Thinkings and Challenges

I have the honour and responsibility to preach at my home church this Sunday evening, and the passage I have been given is Jonah chapter 1+2 - a passage I knew with such familiarity that it could have bordered on complacency. And so approaching it, I was cautious. And so aware to not find lessons I was led to believe were there as a child, but are infact not there.

It has been a humbling time. Allow me to share just a few things with you that I've been struck by.

Firstly, the utter defiance of Jonah. God gives him in v1 a very clear command. "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me". Nothing ambiguous in that. Go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, 500 miles North East of where he was, and preach that message. Simple.

But instead, vs 3 tells us... "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 on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD" And here I quote a scholar on the structure of this verse in the original Hebrew: 'Verse 3 is made up of 7 clauses. And in this type of Hebrew writing, line 1 corresponds to line 7, line 2 corresponds to line 6, line 3 corresponds to line 5, and line 4 stands all by itself as the pinacle of the verse. And here, in line 1 the storyteller mentions Tarshish. And in line 7 he mentions Tarshish. And in line 4 he mentions Tarshish! 3 times in 1 verse?! He doesn’t mention it cos we’re hard of hearing, he is using Geography to help us feel the intensity of Jonah’s defiance. God called him to Nineveh – Jonah fled to Tarshish. It’s not confusion. It is deliberate defiance. And it is ugly.'

Add this to the fact that Tarshish was thousands of miles South West of where Jonah was. Jonah's defiance was strong and heady and clearly thought out.

But did you know that to this very day, on the day of Atonement, the book of Jonah is read in Synagogues around the world as part of the Jewish liturgy? And do you know the traditional response of the congregation on the conclusion of the reading of this book? With one voice the congregations says: “WE ARE JONAH”.

This is NOT just a book for prophets or prophetic types. We are all Jonah. Everyone of us. We have all been privelidged recipients of the clear word of the Lord. Our problem has not been confusion, or a lack of clarity, our problem is not ambiguity or fuzziness. We are Jonah in that we have heard the difinitive word of the Lord in the Bible and we have gone in the opposite direction. God’s word to children: ARISE, GO, OBEY YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER. To not do this is defiance. God’s word to wives: ARISE, GO, SUBMIT TO YOUR HUSBANDS. To refuse is defiance. God’s word to husbands: ARISE, GO, LOVE YOUR WIVES! To hesitate IS TO DEFY.

So where else has God been clear with us?? Has he been clear with us about Baptism? About the kind of words that should come out of our mouths? About our responsibilities in the Great Commission? About how we are to perform our job? About submitting to church leaders? About how we use our money? About forgiving one another? About the subject of sexual purity? HAS GOD BEEN CLEAR WITH US?!?! Yes he has. And so to not respond in immediate obedience is to react in a radical and violent display of defiance. WE ARE JONAH. YOU ARE JONAH AND I AM JONAH. IT IS ALL DEFIANCE. And if you or I don’t repent of it, defiance will damn us. No defiant person goes to heaven, because defiance, unchecked, is a mark of an unregenerate heart – no matter WHAT prayer you or I prayed.

And I have been so smacked and humbled and shamed by this. I am, and have been, so defiant and disobedient to God. I have shamed myself and him. And I worry that even know there are things in me which are still defiant to him which are unchecked. I have struggles which I LET get the better of me. I let myself be led in ways I should not.

I am so ashamed of my past. All I seem to have made in my life is mistakes. I have hurt people and friends and loved ones, but most of all I have defied my God. I am Jonah and you are Jonah. In Romans we read "NONE IS RIGHTEOUS. NO NOT ONE. NO ONE SEEKS FOR GOD. ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME WORTHLESS. NO ONE DOES GOOD, NOT EVEN ONE" All are Jonah. All.

That is, all but one: The greater Gallilean prophet: Jesus. There was never the slightest defiance on his hands or heart. He said it was his pleasure to do the Father’s will. He was obedient, even to death, even to death on a cross. If Jonah is the personification of defiance, then Jesus Christ is the personification of obedience and righteousness. And the amazing thing is this; His obedience was for the purpose of taking away the guilt of our defiance. He perfectly fulfilled the will of God FOR US. I am Jonah and you are Jonah but he is NOT Jonah. He is our saviour. And if you and I see our defiance for what it is, then confess it to God, forsake it forever, repent of your sin and put your trust in the merits of the only one who ever fully obeyed - His life, His death, His resurrection are ALL acts of obedience that have won eternal life for people like you and me.

And I have to say that thrills my soul. That makes me well-up and rejoice. I don't deserve it! God had every right to do nothing to help me and you. And yet he came down as a man and suffered what we deserve. Why doesn't this spur me on more? Why doesn't it affect me more?

Prone to wander - Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

Lord it is my chief complaint that my love is weak and faint.

Praise be to the God of heaven. He does not give up on us; defiant and sinful and rebellious as we are.