Faith | Hope | Love

Jonah

Chapter 4: Revolutionize Pt. 3

Jonah 4:9-11 “But God said to Jonah, ‘Do you do well to be angry for the plant?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.’ 10 And the Lord said, ‘You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’”

Not only does God call the city of Nineveh great, meaning there was a LOT of people, but he reminds Jonah that the people in the city are in danger of dying. The language here is specific. If a vine can perish overnight, and that is cause for great pity for Jonah, how much more pity should he have for the people that perish.

Think about it this way. If I rolled a wheel barrow up to you that was full of a million dollars, and I said “You can have this money IF…. you press this button. But if you press this button, somebody somewhere in this world will die. You don’t know the person. You’ll never know who it was. You won’t be punished. Nobody will even know it was your fault. You press this button, somebody in the world that you don’t know dies, and you go home with a million dollars cash.” Would you do it?

It’s crazy how we can start justifying it. We have that moment when we start thinking about it. “Well, thousands of people die per day anyways. We’re all going to die sooner or later. It doesn’t affect me so…”

I think a lot of us try to behave as if we’re numb to death. While we hypothesize about this million dollar scenario, we can become experts at acting desensitized toward death. But death is a frightening thing for us. We’re not used to it, and I don’t know if we’re ever supposed to be. It’s a result of our sin, meaning death only exists because we fell out of God’s perfect plan. The Bible says since every human being has sinned, every human being now dies. So, while death is the number one common denominator for mankind, it wasn’t written into God’s original plan and therefore will always feel unnatural.

Now here’s the thing, this is what God was telling Jonah. We need to be gripped by the fact that there are people everywhere that are perishing, that are dying without Christ, and who need the good news of salvation. Perhaps this truth is so uncomfortable that we quickly throw up our defense mechanisms. We can pretend this isn’t really happening, we can distract ourselves, and we can change the subject quickly. But we can’t hide from this fact forever.

It’s not a happy thought. It’s heartbreaking, really. In my next post, I will finish this whole series off with some good news. But for now, allow me to give you some peace. You can rest at ease knowing that nobody is counting on you to be the lone hero of the world. While the truth is dark and heavy, you are not called to save the world. You are simply called to spread the Gospel within your world; your community, family, workplace, school, etc. So do your small part and trust that God is working beyond your awareness to save this world.

I ended the last post with a question, “Why do I need to sacrifice my personal comfort to bring a revolution to my world?” Here is the first of three answers I would like to pose to you.

Your World is Part of Something Bigger

           

Jonah 4:10-11 “And the Lord said, ‘You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’”

Did you know that God called Jonah to the city of Nineveh three times? In Jonah 1:1-2, 3:1-2, and 4:11. The last time is really the saddest call, and it’s what we’re going to talk about in this chapter. You know how in every argument, somebody throws out the trump card? It’s the final statement that wins it. For kids, it’s usually something like, “I’m going to tell mom!” Bringing mom into it is a definite trump card. For teens it’s usually something like, “Everybody knows it.” Pulling in the majority vote is a definite trump card. For God, His trump cards are usually convicting questions, like earlier, “Jonah, do you even have a right to be angry?” This time the trump question is, “You pitied the death of a plant, Jonah. Shouldn’t I pity a huge city of 120,000 people and all of their cattle?” After this trump question, there is no further conversation.

Now remember, Jonah is a picture of the church. So this is not a unique call that is specific to Jonah, but reflects the call of God upon us, the church! Let me ask you, how many people in your world do you know will spend eternity in Hell apart from God, if they were to die today? That’s the ugly question everybody tries to avoid. We don’t like to think of people going to hell. It’s not pleasant. But it’s reality.

The problem is, sometimes we feel like it’s best if we just don’t interfere. That we’ll just make things worse if we start trying to tell them about Jesus. But if we don’t say anything, then who will? We can’t leave the fate of the world’s souls in a hope that somebody else will share Jesus with them. That’s why it is so important, and so strategic, that YOU revolutionize YOUR world. Because you have a relationship with, and come into regular contact with, certain people like nobody else.

You are placed exactly where God wants you so you can revolutionize your part of this planet. I don’t think God calls any single person to change the whole world by themselves. He gave that command to the whole family of Christians. Don’t get me wrong, His will is that “all should come to repentance.” But it will only work if each individual Christian revolutionizes their own world. Jonah was not called to change the whole world, he was called to the 120,000 people in the city. And you, reading this right now, are meant to reach the specific group of people in your life. So let me ask you:

Are you doing your part in revolutionizing the world?

           

In the next two posts I’ll explain two more reasons for you to revolutionize your world. The first one is really uncomfortable. But don’t worry, it gets better.