The Naive Evangelist

Jonah chapter 1 through 4 (Concordant Old Testament)

1 The word of Yahweh came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying:
2 Rise! Go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil ascends before Me.
3 Yet Jonah rose to run away to Tarshish from before Yahweh and went down to Joppa. And he found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid its fare and descended into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from before Yahweh.
4 As for Yahweh, He cast forth a great wind to the sea, and a great tempest came on the sea so that the ship was reckoned about to be broken.
5 And the mariners were fearful and cried out, each man to his Elohim. And they cast forth the gear, which was in the ship, into the sea, to make it lightened for them. Yet Jonah had descended into the recesses of the lower deck, and he was lying down, and had fallen into a stupor…….

Of all servants that Yahweh sent in the Old Testament, Jonah was one of the successful evangelists. However, he never realized the importance of the work he was sent to do. Most people may be thinking that Jonah was biased and ungrateful. You may be correct, but you need to understand that past history implicates that Israel did not have cordial relationship with Nineveh. Israel is a country but, in those days, Nineveh was a great city in the land of Assyria.  Around 734-732 BC, Assyria took northern Israel into captivity.  Can you get the picture right? It means that the northern Israel were under the control of the Assyrians for many years.  That was not pleasant. The Assyrians were not following the Ten Commandments. They were not circumcised. Why would Yahweh care about these people?

Here are some points you need to hold dear to your heart this week:

1.       Yahweh’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts towards his creations are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). This is what Jonah did not realize prior and during this assignment.

2.       This means the assignment given to Jonah had nothing to do with whether certain city had to observe Ten Commandments or be circumcised according to the instructions given to Abraham and Abraham’s descendants. More so, Yahweh did not choose the Ninevites but the Israelites. Nineveh was a gentile city.

Why would Yahweh care about this city?

My answer is: Why not? Psalm 100:3 informs us that all human beings are like sheep in this world known as his pasture. The earth belongs to God (Psalm 24:1). His eyes see everything (Proverbs 15:3). This is why he sent Jonah to this city in the first place.

Knowing Yahweh is not enough but understanding him does:

Jonah did not understand that Yahweh is not only meant for the people of Israel but for the whole world. He is the El of all flesh (Jeremiah 32:27). This is why these Israelites profess to believe in Yahweh but has little or no regard for other nations in the world. The implication they have from Yahweh's instructions does not means they should disrespect and hate other nations. This is not right in my own opinion. Yahweh did not tell them to disrespect or disregard other nations. They may not marry them and worship foreign gods (Deuteronomy 7:1-4 and 6; Nehemiah 10:30 and Ezra 9:1-2) but it does not mean they should refuse to work with them on other grounds. However, when Israelites messed up, they were handed over to these gentiles to fulfill Yahweh's plans for them. He had used Assyria to capture northern Israel. He had also used Babylon in the country of Iraq to capture the southern Israel. He had put southern Israel (Jew/Judea) under the regime of Romans as well. Yahweh is respecter of no one.  He can carry out his plans for his chosen people through gentiles. He does this to fulfil his counsel (Ephesians 1:11). The Pharisees and Sadducees were of the impression that Yahweh only focuses on them because they follow the Ten Commandment, but they were naive and incorrect. They did not even accept Yeshua because they did not understand him just like Jonah. Salvation of Yahweh was through Jew truly, but it did not remain there. Yeshua instructed his disciples not to limit the message of salvation to Judea but to the rest of the world. Paul was also commissioned to reach all gentiles, and he also informed us that Yeshua is the savior of all people especially of the believers (1 Timothy 4:10). So, Yahweh cares about all people including the Ninevites.

Why would Jonah try to run away from Yahweh?
To me, this is a childish display from Jonah. Jonah forgot that the eyes of the Lord see everywhere (Proverbs 15:3). This further established that Jonah did not understand the one who gave him this important assignment. The people of Israel might have thought this man was a renown great evangelist, but Yahweh knew the state of mind of this childish messenger. Meanwhile, the rage of the stormy sea troubled the ship Jonah boarded. Would you have killed Jonah for his unruly behavior if, you were in Yahweh’s place?

Does Yahweh support Probability?

In this story, it appears Yahweh supported casting of lots or whatever method the ship attendants and passengers used to find who was at fault of the raging storm. Yahweh did this to implicate Jonah. It means Yahweh is in what people may discount as a human method of finding solutions to problems. By the way, these people had prayed first, and their gods would not answer them. So, Yahweh implicated Jonah not through prayers but through probability device. There is nothing Yahweh cannot do to fulfil his counsel.  Jonah realized that Yahweh knew where he was and he eventually accepted to be thrown into the sea out of the troubled ship. What was he thinking? A death wish? He thought it was over for him. That was not Yahweh's plan for him. Jonah was released from the belly of the fish after 3 days of in this big fish. Unfortunately, Jonah had not learnt his lesson yet. He still hated the people of Nineveh with passion. He went on this mission under duress. He knew he had no choice. Yahweh probably was quiet on Jonah's attitude towards Ninevites.                                                                                                                                                                                          

The tone of the message:

Some messengers are judgmental in most of their messages. It baffles me what these messengers are trying to achieve. Some prefer to be judgmental as if they are exonerated from their given messages. The tone of Jonah’s message was judgmental. He probably expected these people to disregard this message to enable Yahweh to punish them. Yahweh saw this but he rather turned this judgmental message into the message of grace in the hearing of the Ninevites. It does not matter the manner in which messages are being delivered because Yahweh may turn the dumb messages into messages that make sense. He is the sound through the trumpets we blow. He turns ugly sound into harmonious sound in the hearing of people. The people of Nineveh accepted Jonah’s message with opened hearts despite Jonah's manner/tone of his judgmental message. This resulted to their repentance with 3 days fast and prayers for mercy. Who told them to do this? Jonah did not. Remember, these people never prayed to Elohim of Israel before. Wow. What a great transformation!

When successful assignment does not feel like it:

Jonah had completed his assignment. He should just go home and rest. That was a great success. Well, not so fast. He was hoping that the Ninevites would not accept his message. These people never knew Elohim of Israel before. So, he was not expecting any positive result from this assignment.  He was waiting for the 40 days given to the Ninevites to repent of their bad deeds to expire. He wanted Yahweh to punish these people because he did not like these people anyways. After 40 days had expired, Yahweh did not destroy these people. Jonah was greatly upset. He wanted Yahweh to kill him because he concluded that Yahweh brought him to the place he did not want to go. He wanted to die. He said he knew that Yahweh was merciful and compassionate. Why would he want to differ? I believe Yahweh would be laughing at the ignorance of this great evangelist.

 

Lesson for Jonah:

It was time for this great evangelist to be taught a great lesson. The weather was so hot during the day. Yahweh grew up a tree to provide shade for Jonah in the day. Jonah was happy. However, he was still hoping Yahweh would change his mind about sparing the Ninevites. To his surprise, this tree was eaten up by worms during the night. Jonah woke up in the following morning to realize that the tree that provided him shade had been destroyed. So, he was bittered and wept profusely.

Once again, I imagine Yahweh and the host of heavens laugh greatly at this man. Yahweh intercepted the weeping and lamentations of Jonah by asking him why Jonah was upset at what happened to the tree. Jonah still appeared not to have learnt what Yahweh was driving at. Yahweh made him realize that the tree that grew up was not human, but Jonah cared so much for it. You see, Yahweh and his son, Yeshua like to take people from what they are familiar with to what they need to know. Please, read my previous blogs on some of Yeshua's parables. Yahweh identified with Jonah on his state of predicament. Then, he took him to another level of revelation as he told him that that was the same way he (Yahweh) cared for the Ninevites who had not known him.

At this revelation, Jonah’s eyes were opened to see the mind of Yahweh concerning his creations.

Since then, Jonah was never upset with non-Israelites anymore. You see, he never knew this truth before. It means no one is above learning. These four chapters were actually meant to teach Jonah a great lesson that Yahweh is merciful to all his creations. Jonah hated non-Israelite with passion. He preached judgmental and condemnation messages (not knowing that he had a lesson to learn too). He was naïve of the truth about Yahweh’s love to humanity. He stopped at John 3:16-20 but did not realize the truth about Romans 8:35-39 and 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. This great experience changed his messages from that point onward.

I hope you have been blessed with this week’s blog.

Thanks for your time.

Shalom!

 

 

References: 

Assyrian & Babylonian Captivity & Exile of Israel & Judah Map

https://www.concordant.org/version/read-concordant-old-testament-online/the-book-of-jonah/