Reading Jonah’s story today reminds me of a video I watched a few weeks ago where Jordan Peterson talked with Bill Maher about the story of Jonah. What Jordan Peterson said gave me new insight into the message of Jonah. He said that the first part of the Book of Jonah tells us what happens to us if we see others doing things which will lead to their suffering and we refuse to speak to them about it. Jonah didn’t want to tell the people of Nineveh that their actions would lead to bad consequences. He recognized that if he stayed where he was, someone might hear him speaking God’s message about Nineveh and take it to them, even though he himself did not go there. So, he got on a ship and tried to go as far from Nineveh as he could imagine being. Jordan Peterson points out that by trying to avoid letting God’s message getting to Nineveh, Jonah put not just himself in danger, but everyone around him in danger. At that point, Jonah had a choice, he could allow everyone around him to suffer along with himself, or he could sacrifice himself for them. Jonah chose to sacrifice himself, and ended up in the worst place he could imagine, a place that was far from God, and from all human interaction. Only when Jonah surrendered to God and resolved in his mind to do as God had instructed him, had decided that he would take God’s message to Nineveh, did Jonah come back from that place of torment.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to write anything about Micah, but after I read these first two chapters I felt like I should add a comment on them. First, Micah tells the people of Israel and Judah the Lord is coming to judge them for their rebelliousness. He writes that sorrow awaits those who think that because they have the power to do something they have the right to do so. Then he writes about those who tell him not to make such prophecies. In Jonah we learned that if we do not speak the message God gives us, we will suffer, as will all of those around us. In Jonah, the people of Nineveh were receptive to God’s message. Here, the people do not want to hear it. Nevertheless, Micah spoke God’s message, and despite most of his audience not wanting to hear the message a few listened. Micah assured those who listened that God would redeem them in His time.
God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and prophesy that it would soon be destroyed. However, Jonah did not want to preach this message to the people of Nineveh because he wanted them to be destroyed and was afraid that they would listen to his prophecy and repent. So, in order to avoid inadvertently delivering God’s message to the Ninevites, Jonah decided he would go in the opposite direction. However, when God brought misfortune upon Jonah, Jonah surrendered and agreed to deliver God’s message. When the Ninevites repented, Jonah was angry that God chose to withhold the destruction He had Jonah prophesy. Finally, Jonah gets angry because a vine which had grown up to give him shade died. God uses the death of this vine to point out to Jonah that he was more concerned with his own comfort than the lives of thousands of people. Ultimately, the Book of Jonah has two vitally important messages for us:
There is no place to which we can run to escape God’s plans for us
We should value others more than we value our comfort
I was not sure I was going to write about Micah, but after reading it I had some thoughts I wanted to write down. Micah prophesies that God’s judgement is about to pour out against Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and against Judah, the Southern Kingdom. The sins of the people of both kingdoms will result in terrible destruction for them. Micah tells us that the sins of these nations spread out from their capitals. Samaria and Jerusalem were to blame for the people of Israel and of Judah sinning in ways which led to invasion and desolation. As we read on into chapter two we realize that Micah’s prophecy against Samaria and Jerusalem is not specific to those geographic locations. Instead, Micah tells us that the leaders of the people were responsible for their sins. Micah’s message here is twofold. First, the rich and powerful will suffer the same desolation from their sins that the common people will experience. Second, if we allow our leaders to lead us into sin, we will suffer the consequences.
I had a couple of different thoughts about the Book of Jonah today. As I started to try to put those thoughts into words a question occurred to me: why does God seem to hound certain people until they, like Jonah, stop running from His will and consent to fulfill it? And I think Jonah illustrates at least part of the answer to that question. Jonah ran from God’s will, but when the judgement God brought down upon him threatened to fall upon those around him, Jonah offered himself up as a sacrifice to turn God’s wrath aside from them. And that seems to offer up the difference between Jonah and those whom God allows to run away from Him. God sent destruction in the form of a storm upon the ship Jonah was on until He got Jonah’s attention. Then, when the people around him, had done everything in their power to escape the storm, only then did they allow Jonah to “take the fall”. Perhaps, if Jonah had continued to deny God, God would have allowed everyone on board to go on their way, even Jonah. We do not know, but I have seen people who have turned from God suffer many things until a time comes when God seems to give up on them and allows them to live in peace. On the other hand, I have seen people who have turned from God suffer one thing after another year after year, until finally they give up and acknowledge God. One other point, Jonah denied God because he was afraid that the people of Nineveh would turn from their sin and God would forgive them: he wanted them to suffer. However, Jonah was unwilling for the people on the ship with him to suffer for his sins. That also plays a roll in why God went so far to bring Jonah back to Him.
I want to contrast the way the people of Nineveh responded to Jonah’s prophecy of destruction to the way the people of Israel responded to Micah’s prophecy (or, at least the way that their response is recorded in today’s passages). When Jonah prophesied to the people of Nineveh that God would destroy the city in 40 days because of their wickedness, they repented of their evil and began to fast and pray. On the other hand, Micah tells us that when he told the people of Israel that God was going to destroy Samaria and Jerusalem, they told him to shut up. When a prophet of God speaks to us, let us respond like the people of Nineveh did here, not the way the people of Israel did.
Usually when I read the book of Jonah I focus on Jonah and God’s message to us through Jonah, but today something else caught my eye. Let’s look at this, God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and prophesy against it, sdo something and he didn’t want to do it. So, he went the opposite direction, because Jonah knew that if he went anywhere near Nineveh God would use him to accomplish His purposes. There are some things in there that deserve a little attention, but I am not going to go there today. What I want to focus on is what happened on the ship, and not the part we normally look at. So, after the sailors threw Jonah overboard and the storm abated, they worshiped God and vowed to serve Him going forward. Think about that, Jonah did not intentionally witness to those men. He was not there because God sent him there. Jonah was there running away from God, and God was STILL able to use him to reveal Himself to those who did not know Him. Think about it: God can, and will, use us to make the world a better place, even when we are resisting Him.
In many ways the Book of Jonah is an excellent precursor to the opening of Micah. When Jonah preached in Nineveh that God was about to bring judgement on that city, the people of that city repented of their sins in sackcloth. They mourned their sinfulness and turned to God. When Micah prophesied about the judgement coming against Samaria and Jerusalem, the people of those cities told him not to say such things. Then he says something I think we should take to heart: those who do what is right find his words comforting. Think about that. In the middle of his fire and brimstone message about the doom and disaster which are looming over the nation, Micah tells us that those who do right are comforted by his words, why? Because his words mean that those who abuse others, who oppress the poor, who perform various wicked acts, will suffer for the suffering they have caused.
So, leading up to our anniversary, I wished my wife happy anniversary for 20 days culminating on our anniversary yesterday. I was tempted to continue for 20 more days, but decided not to do so. However, since I am writing these a few days in advance, I am going to thank my wife on here every day until I am writing on the day after our anniversary
Often times when I read the story of Jonah I want to break it down into parts. In fact, many times when I have heard sermons based on Jonah they are only on one part. There is nothing wrong with that, but the Book of Jonah is short and we should, from time to time, look at it as a whole . When God gave Jonah a message for Nineveh Jonah did not want to deliver it because he did not want the people of Nineveh to repent and be saved from God’s judgement. Later he felt more grief over the death of a plant which had provided him shade than he felt over the possible suffering and death of the people of Nineveh. The message of the Book of Jonah is that we should desire that sinful people turn from their sins and be saved, even if they have caused us, or others we care about, to suffer. We should not desire that those who sin suffer for their sins. We should desire that they cease to sin, and thus avoid that suffering. As followers of Christ, we gain more when sinners repent than when they are punished.
I take Micah’s prophecy as being directed at those whose livelihood is dependent on the government. Reading Micah’s condemnation of Samaria and Jerusalem I am reminded that the five richest counties in the United States are those surrounding Washington, DC. I do not think this means that this passage is only of relevance to those who live in those counties. Rather, it is a warning to those who make their living from managing the levers of power. Micah’s message is not that it is wrong to make one’s living from managing the levers of power, after all, someone must do so. No, Micah is condemning those who use their access to the levers of power to defraud and oppress others.
The Book of Jonah tells the story of a man who worships God, but who struggles to accept God’s will for the world. When God called Jonah to prophecy to Nineveh, he went the other way because he feared that the people of Nineveh would repent of their sin and be spared. Jonah desired that the wicked people of Nineveh be punished to the point that he did not want them to cease their wickedness. Let us learn that God does not desire anyone to suffer punishment. Rather He desires that they turn from their sin, their self-destructive behavior, and be saved. We should desire the same. We often desire to see the wicked suffer for the suffering they have caused others, but we should prefer that they start doing good and stop causing others to suffer.
Now I will make a few comments on Micah 1-2. Micah condemns those who live in luxury obtained at the expense of others’ suffering. He condemns those who cheat, defraud, and use government power to take what they want from others. Rather than listen to the prophets who warn them to change their ways, they try to silence them. They are only willing to listen to those who tell them that they should do what pleases them and enjoy themselves.
There are many themes woven through the Book of Jonah. Jonah tried to run from God’s will for his life and discovered that this led to disaster, both for himself and those around him. However, he also discovered that as long as we are alive we can repent. If we acknowledge our sins, turn from them, and seek to do God’s will, God will give us another chance to serve Him. Then the passage illustrates a message which God gave to Ezekiel: if God has determined to bring death and destruction upon people because of their sin and they turn from their sin, He will turn aside that death which He had promised them. The final point of the story, and the reason this book is in the Bible, is about our attitude towards sinners. We should not desire to see sinners punished for their sins. The purpose of telling sinners about their sin should not be to gloat about their coming suffering. Rather, we should wish that sinners turn from their sin and come to God, thus avoiding His anger. We should tell them of their sin and the destruction it will bring them because we love them and want them to live.
Micah begins by warning the capital cities of Israel and Judah (Samaria and Judah) that they will soon face destruction. He warns that those who cheat and lie and twist the law to get what they want will pay the price. His condemnation is mostly directed at the ruling elites, but there is an element to which it applies to everyone. Look around, rather than wanting justice to apply even the common people want to manipulate things so that they get favors at others’ expense. The rich and connected use their wealth and power to unjustly increase their wealth. However, the poor and weak do not seek even-handed laws and justice. They seek for the government to use its force to take the wealth of others for their own benefit. Instead of listening to the words of prophets calling them to turn from their sins and follow God’s commands the people, both wealthy and poor, do what they can to silence them.
Every time I read the Book of Jonah I am amazed at the number of lessons contained within this one short book. The first lesson we learn is that running away from God’s will for us will end badly, for us and for those around us (and we will end up doing it anyway). Next we learn (there is probably one or more I am missing both here and later) that if people genuinely mourn for the harm they have done and repent of their sins, God will be merciful. A third lesson we learn is that we often value material goods more than we value people. Jonah was more upset about the death of the plant which had shaded him than about the deaths he had prophesied for the people of Nineveh. The final lesson of this Book is that we should feel compassion and pity for those who do evil rather than hate. We should prefer that they turn from their evil and do good to them being punished and suffering for their evil.
The first chapter of the Book Micah contains a series of prophesies where the prophet does one play on words after another. As I read it (and the notes), it seems to me that some of the towns mentioned are real towns whose names lent themselves to the desired play on words, while others are fictitious names which would have been understood by the prophet’s audience as applying to towns they were familiar with.
Then we get into Micah’s full message, the reason the bad things he is prophesying will happen. In many ways, Micah’s message is much like Amos’. His audience is those who think that if it is not illegal it is not wrong, and if they don’t get caught it is not illegal…and if they don’t get punished, they didn’t get caught. I have a saying I often say to people, “Stay out of trouble…If you don’t get caught you aren’t in trouble, and if you do get caught but like the consequences, you still aren’t in trouble.” That is the philosophy of the people Micah is condemning. However, those who know me know that my philosophy has another corollary to that rule: If someone gets hurt as a result of what I did, I get caught, even if no one else knows I did it, and I do NOT like the consequences. If what you have done hurts others, you may get away with it for now, but God will hold you accountable. God is merciful and forgiving, but He is also just. Those who sin and hurt others (and those who sin ALWAYS hurt others) will pay for that sin…either through their own remorse and self condemnation, or through the judgment which God will bring upon them
I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
Today I read the book of Jonah. I am not used to this. Most of the time when we look at the book of Jonah we either look at the first part where he runs from the Lord’s command, is cast into the sea and swallowed by a very large fish, or we look at the second part of the book where he prophecies in Nineveh, they repent, and Jonah gets angry and sulks when God withdraws His judgment against Nineveh.
The story starts with God calling Jonah to go to Nineveh and prophecy that God is going to bring judgment against it because of its wickedness. Now we do not know when this took place, but it is reasonable to believe that it took place while Nineveh, as the capital of the Assyrian Empire, was at the height of its powers and represented the primary threat to Israel and Judah. Jonah did not want to go and warn them of God’s coming judgment because he wanted God to bring destruction upon them. So, in order to avoid giving them warning, Jonah not only refused to go to Nineveh, he decided to get as far away from them as possible. “God, you can’t expect me to go to Nineveh now. I’m all the way over here in Tarshish.” I am sure you know times when you were sure that God could not mean for you to do whatever it was you were being convicted to do because it was such an inconvenience to do so. I think there are two messages from the book of Jonah. The first message is that, yes, God does mean for you to do that even if it is inconvenient. The second is that God will make His will perfectly clear. Of course, if we are stubborn the way Jonah was, we will not like the results of God making His will clear.
When Jonah fled, he got on a ship sailing for Tarshish. We are not exactly sure where Tarshish was, but it was the farthest place that anyone in Israel could think of at that time. God raised a violent storm against the ship, a storm so violent that the sailors were afraid for their lives, nevertheless Jonah slept through the storm. The ship’s captain woke him up to demand that he pray to his god for a calm in the storm. When the storm did not calm, the sailors cast lots to determine who on board had offended the gods. The lot fell to Jonah. They immediately wanted to know who he was and what god he worshiped. Jonah told them that he worshiped the God who had made the sea and the land. He then told them to throw him into the sea. When the sailors finally gave up on their own efforts to escape the storm and threw Jonah into the sea the storm stopped at once. They were struck by God’s power and vowed to serve Him. Notice that even in the midst of Jonah trying to avoid God’s will, God used him to touch the lives of those around him and to bring them to following the Lord. When Jonah entered the water, he was immediately swallowed by a great fish. We have no idea what kind of fish it was, nor how Jonah was able to survive three days inside of it, because neither of those things are part of the point of the story.
While inside the fish, Jonah prayed to God and rededicated himself to doing God’s will. God had the fish spit Jonah out onto the beach. God then once more called Jonah to go to Nineveh and prophecy His judgment against that city. This time Jonah obeyed. He went to Nineveh and prophesied that in forty days God was going to destroy Nineveh. When the people of Nineveh heard Jonah’s prophecy, they declared a fast and dressed in plain, somewhat uncomfortable clothes to show their remorse. Even the king of Nineveh got off of his throne and did this. The king called for people to turn from their sins and violence in the hope that God might turn aside His anger. When God saw their sorrow and repentance, He chose not to destroy them.
Jonah was furious with God for sparing Nineveh. He had run away to Tarshish in the first place because he was afraid that God would change His mind and not destroy Nineveh. I see two things here. One, Jonah was upset because he really wanted God to destroy Nineveh. That is bad enough, but the second was that part of the reason he wanted God to destroy Nineveh was because he had told them that God was going to. Jonah was upset because what he had prophesied did not come to pass. He was not grateful that the people had heard his message, repented and been spared the terrible judgment. Rather he was upset because he felt that he looked like a fool, he had said that Nineveh would be destroyed and it did not happen. He had not preached God’s word in the hopes that people would listen and turn from their sin. He had preached God’s word out of a sense of satisfaction of telling people how wrong they were and how much they would suffer for it.
There are two overall lessons here. When God calls us, He will make His call clear, but we had better not pretend that we do not understand His call after it is clear because we will not like what God does to convince us to follow His will. The other lesson is that we should always seek to turn people away from their sin and towards following God, even when we think they deserve the judgment we see coming to them if they do not change their ways.
Nativity Scene At First United Methodist Church In Perkasie
The writer of Revelation tells us in this passage that he saw a scroll in the hand of the one sitting on the throne of Heaven. The scroll was sealed. An angel cried out asking if anyone was worthy to open the scroll, but no one was found who could open the scroll. The writer was heartbroken because no one was found worthy to open the scroll. At that moment he was told that the Lion of Judah had been found worthy to open the scroll and when he looked he saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slain. This is an interesting juxtaposition. He was told that the Lion was worthy to open the scroll because it had been victorious, yet when he looked, he saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slain. A lamb is usually considered as the opposite of a lion. A lion is considered an apex predator, that is something that nothing else preys upon. A lamb on the other hand is among the most vulnerable of all prey animals. Here we are told that not only is a lamb the victorious lion, but a lamb that has been slain. This disrupts our entire understanding of power dynamics. When the Lamb stepped forward and took the scroll, the beings that were in the presence of God changed their song and began praising the Lamb. They sang that the Lamb had ransomed people from every possible division of people to become the people of God. This is an important message. Think of all of the things that divide us from one another, tribe, nation, ethnic background, the language we speak, the culture we grew up in, this passage is telling us that Jesus has claimed someone, or multiple someones from each of those groups to be part of the people of God. From all of these divisions, Jesus has brought people to be priests before God, priests who will rule over the earth. None of us represent a group that has special dispensation to consider itself better than others because all are equally dependent upon Jesus to become the people of God.
People seek the favor of those who rule, but justice comes from God. We can tell a lot about people by who they dislike. The righteous dislike the unjust, while the wicked dislike the godly.
