- If we are saved, then we typically
struggle with the weakness of our own humanity. We have a new nature in
Christ, but the propensities of our humanity are often overpowering to
us. We struggle with God's demands upon our lives. At times, we are
blatantly stubborn. At other times, we are negligent and lazy when it
comes to the things of God.
-
- Here is the question: Does God owe
anything to anyone of us? You who are lost and unbelieving, does God owe
you your next breath? Is he under obligation to provide for you the
necessities of life? Is he obliged to keep you this very moment from
falling into the eternal judgment of hell? My friend, the answer to all
of this is NO! The fact that you are still breathing is an
evidence that God has shown mercy to you. But you put yourself in danger
of greater judgment by presuming upon God's mercy, that it will always
be there so that you do not have to give attention to your soul.
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- For us who are believers, is God
obligated to make life rosy for us? When we disobey and he disciplines
us, is God obligated to restore us to usefulness because we have humbled
ourselves? He could just as easily take us on to heaven and end the
trouble of dealing with us.
-
- Was God obligated to use Jonah again?
I would remind you that there were other prophets and believers who
could have gone to Nineveh. But here is where we come to understand the
greatness of God's mercy. That even when someone has been defiant,
stubborn, and rebellious, the Lord God shows mercy by restoring him to
usefulness once again. While God is under no obligation to us, yet
he shows abundant mercy to us. We see it demonstrated by the divine
command to the fish to vomit Jonah up once again upon dry ground.
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- 2. Cooperation
-
- This little prophecy makes sure that
we understand who is in charge of all the realm of nature. It was the
Lord who "hurled a great wind on the sea and...a great storm...so that
the ship was about to break up" (1:4). It was the Lord who "appointed a
great fish to swallow Jonah.". And now we are reminded, "Then
the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land."
It seems that the wind, the storm, and the fish demonstrated much better
obedience than Jonah! All of nature works in harmony with the divine
purposes. Nature does not have a mind of its own. It functions to serve
the great purposes of God.
- Ponder this for a moment. When we
think of the wind and storms and seas, we are considering something
totally outside the realm of our power, authority, or even reasoning
abilities. We cannot for one moment control the realm of nature. Can we
measure the size of the wind? Can we contain the force of the storm?
Yet God commanded all of these things in nature for one special design:
the restoration of his child. Nature functioned as an instrument of
God to bring a stubborn child into submission and to set him once again
on his mission.
-
- The great fish cooperated with the
demands of God. I would suppose that the act of carrying Jonah to his
destination then vomiting him on the dry ground, was an exercise in
great effort for this fish! Yet the fish never swayed in cooperating
with God. It was subdued by the divine purpose at hand.
-
- In the same fashion, Jonah was subdued
by this same divine purpose. We see an incredible measure of cooperation
with God after what had taken place in his life. Jonah became just as
cooperative as the wind, storm, sea, and fish! Who brought about
this cooperation? Was it some altruistic feeling on the part of
Jonah? We would say that Jonah was a changed man, therefore he acted
like a changed man. Precisely! But who changed him? Jonah did not change
his own heart. God did. If Jonah had been left to himself, he never
would have obeyed God. A metamorphosis took place in the fish's belly.
But it only happened because of the hand of God. Otherwise, we must
glory in Jonah and his wonderful altruism. We must praise Jonah for
choosing to do right. The only reason Jonah chose to do right was
because the Lord God brought about Jonah's cooperation.
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- We may never understand this truth.
And certainly, few understand this reality when they come to faith in
Christ. But just as Jonah needed the divine hand to work change in him
so that he might cooperate in obedience, even so we must have this same
work. Is this not precisely what Paul had in mind in Ephesians 2:1-7,
when he describes the natural sinful condition of man, then explains the
intervention of God? "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in
which you formerly walked according to the course of this world....But
God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved
us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together
with Christ." And again, the same truth is expounded in Titus 3:3-7.
"For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived,
enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and
envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our
Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis
of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His
mercy,
by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, who He
poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being
justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life."
-
- "Jonah! How did you get here? How did
you overcome your prejudice and animosity and reluctance, finally coming
to Nineveh?" Jonah could only answer, "God did it!" Jonah had no chance
on his own to improve. He had nothing to offer God nor anything to
commend himself to God. But God intervened! The implications
of the text point over and over to the actions of God, culminating in
God causing the fish to expel Jonah. It was the hand of God at work!
-
- And when anyone asks you concerning
your salvation, the reality of the changed life you are living, you can
only say, "God did it!" As Paul expressed it, "But by His doing you are
in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and
sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, 'LET HIM
WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD'" ( I Cor. 1:30-31).
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- 3. Second time
-
- What an encouragement we find in the
first verse of chapter three! "Now the word of the Lord came to
Jonah the second time...." Much the same phraseology is used in
the opening of the prophecy, but Jonah runs away from the word of the
Lord. But in the greatness of God's grace, he delivers his word to the
prophet "the second time." Do you see how important
this is?
- How many of us responded to the gospel
the first time it was declared in our hearing? I doubt that any of us
could say this was true of us. Probably, we did not even respond the
second time or the third. It was the long-suffering of God toward us in
delivering his gospel that finally brought us to a place of faith in
Christ.
-
- It is God's prerogative to deliver
his saving message to a sinner 'the second time'. The Lord has no
court order to deliver the gospel to any of us the second time; or for
that matter, the first time. Yet, I doubt that most of us could count
the times we've heard the wondrous story of Jesus Christ crucified and
risen from the dead on behalf of sinners. The fact that we have heard
that truth over and over points to the favor of God toward us. Indeed,
the reality that you are faced once again with the claims of the gospel
of Christ, demonstrates the magnitude of divine mercy toward you. For
the moment you begin to believe that you deserve anything which God
gives to you, then you have begun to live the life of a foolish person.
-
- How sweet it must have been in the
ears of Jonah to hear the word of the Lord, "the second time."
Do you not imagine that Jonah thought he might never hear the voice of
the Lord to him again? As he sank to the bottom of the Mediterranean,
then lived for three days in the darkness of the fish's belly, as far as
he knew, Jonah might never hear the voice of the Lord again in this
world.
-
- Could it be that Jonah was not ready
in his own mind to receive the word of the Lord the first time? At the
outset of Jonah's running, the Lord could have reverberated over the
sound of the sea with his word to the prophet. But this was not the
case. Instead we see somewhat of a gap between the first
hearing of the word of the Lord and the second. In the meanwhile, God
was humbling the prophet to receive the word. Jonah was being changed so
that he might appreciate the word of the Lord and desire it.
-
- Perhaps you have experienced this same
reality. You have heard the word of the Lord but have resisted believing
and obeying. My friend, the Lord is persistent! He did not give up with
Jonah. The waiting period for "the second time" was not
a wasted period. Jonah's heart was primed to receive the Word. Indeed,
the Lord may be working in your own life-setting with the keenness of
divine wisdom, in order that you might hear the word of the Lord
"the second time" so that you might go on in obedience.
-
- Do you see the wondrous way that the
Lord works to bend our hearts and open our minds to his truth? He is the
God of the second time. Will you respond to His patient and
persistent Word?
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- 4. No grudges
-
- There is one more issue we must
consider as we think of God's prerogative in working in our lives and
speaking to us out of his Word. The Lord does not hold grudges.
Jonah had miserably failed the Lord and defiantly disobeyed him, yet the
Lord forgave him completely. "Now the Word of the Lord came to
Jonah the second time, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and
proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.'"
Notice what the Lord did not say.
-
- He did not tell Jonah, 'Arise, go to
Nineveh, and you had better get it right this time! ' Nor did
he say, 'Arise, go to Nineveh, and don't mess things up! '
Jonah knew that he had been forgiven by the Lord. There was no caveat to
the word of the Lord, explaining how God would be holding the past over
Jonah's head just in case he failed. The Lord had been wronged by Jonah,
yet he treated the prophet as if he had never done anything wrong.
That's forgiveness!
-
- In one of the great penitential
psalms, the Psalmist declared, "If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou
mayest be feared" (Psa. 130:3-4). Forgiveness does not mean that God
ignores the sin as long as the sinner does not step out of line.
Forgiveness implies that the Lord puts the sin completely away, so that
the one forgiven is never held guilty for the sin again.
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- The ancient scribes would often use
animal skins as a substitute for paper. They would use the skins over
and over by simply scraping off the previous writing, then reusing them.
In forgiveness, the blot of our sins that has stained our lives has been
scraped off in gracious forgiveness through the blood of Christ
and the sinner becomes useful again.
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- Do you know this forgiveness of the
Lord? Do you know the certainty that your guilt has been removed by the
gracious sacrifice of Christ on your behalf?
-
- When we understand the prerogative
of God in forgiveness and restoration, and then know that we are on the
receiving end of his grace, it motivates the child of God to a new level
of obedience.
-
- II. God's child responds
-
- There are some pertinent and simple
lessons which we can draw out of our focus on the gracious work of God
in coming to his child "the second time."
-
- 1. Attention
-
- There is a new level of attentiveness
in our lives when we know that God has forgiven us. The first time the
word of the Lord came to Jonah, he ran. Now, "Jonah arose and
went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord." He heard
very clearly what God had commanded, "Arise, go to Nineveh the
great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell
you." Evidently all of the message was not delivered to Jonah
on the spot. God knew that Jonah would continue listening attentively
this time. Though he had ignored God's voice before, he would now listen
with rapt attention.
-
- When the child of God has been humbled
by the disciplining hand of the Lord, he is brought to a new capacity of
hearing the Word of God. Previously, there had been plenty of
competition for his hearing. All of the noises of the world, personal
desires, selfish ambitions, fear of obedience clutter the pathway to
submissively hearing the word of the Lord. Have we not all had those
times in which we have been so consumed with ourselves and our desires
that we really have not paid much attention to what the Scriptures are
saying? But when the Lord has afflicted us with merciful discipline we
find ourselves tuning out the other noises that have been competing for
our attention. We learn to hear what God says through his Word and to
bend our hearts in glad obedience to him. The Psalmist agreed, "It is
good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Thy statutes" (Psa.
119:71).
-
- If we are going to go very far in our
Christian walk, then we must learn to hear the word of the Lord. I'm not
speaking of mystically hearing the Lord nor am I referring to pulling
verses out of their biblical context and claiming them to be 'a word
from the Lord'. Instead, we must simply be able to hear what God is
saying in the truths of his Word, whether by the reading of the Word or
its proclamation. I can assure you that we do not hear very well when we
have little desire to obey what God might be speaking. The more our Lord
shapes us into conformity with Jesus Christ by whatever means he
chooses, the more we will find ourselves hearing the word of the Lord.
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- 2. Obedience
-
- You almost wonder if the Jonah you
find in the first chapter is the same Jonah you see in the third
chapter! I suppose we can say that it is not. For God brought about
changes in the life of Jonah so that he laid aside his rebellion and now
gives himself to unfeigned obedience to the Lord. "So Jonah
arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord."
No more fleeing. No more hiding. No more excuses. No more silence in the
face of trials. Just obedience.
-
- Jonah had made his mind up to obey the
Lord. Did he still not have fears about what might happen to him in
Nineveh? Did he not have lingering prejudices against the wicked
Ninevites? Did he not still wonder what all of his friends in Israel
might say about him going over to those Gentile dogs? Obedience to
the will of the Lord became more important than his personal feelings or
desires. That is when you know that the work of discipline has
accomplished its purpose. For the child of God comes to understand that
he can cast himself upon the Lord who will sustain him as he seeks to
obey.
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- After walking through a time of
disobedience, it is when our desire to obey pushes through all the
obstacles and excuses that you realize you are recommissioned
in the work of the Lord. You have been on the receiving end of much
grace, so you cannot do otherwise. You are motivated by what the Lord
has done redemptively on your behalf, even as Jonah found fresh
motivation for obedience in the redemption he experienced from the
fish's belly.
-
- The Lord's delight in his children is
not in how large or impressive a show we can make in his name. He wants
our obedience. King Saul had disobeyed the word of the Lord by failing
to carry out his military orders. The Lord had told him to utterly
destroy the Amalekites and all that belonged to them. Instead, Saul and
the people took the best of what they found. Saul said that he saved
some of the sheep and oxen to offer for a sacrifice. Samuel came to him
and declared, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and
sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is
better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams" (I Sam. 15:22).
-
- Is your desire for obedience to the
Lord who redeemed you?
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- 3. Message
-
- Jonah's recommissioning brought him a
new message and new sense of spiritual power. Had he gone to Nineveh
initially, he may not have been ready. As Sinclair Ferguson observes,
"Jonah was not really fitted to be the evangelist of the Ninevites. He
had no comprehension of their condition, nor had he any true sympathy
for them....It is clear, however mysterious it may seem, that God used
even the result of Jonahs disobedience to equip him for service" [Man
Overboard, 69]. It is in the process of breaking, crushing, and
humbling his servants, that it seems the Lord best recommissions them
for great usefulness. Certainly this is true for Jonah, as we read,
"Then Jonah began to go through the city one days walk; and he
cried out and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown."
-
- The response in the massive city was
unbelievable. Even to Jonah, it must have been unbelievable. It was a
simple message he delivered, but one which had been shaped out of the
crucible of his afflictions. He preached with a new power. God had
shaped his life in spite of his disobedience. Now the Lord would
accomplish his purposes through his recommissioned messenger.
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- Conclusion
-
- Perhaps you are in need of
recommissioning as a messenger of the Lord. Do you see that it is only
by the great mercy of the Lord that you can continue on for even one
second? Do you grasp that it is his pleasure alone to forgive and
restore to usefulness? Does this bring you to a point of new cooperation
and obedience to the Lord? May we humble ourselves before the Lord and
give complete devotion to obeying him.
-
- If the word of the Lord has come to
you "a second time," then heed the counsel of Jonah. Arise, go where God
has directed, and speak faithfully the word of the Lord.
