יוֹנָה

Salvation Comes From the Lord

The sun was starting to set as I went out for a walk following our evening meal. The day had been hot, but now there was a nice breeze blowing through the streets. The old man was sitting there alone, by the gates of the city. It seemed like he was lost in his memories, like he was most nights. As I passed through the gate I glanced in his direction. I was drawn in by his grey eyes, his tan and wrinkled face, the scar that ran from his neck to his ear. “Peace be with you.” He spoke to me.

“Are you…?” I stammered.

“I am.”

I didn’t know how to respond. I knew he was the prophet, or at least he used to be, I’m not sure why I even asked him. Still I stood there after he answered.

“Would you like to hear my story?” He asked me. I nodded, he gestured for me to join him by the city gate. I sat cross legged on the dirt, getting sand in my sandals. I didn’t notice though, I was too excited to hear his story. Then the words came to him and he spoke.

“I was young. As young as you are now. You remember who ruled us? A wicked King, Jeroboam, he was no true ruler. The Lord saw how our people were suffering, because of neighbors, because of our wicked king, because of our own sins. Then the Lord spoke to me, and I spoke to the King. We won some of our land and freedom back. We were prosperous. The people cheered for me in the streets, I wore expensive clothes, I was comfortable, I was listened to, and in those days I was happy.”

When I had heard the whispers about the old man, none of them included that he was ever happy I had usually heard the opposite. He shifted on his legs and continued.

“Then the Word of the Lord came to me, to Jonah the prophet, son of Amittai. He told me to “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But I ran. I ran away from God. How could God want me to go to them?”

The old man seemed to get agitated. He grit his teeth. “Have you heard what was said about those people?”

I nodded, we knew the prophets of old had described the city as “the city of blood, full of lies, full or plunder, never without victims” (Nahum 3:1). 

“I was scared. Scared they would kill me, or worse, I thought, they would be saved from their judgement by God.” He bowed his head at this. “Why should I sacrifice my life for theirs?” 

“So what did you do?” I asked, knowing in part the answer, but wanting to hear it from him. 

“I knew I couldn't stay, I knew it was impossible to run from God, but I tried. I found a ship bound for the furthest place from Nineveh I could find. I sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.”

“Did you get to Tarshish?” I asked and Jonah laughed gently.

“No, because no matter where you go, you can’t run away from God’s love. You can’t run away from his grace.” He smiled as he said, “The Lord sent a great wind on the sea, it turned into such a violent storm that the ship threatened to break into pieces. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the water to lighten the ship. They were trying everything!”

“What did you do?” I asked,

“Oh, I slept.” He said calmly. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped open. 

“You slept? Through the storm?”

“I slept below deck until the captain came down. He asked the same question you did. The sailers were superstitious and pagan, they played a game of chance to see who had caused the storm. But God’s grace was in the game, and they knew I was responsible. So they started asking questions, why was this happening, what had I done, where was I from, what people I came from. I told them, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.””

“I told them I worshiped the Lord, the same God I was running away from.” He fell into a fit of laughter at the irony. “They were so scared, “What have you done?” they thought they were going to die. They asked me what to do. I didn’t know. I knew we were all going to die if I didn’t suggest something. I told them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea, and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”  I was so mad that God had come for me. I wanted to die right then and there. How come I couldn’t escape him? It wasn’t fair. He loved me too much. I didn’t deserve it, I didn’t want it. I wanted to die.”

“But you didn’t die, the storm must’ve calmed right? How was the storm calmed? Did you cry out to the Lord?” He shook his head. “But you survived…” I said confused. “How?”

“They cried out to the Lord. The pagan sailors cried out to the God who I was running away from. Then when they threw me overboard the storm must’ve stopped raging, but I don’t remember.” 

“Wait, you said that they believed in the Lord?”

“God’s grace is given to anyone who will call upon him. It didn’t matter how good or bad I was, God gave his grace.”

“But you said they threw you in? How did you not drown in the storm? You must’ve thought you would drown. Could you swim?” He shook his head again. “And the waters were raging? How did you not die?” My mind was swirling with questions. 

“I was swallowed by a monster.” He said it with such conviction, but I laughed knowing it must’ve been a joke, but the man’s manner was unchanged, he was as serious as he had been the whole night. 

“A swimming monster, larger than anything I’ve ever seen before or since. I thought I’d drown, then I thought I’d be eaten to death by the fish, but I was wrong.”

My draw was hanging open, in shock. “This fish, how did it not eat you?” Jonah shook his head.

“I don’t know, but this story isn’t about the fish. The story isn’t even about me. Do you understand that?”

He put his hand on my shoulder, his gray eyes staring deeply into my own. 

“This story is about the Lord our God. The God that I thought I could outsmart, that I could hide from. The God who I thought was wrong to show grace to undeserving people until I realized how undeserving I am. After three nights in that tomb, the Lord gave me a new life. I am not too good to get away from Him, and I am not too bad for him to let runaway. He has always come after me.”

“This is not the end of your story?” I asked him. The sun had set by now, the wind was starting to blow.

“No, while I waited for death in the belly of the fish I called out to the Lord who had come after me. It is getting late, so I will tell you that I remembered the Psalms of old. I remembered how they were used to call out to the Lord in one’s lowest moments. I remembered all that had happened to me and  Icalled out to the Lord from my pit. In my prayer I put myself first. I was not humble as one might imagine a man in a fish would be. It didn’t matter what I said, what I felt, all that mattered was that God was still with me and he heard me. He brought my life up from the pit. He remembered me when my life was ebbing away. Some people may cling to worthless idols and turn away from God’s love for them, but because of his grace I could never truly run from him.”

“And he saved you?”

“Always remember this, what I said when I thought my life was gone, ‘salvation comes from the Lord’.” 

The man shivered. “I will be going in now, thank you for listening.” He spoke softly now and stood.

“But what about the Ninevites?” I asked starting to stand.

It Belongs to the Lord

There was a small crowd of men standing around the fire that evening, maybe 15 of us. The old prophet walked toward the group and silently took a seat by the fire on the ground as others whispered about him. 

“Teacher,” I asked him, “Will you tell me happened to the Ninevites now?” as he looked up at me I saw the fire dancing in his eyes. 

He nodded and his words came to me. 

“The word of the Lord came to me a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” This time I obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Do you know that Nineveh was a very large city? It took three days to walk through it.”

I shook my head, I knew Nineveh had been a great city, but I did not know quite how incredible it had been.

“As you went through the city, what did you say to the people? Did you tell them to turn to God and receive his grace?” Jonah cast his eyes towards the fire. He was quiet for a time, I saw his age and his weariness through the light of the fire. He spoke five words to me in Hebrew that meant “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 

I felt there was something missing, but he fell silent again. You could hear the other men laughing and talking loudly with one another.
“Teacher, did I miss something? That wasn’t your whole message to the Ninevites…”

He looked at me, “It was.”

“But what about salvation coming from the Lord? What about not being too bad for his grace? What about not being able to run away from his love?” The other men quieted down a bit to listen in on our conversation at this point. 

“I did not think they deserved it. I had been given a new life, a second chance to proclaim God’s grace. To run back to Him, but I did not.” I could not believe what the prophet was telling me. What kind of messenger of God’s Word only uses 5 words to proclaim all that needs to be said?

“I may have been wrong in my heart, but God’s Word is never wrong. What He said through me did come true.” Jonah spoke again.

“They were destroyed?” I asked, thinking Jonah was wrong.

“No, the word I spoke to them was that the whole thing would be turned upside down, everything would change when the time of God’s judgement came and it did.”

“It did?” I asked, another man who was listening also spoke, “The Ninevites were not destroyed.” 

“No, they were not.” Jonah said matter-of-factly. “The Ninevites believed in God. They ran away from their sins, from their atrocities, all the terrible things they had done; the things that had made me hate them, they turned from them and they ran towards the Lord. I did not tell them how to repent, I did not tell them that God would save them, I did not tell them to run to Him. I failed them, but God did not.”

Many other men were listening now, seated all around the fire, listening to the old prophet admit to his failure and God’s faithfulness. 

“Didn’t their King issue a decree for all the people?” one of the men asked, Jonah nodded.
“He commanded that the people fast, that they call urgently on God, and that they were to give up their evil ways and their violence. Even if they were to turn away from doing harm towards others, I did not think that God should spare them. They had already done too much. They were unforgivable. They were not like us Israelites. They didn’t follow God’s law, they weren’t good. They were like their animals, stupid and selfish- I thought, but in truth I was the stupid and selfish one and God reminded me of that.”

“But you knew that God is a gracious and compassionate God, that he is slow to anger and abounding in love. You had even experienced this before and how instead of punishing you and letting you take your own life he had relented from sending calamity. How could you not want the Ninevites to be spared?” I felt embarrassed to ask the man, I did not want to humiliate him, I did not want to shame him, but I couldn’t understand it.

“I only cared about myself, as perhaps you have in your life at times.” He looked around at everyone now. 

“Perhaps my story is a mirror for you to look into and see your own pride and self-righteousness. Perhaps as I tell you how God showed me my sin, perhaps you will see your own and you will run towards him?”

Many of us bowed our heads as he spoke these words. He was right of course, there were times in my life when I tried to run away from God’s love because I wanted to be comfortable more than I wanted to serve Him. There were other times when I did not think that I could go back to God after I had messed up so terribly. I didn’t deserve God’s love for me. In those moments I just wanted to die.

“It seemed wrong to me that God should show them grace and I became angry. I asked that the Lord would just let me die, I was tired of serving Him and not getting my own way.”

The fire crackled and many of us glanced into it to watch the unpredictable jumpings of the flames. “The Lord answered me. “Is it right for you to be angry?” He said to me as I waited grumpily hoping for the city to be destroyed. It was hot there, sitting, and waiting, warmer than the fire it seemed. And I was agitated, but then the Lord provided a leafy plant and it grew above my head and it eased my discomfort. How glad I was that the Lord had provided for me. For the first time in a long time, I was happy! I was relieved. God cared for me!”

Everyone smiled with Jonah as he told us about the vine that grew and how God had provided for him in his need. 

“But at dawn the next day God provided a worm.” The old prophet shook his head at the memory, “And the worm chewed the plant and it withered. By the time the sun had risen God had provided scorching wind and I grew faint in the heat. Again, I felt I wanted to die. I told God it would be better for me to die than to live. Maybe you have never been so hot” Jonah joked as the men all laughed quietly, “but maybe you have or maybe you’ve just been so mad at your family, or so angry at God, maybe you’ve just felt so numb, that maybe you too wanted to die.” It was easy to think that Jonah had been wrong about his anger about the plant, but I understood. I had been angry at God for things greater and smaller than this plant. 

“The Lord was teaching me on that day that He is a God who welcomes all who run to him great and small, good and wicked. He is a God who will sacrifice Himself to show grace to the undeserving. He used a small plant that had kept me cool to teach me how He loves His people. I cared for a branch that I had not created, nor tended to, how much more does He care for His people that He created and cares for.”

Jonah continued that evening telling more stories from his life in Nineveh and how the people continued to run to God, even when they sinned they were able to turn back to God and the Lord received them with grace. The prophet told many more stories of God’s grace in his own life. 

Walking back home I kept thinking of what Jonah had shared with…

Thinking of a God who would sacrifice Himself for His people, who would run after us even when we run away from Him. And I understood, salvation must truly belong to the Lord.