This week I am taking some time to reflect on the book of Jonah as we look at the minor prophets as part of our teaching at QBC. Jonah is one of those books where the story is so well known that it can be hard to hit it afresh. The Sunday school Jonah looms so large that it can be difficult to see anyone else.
But as I’ve been reading it again this week and pondering it I’ve had some fresh thoughts and insights, probably nothing revolutionary, yet enough to take me away from the well worn sermon paths and into some slightly different territory.
Probably the most significant thing that stood out to me was that God chose this clown to use in the first place. There isn’t much about Jonah that is inspirational. In fact there is plenty of ‘how not to’s’ in his story. He strikes me as someone who if you met them face to face that you’d find it easy to dislike.
Grumpy, obstinate, self focussed… with a few moments of redemptive goodness, but broadly speaking hardly someone you’d want as a mate.
I was comparing Jonah to Lonnie Frisbee as I was preparing my talk this morning – another flawed prophet who had quite an amazing ministry. As I read again about Frisbee it was clear that the churches and denominations that he was so catalytic in helping get off the ground had disowned him and written him out of their histories. He was not a fit person to have as a founder…
What strikes me about God is that he chose to leave the Jonah story in the history of Israel. He didn’t see Jonah’s failings and grumbling as a reason to erase him. He just left the story in the canon of scripture for us to read.
Why?
Maybe because that’s what God’s like. He will take a risk on us knowing that we will screw up, knowing that we will let him down, but he does it anyway.
The story doesn’t even end with Jonah in a place of enlightenment or repentance. It just finishes with him pissed off at God for his grace and kindness…
But its there – because that’s how it is sometimes.
The God who takes a risk on a bloke like Jonah just might take a punt on me too, because my failures will never overshadow is love and his grace – in fact if anything they just might highlight it.
Why do we have this tendency to approach the Bible looking for a character to identify with? We look to David as an example of finding strength to conquer our giants. We look to Job to help us with patience and long-suffering. We look to Daniel to keep ourselves pure and steadfast. We look to Paul to help us leave all behind for the sake of the Gospel.
Is this what the Bible is? A list of inspiring characters to emulate?
Jesus, however, looked to Jonah as a sign pointing to Himself. Not as a model for Him to identify with but as a type the He would fulfill.
IMHO, we need more preaching that points to Christ instead of ourselves.
I agree with the above comment, although I’ve got no idea whether it was having a go at your blog post or not. I’m all against pure moralising of the OT. Whether you’ve got to land every obervation on the OT by talking about Jesus though, is another matter.
I think you’re spot on; the history of Israel (and the Church, I suppose) is that God uses flawed people to show his grace and achieve his purpose. The story of Jonah demonstrates that Jonah was happy be a recipient of that grace – he just didn’t want anyone else to be. Probably because he never understood he was no better than them. But I love your observation: our failures will never overshadow God’s grace. That’s tremendously liberating in ministry.
Thanks.
I struggle to find only-redemptive-characteristics in any biblical character, save for Jesus. But that’s what I have learned to love… instead of being inspired to ‘rise to their heights’, I’m inspired to ‘see God work through (or despite) my failings’.
Jonah must have been a solid prophet in his day – he must have been regarded as such by those in his community, but just a bit of a prick who had a bias a mile big on his right shoulder. I can identify with that. But, instead of wanting to leave the boulder on my shoulder that causes me to lean whichever way my earthly experience tells me I should, I learn from Jonah that it’s probably best to surrender it as earthly dumbness, and let God lead (and get myself out of the way).
It’s a great story that is number one about God reaching out to a mob of misfits.
Number two it can teach us about ourselves, but I’m not sure that this was the intent – perhaps it’s a simple fact that when God is at the centre, flawed people will be involved.
Emulate? Probably not a lot of the time.
Learn from? Perhaps better to learn from the mistakes of others instead of going through the whole thing yourself.