Good morning. Yesterday I used the example of the invasion of the Ukraine to set our focus on the definition of agape love as it is defined for us in 1 Corinthians 13:1-8. I especially focused on the end of verse 7 “love keeps no record of wrongs.” That is indeed a challenging aspect of agape love, and it is something we all need to work on. But today is Thursday, and that means that I traditionally give attention to a Bible character. For today’s character I would like to share some thoughts about Jonah and the challenges he faced when considering agape love.
Jonah grew up at a time when God’s people in Israel were under constant threat from the north. The people that plagued Israel at that time were the Assyrians. They would sweep down on quiet villages and rape, murder, burn, and steal. Then for good measure, they would haul off the children to become their slaves. To say that the Israelites developed a hatred for the Assyrians would be an understatement.
The Book of Jonah is quite brief, only four chapters in total. When we read it, it is tempting to consider the purpose of the book to share the story of the person for whom it is named, the Israelite Jonah. While that would seem to make sense, it really isn’t the reason for the book. The reason God chose to share with us the story related in the Book of Jonah is to clearly state His undying love. It is a story not about a fellow being swallowed by a fish and living to tell about it, it is a story about the lengths God will go to in order to save the lost.
Jonah begins like this: 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.” Jonah 1:1-2
We need to remember that Jonah, who was a capable preacher for the Lord, had an enduring hatred for the people of Nineveh, which was the Assyrian capital. He knew that if God was calling him, it would be to preach. Jonah would have gratefully rejoiced if he had heard that God had raised up a mighty general who would go in God’s name to the city of Nineveh and wipe it from the face of the earth. That would have been just fine, but no, that wasn’t God’s desire. His desire was to send Jonah, a preacher. That could only mean one thing, that God wanted to give Nineveh and those filthy Assyrians a chance to repent and to be saved. Now this was a thought that turned Jonah’s stomach. The very idea infuriated him. In fact, we read in verse 3: 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 them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
In short, rather than obey and be a part of God’s plan of salvation to these horrible people, Jonah ran away. However, that was a rotten plan. God is not easy to run from.
Now we all know the story from here: Jonah gets on a ship to run away; a terrible storm comes up (the Lord’s doing); the sailors toss Jonah overboard; Jonah, instead of drowning, is swallowed up by a great fish; after three days, Jonah repents and says that he will go as the Lord commanded; the fish pukes Jonah up on dry ground; Jonah goes on to Nineveh and preaches the Lord’s message to repent and be saved; they believed him, repented, and turned to the Lord; Jonah, rather than being amazed and pleased, is in a hateful mood, knowing that he had been an instrument of God’s salvation rather than for the destruction of a people he hated; and Jonah prayed to the Lord. Whew! That’s a lot of info to put into a paragraph (let alone a sentence).
This is Jonah’s prayer: But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:1-3
Jonah was angry. So much so that he didn’t want to live with the thought of him being used by God to save the people he so desperately hated. Jonah went into the wilderness and took shelter from the sun under the leaves of a plant. God caused the plant to die. Now THAT made Jonah even angrier. The following are the last words of the Book of Jonah: The Lord 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 not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many cattle?”
God’s love is greater. It is greater than our fears; greater than our hate; greater than our ideas; greater than our solutions. God’s love is greater, and that is the heart of the Book of Jonah. No matter how lost you think a person might be, no matter how steeped in sin and rebellious against God, His love is greater. God’s love is greater, and He saves.
Vern