Most people only know one thing about our second Joe and it's a whale of a fish story. In fact, our second "Joe" (or "Jonah" as he is commonly known) has a story that atheists and agnostics LOVE to dissect and analyze as proof of their belief that the Bible is no more credible than Aesop's fables as a source of truth for humanity to live by. From a human logic standpoint, it's difficult to argue with them on this point. The surface level of Jonah's story is pretty ridiculous, humanly speaking.
Of course, as with most things in scripture, there's much more going on in Jonah's story than meets the eye.
Jonah appears to be the polar opposite of Job. Where Job, at least in the beginning of his story, was faithful and patient, Jonah is an emotionally unstable wreck pretty much through all four chapters of the book that bears his name. From the moment we're introduced to him to the final verse of chapter four, Jonah's characteristics and attitude are a wonderful representation of a spiritually and emotionally immature servant of God.
If you haven't read the book of Jonah in a while (or ever), I recommend you take a few minutes and familiarize yourself with Jonah's full story. Again, the book is only four chapters long so it won't take you long to see for yourself what happens to a God-called human being who makes all the wrong choices.
So, go ahead and take a look at our second "Joe's" story. I'll go make myself some coffee while you read...
......
.....
....
...man, that's a good cup of "joe"...
Okay, I'm going to assume you're caught up with Jonah's tale now. I'm sure you'll agree, the guy was a red hot mess. He's also proof that God can (and will) use anyone, regardless of their emotional/spiritual maturity level, to do some pretty remarkable things for the Kingdom of God. I mean, I've been preaching and teaching for over 25 years and even on my BEST day, I've never preached a sermon that resulted in bringing an entire city to repentance and salvation.
Could you imagine what would happen today if someone were to march through the streets of Houston, or Los Angeles, or New York preaching the message God told Jonah to preach? Do you believe there would be citywide repentance in any city in America? How about any major city in the world? The mere fact that God was able to use an emotionally immature Jewish prophet to bring a message of judgment and condemnation to a Gentile city which resulted in the city's complete repentance and salvation is a miracle of epic proportions.
Let me repeat that. Nineveh was a gentile city. The citizens of Nineveh weren't just non-Jewish folk; they were HATED non-Jewish folk. If you were a Jew in Jonah's day, you were taught to despise the "heathens" outside of your racial camp. There was no room for mercy or grace for any Gentile city. If you were a Jewish minister at any level, your belief system about Gentiles was marinated in hatred and loathing.
So, Jonah's initial response to God's instruction to "Arise, go to Nineveh..." to preach to these hated Gentiles isn't all that unusual. In fact, were we in Jonah's shoes, we'd probably do the same thing he did...run.
After all, don't we run from most of God's instructions that we don't like? Are we so different from Jonah when we're asked of God to do something that doesn't line up with our preconceived ideas or expectations? Aren't most of the church fights and denominational splits predicated on this very basic human quality of selfishness and emotional/spiritual immaturity?
So, Jonah runs from God's instructions and God pursues him. Not in anger or judgement. The Potter understands our frame. He knows we are dust and prone to these fits of selfishness. Again, there is nothing that we can do that will ever catch God by surprise. Never once, in all my years of rebellion and running from God did I do something that caused God to gasp in shock and say "Well, I didn't see that coming."
The Potter pursues Jonah across the sea and instead of calmly talking to his wayward servant, he lights up the kiln and sets fire to Jonah's rebellious plans. Like Job, The Potter knows how to get our attention. He knows that when we're in full rebellion and making extreme choices in our attempt to run from Him that the still, small voice whispering instructions and words of encouragement isn't going to cut it. The Potter knows His clay and He knows exactly what it will take to get us on our knees.
In Jonah's case, it took being tossed overboard into a stormy sea and then swallowed by "a great fish". I won't spend too much time on the fish tale. Just understand that The Potter can do whatever he wants with His creation including preparing a wilderness journey that is tailor-made just for us. The Potter's kiln is unique to each of his clay pots. The heat necessary to transform Job isn't the same as what was necessary to get Jonah's attention. The wilderness journey needed to change Moses isn't the same as what was needed for Jacob, and so on. Each circumstance that we go through in the Potter's process is created specifically for each vessel and only the Potter knows how much heat is needed to bring about the desired transformation.
Of course, we are still creatures with a will of our own and it bears repeating that the gift of choice is powerful enough to negate the Potter's efforts to transform us. It is this power of free will that determines the outcome of the Potter's process. All God is going to do is put the choices in front of us. We have to decide what direction we're going to go.
In Job's case, the decision was to repent.
In Jonah's case...
I take you to the fulcrum point in Jonah's story; the fourth chapter of the book of Jonah. It is in this chapter that we learn how Jonah used his gift of choice. The very first verse of Jonah 4 says it all: "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he became angry."
So after everything he's experienced, after spending three days in the belly of a fish, after repenting and agreeing to obey God, after preaching the message God had given him and witnessing the salvation of a city so large it took three days to walk across it, Jonah's response to all of that is to get angry.
Why is Jonah angry, you ask? Well, Jonah tells us in Jonah 4:2
"So he prayed to the Lord and said, 'Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm."
Yeah, you read that correctly. Jonah is angry he wasted his time. He's upset that he had to leave his country to come to this foreign land and go through all the trouble of preaching because he knew God wouldn't destroy the city. He's angry because God chose to show mercy and 'lovingkindness' to these people.
Let me repeat that. Jonah is angry with God because of His mercy.
You may read that and conclude this guy is one of the most selfish human beings on the planet; and you'd be right about that. But, don't delude yourself into thinking Jonah is alone in this. If I can back the microscope up a bit and take a big picture stab at Jonah's character, I'd say that Jonah's bigger issue is that God did not meet his desired expectations. Jonah's desire was to see this city full of hated Gentiles burn to the ground because, in his eyes, they deserved it. In fact, after his self-centered prayer, the Bible tells us that Jonah's next act was to go to a hillside outside of Nineveh, build himself a little hut for shade, and sit under it to watch and "see what would become of the city."
Jonah wants to see if God changes his mind about destroying Nineveh and he doesn't want to miss the show. Jonah is so blinded by his anger that he can't see the 120,000+ souls that were just saved because of his reluctant preaching and God's lovingkindness and tender mercies. Jonah's priorities aren't just out of alignment, they're completely off the rails.
But that isn't the worst part of Jonah's story. The worst part to this story is how it ends. There's no mention of Jonah coming to himself and repenting from his selfishness. No record of Jonah's moment of clarity where he realizes how cold hearted he has become and falls on his face before his merciful Potter. In fact, there's no record of how Jonah's life ended at all.
The book of Jonah just...stops. It ends with the Potter addressing his flawed vessel in much the same manner that He addressed Job; with rhetorical questions designed to open Jonah's eyes to the reality of his selfish attitude and pride-filled condition.
But there's no resolution. For all we know, Jonah died on that hillside waiting for God to meet his expectations. There is not one jot, dot, or tittle of information about Jonah's life after Jonah chapter four. To me, that is the biggest tragedy in Jonah's story. That Jonah chose his anger and bitterness toward God over the Potter's attempts to perfect and transform him is a startling aspect of this entire exercise that cannot be emphasized enough.
We have the power to render the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent creator of the universe absolutely powerless in our lives. That power rests in the decisions we make during our time in the Potter's kiln. We are faced with the same decisions that our two "Joes" faced. Do we see ourselves through the Potter's eyes, repent, and submit to the Potter's perfecting process or do we stiffen our necks, harden our hearts, and tell the Potter to take his kiln and his kingdom and "stick it"?
Make no mistake. We all have a date in the Potter's kiln. God loves us far too much to leave us "just as we are". His desire is to transform us, to mold and make us into the image of His Son. The Potter knows the only way to transform clay into pottery is with heat and only the Potter knows how much heat is needed to bring about the desired transformation in every one of us.
The only question is, how are we going to respond to the Potter when it is our turn in His kiln? For far too many of God's people, the choice is to go the way of Jonah and harden our hearts toward God. I've buried far too many saints who started off their Christian lives on the right track but somewhere along the way they ran off the rails and never found their way back again. Not because of God's inability to help them but because they chose to harden their hearts, stiffen their necks, and go their own way because their expectations were not met.
Does this sound familiar? It does to me. For the bulk of my adult life, I have had more in common with Jonah than Job. I've spent quite a bit of time living in hard-hearted anger because God had failed to meet my expectations. I wasted a lot of years and lost a lot of precious God-given treasures because of my choice to get angry and stay angry. In fact, I have been in danger of my story ending exactly like Jonah's did because of the choices I made in anger and bitterness.
But God...
Yep, there's more to come...
Could you imagine what would happen today if someone were to march through the streets of Houston, or Los Angeles, or New York preaching the message God told Jonah to preach? Do you believe there would be citywide repentance in any city in America? How about any major city in the world? The mere fact that God was able to use an emotionally immature Jewish prophet to bring a message of judgment and condemnation to a Gentile city which resulted in the city's complete repentance and salvation is a miracle of epic proportions.
Let me repeat that. Nineveh was a gentile city. The citizens of Nineveh weren't just non-Jewish folk; they were HATED non-Jewish folk. If you were a Jew in Jonah's day, you were taught to despise the "heathens" outside of your racial camp. There was no room for mercy or grace for any Gentile city. If you were a Jewish minister at any level, your belief system about Gentiles was marinated in hatred and loathing.
So, Jonah's initial response to God's instruction to "Arise, go to Nineveh..." to preach to these hated Gentiles isn't all that unusual. In fact, were we in Jonah's shoes, we'd probably do the same thing he did...run.
After all, don't we run from most of God's instructions that we don't like? Are we so different from Jonah when we're asked of God to do something that doesn't line up with our preconceived ideas or expectations? Aren't most of the church fights and denominational splits predicated on this very basic human quality of selfishness and emotional/spiritual immaturity?
So, Jonah runs from God's instructions and God pursues him. Not in anger or judgement. The Potter understands our frame. He knows we are dust and prone to these fits of selfishness. Again, there is nothing that we can do that will ever catch God by surprise. Never once, in all my years of rebellion and running from God did I do something that caused God to gasp in shock and say "Well, I didn't see that coming."
The Potter pursues Jonah across the sea and instead of calmly talking to his wayward servant, he lights up the kiln and sets fire to Jonah's rebellious plans. Like Job, The Potter knows how to get our attention. He knows that when we're in full rebellion and making extreme choices in our attempt to run from Him that the still, small voice whispering instructions and words of encouragement isn't going to cut it. The Potter knows His clay and He knows exactly what it will take to get us on our knees.
In Jonah's case, it took being tossed overboard into a stormy sea and then swallowed by "a great fish". I won't spend too much time on the fish tale. Just understand that The Potter can do whatever he wants with His creation including preparing a wilderness journey that is tailor-made just for us. The Potter's kiln is unique to each of his clay pots. The heat necessary to transform Job isn't the same as what was necessary to get Jonah's attention. The wilderness journey needed to change Moses isn't the same as what was needed for Jacob, and so on. Each circumstance that we go through in the Potter's process is created specifically for each vessel and only the Potter knows how much heat is needed to bring about the desired transformation.
Of course, we are still creatures with a will of our own and it bears repeating that the gift of choice is powerful enough to negate the Potter's efforts to transform us. It is this power of free will that determines the outcome of the Potter's process. All God is going to do is put the choices in front of us. We have to decide what direction we're going to go.
In Job's case, the decision was to repent.
In Jonah's case...
I take you to the fulcrum point in Jonah's story; the fourth chapter of the book of Jonah. It is in this chapter that we learn how Jonah used his gift of choice. The very first verse of Jonah 4 says it all: "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he became angry."
So after everything he's experienced, after spending three days in the belly of a fish, after repenting and agreeing to obey God, after preaching the message God had given him and witnessing the salvation of a city so large it took three days to walk across it, Jonah's response to all of that is to get angry.
Why is Jonah angry, you ask? Well, Jonah tells us in Jonah 4:2
"So he prayed to the Lord and said, 'Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm."
Yeah, you read that correctly. Jonah is angry he wasted his time. He's upset that he had to leave his country to come to this foreign land and go through all the trouble of preaching because he knew God wouldn't destroy the city. He's angry because God chose to show mercy and 'lovingkindness' to these people.
Let me repeat that. Jonah is angry with God because of His mercy.
You may read that and conclude this guy is one of the most selfish human beings on the planet; and you'd be right about that. But, don't delude yourself into thinking Jonah is alone in this. If I can back the microscope up a bit and take a big picture stab at Jonah's character, I'd say that Jonah's bigger issue is that God did not meet his desired expectations. Jonah's desire was to see this city full of hated Gentiles burn to the ground because, in his eyes, they deserved it. In fact, after his self-centered prayer, the Bible tells us that Jonah's next act was to go to a hillside outside of Nineveh, build himself a little hut for shade, and sit under it to watch and "see what would become of the city."
Jonah wants to see if God changes his mind about destroying Nineveh and he doesn't want to miss the show. Jonah is so blinded by his anger that he can't see the 120,000+ souls that were just saved because of his reluctant preaching and God's lovingkindness and tender mercies. Jonah's priorities aren't just out of alignment, they're completely off the rails.
But that isn't the worst part of Jonah's story. The worst part to this story is how it ends. There's no mention of Jonah coming to himself and repenting from his selfishness. No record of Jonah's moment of clarity where he realizes how cold hearted he has become and falls on his face before his merciful Potter. In fact, there's no record of how Jonah's life ended at all.
The book of Jonah just...stops. It ends with the Potter addressing his flawed vessel in much the same manner that He addressed Job; with rhetorical questions designed to open Jonah's eyes to the reality of his selfish attitude and pride-filled condition.
But there's no resolution. For all we know, Jonah died on that hillside waiting for God to meet his expectations. There is not one jot, dot, or tittle of information about Jonah's life after Jonah chapter four. To me, that is the biggest tragedy in Jonah's story. That Jonah chose his anger and bitterness toward God over the Potter's attempts to perfect and transform him is a startling aspect of this entire exercise that cannot be emphasized enough.
We have the power to render the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent creator of the universe absolutely powerless in our lives. That power rests in the decisions we make during our time in the Potter's kiln. We are faced with the same decisions that our two "Joes" faced. Do we see ourselves through the Potter's eyes, repent, and submit to the Potter's perfecting process or do we stiffen our necks, harden our hearts, and tell the Potter to take his kiln and his kingdom and "stick it"?
Make no mistake. We all have a date in the Potter's kiln. God loves us far too much to leave us "just as we are". His desire is to transform us, to mold and make us into the image of His Son. The Potter knows the only way to transform clay into pottery is with heat and only the Potter knows how much heat is needed to bring about the desired transformation in every one of us.
The only question is, how are we going to respond to the Potter when it is our turn in His kiln? For far too many of God's people, the choice is to go the way of Jonah and harden our hearts toward God. I've buried far too many saints who started off their Christian lives on the right track but somewhere along the way they ran off the rails and never found their way back again. Not because of God's inability to help them but because they chose to harden their hearts, stiffen their necks, and go their own way because their expectations were not met.
Does this sound familiar? It does to me. For the bulk of my adult life, I have had more in common with Jonah than Job. I've spent quite a bit of time living in hard-hearted anger because God had failed to meet my expectations. I wasted a lot of years and lost a lot of precious God-given treasures because of my choice to get angry and stay angry. In fact, I have been in danger of my story ending exactly like Jonah's did because of the choices I made in anger and bitterness.
But God...
Yep, there's more to come...
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