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What is the biggest problem people have with God today? I think it is the idea of God as judge. We live in a society that increasingly says there is no absolute standard of right and wrong and that is revolted by the idea of a God who judges. In fact it has become an issue not just for those outside the church but also those inside the church.
Ironically Jonah’s problem with God is the opposite, he would love God to judge, what he is struggling with is that God is gracious and might forgive rather than destroy Nineveh. It has led him to run away from his prophetic call and to take on God. It leads to his being cast into the sea whilst Pagan sailors stand on deck praising God.
There is a striking contrast as chapter 2 starts, whilst in the first chapter in the relative security and comfort of the ship Jonah does not pray even when urged to do so by the captain. Now we read of him praying twice, once as he sinks to his death and then again in praise after his salvation not from the great fish but by the great fish. Jonah’s Psalm of praise from inside the great fish sets forth two great truths about God.
1. A God who judges idolatry
Chapter 2 is the high point of the book of Jonah, it is where we see Jonah at his best as
he understands grace. But just like all thanksgiving psalms it begins by painting a picture
of the misery from which God saves. In this case the misery is deserved, it is God’s
judgement on Jonah. But interestingly his running away isn’t mentioned, but what is is
idolatry.
(8) "Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit God's love for them."
Jonah recognises that he had put something else in the place of God, for Jonah it was Israel, his nation, God’s people. A good thing has become his ultimate thing, something for which he is prepared to put aside his prophetic office, something for which he will ignore the very words of God, something for which he is willing to face God’s wrath, I think even to die for. Jonah wanted Israel’s enemy wiped out, he didn’t want them saved because his nation mattered more to him than God did.
But God judges idolatry. As Jonah sinks he knows he is dying, he is not expecting rescue he is expecting death. Just look at the language he uses. (1)"From deep in the realm of the dead I called..." (5)"The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me" (6)"the earth beneath barred me in for ever..." (7)"When my life was ebbing away..." Jonah knows he’s dying but there’s more, he is going to Sheol realm of the dead - a place cut off from God of exile of banishment.
Who is the judgement from? And Jonah recognises this is a judgement from God (3-4)"You hurled me into the deep...all your waves and breakers swept over me... I have been banished from your sight" This is not circumstance this is God’s judgement for his rebellion, for his refusal to make God the most important thing in his heart. God will not have anything in his place and he judges idolatry.
Jonah makes a good thing - being one of God’s people - the ultimate thing. It takes the place of God. But God is sovereign and almighty and he will stand no rivals and judges justly.
An idol is anything, often a good thing that we make the ultimate thing. The Bible exposes all manner of idols; love, relationships, sex, money, reputation, family. Jonah warns us about idolatry - don’t let good things become the ultimate thing.
How do you know what your idols are? Look at your nightmares what is the one thing you would dread losing, what is the thing your life wouldn’t be worth living without.
And the most shocking thing in Jonah is that it is found in the place you would expect it least - one of God’s prophets, if Jonah is prone to idolatry we must assume we are.
2. A God of Grace
As Jonah sinks to his death, as he goes down to the deep, as seaweed wraps around his head
he recognises that idolatry leads to a loss of something, what is it? Love - specifically
God’s covenantal, redeeming unconditional grace(8). As water begins to fill his mouth and
lungs Jonah understands at last what his idolatry had blinded him to. God is a God of grace.
It is that realisation that prompts him to cry out to God (1)to call for help. He know he doesn’t deserve it he knows that he deserves what he is getting - God’s judgement - but he realises God is gracious to those who deserve judgement and so he calls to God. He knows that although he has been banished there is hope of enjoying relationship with God(4).
(7)He remembers God, and his character, what strikes you about his prayer? he prays to your holy temple. Now it seems odd to us to be thinking of the temple as you drown.
Here are Solomon’s words from the consecration of the temple 1 Kings 8:46f: "When they sin against you - for there is no one who does not sin - and you become angry with them and give them over to their enemies, who take them captive to their own lands, far away or near; and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors and say, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly'; and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name; then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their captors to show them mercy; 51 for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of that iron-smelting furnace."
Jonah cries out in prayer thinking of the temple because the temple is a reminder of God’s grace; it’s the place where God meets with his people who did not deserve their rescue, or their establishing in the land, or God’s continuing grace. It is a place where judgement of sin and grace are played out every day in the offerings that picture God’s rescue of a people who didn’t deserve it.
God is a just judge and a gracious saviour of those who cry out to him. The fish is God’s means of salvation and as Jonah is vomited up on the dry land it’s as if he is back from the dead, resurrected because of the grace of God.
God saves from idolators who deserve his judgement, that is Jonah’s story that is our story. Have you ever noticed how we tend to excuse or downplay our sin? A friend of mine was banned from driving recently due to an accumulation of points, in every instance is could give a reason why he had acted as he had in each instance. But in every case he’d broken the law. He deserved his punishment! We tend to do the same with God - to downplay our sin. God does not as we see in his judgement of Jonah but neither does he downplay his grace.
His rescue of Jonah is amazing, his grace, love and forgiveness are beyond us. We need to remember we have received no less. It took another death, another 3 days, another back from the dead but this time of one who had committed not idolatry but bore the punishment for ours to save us. It ought to mean we never downplay our sin because to do so would undersell God’s grace.
3. Saved to Serve(9)
Have you ever read the side of a medicine packet, it will talk about the active ingredient,
its the ingredient that actually works in the medicine, everything else is just filling but
that active ingredient is the thing you need.
We see here that grace is an active ingredient, what does Jonahs experiencing grace lead him to do? (9)to shout praises, make sacrifices, fulfil his vows and say "Salvation comes from the LORD."
Experiencing grace changes Jonah, he realises now that God saves those who deserve judgement, he realises that it isn’t just the Ninevites who deserve judgement but he does too. And having been saved he is not save to spectate but saved to serve. Whereas ch1 begins with God’s word and Jonah running from it, ch3 begins with God’s word coming to Jonah to go to Nineveh and "Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh."
Just as the sailors get grace and respond at the end of ch1 by offering sacrifices and making vows to God, so here Jonah responds to God’s grace the same way.
When we understand what we were and what it has cost us: "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit God's love for them.
And what God has done in Christ to save us by his grace how can we but serve him. How can grace do anything but dominate our lives afterwards?
If we are saved by what we do then there are limits on what God can ask of us, but if we are saved by an act of outrageously undeserved grace that costs God everything then the only right response to that is to give everything I have to him.
Grace replaces and drives out idols, God becomes our over riding passion.