God saw what they did; he saw that they had given up their wicked behaviour. So he changed his mind and did not punish them as he had said he would.
There was a young dedicated but rather reserved Christian girl reading her Bible on the metro. A pushy loud mouthed man sat down next to her and confronted her about the Bible. He asked, “Do you believe everything in the Bible?” And she said, “Yes, I do.” He kept on, “You mean to tell me you believe that Jonah lived for three days in the belly of a whale?”
The girl answered, “Yes.” The man persisted, "Well then how do you explain that?” The young woman answered, “I can't, but I believe it.” The man became more agitated and said. “Lady, you should be able to explain whatever you believe!”
The young woman then said, “I don't know exactly how Jonah survived but I'll ask him when I get to heaven.” Then sarcastically, the man asked, “And what if Jonah didn't make it to heaven?” And she replied, “Then you can ask him.”
The story about Jonah and the big fish has always been a favourite with children. It has something of a fairy tale quality about it. It’s a story that appeals to the imagination. Last week the periscopes dealt with the call of little Samuel, Philip, and Nathaniel, Abraham, Moses, David and many others were called to follow and they did.
This is a story about Jonah, Jonah is one of God’s most reluctant prophets. He is instructed to go to Nineveh – that hated, despised, Near Eastern super power that had caused so much suffering in Israel
.Ancient Nineveh was the capital of Babylon - modern-day Iraq. God's instruction to Jonah was to go and rescue the people of Nineveh from God’s pending judgment. By nature we are not gracious or generous with our enemies. No wonder Jonah wanted no part of that. Jonah says in effect that he would rather die than go to Nineveh.
There is no point in going to Nineveh because no one would listen, in fact he is more than likely to be kidnap or being blown up by a suicide bomber on a donkey, the risk is too high. The people of Nineveh were godless and wicked so why should he speak to them about God?
They only deserved God’s ultimate condemnation, and eternal punishment. Why should he try to give them a second chance? Besides, people like that don’t change. Yet God, as he often does, persists. Jonah attempts to ignore the call of God, in fact he tries to get as far away from God as he can. So he boards a ship for Tarshish, a sailing the opposite direction, but during a storm he is thrown overboard by the terrified sailors.
On his way to the bottom of the sea and to certain death, Jonah is swallowed by a big fish and in the belly of this fish Jonah relents. After three days Jonah is coughed up head over heels on this Mediterranean sandy shore. He cleans himself up and reluctantly goes to Nineveh, believing all the time that this is a big waste of time.
Jonah walks through this large city calling out a simple message. “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!” There is no call to repentance, no message of God’s love, only a threat. It seems as if Jonah is making his message as offensive and as blunt as he possibly can. And was looking for a negative reaction – a reaction of disbelief and rejection from the people of Nineveh.
Something he could throw back at God, by saying ah ha!! I told you so, that this good for nothing people will never change. But then a miracle happens. The entire city from the king down to the poorest peasant believed God’s message. Even the sheep and cattle are involved.
Everyone wears sackcloth and ashes and prays that God will not destroy them. Can you imagine Jonah’s surprise and shock? In spite of his reluctance, despite of his half-hearted attempt at speaking God’s message, regardless of his lousy attitude that the people of Nineveh weren’t worth it, and apart from his rather poor sermon, the whole city falls on its knees in repentance and prayer.
In fact, we are told that it took three days to walk through Nineveh from one side to the other and Jonah had only walked for one day. Most of the city hadn’t even heard Jonah’s message personally, perhaps hearing it only from neighbours and friends. Yet the response is overwhelming. Jonah’s half-hearted efforts resulted in Nineveh’s wholehearted response. Jonah was wrong. People like that do change. The one person in the whole story who found it difficult to change was Jonah himself.
Reading on further in the book of Jonah we find that he becomes angry and disgusted with God’s whole attitude in this affair. Jonah becomes angry because God is not angry enough to destroy Nineveh. Jonah wanted justice not grace, punishment not forgiveness, damnation and not redemption. What are we to make of this whole story about Jonah? As I said at the beginning this Hebrew scripture story makes a great story for children but what message does God want to convey to us this morning? We are not different from Jonah, same attitude exist in society today an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Most importantly this is a story of God’s love and mercy. Look how often God was patient with the hard-headed and ignorant Jonah. If it were up to us we would have given up on Jonah long ago. We would have come to the conclusion that he will never change, he is too wrapped up in his own ideas and his own world that he will never change.Rightfully God should have dealt to Jonah what Jonah expected God to do to the people of Nineveh right! But notice how God comes back to Jonah again and again. He doesn’t give up. He is patient with Jonah’s half-hearted effort in delivering his message, and to top it all off God hangs in there when Jonah becomes angry with God saying, “I knew it! I knew it!”
I knew you would be loving and merciful. I knew you that go back on what you said and save the people of Nineveh! God was trying to convince Jonah that he loved the people of Nineveh as much as anyone else. His common grace is for all.
God hasn’t changed one bit from the days of Jonah. You and I know how frustrated and impatient we can get with other people. The way we hurt the people around us through our lack of consideration and the way we hurt God with our sin must leave him upset and offended.
And yet God doesn’t let this get in the way of his love and mercy and, like God did for Jonah, God comes back to us again and again wanting us to love him, trust him and turn our lives around from self-centredness and sin to lives of love, and patience, acceptance, and, understanding.
Just as God spoke his word through Jonah, as poor and inadequate as that was, he speaks to us through the pages of Scripture, through other people, through parents, neighbours, and friends, calling us to trust him and believe in him as the God who loved us so dearly that he gave us his Son, as our Saviour.
Jesus came at Christmas, born not in a private hospital with nurses on hand to ensure his safe arrival, but in a cattle shed. From his earliest days on this earth, he was hated and hunted down by the jealous King Herod. He lived in this world and endured hunger, pain, thirst, sadness and death that he would not have endured had he stayed in heaven. But He did it all for us.
He loves us, loves us, and loves us more and will do anything to ensure that we will have a place with him in the life to come. That’s how God felt about the people of Nineveh and grumpy old Jonah. That’s the way God feels about you and me! But I don’t want to give you the impression that God is an old softie and that he will never condemn anyone far from the truth.
He does! There is accountability: to whom much is given, much will be required. And those who insist that believing and trusting in God is nonsense and is for the uneducated, will one day face God to answer. We will be accountable for the choices we make. God has given us every opportunity to trust in his love for us and still people make choices to turn their backs on him.
Finally, the other point that I wish to bring out of this story is that people can change, and people do change. I am not the same person I was 25 –30 years ago, Yes! I am not the same person I was last year, for good or ill people do change. There are those who say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Some who say, I’ve lived without God, Jesus, and the church for all these years, I can’t change now.
Others, even those in the church say, “I’ve lived with this hatred for so long I can’t stop,” or “my sexual sins, my compulsive gambling, my overuse of alcohol (or whatever) are so much a part of my life I could never stop,” or “I can’t help being rude and unkind to that person.”
A counsellor of many years once said that the one thing he had learned in counselling people with problems is that “People almost never change. Change, real change, is seldom.” Perhaps this counsellor was having a bad day when he said that. Perhaps he was like Jonah - not believing that God has the power to bring about change in the lives and hearts of people.
To me this is where faith comes in.
The first words Jesus preached were “turn away from your sin and believe.” They are as relevant to us today as they were when they were first spoken. When we take God seriously, don't be surprised if he makes some radical and risky changes in our lives.
People Do Change With God’s Help
Amen.
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
January 22, 2006