The sign of the prophet Jonah

 

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you." He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."  Matt 12:38-40


    Some people are easily misunderstood. The disciple "doubting into faiith" Thomas is one of those people and the "God's Way is not our way Prophet" Jonah is another. Jonah gets dumped on because he ran from God. He did run from God, but he also ran into God. The story of Jonah is a story of the sovereign workings of God's Grace. God can and does save IN SPITE of who we are not because of who we are. Jonah was a self-willed, rebellious man. But God did not reject him, instead God worked on Jonah. Then centuries later when Jesus was speaking to self willed, rebellious religious people  the light of Jonah's story shined on them and condemned them. 

    There are three things Jonah knew, he knew God(Jonah 4:1), he knew he was running from God(Jonah 1:3, 1:10), and he knew his disobedience had brought calamnity to those around him(Jonah 1:12). 

    Jonah had problems, he was an angry, self-willed man, but he also knew God. Jonah heard from God. His spiritual hearing was real. God spoke to Jonah 5 times in the little book of Jonah(Jonah 1:1, 3:1, 4:4, 4:9,10). Jonah knew God's voice. Not only could Jonah hear from God, Jonah knew God's character. Jonah knew God was more interested in being merciful to people than in pouring out wrath. This is what led to Jonah's problem. God wanted Jonah to preach to the Ninivettes. Jonah didn't like those people and so he refused to preach to them. Jonah was afraid if he did and they repented God would not whipe them out. (Jonah 4:1). Who do we refuse to preach to? Is there some individual or group that we think we would rather see burn in hell than worship the lamb in heaven?

    Jonah was very conscious of his decision to flee God, he spoke openly about it (Jonah 1:10). This was not something that required a lot of introspection to reveal. Jonah was flat out refusing to preach to Nineveh and he was not even trying to hide it. God must like to fish. He gave Jonah lots of line and let him run as hard as he could until God yanked him back real good and set the hook. When Jonah woke up from his nap in the middle the storm he must have realized the ride was over for him. The men of the ship were frantically trying to find an answer to the storm. "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down?" they asked. Jonah offered himself up, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea." 

    Jonah knew very well, he had brought trouble to the people around him. And so he offered himself up for them. Nowhere in scripture does it say that God promised a big fish would pick Jonah up. There was a storm raging. I don't know if Jonah was feeling a little suicidal or if he just had a hunch that God would get him out of this. But what we end up with here is a great picture of Christ. 

    The men on the boat refused Jonah's offer. They didn't want grace. They wanted to work for their salvation so the story says, "Instead the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before." The harder they worked on their own salvation, the worst the situation became. Finally, they relent, they accept Jonah's offering of himself and they throw him over board. Why didn't Jonah just jump off the ship?

    This is the sign of the prophet Jonah for a wicked and rebellious generation. While Jonah was inside the belly of the fish he started to change. Finally when the fish vomited Jonah out the Lord spoke to him again and this time he went to Nineveh to preach. God had his way with Jonah. No one can out run God. Jonah became Christ like inspite of himself. Jonah's ministry became a sign for the ages, inspite of himself. 

    Jonah should not be named the "self willed" prophet, he should be named the prophet of the Grace of  God. Jesus held him up as a trophy of Grace for all the ages to see. Jonah had a ministry that spanned the ages because of what the Lord had done. Isn't that the way it is supposed to be? We are so quick to write people off, "he is backslidden again";"that guy can never get anything right"; "she has a rebellious spirit".. It is the wrong attitude. If we wait on God he might show us the people in our life that we have given up on. God might not feel the same way about them. Never underestimate the reach, and the relentlessness of God's grace. Sure Jonah is no Daniel, and Thomas is no Paul but who among us is? Sure we can dare to be a Daniel and we can aspire to the robust character of Paul but at the end of the day God knows exactly who we are. And we tend to be a lot more like the Jonahs and the Thomas' of the scripture. And we are just as saved, just as sanctified, just as pure as Christ, in spite of ourselves.

    That is the sign Jesus gave to a wicked and adulterous generation. 

    Quit rowing harder, quit trying to be better, quit trying to find your own solution to the problem, accept the work of Christ at the cross as sufficient for everything you need to stand before God. Accept the offer of Jesus. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that through him we might become the righteousness of God."