S9E73
· 29:49
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Music.
Well, friend, we're back here. It's another beautiful Sunday afternoon on the
North Platte River in Nebraska.
And I am sitting here with my main man, Dennis McDonald and that can only mean one thing.
It's Tuesdays with Tata. How's it going, Tata? I'm doing well. How are you doing?
I'm doing great and I'm excited about this talk. You know, we've been almost
100 episodes now of Tuesdays with Tata, which would qualify it to have been
a whole season of the podcast all by itself.
I think this is 96 or something. We've done some re-releases and stuff,
but I think it's in the 90s of new Tuesdays with Tata episodes.
And you've got quite a following, by the way, in Eastern Europe and all over the place, Tata.
There's always a little spike, and Tuesdays with Tata episodes when they drop, but I was just thinking,
we've talked about Ezekiel and Daniel and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Hosea and
probably some other prophets.
We never talked about Jonah. No, we need to, and that's what we,
hopefully that's what we can talk about today.
We're gonna talk about Jonah today, so let's get after it. What do you have to say about Jonah?
Well, first of all, Jonah is a little book and it's right after Hosea.
So if you've marked your Bible for Hosea, it's right after Joel and Amos and Obadiah and then Jonah.
But the thing that, and I wanna read the first verse of Jonah.
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amorite, and saying,
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it,
for their evil has come up before me.",
So God knew how bad they were.
And so stop right there and just just consider what happened.
We know what Jonah did next.
Yeah. But why didn't he say, wait a minute, Lord, you want me to go where? Yeah.
You want me to go to Nineveh? You know what the Syrians are doing now?
And so, you know, just so you know, Nineveh was the capital city of of that
area of the Syrian empire.
And so they were very warlike and they were very conquest just minded.
And they were very hard people, they were very evil people. But the evil had
come up before God and he wanted to send Jonah down there but Jonah didn't even
say a word, he just got out of town. He left.
He went down to Joppa and got on a ship going to Torses and he paid his passage
and he went the other way.
He thought he was avoiding the presence of God.
He thought he was going to be able to avoid God's assignment for him.
Well, I'm sure we're going to get into why you think Jonah may have done that.
But I just want to tell the listeners here, there's a great book about the little book of Jonah.
It's funny, when people try to write about Biblical books, you can write a 300-page
book about a four-chapter book in the Old Testament.
That's right. That's how much depth there is in the Word of God.
But Timothy Keller, the late Timothy Keller, of course we lost him last year,
this year, wrote The Prodigal Prophet Jonah and the Mystery of God's Mercy.
And it's a beautiful book. Well, and there's many things. Beyond that,
we can see evidence of missions work because he was sending Jonah into the mouth
of the lion, so to speak. That's right. And Jonah did not go.
That's right. And also we're talking about foreign missions.
And we're talking about other pieces of it that we'll get to as we go forward.
It's always been interesting to me that Jonah made that decision.
And I think he made that decision because he had seen what was happening.
And he saw that the Assyrians were very warlike and they were very the people
from Nineveh were very brutal in their approach and they were land grabbers.
So they were taking back what they thought was theirs. That's right.
But think about it, think about that posture.
It's like Joanna was saying, I know better than you do, God.
I know what's best. And so he was deciding that he was not going to go.
But anyway, he went down and got on the ship, and the ship got in trouble because
they were in the midst of a violent storm.
And the fact that the sailors were so concerned, they were throwing the cargo overboard.
And they were so concerned about, and they were calling out to their own gods
because they thought they were going to die. So it must have been a very violent storm. storm.
And God sent that storm.
And it's very evident because the writer tells us that God sent the storm.
And in the middle of that storm Jonah was down in the hole of the ship asleep.
And while all of the sailors were calling out to their gods,
the captain went down and woke him up. He said, what are you doing down here asleep?
Call out to your gods so we'll be spared. So we won't be killed. We won't drown.
And we don't know, I guess, we don't know what happened after that.
We don't know, but apparently, the sailors were casting lots, and a lot fell on Jonah.
It was his fault. Whose fault is it? Yep, it's Jonah's fault.
And so they had a litany of questions. Who are you? Where'd you come from?
And this is what is so mysterious to me, is that Jonah admitted,
I am a Hebrew and I worship the most high God. Yeah.
And he was not worshiping the most high God. That's right.
But yet he was claiming God. Yeah. And he was claiming God's leadership.
Yeah. And so the sailors were beside themselves with knowing,
wondering what to do to prevent this storm, to change, change the mind.
And so many things happened. and the sailors started rowing but they couldn't
make any progress back to the land.
And the storm even got worse.
And Jonah told them, well the only way you're going to save yourself is just
throw me overboard. So did he repent?
Did he change his mind? We don't know yet. No, we don't know yet.
But we know we know what happened because they the sailors took hold of him
and threw him overboard.
And but the Lord prepared a giant fish. That's right. And a lot of cases people
talk about it. It had to be a whale.
Yeah, but the Bible never says it was a whale. It was a great fish.
There's an interesting there's an interesting little aside here.
Jonah was willing to die to save these sailors.
Yes, because he felt bad that they were going to perish because of his disobedience.
But he so hated the Ninevites that he wasn't willing to go there for God to
save them. That's right.
That's interesting. Yes, it is. And that's that's what I meant when I said there's
so many lessons here that we could spend that we could spend all day.
We could spend a lifetime looking at what happened to this man, a man of God.
God spoke to him. Yep. And if you look at, when Jonah was in the belly of the fish, he prayed to God.
And if you look at his prayer, and read about it and meditate on it,
it sounds so much like the Psalms.
He's calling out to God to save him.
And he's calling out for God for mercy. Now here he is, and thank the Lord that
he has recognized that all of this is his fault because he didn't go.
But you're right, he still had not changed his mind. Or at least his heart.
Because he was thinking all along, okay the Ninevites are going to get what they deserve.
He wants them to suffer.
This has a lot to say about how we view God's mercy when it applies to other
people, because no matter how...
Much we might say on the surface that it's otherwise.
I think most of us have a hard time sometimes understanding how God could want
to forgive those people.
I'm putting air quotes around the word those. There's always a group.
Maybe it's terrorists. Maybe it's somebody on the opposite end of the political spectrum.
It's a murderer who becomes a Christian in prison and people doubt his sincerity
or wish that surely God couldn't forgive that cannibal. Like,
you know, what if we found out that Adolf Hitler confessed and was baptized right before he died?
Would people have a hard time with that? Of course they would. We all would.
And so, I think Jonah's story here, it's easy to say, wow, he was terrible.
He didn't want to go take care of those Ninevites.
But all of us need to look at the story as a metaphor for are there places in
our life where we wouldn't be so happy if God said, hey, go forgive your ex,
or go forgive this person who doesn't vote like you do.
Well, Jesus has already said that. Yep.
Have we accepted it? Maybe not. Maybe not on all levels or every case.
And maybe we've hardened our heart, too. But and maybe somewhere in our heart,
we may have said, OK, they're going to get what they deserve.
That's right. They're going to go to hell.
That's right. Good for them. Yeah.
But is that the right attitude? Because what did Jesus say?
Love one another. Yeah.
And be merciful. Love your enemy. That's right. Timothy Keller,
this is a good paragraph I'll give you.
Keller said, The careful structure of the book reveals nuances of the author's message.
Both episodes, so two episodes, him refusing to go and then him finally going.
Both episodes show how Jonah, a staunch religious believer, regards and relates
to people who are racially and religiously different from him.
The book of Jonah yields many insights about God's love for societies and people
beyond the community of believers.
Because God cared about the Ninevites.
He wanted them to repent so He wouldn't have to destroy them.
About His opposition to toxic nationalism and disdain for other races and about
how to be in mission in the world despite the subtle and unavoidable power of
idolatry in our own lives and hearts.
And I think often, and you and I talked about this the other day,
about Elizabeth Elliot and her husband, Jim Elliot.
The very people that he went to help killed him.
And she went back and tried to help them as well. He did.
And that is so stunning because all they were going, all that Jim Elliot wanted
them to know was that Jesus loves you. That's right.
And Jesus cares about you. He died for you. Yeah.
And they killed him because, and why they did, I don't know,
because maybe they considered him to be an intruder.
And maybe they considered him to be a false prophet.
But anyway, back to Jonah being in the belly of this fish for three days and three nights.
Jesus Himself in Matthew 12 talks about when at first we were asking for a sign,
He said the only sign that you'll get is the sign of Jonah.
That Jonah, that just as Jonah was in the belly of the big fish for three days
and three nights, I will be in the grave for three days and three nights. That's right.
So Jesus himself accepted this story.
And this was hundreds of years later. Yep.
That Jesus himself would see that and recognize that, but then what happened?
After Jonah prayed, the great fish vomited him up on the beach,
now did it hit the beach running to go convince the Ninevites to repent? I don't think so.
He still was grudging, he was begrudging it, yeah.
He kept thinking, okay, God is gonna give them what they deserve.
He couldn't see the fact that God could be merciful towards his own sin and
also just at the same time.
He didn't want God's mercy to apply to the Ninevites. He just wanted God's justice,
but he sure didn't want God's justice on his own heart.
He wanted mercy for himself. That's right.
But he did go to Nineveh, and Nineveh was a large city. You have to try to comprehend
how large it could seem to be because the breadth of it was three miles.
It would take three days just to cross the breadth.
So the length of it, but Jonah, when he went into the city, he went in at one day.
So he walked into the middle of the city, apparently, and he preached.
And he told the Ninevites that in 40 days disaster would come upon them.
Now he was convincing because now maybe he told the story of the storm,
maybe he told the story of God's message to him, that God sent him and that he ran away.
He went the other direction. But God changed his mind and God sent a big fish
and swallowed him and he was in the belly of a fish for three days and three the Ninevites.
But then the fish vomited them up on the land and now I'm here.
And so he preached for them and the Ninevites believed. They repented.
And in sackcloth, and they proclaimed a fast.
And they were very concerned about God destroying them. And they were repentant
of everything that they had done.
But here again Now Jonah, we don't know what happened later,
but several things happened.
The king heard what was going on. He took off his robe and put sackcloth and ashes on. That's right.
So he repented as well. That's right. So they changed their minds.
They listen to the message. So does Jonah teach us that we should be willing
to teach unpopular messages, even if it's dangerous to us? Absolutely.
Even though we may not like it. That's right. Or we may be afraid.
That's right. Now, maybe Jonah
did not like it, and maybe he was afraid at the same time. I don't know.
Yeah. But I believe that what he had seen convinced him that God needed to punish
them, as opposed to tell them about their sin and seek repentance and forgive them.
I think there's a really subtle point here.
Jonah did not believe that the Ninevites would repent.
And therefore he believed that God would destroy them because when he preached
he didn't say in 40 days Nineveh may be overthrown.
He said in 40 days Nineveh shall be overthrown. He was looking forward to.
That's why I went up and got under that tree to watch it all play out.
He actually did repent. That's right.
And the profound appearance down in verse 10 of chapter 3,
when God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way,
God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
And that's just like when God said to Moses, I'm going to go down and kill them all.
Moses said, no, don't do that.
What do you think the rest of, what do you think the people of Egypt are going
to think? That's right. And God relented. He changed his mind.
So does that say that God can change his mind when he wants to? Yes.
Yeah. But is it up to us to try to change his mind?
Yes. Yes, I believe there's room for that. That's what intercessory prayer is.
Absolutely. I believe that there's room for that.
And I believe that we have the right, and that's why I was so amazed that Jonah did not do that.
He said, okay, then what's going to happen to them? And what do we need to do to change the mind?
But anyway, and carry this story forward, Jonah was still displeased with all of it.
He was very upset, so he went out into a different place to sit down to watch
what was going to happen.
He still believed that God was going to destroy them.
And he made a booth for himself. But also another thing happened,
and a bush came up and covered him, and it covered him from the heat of the day.
But then something happened to the bush, the bush died, and Jonah was very upset
about that because God sent a very hot wind, and so he was in great distress. was in distress.
Not only was he in distress physically but also emotionally.
Because he thought that God was going to deliver the fatal blow to them, the coup de grace.
What they give them, what they deserved.
I have a ringside seat and I'm going to sit right here and I'm going to watch it happen.
He was so mad when God relented that He even said, I'd rather just die than
watch you forgive none of us. That's right.
And God said who are you?
Why are you so angry because the plant died? Did you labor there?
Did you plant it? Did you water it?
A worm came that God sent the worm to destroy the plant that was covering Jonah.
And so all these things were happening but he still didn't change his mind. That's right.
He was convinced, and then finally God says to him, finally,
in verse 11 of chapter three, and should I not pity Nineveh,
that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know
their right hand from their left?
They didn't know any better. No, they did not.
They only knew how to do one thing, And that's kill people and take their possessions and their land.
So they were living under numerous generational and epigenetic curses.
Absolutely. Of evil, begetting evil.
And God said, somebody needs to go down there and tell them the truth about who I am.
And Jonah had a chance to deliver that message with grace.
But God also said another thing to Jonah. He said, also much cattle. people.
So what does that say? He was concerned about the people. He cared about the animals.
He was concerned about all of the living beings. His creations.
I know he loved Harvey and Lewis. Absolutely. He did.
And I don't know. It just seems to me that, and I know someone said once upon
a time, I think there was a movie or something, All Dogs Go to Heaven or something
like that, but I believe that.
I believe that there's a place for that because those are God's creations and
those are God's creatures, but what does this all say to us?
What does it say to us?
Sometimes when we make up our mind and we won't change our mind and we harden
our heart And that's exactly what the people,
what the Lord said about the people of Israel, they were stiff-necked and they
were hard-hearted and they were difficult people to deal with.
Do we want to be in that place? I don't want to be in that place.
I don't want God saying that about me.
Now do I rebel against God? Of course we do. We all do.
And any of it, all the sin, and what Jonah did was very clear as well. He rebelled.
He rebelled against God.
But now we can justify it all day long if we want to, but the word came,
the word of the Lord came to him. That's right.
And said go That's right And then he did not he he he went to cry he went to
another place. He went the opposite direction.
That's right But anyway, all of this says says something about There's several
there's several messages here that we need to be mindful of that one of the
things that it was not a whale,
and I've heard that all my life, that it was a whale, but scripture tells us that it was a big fish.
It was a fish. And it was, God made the fish.
Yeah. And that's good enough for me.
Yeah. And if it was good enough for Jesus, that when Jesus said,
the sign is that Jonah being in the belly of a fish for three days and three
nights, and me being in a grave for three days and three nights.
That's right. That's a sign.
That's right. So if Jesus accepted it, that settles the matter.
The sign of Jonah. That's right.
No, no, there's no further discussion required. That's right.
And the other thing that that we need to look at is what really happened to the people.
And again, in chapter three, in verse five, and the people of Nineveh believed
God, they called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to
the least of them. They believed.
So the message was very clear that they believed. And the same thing happened to the sailors.
The sailors believed. Yeah. And they prayed to God and made vows to God and
sacrificed to God. So several things happened that were very positive in the
presence of Jonah. Yeah.
And it still didn't change his heart. No, he did not.
He did not. And I don't know what happened to him after that. That's right.
And I don't know, all I know is that he was sitting there waiting for something
to happen. He was waiting for the destruction of the Ninevites because that's
what, in his heart of hearts, that's what he wanted to happen.
That's right. He was not concerned about their salvation.
And that's another point where we need, that's another point that we need to
think about is that we need to be concerned about the salvation of other people.
Yep. And other nations. Absolutely. And other races.
That's right. Because God is. Absolutely. That's the point.
God is. And we know that Jesus came not to condemn the world.
But to save. To seek and save the lost. That's right.
It's interesting to me that this is the only book, really, I think,
in the whole Bible that doesn't resolve.
It just ends with this conversation with God. Shouldn't I be concerned about
these people? And then, boom, the story's over.
Timothy Keller made an interesting point. We don't really know who is telling
the story, because it's not Jonah telling the story.
He doesn't say, hey, I'm Jonah, and here's my story. Let me tell you how bad
I was. It's an unidentified person telling the story, right, of Jonah.
And what Keller said that's interesting is presumably Jonah must have told people
this tale, but he didn't sugarcoat his own behavior. No, he did not.
Which that may be hopeful to us because it might mean that later in his life
he realized the error of his ways and he told the story as a cautionary tale
without making himself look better in the tale.
Well, I did and there's there's many cases of evidence that he repented.
Yeah, that's what I'm getting at When he was in the belly of the whale, yeah, he prayed.
Yeah, he had the sailors throw him overboard So he had a heart to turn back
to God He maybe as age and time passed.
Maybe he realized God's mercy. He needed God's mercy as much as the minimus,
They needed it, too That's right.
That's exactly right. So maybe he changed his mind after all, Tata. Maybe he did.
And that's what we all need to do. We need to change our mind about who we are
and who God is. That's right.
We can't put ourselves in a position of telling God what he ought to be doing. Absolutely right.
And if that if that if God said it, that's enough for me. That's right.
Now, all these things that we that we talked about and we have to say the same thing.
Many of these things sound that God, directions that God has given us and the
teachings of Jesus, they sound hard, they're counterproductive,
they're counterintuitive in our mind, but we reject them out of hand.
We don't reject them out of hand, and we accept them, but we do,
we put them to practice in our life.
So how do we look at what God said? That's right.
And if He calls us to something, if you read Scripture and you feel convicted
of something, do you filter it through your own wants and desires,
or do you just obey? That's right.
Well, I think you have to obey, but I think that we still have to put on a...it's
very simple in Paul's mind, And he tells us to put on the full armor of God.
And all the armor that he talks about is right here. In the Bible, in Scripture.
Jonah didn't have the benefit of having Jesus' words, but we need to remember
that angels in Heaven rejoice when one sinner repents.
And we should be concerned about other people's souls. I just read a story today
about about D.L. Moody. I told you this earlier today.
Moody, who started Moody Bible College and Moody Publishers and all these other
organizations named after him. He started out as a shoe salesman.
Yeah, he was a shoe salesman.
But apparently D.L. Moody had a list of 100 people that he wanted to see saved in his lifetime.
And 96 of them became Christians before he died.
And at his funeral, the other four gave their lives to Jesus.
That's the power of a persistent prayer.
Amen. Amen. We need to love other people, Tata, more than we love our own notions
or prejudices or biases.
That's right. That's right.
And we have to be like the people of Nineveh. We have to be like the sailors.
They changed their minds. Yeah, and they repented and changed their minds. That's right.
Well, if we're going to do that, when should we start? Start today. We start today.
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