JONAH: THE SURVIVOR SERIES

“OUR PROVIDING GOD”

By Dr. Eric C. Stumpf, Senior Pastor

St. Paul’s Ev. Lutheran Church – Munster, IN

3 Mar 2010

+ 3^rd Lenten Series on Jonah + Jonah 2:1-10

            “Obstinate,” is defined as perversely adhering to an opinion, purpose, or course in spite of reason, arguments, or persuasion.  It is usually used with someone who is dead wrong and nothing is going to budge them from their opinion, even an act of God. 

            A recent example came to my attention.  Fallon, Nevada, lies east of Reno.  The city water comes from wells.  The water has the highest concentration of arsenic than any other city in the United States.  The Federal Government mandated the town to build a water purification system.  The city refused.  They fought it in the courts for 10 years.  One local official said, “This is Nevada.  They don’t want to feel the government is intruding in their lives.”  It would seem obstinate would be a good word to use in describing a pattern that would allow their children to drink arsenic-laced water rather than to let the government intrude in their lives.

            Is such obstinacy amazing?  History is full of obstinate people.  The Pharaoh of Egypt was told by God to let the Israelite go.  It took 10 acts of God, plagues, to finally break his obstinacy, even if it was for a couple of days.

            Let me summarize where we have gone these last two Wednesdays.  Jonah, a prophet, was called to preach repentance to Ninevah, the capital of an evil empire, Assyria.  Jonah did not want to obey.  Why?  Jonah wanted Assyria to be destroyed.  But he knew God was merciful and he was afraid God would lead Assyria to repent through Jonah’s preaching.  Jonah took a ship and sailed in the opposite direction.  A violent storm arose and tossed it about.  The sailors called to their god to no avail.  Jonah confessed his God was the God of land and oceans.  He told them to throw him overboard to save them.  They did.  They were saved and praised to the true God.  God saved the Gentile sailors like he will Ninevah.  The irony is Jonah’s one sentence sermon converted the sailors.

Jonah Wanted to Escape

            Jonah wanted to escape from doing God’s will.  He even told the sailors to throw him overboard because he wanted to escape.  Better to drown than obey.  How obstinate is that?  But even in the depths God found him.

            Some people try the same thing.  They commit a sin in their life and then they try to hide it from God and others.  But then they are discovered and confronted with their sin.  They are called to repent, to be forgiven by God and be healed.  But they don’t want to obey the call of God.  They try to dodge it, blame others for the problem, come up with excuses why it isn’t a sin, or it’s alright even if it is a sin.  They work hard to justify themselves and their actions.  They hid by running away, but there is nowhere to hide.

            God found Jonah on the seas and even beneath the sea.  He provided a fish, a special fish that could swallow Jonah, preserve him from being digested, and save his life from drowning.  The fish might have seemed to Jonah at first a punishment, a knife to kill him.  But the fish was a scalpel in the hands of God, the surgeon determined to save Jonah’s soul.

            St. Paul wrote, “I will that people pray in every place.”  What an unusual place to pray for repentance and deliverance, in the belly of a fish.  A room of repentance.  But we’ve been there.  It wasn’t a fish belly, I dare say, but perhaps it was the ER waiting room, or in a crushed car after a terrible accident, or in a jail cell, or in a courtroom, or in our beds in the depths of hopeless night.  It is where our sins catch up to us, and all the fancy dancing we’ve done finally can’t change it from what it is, destructive sin, crushing sin, deadly sin.  The jaws of destruction are about to bite down hard and we call on the name of the Lord.

Jonah’s Prayer

            While Jonah was obstinate and disobeyed God, he was still a man of faith, a saint and sinner at the same time.  He called on God in prayer.  His words spoke confidence that God’s mercy would rescue him.  It was as if it was done already.  He used God’s own words in his prayer, a strong affirmation that the one who created the world with His word would by His Word also be faithful.  Jonah’s prayer echoed God’s Word.  When we are in great need, familiar and treasured passages of Scripture, liturgy, and hymns become freshly meaningful.  Familiar words recreate images that reawaken faith or mend the broken heart.

            Jonah’s statement of faith was, “I shall look again upon your holy temple.” (v. 4)  Today the temple no longer exists, but God’s Son in the person of Christ came and dwelt among us, Matthew 1:23.  Jesus is the new temple, John 2:21 and through him we have access to the throne of grace.  Jonah could not save himself, God saved Jonah.

            Sadly, Jonah remembered God only when his life was threatened and he faced death, not when God called him.  Saint and sinner, like you and me, are inconsistent;  but God is faithful and gives us salvation.

Salvation Belongs to God

            The last words in Jonah’s prayer was “Salvation belongs to God.”  It is true.  The sailors were saved when they called in the name of the Lord rather than their sea god called Yamm.  Jonah was saved from the depths of the sea and drowning when he was brought to repentance and spoke his faith.  Indeed salvation belongs to God.

            But it is a bit much for the fish to swallow.  Jonah was all for salvation when it came to his life, but he does not want salvation for the Assyrians.  He still does not want to be the instrument of God’s salvation for Assyria.  So the fish can not stomach him anymore.  God causes Jonah to be thrown up on to the land, so he might begin again his journey, but this time in the right direction.

            For repentant and forgiven sinners, salvation belongs to the Lord.  It is for you in the name of Jesus, and it is for those who have wronged us as well, those who need our forgiveness too.  In the saving name of Jesus, Amen.

SDG