Your Attention Please

If you listen closely, you might realize that someone is trying to get your attention. How To Know God's Trying To Get Your Attention by Kristina Long at Relevant

It took me a while to understand the application of the Bible's story about Jonah and the whale. Maybe it came quick for you, but not me.

In case you're not familiar, the story of Jonah goes something like this:

A man named Jonah was asked by God to go Nineveh and talk to people who lived there. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh or talk to the people who lived there.

Jonah hid from God by getting on a boat headed away from Nineveh. A storm came. The people on the ship knew someone on the ship caused God to be angry. Jonah told them to throw him overboard so the storm would stop. Jonah was thrown overboard and the storm stopped.

Jonah’s death did not fit with God’s plan. God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh. God sent a large fish to swallow Jonah, where he stayed for three days. Jonah turned back to God and prayed. The fish swam to Nineveh only to spit Jonah out on the shore. Jonah inevitably did what God asked.

Now, a lot of trouble, turmoil, and stress could have been easily avoided had Jonah just done what God had asked him to do in the first place. Jonah did not listen to God. He feared God’s plan and chose a different route.

I live in a little town in Idaho town that I love. I love my job, the people, the recreation and God’s beautiful creation all around me.

A year ago, I felt God’s call for me to step up, which made me fear I'd have to leave my little Idaho town. I applied to a graduate program nearby so I could keep living my way.
I even did it under the guise of, “This program will help me to serve God better.” I did well in the program: good grades, learning everything I could etc.

I felt transformed to do more. My pride grew and I became satisfied with my work for God.

That’s the issue, isn’t it? It is not me who needs to be satisfied with my work for God. God is the one who works in me and through me. God is the one who transforms me. My intentions and love for my town were great, yet my lack of trust in God made me fearful of the future.

My fear made me lose sight of God and his plan. Instead I focused on my plan for him.

Fish Belly Repentance

Did Jonah really repent in the belly of the fish? I've always thought so........ but maybe not. Here's another view by Irene Sun in  Jonah and the Art of Being Broken

We teach our children many things. We teach them to be strong, brave, and swift, yet patient, kind, and gentle. Rarely do we teach them how to be broken. Yet brokenness before the Lord is the fount of these very blessings. Courage and meekness flows most generously from a broken and contrite heart.

A few years ago, I was a zealous collector of Jonah picture books from libraries all over Illinois. The obsession began when I was searching for a faithful rendition for my children. Among the few dozen books I acquired, nearly all of them claimed that Jonah prayed for forgiveness in the belly of the fish. I found this interpretation a little unsettling. In my readings of chapter two, taught by a few professors at my seminary, Jonah did not repent. He did not even acknowledge that he had done anything wrong.

My obsession with picture books soon turned into an obsession with the book of Jonah. I had the most difficult time understanding Jonah’s prayer. What am I missing? Why do I not see words related to sin and repentance in his prayer? Jonah was using verses and phrases from the Psalms. Yet somehow his prayer had a different flavor.

After much wrestling, I discovered where I had gone wrong. In order to understand Jonah’s prayer, I must first understand the meaning of repentance. Specifically, how repentance must arise from a broken and contrite heart. But Jonah’s heart was yet to be broken.

At the end of chapter one, Yahweh commanded a fish to swallow Jonah and delivered him from death. This came after Jonah disregarded Yahweh’s instruction to go to Nineveh, after he refused to pray when the sailors cried out to their gods, after he chose death over repentance, after he asked the sailors to commit murder by throwing him overboard. In other words, God’s rescue was pure mercy. The only thing Jonah deserved was judgment, yet Yahweh saved his life. In the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God.

Woe Is Me

Jonah began his prayer by quoting the first verse of Psalm 120, which reads, “To Yahweh in my distress I called.” Jonah, however, changed the order of the words. He prayed, “I called from my distress to Yahweh” (Jonah 2:2). He moved Yahweh’s name to the end of the phrase and his own action to the front. Jonah was focused on himself and what he was doing. A subtle change, but it initiates the tone and pattern for the rest of the chapter.

In Jonah’s eyes, he was the one who approached Yahweh. Jonah emphasized his “call,” his “cry,” and his “voice.” He believed that Yahweh had heard and answered him, and he was right. Yet Jonah had neither answered nor heeded Yahweh’s words when he was commanded to go to Nineveh.

The longest portion of Jonah’s prayer was about his woes. He told his story from bits and pieces of David’s psalms of deliverance and laments (Psalms 5, 31, and 69). These were David’s prayers during seasons when he was pursued by his enemies. But in his recitation, Jonah omitted the praises of Yahweh’s steadfast love—the essential theme in these psalms.

Jonah accused God of throwing him into the deep. But had not Jonah asked the sailors to cast him overboard? Was he blaming God when he claimed that God’s waves and God’s billows passed over him? He felt that he was “driven away” from God’s sight. But was not Jonah the one who ran “from the presence of Yahweh” (1:2-3)?

Great Is My Faithfulness

Jonah concluded his woes with Yahweh’s deliverance (2:6). But he credited himself for God’s rescue: “I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple” (2:7)

Jonah set himself apart from idol worshipers, those who forsook “their hope of steadfast love.” In a way, he was right—the sailors were unlike Jonah. In chapter one, they prayed and worshiped Yahweh and made sacrifices on their wrecked, emptied ship. Here, in the belly of the fish, Jonah promised that he would offer sacrifices. Yet he continued to resist the command to go to Nineveh, because the Word of Yahweh had to come to Jonah—a second time (3:1).

How to Pray When Drowning

Ever feel like you are drowning spiritually or emotionally? Take a lesson from one guy in the Bible who was saved from literally drowning- Jonah. The piece below is from Mike Shreve in Charisma Magazine:

Let's start by focusing on someone who actually did drown—literally—but God rescued him. His name was Jonah, a biblical character known to most people. Few, however, understand the profound depth of what really happened to him.

You might want to grab your Bible and read "The Prayer of Jonah" carefully (Jon. 2:2-9). Most of that pivotal prayer—seven out of eight verses—is actually a psalm of thanksgiving to God for having answered a previous prayer. Even more surprising—that previous prayer was apparently uttered in hell. You are probably squinting your eyes in skepticism at this point, but check it out in the Bible:

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly. And he said: "I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice" (Jon. 2:1-2).

Though it can mean just the grave, the Hebrew word Sheol also refers to the underworld: the spiritual realm of departed souls, both the righteous and the wicked. According to Jesus' teaching, in that Old Testament era, Sheol contained two chambers: one of fiery torment for the wicked and then, across an impassable gulf, a pleasant but temporary abode for the righteous called "Abraham's bosom" (see Luke 16:19-31).

So apparently Jonah drowned when he was thrown overboard, and his soul descended into that horrid place reserved for the unrighteous who die in a state of sin. The erring prophet graphically described his plight:

    "I went down to the foundations of the mountains; the earth with its bars was around me forever" (Jon. 2:6).

So Jonah was in a spiritual prison in Sheol. Yet amazingly, he made a decision to seek God anyway, saying:

    "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple" (Jon. 2:7).

What unshakable trust! What stubborn faith! His name may have been Jonah (which means dove—a very timid and docile bird). But his parents should have named him Chamor (which means donkey—a very stubborn animal). Because regardless of how terribly he had failed, or how severely he was chastised, Jonah refused to stop looking toward his Maker. It worked. Because at some point (we're not told when) his body was swallowed by a great fish, then his soul re-entered his body and he came back to life.

It was at that point that his heart erupted with gratitude, and he authored a prayer of thanksgiving with three short, concluding statements that captured the heart of the God:

Better Than Jonah

The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.   (Luke 11:32 ESV)

For Jonah was a servant,
but I am the Master,
and he came forth from the great fish,
but I rose from death.
He proclaimed destruction,
but I have come preaching the good tidings of the kingdom.
The Ninevites indeed believed without a sign,
but I have exhibited many signs.
They heard nothing more than those words,
but I have made it impossible to deny the truth.
The Ninevites came to be ministered to,
but I, the very Master and Lord of all,
have come not threatening, not demanding an account,
but bringing pardon.
They were barbarians,
but these – the faithful -
have conversed with unnumbered prophets.
And of Jonah nothing had been prophesied in advance,
but of Me everything was foretold,
and all the facts have agreed with their words.
And Jonah indeed, when he was to go forth,
instead ran away that he might not be ridiculed.
But I, knowing that I am both to be crucified and mocked,
have come nonetheless.
While Jonah did not endure so much as to be reproached for those who were saved,
I underwent even death, and that the most shameful death,
and after this I sent others again.
And Jonah was a strange sort of person
and an alien to the Ninevites, and unknown;
but I a kinsman after the flesh and of the same forefathers.

- from a sermon by John Chrysostom

Hat Tip: Trevin Wax

Throwing a Pity Party?

Are you throwing any pity parties lately?  Jonah's party can beat yours any day. 

Picture from a great article about the Book of Jonah at The Resurgence:

Overlapping Themes of Grace

I've been reading two books this past week - with some overlapping themes.

Surprised by Grace: God's Relentless Pursuit of Rebels, by Tullian Tchividjian. I just finished this book by Billy Graham's grandson, who is also the successor to D. James Kennedy at Coral Ridge Presbyterian in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida,  This is an exploration of the grace of God as shown in the Old Testament Book of Jonah. I've never read or heard any material on Jonah that made the book relevant like this, or that integrated it with the entire Bible and especially Jesus' message of grace.  I was highlighting on almost every page.

Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything, by Tim Keller.  I just started this one, which is not really a book, but a study guide to go along with the video series by the same name produced by Keller's Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. It explores some of the same themes as Keller's first three books, but does have some original material (including some wonderful illustrative charts!). He also has some great Luther and Calving quotes. If anyone has seen the video series I would love to hear your comments. I posted some quotes from this book yesterday.

What overlapping themes, you ask?

Grace:  God's grace and mercy are bigger than our sin and moral rebellion- big enough to encompass a wicked city like Ninevah and a sinful man like Jonah (or me). "..for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.." (Jonah 4:2)

Idolatry:  The human heart is an idol factory, constantly manufacturing false saviors as sources for fulfillment, purpose and identity. The Gospel confronts all idols with the message that salvation is of the Lord.  "Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hop of steadfast love." (Jonah 2:8)

Repentance:  Biblical repentance founded in the gospel of mercy and grace is not just turning from sins, but from sin - rejecting all self-salvation schemes and false savior idols and throwing oneself on Christ and His work alone. "Salvation belongs to the Lord" (Jonah 2:9)

Jesus:  I am a great sinner, but He is a great Savior!

I am not doing either book justice with this summary.  Expect a lot of quotes from each book in the coming days to illustrate these themes better than my humble words can. Oh, and in case I haven't made myself clear, I really recommend these two books!