"Those People"

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

In this series, I want to look at this Great Commission from multiple angles – what does it mean to go in different contexts, especially when God asks us to go to places and people we don’t want to go.

Jonah is a short but very fascinating book. For us to get the most out of Jonah and understand the application, we need to understand the setting, the characters and the overall theme.

Jonah 1:1–3 NIV

The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

Question: How did God speak to Jonah?

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It doesn’t say – all we’re told is that the Word of the Lord came to Him. Sometimes we have it in our minds that in the OT, there was always this audible conversation between God and a person. Like “Jonah!” ‘What?’ “Go to Nineveh!” ‘No.’ That type of conversation is not necessarily accurate. We don’t always know how God speaks, but we do know that God does speak. So the issue is not how, but the recognition that God is the one speaking.

I mention that for this reason: Jonah knew it was the Lord. God will speak to you in a way that you know it’s Him. He knows how to speak to His children (His sheep know His voice). The issue, however, is this - are His children listening.

The Bible mentions about 30 different ways God spoke to people – it’s not a one size fits all.

So, God told Jonah to go. Let’s get to know the characters. There are two main characters in Jonah. The MAIN main character is who? Yahweh – the main character is always God – God always has the leading role.

The main character is this guy, Jonah. We don’t know much about Jonah except for a few things: He was a Jewish prophet of the northern tribes of Israel under King Jeroboam II. He ministered during a relatively prosperous time for Israel – God had mercy, Israel expanded under the leadership of Jeroboam II, though was not a godly king. So that puts the events of Jonah around 760 B.C., roughly 40 years before Assyria conquered Israel.

Jonah is mentioned in the book of 2 Kings chapter 14 as a prophet and also acknowledged by Jesus in Matthew chapter 12 as a prophet. So Jonah was a real person.

Why is that important? We need to remember that the Bible is a collection of real historical accounts about real people and real events who lived in real places. The Bible is about a real God interacting with real people.

This is not fiction. There are some who argue that Jonah is nothing more than an allegory or a parable – in other words it’s a purely fictional story used to convey a lesson or a moral. Now, without getting into all the minutiae, I think that’s hogwash. I believe this is a historically accurate document about a real man and real events. It wasn’t written for historical purposes – its purpose as a prophetic narrative is to reveal the immense love and mercy of a real God for real people and the extraordinary measures God uses to convey that love and mercy.

That’s about all we know about Jonah – but, as we go through this book, we’ll come to understand that Jonah, in greater detail than we like, represents us. One theologian put it this way,

“A Jonah lurks in every Christian heart.”

So pay attention, you might find yourself in this book.

There are two supporting roles in the book, the Assyrians and some wimpy Navy boys.

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Assyria - God told Jonah to go to the great city (map) of Nineveh. Nineveh, which is near modern day Mosul, Iraq, was often the capital of the Assyrian Empire, about 550 miles from Israel. That’s about a 4 week journey for Jonah.

So here’s Jonah in the morning, sipping coffee, and God says, “Go to Nineveh.” Jonah must have been like, “What! Must be something in this coffee!” Ever wonder why Jonah ran?

The Assyrians were the enemies of Israel – known for extreme brutality and torture. This would be similar to God telling one of us to go into an ISIS camp.

During Jonah’s ministry, the Assyrians were having difficulties within their empire. They had been attacking Israel, but backed off for a while to fight two other nations. There was also a widespread famine, and numerous revolts popping up throughout Assyria. There was a lunar eclipse, which scared them and some earthquakes. Put all that together, and Assyria was in disarray – physically, economically, militarily and spiritually. They were primed for a message from God. But who’s going to tell them?

The Assyrians, from Jonah’s perspective are the bad guys in this story. However, for us they represent “those people.” As I thought about how to define “those people,” this is what came to mind – “Those people” are the people that we say or think, “I know God loves them, but ….” What the means will become more clear later.

Lastly, we have some sailors – Pansies, momma’s boys (joking). Here’s what’s interesting about the sailors - they represent the everyday normal people who get caught up in our lives – innocent people who are affected by our decisions.

So those are the characters of the book. Now, the purpose of the book of Jonah is this – directly from my ESV study Bible –

“The primary purpose of the book of Jonah is to engage readers in theological reflection on the compassionate character of God, and in self-reflection on the degree to which their own character reflects this compassion, to the end that they become vehicles of this compassion in the world that God has made and so deeply cares about.”

In other words, Jonah should be used as an evaluation tool – to take a good look at ourselves and ask the question - do I have a heart like God. Do I have His same love and compassion for others – especially for who? “Those people.”

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Alright, those are the characters, the setting and the purpose. What does that mean for us?

So, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh.

Question: Why did God tell Jonah, a prophet of Israel to go to Nineveh?

One reason is found directly in the text – because of Nineveh’s wickedness.

Now, here’s something interesting – the Hebrew word (רָעָה - rā·ʿāh) or wickedness can mean evil, which is very applicable to Assyria. But rā·ʿāh can also mean disaster or misery. Now, I believe this specific word inspired by God, accurately described the condition in Nineveh and Assyria as a nation – we know they were evil, but also with the current state of affairs (famine, earthquakes and uprisings etc.), they were experiencing disasters and consequently I’m sure they were miserable.

So this wickedness comes before God – which is a fancy way of saying God knows what’s going on. Not only does God see the evil, but He also sees the disastrous miserable lives of the Assyrians. So that’s one reason why God said, “Jonah, go and preach against their wickedness.”

“Wait a minute God, WE are your people! We’re the good guys – not them! I know you love everyone but come on! – “those people!” “Those people” are rotten and evil … “Those people” are law breakers, and liars and murderers; they’re abusers, manipulators and … they don’t even care about You God!

“I have nothing in common with “Those people!” Besides, I’ve got enough problems of my own … that’s a four-week journey – I’ve got plans!”

And on and on we go ….

Do you think God chose (and chooses) problem-free people to join Him in redeeming the world? Do you think God chose people who didn’t have any aches and pains, who didn’t have family problems, credit problems, health problems, job problems …?

Whatever we deal with, God’s servants dealt with. Do not let the problems of this world or any excuse that you and I can make become an excuse to run away from what God might be asking you and I to do!

So why Nineveh? Well, what does this tell us about God? Is God only concerned about Israel? Is God only concerned about Christians? No. God is concerned about all people – including “those people.”

And here’s the thing – not only is He concerned about “those people,” but He sees them. Remember that word wickedness, rā·ʿāh? Yes, He sees their evil nature and behavior – nothing is hidden from God’s sight, but He sees so much more than just behavior. He sees their condition. God sees all the wickedness in our world – all the misery, all the brokenness, the disasters people have made of their lives – that’s why God continues to tell us to GO.

“Jonah, go tell the “those people” about me? You don’t need to tell the Assyrians they’re Assyrians. They already know what they are. What they don’t know is that I love them.

“They need to hear about Me and how much I love them and can repair their lives! If you don’t go, who will? How will “those people” know about Me? Yeah, I see how rotten they are,” God says, “that’s why I want you to go tell them about me.”

God sees more than wicked behavior – He sees more than a hopeless sinful vile person – He sees beyond that – He sees the possibility of a restored heart, the possibility of salvation, deliverance, restoration ….

God sees what could be, that’s why God still wants to send “Jonahs” into the world - to “those people.

Jonah 1:3 NIV

But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

Why did Jonah run? I believe there are two reasons: First,

1) He had forgotten who he was.

He was a prophet to Israel and he placed himself in that prophet box. “I don’t talk to foreign nations; I speak to the people of Israel - not “those people.” “Those people” are not in my job description.

See, he forgot who he was. He wasn’t a prophet to Israel. He was a prophet – period. A prophet, a messenger of God.

Don’t forget who you are. You are a messenger and you have a message to deliver – even to people not in your job description.

Secondly,

2) He had forgotten who God was.

God is a God of mercy and grace – forgiving anyone who asks ….

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We live in a society of Ninevites. Evil? Yes. But also disastrous and miserable. Broken and messy. Who are the “Those people” in your world? Are you willing to be a Jonah to them?

Most of us lived in Nineveh at one time – we needed a Jonah

Are you willing to be a Jonah? Is the word of the Lord coming to you, but you’re pushing it aside? Running?

Everyone one of us lived in Nineveh at one time. Every person in here needed a Jonah to come and tell them about God ….

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