Jonah 3 - How to be a successful evangelist

God gave Jonah a second chance, the same command comes to him. Note that he is to give the message that "I tell you", ie that God gives him. This time Jonah obeys the Lord, having realised that resistance is futile. 

It is often said that "if you won't do it, God will find someone else to do it". Well sometimes this is true, but at other times it isn't, and Jonah is one of these instances. For some reason God specifically wanted Jonah to do the job.

Jonah's message was brief and to the point. Presumably he said a little more than this, but maybe not. There isn't even any call to repentance, though from what we read later Jonah didn't want them to repent! 

Despite this, and the distinct lack of cultural relevance and accessibility of the message, the people believed God and they all repented. This again is a warning about nice pat ideas about what is necessary for evangelism to succeed. Moreover, Jonah did not "have a heart" or "a burden" for the people of Nineveh, yet is the most successful evangelist ever!

The term "revival" is sometimes bandied around rather too freely. Here we see the true sign of revival, a people responding to the word of God with repentance and obedience.

They called on God to have mercy on them, and God did indeed have mercy.

Jonah 2:1-10 - Pray from the depths

So in the belly of the fish Jonah made good use of the time, he prayed. He could do nothing else. Sometimes God puts us in situations where there is nothing we can do, except pray, and this is the whole point. We do not need to be in total control, but we do need to have faith in God.

Jonah, like many of the psalms, prayed out of his distress. Jonah knew that God was responsible for his predicament, or rather it was God's judgement upon his disobedience. Yet Jonah believed that he would once again see God's holy temple.

God's answer came "from His holy temple". Often when we pray we look for a natural answer, and of course God often does provide by natural means. But at others the answer comes direct from His holy temple, direct from heaven. 

Jonah knew where his salvation came from. And so the fish spewed Jonah out on to dry land.

Jonah 1:7-17 - Recognise the anointing

The sailors cast lots to find out who was to blame, and the blame fell on Jonah. This is far from being the only incident of casting lots in the Bible, the remaining apostles cast lots to make the final decision on a replacement for Judas. The Bible sees God as being in control of all things. 

Anyway, the lot having fallen on Jonah, the sailors confront him. He tells them he is a Hebrew, and the sailors are full of fear. Clearly the reputation of the Lord had spread beyond the borders of Israel. They knew that Jonah must have done something against God to bring this disaster on them. Often the unbelievers can be more spiritually aware than the "believers". 

Jonah then suggested that they throw him overboard. So even though Jonah is acting in disobedience to God, he still has some good character left. We need to cultivate our character. There will still be times when we get things wrong, and even times when we deliberately do things wrong, but even in these times our good character will help to get us back on the right track.

The sailors were reluctant to do this, and did so only after they had tried everything else, and sought God's mercy. Jonah was thrown over the side. The storm stopped and the men feared the Lord. The anointing of God was upon Jonah, so even in this situation he brought faith to people (despite himself!). We need to recognise the anointing that is on our own lives.
Then as we know, after Jonah was thrown overboard a great fish swallowed him up. God's plans go beyond our understanding. He has things in mind of which we know nothing. God never tells us everything.

Jonah 1:1-6 - On the run

As we saw in the Introduction, Jonah was a prophet and the only other prophecy that is recorded is that predicting the extension of Israel's borders. So perhaps he was used to giving "nice" words! Assyria, whose capital city was Nineveh, was the major threat to Israel. Moreover, Israel's sin meant that she was heading for a fall.

Against this background Jonah is told to go to Nineveh and warn them that their evil has come before the Lord. Now this would presumably be a rather dangerous venture for Jonah to embark upon, for it is unlikely that the Ninevites would take too kindly to an Israeli prophet telling them how to live their lives. If we knew nothing more of the story, then fear would be the most obvious explanation of why Jonah decided to flee, but as we will see later this does not appear to be reason.

Jonah decided to flee from the presence of the Lord. This is a very human reaction, when God is telling us to do things we don't want to do we seek to flee from His presence. However, as Psalm 139 shows, this is a futile exercise, for we cannot escape from God, and Jonah was about to discover this.

Jonah ran away to sea, but God sent a great storm and the ship he was on was threatened with being sunk. Jonah, however, was fast asleep. Now why was this? Maybe he was just so relived to be away from God, as he thought, or maybe he had faith that the storm would not result in death, or perhaps he was just so exhausted after running away.

The crew and the captain apparently knew about Jonah's faith. Either that had worked out what it was, or he had told them. The captain tells him to put his faith into action. Sometimes the world is more interested in us activating our faith than we are. When faced with circumstances they cannot control they turn to the church to call on God. 

Jonah - Introduction

In contra-distinction to Obadiah, this is one of the best known books in the Bible, Jonah, largely because of the big fish (often referred to as a whale).

Jonah son of Amittai is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25. He operated during the reign of Jeroboam II in Israel, the northern kingdom. Jeroboam had succeeded in extending the borders of Israel, but had continued to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. Indeed, Jonah  had prophesied that Israel's borders would expand. Now he is given a message of repentance for Assyria, Israel's enemy.

Jonah was probably contemporary with Amos and Hosea.

Some see the book as being post-exilic, ie written after Israel's return from exile in Babylon, but there are some who never believe any book was written when it was supposed to be! The literary style is similar to that of the Elija-Elisha narrative. Moreover, there seems to be little point in the book if it was written after the Babylonian exile. Why write about Nineveh long after Assyria was no longer a major power and threat to Israel?

Then of course because of the big fish element of the story some doubt the authenticity of the account. I think we have to take the story as it is related, otherwise it makes little point. It is just about possible that he whole thing is a parable, but Jesus referred to Jonah, and it seems much more likely that it is a genuine account.

The book illustrates the wider purposes of God, that went way beyond Israel, and certainly beyond Israel's own plans (she had no desire to see Assyria saved!). This is a further illustration of the fact that the Bible is God's book explaining and proclaiming God's purposes. If Israel wrote it as a means of furthering her own ends, then she did not do a vary good job!

Obadiah - Salvation of Israel

This is the shortest of the minor prophets, and, it has to be said, not one that is quoted much! However, we are going through the whole Bible, so we are going to see what we can learn from him.

Obadiah means "servant of the Lord", or "worshipper of the Lord". His name is actually quite common, with several references to Obadiah's in the Old Testament.

There is uncertainty as to exactly who Obadiah was. The two main alternatives are:

1. He was a contemporary of Elisha, and the book was written at the time of  the rebellion of Edom against Judah (2 Kings 8:20-22; 2 Chronicles 21:8-15).
2. He was a contemporary of Jeremiah, and the book was written at the time of the Babylonian attacks on Jerusalem. My study Bible prefers this option, probably because there are some parallels between this book and parts of Jeremiah. However, I am not sure why the book refers to Edom then, unless Edom was seeking to ride on Babylon's coattails.

Whatever the case, Edom is the target of Obadiah's prophecy. Edom thought she was secure, she thought she had carefully engineered things, so that whatever other nations did, she would be safe. Perhaps she was a little like modern Switzerland.

Edom would be torn apart. Her careful plans and making of alliances would come to nothing, she would be betrayed by her allies.

Edom was the nation that came out if Esau, and she would pay for her treachery against Jacob. Ie against Israel as a whole, not just Jacob himself.

Edom had gloated over Israel when Israel was defeated, joining in the taking of spoils. Proverbs warns us against gloating over others who suffer misfortune. This is also a warning to all nations in their attitude towards Israel. This is not to say that we should agree with all the Israel does (Israel does some stupid things, and some wrong things), but we should treat Israel honourably.

Edom, along with all nations, would reap the fruit of her deeds, and Israel would be saved. We need to understand what the outcome of history will be, and it will be the salvation of Israel.

Psalm 118 - Give thanks to the Lord for His salvation

This is a hymn of thanksgiving, though no one knows what the precise occasion was. Various suggestions have included (i) a victory of a Davidic king; (ii) deliverance from Egypt and victory over the Canaanites; (iii) post-exilic deliverance. Anyway, since we haven't been told it cannot be that important to know the precise occasion.

All Israel, the priests and those who fear the Lord (which should encompass the previous two groups) are called upon to declare that the love of the Lord endures forever.

The psalmist was hard pressed, but God brought him into a spacious place. Our God is a God who delivers His people from various circumstances.

When faced with danger it is tempting to trust in all sorts of things, but it is always best to take refuge in the Lord. God is unseen, but He is very real.

The psalmist was surrounded by all the nations. Obviously not literally, but there were many foes against him, yet God rescued him.

If we call upon the name of the Lord we will see His victory. Then we can declare His praise. Notice that the Lord's salvation included chastening of David. We need to realise that when God saves us there are things that need to be put right in our own lives as well.

Verse 22 is quoted several times in the New Testament as describing the rejection of Jesus.

The Psalm closes with praise and thanksgiving.