In Matthew 12:39-41, Jesus answered the Pharisees' request for a sign with the comment, "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth ." (Matt 12:40). And, in this season of Lent, with Palm Sunday and the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem on our minds, we never stray too far from the knowledge that less than a week later we will be celebrating Jesus' betrayal and death, and exactly one week after we celebrate His triumphal entry we will be celebrating His even more triumphal victory over death.
I know, from personal experience, that there will be pastors and priests who will talk about the sign of Jonah for their Good Friday service. Some may even mention this during their Easter sermons. In either case, it is a very appropriate reference, and that is, perhaps, why the most well known part of the short book of Jonah is the 11 verses of 1:17 through 2:10. Jonah is swallowed by a fish provided by God. Then he is spit out three days later. But there is so much more to the story of Jonah. There is a quote that goes, "The miracle in Jonah is not that he was swallowed by a fish. All that takes is that a fish be big enough and a man be small enough, and to the God who created this vast universe, what does it take to create a fish big enough to swallow a man. No, the real miracle of Jonah is that the people of Nineveh believed God."
Even that, however, isn't quite the complete story. I started studying Jonah years ago, because sometimes I am so like Jonah. The story is a simple one. God gives Jonah a simple task, "Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me." And Jonah, being very human, doesn't argue, he just goes...in the opposite direction. So God creates a vast storm, and the captain wakes Jonah and asks Jonah to pray to his God. Jonah admits to being the reason the storm exists and the sailors make a valiant attempt, just like Jonah, to escape God's wrath. Finally, they toss Jonah overboard and the sea calms down. Before the fish comes on the scene to swallow Jonah, we have the first miracle.
Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. Jonah 1:16 Even though Jonah was disobeying God, God used that to teach these sailors who He was.
Then we come to the miracle of the fish. What is the real miracle of Jonah in the belly of a fish? Is it the fact that he survived three days in a fish? Or is it that he repented of disobeying God? In the first verse of chapter 2, Jonah prays to God.
He prays to God for all of chapter 2. God takes the measure of his repentance and then speaks to the fish, who spits Jonah up on dry land. The first thing God says to Jonah is, "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." It appears that Jonah is the only person in the world who can do this task. For whatever reason, God has called upon Jonah and will not call on someone else. It is Jonah's responsibility to preach to the people of Nineveh. So it is with us, when God calls us to a task. Our failure to step up to the plate may mean that what God wants done doesn't get done. Since we have free will, God will let us turn our back on what He's asked, but there are always consequences for not following God's will. Had Jonah not preached to Nineveh, they would have been destroyed. In fact, that is what Jonah preached. "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They repented of their ways. Their king said that maybe repentance would change God's mind. And so we have another miracle, an entire city saved from destruction because of their belief in God. Here the story could have ended. Everything is wrapped up in a neat package. God had a task, God's messenger rebelled, God's messenger repented, an entire city responsed to God's message and repented. What more could anyone ask for?
We could ask for Jonah's response. His all too human response. Was it an outburst of joy at this great miracle that occurred? Was he filled to bursting with the knowledge that he had helped save an entire city? Nope. He sulked. He blamed God for being "a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing." Jonah 4:2b. Jonah had preached that Nineveh would be destroyed and God went and decided not to destroy it. What was Jonah's word worth?
He'd rather die than live. So God asked him a simple question, one which Jonah doesn't answer. "Is it right for you to be angry?" Instead of answering, he goes out into the land surrounding Nineveh to watch its fate, waiting for God to destroy it. And God created a bush which grew in one day to give Jonah shade. And the next day God sent a worm to attack the bush and finally a wind to knock it down. And Jonah starts sulking again, this time angry about the destruction of a plant. So God once again addresses Jonah:
Then the Lord said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?" Jonah 4:10,11
Thus ends the book. Without Jonah's response, for what response can he give. When God asks me to do something and I don't want to do it, my first response is to read this book. Then I turn to Jesus' own example of how He faced His task. When faced with death, He prayed to God. He prayed for God to remove the task from Him, but acknowledged God's sovereignty and was willing to accept it. As we approach the time in our holy calendar where the sign of Jonah is remembered, I ask myself if I am doing God's will and pray that God will help me to ever come closer to Jesus' response than Jonah's.
Blessings upon you and yours
Josef
In Matthew 12:39-41, Jesus answered the Pharisees' request for a sign with the comment, "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth ." (Matt 12:40). And, in this season of Lent, with Palm Sunday and the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem on our minds, we never stray too far from the knowledge that less than a week later we will be celebrating Jesus' betrayal and death, and exactly one week after we celebrate His triumphal entry we will be celebrating His even more triumphal victory over death.
I know, from personal experience, that there will be pastors and priests who will talk about the sign of Jonah for their Good Friday service. Some may even mention this during their Easter sermons. In either case, it is a very appropriate reference, and that is, perhaps, why the most well known part of the short book of Jonah is the 11 verses of 1:17 through 2:10. Jonah is swallowed by a fish provided by God. Then he is spit out three days later. But there is so much more to the story of Jonah. There is a quote that goes, "The miracle in Jonah is not that he was swallowed by a fish. All that takes is that a fish be big enough and a man be small enough, and to the God who created this vast universe, what does it take to create a fish big enough to swallow a man. No, the real miracle of Jonah is that the people of Nineveh believed God."
Even that, however, isn't quite the complete story. I started studying Jonah years ago, because sometimes I am so like Jonah. The story is a simple one. God gives Jonah a simple task, "Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me." And Jonah, being very human, doesn't argue, he just goes...in the opposite direction. So God creates a vast storm, and the captain wakes Jonah and asks Jonah to pray to his God. Jonah admits to being the reason the storm exists and the sailors make a valiant attempt, just like Jonah, to escape God's wrath. Finally, they toss Jonah overboard and the sea calms down. Before the fish comes on the scene to swallow Jonah, we have the first miracle.
Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. Jonah 1:16 Even though Jonah was disobeying God, God used that to teach these sailors who He was.
Then we come to the miracle of the fish. What is the real miracle of Jonah in the belly of a fish? Is it the fact that he survived three days in a fish? Or is it that he repented of disobeying God? In the first verse of chapter 2, Jonah prays to God.
He prays to God for all of chapter 2. God takes the measure of his repentance and then speaks to the fish, who spits Jonah up on dry land. The first thing God says to Jonah is, "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." It appears that Jonah is the only person in the world who can do this task. For whatever reason, God has called upon Jonah and will not call on someone else. It is Jonah's responsibility to preach to the people of Nineveh. So it is with us, when God calls us to a task. Our failure to step up to the plate may mean that what God wants done doesn't get done. Since we have free will, God will let us turn our back on what He's asked, but there are always consequences for not following God's will. Had Jonah not preached to Nineveh, they would have been destroyed. In fact, that is what Jonah preached. "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They repented of their ways. Their king said that maybe repentance would change God's mind. And so we have another miracle, an entire city saved from destruction because of their belief in God. Here the story could have ended. Everything is wrapped up in a neat package. God had a task, God's messenger rebelled, God's messenger repented, an entire city responsed to God's message and repented. What more could anyone ask for?
We could ask for Jonah's response. His all too human response. Was it an outburst of joy at this great miracle that occurred? Was he filled to bursting with the knowledge that he had helped save an entire city? Nope. He sulked. He blamed God for being "a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing." Jonah 4:2b. Jonah had preached that Nineveh would be destroyed and God went and decided not to destroy it. What was Jonah's word worth?
He'd rather die than live. So God asked him a simple question, one which Jonah doesn't answer. "Is it right for you to be angry?" Instead of answering, he goes out into the land surrounding Nineveh to watch its fate, waiting for God to destroy it. And God created a bush which grew in one day to give Jonah shade. And the next day God sent a worm to attack the bush and finally a wind to knock it down. And Jonah starts sulking again, this time angry about the destruction of a plant. So God once again addresses Jonah:
Then the Lord said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?" Jonah 4:10,11
Thus ends the book. Without Jonah's response, for what response can he give. When God asks me to do something and I don't want to do it, my first response is to read this book. Then I turn to Jesus' own example of how He faced His task. When faced with death, He prayed to God. He prayed for God to remove the task from Him, but acknowledged God's sovereignty and was willing to accept it. As we approach the time in our holy calendar where the sign of Jonah is remembered, I ask myself if I am doing God's will and pray that God will help me to ever come closer to Jesus' response than Jonah's.
Blessings upon you and yours
Josef