The Story of Jonah

I don’t know about how things have been up here in Northern California but the last few months have been pretty interesting where I live.

Earlier this month we had this election thing happen that was pretty crazy to follow…

And since the results I have people in my life that either think the world is going to be fixed now and they are so excited, or its the end of the world as we know it and they have a bit of depression…

This has been a roller coast time for many people…I have spent much time talking with people that land every where on the political spectrum trying to help them through what they are feeling about the current situation…

Throughout all this there is a story in the Bible that I feel is just as relevant for us today, right now, at the end of November 2024, after one of the craziest presidential elections ever, then ever in my short 57 year history…

Funny but its also probably one of the most famous stories in the Bible…

One of the reasons I think it is so well know is that there is part of the story that appeals so well to children’s books…But because of that just might distract us a bit from the deeper, more challenging meaning of the story…

Its the story of Jonah…I want to ask you when you hear the story of Jonah what comes to mind?

A man gets swallowed by a whale…I googled images of Jonah bible story and here is what popped up…

***Show pictures. ***

Especially when looking at the thousands of children’s books the majority seem to be about Jonah and the whale…

I want to start off right away by saying what this story is not and what I think it is…

The ancient story of Jonah is not about whale…

This is a very short book

And the part of it that seems to be the crux of the story, at least in my opinion, is not about a whale, it’s not really focused on second chances, and it doesn’t even seem to be really about Jonah…(ever hear of The Bible Project?)

The story of Jonah is “about the wideness of Gods mercy that ought to challenge us to the core” -Tim Mackie, The Bible Project

And when you get to chapter 4, which isn’t in most children’s books, you come to face to face with just how far reaching God’s mercy is and the reality that Jonah struggled greatly with it, and I still think we do to this day…

Mercy: Compassion or forgiveness toward someone whom it is within ones power to punish. Grace, tenderheartedness, kindness, tolerance, generosity.

Chapter 1:
Jonah is a prophet called by God to go to a very wicked city, Nineveh, and preach against it.
Jonah doesn’t want to so head on a ship the other direction…
A storm hits that begin to tear apart the ship and everyone, except Jonah who is napping, is seeking god for help
Finally they ask Jonah, he tell them his story, the reluctantly throw him overboard, the storm stops, and Jonah get swallowed by a great fish…In most cases certain death but in this story its about his resurrecting back to life in a sense…

Chapter 2:
Jonah is in the fish and prays to God…never really repents but thanks God for not abandoning him and promises to obey from that point on.
And the fish spits Jonah out onto dry land

Chapter 3:
God again tells Jonah to go the Nineveh to preach to them.
He obeys and goes and walks through the great city with a very simple message…

“Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown”
Jonah 3:4

and from that simple message everyone from the King to the animals repent (yes the animals), clothe themselves with sackcloth and turn to the Lord….

Nineveh was “overthrown” by the incredible mercy of God

What a beautiful story…what a happy ending, Jonah did it, he got a second chance, followed God, and the people responded…praise the Lord….

But there is a 4th chapter…which seems to be the real point of the story, and the most challenge part…You see Nineveh was not a good place

Nahum 3:1-3
Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! …Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses—

This was an evil city, a hub of wicked things that has now turned to God and listen to how Jonah feels about that…

Jonah 4:1-3
Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, “God! I knew it – when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!

So Jonah wasn’t happy about this…He didn’t run the other way early in the story because he was afraid of Nineveh or of god.

Jonah ran the other way because of what he knew about God and didn’t like what that might mean for Nineveh, a city he would rather see destroyed than redeemed

That wouldn’t make a good children’s book would it?…Jonah was actually the antagonist of the story, he is the problem, and his response should be a challenge to all of us…

What do we desire for our enemies?

I am sorry but it feels like “who is our enemy” is getting more and more polarized…

Our culture feels like on the attack against anyone that might not see things the way I do, might not approach life in the same way as I do…

We might not actually want to see them destroyed but we want them humiliated, silenced, maybe emotionally destroyed…
Jonah doesn’t keep silent about how he feels about God extending mercy to Nineveh…

Jonah 4:3
“So, God, if you won’t kill them, kill me! I’m better off dead!”

He is not happy about God reaching out and showing mercy to the people of this city…

Jonah 4:4-6
God said, “What do you have to be angry about?” But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.

I believe Jonah was still hoping to watch fire from heaven come down and consume this wicked place…But something so weird happens…this story is just so challenging, but isn’t life challenging, it’s just not super simple is it?

Jonah 4:7-8
God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up. But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: “I’m better off dead!”

Oh man Jonah is struggling…life just doesn’t seem fair, it starts to look up and than comes crashing down again…

Jonah 4:9-10
Then God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?” Jonah said, “Plenty of right. It’s made me angry enough to die!” God said, “What’s this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night.
Jonah why are you so upset…think about the bigger picture right? You are letting things upset you so much that you have not planted or watered the situation…

I was reading about Jonah from some different writers perspectives and one of them said something about this moment that just stood out to me so I thought I would drop it on you today…

God is creator of all can’t he also extend mercy to all?

That just stopped me, touched my soul in a deep way for some reason…am I ok with that?

I believe the story of Jonah is the story of Gods heart for all and mankind’s struggle with that…

I find it easy to judge others, to look down on them, to see in a way where I have everything figured out and they are just wrong…But maybe I don’t have it all figured out…

Isaiah 55:8,9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And what is Isaiah talking about in regards to God’s way not being like ours?

Isaiah 55:7-9
Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And I get it…what I like to focus on in this passage is yea as long as they turn and forsake their ways, and in my heart I am thinking and become more like me of course…than God will show mercy…

Micah 7:18
You do not stay angry for ever but delight to show mercy.

I still find myself limiting the wideness of Gods mercy based on my understand of right and wrong, based on my biased opinions, mercy limited to my correct thinking and actions…

And this can cause me to have more of the attitude of Jonah than I would like to admit…

It’s interesting but Jesus challenges the religious leaders of his time with this story of Jonah…Calling them, the Pharasees and teachers of the law, a wicked and adulterous generation that look more like Jonah.

What were they hoping for in the messiah?

To destroy their enemies like Jonah hoped for?

Jesus tells them basically that he will spend 3 days in death but raise, like the story of Jonah, to life…And this resurrection is about what? What will he do…

John 12:32
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Something greater than Jonah is here, what the story was talking about, how far reaching Gods mercy is, would ultimately be put on display in and through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus…When he draws all people to himself…

The message through Jesus resurrection puts on display how far reaching the mercy of God can go…to all people.

And how far that mercy reaches didn’t sit well with Jonah, didn’t sit well with the religious leaders of Jesus time, and still might not sit well with us today…

I can hear it now. “Yea but what about_____________?”

I ask that question all the time…Life is so complex, stories around the world so difficult, struggles are real….there is just nothing simple about this message in Jonah…

This is the struggle, this is the struggle throughout the Bible, the brokenness of mankind, the consequences we face because of it, but the unrelenting never-ending mercy of God…

This is the overarching story of the Bible all here in Jonah…

So how far reaching can Gods mercy extend? Way further than I can comprehend or fathom…

Because for some reason God so loves the world and the people in it…Listen to the last verse of Jonah…

Jonah 4:11
So, why can’t I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than a hundred and twenty thousand childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?”

Sounds a bit like Jesus on the cross looking at those who are crucifying him and saying…

Luke 23:34
“Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Oh the mercy, the empathy and compassion, that God puts on displays in the story of Jonah that is most clearly seen through Christ…So beautiful, so powerful, so challenging…

You see..

The mercy of God didn’t just get extended to Nineveh or to those nailing Jesus onto the cross…the mercy of God has been extended to me, to you, to all of us

I think God might just see our collective humanity more that we do, we separate/judge/look down upon those not like us,

God through Christ, brings us together, humans created in the image of God, through his grace mercy and love….

and that is mind-blowing, still something I am trying wrap my head around and live into…

Reading through Jonah challenges me to show more empathy, compassion, and humility towards others:
-For they are human just like me
-They struggle just like me
-They are trying just like me
-They are loved by God just like me

As Christian and the band comes up we are going end with a song that for some reason opens my eyes a bit more to Gods heart for humanity….

Romans 11:32-36
For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

This is a song called human and every time I hear it I am reminded about our collective humanity, image bearers of God, the common struggle we face together, and get me off my high horse a bit and reminds me of Gods far reaching mercy…