Jonah 3:10; 4:1-4, 11
God saw what the Ninevites did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.....
but to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”.....
Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
I love preaching from the Book of Jonah, and I love stubborn old Jonah. I feel a kinship, having myself many times indulged in sulking because I didn’t want to do what God told me to do.
Jonah is one of the shortest books in the Bible, being only four chapters in length. It’s a shame that it is most often shrugged off as a children’s story, what with the whale and all, when it is really one of the most powerful teachings on God’s love and mercy.
Trying to establish the where and the when of a story like this one is much more complicated than you’d think it would be with its short length. The story never states where Jonah is actually living when God calls him to prophesy to the Ninevites, but I suspect it was somewhere in the northern kingdom of Israel, based on the journey he took that ended up with him inside a whale.
Nineveh itself was for a time the lush and amazing capital of the Assyrian Empire under the great kings Sargon II and Sennacherib. The remaining ruins of Nineveh lie today across the Tigris River from modern day Mosul, in northern Iraq – a long, long way from Israel, making it even more unusual that Jonah was called in the first place.
Trying to keep countries straight in biblical times is difficult because names changed due to the language of each particular writer. A city or geographic area could, over the course of several centuries, be called by four or five different names. Even when we read from the three brief years of Jesus’ public ministry, the same place may turn up under several different names, so we can see how confusing it can be when we speak of centuries. It requires a dedicated biblical historian – which I’m not -- to keep it all straight. So I’m just trying to give you just enough information to understand how Jonah and Nineveh ended up in the same story.
Assyria was one of the first of the massive, spreading empires of the Old Testament. It had its time being the biggest and the baddest before it, in turn, was swallowed up by the bigger and badder Babylonian Empire.
In one of their expansionist periods the Assyrians attempted to annex Judah and it’s capital Jerusalem. They were actually turned away by forces under the Jewish king Hezekiah, although they did succeed in conquering the northern kingdom, Israel, and deporting hundreds of its citizens. This was the first of the historical exiles we read of in the Old Testament.
So – all of that leads us to understand why Jonah was so set against God’s idea of trying to save the Ninevites. He may have had personal reasons, like family that had been among those deported, or just nationalistic pride. However it came about, Jonah didn’t see any reason to save them – they should be punished, instead. The Ninevites were terrible people who had done terrible things to Jonah’s people, so punish them!
Today, we, as a people, are still much more willing to call for punishment rather than forgiveness – unless, of course, it is ourselves who need to be forgiven. We are told, quite plainly and bluntly to pray for those who hurt us – to pray for our enemies – and yet, how well do we do with that?
Last Friday’s devotional was written by professor and parish minister Mary Luti, who is far and away one of my favorite writers. She wrote from the story of Jonah. Now, we all know this story of Jonah and the whale. And we know that after that gross bit in the whale, Jonah did give in and go to Nineveh and warn the people and they did repent and they were saved.
You’d think that Jonah might feel a little proud that he had done this for God, but, no – now he’s even more angry – angry that it worked! -- so angry that he marches out of the city into the desert and sits down, telling God to just kill him, just get it over with.
Here, in Friday’s devotional, Luti does the best job I’ve ever seen – in one short page – of explaining why we should be busy praying for those who have hurt us or threatened us in any way. As she has God say it: Look, Jonah, those pathetic schmucks can’t tell left from right. Why shouldn’t I feel for them? ..... oh ... and tell me, why don’t you?
We should be praying for the healing of those who hurt us or offend us rather than their punishment because GOD LOVES THEM. God recognizes their ineptness and their failures and God wants to fix them, rather than punish them. God feels for them. God doesn’t just care for the “perfect ones” like (ahem) us. God only loves even the mix-up and clueless, and so should we.
God loves us all and, being God, sees our brokenness and our dim-wittedness quite clearly and still feels for us and wants us all to be healed – not punished.
So the question still lingers today – actually I think I hear it several times a week – when I look at or read about the people who claim that those children deserve to be locked in concentration camps because their parents did something bad (which they didn’t); or the people who deny all scientific reality; or the thugs roaming the streets right now beating up old Chinese men because they personally are somehow responsible for the coronavirus (which they, again, are not) – all the people who, in their own brokenness, do hateful things aimed at hurting others. And still God says:
Why shouldn’t I feel for them? ..... and tell me, why don’t you?
This is why I need to read Jonah’s story -- often. I read it and I laugh at Jonah’s stubbornness and think about my own occasional ridiculous refusals to go where God says go and do what God says do. But I mostly don’t read it all the way to the ending because I’m afraid I might hear God asking: “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Why shouldn’t I feel for them? ..... and tell me, why don’t you?
Jonah is one of the shortest books in the Bible, being only four chapters in length. It’s a shame that it is most often shrugged off as a children’s story, what with the whale and all, when it is really one of the most powerful teachings on God’s love and mercy.
Trying to establish the where and the when of a story like this one is much more complicated than you’d think it would be with its short length. The story never states where Jonah is actually living when God calls him to prophesy to the Ninevites, but I suspect it was somewhere in the northern kingdom of Israel, based on the journey he took that ended up with him inside a whale.
Nineveh itself was for a time the lush and amazing capital of the Assyrian Empire under the great kings Sargon II and Sennacherib. The remaining ruins of Nineveh lie today across the Tigris River from modern day Mosul, in northern Iraq – a long, long way from Israel, making it even more unusual that Jonah was called in the first place.
Trying to keep countries straight in biblical times is difficult because names changed due to the language of each particular writer. A city or geographic area could, over the course of several centuries, be called by four or five different names. Even when we read from the three brief years of Jesus’ public ministry, the same place may turn up under several different names, so we can see how confusing it can be when we speak of centuries. It requires a dedicated biblical historian – which I’m not -- to keep it all straight. So I’m just trying to give you just enough information to understand how Jonah and Nineveh ended up in the same story.
Assyria was one of the first of the massive, spreading empires of the Old Testament. It had its time being the biggest and the baddest before it, in turn, was swallowed up by the bigger and badder Babylonian Empire.
In one of their expansionist periods the Assyrians attempted to annex Judah and it’s capital Jerusalem. They were actually turned away by forces under the Jewish king Hezekiah, although they did succeed in conquering the northern kingdom, Israel, and deporting hundreds of its citizens. This was the first of the historical exiles we read of in the Old Testament.
So – all of that leads us to understand why Jonah was so set against God’s idea of trying to save the Ninevites. He may have had personal reasons, like family that had been among those deported, or just nationalistic pride. However it came about, Jonah didn’t see any reason to save them – they should be punished, instead. The Ninevites were terrible people who had done terrible things to Jonah’s people, so punish them!
Today, we, as a people, are still much more willing to call for punishment rather than forgiveness – unless, of course, it is ourselves who need to be forgiven. We are told, quite plainly and bluntly to pray for those who hurt us – to pray for our enemies – and yet, how well do we do with that?
Last Friday’s devotional was written by professor and parish minister Mary Luti, who is far and away one of my favorite writers. She wrote from the story of Jonah. Now, we all know this story of Jonah and the whale. And we know that after that gross bit in the whale, Jonah did give in and go to Nineveh and warn the people and they did repent and they were saved.
You’d think that Jonah might feel a little proud that he had done this for God, but, no – now he’s even more angry – angry that it worked! -- so angry that he marches out of the city into the desert and sits down, telling God to just kill him, just get it over with.
- Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
- God answered Jonah - “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And yet, should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
Here, in Friday’s devotional, Luti does the best job I’ve ever seen – in one short page – of explaining why we should be busy praying for those who have hurt us or threatened us in any way. As she has God say it: Look, Jonah, those pathetic schmucks can’t tell left from right. Why shouldn’t I feel for them? ..... oh ... and tell me, why don’t you?
We should be praying for the healing of those who hurt us or offend us rather than their punishment because GOD LOVES THEM. God recognizes their ineptness and their failures and God wants to fix them, rather than punish them. God feels for them. God doesn’t just care for the “perfect ones” like (ahem) us. God only loves even the mix-up and clueless, and so should we.
God loves us all and, being God, sees our brokenness and our dim-wittedness quite clearly and still feels for us and wants us all to be healed – not punished.
So the question still lingers today – actually I think I hear it several times a week – when I look at or read about the people who claim that those children deserve to be locked in concentration camps because their parents did something bad (which they didn’t); or the people who deny all scientific reality; or the thugs roaming the streets right now beating up old Chinese men because they personally are somehow responsible for the coronavirus (which they, again, are not) – all the people who, in their own brokenness, do hateful things aimed at hurting others. And still God says:
Why shouldn’t I feel for them? ..... and tell me, why don’t you?
This is why I need to read Jonah’s story -- often. I read it and I laugh at Jonah’s stubbornness and think about my own occasional ridiculous refusals to go where God says go and do what God says do. But I mostly don’t read it all the way to the ending because I’m afraid I might hear God asking: “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Why shouldn’t I feel for them? ..... and tell me, why don’t you?
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