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“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8 – 9
One of the issues I encountered early on in my renewed walk with God, was overcoming “either / or” thinking. It is a mindset that we all find ourselves prone to as it is underpinned by some innate desire to further our understanding by means of categorization…
The problem is, as eluded to by the cited portion of Isaiah, God exceeds our comprehension, and thereby categorization.
The issue essentially boils down to the fact that we tend to approach theology as “either / or” – either law, or grace, when in fact, God reveals himself to be the progenitor of both law and grace. Moreover, he reveals that both can and do function simultaneously and harmoniously. Furthermore, he reveals that this is not new; there is after all, “… nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiates 1:9)
Let me show you something…
The Lord’s message came to Jonah son of Amittai, “Go immediately to Nineveh, that large capital city, and announce judgment against its people because their wickedness has come to my attention.” Instead, Jonah immediately headed off to Tarshish to escape from the commission of the Lord. He traveled to Joppa and found a merchant ship heading to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard it to go with them to Tarshish far away from the Lord.
Jonah 1:1 – 3
It can be tempting when we read scripture, to gloss over the book of Jonah. Many of us have, after all, been familiar with the story from our youth. The problem is, as with most scripture, that there are far deeper truths made apparent than what we are initially able to grasp or come to terms with.
If you were reading through this book for the first time, having no sense of familiarity or foreknowledge of the outcome, you would rightly be asking yourself, “what the heck is going on here and what is Jonah’s problem?” To quote a teacher and brother in the faith; “if you don’t understand the scriptures, keep reading.”
God sends forth a powerful storm which threatens to destroy the ship on which Jonah had purchased passage to Tarshish. After some deliberation among the crew, Jonah is finally thrown overboard at his own request, and we enter the phase of the story that is so well known; namely that he was swallowed up by a great fish which later vomits him up on the shores of Nineveh – the very destination he sought to flee. (Reference Jonah 1:4 – 2:10)
After his arrival, Jonah is told by God a second time to proclaim the word of the Lord to the people there:
The Lord’s message came to Jonah a second time, “Go immediately to Nineveh, that large city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, in keeping with the Lord’s message. (Now Nineveh was an enormous city – it required three days to walk through it!) When Jonah began to enter the city one day’s walk, he announced, “At the end of forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
Jonah 3:1 – 4
The result of this proclamation is that the people of Nineveh repent. They ultimately believe Jonah, and believe in the God who sent him (reference Jonah 3:5 – 9). The result of their repentance is reported in verse 10:
When God saw their actions – that they turned from their evil way of living! – God relented concerning the judgment he had threatened them with and he did not destroy them.
Jonah 3:10
Now, moving into Chapter 4, we discover that this was exactly the issue Jonah had from the very beginning. Say what you like about him and his motives, but Jonah intrinsically understood something most modern believers fail to grasp; that the God of the universe is the God of both law and grace – of both judgement and mercy.
This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “Oh, Lord, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish! – because I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment. So now, Lord, kill me instead, because I would rather die than live!”
Jonah 4:1 – 3
If you, like myself, were raised to view the ‘Old Testament’ law as harsh and punitive, I would encourage you to meditate upon what is transpiring in this passage, what it reveals about the law, and more importantly, the God who gave it…
Jonah knew that if the people repented, God would relent in his decree against them. He knew full-well that Nineveh was wicked. He knew that under the edicts of the law, they absolutely deserved destruction. He also knew the graciousness and compassion of the God who gave the law… a graciousness he clearly did not want to be poured out upon the Ninevites. He knew that God is the God of both, and…
While the grace afforded to Nineveh throughout this story is significant, no less considerable is the grace afforded to the stubborn prophet. Recall that “rebellion is as the sin of divination (witchcraft)…” (1 Samuel 15:23). Throughout the events recorded here, God deals firmly but graciously with Jonah. This even despite his attempts to subvert the word and will of the Lord.
Even after the (begrudging) completion of his assignment, we see in the pouting of the prophet, further illustration of the graciousness and patience of God:
The Lord said, “Are you really so very angry?”
Jonah left the city and sat down east of it. He made a shelter for himself there and sat down under it in the shade to see what would happen to the city. The Lord God appointed a little plant and caused it to grow up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to rescue him from his misery. Now Jonah was very delighted about the little plant.Jonah 4:4 – 39
So God sent a worm at dawn the next day, and it attacked the little plant so that it dried up. When the sun began to shine, God sent a hot east wind. So the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, and he grew faint. So he despaired of life, and said, “I would rather die than live!” God said to Jonah, “Are you really so very angry about the little plant?” And he said, “I am as angry as I could possibly be!” The Lord said, “You were upset about this little plant, something for which you have not worked nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up overnight and died the next day. Should I not be even more concerned about Nineveh, this enormous city? There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, as well as many animals!”
Not only does God deal patiently and graciously with Jonah, He uses the situation as a means to teach the prophet and speak to His (God’s) heart; a desire to exhibit grace and mercy, to bring about repentance and reconciliation… something I find thematic throughout the whole of scripture.
“… for I, Adonai your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey my mitzvot.”
Exodus 20:5 – 6 (CJB)
שלום עליכם – Shalom Aleichem – Peace Be Upon You