Monday, October 24, 2016

Jonah's repentance

When we think of saints who failed, we often think of David's adultery. Or Peter's denial of Christ.

But we might not remember Jonah.

Jonah took disobedience to a radical level. He didn't just err in a moment of weakness. He was given a clear command--to preach to the inhabitants of Nineveh--and he chose to take a ship and travel in the opposite direction. There was simply no way he was going to preach to Israel's enemies, the Assyrians.

God was threatening destruction to this evil city. But Jonah knew that if he preached there, they might repent, and he knew God well enough to know that He would spare them if they did (check out Jonah 4:2). We might not think of loving our enemies as an Old Testament truth, but God never changes, nor His truth. And that's what Jonah was being called upon to do.

So instead of traveling about five hundred miles northeast, he takes a ship that would take him five times that distance to the west. However, the Lord sends a storm.

A really bad storm. The sailors were terrified, threw stuff overboard in an effort to save the ship, and cried out to their gods (Jonah 1:4-5). The captain finds Jonah fast asleep in the hold and urged him to pray to his god. But it's impossible to pray when you have no intention of obeying. We find no record of Jonah interceding.

But something really interesting does happen. The sailors cast lots, and decide that Jonah is the one responsible for this crisis--which is indeed the case. Jonah is brought to a stand. He realizes that he can't run and hide anymore.

He reveals everything. He describes his God, "who made the sea and the dry land." To pagan minds, this was significant. He is telling them that God has power over this storm. He tells them about his flight from the Lord. He concludes by saying that if they throw him into the sea, that it would become calm.

I suppose that if Jonah were merely depressed in a sort of selfish, self-absorbed way, he wouldn't have said all of this. But we can see his thinking shift. He is no longer sleeping away his rebellious depression. Instead, he has decided to save the lives of the others. Maybe it's not so heroic on his part. If he didn't direct them to throw him overboard, they would all die, himself included.

It's a small step, but an important one. He's telling the truth. About God. About himself. The word "repentance" is a translation of the Greek word "metanoia"--a change of mind.

And a core ingredient of godly repentance is recognizing the truth about God and about yourself. A person might "repent" in a superficial way, by recognizing that a certain behavior is destructive, and deciding to give it up. True repentance includes those outward things, but the outward is not the first step.

The first step is telling the truth. Owning the truth. Confessing it to others. And allowing it to make a difference in your decisions. We see all of this in Jonah.

You may remember the rest of the story. Jonah doesn't drown, but is swallowed by a huge fish or whale. In its belly he utters a wonderful prayer, recorded in Jonah 2:2-9. He's not just pouring out a lament. He's worshipping God in that awful darkness. It's a prayer of faith.

He ends up obeying God. He preaches to the folks in Nineveh, who repent. As expected they are spared, to Jonah's chagrin. He grumbles. He's human, after all. Even then, God gently corrects him.

Jonah repents, believes, and obeys. Salvation is of the Lord.

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