Not Me!
Sometimes we don’t like the
Call – the story of Jonah
Jonah 1:3; 3:1-5
1:1 The word of the LORD
came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 "Go to the great
city of
3 But Jonah ran
away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he
found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and
sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.
3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah
a second time: 2 "Go to the great city of
“The word of the Lord
came to Jonah a second time.” That’s because the first time he got the call
to go to Ninevah he went in the opposite direction. But I can’t blame him.
Picture the
Imagine having
I (Larry) would be reluctant to go out of fear of being
imprisoned, killed, ridiculed or all three. But none of those were Jonah’s
concerns. Jonah flat out didn’t like the
enemy Assyrians or their capital city of
There’s a line in one of the “Rocky” movies when Rocky’s
manager, Mick, is talking to someone about Rocky’s next fight, and the person
says, “It’s like it says in the Bible,
Mick; you don’t get no second chances.” No second chances? As I read the
Bible it’s full of all kinds of second chances, page after page of second
chances. One of the recurring themes that runs throughout the Bible is that God
refuses to give up on us, but instead God continues to reach out to us in
forgiving love, giving us second chance after second chance. “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second
time.”
Sometimes we don’t like the call of God. Sometimes we turn it down. I have a pastor friend who heard the call of
God to be a pastor while in college. For
years I knew him as a guy who made a mid career change to go into the
ministry. But later I learned that
following college he went on staff of a large church as a youth director. His experience in that church was so horrible
that he quit and went to work in a secular field forgetting about seminary. Years later he was elected as an elder in his
church and again heard the call of God only now he had a family to
support. He eventually made it through
seminary and today pastors a very large and influential church in our
denomination.
Sometimes we need a little change in our perspective to see a call
in another way. Then something out of
our control happens in our life that causes our perspective to change. A little R & R retreat in the belly of a
sea monster does a lot for perspective change.
That’s what happened to Jonah.
When he jumped overboard from the ship in a terrible storm he was
swallowed by something the Bible calls a “great fish.” Over the years “great fish” has been
translated “whale” but there aren’t many whales in the
It reminds me of a college student who wanted to change her
parents’ perspective and wrote the following letter:
Dear Mom and Dad,
I’m sorry to be so
long in writing. Unfortunately, all my stationary was destroyed the night our
dorm was set on fire by the demonstrators. I’m out of the hospital now, and the
doctors say my eyesight should return – sooner or later. The wonderful boy,
Bill, who rescued me from the fire, kindly offered to share his little
apartment with me until the dorm is rebuilt. He comes from a good family, so
don’t be surprised when I tell you we’re going to be married. In fact, since
you’ve always wanted a grandchild, you’ll be glad to know you’ll be
grandparents next month.
Love, Deanna.
P.S. Please disregard the above
practice in English composition. There was no fire, I haven’t been in the
hospital, I’m not pregnant, and I don’t even have a steady boyfriend. But I did
get a D in French and an F in Chemistry. I just wanted to be sure you received
this news in the proper perspective.
Something happened to Jonah’s perspective in the belly of that
whale. He still didn’t want to go to
Ninevah. He still saw the people of
Ninevah as the enemy, but it says in 3:3 “Jonah
obeyed the word of the Lord and went to
As much as Jonah didn’t want to be in Ninevah, I’m sure he
took some pleasure in bringing to the enemy this message of their impending
punishment. In Jonah’s mind, the Ninevites were just getting what they
deserved. It was only right for God to wipe out that sinful city. The fire and
brimstone would make a good show, and Jonah was looking forward to seeing it.
The problem for Jonah was that the people of Ninevah heard his
message of impending punishment, and they changed. God used this half-hearted,
gloomy message from the mouth of vengeful Jonah to bring about changed hearts
and repentance.
It reminds me of one of my favorite movies, “The Apostle” in
which Robert Duval plays an evangelist who is a very troubled and flawed person,
a fugitive on the run. But somehow God is able to use the message that comes
from this flawed messenger to bring about good news, to touch people’s lives
and change people’s hearts.
And speaking for all preachers everywhere, I want to say that
that is wonderful good news. If the value of the message is tied to the virtue
of the messenger, then you may as well go home right now because every word you
are hearing is coming out of the mouth of a sinner. Thanks be to God that God
is able to use even imperfect, frail, flawed messengers—like us—to deliver
God’s good news.
And that’s exactly what happened in Ninevah. The people of
Ninevah heard Jonah’s message of impending punishment, and they changed. They
covered themselves with sackcloth and sat in ashes as a sign of the awareness
of their sinfulness and their desire to seek God’s forgiveness.
So what’s God going to do? In
Does
Jonah rejoice that the people of Ninevah repented and were saved? No. He fusses
and fumes. He says to God, “That’s why I didn’t want to come here in the first
place. I knew that you were a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and
abounding in steadfast love. I knew that if they gave you half a chance, you
would forgive them.”
You might think that’s not very “Christian”. Jesus taught us to love our enemies. Here was a prophet of God who hated
people. In verses 5-11 it says
“ Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the
city. There he made
himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade
for his head to
ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7 But at
dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided
a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die,
and said, "It would
be better for me to die than to live."
9 But
God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?""I do,"
he said. "I am angry enough to die."
10 But
the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it
grow. It sprang up overnight
and died overnight. 11 But
What God was telling Jonah was that Jonah was more concerned
about a plant that brought him comfort but that he had no control over anyway
than a 120,000 people who God could make a difference in their lives. The reason that many of us don’t accept the
call of God is that we’re more concerned with something that brings us comfort
than the spiritual lives of people who don’t have a shepherd.
You were called by God to be his own so that God could use you
to make a difference in helping someone else come to know Jesus Christ. That’s why we recently called Chris Gravis to
be our choral conductor and Lara Urrutia to accompany our services. Not so that we can say we have the leading
classic music program in the valley but so that people who appreciate good
music will be attracted to come and hear about Jesus Christ and God’s calling
on their life.
We didn’t call Coach Melvin Carter to be our Activities
Director so that we could have the largest basketball program in the valley but
so that kids and their parents who normally never talk to someone in our church
can get a personal invitation to come and hear about Jesus Christ and God’s
calling on their life.
We didn’t call Dr. Kathy Fagan, professor at California
Baptist University to be our part time senior ministries director so that our
church will have the coolest senior activities in the valley but so that
seniors who sit alone in their homes feeling alienated and separated from the
family of God can be drawn to a place that will tell them about Jesus Christ
and God’s calling on the later years of their life.
We’d didn’t call Dr. Martha Thorson to be our part time
advisor in children’s ministry so that our kids will stay out of our hair and
out from under our feet but to show us what it will take to run a program that
children will bring their friends and parents to hear about Jesus Christ and
God’s calling on their life.
Under the wilted shade
tree is where the story of Jonah ends: Jonah sitting under a bean tree
fuming at God because Jonah didn’t get his way. If this were a story about
Jonah, this ending would leave us with a sour taste in our mouths. If this is
about Jonah, then you want more, you want to turn the page and see what happens
next. But this is a God story. And that same thing can be said about every page
of the Bible. The story of Moses going before Pharaoh is not a Moses story; it
is a God story. The story of Elijah on
Samson, Samuel, King David, the disciples called to follow
Jesus, Peter, Mary Magdalene—it’s not really about them; it’s about God. The
central character of the Bible is God. And the first question to ask of any passage
in the Bible is this: What does it tell
us about God?
It’s
a picture of a persistent God who does not give up on people. God did not give
up on Jonah; God did not give up on the people of Ninevah. God will not give up
on you. If you believe in Jesus Christ you have a calling in something that
will bring other people to an awareness of Jesus Christ.
If
you’re not doing something to help people hear about Jesus Christ is it because
you’re like Jonah and you don’t really like or care about the 120,000 people of
Ninevah? Today I want you to check how
you feel about the people who don’t go to church. God is calling you to do something about
those people. No one is here today who
God isn’t calling to do something to help people hear about Jesus Christ.
This is
a story that tells of a God who uses any and all means to accomplish his loving
purpose for us. It is a story that
proclaims God is in charge and that God is persistently working out God’s good
purpose for us.
God
doesn’t give up on people, and God will not give up on Jonah. What happens
next? We don’t really know. But one thing we do know is that God is not finished
pouring out grace upon those people who need it.
Study Guide
Describe a time when you needed a change of
perspective? What happened and how did
you change?
What would be a difficult calling
for you to fulfill and why?
When are times that you feel like
giving up on people?
What do you think would have happened if Jonah had not
repented and gone to Ninevah?
Daily Bible
Monday Matthew
What’s the
“sign of Jonah”?
What did
Jesus think about Jonah being swallowed up by a large fish?
Tuesday Ephesians 2:1-10
God makes us
new in Christ to do good works which are prepared in advance for us (v.10) What are some of the good works God has
prepared for you to do?
What role does good works play in saving us? vs 8-9
Wednesday Galatians
How was the
gospel revealed to Paul?
If you had to
argue for the reality of the gospel by giving one example of how you have
changed as a result of your faith what would you share?
Thursday Acts 9:1-31
Why do you
think it took a bright light to get through to Saul (Paul)?
How effective
was Paul as a missionary to his own people the Jews? Why?
Friday Ephesians 3:1-13
What mystery
that was made known to Paul is revealed in this passage?
What was
Paul’s view of the mission God had given to him (vv7-10)
Saturday Psalm 40
How does David’s experience here compare with Paul’s experience?