HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD? || Jonah
.29/4/22
Jonah 1
SB: Jonah thought he could run from God but he hadn't really understood how big & how mighty God is.
• The journey:
the extent to which he'd go to avoid God's command
• Acknowledgment & humility
• 'Crossed wires' - the land & the sea - & so, can't outrun God
There is a plan.
There is a good plan.
◘ Jonah doesn't want to go to Nineveh because he's scared.
He doesn't want to go because he thinks that they don't deserve to be saved.
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.01/05/22 (JM)
Jonah 2 - Jonah's prayer
Pseudo-responsible 1 v 12
|| Pseudo-repentance
Critique: Transactional; weak faith
Not really acknowledging his own actions
(everything has been inflicted on him)
... & yet, he does still pray
(Good) enough for God?
Then v.10 - HEART CHANGE
What's helpful about his response?
• Flawed thus relatable
• Rebelliousness / rejection
→ Forgiveness & mercy
• Still clinging to God, as from ship
God orchestrated the depths:
God recognised what Jonah needed
in order for Jonah to recognise God again -- reinstated
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HG study
Jonah 3 - 'The fish is not the thing' / Tim Mackie
• People acting in opposite way
• Son of faithfulness, Man of peace
Nineveh's repentence (to turn around)
'TEAM ALLEGORY' or , 'TEAM LITERAL' ?
Big fish - no dates, no specifics
Historical figure & places
Jonah: Israel, God's people
Nineveh: the World
Punished then redeemeed
Symmetry with other
biblical books, like Exodus
- warning, time, judgment
3 days & 3 nights
Matt.
" just as Jonah... "
Jer 51 v 34
"like a great monster"
Lam 2 v 2 - 6
1 Kings ... Elijah
2 Kings - ref. to Jonah
Prophecy corrected by Amos
Can't run away from God
God can still turn things around
God capable of destroying
Ps 124
a unified nation's response
to Jonah's five word message
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.22/5/22 (TW)
Jonah 4: Messy & complex chapter.
One of only a few biblical books to close with a question.
God's mercy:
The word of the LORD came to Jonah again.
' When the Ninevites turned from their ra'al '
- Hebrew: their evil, or wrongdoing
. . . . .
TW: Jonah wasn't worried about what the Ninevites might do to him,
he was worried about what God might do for the Ninevites.
Jonah's word & God’s word here are in conflict:
|| “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home?
|| That is what I tried to forestall..'
◘ Acts as a kind of parody of Elijah’s despair after confronting Ahab (1 K. 19) as nothing seems to have changed ~ whereas Jonah has seen a whole city repent & is still in despair.
. . . . .
Unlike Job's friends who seek to give him 'answers',
-- God draws alongside & asks Jonah questions,
starting a discussion about his inward-looking anger & self-centredness.
Jonah's shelter vs. God's provision: a plant to grow up over it to ease Jonah's discomfort (ra'al), to give shade
... Irony: Jonah cannot construct a shelter but still claims authority on how best to rule.
The Ninevites & God's compassion: mercy & pity
- Ignorant; 'don't know their right hand from their left '
. . . . .
Jonah's naming of God shifts throughout the book:
(God -- the Covenant God -- God of Israel -- the LORD God.)
The God who is the God of Israel is also God of the whole world;
Jonah needs to understand this & that His mercy extends to all.
◘ Does any of Jonah's attitude happen in me?
Is that connected to a small view of God?
Do I really want a small God whom I can control?
... That's not the God of the Bible.
Nahum:
- The only other book to end on a question.
- Set ~ 100 years after Jonah
- Theme: Judgement ... on Nineveh.
Here, God relents & shows compassion.
But eventually judgement does fall - it's God who gets to decide who gets judgement & who gets mercy & when.
> The consequences of compassion?
In the hundred years, Jonah's people (the Northern kingdom) is destroyed by Assyria.
When the wicked get let off ...
At the heart of the Bible, what about Him?
- He knows what it is to suffer injustice;
the only one who's big enough to make Himself small.
- Jesus' forgiveness: 'they know not what they do'
= Echoes God speaking to Jonah about Nineveh in Ch. 4.
2 Peter 3:9 NLT -
' The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. '