Jonah (1)

Rev. C. Vogelaar, Covell Avenue, Grand Rapids, MI

I

t is the Lord who calls and sends His servants to be His ambassadors. He sends them to whom He will and at what time He pleases, as our fathers in their Articles against the Remonstrants confessed. Jonah was also a servant of God, called and sent by Him. In verse one we read of this where it says,

“Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah.”

Now implies that he had already been appointed as God’s servant at an earlier time. We read in 2 Kings 14:25, “According to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.”

Therefore, Jonah was a highly privileged man, for it is an honor to be appointed as a messenger of the King of kings, the faithful, covenant-keeping God. It is not only an honor, but it is also a great responsibility. God’s servants have to deny themselves unconditionally, obey their Master, and follow Him also in ways against flesh and blood, against their natural inclinations and against their wishes.

In the time in which Jonah lived, God called His servants in an extraordinary way. He did not call them by the written Word as He does today. Moses was called by a voice speaking from the burning bush. Isaiah was called when he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne. Jeremiah was called when he was still very young and the disciples when they were fishing. Whatever their personal characters and circumstances were, they all knew of a time when the Lord separated them for His service. Jonah was also employed in this blessed service of bringing the message which the Lord commanded him to bring.

Jonah’s calling

Jonah, the son of Amittai, lived and labored among the ten tribes. His ministry was most likely contemporaneous with the last part of Elisha’s ministry and, like Elisha, in the kingdom of Samaria. He undoubtedly expected to spend the remainder of his days in his own country. Therefore, it must have been completely unexpected and incomprehensible to him when God called him to go to Nineveh. This was made very clear to him because the word of the Lord came unto him. “Arise, go to Nineveh.”

Jonah, the prophet, receives a new task. The Lord demands immediate submission, without inquiry, explanation, or delay. Jonah has to be a herald of his King to that wicked city. Nineveh has had a long day of God’s patience and forbearance, but now the time has come for God’s servant to call them to appear before the Judge of heaven and earth. “Their wickedness is come up before Me.” The Lord, in His goodness and patience, has spared them despite the sins that cried to heaven for His wrath. Now the time has come that He will execute His judgments.

In our nation, the sins are also crying out to God for His righteous punishment. The sins of a nation that has received so many blessings and privileges have provoked Him. How long will He yet have mercy and be longsuffering to us? We and our children also provoke Him daily. Not only the sins of the nation but also those of the church and of each of us call for His wrath.

When a sinner is awakened by the Lord, he will learn to know that he has sinned against a good-doing God and provoked Him to anger. He will come to the realization that he has grieved Him by his rebellion and disobedience. Then it becomes a wonder to him that the Lord has not cast him away but that he may still live in the day of grace. It will humble him deeply that he may even hear His Word and go to His house. Rest has been taken away from him, and he begins to seek a way of escape.

God calls His servants to proclaim that there is such a way. However, Jonah’s task will be to cry against Nineveh. He has to bring the solemn message that the holy God of Israel is against them, and if God is against us, who will be for us? Now, Jonah, arise and go, without questioning and in obedience to your calling. God is your Master, and you must do His will immediately. He will take care of you.

Jonah’s flight

The command has been clear, and now Jonah only has to follow God’s directions. “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish.” No, this is not the place where the Lord wants him to be. Tarshish is located far to the west, and Nineveh is a long distance in the opposite direction. “But Jonah.” Oh, what a terrible “but” this is. It is the word of resistance and rebellion. Jonah follows his own way instead of following his Master. He flees from the presence of the Lord although he knows that the light of God’s countenance, the experience of His presence, gives a joy and peace that only He can give. Jonah is not a stranger to this, yet he flees from God instead of unto Him. He refuses to do his Master’s service and thus becomes a striker. Oh, Jonah, how unthankful, how foolish you are. Has God ever been unfaithful to you? Has He ever given reasons to doubt His wisdom and to disobey His will?

Jonah behaves foolishly, but let us not look at Jonah with contempt. He is a picture of you and me, of all of us. In Adam, our covenant head, we did as Jonah did. God created us after His own image, and when He saw us, He could say that it was very good. We also had a calling, which was to serve Him willingly, out of love. However, it pleased us to break the bonds of obedient, willing love and to listen to the liar, becoming his servants. We were promised freedom, and we believed this lie. Instead of receiving freedom, however, we became slaves, willing slaves of the devil and rebels against God.

We still believe this lie, also you, my young friends. We desire freedom from an easy yoke and a light burden and freedom from God’s service of love. “But Jonah” He flees from God. That is exactly what we do, by nature—flee from God, the Fountain of life, the Source of all true happiness and joy.

Jonah travels down to Joppa. That is now indeed his way, the way which will lead to destruction unless God will intervene and bring him back. Jonah goes down to Joppa, a harbor city. He seems to be successful in his flight. A ship going to Tarshish is ready for him. It seems as though God is making his way to prosper. True, he has to pay the fare for his transport, but this is not too much of a problem, as long as he is able to avoid the place where the Lord wants him to go. Still, Jonah will have to pay, albeit with another price: he will have to miss God’s nearness, His presence, and His favor. He will have to travel without the light of God’s countenance upon him.

Oh, what a terrible “but” this is, and what a dangerous way Jonah travels down “from the presence of the Lord.” Will the Lord now let him go? Jonah has chosen to be far away from God’s presence; however, he cannot escape this presence. We will not be able to do this either, for He is the all-knowing, omnipresent God. It is better to flee to Him instead of away from Him. However, Jonah would never have returned anymore, but while going in his own way he would have gone down to eternal destruction, to an eternal darkness, away from God’s presence.

Oh, that we also might realize this and turn to our Maker while He still proffers peace and pardon. The message with the calling to repent still comes to us. How necessary it is, however, that the Lord Himself seeks after us and that we are arrested and brought back to Him and to His blessed service.

God’s faithfulness

We read in this chapter about a wonder of God’s faithfulness to His rebellious servant. We read of another “but” as a manifestation of God’s unchangeable love. “But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea.” Jonah is fast asleep in the ship. This is, however, not the sleep of the poet of Psalm 3: “I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me.”

Jonah has gone astray like a lost sheep. The Shepherd will go after him. The Lord knows how to bring His wandering sheep to the right place. He has many means to do this, even if He has to send a mighty storm. Over against Jonah’s “but” of rebellion is the “but” of God’s covenant faithfulness. “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

That becomes a wonder to those rebels and fugitives. When the Lord seeks and finds them, He brings them to the right place. Like David they cry, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.” Why is it that the Lord will not cast away those disobedient rebels like Jonah but will show mercy to them? It is only because of the work of One greater than Jonah, Jesus Christ. He was ready, not to flee but to do God’s will as His willing Servant. He has said, “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God.”

There is mercy in Him who came to seek and to save those who were lost. He still calls, “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.” His Word shall not return unto Him void, but it shall accomplish that which He pleases. He, the blessed Servant of the Father, said, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” In that work rebels and sinners will be saved and God’s name will be glorified.

(to be continued)

Be not afraid of little grace. Christ soweth His living seed, and He will not lose His seed.... Our spilled works, losses, deadness, coldness, wretchedness, are the ground upon which the Good Husbandman laboureth.

— Samuel Rutherford

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