Jonah

 Michael Sprague

THERE IS A LITTLE JONAH IN ME

Jeopardy Question for $2000 - Who is the main character of the book of Jonah? Jonah… no. The Fish… no. The King, the Ninevites, the sailors … no! The main character is our Great and Gracious God who extends Forgiveness to all who call out for His mercy. 

Remember, Jonah was a runner. Instead of going 500 miles to Nineveh as commanded, he went the opposite direction to Tarshish. You can run from God but you can not outrun God. Jonah was taken to Fish University… not because God wanted to get Jonah back but because He wanted to bring Jonah back. It worked.

Jonah ended up in the Capitol city of Nineveh and preached the most lame sermon probably ever preached. No heart. No mention of God. Little effort. Fortunately, God brought His “A” game and the people of the city believed in God, repented and trusted God’s provision. A great revival came to this pagan city.

You would think the prophet would be thrilled but not Jonah. Why? First, these people were terrorists and were threatening everyone. Some today refer to them as the Biblical Nazi’s. Second, Jonah knew it would be just like God to be kind and gracious to these people. Jonah, quite frankly, wanted them to rot in hell. Jonah would almost rather die than be kind to “those” people. God dealt with the pouting prophet by giving Jonah an ancient version of an air conditioner on a hot day (a shady plant) and then taking it away from him. Jonah was crushed. God asked him if he cared about the plant so much shouldn’t he care about the destiny of human beings. The epic question!

I remember the first time I ever preached on this passage in Jonah. I was a young preacher and had my sermon ready. Our family went camping for a few days prior to Sunday. Camping went great until a huge group of loud motorcycle folks invaded my quiet space. I couldn’t stop complaining about the group and wished they all leave. This went on for a couple days.

Saturday morning their leaders visited my campsite because they heard through the grapevine that I was a pastor. They were all headed to a big rally and before they went they had to have the traditional blessing of the bikes. Their pastor couldn’t come so they humbly asked me to be their pastor. Me! Do you think God was up to something? I agreed and thought it was one brief prayer. No. Every biker had to come up to me on their bike and be prayed for. They humbly told me how much they needed God and made their requests and confessions. God designed this whole thing for Jonah- no, I mean Me. There was a whole lot of Jonah in me. I needed to learn not to put people into categories but remember God is great and gracious and wants to extend forgiveness to all who repent and call on Him in faith. Oh how the book of Jonah still speaks!! I will never forget it.