How Can We Move From Fear to Faith?

How can we undergo His healing touch? An instructive story in the New Testament gives us a step-by-step process where we watch Jesus move a person from fear to faith.

It is found in Luke 5:17-26 (NIV): 

One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?  Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

Let’s unpack this story.

A man is paralyzed, and lies upon a mat. We don’t know how long he has been in this condition. No one needs to tell him of his affliction. Every day, when the sun rises, he cannot get up like the rest of the household. He needs someone to bring him food, help him to use the bathroom, and take him out of the house for fresh air.

Does he sometimes dream he is running and jumping, only to find that when he opens his eyes, the truth shakes him to his very soul? He knows his condition, and it saddens him deeply.

Our condition saddens us as well. We are all too well aware of our need.

He does have contact with his community. He isn’t isolated, staying in his house day by day, just hoping someone knows he is there. People know he is there. So, at some level, he is connected. He hasn’t yelled at people or raged at them to the point where, despite his pitiable condition, they ignore him.

He suffers and they know that. He doesn’t punish others for his affliction. He gratefully watches as they lift him up to take him to Jesus. Even with his limitations, he is willing to be a part of his community. He has not isolated himself so he eventually becomes forgotten.

We need to reach out to our community and connect with others. We need to be, even in our pain, gracious with the hands that lift us up. Their assistance should not be seen as a condemnation of us as weak; we need to thank God for those hands, for they are His.

Next, the men cannot find a way into the house where Jesus is teaching, for it is crowded. Do they give up?  Does the man on the mat say, “Oh, never mind. It’s not meant to be. Let’s go home. God doesn’t really care, or there would be a clear way into the house.”

No! These men get creative. Someone scouts out the roof and then returns, letting the rest know that they can come to Jesus through the roof.

Unconventional? Yes, but creative.

We need to be creative in how we look to the Lord for our healing. We may have to scout out different treatment plans, doctors, counselors or pastors, and be willing to look high and low for solutions. Rarely is there a clear way to solve a life-long problem. We have to be creative, flexible and take it step by step.

Now the men hoist the paralyzed man up to the roof. I’ll bet that took quite some time! They need to scout out the exact spot on the roof, get the man up to that spot, and then remove enough tiles to fit the man and his mat through safely. Then they have to lower him down, very carefully. Time. Effort. Maybe more time. Creativity. There are no quick fixes to our suffering. We may have to go through many time-consuming steps to finally get face to face with Jesus. But, hey, what’s the alternative? Back to that mat? I love this part: “When Jesus saw their faith...” Jesus always sees our faith and our efforts. They say a lot about us and what we consider important. If we see our healing as important, and are willing to work with Jesus to get there, He sustains and guides us. He may choose to use a counselor to be His voice. Or a pastor. Or a close friend. Or a doctor. God may use a combination of many people and many things to help us be whole. He rewards our seeking. If we earnestly seek Him, He awaits with open arms. This next part is quite interesting. Jesus tells the man that his sins are forgiven. Wait a minute, Lord! He came to you with a broken body. Why are You focusing on his sins? In reality, we are all spiritually broken. Our lives may be shattered, but deep within all of us, we need reconciliation with God. The man on the mat may have secretly blamed God, or his parents, or himself. He may not have forgiven God, his parents or himself, and his lack of forgiveness may have driven him further from God. He may harbor angry thoughts and a sense that God doesn’t care. His soul needs Jesus’ touch way before his physical healing. Remember Jonah? He was delivered from death, but his attitude towards God needed healing, for it drove him away from God. He may have been safe physically, but his attitude was putting him on a crash course with isolation and hell. It’s the same with the man on the mat. Jesus can heal him physically, but he still would have walked away with sin paralyzing his heart. Trust Jesus to diagnose your true area for healing. Trust His timing. Trust His ways as He seeks to achieve healing in your life. The spiritual healing may come way before any other kind of healing. Embrace that, and accept His priorities. People are murmuring at what Jesus said to the man. Not everyone will celebrate this man’s encounter with Jesus. Jesus sees their jealous anger. Jesus sees the Pharisees grumbling about the time He is taking with this man. He sees their self-righteousness as well. He knows that God alone can forgive sins. Jesus doesn’t need a Sunday school lesson from them. But they are furious that He is presuming to do God’s work. What if, for one moment, they really think about it and say, “The Promised One, our Messiah, is truly here. Let us embrace Him!” What a difference! They would have been able to enjoy the work of Jesus. But just like the jealous older brother, who sniped at the father and his prodigal brother, the Pharisees are losing out on the blessings freely flowing from God. Sadly, they demean the healing taking place in front of them. Many church folks will demean your quest for healing. Don’t listen to them. Feel sorry for them, for they are missing out on watching God’s blessings. They will have lots of advice, based on their limited knowledge and possible jealousy. Seek out a Godly counselor or pastor. Seek wise counsel from a few select people. Not everyone needs to know about your quest. You can always request prayer, however, without sharing details. The man, with his soul forgiven and his body healed (the best order!) picks up his mat and heads for home, praising God! He carries his own mat. God will not do for you what you are perfectly capable of doing yourself. You are a partner with Him, and where you can do something towards your wellness, He will expect you to do it. Praise Him as you do your share, knowing that He is right behind you. The people then praise God for what they witnessed that day. The man, no longer on his mat, is a walking testimony to the power of God. You, as you walk this journey towards wellness, will be visible testimony to God’s faithfulness. You may stumble and fall, but keep walking. Keep praising Him as you head for home. You are not alone: You have the Holy Spirit as your Guide, Advocate and loving Companion. If He sends, He defends. Stand on that.

Where To Now?

In studying Jonah, you probably noticed that we did not get a nice, tidy “Hollywood ending.” Jonah didn’t pull it together at the last minute. He didn’t become the strong man of God and strode mightily back into Nineveh. We don’t get to catch a glimpse of him as the Mighty Prophet of God admonishing the people about God’s righteousness. No, we see God having the last word, and we will never know Jonah’s reaction.

Kind of like real life, huh?

We don’t always get a Hollywood ending ourselves. We slip back. We have to relearn again and again about the grace of God. We pray and sometimes we receive answers. Sometimes we receive what we perceive as inadequate answers.

It may take years for His fruit to be evident in our lives.

Sometimes we drown in self-pity. We get bored with ourselves, and we go out and create some new chaos in our lives, to add to the chaos that we were running from in the first place.

We try to repent, only to fall prey to the sin again. And again.

Let Jonah inspire you. He was truly a work in progress. God certainly wasn’t finished with him by the end of the story. He is certainly not done with you or me either.

What is directing our lives? Is it our fear or our faith? Sometimes we have to consciously choose faith. If we just left our choice up to how we feel, fear will probably win out.

Sometimes our fear is a really a deep belief that at some point evil will come and overtake us, and we can’t escape. We will not be hucked up on shore somewhere, praising God and picking seaweed out of our hair. We will slowly be digested in that dark place, disappearing molecule by molecule until there is nothing left.

Jesus calls to us and says, “Take heart! I have overcome the world.” What did He overcome? Fear. Death. Loneliness. Isolation. Rejection. We follow Him, and He leads by example. Even when we are in the dark, He is still leading.

In Psalm 22, David writes from the darkest place imaginable: he is in tremendous pain, suffering and is beset by fear. He starts out with the most anguished cry imaginable: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” When you are in the depths of despair, consider praying this psalm. Jesus did. When He was hanging on the cross, He prayed the first lines from this psalm. He drew comfort from the words, because He knew the whole psalm, and the hopeful message it contained. You can as well.

We left Jonah standing there in that desert, listening to God. Perhaps, later in his life, Jonah hit the road of faith and stayed on it.

Psalm 22 shows us the path that David took from fear to faith. This psalm gave comfort to Jesus. My prayer is it will comfort you as you make your way from fear to faith.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.

David is being utterly honest here. He is crying out, day and night, but feels God is not hearing him. How often have you faced a time when you cried out to God, and feared He was not listening? Maybe that time is now. But, keep walking. David does.

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.
In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

David remembers how faithful God was in the past to His people. How, when His people praise Him, there He dwells. David reflects on the many times God heard His people cry and delivered them. David is remembering the past so he can face the present. Think back: How many times has God delivered you? He has shown Himself to be faithful in the past; His character never changes. Thus, His faithfulness then is His faithfulness now.

But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”

You can see why this psalm so resonated with Jesus. As He hung there on the cross, people mocked Him and taunted Him that if He were truly who He claimed to be, why wasn’t God delivering Him? The same with David and us. People look at our faith and wonder why isn’t God quickly delivering us? We begin to wonder if something is wrong about us. But David addresses that next.

Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.

David proclaims that the Lord has been with him from the very beginning of his life. Why would God abandon him now? David feels alone with no one to help him. But, if God delivered him at birth, why wouldn’t God deliver him now from his trouble? God has been with you along. He knew you and loved you before the foundation of the world. He has not forsaken you even with trouble so near and overwhelming fear engulfing you.

Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.

Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.

But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.

Jesus faced terror as He hung on the cross: the terror of pain, suffering, rejection and scorn. The physical pain was excruciating, but the mental pain was utterly overwhelming. Sometimes it is the pain we are suffering from within that leaves us the most devastated. The body’s wounds may heal, but the pain in our heart takes our breath away. Although David did not suffer upon a cross, the pain in his soul left him shattered.

Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.

David shifts his attention away from pain and fear’s attacks and starts praising the Lord. He knows he can’t deliver himself; he knows only the Lord can and so even in the midst of his suffering, he praises the Lord. The shift is in perspective for David and for us. If we focus solely on our suffering, it crowds out everything from view. If we focus on the Lord and how mighty He is, now our suffering is being compared to His greatness. Our suffering begins to lose its greatness. Our horizon expands in hope as we praise the Lord. David knows that God is not scorning him but listening to his cry. He is drawing hope and comfort from that. Jesus hears your every cry and holds your every tear.

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.

Wow! David’s praise has widened his viewpoint even more. He now celebrates how the Lord is Lord over all. God is good to each person and to each nation that calls upon His name in faith. Those who have suffered will be filled with His Bread and be satisfied. Who is that Bread? The Son of God, Jesus Christ. Upon accepting Him in our heart, we have forgiveness and hope. He has delivered us from sin by His death on the cross, and now He wants to deliver us from the emptiness and hopelessness that is in the world.

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!

Even death cannot separate us from the love of God. The cross where Jesus paid our debt allows us to boldly go in to God’s presence to find help in our crisis. God’s faithfulness to us will be celebrated by those who come after us. Our lives, our suffering, our victory becomes part of a larger story: His Story. Even death will not silence the praises of those who live in Him. The empty tomb shouts victory for us as we walk in faith. If your pain is the darkness of Friday, remember, the light of Sunday morning is coming. Trust Him to carry you through.

David starts in anguish and pain. He moves into a place where he basks in the knowledge of God’s love and goodness. He stands on the promise that God “has done it!”

We need to stand on that promise as well. We stand on the Rock: Jesus Christ Himself, Who dwells in our hearts. The journey from fear to faith is paved with heart-felt and honest prayer, time in His Word and walking every day, holding His nail-scarred hand and trusting every step is in His keeping.    

Another Second Chance: Jonah 4:5-11

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.”

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

But the Lord said, “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 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?” (Jonah 4:5-11)

Now Jonah heads east. If he really believed his words about God’s character, he would have stayed put. Sometimes we say all the right things, and yet when our heart is alienated, we act on our feelings, not what we know to be true. Jonah is removing himself from God’s presence.

He questioned God.

He defied God.

He glorified God. Now?

He avoids God. What happened, Jonah?

He goes outside the city, and makes a shelter and “waited to see what would happen to the city.” (4:5) What is he expecting? How has God’s revelation about sparing the city changed? Jonah is now without direction, and so he sits and waits. God told him that He was going to be merciful, and yet Jonah is acting as if God is going to destroy the city anyway.

Why do we think time will change God’s words to us? If He has spoken, we need to listen and obey, and not assume God is some kind of wishy-washy Father who will change His mind at some point.

God’s unchanging character is a relief when we are looking for a steadfast love and refuge; but when we are sinning, we hope that God will relent, and not take His words so seriously. But, remember, “Jesus is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever.” (Heb. 13:8)

Jonah’s feelings about Nineveh may have a much deeper root in his heart than his knowledge of God’s love. Our fears can sometimes trump the newer truths God is planting in our hearts. Jonah’s prayer inside the whale was sincere (no one can manufacture such heart-felt praise) but now that he’s out, he has fallen back into anger and fear because of God’s acceptance of Israel’s enemy. If Nineveh gets nailed, Jonah need not explore God’s mercy and grace any further.

In Revelation 2:2-5, the church in Ephesus hears this exhortation:

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

This could be a description of our Jonah. He detests wickedness in Nineveh, but he has forgotten his first love: the very Lord he was called to serve. He persevered and emerged from the whale, but he has forgotten his first Love. He is a man called of God, a noble thing to be sure, but he has forgotten his first Love.

Yet, even so, the Lord reaches out again to His error-prone prophet. The shelter Jonah builds is inadequate against the hot sun, so the Lord provides a vine to give Jonah shade.

Whenever we seek to build ourselves a shelter, it is always inadequate. We think we are fine until the hot sun of loneliness, fear, anger or isolation starts beating down on our heads. In fact, the reason for the vine was to “give shade for his head to ease his discomfort.” (4:6)

Jonah is happy about the vine, of course, but where is the song of thanksgiving? Where is the hearty “Thank You, Lord!” for it? He’s just sitting there. He’s alone, but a lot cooler now that the vine has sprung up. Perhaps life isn’t so bad, is it?

Is it?

But God is never content to leave us just as we are. He loves us way too much to leave us sitting out there by ourselves, thinking we’ve got it handled. Did it even occur to Jonah that God sends the vine for his comfort? Or, because his heart is cold, does he just look at it? Is he content not to question its appearance?

Then the Lord sends a worm. It nibbles away at the vine until the vine withers. Even if we are afraid and have good reason to be upset, we are still admonished that in our “anger do not sin.” We are not to “let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” (Eph. 4:26-7)

The sun went down on Jonah’s anger. The Lord was waiting for some kind of thankful response to the vine, showing a softening of Jonah’s heart.

The next day, the wind blows blisteringly hot. This wind is sent not to cool Jonah down after the vine withers, but to get Jonah’s attention. Does Jonah seek the Lord? No. He just wants to die.

How sad. Our life, the most precious gift of all, has no meaning when it is not tethered to God. We lose our purpose and our direction. Sitting out in that desert, Jonah is free to do as he will, but he has no meaning or purpose. The hot wind distresses him not just physically. He’s withering on the inside as well, to the point of wanting to die. He encountered death in the belly of the whale, and when he emerged victorious, how sweet life was!

But now, in the heat of the sun, he wants to die. He displaces his anger onto the vine: 

But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die.” (4:9)

It’s the vine’s fault! How often, in our fear, we seek to blame others for our anger? We resent what has been done to us. The fear that results causes us to stop trying. We crawl under a withered vine, angry and alone. We sit under the sun of resentment for what might have been.

Our fear changes us into someone ugly. We are ugly to others and to ourselves. Jonah is having an ugly moment, blaming the vine and probably if the truth were told, blaming God.

Is he thinking, God failed to punish Israel’s enemy. Israel’s safety is compromised and if anything happens, it will be God’s fault, not mine!

See how blinded Jonah is? He is once again focused on himself, even though we know (just as God does!) that he is quite capable of being obedient. God sees our potential. He still sees Jonah’s, as he sits way out there in the desert.

God knows Jonah’s immediate need, which is shade from a hot sun. God also knows Jonah’s deeper need, which is replacing his fear with an even stronger faith centered on who God is, and not just on what He does. God then lovingly but firmly corrects His prophet:

The vine suited Jonah, for it met his needs, caused no fear and made him the center of his world. He didn’t have to do anything. He just stayed put.

But God wants so much more for us than just staying put. Jonah would have stayed out in the desert for a long time with that cooling vine. We would stay out in the desert, too, for a long time with our fear and anger at how unfair life is. It’s a kind of weird comfort to stay put, seeking no change. Moving out of the desert is hard work. But, if God sends, He defends.

Life is unfair. But there are worms everywhere, nibbling away at our shelters. God is trying to get our attention, showing us that a vine springing up overnight is just a temporary fix. We like to seek out temporary fixes and assume that they will last. They meet our innermost needs and get us though. So, these fixes are just fine. Right?

Wrong.

God sent a worm to remind Jonah of a fundamental truth. God is deeply concerned about wicked people, irresponsible people, good people, so-so people, righteous people, lonely people and angry people.

In other words, God is reaching out to you, to me, to everyone. He so loved the world that He sent His Son. He doesn’t want anyone to perish, although many will choose not to take hold of His nail-scarred hand. He gives us, without reservation, eternal life. It’s an eternal life with Him, without fear, anger, scorching winds in desert, or darkness in the bellies of whales. He offers an eternal life with Him in a place where there are no tears. It’s ours for the asking.

But He also offers an abundant life to us here.

Moses, speaking on God’s behalf, said to the people, after leading them out of Egypt and giving them the Law to live by:

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Deut. 30:19-20)

Jesus said: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10)

Jonah receives a second chance. Again and again. How does our Jonah respond? The narrative ends with God’s questions to Jonah.

We really don’t know how he responds.

How many more whales, worms and winds have to barge into Jonah’s world until he gets it?

What does he need to get?

What do we need to get?

It is this one truth: God’s love is sufficient for us to overcome our own private Nineveh. Sometimes we pray the same prayer of a father who brought an extremely ill son to Jesus, who wanted to believe that Jesus could heal his son, but he was fearful. Jesus tells the man that “‘Everything is possible for him who believes,’ and then the man says, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:23-4)

Jesus also reassures us, as He did His disciples as He was facing His death: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

We follow Jesus. He overcame betrayal, pain and death. He weeps right alongside us when we face our Nineveh. He encourages us each day to trust Him. How will you respond? Your Nineveh may never change, but God calls you out from your rickety, self-made shelter into His care. Paul calmly asserts:

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Cor. 12:9)

The power of Christ in you will affect the change God desires for you. He doesn’t call you to change on your own strength, in your own power. He calls you, fills you, empowers you and sustains you with His Holy Spirit. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to His disciples, not long before His crucifixion:

[T]he Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also… (John 14:17-19)

You are never alone. His Spirit in you sees to that.

How Quickly the Mighty Have Fallen: Jonah 4:1-4

But to Jonah this seemed [God's compassion towards the Ninevites] 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?” (Jonah 4:1-4)

Wait a minute! We stood on the beach with Jonah and watched him catch his breath after his big adventure! We watched him strive mightily into the very gates of hell (as Nineveh might as well have been) and announce God’s impending judgment unless the people repent! Sure as shooting, the people and the king repent, donning sackcloth and ashes and seeking God’s mercy.

We look for Jonah after such a mighty revival! Where is he?

There he goes, making his way out of the city, head bowed and his mind filling every second with…joy? No.

Relief? No.

Praise to God? No.

Anger? Yes.

What?

Your mission is accomplished, Big Boy! You were delivered from death; you sang a song of salvation without reservation; you then did as God commanded you. It is a brilliant success beyond your wildest dreams. Instead of now requesting time with the king to elaborate on the details of living for God, you are walking out of town, quickly heading for the “Nineveh City Limits” sign as fast as your sandaled feet can carry you.

In the first chapter of Jonah, we really did not hear his reasons for running away from God’s call. Perhaps it wasn’t necessary to get the story started.

But here Jonah now elaborates his reasons in great detail, and we respect his honesty. Funny, even though he can now speak with a great conviction about God’s mercy, he is still angry and afraid. He personally experienced God’s grace and compassion. He saw how God’s anger at his disobedience transformed into love and deliverance. The Lord provided a fish and he stayed there until he saw the error of his ways. He realizes the mightiness of God in saving his life.

But now the thought that Israel’s mighty and merciless neighbor, Assyria, might actually come into the fold of God’s favor, shuts Jonah down.[1] He overcame his fear by walking into Nineveh, but was he still secretly hoping that the people and their leader would reject his message? Did he want to sit on the sidelines and watch Nineveh go POOF! under God’s avenging hand?

Jonah’s fear is still clouding and distorting his judgment. If God is powerful, mighty, loving, and compassionate (as Jonah admits), could anything, including an enemy nation coming into the fold, actually deter God away from His precious Israel?

Let’s look at how Heaven sees repentance. We lose the joy we might otherwise have, when, instead of rejoicing over sinners coming into God’s kingdom, we somehow think that God’s love can be diminished towards us if He is paying attention to others. God’s goal is to bring His wandering children, whoever they are, into His embrace.

Jesus often taught in parables about repentance and how Heaven responds. He talks of a shepherd who leaves his ninety-nine sheep to seek out the one sheep that wandered off, and then calls his friends in to rejoice with him. How does Heaven respond? 

"I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:4-7)

Jesus talks of a woman who turns her house upside down to find a lost coin and then calls her friends in to rejoice with her. Heaven’s response? 

“In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:8-10)

While Jesus is teaching the people with these parables, they are largely aimed at the Pharisees who are muttering about Jesus associating with what they call “sinners.” These leaders resent that Jesus reaches out to the lowly, the dirty, the uneducated, and the outcasts—the very ones that the leaders look down on with such disdain. The behavior of the unwashed masses disgusts them.

It is not just the people’s behavior that Jesus is seeking to change. He wants changed hearts for all of His listeners, including the religious leaders. With changed hearts, people will seek to please God. But the Pharisees lost sight of the heart-change element. The sinful behavior in others led to an ever-growing self-righteousness in them. Consequently, an ever-growing distance between themselves and the masses developed.

Jesus then goes on in this passage from Luke 15 about a prodigal son. He tells how, after squandering everything by his wild ways, this younger son comes back to his father, sincerely repenting and willing to face his father’s chastisement. The father instead throws him a party.

The interesting part is the reaction of the older son. Although obedient to his father, the older son is disgusted by how much attention the father has lavished on this despicable son. He seems to believe that the father’s love couldn’t be expansive enough to love both sons. The father reminds the older son that all the father has is his and that everyone needs to rejoice over the lost son.

The older son, who has grown cold over time towards his father and hasn’t availed himself to his father’s grace, now feels jealous and angry towards his younger brother. He wouldn’t and couldn’t rejoice in his younger sibling’s change.

If we do not feel God’s grace in our lives, we are far less willing to be gracious with others. We grow jealous of God’s expansive love towards others because we are growing cold in our heart towards God.

The Pharisees, because of their cold hearts, shut out God’s grace. Consequently, they are not willing to extend it to others. They may have wondered why God is paying attention to sinners when He should be watching them as they diligently follow His law.

The mission of the Old Testament prophets was to call the people to repentance and restoration. God calls His own first, the children of Israel, but He also calls out to the nations who don’t know Him.

Why has Jonah lost sight of God’s grace so quickly? Even Jonah admits that God’s love is boundless. What’s going on here?

Jesus tells a parable about a king who wants to settle accounts with his servants. He calls forward a servant who owes him a huge debt. The servant begs the king for mercy. The king cancels the debt, and lets the servant go.  The servant promptly goes and finds one of his fellow servants who owes him a measly amount. The man is angry and starts to choke his fellow servant. He then has him thrown into prison, ignoring the other’s pleas for mercy and patience. The king finds out and is furious.

He says to the first servant:

Then the master called the servant in. "You wicked servant," he said, "I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?" (Matt. 18:32-33)

Where’s Jonah in all this? He was disobedient to God by ignoring His call. He is swallowed up by the whale and then is mercifully delivered. He is like the servant whose huge debt is forgiven. Why? Because the servant met personally with the king, and likewise, Jonah has a personal relationship with God. He is one of the Chosen People, a man of the nation of Israel. The other servant in the parable did not meet personally with the king; similarly, the people of Nineveh have not yet received the full revelation of the one true God. So, this intimate contact with God makes Jonah, like the servant who is punished severely at the end of the parable, more accountable, and thus in deeper trouble for his disobedience.

The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel says that God does not take delight in the death of wicked people. He would much rather have them repent and live:  

"But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die. None of the offenses they have committed will be remembered against them. Because of the righteous things they have done, they will live. Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?" declares the Sovereign Lord. "Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live... (18:21-24)

Jonah has slipped into sinful thinking about how God should not accept the people of Nineveh. They are just too evil! He should destroy them. If He extends mercy to Israel’s enemies (those sinners!) then Jonah would rather die.[2]

Even people who have felt God’s mighty hand of deliverance can slip into such sinful thinking. Why? Because, like the prodigal son’s older brother, they think they are entitled to some kind of special treatment because of how good they have been, compared to others. They see God as having let them down in some way. They then decide to go their own way.

Jonah’s fears are understandable. Your fears are understandable. Don’t allow those fears to pave the way toward sinful reactions. In an odd way, the belly of the whale was a kind of safe place for Jonah. He had no one else to lean on but the Lord Himself. Sometimes in the depths of our suffering, we feel the Lord’s presence in such an intimate way that we are astonished.

Once we find ourselves on shore again, delivered by God’s mighty hand, we forget God’s mercy towards us. We may start remembering the sins of others, the sins against us, and our fear may drive us back into thinking sinful things. Or worse, doing sinful things. We can quickly forget the power of God:

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. (Heb. 12:14-15 KJV)

Alienation from God, even if we have been wronged, can lead us to shrivel up, and a root of bitterness will grow around our hearts, leaving us vulnerable to sin. How often do we lose sight of God because we are not seeking to live for Him and then, over time, we have a harder and harder time seeing Him?

When we lose sight of God and His grace, we feel estranged from Him. Then if we see someone else basking in the light of His goodness, we grow angry and murmur about how God has blessed that person and He has left us out. Psalm 43:3-5 shows us the right direction of where to put our energy:

Send me your light and your faithful care,
     let them lead me;
     let them bring me to your holy mountain,
     to the place where you dwell.
Then I will go to the altar of God,
     to God, my joy and my delight.
I will praise you with the lyre,
     O God, my God.
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
     for I will yet praise him,
     my Savior and my God.

God encounters us with the same question that He posed to Jonah: “Have you any right to be angry?”

When He extends His hand graciously, and tells you, “Everything I have is yours,” and your heart responds coldly as you walk away from Him, ask yourself this question: If you feel distant from God, guess who moved?






[1] NIV Study Bible, note on Jonah 4:3

[2] NIV Study Bible, note on Jonah 4:3

Score One for the Home Team: Jonah 3:1-10

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. (Jonah 3:1-10) 

Matthew Henry makes a very interesting observation: “An apprehension [understanding] of God’s good-will to us, not withstanding our offenses, gives us boldness of access to him, and opens the lips in prayer that were closed with the sense of guilt and the dread of wrath.” [1]   

That is our Jonah.  He is so grateful for God and His mercy that he boldly sings and praises God inside the whale.  Once he stands on shore, picking seaweed out of his hair, he is filled with sheer joy.  Isaiah 40:27-31 puts this confidence beautifully:

Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
     the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
     and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
     and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
     and young men stumble and fall;
     but those who hope in the Lord
     will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
     they will run and not grow weary,
     they will walk and not be faint. 

It is God’s character, Who He is, that Isaiah is able to be confident in, for He created the universe in all its majesty.  He alone gives strength to His weakened ones. It is also hope.  It is not any hope, floating around out there, but hope in the One Who made the eagles and the wind that they soar upon.  He will lift His children up.  Isaiah reminds God’s people of His immeasurable love for them:

But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
     the Lord has forgotten me.”
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
     and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
     I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
     your walls are ever before me.

Isaiah mentions how God has “engraved you on the palms” of His hands.  Have you ever considered that Jesus, in His resurrected body, still bears the scars of His crucifixion?  Why is that? 

Thomas, one of His disciples, could not fathom how Jesus could rise from the dead in the first place.  He demands that “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe it.” (John 20:25 )

So, when Jesus appears to His disciples, He specifically says to Thomas (He knows what Thomas said earlier), “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”  Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:27-8)

So, when you are welcomed into Heaven, Jesus will reach out and embrace you with those nail-scarred hands. When He looks down at those scars, He thinks of you, and the love that drove Him to die for you.  When you consider those scars, never doubt that God loves you.

Jonah, standing on the beach, with the sun overhead and the wind drying out his hair, can now personally confirm the words of David:  “I am still confident of this:  I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (Ps. 27:13-14 NIV) 

Our Jonah is now a walking testimony about the power of the one true God.  He stands there, mighty not because of who he is (fish food, if the truth be told!) but because he is a child of the God.  Period.   

David implores God for deliverance not only for himself (he would certainly rather not perish at the hands of his enemies) but as a testimony to God’s power: 

Lord, see how my enemies persecute me!
Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death,
     that I may declare your praises
     in the gates of Daughter Zion,
     and there rejoice in your salvation. (Ps. 9:13-14)

David knew his enemies were formidable.  But if he prevailed, it would demonstrate the mightiness and matchlessness of his God.  Likewise, Jonah cannot claim he had anything to do with his deliverance.  It was truly a God-thing.  Jonah’s deliverance makes him a walking message.  I am sure that word got around about this man of God whose disobedience caused a storm and then once in the ocean, an enormous fish swallowed him.  Away went the storm.  Ditto for Jonah.

Sailors get around and so do their stories. The sailors went to many ports of call and their story of the man from Israel got told over and over again.  Unlike other fish stories, this fish started out huge! 

Jonah, like David, is going to be a witness to God’s greatness by his very presence and words.  David saw his deliverance as an opportunity to praise God and then tell of His greatness: 

I will sacrifice a thank offering to you
     and call on the name of the Lord.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
     in the presence of all his people,
     in the courts of the house of the Lord—
     in your midst, Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord.

The method of how Jonah will reach the people of Nineveh was never really hammered out, due to that little detour into the whale’s stomach.  Now we see that “Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.” (3:3)

God calls him again.  This time, Jonah listens and obeys. 

Quite a 180-degree turn from the man who couldn’t book a passage on a ship away from Nineveh fast enough.  Quite a difference from the man who was so afraid that he was willing to ignore God. What changed? 

Nineveh hasn’t changed one bit.  It’s still huge, scary and very heathen, with its violent armies and nasty kings.  Jonah’s attitude has changed.  He is no longer afraid.  His reputation precedes him.

I see him walking up to a city gate of Nineveh, looking like a fish out of water (pun intended!) because he’s a Hebrew in a pagan city. He boldly walks in and announces:  “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” (3:4) 

I am sure that the people around him stopped dead in their tracks.  Jonah is standing there, in the hot sun, looking like a man who has stood the test of his character and prevailed.  He repented of his disobedience and God restored him. God is now using him to reveal His truths through Jonah’s mouth and very presence.

It’s funny how God works in and through us.  He seeks our repentance, then our restoration and then He uses us for His revelation. 

Our fear leads us to disobedience.  We ignore God and His hand on our lives. Once we turn from ourselves to His power, we now center ourselves on His strength.  We can solely depend on Him.  We choose to obey Him.  Now we know that His ways lead to life, and our ways lead to darkness.  We are relying on the hope of His mercy and His strength.

Our lives are now a God-thing. 

As Matthew Henry puts it in his commentary, “God’s making use of us is the best evidence of his being at peace with us.”[2] He goes on to observe: 

"Hope of mercy is the great encouragement and reformation; and though there be but some glimmerings of hope mixed with great fears arising from a sense of our own sinfulness, and unworthiness, and long abuse of divine patience, yet they may serve to quicken and engage our serious repentance and reformation.  Let us boldly cast ourselves at the footstool of free grace, resolving that if we should perish, we will perish there; yet who knows but God will look upon us with compassion?" [3] 

He does!  Jonah can testify to that!  Look at Nineveh’s reaction:  “The Ninevites believed God.”  

What makes the people stand up and repent?  Is it the man standing before them?  Is it the power of his voice?  Is it the Power behind his voice?  Is it that big fish story? 

We don’t know, but they put feet to their repentance.  They declare a fast and everyone puts on the visible signs of repentance: sackcloth and ashes.

Then the king hears the news, takes off all of his royal apparel and dons sackcloth and ashes as well.  Whoa.  This is serious.  While Jonah was in the belly of the whale, the Lord wasn’t just working on Jonah’s heart.  He was working on the hearts of the people and the King of Nineveh as well! 

Remember I said that if God sends, He defends?  Part of the defense He is laying out for you is preparing the very path He is calling you to walk.  How does He prepare the path?  He softens the hearts of the listeners.  He allows them to see the situation with a new perspective.  Maybe there is that one person who no longer can stand how thirsty he or she is and you arrive with a cup of water just in time.  If you had come earlier, that person wouldn’t have felt that thirst so acutely and would have refused to listen to you.

Is the repentance of the people and the king sincere?  Perhaps it’s a case of “no atheists in foxholes.” They don’t want to perish, and they are placing their bets on this man from Israel and his God.  I believe in God’s timing: Jonah delivers the message and they repent.  That seems to be the way of Scripture.  How long will the message’s impact stick?  In other words, how long will the people stay repentant and walk in the knowledge of God?  Good question! 

This king knows exactly what he and the people must do:  repent and change their behavior.  These people have a reputation for violence.  Their enemies tremble at the very name of the Assyrians.  I am sure battles weren’t even fought because other kings didn’t want to face the Assyrian army. 

The king is giving up more than words here.  He is giving up his nation’s reputation and its fearful control over the region.  He is also challenging his people to ponder their evil ways.  Jonah is ready to share with them exactly what they need to do to stop acting in a manner abhorrent to God. 

God never just says “Stop being evil!” and then walks away.  In the Old Testament, He sends His prophets to elaborate on exactly what the evil is and how righteousness is to be practiced.  His prophets proclaim God’s holy character, which provides the basis for His laws. 

God’s holy laws are an extension of Himself.  Do not lie, for God does not lie, for only truth and justice fall from His lips. 

Do not murder, for God does not engage in murder.  Life is sacred, for God breathed into the very nostrils of Adam His own holy breath, and mankind bears His image. 

Do not commit adultery, for God is ever faithful to His people.    

Honor your parents, for honor undergirds respect.  We are to respect our ultimate Parent, our Heavenly Father. [4]    

In teaching the people about the righteous ways of God, the prophets teach them about His very nature.  God’s behavior is not distinct from His character. He truly practices what He preaches, and preaches what He practices.  This prophet, Jonah, will bear witness to this.  The king is seeking now to imitate the nature of the God of Israel by practicing His ways. The king seems to understand the connection between God’s justice and His mercy:  “God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” (3:9) 

The king is carefully listening to Jonah’s teaching about God.  Now, looking within, the king thinks:  If I want my people to cease from their bad ways, I warn them first.  I then wait to see what they will do.  If they continue in their disobedience, I pronounce judgment upon them and punish them.  If I see change, then I stay my mighty hand, and honor my word to be merciful. Thus, I will presume that this God of Jonah will behave in a similar manner.  He will warn us and wait for our response.  Good call, king.

God, acting as the Mighty King, does just that:  He sees their repentance, how “they turned from their evil ways” and His compassionate Hand stretches forth.  Destruction is averted. 

But, wait!  This just in:

And now, ladies and gentlemen, back down on the field at the Nineveh Bowl!  As a cheer goes up from the crowd, we celebrate the score for our Home Team!  Go Nineveh!  Everyone is patting each other on the back and shouting, “Good job!”

But wait, what is this?  I see a man leaving the stadium.  Just a minute!  Hey, let’s get a close-up. Who is that?  Wait!  It’s that man from Israel!  The Mighty Fish Boy! Is he walking out of the arena to buy some fish and chips?  No!  He appears to be stomping out of the stadium! He looks furious!  What is going on?   All right, back to you up in the stands…

---

[1] Henry, p. 1179

[2] Henry, p. 1179.

[3] Henry, p. 1179.

[4]  Del Tackett, The Truth Project, (Colorado Springs, Col: Focus on the Family, 2008), http://www.thetruthproject.org.

"School of Hard Knocks" Diploma--Jonah 2: 8-10, Part II

Once you seek wholeness in the Lord, your resolve will be tested.  Along the Monterey Coast in California are the wonderful Monterey cypresses. They grow on the edge of the steep coastal cliffs, and instead of tall and erect like their fellow inland cypresses, they are bent away from the ocean, due to the high winds that pummel the coast.  Their very character has been shaped by the winds, and although they bend to the winds, they do not break. 

Jonah’s character has been shaped by his experience.  The winds will come. The Lord calls him a second time to go to Nineveh and preach His word.  But he won’t be afraid this time.  He has seen the mightiness of the Lord and has experienced His discipline.

Wait! His discipline?  How can that be beneficial?  It’s painful!  Look at James’ take on discipline: 

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.  But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That man should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. (1:1-8) 

Perseverance is hanging in there through the tough times and it will grow your character.  What is this growth going to produce?  It produces maturity and completeness.  God’s discipline is to produce maturity and completeness in your character, so you can face life with confidence, not in yourself, but in Him alone. 

Teenagers are so challenging because they think they know enough to live life without any more guidance from their parents.  Their lack of wisdom, largely due to a lack of experience, and sometimes an unwillingness to learn from their mistakes, leads to the opposite of what parents want for their children: maturity. 

A mature attitude is truly wonderful.  It saves a person much heartache, for the decisions reached and acted on produce positive results, and keeps the person from negative consequences.

I once heard a high school girl tell her classmates about a night that forever changed her life.  She and some friends were drinking, and they decided to drive over to another friend’s house.  She was the driver, and was having trouble seeing the road, due to all the dust that was being kicked up by the cars in front of her. Her friend offered to drive, and although this girl hesitated, she finally said yes.

A few miles up the road, the new driver didn’t see the turn, and the truck flipped over and crashed, ejecting the driver from the vehicle and killing her.  I admired this young woman’s courage to share her story in front of her classmates, telling of a fateful decision. 

I looked around the room and wondered: How many of these students are actually taking her message to heart?  A few moments earlier I heard a few young men talk boastfully about their drinking exploits.  Did they really hear her?  Or did they assume that they would not make that mistake because they could handle their booze?

Wisdom comes from a humble heart, and if God has to discipline us to achieve that humility, you bet He will, for the consequences from arrogance can be deadly. 

Finally, let’s look at the Bible’s words on discipline, so that we understand God’s motives for His chastening hand on our lives.  Psalm 71:19-21 says,

Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,
     you who have done great things.
Who is like you, God?
Though you have made me see troubles,
     many and bitter,
     you will restore my life again;
      from the depths of the earth
     you will again bring me up.
You will increase my honor
     and comfort me once more.

Do you hear what psalmist is saying?  It is because of God’s character, His love and His goodness, that he knows that he is not suffering at the hands of an evil tyrant.  God will lift him up in due time.  Salvation is on the way. 

David asks pleadingly of God in Psalm 6:1-4,  

O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger
     or discipline me in Your wrath.
Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am faint.
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are in agony.
My soul is in anguish.
How long, O Lord, how long?
Turn, O Lord, and deliver me;

     save me because of Your unfailing love.

David knows he can ask for mercy and deliverance and he will be heard.  Why? God’s character is an utterly righteous character.      

Satan always tries to assassinate God’s character when we go through suffering.  Satan insinuates God doesn’t love you anymore, you’re past His forgiveness, and He doesn’t care. The satanic list of accusations is endless.  Remember:  it’s hard to argue with Satan.  He’s been around a long time, and he is an expert in the art of deceitful persuasion. 

So, go to the Psalms when you go through trials.  David and his fellow writers plead to God in their hurt and in their anger.  They always, however, reaffirm His character.  They make their appeals based on Who He is.  

In other words, you wouldn’t plead with someone who you know is incapable of mercy or love.  We plead to Him because He cares.  Period. 

David affirms in Psalm 25:8-12, 

Good and upright is the Lord;
     therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right
     and teaches them his way.
All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful
     toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.
For the sake of your name, Lord,
     forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
Who, then, are those who fear the Lord?
He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.

I love how David puts it in verse 15:  “My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only He will release my feet from the snare.”  Bingo!  Not clinging to his fear, David keeps his focus on his Deliverer, even though the going gets rough.  

The writer of Hebrews echoes this as well: 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? (12:1-7) 

The writer of Hebrews then goes on to say that God disciplines us:

[F]or our good that we might share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (12:10-11)

When we’re vomited up on the beach, we now carry a badge of honor. We have been disciplined by our loving God.

God is looking to our future and the fruit we have yet to produce.

Our fear keeps us bound to the past and what we have miserably produced.

His eyes are on our future. His eyes are on what we will be. 

What is our part in all of this? We need to humbly seek His wisdom. Once we’ve know what He wants us to do, we need to be obedient and do it.

Don’t sit on the sand.  Pick the seaweed out of your hair.  Rise up and move forward.  

Nineveh awaits.  

Grab your diploma from the School of Hard Knocks on the way out!  You’ve earned it. 

A Little (Easter) Bunny Trail with Jonah and Jesus

When we read Jonah, we see how God wants to restore this sin-soaked planet. He calls His reluctant prophet, who is justifiably horrified at the people he's supposed to go and share the love of Yahweh with: the Ninevites.  Jonah is just fine with God working in and through His chosen ones, but THOSE PEOPLE?  C'mon, Lord, they are beyond the pale; they pillage, murder and stack up their enemies' skulls with impunity.  Yuck. 

But God's kingdom class both the oppressed and the oppressor:

Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed— and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors— and they have no comforter. (Eccles. 4:1)

God desires to see all come to repentance: 

Say to them, "As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’" (Ezek. 33:11) 

Jesus makes it clear the order of God's salvation plan: 

You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. (John 4:22)

Paul echoes it: 

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. (Rom. 1:16)

Jonah does not grasp the inclusivity of God's plan, for he is judging the behavior of a pagan people, not seeing them as fellow sinners, as part of the human family who desperately need the touch of Yahweh.   

What I love about the Scriptures is when you've read verses in the past and they suddenly jump out at you with a freshness and an urgency. I am reading through a chronological Bible these days. It fits how I think.  I am an unabashed history nerd, and so having the Scripture unfold in historical order (some interpretation is necessary, to be sure), I can better understand the trajectory of God's salvation story. 

I am reading Jonah now in this Bible (this blog comes from a study I did some time ago) and some familiar verses popped out! We just passed the momentous celebration of Easter.  We look once more  into the empty tomb and see what the apostles saw: He is not here! He is risen!  We also run to share this news about our risen Savior! 

So, when I read these verses, I realized just how much Jonah's experience echoes what Jesus is going to experience in His impending death. 

In Jesus' day, people knew their Hebrew Scriptures, and when they heard a small portion of Scripture, they could hear the rest of it in their minds.  The Pharisees were especially well-versed (pun intended) in knowing the larger context in which the verses were set. 

So, imagine the scene.  The Pharisees have asked Jesus for a sign. Jesus compares the tomb He will be laid in to the "belly of a huge fish."  The tomb will be in the "heart of the earth."  They get the implication Jesus is making between Jonah's experience and His own: He will not remain in the grip of death. 

Hmmmm.    

Let's set the scene from Matthew 12:38-41:

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here."

Let me humbly insert some verses from Matthew and the Psalms into Jonah's time in the belly of the whale that echo Jesus' coming death and resurrection. The Pharisees know the verses from this portion of Jonah and will be greatly disturbed by Jesus' not-so-subtle comparison. 

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said:

"In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.

"Then he said to them, 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.'" (Matt. 26:38) 

You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
I said, "I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple."

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” (Matt. 12:42)

The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.

"From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?' (which means 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?')." (Matt. 27:45) 

But you, Lord my God,

brought my life up from the pit.

"For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, you will not allow your holy one to experience corruption." (Psalm 16:10)

When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.

"Jesus answered, 'Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up.'” (John 2:19)

Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.

"The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you.” (Matt. 28:5-7)

I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus [the LORD saves], for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21)

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (2:1-10)

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt. 28:16-20) 

Jonah exited the fish.

Jesus will exit the tomb. 

We will, like Jonah, are directed to preach the good news:  Salvation is open to all.