Church On Mission | A Light for the Nations

What this episode covers

About the Talk: The story of Jonah has elements of tragedy and comedy, hope and judgement, kindness and harshness. The Bible Project video on the book of Jonah summarises it as ‘The subversive story of a rebellious prophet who hates God for loving his enemies.’ Jonah’s statement in 4:2 is the explanation for why he ran away in the first place (1:3). Though his words here are thrown at God in an accusing manner, they express a great theme throughout the Old Testament, beginning in Exodus 34:6. There, in response to Moses’ request to see God’s glory, “And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.’” God’s self-disclosure here becomes a recurring theme in the Old Testament as a means of helping God’s people understand who he is and what he is like. Jonah, however, throws it back at God: “I knew when you commanded me to ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me’ (1:2) that you would be merciful and forgive them. I hate that you would be so gracious to a people who are so wicked, who are our enemies and who deserve only to be judged and destroyed.” Having reluctantly agreed to God’s second command to go to Nineveh (3:1-3), Jonah delivers an extremely short sermon (only five words in Hebrew): “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (3:4). Yet the whole story is one of things being overthrown / overturned: Jonah, God’s prophet runs from God while the pagan sailors in chapters 1 & 3 turn to God; the threat to overturn Nineveh is itself overturned as they repent and change their ways; the message about Jonah becomes a message to everyone who reads the story, challenging all of us who believe God’s mercy should have limits. And the story ends with God expressing his care for the Ninevites, in contrast to Jonah’s lack of care. “And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left” (4:11). That God is gracious and compassionate is the motivation behind his mission - he longs for people to know him, he longs to forgive, to show that he is, “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness.” And so the biblical authors return to this motif at regular points throughout the OT, which then becomes even clearer in the New Testament as we see that, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And in the life of Jesus we see compassion and grace in action: we’re told that Jesus was moved with compassion on multiple occasions: when he saw the people harassed and helpless, when a crowd that had been following him were hungry, when a blind man asked Jesus to restore his sight, when a leper asks to be healed. It’s also the description of the father of the prodigal son, “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him” and of the good Samaritan, “a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.” James then expresses the same truth beautifully, “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” - he is intensely compassionate, extremely sympathetic, he feels greatly for us. It is vital that we understand the mission of God to be driven by his compassionate and gracious nature and that our calling to imitate him demands that we are filled with similar compassion and grace as we seek to help others connect with him.

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