Written by: Mat Ineson
Jonah 3 v 6-10
When the king of Nineveh heard this news, he got up from his throne, took off
his robe, and covered himself with rough cloth and sat in ashes to show how
upset he was.
He sent this announcement through Nineveh:
By command of the king and his important men: No person or animal, herd or flock,
will be allowed to taste anything. Do not let them eat food or drink water. But
every person and animal should be covered with rough cloth, and people should
cry loudly to God. Everyone must turn away from evil living and stop doing harm
all the time. Who knows? Maybe God will change his mind. Maybe he will stop being
angry, and then we will not die.
When God saw what the people did, that they stopped doing evil, he changed his
mind and did not do what he had warned. He did not punish them.
Notes
"God, do something! Do something about the evil in the world. Do something
about the terrible way that human beings fight. Do something about fair trade.
Make poverty history, Lord!"
When the evil in the world confronts us, we cry to God for him to do something. Often, we don't see ourselves as part of the solution. We don't see our contribution to wrongdoing.
Perhaps the people of Nineveh cried out to God. We are told at the beginning of Jonah that the Lord had seen the terrible things being done in Nineveh. Everyone had some responsibility in these terrible things. None of them was perfect, so they all needed to repent.
The people of Nineveh heard the word of God. They listened, believed and repented. Even the king joined in. The people were asked to cry loudly to God, to turn away from evil and to stop doing harm all the time. They repented.
Repentance is more than saying sorry. Repentance is active. It's turning your back on the things that are not of God and moving towards God. Not eating and drinking and wearing rough cloth were signs of their repentance, but it was happening in their hearts. God was interested in the way that they acted. God did not punish them because they stopped doing evil. Repentance led to change.
One of the joys of Christian faith is that God gives us the strength and resources to repent, through the Holy Spirit. We need to want to change, to repent. It is an act of our will carried out in God's strength. So next time we cry to God to do something, perhaps we want to add: "and start with me".
Prayer
Lord, I recognise that I am not perfect, that I do wrong. I want to be right
with you. I want to turn from evil and face you. I want to follow in your
ways. Change the world and start with me. Amen
Jonah 4 v 1-4
But this made Jonah very unhappy, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD, "When
I was still in my own country this is what I said would happen, and that is
why I quickly ran away to Tarshish. I knew that you are a God who is kind and
shows mercy. You don't become angry quickly, and you have great love. I knew
you would choose not to cause harm. So now I ask you, LORD, please kill me.
It is better for me to die than to live."
Then the LORD said, "Do you think it is right for you to be angry?"
Notes
"God, it's not fair! Why don't you act to stop atrocities? Why don't you
judge and punish bad people? They're getting away with murder! It's not fair."
Jonah expected to see some good punishing. He'd travelled a long way, spent three days in the belly of a fish, given his message about how God would destroy the city because it had turned from him - and now what do the evil people do … they repent and God changes his mind. No smiting, no lightning bolts, no destruction. It's not fair! It's not justice. You're being soft, God. God had apparently changed his mind and Jonah was angry.
The striking truth in this reading is that God's love and mercy is NOT fair. Indeed, it never is. Throughout the Bible, God's love, mercy and grace are always stronger sides of his character than judgement and punishment. Don't get me wrong. God has promised that the world will be judged one day. Judgement will come. But for those who recognise God and their bad attitudes and behaviour, for those who turn to God and ask for forgiveness, there will be mercy and love. Thank God for that.
Jonah was angry because God had not done what Jonah thought was right and just. Can we be like this? Do we sometimes want God to act towards others in a different way to the way he acts towards us? God is not fair, but God is love. God's love, God's grace, is undeserved for all of us.
God asked Jonah a question. It's a question to ask ourselves when we become angry about the way that God treats people who we think should be punished: "Do you think it is right for you to be angry?" Good question.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for your love for me. Thank you that you show me mercy and
forgiveness. Help me to show that same mercy and forgiveness to others. Help
me to want others to receive your love. Amen
Jonah 4 v 5-9
Jonah went out and sat down east of the city. There he made a shelter for himself
and sat in the shade, waiting to see what would happen to the city. The LORD
made a plant grow quickly up over Jonah, which gave him shade and helped
him to be more comfortable. Jonah was very pleased to have the plant. But
the next day when the sun rose, God sent a worm to attack the plant so that
it died.
As the sun rose higher in the sky, God sent a very hot east wind to blow,
and the sun became so hot on Jonah's head that he became very weak and wished
he
were dead. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live."
But God said to Jonah, "Do you think it is right for you to be angry about
the plant?"
Jonah answered, "It is right for me to be angry! I am so angry I could
die!"
Notes
Jonah was sulking. He sat on the floor and moaned that God wasn't fair, life
wasn't fair and nobody loved him. Actually, he'd built a shelter and he was
sitting waiting for God to do something. It's a funny moment when you think
about it. A grown man sitting in a shelter watching a city and sulking because
God won't act as Jonah wanted him too. God was not destroying Nineveh.
A plant grew to make Jonah comfortable. Jonah was pleased. Then God sent a worm to eat the plant and the sun and east wind to make him uncomfortable. Jonah was not pleased. Jonah did not answer God's "Do you think it is right for you to be angry?", so God patiently tried a different way of getting his point across.
When life goes wrong, when we experience pain or loss, when life sucks, we often assume that we are being punished. Perhaps as well as complaining to God we should also be asking, "Is God trying to teach me something?" It's OK to shout at God, but we also need to listen.
Jonah was so caught up in self-centred anger that he could not hear what God was saying. God persevered with him as he had throughout the story. God continued to try to teach him because God loved him. We are told in Hebrews 12 v 6 that: "The Lord corrects those he loves".
Perhaps if you are struggling at the moment, you might like to spend some moments quietly asking God to give you strength to deal with the problem and wisdom to understand what God is trying to teach you. Sometimes writing down how you feel helps. I find that keeping a diary or journal of life's events and spending time prayerfully reviewing them helps.
Prayer
Loving Father, thank you that you are patient. Thank you that you long for
me to grow to know you better. Help me to receive your discipline and know
your love. Help me to listen as well as speak. Amen
Jonah 4 v 10-11
And the LORD said, "You are so concerned for that plant even though you
did nothing to make it grow. It appeared one day, and the next day it died.
Then shouldn't I show concern for the great city Nineveh, which has more than
one hundred twenty thousand people who do not know right from wrong, and many
animals, too?"
Notes
I saw a great T-shirt once. It said: "It's because of people like you
that people like me are on medication." I know that feeling.
Serving at Lee Abbey in Devon, England, is a tremendous privilege. There are times when my Christian love is stretched to the limit by some people who can be extremely demanding. After a bad day the last thing you need is someone getting stroppy. But time and time again I find that the people who are stroppy are the same people who are dealing with enormous hurts - perhaps illness or bereavement or divorce. When I realise the pain others feel, my day doesn't look so bad.
Jonah's plant had died and it was the final straw. But the plant was not Jonah's, it was God's. God made it grow and God sent the worm to eat it. It was part of God's lesson for Jonah. Jonah was so concerned with his own feelings that he did not see the condition of the people of Nineveh. He saw the evil they committed and not the people who were lost. They did not know right from wrong. In killing the plant that sheltered Jonah, God showed him the real tragedy; more than 120,000 people did not know God's ways.
God's desire is that all people should come to know his love. He wants everyone to hear the good news and repent. Jonah was called to speak God's word to Nineveh so that they would repent, turn back and receive the love of God. We are called to do the same because God loves the people of Nineveh and God loves the people I serve here – especially the stroppy ones. We are called to love as he loves.
Prayer
Lord God, it's sometimes hard to see how much you love all people. Thank you
for your love for me. Help me to see as you see, and to love as you love.
Amen
Psalm 44 v 1-3
God, we have heard about you.
Our ancestors told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.
With your power you forced the nations out of the land and placed our ancestors
here.
You destroyed those other nations, but you made our ancestors grow strong.
It wasn't their swords that took the land.
It wasn't their power that gave them victory.
But it was your great power and strength.
You were with them because you loved them.
Notes
"Where are you from?" I hate that question. I don't know where I'm
from. I've lived in too many different places.
Do you know who you are? Now, that's a question.
Knowing our identity is important. It tells us who we are in relation to our friends, our family and the rest of society. Most importantly, it tells us who we are in relation to God. And that brings us security. That is not only true for us as individuals, it is also true of the church.
Psalm 44 is more about "we" than about "I". It is a psalm of community identity. In these three verses we hear that stories of God have been passed down from generation to generation. We hear that God's power and strength have made the nation of Israel who they are. There are uncomfortable truths about God destroying other nations to fulfil his purpose - God's purpose that all the nations of the world should be blessed through Israel as they witness God (see Genesis 12 v 3). As this psalm unfolds, we will see that having God in your history does not guarantee God for your future.
Who are you? For Christians the Bible teaches us that we are "God's children" (1 John 3 v 10), we are the church, the body of Jesus Christ on earth today. Our identity comes from the power, strength and love of God shown in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Our history with God is recorded in the history of Israel and history of the church. It is all because God loves us. We are, because God loves us.
Prayer
Loving God, thank you for our ancestors in faith. Thank you for all that we
can learn from them. Thank you for your love for us. Praise you that our
identity is in you. Amen
Psalm 44 v 4-8
My God, you are my King.
Your commands led Jacob's people to victory.
With your help we pushed back our enemies.
In your name we trampled those who came against us.
I don't trust my bow to help me, and my sword can't save me.
You saved us from our foes, and you made our enemies ashamed.
We will praise God every day; we will praise your name for ever.
Notes
I love the battle scenes in the film "Kingdom of Heaven" (20th Century
Fox). I'm stunned by the cinematography, the effects and the realism of it.
It struck me the other day that many of the soldiers would not have really
understood what they were fighting for. They were fighting because they were
loyal and obedient to the king. Who is your king?
I have to say that verses in the Bible where violence is done in God's name and strength are hard to understand. But we weren't there. When your people are attacked or threatened with force, sometimes it is the only way to resist. Our own history teaches us that. Without doubt, God pulled off some spectacular victories against the odds when people threatened his people Israel. These victories always followed if the commanders were obedient to their king – God. When they trusted their own swords and bows they lost.
In this psalm the people declared God as their king. They recognised that God worked through them when they obeyed his commands. They acknowledged that God saved them and they praised God for it.
I guess most of us don't need to strap on our swords in the morning to prepare for battle. But Christians are in a spiritual battle. It can be hard work being a Christian in everyday life. We face many challenges as we try to live for God. If we declare God as our king we need to obey his commands. The psalm tells us God will help us as he helped others. We need to learn day by day to trust in God and not in our own solutions. And we need to learn to praise God every day and for ever. Who is your king?
Prayer
My God, you are my king. Praise you. Help me to trust you. Help me obey you.
Give me the strength to love for you. Thank you, God. Amen
Psalm 44 v 9-16
But you have rejected us and shamed us.
You don't march with our armies any more.
You let our enemies push us back, and those who hate us have taken our wealth.
You gave us away like sheep to be eaten and have scattered us among the nations.
You sold your people for nothing and made no profit on the sale.
You made us a joke to our neighbors; those around us laugh and make fun of
us.
You made us a joke to the other nations; people shake their heads.
I am always in disgrace, and I am covered with shame.
My enemy is getting even with insults and curses.
Notes
As you read the passage for today I wonder what you thought. God, says the
reading, has rejected and shamed us. God has made us a joke. What's going
on? To be honest we don't know what's behind this psalm. But we can learn
from it.
We can learn that sometimes we don't understand God. And that's OK. We are not the only ones. Sometimes God acts and we cannot see the reason for it. God sometimes faces us with hard questions. For example, why did some who are so good die so young? Why did the Tsunami kill so many people?
God doesn't make suffering happen, but sometimes God doesn't stop it. The world is a dangerous and unpredictable place because of the sinfulness of human beings and the "fallenness" of all creation, not because God is trying to hurt us. Sometimes our faith faces us with hard questions.
We can take comfort that it's OK to complain about things to God. God can take it. It is biblical to complain bitterly against God. The psalms are full of it, and so are other books in the Bible. If life stinks tell God about it, but be prepared to listen to his response.
I remember my daughter having a tantrum. Something had gone wrong that was out of her control and not due to her behaviour. It happened to her and she didn't understand why. As a parent my reaction was not to shout at her, but to hold her until she calmed down. God does the same with us.
We live in an imperfect world. I wonder if sometimes God allows us to see the depths of imperfection in order to point us to his perfection. The darker it gets, the easier it becomes to see the light.
Prayer idea
Perhaps you would like to spend some time telling God how you feel, or asking
God: "Why?" Then maybe spend some moments listening for God to
speak to you, to remind you of his love for you. Allow him to hold you.
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes