The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Jonah 1:1-3God's call to Jonah and Jonah's flight to Tarshish
1 Now Yahweh’s word came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”
3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
The people of Nineveh believe God and the king calls a fast and repentance
5 The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.
6 The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water;
8 but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.
9 Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”
Jonah protests to God citing God's mercy as the reason he fled
2 He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.
Jonah sits east of the city hoping to see its destruction
5 Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth, and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would become of the city.
God appoints a plant, a worm, and wind, then questions Jonah about pity for Nineveh
6 Yahweh God prepared a vine, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the vine.
7 But God prepared a worm at dawn the next day, and it chewed on the vine, so that it withered.
8 When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9 God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?” He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.”
10 Yahweh said, “You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night.
11 Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much livestock?”
God's proclamation of his character to Moses, contrasted with Jonah's partial quotation of it
6 Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,
7 keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Van Jones preached through the entire book of Jonah, tracing six things God called Jonah to do, all of them hard. The thread running through the whole message was that we are more like Jonah than we want to admit, and that the grace God showed Nineveh is the same grace we depend on.
What was said
Van opened by sharing that ten years ago he was sitting in this congregation on a path he thought would let him fight evil overseas. He wanted enemies destroyed. What he found instead, through his wife and years of overseas ministry, was that apart from Christ everyone is an enemy of God, and that the Bible calls us to love people we would rather see judged. That personal history is what drew him to Jonah when he read through it recently.
The book begins with God telling Jonah to go northeast to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, Israel's brutal enemy. Jonah goes the opposite direction entirely, boarding a ship headed as far west as the known world reached. Van did not let Jonah off easily, but he also did not pretend the command was an easy one. Nineveh was the kind of place that paraded severed heads on sticks. The reluctance was understandable, even if the disobedience was not.
God sends a storm. The pagan sailors, the experts on the water, are terrified. Jonah is asleep below deck. When the truth comes out, Jonah tells them to throw him overboard, knowing the storm is his fault. Van pointed out the irony that runs through the whole book: the people who do not know God keep responding with more integrity than the man who does.
Inside the fish, Jonah prays what looks like repentance, but Van pressed on the text carefully. Jonah quotes the right things about God and even critiques idol worshippers, but he never names his own idol. His idol, Van said, is his patriotism, his commitment to his people over his obedience to God. The repentance is real enough for God to act on, but it is only partial, and the rest of the book proves it.
God gives Jonah a second chance, and Jonah goes to Nineveh and preaches five words. He delivers the message with no apparent love for the people hearing it. And yet the entire city, from the least to the king, repents in sackcloth and ashes. God relents. And Jonah is furious. Van read the passage where Jonah quotes God's own character back to Him as an accusation: "I knew you were gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love." He uses the same words Moses heard as a gift, and treats them as a grievance.
Van brought in Exodus 34 at that point to show what Jonah left out. God's character includes both mercy and judgment, and Jonah was only quoting half of it. The cross is where those two things meet and are both satisfied, and that, Van said, is the full picture we have that Jonah did not. Standing on this side of the cross, the mystery of how God can show mercy to people like the Ninevites is not a mystery anymore.
The book ends with Jonah sulking outside the city under a plant God provides, then raging when God takes the plant away. He says three times that he would rather die than see things go the way God is doing them. The book closes without telling us whether Jonah ever gets there. Van said that is probably intentional. The question the author leaves open is the one the reader has to answer: how are we like Jonah, and will we cross out the "no" or cross out the "Lord"?
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Van said that when he was younger, his instinct toward enemies was to go fight them, and that God redirected him toward loving people he considered enemies. Has there been a time when God redirected your instinct toward someone you saw as an enemy or opponent? What did that feel like?
Van pointed out that Jonah runs as far from God's call as he possibly can, and that God refuses to let him quit. When have you tried to get as far as possible from something you knew God was asking of you, and what did it take to turn you around?
Speaker 2Good morning, everybody. How are y'all? Good. Good. We're gonna sing them in, hopefully, from the vestibule and from parts unknown.
I see Diane back there. Do you have an announcement? Yes. Okay. Just making sure.
Find people. Bring them in. Bring them in. Yeah. Would you stand with me?
And we're gonna start this morning has been a little morning of reunions. We've we've had folks that we sent out as missionaries years ago that are here. We have a couple in the back back there that Tanya and I know from Mexico. They're from Upstate New York, and they would send and bring they would bring teams. They were the administrators of multiple teams that came down even celebrating Pascal's birth when Pascal was born in Mexico.
They were here, and they just kinda showed showed up. They gave me a heads up that they were coming, but I just love seeing y'all. Phil and Barb. And we're gonna have somebody else. The microphone in my hand today means I don't have a little doodad on.
Van Jones will be bringing the message today. But how about we sing, sing, sing for a little bit before that? And there's Lauren and Penny and Elias, and the other girls are on the way right now. So here we are together in one accord. Would you sing with me?
Here we go.
Speaker 3Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his spirit, washed in his blood. This is my story. This is my song praising my savior all the day long.
This is my story. This is my song praising my savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now story. This is my song, praising my savior all the day long. And this is my story.
This is my song, praising my savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at rest. I and my savior am happy and blessed watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in his love. This is my story. Story.
This is my song praising my savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song praising my savior all the day long.
Speaker 2How about wonderful grace of Jesus? If you know your part, sing it and this is a fun one. It's kind of jaunty but if you if you know your part, sing it. If not, only about half the words come up on that screen, I promise. But sing whatever comes up there if you don't know your part, alright?
Speaker 3Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain, all sufficient grace for even me. Broader than the scope of my transgressions, seeing it greater far than all my sin and shame. Oh, magnify the precious name of the matchless grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain, all sufficient grace for even me.
Broader than the scope of my transgressions, sing it greater far than all my sin and shame. Oh, magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise his name. Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus. Deeper than the mighty rolling sea.
Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain, all sufficient grace for even me. Broader than the scope of my transgressions, seeing it
Speaker 2Amen. Wow. That's a workout. Y'all have a seat? I've got a few announcements but I don't have a clicker.
So, Blake, if you'll just work my way through em, that'd be great. First off is Awana. Thank you. Registration is open. Pre K through fifth grade, I talked to a grandmother yesterday that said, I cannot believe my grandbaby has timed out of Awana.
But that same grandbaby wants to go back and help with the little ones, and she probably will be doing that. So Awana registration is open. If you'd like to volunteer, that's open too. First day will be September 15. That usually starts up right after the beginning of school.
So it's coming fast. First day, September 15. Register on the website at firstbjackson.org or just show up the night of, but it's nice to get ahead. Count beforehand. Guatemala.
We're going to send a mission trip to Guatemala, October 11 through the eighteenth. That's a Saturday to a Saturday. Guatemala Zacapa, Guatemala near Rio Hondo or Deep River, Guatemala. There is a compound called Hope of Life or Hope of Life International, Esperanza de Vida International. And that place, Tanya and Pascal and I were there the week before I graduated seminary.
We've got lots of fun stories about that week, but we've been back eight. I probably met seven times, eight times. Tanya's been back two or three extra times. Mike and JJ have been and a lot of us have been. A lot of us from the church have been.
They do a very, very good job with short term teams. Y'all ought to know these people. It's it's a great time. So October 11 through the eighteenth, we'll handle the administrative part of stuff and there will be an informational meeting soon. We'll let you know more about it.
But if you wanna know more about the place, about the stuff that's going on, you can ask me or you can ask Tanya or Mike Demetrius. Seeking truth in your twenties, that is the longest name for a gathering that I have seen lately. Seeking Truth in Your Twenties is what they're calling it. Seeking Truth in Your Twenties College Group. So this is for everybody from the age of having graduated high school up through their thirtieth birthday.
That's the plan. So out off of Zenith behind the airport on Roberta Drive at Brian and KC McCooey's place. They are having a great turnout and last week, I think I said to y'all last week, hey, tonight's the last night for this And then in between then and the time that happened, they said, no. We're going to keep doing this. So, it's going to be a continuing thing.
Seeking truth in your twenties college group. Conversations, authentic conversations about Jesus, live music and food, games and bonfires, lots of good stuff. And it seems to be going very, very well. And it's a grassroots movement that brought this together, which I love to see that happen. So very organic, seeking truth in your twenties.
Jackson Hole Women's Community Bible Study is happening. September 10 through October 29 is the fall session. Y'all know that this is the Bible study that kinda moves around from church to church. Sometimes it's here. Sometime last time it was at Gateway.
And this fall, it's gonna be at the Presbyterian Church at Jackson Hole from 10AM to noon, all of the Wednesdays between September 10 through October 29. You can sign up for that at jhwomen'sbiblestudy.com if you want to. And childcare is always provided there. Old Bills Fun Run. Old Bills and First B's Benevolence Fund.
Our Benevolence Fund through Old Bills is what we use those Old Bills for. If you are here and you don't really know what that's all about, the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole has had some fairly major donors that give to whatever it is that this community wants to support. So there there are hundreds of there are hundreds of five zero one c threes here local in Teton County because of Old Bill's Fun Run. And a dollar in through the community foundation for whatever your charity is usually means a dollar and 0.5 gets to that charity. So that's a pretty good return on an investment.
If you wanted to give to the Benevolence Fund, you could do that. If you wanted to give to Compass Women's Care, you could do that. If you wanted to give to the Good Samaritan Mission, you could do that. There are lots of others. I heard of a new one yesterday that I feel like is a great one and you may be hearing more about.
It's called It Takes a Valley, and it's for help with postpartum depression and some of the associated stuff after pregnancy and difficulty. So that's a good one, new one too. First BBQs are happening. The last one of the summer is scheduled for September 7 between services right here on the green space. We'll set up tables and have breakfast between services.
And I think is that the last one? That's the last one. I do wanna introduce though, Van and Lauren, would you all come forward? And girls, would you all come forward with them too? So this is Van Jones.
In the first service, I just said, hey, you introduce yourself. I didn't mean to be so abrupt, but I I didn't know exactly what he wanted said, so I thought it'd be better for him to say it. But Van is one of ours. Last week, we had a family here, and I prayed for him in the on the platform up here. And I'd like to do that too, but I want you to introduce yourself first.
So he is candidate for associate pastor right here, right now.
Van JonesAnd he'll be preaching today. Good morning, everybody. How are you all? Yeah. I'm Van.
This is Lauren. And we've got Piper, Heidi, and Penny, and then Elias. So there's seven seven five three in three months. And he weighs eighteen pounds, which is so crazy. But, yeah, we're from Birmingham, Alabama.
Our just it's really crazy how the Lord has brought us here today. Would love to talk more about that, but we've got we've had time overseas with the INB that really was a big part of us getting seminary and then just having open hands for what what do you want, Lord, for for us to do? Like, we just have had open hands for for a long time for about five years since we came back from The Middle East. And so yeah. So this taking a step of obedience by being here today and are praying through that.
Whether we're the right fit to fill the role or not, I know that you all are doing the same. So appreciate that so much.
Speaker 2Yeah. Thank you. God, I ask that you would bless Van as he presents the word today and Lauren and the girls and Elias too. Lord, that as a family, they would seek after your will and your way, lord, and I pray for the church that we'd be doing exactly the same thing. Someone reminded me of a word that I had forgotten in Greek.
It takes forever for me to figure out how to say it, Lord. But it means in one accord, in one mind. And even one passion or up under one impulse. Lord God almighty, I pray that as a church and as a family, that we would all be committed to acting upon your spirit's movement in one accord. In Jesus name, amen.
Amen. Amen. Thank you.
Van JonesThat's right.
Speaker 2What do we do next? I think we sing next. Would you all stand with me? In moments like these, we sing. That's good.
Sorry, Blake.
Speaker 3In moments like these, I sing out a song. I sing out a love song to Jesus. In moments like these, I
Speaker 2Let's sing it again. Amen. And how about amazing grace? And we're gonna watch for the key change.
Speaker 3But now I see. 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears
Speaker 2Amen. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Have the worship through giving time. I'm going invite the ushers to come forward and would you pray with me?
God, I thank you for this place together for this day beautiful day to wake up with breath in our lungs. Lord, I pray that as we wake up and recognize our first recognized breath that what we would be saying with our exhale is, Lord, I long to do your will. Show me your way, and I will walk in it. God, we ask that we would be a part of your will and your way that we would be included in that by the direction of your Holy Spirit and that we would be empowered to do exactly the steps that you have for us, lord. We wanna be humble and obedient before you.
I ask you to forgive us when we're not. When it's not our first thought, it's our last resort. So God, I pray that you would be at work this morning hearts here in the room and through those hearts to people who aren't in the room right now. Lord God almighty, I pray a blessing on visitors and on home folks alike that you would bless every soul and lord, every family that they represent. Would you move in power among us in Jesus name?
We ask your blessing on this offering, the gift, and the giver. Do with it whatever you would, lord. Amen.
Van JonesAlright. Good morning again, everybody. So I know I know that you all have been going through the book of Acts and going through that that crazy journey that the apostles and that Paul and everybody went through. But today, we're gonna be in the book of Jonah and, you know, another journey from the Old Testament that we're gonna walk through together. And just kinda one of the things that drew me to it when when Ray I was asking Ray what what I should preach on if I should just roll in with acts or what and he was like, is there anything in here?
I was like, great. Yeah. That really narrows it down, you know. So but and I've been going through this Bible reading plan and one of the days of Jonah, like start to finish. And we all know about the book of Jonah, especially the fish and everything and but this time when I read it or a month ago or whenever it was, it really just like hit me in a different way.
Like, I am just like Jonah in in ways that are not good and and and I think that we all can say that to some degree or another. And so, I'm excited to go through that today. But just kinda wanted to start out with with a little a little bit of a story. So ten years ago, I actually got to come here and and there's a friend of mine that was going to church here. No, had no would never dream that I'd be standing here ten years later but I was on a path that I thought would be like bring a lot of purpose to my life of how I can go fight evil overseas.
There's a lot of terror stuff obviously been going on for a while, but especially at that time like just attack after attack and I was like, I wanna go like my response like Jonah's response is, I wanna go fight. I I want these enemies to be killed. Like that that was my the go to and there's a time and a place for that, right? But but that was where I was headed and long story short, the Lord just kinda redirected and appointed different things in my life and and I'd later met my wife and and her life that led us to instead of taking a rifle overseas, we we were able to take this overseas and love people that we consider to be enemies and really realize like we are all enemies apart from Christ. Like without his blood, we are condemned, right?
And so, that I really resonated with Jonah specifically with just that wrestling that that we that I'd specifically dealt with. So there's so many different themes In Jonah, we could talk about Jonah for a long time. We're gonna go through the whole book today. So I hope you plan to just skip lunch and we're just gonna keep going. No, but it will be a challenge.
So I might go a little bit too fast. But the the theme that that we're gonna pull today is is God calls Jonah to do hard things. And so there's there's really six of those that we'll hit on today. But you'll see in the story, there's this process that that God has us on, that God has Jonah on, and this this call to repentance, to turn from evil and and turn to God, and then receive grace from God, which fuels obedience. Like we can't be obedient on our own power.
We can't do these hard things that we're called to on our own. Right? We need God and his grace to go and do these hard things for his glory. So the first one is God calls Jonah to obey him. We see that right off the bat.
If you have a Bible, open it up to Jonah. It's there's the 12 minor prophets at the very end of the Old Testament and he's right there kinda in the middle. Pretty sure he's the fifth one. So you can turn there if you want or you can just look at the screen. I'm gonna read off the screen today.
And so, verse one through three. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and call out against it. For their evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.
So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with him to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord. And and it wouldn't be a first b sermon without one of these. So we've got an awesome map and that a right there is where Jonah was in Israel and when he's called to go to Nineveh, like Northeast to Assyria, which is like a very much of an enemy of Israel. He decides to go south and then west on this ship that goes all the way to the west like edge of the world, like the known world was not like it is today. Right?
They didn't know much outside of that. So so Tarshish over there where the sea is is where he was headed. Just let's just quit and go as far from doing what God wants as possible. That was Jonah's mindset. So really crazy to think about just like he thinks that this is a good idea.
But it it to be fair to Jonah, the Nineveh is the capital of one of the biggest enemies. They're the so violent and just nasty people like so hard to love people like that. Like in our country has countries that are like that too. Right? That we couldn't imagine to go and and give mercy to people that have been beheading Christians or you know, whatever the thing is like that is the that time the equivalent.
So he yeah. And he so he doesn't he doesn't obey. Right? He he abandons the call, but I got ahead. So the greater Jonah, Jesus has a call on his life.
Right? But he doesn't do what Jonah does. He accepts that call, sweats blood in the garden, and goes to the cross obediently to to pay for our sin. Right? To to to save us from what we deserve.
So the second hard thing is, you know, Jonah's going is about to go through this storm where God initiates obedience or he he in a way, it's kinda weird to think about it, but like God is basically choosing for him to obey. It's like, hey, you don't have a choice here. So we'll read about that in verse four. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea. You'll hear like a lot of hurling right here.
So he hurled a great wind upon the sea and there was a mighty tempest. So the ship threatened to break up. And then the mariners who were experts in all things, you know, ships and water and storms, they were afraid and each cried out to his God. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship, and had laid down, and was fast asleep.
And then they said to him, so skip to verse 11, what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us? For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. And he said to them, pick me up and hurl me into the sea, and then the sea will quiet down for you. For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. Wow.
Like, is it not interesting to think like God cares so much about Jonah's development, his process? He's like, you quitting and going over there is not an option. Like, this is it. And then, you know, Jonah decides to sacrifice himself for the for the sailors' lives. Like he he knows that wrath is due him and that's what is causing the storm.
Right? And so he sacrifices his life and appeases that wrath and the storm just stops immediately. And there's a parallel again to Jesus who's the greater Jonah who went to the cross and took on our the wrath that was due for us. Right? And sacrificed himself even though he didn't deserve it and paid for all of our sin.
And so huge difference, but you can see like this this connection in the story. The the next hard thing is that God calls Jonah to repent. And and it's really interesting in the in the text like so obviously, y'all know the story. Jonah gets hurled into the sea. God appoints the fish to eat him or swallow him, right?
And he's in the fish for three on the third day. So, he goes a whole one, two days at least, until finally the third day, his hard headedness is broken at this low point to finally pray. Super stubborn, but we're really stubborn too. Right? So after those on the third day, he the whole all of chapter two is pretty much this prayer that Jonah has of repentance.
So, we'll read a few verses of that starting in in chapter two verse five. The waters closed in over me to take away my life. The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. And I went down to the land whose bars closed up, closed upon me forever.
So this is like he just he sank like a long, like a deep way, right before he got swallowed up. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, oh Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
And so, you know, we see like this this isn't like a normal prayer of repentance. Right? Like you don't hear Jonah really like humbling himself and and recognizing his idols in his own life like he's referring to others who pay regard to vain idols and without he's not realizing like he's holding on to like his patriotism. Right? Like, he he doesn't wanna do what God is calling him to do.
He would rather be committed to his country and and not help the enemies of his country and his enemies. And so he's he's put his country over God and you know, we'll see later like this repentance is just a partial, but it's just enough to get to the point where God appoints the fish to vomit him out. And so and when you think of vomiting, like that's disgusting. Right? Like that's gross.
And it was ironic about it is like Jonah is like a gross person in the story. Like, he's disobedient. He he isn't willing to give mercy. And so he's, you know, comically vomited out onto onto land. And and that brings us to this this fourth point.
This fourth hard thing that that God that God calls him to do is is he's got a second chance to obey. And so we see that in chapter three verse one and it's almost the same as chapter one verse one. It says, then the Lord then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and call out against it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. So that's great.
Right? Like he's figured it out now. Right? He's in this process and so he is taking steps of obedience, but what we'll see is that when he gets there and and does proclaim the word, so later verse four, he calls out, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And he's like, well, that's my obedience.
He definitely still hates the people that he's speaking to, okay, which is so crazy to think about. But what's even crazier is that like just that little step of obedience, that little proclamation of the word that God told him to speak, not because of his gifted speak speaking or how he related to the people and loved them so well, but because of the spirit moving in these people and God's word changing them, we see that the the people repent. So verse five chapter three, and the people of Nineveh believed God. From that little five Hebrew word sermon, they believed God and they called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh.
So this is the king of the capital of the of this huge powerful nation. And he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh. By the decree of the king and the nobles, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. So he's calling a fast on all all the people.
Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way, and from violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent, and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish. What a response.
Like, there's so much irony in this story. Right? Like, you got the man of God who is responding really poorly to everything that God is telling him, and then you have the pagan sailors and these like heathens that are totally responding in an amazing way when they hear Yahweh's name, and when they hear the the truth of who God is, and this chance that maybe, who knows, maybe God will repent and they go through the the the act of humbling themselves and turning from their evil and and a true full repentance unlike the man of God's partial repentance. The next the next hard thing, number five, God calls Jonah to forgive and love his enemies. I'll read that in chapter three verse 10.
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them and he did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry. He was angry that God gave them mercy. A total disconnect. Right?
We do the same thing. You know, we've got this like Jonah, this log in our own eye that's blinding us from seeing things the way God does and we're casting stones at people that have a speck in their eye. Right? Jonah can't see how God can have mercy like this. Next next little section of scripture.
So verse two, and he prayed to the Lord. And he said, oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. So he was explaining to God why he disobeyed. Right?
He's like, this is why. I knew you were like this. He said, I knew that you were a a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. This is a critique and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, oh Lord, please take my life from me, for it's better for me to die than to live.
The second time that he's choosing, he wants to die than to see his enemies receive mercy. He's upset because he knows God's character. He he can't imagine like having mercy on people like these Assyrians, the Ninevites. There there's there's more to who God is than just that though. So I should have had another another slide for Exodus 34.
But Exodus 34, Moses is is wanting to see God's glory. And and God says, hey, go in this cleft of the rock. I'll I'll cover it up, pass by, and then you can just see my, see me from behind and so, I'll read that a little bit here. Exodus 34 verse six, the Lord passed before him Moses and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. All this sounds familiar.
Right? Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, But who will by no means clear the guilty? Oh, he didn't mention that. Jonah doesn't mention that part. Who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.
And so we're like, wait a second, like, God's not just this God of mercy. He's he has a judgment side, right? And they clash in this story like how if you're Jonah or us reading it like how can God forgive all of the horrible things that the Ninevites did? Like they would cut people up and have their family members watching this and parading that like heads on sticks, like like nasty, nasty, miserable stuff. But it's God's prerogative on who he chooses to show mercy.
And and we'll talk more through this how this tension plays out. So, five, chapter four, Jonah went out of the city and he sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there and he sat under it in the shade till he should see what should become of the city. So in his mind, he's thinking, maybe my little prayer to God will mean that actually he will, you know, destroy this city. So he's like toddler style, pouting, mad, sitting under this little thing he made, hoping that he gets to see destruction. There he is.
So wild. What's interesting too, like a lot of this info that I had studied is coming from a book by Timothy Keller called Rediscovering Jonah, highly recommend it. But Tim Keller says like, another parallel that I wouldn't have thought of is you got a man that that walks out of the city hoping for condemnation. But then the greater Jonah, Jesus, walks out of the city, takes on the condemnation, do us, right, and becomes our salvation, our means of salvation. So just such a such a greater Jesus is so much greater than Jonah and and all people of all time.
Right? And and so we've got evidence here that Jonah's repentance really was only partial when he was in the fish. Like he's looking at this city and hate hating it. And he hasn't he hasn't made as much progress as we might have thought when he chooses to obey. But unlike Moses who who just sees the back of God's glory and and here in how Jonah is only seeing this partial picture where you just can't imagine how God can show this mercy.
We've got the full picture on this side of the cross. This this mystery revealed, right, where the cross is where that mercy and judgment meet and is satisfied on the cross. The the mystery that that God calls all people from all nations to to come and and put their faith in him and repent and turn from their evil ways to follow the Lord. So yeah, the sixth and last thing, the hard thing that that God calls Jonah to do is to humble himself. And this really continues to be, to prove very difficult for Jonah.
So this is the the last five verses of of the of the book. Verse six. Now the Lord God appointed a plant, which you can kind of see. There's a little plant right there. Okay?
He appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. And so Jonah was exceedingly glad. Remember before he was exceedingly mad. Now he's exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.
And when the sun rose, God appointed an east wind, scorching east wind. And the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die, third time. It's better for me to die than to live. But God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant?
And he said, I remember he's really hard headed, right? Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. And the Lord said, and God is so patient here. Right? Like what think about all the things God could respond with.
But God said, you pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than a 120,000 people who do not know the right hand from their left and also much cattle. Like God cares about the cows, know, like he this cool. It's really neat. So the third time that he would rather die and and he he's just he's not there.
That and it ends here and we don't know Jonah's response. But one other thing to point out, like God is sensitive to these people. He says, these people don't know their right hand from their left. And we hear like an echo of how Jesus was was looking on the people that were killing him and said, father forgive them for they know not what they do. And and so he he's gracious and merciful time and time and time again.
I told the same the same illustration in the 9AM, but if you think about like Jonah has this very very specific way of seeing people and seeing the world. Right? And he's got in his mind, who should be recipient of mercy and who shouldn't? And and if you don't agree with the way that Jonah thinks, then then Jonah hates you. Right?
And so, we do the same thing at a small scale like if you're speeding down the road, like you're late because the pass was like insurpassable and you go a long way and you're speeding down the road and and you get pulled over. And you're like, oh man, like surely this policeman will understand my situation. Know, he'll give me mercy in this situation. The pass was closed like, of course, I was speeding. But then we're walking our kids in the neighborhood, right, and a youngster zips on by and we're like, hey, arrest him.
Like he almost ran over my kid, you know, but he's speeding just like you were. It's the same, but in our minds, we see him as the the bad guy, right, and we're not. And it's the it's the same it is very similar thing here where Jonah can't open his himself to the way that God sees the world. So yeah, leaves us at a cliffhanger. What does Jonah ultimately do?
More than likely the author leaves it like this, so that the reader us can consider what do we do with that story? And and how are we like Jonah? Like, how are we not humbling ourselves to be able to see who God is and what his character is like and how we're we're different from him. You know, maybe maybe we're close a little closer than Jonah of like being able to understand how God works. But but oftentimes, you know, we try and do this this on our own, like in our own strength and that that doesn't work out.
We didn't really read the part about how the sailors responded to when Jonah said, hey, the solution to the storm is just hurl me out. But right after that, the sailors valiantly tried to row him to safety so that he wouldn't have to drown. But it didn't work. Like that wasn't God's plan. That was trying to overcome on your own accord is not gonna work out.
Like we have to look to Jesus to to bring us through these hard times and give us the strength to forgive people that seem unforgivable and and maybe it's our neighbor, maybe it's someone overseas, maybe it's a really big decision in your life that you just can't imagine taking that step of obedience or maybe it's a small thing. Right? My wife Lauren was reading this Elizabeth Elliot devotion and the the day that it was close to the day that Ray reached out and and put this out there for us to come and visit and it was really interesting like it there was an analogy for like being obedient to God and and the the the illustration is, hey, take a piece of paper and write two words on it. No and Lord. And then you have to cross out one of them.
So you could cross out no, right? Like no, I won't take the step of obedience. I'm saying that wrong. Yeah. Forgive me.
Okay. You can cross out, no, I I yeah. Won't You have to write. Yeah. Yeah.
You cross out the disobedience and have, you know, the obedience to Jesus or you cross out the Lord like Jonah did, right? And you go the other way. Okay? So, and it really is that simple. It isn't super complicated but humbling ourselves really is a hard thing that we all need help with.
So in conclusion, we like Jonah need grace and mercy from God to be more like him. To see the world as he does. To love our neighbor neighbors even the evil ones as he does. To be sacrificial with our time and our resources and our whole lives. Moving from this self centeredness to God centeredness.
Right? If you wanna know about the bus, can tell you after. You can go go see me. Super random. I really don't know why I put it up there.
But if y'all wanna come up to to go to the next song, I'll pray through just everything that we heard. Lord, thank you so much for today and and for the opportunity to for all of us to be here. It's no mistake that that every single person in this room is here in this room. I pray that that you would be glorified with all of our lives and that we would take your word to heart and let it change us and and bring us closer to you. In Jesus name.
Amen.
Speaker 2Thank you. Yeah. We're gonna close as far as the song goes with the doxology, but I wanna say thank you. Appreciate that, Van. Thank you.
Van JonesYep. And
Speaker 2I've heard it said like this that you can either say, yes, Lord, or you can say, no.
Van JonesYeah. That's easier.
Speaker 2But you can't say, no, Lord. Right. Right. So there there it is. You stand with me, and we're gonna sing through the doxology.
Van JonesAmen.
Speaker 2And may the Lord bless and keep you and make his face to shine upon you. And may you have a clear picture of what he wants and may the picture of what you want begin to look just like that. In Jesus name and for his cause. Amen.
