Jonah, the Reluctant Evangelist

Jonah pops up in this particular position in the timeline of Israel for a reason. For most of 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles, we watch as Israel embarks on a long, persistent slide away from God with Judah following not too far behind. It seems each succeeding king, even the godly ones, slip further away from the Father. In 2 Kings 14:25, we are introduced to Jonah as a prophet of God. 

He fills another role, as well. Jonah is a little snapshot of where the two kingdoms are in their relationship with God, namely; full of themselves, openly rebellious toward Him but still being used and refined by Him for His purposes.

Jonah was probably written early in the eighth century BC during the reign of Jereboam II. By then, The Assyrians, who had a history of viciously attacking Israel, were weakening. Nineveh, situated in what is now Northern Iraq, was the home of the Assyrian king and was a huge city that was still an acute danger to Israel.

When God sends Jonah to Nineveh to prophesy over

the city, Jonah is understandably annoyed and runs in the opposite direction. After all, the Ninevites were the enemy, and a particularly nasty one at that. Why would Jonah want to see them redeemed by God? Wouldn't it be better just to let them be judged and eliminated?

On the way to Tarshish, a large port in Spain, the familiar story about Jonah being swallowed by the whale ensues. What few people notice, however, is that, due to Jonah's insistence that he is the cause of their predicament and their subsequent throwing of Jonah overboard, the sailors on the boat are delivered and begin worshiping God. I like to think of Jonah as a reluctant evangelist. 

For sure, Jonah ends up in Nineveh, in spite of his attempt to escape. He prophesies to the city and the city repents, avoiding destruction, more converts due to Jonah's reluctant preaching!

All this actually makes Jonah mad. That's where the book ends, Nineveh is saved and Jonah is upset, a rather unusual ending to an amazing story.  

Yet, we can learn much from Jonah; 

• First, God is clearly the God of land and sea, the God of Jew and Gentile. 

• Second, while our own heart motivation can have a huge impact on our relationship with our Father, God can still use us for His sovereign plans...in spite of us rather than because of us. 

• Third, those who seem to be our enemies need to hear the gospel. God wants us to witness to them, not defeat them. The greatest victory will come when they turn to God and become our brothers, not when we vanquish them. 

• Fourth, God is far more gracious than we sometimes think. Jonah earned nothing but wrath and judgment for refusing to do what God called him to do. Yet, God saved him from the whale, used him to preach His word, provided shade for him and told him the truth about himself. 

• Fifth, ironically, Jonah accuses God of being gracious and merciful toward the Ninevites without fully realizing or appreciating the he, himself, is a beneficiary of that same grace. God could have judged him and punished him. God chose, instead to use him, in spite of his shortcomings

God can do the same with us, use us in spite of our shortcomings. Furthermore, God loved Jonah...and the Ninevites, a sobering reminder to the Body of Christ as much of the world seems to be turning into the enemy. Perhaps they are actually "fields white unto harvest." We should be careful to avoid Jonah's mindset and mistake. We should be eager to see the Ninevites of our time come to repentance.