The Worst Missionary

Jonah

     Well this morning, because it's our mission's conference time, I wanted to direct your attention to some missionary emphasis, and, I suppose, like all preachers you think about 4 John 35 that wonderful text, "Look on the fields.  They are white, already to harvest."  Or, you think about 9 Matthew 37, 38, "The harvest is great, but the workers are few. Pray the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest." 

     Or maybe you think about 24 Matthew 14 which says, "The Gospel will be preached to the end of the earth, and then the end will come."  Or 28 Matthew 19, 20, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel." 

     Or perhaps even 24 Luke 47, "Repentance is to be preached among all nations," or, 1 Acts 8, "You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses," or maybe 1 Romans 16, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God and the salvation of everyone that believes." 

     Many familiar missionary texts and they're all positive and affirming, as I was thinking about what I might share with you, however I was drawn to one that is not so positive, in fact it's a negative missionary text.  It's a look at the world's worst missionary. 

     Take your bible and turn with me, if you will, to the Book of Jonah.  Now, as you know I'm not accustomed to teach an entire book in one message, or anything remotely related to that kind of speed, but I'm gonna' do that this morning as we look across this book to get the flow and the feel of this wonderful Old Testament prophecy. 

     This is a missionary who, by the way, did not make the All Star team.  When the votes were in, he does not appear in 11 Hebrews.  He's not in the list with the rest.  In fact, in 7 John 52, some Jews remarked that no prophet has ever come out of Galilee.  Jonah did, but he was forgettable.   

     He is a curiosity because of the unique account of his life which includes him being swallowed by a great fish and vomited up three days later.  But, he's more than a curiosity.  He is a prophet of God.  More than that, he is a missionary and he teaches us much about responding to God's call to missions. 

     In the Old Testament, we find very clearly reiterated for us on numerous occasions the fact that God designed Israel to be his missionary nation.  That is to say, they were collectively to represent God in the world; as a nation, they were to demonstrate the benefits of knowing the true God; the benefits of obeying God.  They were given very clear and concise and precise definitions of life from what they ate and what they wore, and how the worshipped and how they related to one another, to how they conducted themselves in the moral and spiritual realm.   

     They were to be uniquely a witness nation.  In fact, in 1 Chronicles 16-23, we read, "Sing unto the Lord all the earth; show forth from day-to-day His salvation.  Declare His glory among the heathen; His wonders among all peoples."  And really that was directed at Israel; they were to be the declaring nation.  They were to be the witness people. 

     In 18 Psalm 49, the scripture says, "Therefore, I will give thanks unto thee O Lord among the heathen and sing praises under Thy name."  And here the psalmist is saying, "I take the responsibility to speak of you among the pagans who know you not."  

     96 Psalm 3 reiterates, "Declare His glory among the heathen.  Say among the heathen the Lord reigns.  Preach the true God; proclaim His sovereignty, His saving power."   

     And in 43 Isaiah 21, God says of Israel, "This people have I formed for Myself, they will show forth My praise, that is their purpose."  They were to be a witness nation. 

     In addition to that, within the nation God put his hand on special individuals who were to be preachers.  Certain men we know as prophets, whose role was to preach to the nation itself; to make sure that it was getting enough divine revelation, enough exhortation, to stay the witness nation it needed to be. 

     In other words, there was a pastoral role in the prophetic ministry calling people to righteousness; calling them to obedience so that their witness would not be hampered.  Additionally, there were some who were called to be missionaries, not to stay within the culture, but to go beyond the culture and to reach the pagans, the heathen, those outside. 

     No different really than the Church.  Today we are the duly constituted community of God.  We, the Church, are the witness nation.  The wall has broken down; it is not anymore identified as Israel as over against the gentiles, but the wall has come down.  Jew and gentile are one in Christ; we're the Church; we are the witness people. 

     Within that witnessing community, God has identified certain men, certain leaders whose job it is to strengthen the community, to preach.  They are the pastors and the shepherds whose responsibility is strengthen the powerful witness of the Church in the world.  And then there are others who are selected to go; to go beyond the walls of the Church; beyond the shepherding, beyond the nurturing and the teaching of God's word to God's people, and to reach the lost.  We call those people missionaries.   

     In the Old Testament, there were a number of very well known figures who fit the missionary role.  Certainly Abraham was one; he, according to 20 Genesis 7 was a prophet to his neighbors.  Moses, a transmitter of God's truth to the pagan Egyptians; Elijah preached to pagans; Ahab and Jezebel, Elisha, you remember, was used in the life of the heathen Syrian by the name of Naiman.   

     And even among the literary prophets, those who wrote books in the Old Testament, there were many who preached to the heathen, though not all of them went to heathen lands.  There were a number of them whose message was directed at the heathen, for example, Isaiah who in Chapters 13-27 preaches to the heathen.  Jeremiah, who in Chapters 46-51 speaks to a very wide heathen audience, namely Egypt, Felitzia, Phoenicia, Moab, Amman, Edom, Syria, Quadar, Hizor, Ilam, and Babylon.  And there was Ezekiel; you remember who to Tyre and Sidon and Egypt preached judgment?  It's recorded in Chapters 25-33. 

     And of course we all know Daniel.  Daniel, that unique missionary to Babylon, and who even outlived the empire and found himself in the Medo-Persian empire, an effective missionary during the captivity.   

     There was Obadiah.  Obadiah's small little prophecy was a missionary's message to the nation of Edom about the impending judgment of God. 

     There was Zephaniah whose message was to gentiles whose mission was to proclaim judgment for their lack of repentance. 

     And then there was also Nacham.  And Nacham was sent to preach of the coming judgment on the city of Nineveh.  Now, these men and many others were the missionaries.  They sort of fit the pattern or the profile of the missionary.  There, in some cases was a role for them within the nation and additionally one outside the nation.   

     And I suppose that if I were to ask you to tell the story of all these people, the first three you might know, but those who are the literary prophets you might even not be able to recite the wonderful stories of their missionary effort, and that's unfamiliar.

     But, there is one with which you are familiar.  There is one you know well, and that's Jonah.  And we know him probably, for all the wrong reasons, as the reluctant missionary.  He is the best illustration whoever lived of a man who did exactly what he wasn't supposed to do, who refused to do what God had called him to do. 

     If you characterized him, you would say he was disobedient; he was selfish; he was sinful; he was obstinate; he had a bad disposition and he was prejudiced.  Now, if he had filled out an application for any mission agency that I know, they would've flatly turned him down at the first reading.  And that's certainly understandable. 

     But, he does teach us a lot about the rights and wrongs of responding to God's call to missions.  Now, if I were to divide this little prophecy of four chapters up, and make a simple but hopefully memorable outline, my outline might go like this.  Go, no, woe, go, yes, bless.

      Here is a man who needed two calls before he got to the field.  To the first one he responded no; to the second one, for reasons we shall see in a moment, he responded yes.  Let's look at the first one. 

     Starting in the beginning, "The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai saying," and let me stop there.  We won't stop after each verse, but we need to stop here.  You were afraid of that.  I can feel it! 

     Now, here is Jonah.  We don't know anything about him.  We don't know the story of the man.  He's only mentioned in 2 Kings 14-25 as being the prophet during the reign of Jeroboam II, in the Northern Kingdom; puts him somewhere between 800-750 BC.  Jewish tradition says he is the son of the widow of Jerafat whom Elijah raised from the dead.  Certainly couldn't verify that. 

     Israel is prospering at this time under Jeroboam II.  The ancient boundaries have been restored.  Israel possesses as far as Damascus, but since the days of Omri, the king of the Northern Kingdom around 885, they had been under flash attacks from Assyria.  And there had been building up a deep animosity and hatred between the Jews and the Assyrians. 

     They already had a problem with any gentiles.  Their nationalism had really run amuck and they had become anti-gentile in many, many cases.  And instead of being a witness nation, they became resolute in their own isolationism which was the very antithesis of what God wanted out of them. 

     But, Assyria, particularly they hated because Assyria was pulling off these flash, surprise terrorist attacks on them, and so had a special place on their list of those that were to be hated. 

     So, at this particular time in the history of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, out of Gath Heather, a little town four miles north of Nazareth in Galilee, comes this man called Jonah.  And he just pops onto the scene; the word of the Lord comes to him and here's what God says to him.  Three verbs, "Arise, go, and preach, or cry."  That's his call.  "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city; cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me." 

     This is a very direct commissioning.  Assyria was a growing power, as I noted, to the east.  You will note at the end of the book it tells us, at the very, very last verse that there were 120,000 persons in Nineveh who didn't know the difference between their right and left hand.  That's little babies; that's how they describe a little baby; 120,000 little babies in that city would put the population of that city, if you add the older, young people, and the adults, that's somewhere over 600,000 conservatively. 

     A large city, we will note later, that it took three days to walk across this city, according to what he says in 3 Jonah 3.  This was advanced culturally as was much of the Mesopotamian valley in ancient times.  The people were arrogant; the people were proud of their achievements, but they were sinking in the morass and the muck of immorality.  Nachum called it a bloody city.  Nachum said it was full of lies and fraud and robbery and sensuousness and violence and witchcraft and idolatry.  And their soldiers were infamous for brutality and cruelty.   

     And God knew about their wickedness because the wickedness of man rises to the ever-watchful eye of God like smoke from a fire to the nostrils of one who stands over it.  And it was time for God to act and as he does, before he brought judgment upon this wicked nation, He wanted to confront them and give them an opportunity to respond to mercy and repent. 

     And He chooses a very unlikely subject, Jonah; gives him a threefold cry, "Arise or get up; go to Nineveh and preach against it."  Now, I want to add another component here because I think it's important to note.  Not only is God doing this- wanting to evangelize Nineveh for the sake of the salvation of the Ninevites, for the sake of His own mercy, grace, and compassion, and because he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.  Not only is He doing it for that reason, but He is doing it because He wants to shame Israel.  He wants it to have a remedial effect on Israel that could perhaps even bring about a spiritual revival there. 

     What do you mean?  Well, here goes one stranger, Jonah, wandering into an utterly debauched and pagan city of massive proportions, a city that is unknown in terms to God; have no relationship with the living and true God.  So, they're gonna' hear a stranger, one lonely man who is from the nation that is their immediate antagonist; a nation that despises them, and it is mutual. 

     And when that whole city repents, at the preaching of one, strange Jew, it is gonna' be a rebuke to Israel who will not repent, though they have heard a myriad of preachers and a myriad of prophets, and they are the very people of God.  What a rebuke!  What a rebuke.   

     Israel failing to repent at the continuing cry of many prophets; Israel so reluctant to respond to truth when they have so much of it, and yet, here is a pagan culture that at the preaching of one man totally repents; furthermore, it would rebuke Israel in a second way.   

     There they sat in their land, feeling animosity toward the pagan world instead of reaching out to convert them.  And probably convincing themselves that they wouldn't believe anyway, and here is one preacher, one stranger, and out of his own ministry, an entire city repents.  What a rebuke that is to the indolence and the unwillingness and the laziness of the Jews who refuse to go and take the message of the true God. 

     So, it is on both counts a shame to Israel when God chose them, what true repentance is at the simple preaching of one man, and how much of a harvest of souls there is out there, if they had been willing to go. 

     So, Jonah receives this commission.  And his response we know, Verse 3, didn't take him much time; Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.  So, he went down to Jaffa; found a ship which was going to Tarshish; paid the fare; went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.  Twice it says he was leaving the presence of the Lord.  Didn't he believe in the omnipresence of God?  Did he really believe that he could flee from God's presence? 

     Or, was he just really saying I want to get away from the Temple; I want to get away from the land; I want to get away from this kind of territorial place where God is and I want to get so far away that God's gonna' have to pick somebody else. 

     And if I get so far removed as Tarshish which is on the west, south coast of Spain, a long way in those days, across the entire Mediterranean, God's gonna' have to pick somebody else.   

     You say, "Well, why did he do that?"  I mean, why didn't he want to go preach?  What a tremendous opportunity.  I'll tell you why.  4 Jonah 2, we'll see it later.  He says, "Because I knew Thou art a gracious and compassionate God."  That's what he says. 

     He says, "Look, I fled to Tarshish because I knew You were gracious."  What kind of a strange motive is that?  Well, you know what?  He said, "I was afraid that if I went, you'd let those gentiles get converted.  And if there's anything I can't stand it's gentiles getting converted.  I don't want them horning in on our blessing; I don't how much there is to go around and if they take too big a piece, there won't be enough left for us."  This is bizarre, isn't it?  Talk about reluctant missionaries.  He was afraid the people would repent and be converted. 

     Well, we're not concerned with that, yet, let's go back to where we are.  That was his motive.  So, he decides to jump ship and go clear across the Mediterranean to the commercial port on the southwest coast of Spain, and as he's out there, he's running from God.  He's just flat out, as clear as you can make it, leaving God's presence; leaving any sense of responsibility; getting himself in a position where he cannot do what God wants him to do, and forcing God to pick somebody else.  

     He just reasoned, I'll be physically unavailable.  The Lord will know that I'm so unwilling and so reluctant and so far out of the picture, He'll pick someone else.  I think there are many Christians like that, who have been spoken to by some message, some text of scripture, some time of conviction in private prayer, some influential missionary, somebody who touched your life, some word from the spirit of God that came through a messenger in a pulpit somewhere or a book.  And you feel the call and the movement of God to a certain ministry and you're afraid of it.  You don't want to do it; you will resist, and so you turn and you spin your wheels; you go as fast as you can in another direction.  Get yourself as busy as possible; as far away from the influence of that particular call, as you can.  And think you'll find in that kind of safety some respite from what it is that God wants you to do.  If you can just kind of get into your work and get very involved and get very busy and get yourself tied down and get a big mortgage and get in hock and get a lot of problems, God can't extract you from all of that, you're gonna' be safe from doing His will. 

     But, attempting to run from God's will is like fleeing from light; you just end up in darkness.  It's like trading wealth for poverty or wisdom for ignorance or joy for sorrow or peace for chaos or usefulness for uselessness or fruit for leaves or reward for punishment.  It's a silly exchange.   

     Look at the consequence.  God said go; he said no; God said woe, here's the woe.  First of all, the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea.  The word hurled is the same one used in 1 Samuel 18-11 when Saul hurled his spear.  "The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea.  The ship was about to break up."  Storms like that in the Mediterranean are very common and very fierce.  We read about one of them in Acts 27, in the New Testament that literally disintegrated the ship that the Apostle Paul was on. 

     So, here goes Jonah, but here comes the Lord.  The Lord is a pursuer.  Jonah thinks he's gonna' run away from the presence of the Lord, he's got another thing coming.  The Lord is after him.  And the Lord throws this wind on the sea. 

     Verse 5.  "Then the sailors became afraid."  Now, when sailors get afraid, you've got a serious storm.  And all of a sudden, they all become very religious.  "And every man cried to his god."  They are into all different kinds of gods.  That was the distinctive of Israel, wasn't it?  They were monotheistic, one God.  The rest of the world was polytheistic, many gods.  And so they've all got their own deities and they all start crying to their gods.  And you know what they're saying?  Stop the storm; preserve us; protect us; if we&#