The Costly Call of Jonah

he strenuous warfare in Jonah’s call that is so compelling. I view it as a metaphysical struggle between accepting what you are called to do and the pain invested in that calling (Rom. 7:21-25), the pain of renouncing so much for the good of others. Sometimes that renouncing involves a good thing, like Jonah’s own flock, and at times it is more conspicuously wrong.

Still, the call (Jonah 1:1) is daunting. It is a call to forsake all things near and familiar and go into a far country in a reversed prodigalness bringing some out of their filth into loveliness.

But Jonah’s call is also of political discomfort–to leave the politics of ease into the complexity of a politics of chaos– to delve deeply into strange waters and share in death itself. No one willingly delves into chaos; no one wants to take scattered puzzle pieces called people and put them back together. No one, naturally, wishes to give pieces of their lives to put other human pieces together.

Jonah wars with himself to assume a place of honor among martyrs. Martyrdom is eschatological. Her rewards are in the age to come. Perhaps Jonah’s war with his call was based on the eschatological uncertainties of this life and the certainties of the one to come–to see that blessing come to those who wait to taste and see that the Lord is good. The call is good but costly.

New Commentary on Jonah Available!

I have been gone this past week and am beginning to catch up on several little items. Among them is the joyous news of the publication of the second Brito/Lusk commentary. Our commentary on Jonah is now available for pre-order through Athanasius Press. Rumors are that the printed books should be available on December 6th, and furthermore, that there is a 30% discount on all pre-orders. Oh, and if you would like to buy 25+copies of it for a book study or for your congregation, there is a 50% discount.

The Book of Jonah has captured the imagination of God’s people for centuries, and its unique context and content provide one of the richest stories of God’s mercy to the Gentiles through a reluctant prophet.

This commentary is not like the others. While many commentaries on Jonah focus on the disobedience and woes of the prophet–arguing for a sort of prophetic impiety– this work argues for an overarching narrative that sees God’s mercy transcending the reluctance of the prophet and opening the gates to a missiological reformation. Indeed Jonah is a lovely introduction to the Advent season as hope begins to permeate the Old Testament texts awaiting for a greater prophet than Jonah who will come and proclaim justice and righteousness to all the nations of the earth.

On a personal note, this would make a wonderful Christmas gift as a theological and devotional introduction to one of the most read books of the Scriptures. I’d be really honored if you would share the link with your friends and family.

Pastor Lusk and I are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to make this short but meaningful commentary available to the public.

“I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”-Jonah

The Jonah Project

Well, the cat’s out of the commentary bag: Rich Lusk and I are working on another commentary. Observers may have noticed my tweets or random notes on Jonah. I have been preaching through it and also writing and editing some of our joint efforts. As always, I like to say Rich Lusk is the exegetical genius and I am the fortunate guy who has the joy of working with him in these endeavors. The added benefit is that he and I share a lot of presuppositions about hermeneutics and general biblical exegesis which afford us an awful lot of common ground when we do these projects. In fact, if this is published it will be the third work I’ve done with Rich.

I will be posting occasional quotes from our future commentary. Here is a fairly descriptive summary of the Assyrians to whom Jonah was called to minister:

The ancient Assyrian emperor–just to give you one example of the wickedness that characterized the empire and the city — after a military victory would put giant fishhooks in the mouths of the vanquished and march them down Main Street in a kind of victory parade. And then he would impale them, he’d lift their skin off, and after skinning them alive, he’d cut off their limbs and throw them to the wild animals to be devoured. Now that’s wickedness. That’s what paganism looks like in the raw; paganism when it hasn’t been tamed in any way by the subduing grace of God. Nations that have been influenced by the gospel, even if they aren’t any longer officially Christian, even if they aren’t all that faithful, usually know better than to fight their ways in that way.

Jonah, Introductory Notes

If we are to understand the Book of Jonah rightly, we need to see Jonah as a theologian in Israel, a faithful pastor, and one deeply committed to God’s people. We often view this prophet as an ignorant prophet; an ancient Pharisee. But God is doing something spectacular in the Jonah Journey. He consistently asks Jonah, “Jonah, do you love me?”

This question is answered throughout these four chapters in various ways. In the end, Jonah becomes a scholar of paradox whose silence is itself the answer to Yahweh’s question.

Notes for Summer Camp on Jonah

I am about to head to Texas to preach on Sunday and spend the week with about 150 covenant-loving teenagers talking about Jonah. I am currently preparing/editing my talks. Here is a little section from my Jonah talks focusing on the use of the body as a ritual instrument:

It is interesting that the Protestant tradition, though not always consistent, developed in contrast to the desert fathers, a very strong theology of the body. From that theology, many have come to see that the body is more than a piece of meat with an expiration date on it, but rather a piece of redemption that walks and breathes throughout the earth. You are walking, breathing redemptive bodies.  You were created to be God’s redemptive instrument in the life of others. If that is the case, imagine what the body of Jesus meant to humanity; imagine what the incarnation meant to God, the Father. Imagine that when Jesus became flesh, God did not say: “Wow, what a bummer! Now, my Son is only half the man he used to be!” No, again and again, we hear the Father saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!”

Fleshiness is good. For some of us, this is a new idea! There is a common view that says the body is a necessary evil for the human being. But I tend to think that liturgical traditions like ours where godly morality is emphasized, we have has a deeper awareness of bodily abuses. We need to be in the end of the day, equal opportunity offenders. We need to be critical of the individual who loves his body too much to the point that he forsakes others bodies, and also be critical of those who despise the body in favor of mystical practices sprinkled with Christian symbols, while calling it piety. We pray that we will have a greater stability on these matters in the next generation, especially as we grow in understanding the role of the body in life and worship.

Jonah and Jesus parallels

The parallels are really remarkable. Jonah is swallowed up by Sheol; Jesus is swallowed up by Sheol. Jonah repents; Jesus prays right before death that his enemies would be forgiven; Jonah spends three days in Sheol; Jesus spends three days in Sheol. Jonah proclaims that salvation is of the Lord in Sheol; Jesus proclaims that salvation is of the Lord in Sheol; Jonah is spat out of Sheol after three days; Jesus is spat out of Sheol after three days.

Jesus is the greater Jonah.

 

The Prodigal Jonah…

Aaron Gunsaulus observes a few of the similarities between the Prodigal Son and Jonah:

…the repentance of the most unlikely candidate(s) ; the anger over someone else’s repentance and acceptance; patient explanation by the one accepting the one(s) who repented; the story ending without giving us the response of the one offended by the repentance/acceptance.

The Repentance of God, Part 3 final

This is not foreign to the Biblical text. Jeremiah 18 says exactly what God will do in these situations: If a nation turns from evil, God will not destroy her; if the nation does not turn from evil, God will destroy it.

Let us go back to Jonah 3. In 40 days God will destroy Nineveh, but Nineveh repented and God turned His wrath away. Prophecy works in different ways so we cannot assume that every time God says something it is related to His eternal decrees. We maintain that when God decrees something, no human action will change His plan.

There are two primary forms of prophecy:

a)      Some prophecies are promises of what God will do. They are connected to a divine oath. They are tied to covenant promises: a) The prophecies of a Messiah, b) the promise of a Final Judgment, c) the recreation of the world, etc. These are not contingent on man’s response.

b)      The second form of prophecy is relational or covenantal. God’s relationship to His creatures may change over time. We need to understand that prophecy is not future-telling; prophecy is ethical and evangelistic. If we approached all prophecy in a que sera sera manner, we might as well be Muslims. The God of Islam does not relate to His people, but the God of the Bible is a relational, covenantal God. So in Jonah 3 God is giving them a conditional threat that did not necessarily need to happen. There is an implicit condition in the threat.

Listen to Calvin’s words in the Institutes:

Who now does not see that it pleased the Lord by such threats to arouse to repentance those whom he was terrifying, that they might escape the judgment they deserved for their sins? If that is true, the nature of the circumstances leads us to recognize a tacit condition in the simple intimation. Institutes 1.17.14

There is a tacit condition implied. God does not operate like an unmoved mover, but He operates as a heavenly Father. Pastor Rich Lusk says:

God is passionate, involved and consistent, but you never know what He is going to do next. We are not to de-personalize God. God is jealous; He expresses joy and delight; he shows patience and wrath and even repentance.[1]

Does God change His mind? What does Jonah 3:10 mean?

We are to learn two important truths:

a) God’s eternal decree does not change. God can’t be surprised or mistaken and He is not dependent on His creatures in anyway.

b) But on the other hand, God does change His mind in the sense that He is involved, engaging and He is in a personal relationship with us. He is intimate. In the end, we better hope that God changes His mind, because this is the heart of the gospel. This is the point of Nineveh where God turned wrath into grace; and God changed His mind about us as well. God changed His mind at the cross. God relented at the cross.[2] He decided not to send us all to hell, but to give us eternal life through Christ our Lord.


[1] Sermon series on Jonah 3.

[2] Quote from Lusk.