Well, hey there, friends. Brother Jim here, and
welcome to the Semiseminary, the only podcast
where a fish, a prophet, and a revival march
into God's mercy. And somehow, it's a story about
us, too. It's the Wednesday episode, which means
I have my pastor hat on tonight. Yes, I'm not
just a famous podcaster. I'm also a pastor of
a small country church, and you've... just stumbled
into our Wednesday night Bible study. We've just
finished the fellowship dinner, and now it's
time for the lesson. So pull up a chair, cup
of coffee, maybe some of Gigi's Bundt cake, if
there's still some left, and settle in for an
old -fashioned Bible study. Today's episode is
a journey, and a hard one. Because we're not
just looking at Jonah and the whale. We're looking
at Jonah's heart. And ours. This episode's called
The Jonah You Thought You Knew. The VBS story
and the grown -up gospel. See, growing up, you
probably heard the Jonah story like this. God
says go. Jonah says no. Big fish swallows. Lesson
learned. The end. But buried under that Sunday
school simplicity is something raw and real.
A prophet. who hated God's grace for the wrong
kind of people. So what happens when God's mercy
goes where we don't want it to? What does it
mean to follow a God who forgives our enemies
and then asks us to be glad about it? Stick around.
We're going to talk storms, belly prayers, bad
sermons, pity plants, and the mercy that might
just save us all. I'll see you on the other side.
So tonight, we're going to look at an old Bible
story that we've looked at before, maybe, perhaps,
hopefully, with some new perspective tonight.
Tonight's discussion is called The Jonah You
Thought You Knew, The VBS Story and the Grown
-Up Gospel. So there's a certain version of Jonah's
story that most of us ran across when we were
younger. Vacation Bible school Jonah or Sunday
school Jonah. The guy who said no to God and
got swallowed by a whale. Not a whale. It's a
big fish. That's right. Bible doesn't say that.
But in the end came out the better for it, right?
That version fits on. The felt board in children's
church. It's neat. It's manageable. It's just
strange enough to be memorable without asking
too much of us. But then you grow up, and if
you're paying attention, you realize that there's
actually a Jonah behind the fishtail. And that
story is actually a lot more complicated. The
story of Jonah isn't just a morality tale about...
listening to God so you won't get in trouble.
So I think that's a lot of times that's the takeaway
from the VBS version. Pay attention to God and
do what God says or you'll get in trouble. You
might end up getting eaten by a big fish. But
instead, it's actually a deep, gritty gospel
story about mercy and who deserves it. It's about
God's compassion for enemies and how even prophets
can get stuck in the dark. when grace shows up
in places they didn't want it to. If we let it,
this story will call out the Jonah in all of
us, parts that would rather see God be fair than
kind. Now, let's take a second. Let's place ourselves
in the history of the narrative that Scripture
says. that the story of Jonah was probably written
in about the 5th or 4th century. So we have to
remember to do the crazy thing with numbers when
we use that. So we're talking about either 400
or 300 BC. 400 or 300 years before Jesus' birth.
Now, you might say, why are you telling me this?
Because this is a very important... part of historical
context that you need to get so you can see what
the author of the story is actually trying to
say. Now, the temple in Jerusalem falls in 586
or 87, depending on who you ask, BC. These stories
are written... 150, 200 years after the fall.
Now, who was it that destroyed Jerusalem, the
temple, and began to export the people of God
to a different land? The Assyrians. And where
was their capital? A place called Nineveh. And
Jonah is being called, will be called to Nineveh.
Now, if you think about it, if this story is
written after all of these horrific things have
taken place, then you could imagine that the
first readers or first listeners to this story
would have thought of the Assyrians the way that
the first century Christians, or sorry, first
century Hebrews might have thought about the
Samaritans. Remember how we've talked about how
the Samaritans and the Hebrews didn't get along?
And that's why whenever Jesus paints a Samaritan
as a hero in the story, the people that would
have heard that would have went, I was with him
up until that point, because nothing is good
that comes from Samaria. Only this would have
been much worse. The Samaritans were ancient
cousins ethnically to the Hebrews, and they didn't
destroy the temple. and take the Hebrew people
into slavery, the Assyrians did. They would have
hated these guys. So with that in mind, let's
start with the story. Jonah's story, it starts
like this. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah,
the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh,
the great city, and cry out against it, for its
wickedness has come before me. But Jonah arose
to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the
Lord. He went down to Joppa, found a ship going
to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went down into
it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord. Now he's a prophet. What's the problem
here? Why run? Because Jonah knows who Nineveh
is. These, again, are the Assyrians. They are
their mortal enemies. Think psychological warfare,
public torture, deportation. This is the capital
of cruelty. And God says, go preach to them.
And Jonah's response, I think, is actually very
human. He runs in the opposite direction. Not
figuratively, literally. when he literally boards
a ship to Tarshish, likely in southern Spain,
that would have been the edge of the known world.
It's as far west as you could go in Jonah's day.
If God called him to go east, Jonah was trying
to go as far west as he could, not out of fear,
but out of protest. Because in Jonah's theology,
Nineveh doesn't deserve forgiveness. Jonah hated
the Ninevites for one big, deeply personal, very
national reason. The Ninevites were the worst
people Jonah could have imagined. They were Assyrians,
violent, cruel, imperial enemies of Israel, and
not just... your generic run -of -the -mill enemies.
These folks were infamous for psychological and
physical terror. We're talking about impaling
people alive. We're talking about taking people
captive and flailing them, removing their skin
and draping the skin over the city walls, stacking
up bleached skulls as warning signs, and... deporting
entire populations to destroy nations from the
inside out. To Jonah, Nineveh wasn't just a city.
It was the capital of a genocidal empire, the
kind of place you don't distrust, you dread,
you grieve, you grow up hearing horror stories
about what they did to your people. So when God
says, go preach to Nineveh, Jonah's... Reaction
isn't just fear, it's moral outrage. It's theological
protest. And remember, Jonah is not just some
nobody. According to 2 Kings 14 -25, Scripture
says this, He restored the border of Israel from
the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of Arabah.
According to the word of the Lord God of Israel,
which he had spoken through his servant, Jonah,
the son of Amittai, the prophet, he was from
Gath -Hoper. That's where he was from. Jonah
is a prophet within the king's court. He's a
part of the national narrative. He is respected,
and he doesn't want any part of Nineveh's redemption.
I mean, imagine. Imagine being called to be the
head coach of wrestling at Perry or Bristow.
That's the worst place you could possibly, you're
right in the heart of the enemy. We see ourselves
in Jonah every time we define God's mercy through
our own comfort zones. We want grace for us and
we want justice for others. Jonah's protest reveals
how hard it is to believe that God's love includes
those who've hurt us and threatened our tribe.
It also exposes how often we make God in our
own image just enough to suit us, but not enough
mercy to actually disrupt our worldview. Jonah's
refusal is more than rebellion. It's a theological
argument against God's capacity to forgive the
unforgivable. It is a theological argument against
God's capacity to forgive the unforgivable. So,
God sends a storm. Not as punishment. That's
where the VBS story gets it wrong. But of pursuit.
But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea,
and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so
the ship was about to be broken up. That's the
fourth verse of chapter 1. While these sailors
pray and panic and toss cargo over the sides,
Jonah is asleep below deck. And not a peaceful
rest, but the numbness of disobedience. And finally,
he acknowledges, it's my fault. Throw me in.
And they do. Jonah 1, 15 and 17 says, So they
picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and
the sea ceased from its raging. Now the Lord
had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and
Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days
and nights. God's storms aren't always there
to break us. They're often there to wake us.
Jonah's sleep beneath the storm reminds us how
easily we can tune out the conviction of the
Spirit in our own hearts. Sometimes we'd rather
drown in denial than face the truth that God's
grace isn't just ours to hoard, because it even
belongs to people that we've long written off.
Storm also reveals that God's pursuit of us is
relentless, not because he's angry with us, but
because he loves us enough to interrupt our escape.
Now here's the twist, okay? Here's what I was
saying about punishment. The fish isn't actually
punishment. It's preservation. God appoints the
fish. He saves Jonah with the thing that could
very well have destroyed him. And in this belly,
Jonah finally decides to pray. Chapter 2, verses
2 through 6, I cried out to the Lord because
of my affliction, and he answered me. Out of
the belly of Sheol, that's a concept of hell,
right? Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and
you, capital U meaning God, heard my voice. For
you cast me into the deep. I said you, and I
meant why, capital Y. For you cast me into the
deep, yet you brought up my life from the pit.
Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. My God. It's beautiful. It's
poetic. It's grateful. But it's still Jonah talking
about Jonah. Not a word there about Nineveh.
You know, just thanks for being spared. Sometimes...
God meets us in the depths, not just to rescue
us, but to reshape our hearts. And Jonah's prayer
is half true. It recognizes his need, but not
the call. It's possible to experience grace personally
and still resist it theologically. Where have
I heard that before? Remember our discussion
on Sunday about the absurd country song? that
understood grace and forgiveness but applied
it in a completely incorrect way, do you still
receive grace? Yeah, you do. It's possible to
experience grace and still resist it theologically.
We love what saves us. But will we, can we, love
what saves others? The belly moment is where
we wrestle with our own self -centered faith.
This is where we find Jonah, and this is where
we can find the Jonah in all of us. So God speaks
again. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah
the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh,
that great city, and preach to it the message
I tell you. That's Jonah 3, 1 and 2. This time,
Jonah goes. but not with passion. He walks a
day into the city and delivers the worst sermon
in the Bible. Jonah chapter three, four, yet
40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. That's
it. In Hebrew, it's five words. No mention of
God, no invitation to repent, no hope, just fire
and brimstone and overturned in Hebrew. Nepaket,
Nepaket is especially rich because that word
can mean destroyed, but it can also mean transformed,
leaving room for either judgment or repentance.
It's a word that has a fork in the road in it.
But the city of Nineveh listens. So the people
of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and
put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least
of them, Jonah 3 and 5. The next verses, the
king of Nineveh actually makes the livestock
fast as well. And what happens? God shows his
mercy. Then God saw their works that they turned
from their evil ways and God relented from the
disaster he said he would bring upon them and
he did not do it. Sometimes the least impressive
words can produce the greatest results if God's
behind them. And sometimes our bitterness reaches
louder than our obedience. Jonah obeys outwardly,
but inwardly he still hopes they don't listen.
What if our actions appear to be right, but our
hearts remain corrupt? What does that say about
our view of God and our view of others? True
transformation happens not when we say what's
right, but when we want what's good. Not just
for ourselves, for everyone. And Jonah? as a
result of this redemption, is furious. But it
displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.
First verse of the fourth chapter. He says, God,
this is why I ran, because I knew you would forgive
them. You're a gracious and merciful God, Jonah
says, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness.
So God gives Jonah a living illustration. And
a plant grows up to shade him, then it withers.
And then it talks about Jonah's bald head getting
sunburned, and he doesn't like that. Jonah's
mad again. And God says, you have had no pity
on the plant for which you've not labored. Should
I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which
are more than 120 ,000 persons and much livestock?
Jonah's anger is about a God who won't conform
to his comfort. We often cheer God's justice
when it comes for others and mourn his mercy
when it comes to them too. But here's the actual
gospel message. God pities Nineveh and us and
our enemies. And it reveals the dissonance between
how we love and how God actually loves. Jonah's
story asks, can you handle a God whose grace
offends you? Because the real scandal isn't a
fish. It's the mercy in this story. And what's
crazy about this story is this is how the prophecy
of Jonah ends. With the words of God asking a
question. To whom? Jonah. But us as well, right?
Shouldn't I care about them, Jonah? Even if you
don't, this isn't a children's story. No, this
is a reckoning. It's God confronting a prophet
and us. These radical ideas, the scope of his
real mercy. Mercy that covers enemies. Mercy
that exposes our pride. Mercy that interrupts
our national, political, and personal storylines
and says, yes, even them, even there. Because
the gospel road doesn't just lead us to forgiveness.
Leads us through every place we'd rather not
go. With a message we didn't invent for people
we did not choose. Because God still wants to
save Nineveh. He's still calling forth Jonas.
So, the next time he calls you east, don't run
west. That fish might be still swimming out there
looking for you. Amen? Amen. So here we find
ourselves at the end of Jonah's road and maybe
at the start of our own. God never told Jonah
how to feel. He just asked him to go. And when
Jonah refused, God didn't give up. He sent a
storm. He sent a fish. He sent a plant. And in
every bit of it, God was saying, shouldn't I
care about them too? So let me ask you, friend,
who's your Nineveh? What's your Nineveh? That
person you wrote off? That city you gave up on?
That story you stopped believing could ever be
redeemed? Because here's the good news. The Gospel
Road doesn't just lead to Calvary. It runs...
Straight through the people and the places we'd
rather avoid. And it carries grace way deeper
than any whale's belly. Thanks for listening
to the Semi -Seminary. This has been the Jonah
you thought you knew. Until next time, don't
be afraid of mercy. And if God says go, do not
sail west. See you next time.