© LF Haynie, November 15, 2016
Jonah, a devout man of God--
He was a prophet--
Heard the Word of the Lord.
The Word of the Lord was,
“Go to Nineveh.
Tell them they must repent, or else.”
God, am I hearing You right?
You really want me to do this?
I can’t see why You possibly would.
God sees the path to love and reconciliation, always.
But how does that factor into this situation?
How, O Lord?
Jonah, whose name means “dove”,
Was he compassionate, did he celebrate
The chance that God was giving Nineveh?
No.
Instead, comparison and competition,
Those dual watchwords arising from fear,
Erupted from his mouth in rage.
And instead of Nineveh,
He took sail for Tarshish.
The wind and the waves were tempestuous
And the sailors sore afraid,
Yet there Jonah did a good deed,
He told them about his God--
The God of the Hebrews,
The God who made heaven and earth and sea.
And they cried out to God, to save them,
Not to punish them because of this man,
And to do as He knew best.
And he sacrificed himself for the sailors--
Greater love has no man,
Than to lay down his life for another.
And we know that all things work together
For the good for those who love God
Who are called according to His purpose. [Romans 8:28]
But, oh Jonah, why didn’t you just ask the sailors
To turn around and sail for Nineveh?
A long, long journey is Tarshish,
Three years or so, they say.
And Nineveh, in the opposite direction,
But three days.
Three days.
Three days in the belly of the whale--
The big fish more obedient to God
Than was Jonah, the devout man of God.
I wonder which direction the whale was swimming?
The Bible doesn’t say, but I like to think
That it could only have been
Toward Nineveh--
Even the dumb beasts obey His commands.
Jonah, in the belly of the whale, prayed.
“In trouble, deep trouble, I prayed to God,
and You answered me.”
As God always does.
Jonah repented—well, anyone would,
From the depths of the belly of a whale.
We tend to pray when we’re in trouble,
Tend to promise to do whatever we were avoiding,
Like a kid who promised Santa to be good,
Very very good,
If only….
But not quite like that.
Jonah did not ask for a quid pro quo.
And God listened--
As He always does--
Though not always as we would have it.
And answered--
As He always does--
Though not always as we want to hear it.
On land again,
Jonah wended his way to Nineveh
And the devil whispered in his ear the whole way.
What did he say?
Well, of course we don’t know,
But I imagine it might have gone something like this:
“Why does God want you to do this?
Is he leaving out the Hebrews again?
Is he just not thinking ahead?
Oh, I know, he’s probably decided to put those guys,
Who have never worshipped him, mind you!
On a level with you and the rest of the God-fearing Hebrews!
It’s NOT FAIR.”
Those last words,
The words that Satan whispers to us
Over and over and over again
Whenever he can’t come up with anything better.
Yet he is persuasive.
Jonah sulked.
Instead of rejoicing in finding
The one lost lamb,
The one lost coin,
The prodigal son,
Turning to the one true God,
He sulked.
You know how a kid gets sometimes,
When she has to do something
She doesn’t want to do,
Doesn’t see the sense in doing,
Isn’t fun, isn’t fair,
Yet must do it,
Or suffer the consequences?
Well, that was Jonah.
Once in Nineveh,
He did the Lord’s will,
Yet not the Lord’s intent.
He spake,
But did not emphasize
The behavior to be changed.
He spake,
But did not tell of
The behavior desired,
The repentance, the turning from evil ways;
He spake,
But did not emphasize
The second chance
That God was giving the city.
Fortunately for Jonah,
The king of Nineveh immediately saw--
And not only saw, but took--
The proper course of action.
Hey, maybe that’s why he was the king
For such a time as this.
He immediately repented,
And so did the six-score thousand people
In the wicked city of Nineveh,
And that is why God spared Nineveh.
Jonah sulked, and went to a hill
To watch and see.
He was hot, he was burning up with rage
And the midday sun.
And God caused a plant to grow and shade him,
Cool his anger a bit, perhaps.
But Jonah’s anger still burned hot inside,
So a worm, obeying God--
Even the worms obey Him better than we do!
Ate the plant, gnawing at it,
As Jonah’s anger gnawed at him.
Poor Jonah,
Angry at the death of his shade tree,
Angry at the worm,
Angry at the world,
Angry at God,
Although perhaps unwilling to tell Him that.
(Why unwilling, you ask? It’s illogical--
For God knows the depths of our beings--
Yet, still, we are unwilling to tell Him of our anger
As if, by not telling, He will not know.)
Gnawed from the outside,
By the vile bile from the belly of the behemoth,
That had swallowed him.
Gnawed from the inside
By his anger, his feelings of being left out,
By the vile bile from his feelings of fear.
Gnawed altogether
By the heat of his anger
And the heat of the day
By the feeling of loss that comes
When you are at odds with God.
Fried to a crisp,
Gnawed to the bone,
Jonah heard God.
And God may have said something like this,
“Son, you didn’t make that plant grow—I did.
You had it only for a day before it died,
And yet you mourn its loss.
How much more would I have mourned
The loss of those 120,000 children, led astray,
Unknowingly headed down the path to destruction?”