Double Jeopardy

BY GRANT MARSHALL

Jonah 1 The word of Adonai came to Yonah the son of Amitai: ² “Set out for the great city of Ninveh, and proclaim to it that their wickedness has come to my attention.”

³ But Yonah, in order to get away from Adonai, prepared to escape to Tarshish. He went down to Yafo, found a ship headed for Tarshish, paid the fare and went aboard, intending to travel with them to Tarshish and get away from Adonai.

The telling of Jonah, who was considered among the minor prophets, is considered to have been written around 850BC and centres around the story of YHVH’s will to save the city of Nineveh. Jonah is first mentioned

The word of YHVH calls Nineveh ‘a great city’. But why is Nineveh so great and why is YHVH sending them a prophet from such a great distance?

Ninevah plays an important part in eschatology. The city is mentioned in the prophecy found in Luke 11:²⁹And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, "This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. ³⁰For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. ³¹The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. ³²The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

Ninevah, in the prophecy, represents a nation far off, that repents before the Lord. Ninevah Jesus does not recount the historical context of Ninevah here, but only that she repented on hearing Jonah's preaching.

The conjoining of both Jonah's actions and the response of the Ninevites is a lesson for the church in this generation. It's important to bear this in mind as you read through this message.

Jonah, son of Amittai is first mentioned in 2Kings 14:25. Now, let’s look at Jonah’s response and the message we must learn from it. Jonah’s immediate response to God’s command is to run away. He gets into a boat heading for the distant land of Tarshish; a storm besets the crew, and they all begin to pray to their own gods. Jonah does not pray to any god; he decides to fall asleep. He is awakened by the captain and told to pray to his god.

Jonah remains quiet. The sailors cast lots, and Jonah is identified as the problem.

Jonah tells the men that he is a Hebrew and that he worships the God of Israel. At this, the men become terrified. To calm the storm, Jonah suggests that they throw him overboard. Jonah wants to get as far away from the task given to him as possible, even hoping that death would release him from the mission. However, what happens is a series of events that highlight for us the things that happen when we refuse to obey God or delay our responses. God says to Jonah that Nineveh is a wicked city — perhaps knowing this, Jonah was overcome with fear of what might befall him. Nonetheless, his actions placed the lives of the crew in jeopardy. Not wanting to kill Jonah, they tried to row to land; however, the storm grew stronger. They ask that God not judge them for throwing Jonah overboard. The moment Jonah is hurled into the raging sea, the storm calms. Jonah’s salvation comes in the form of a great fish. Whilst inside the fish, Jonah sees the error of his ways and repents before God. He is left to ponder in the fish's belly for three days..

After being purged out of the fish, Jonah, makes his way to the great city. We are told of the city's size and later of its population, but we are still unaware of its importance to God.

It takes three days to cross the city and on the first day of the hearing of the message, that in forty days the city will be destroyed, the population respond to the warning and repent. The king of Nineveh declares a fast for all living things, man and beast.

God holds back His judgement and Nineveh is saved. Jonah’s fear and disobedience placed the sailors and the whole of the city in jeopardy, and that is the message we learn. Refraining from obeying God, puts the lives of many in the balance. It is important to note that God did not send a local prophet; He sent a Jewish one from afar off. Maybe the journey for Jonah was a step too far, certainly his task seemed so.

When God asks us to do something, we have the propensity to procrastinate and devise schemes on how we should go about the task. This is delaying the response and is like Jonah in the boat. We devise plans that others can be brought on board, and when things don't work out as they should, it leaves everyone wondering what the problem is and perhaps who is to blame.

Jonah never prayed to God to get him out of the problem; he left others to do that. Sometimes, we can be the problem, but God’s grace allows us to seek wisdom in finding that out. Our disobedience and delay can place others in jeopardy. God could have chosen someone else, but He asked Jonah and he had to be taught a lesson. Jonah’s repentance acknowledges the will of God, and he knows he can't get away from that. Jonah placed the destruction of his life into the hands of others. He didn’t even want the responsibility for that. He could have easily thrown himself overboard. We cannot hide from God’s will for us, even if we try to go to depths of the ocean, to deepest parts of the earth. This is represented by the belly of the fish.

Nineveh is saved because Jonah finally obeyed, but that did not sort out the character of the man; he wanted God’s anger to be poured out upon this wicked bunch, but God’s grace is upon this far off town.

Having done the task, God provides Jonah with shade from a vine tree and the next day and removes it when a worm comes to eat it, so that the heat of the sun beats down on Jonah’s head.

Jonah’s response put the lives of 120,000 people who could not tell their right hand from their left in the scales; they were lost, and the line between right and wrong had become blurred. This far-off nation, perhaps part of the diaspora of Israel, were important to YHVH.

Jonah did not ask for time to create a plan or to better himself for the task. Time was running out, and the people were on the verge of a calamity. If we think we are never ready to fulfil the role God has for us, we will never fulfil that role. The work of the Holy Spirit does not rely on the ability of a man, only upon his obedience. We can't wait to be a story to be told, we must be the story.

Through Jonah’s story, we learn about ourselves, the dilemma of struggling with God’s demands and our obedience to him. We learn that, in ourselves, we are vulnerable as worshippers of God, and though we profess to be so, we often refuse to hear Him. We learn that once God places a call on your life and you run from it, many things are put in jeopardy, and we will find ourselves in the mix, often finding why we don't get the answers we pray for and why things seem so difficult. We cannot pass the baton on if we have never held it, and we cannot lead others if we can't discipline ourselves. God’s command to Israel is encompassed in the ‘Shema’, to ‘hear and do’.

Some people will respond immediately to God’s word, and some will delay. Better late than never, some may argue, but time is not in our hands. God gave Nineveh Forty days to respond to its pending judgment. The count began when Jonah entered the city. God had already taken into account Jonah’s response.

Our towns are full of people just like the citizens of Nineveh, not knowing their right hand from their left, not knowing right from wrong. People are lost and perishing, not knowing who they really are, and the church is sitting around devising plans on how to win souls when it is already written down. Jesus taught the fishermen that their ways were futile; yes, they might bring in a small catch, but the big catch comes when we do things in His ways, which always seem to be the opposite of ours. We need to repent, relearn and revise if the revival of a city or nation is at stake. We need to stop devising schemes, return to the charted course, and obey the commander of the hosts of heaven, because we are in battle for souls.