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.

Leslie and Lauren are two sisters that are looking to Jesus and reaching out to those in need, and as a result they have revolutionized their world. After a life-changing experience at camp, these girls decided to get serious about changing the lives of those around them; specifically the homeless lives. So they got an idea to create a ministry in their church called “H2O: Hope to Others.”

Basically, people from the church can pay $3 for a paper bag filled with food, water, and a Gospel tract that they keep in their car. So when they come across a homeless person they have some way to help them out in a practical manner. The project has provided these not-really-shy but not-really-outgoing girls with many opportunities to trust God and step outside of their comfort zones.

But it gets better. Since they’ve started, they’ve been featured on Oregon’s largest newspaper, have had calls from other churches wanting to start their own H2O program, and they have even started a website for people all around the world to catch the vision and passion. They have revolutionized their world.

In this last chapter you will be see how God loved the people of the city of Nineveh so much that he went to such great lengths to bring a revolution to the city when His messenger was resisting His will. And not only that, but how He is on a mission to bring a revolution to your world as well.

It’s in this chapter that God lowers Himself to actually engage in an argument with Jonah about His plan and desire to bring a revolution to the city of Nineveh. It was a silly argument to say the least, but God took him on nonetheless. And when you read it through, you can’t help but groan a little bit for Jonah. Like, “Jonah, dude, why are you being so selfish? What’s with all the whining?”

Before we start judging him again, though, here’s a few reasons why Jonah was living in self-pity and with a self-absorbed lifestyle. He was not accepting God’s will. He had forgotten how God had been merciful to Him. And he did not love God or his neighbor as well as he should have. So yeah, Jonah failed on several lower levels which led to this emotional breakdown.

But we are just as self-absorbed, self-pitying, argumentative, and disobedient as Jonah, aren’t we? Of course, we don’t like to admit it. But God has an incredible compassion for the people of the world, and thankfully, that involves us. So once again we see that Jonah’s story is our story. But this is the last chapter of his. The final phase of his story. And it’s about creating a revolution.

We’ve said the city of Nineveh represents the world, and it does. But we’re going to narrow it down now. Because what it really represents is not just THE world. It represents YOUR world. Where you live day to day. Your school. Your job. Your family. Your friends. Those are the people you are called to reach right now. We’re not talking about when you’re older, when you’re wiser, when you’re smarter, or when you’ve graduated. We’re talking about right now, you are called to reach YOUR WORLD.

And the whole, “I’m too young to do something spectacular.” is a flat-out lie. Throughout history teenagers have reached their worlds, and they’ve started revolutions, just like Leslie and Lauren. They created a movement in people that all pointed back to Jesus Christ. Teenagers throughout history have done heroic things and many of them have gone unnoticed, and unappreciated, but that makes them all the more honorable.

Even in the Bible we have many stories of young teenaged people making big differences. People like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel, Joseph, Mary, and Ruth. These are all teenagers who did amazing things for God to revolutionize THEIR WORLD. It seems like God prefers to use the young, the incapable, the weak, and the simple to do amazing things.

As a Christian. (young, old, or in between) you are called to abandon your own personal comfort and to bring a Christian revolution to your own world.

But why? If you’re like me, you want to know the why. Not in any sort of disrespectful way. People just want to know why they are supposed to do things. I’ve always asked why, and it’s always driven my mom crazy. “James, take the trash out.” “Why, it’s only half full?” If she was in a good mood I would get an answer, “Because there is meat rotting in it, that’s why.” And if not I got the answer that we’ve all heard before. “Because I said so, that’s why!”

It makes me happy that God doesn’t leave us in the dark. He knows what He is asking is hard. It’s sacrificial. And sometimes God answers our why questions with, “Because I’m God, and I said so, that’s why.” But sometimes He answers our questions. And He has answered this question for us, “Why do I need to sacrifice my personal comfort to bring a revolution to my world?” In my next three posts, the last three of this series, I’ll share with you the why and the how of revolutionizing your world.