 The Lord said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”
5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.
6 So the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant.
7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered.
8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.”
9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”
10 Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.
11 “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”
Now, if I were a normal preacher, we might spend a week — or maybe two, at the most — on the Book of Jonah. There are a couple of obvious lessons we’re intended to learn from Jonah’s story, and teaching those is pretty straightforward.
But if you look deeper into the Book of Jonah, there are some extremely useful lessons that take a little more time to draw out.
So, what we’re going to do is spend a little time this week on one of the obvious lessons. Then, beginning next week, we’ll go through the book verse by verse — or at least, section by section — to learn some of the lessons that are a little less obvious.
You all have a set of questions on the back of your lyrics sheets, and I hope you were able to answer them as I read Jonah’s account.
So, let me ask you: Why did Jonah try to run away to Tarshish after God told him to go to Nineveh and prophesy?
Because he knew that God is good and that God is gracious and forgiving. He understood God’s character.
In verse 2 of chapter 4, he quotes almost verbatim the description God had given Moses of Himself in Exodus, chapter 34.
And Jonah knew that if he went to Nineveh and proclaimed the coming of God’s judgment that there was a good chance the people would respond in repentance and faith and that God would relent in His plan to destroy the city.
So, why wouldn’t Jonah have wanted to see that? Why would he not have wanted to see the people of Nineveh repent from their sins and turn to God in saving faith?
Because he hated them. They were the enemy. They were legendarily cruel. They were unrepentant idolators. They were opposed to Israel and to the God of Israel. And Jonah didn’t want to see them be forgiven.
Why not?
Because HE didn’t want to forgive them.
I said earlier that Jonah acts like a child throughout this account. Did you hear all the childish goofiness?
He tried to run away from God and from God’s will for his life. He endangered everyone aboard the ship he chartered to Tarshish. He prayed only when his own situation seemed hopeless.
He seems to have said just as little as he could say in his message to the Ninevites and still claim obedience to God.
And when even that poor sermon spurs the people to repentance, he responds by pouting and demanding that God take his life then and there. “If you’re not going to kill the Ninevites, then kill me,” we can almost hear him saying.
Then, he sulks on the outskirts of the city, hoping to see it destroyed. And finally, he gets all bent out of shape when God destroys the plant he’d been using for shade.
So, let me ask you: What did Jonah care about?
He cared about himself. He cared about a stupid plant. And he cared about retribution.
But what did God care about?
He cared about the PEOPLE of Nineveh. And it comes as a bit of a surprise in the story, but He even cared about the cattle there.
“Jonah’s lack of concern for the Ninevites contrasts with God’s concern for them that was to be the pattern for His people.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003).]
God had created Israel to be a nation of priests, to be a people who would evangelize the neighboring nations and bring even Gentiles into the family of God.
But Israel was content with being God’s chosen people, and they never really made an effort to do evangelism at all, much less to those who had oppressed them and attacked them.
And so, God sent Jonah to remind him that what’s important to God should be important to God’s people. And when Jonah shared his story with other Israelites, they would have been reminded of the same thing.
And I love the Book of Jonah, because even today, its message forces us to reevaluate our own priorities.
Years ago, when I was still a newspaper editor, I had a pastor come by my office and ask me to come and join his church.
He said he was talking to a number of leaders in the community with the idea that getting a particular core group of members would make the church more attractive to others.
We’d been praying about whether to begin looking for another church at the time, so I talked to Annette about the meeting and what the pastor had said to me.
My wise wife immediately picked up on the subtext that I’d missed when I’d talked to the pastor. He was talking about building a church that catered to the rich and famous of Suffolk. Clearly, he’d never seen OUR tax returns.
But the truth is that lots of churches make the same kind of mistake. They tailor their services and ministries to people who look a certain way, who vote a certain way, who live in a certain community or whatever.
They’re looking for people who look, act, and think pretty much the same way THEY do.
But Jesus said, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.”
And that’s one of the primary lessons of this book.
Was it easy for Jonah to go into essentially enemy territory and proclaim God’s coming judgment? Of course not.
Would it have been easy for him to set aside his preconceived notions about the Ninevites and love them enough to show them the way of salvation? Not at all.
Jonah didn’t think the Ninevites deserved to be saved. And he was right. They didn’t. But neither did Israel deserve God’s favor.
Israel had been the beneficiaries of God’s GRACE, and they were called to share that message far and wide, not just among themselves.
But they’d been content to just pat themselves on the backs for being God’s chosen people.
Similarly, we who’ve been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, are called to share the soul-saving message of the gospel far and wide — with friends and with enemies — and not just congratulate ourselves for choosing to follow Jesus.
OUR priorities should align with GOD’S priorities. What HE considers important, we should, too. Those for whom HE has compassion, we should, too.
This week, I want to challenge you to step out of your comfort zone.
Listen to God’s leading, and tell someone about Jesus that you might never have talked to otherwise. Invite them to church. Let them know that God loves them and that you do, too.
Let’s make God’s priorities OUR priorities.