hastings 2012 01 saving jonah

Omaha Presbyterian Omaha Presbyterian School for PastorsSchool for Pastors

Hastings 2012 Hastings 2012 Session 1Session 1

Saving JonahSaving Jonah

School for Pastors

Hear our prayer for the School for Pastors, O Lord.

School for Pastors

We pray that you may grant, in accor-dance with the riches of your glory, that we may be strengthened in our inner being with power through your Spirit.

School for Pastors

We pray that you will dwell in our hearts by faith, as we are established and grounded in your love.

School for Pastors

We pray that we may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, the breadth and length and height and depth of your love: to know this love that surpasses knowledge.

School for Pastors

We pray that we may be filled with all your fullness, O God.

School for Pastors

By the power at work within us you are able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine.

School for Pastors

To you be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

from Ephesians 3:16-21

Saving Jonah

Where could I go, where could I run, Even if I found the strength to fly?

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And if I rose on the wings of the dawn

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And crashed through the corner of the sky

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If I sailed past the edge of the sea

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Even if I made my bed in Hell Still there You would find me

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'Cause nothing is beyond You.

Rich Mullins

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Psalm 139:7Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?

Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

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Psalm 139:8If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

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Psalm 139:9If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

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Psalm 139:10even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

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Psalm 139:11If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,

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Psalm 139:12even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

Saving Jonah

Saving Judas: A Biblical Narrative Theology of Salvation

Saving Jonah


Saving Jonah

Saving Jonah


Saving Job

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Saving Israel

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Saving Peter

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Saving the World

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Saving Judas

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They Call the Wind Mariah

Now Im so lost and so alone not even God can find me.

Lerner & Lowe, Paint Your Wagon 1951, 1969

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Can I get so lost and so alone that not even God can find me?

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What if I die in the depths of the sea?

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What if I die and go to hell?

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What if Im in the deepest darkness?

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Even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

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Suppose we identify ourselves as Bible-believing Christians.

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And suppose the Bible says Even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

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Do we get to believe thats true?

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Or do we need to explain it away as

metaphor

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poetry

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symbol

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ancient cultural hyperbole which we dont need to worry about

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You would think that Bible believing people would not want to explain away what the Bible says.

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But there are Bible believing people who dont think its true, what the Bible says in Psalm 139:7-12.

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But there are Bible believing people who dont think its true, what the Bible says in Psalm 139:7-12.

And one of them is Jonah.

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Jonah 1:1And the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying,

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Jonah 1:2Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.

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Jonah 1:3But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish;

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Jonah 1:3so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

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Jonah believed there was somewhere he could go where he could get beyond the presence of the Lord.

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Jonah believed there was somewhere he could go where he could get beyond the presence of the Lord.

Isnt it an astonishing thing, that he would want to do that?

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Suppose you knew that the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

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And suppose you didnt want the Lord to be merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love toward certain people.

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Suppose what you wanted for those certain people was for them to be cutoff from the presence of the Lord forever: to hell with them!

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And suppose your sovereign Lord commanded you to go and proclaim to them that Gods judgment was about to fall on them, so they had better repent.

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And what if what you wanted was for Gods judgment to fall on them, and for them to have no chance to repent.

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And what if thats what you wanted, even more than you wanted to live in the glory of the presence of God.

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Jonah 1:3Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord.

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Jonah 1:4But the Lord appointed a great wind upon the sea

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As Jonah gave up and sank into the depths, perhaps his second-to-last thought was glee at the fate of the Ninevites.

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But though he intended that to be his last thought, it was just his second-to-last thought.

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What was his last thought?

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What was his last thought?

O God, save me!

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You might think that it was too late to save Jonah, as his dying body drifted down into the utter darkness of the deep.

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Psalm 139 reminds us that death and the sea and deep darkness are not obstacles too great for God.

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Even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

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Jonah 1:17But the Lord appointed a large fish to swallow up Jonah

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depths-of-the-sea to belly-of-the-sea-creature

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depths-of-the-sea to belly-of-the-sea-creature

out of the frying pan into the fire ?

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Jonah 2: a prayer of thanksgiving for deliverance

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Jonah 2:2I called to you, O Lord, in my distress, and you answered me; out of the belly of hell I cried, and you heard my voice.

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Jonah 2:3You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.

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Jonah 2:4Then I said, I am driven away from your sight; shall I indeed look again upon your holy temple?

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Jonah 2:5-6The waters closed in over me, the deep surrounded me, weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains.

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Jonah 2:6I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O Lord my God.

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Jonah 2:7As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.

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Jonahs last thought was a prayer to the Lord: O God, save me!

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Jonah 2:8Those who worship vain idols abandon their hesed.

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subjective vs. objective genitive

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subjective vs. objective genitive

the fear of the Spartans

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When the Athenian army saw the Spartan army lining up to fight against them, they knew that the fear of the Spartans would overwhelm them.

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II Corinthians 5:14 , ,

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II Corinthians 5:14For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that One has died for all.

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II Corinthians 5:14For the love we have for Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that One has died for all.

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II Corinthians 5:14For the love Christ has for us urges us on, because we are convinced that One has died for all.

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II Corinthians 5:14For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that One has died for all.

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Jonah 2:8Those who worship vain idols abandon their hesed.

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Jonah 2:8Those who worship vain idols abandon their hesed toward God.

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Jonah 2:8Those who worship vain idols abandon Gods hesed toward them.

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Jonah 2:8They lose out on the steadfast love with which God loves them: it is their love because God gives them this love, by loving them, and the direction of the loving is specifically from God to them.

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Jonah 2:8They fail to show the steadfast love they owe to God: it is their love because it is their responsibility to love God this way, and the direction of the loving is specifically from them to God.

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Jonah 2:8 (NRSV)Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty.

Saving Jonah

Jonah 2:8 (NRSV)Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty.

subjective genitive

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Jonah 2:8 (NIV)Those who worship worthless idolsforfeit the grace that could be theirs.

Saving Jonah

Jonah 2:8 (NIV)Those who worship worthless idolsforfeit the grace that could be theirs.

objective genitive

Saving Jonah

Jonah 2:8Those who worship vain idols

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Jonah 2:8Those who worship vain idols

Who is that?

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The general class of sinners: all of us

Were all guilty of idolatry: putting our trust in gold, in health, in a political system, in war, in nature

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This could include Jonah himself, if he had come to recognize that his hatred for the Ninevites counted as idolatry

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Jonah 2:8 (NRSV)Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty

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Jonah 2:8 (NRSV)Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty

As long as we allow ourselves to get caught in our idolatries, we fail to love God as we ought.

Saving Jonah

OR: The specific class of idol-makers

the heathen of various times and places who fashion wood or clay or metal into a statue before which they then bow in worship

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This would not include Jonah himself; instead, he would specifically have the pagan Ninevites in mind

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Jonah 2:8 (NIV)Those who worship worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs

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Jonah 2:8 (NIV)Those who worship worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs

As long as the heathen remain heathen, they are unable to receive the mercy of God.

Saving Jonah

NB the ambiguity of this verse, at this point in the narrative

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Jonah 2:9But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay.Deliverance belongs to the Lord!

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Jonah 3:4Forty days more, and Nineveh will be overthrown!

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Where is the invitation?

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Where is Deliverance belongs to the Lord!

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Jonah 3:6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

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Jonah 3:9Who knows? God may relent and change his mind, so that we do not perish.

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Jonah 3:10When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

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Jonah 4:1But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.

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Jonah 4:2He prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country?

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Jonah 4:2That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.

Saving Jonah

gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love

Exodus 34

Numbers 14Nehemiah 9

Psalm 103 Psalm 86

Psalm 145

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Jonah 4:3And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

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Jonah 4:4And the Lord said, Is it right for you to be angry?

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Jonah 4:5Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade waiting to see what would become of the city.

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Jonah 4:6The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush.

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Jonah 4:7But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered.

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Jonah 4:8When the sun rose, God appointed a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, It is better for me to die than to live.

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Jonah 4:9But God said to Jonah, Is it right for you to be angry about the bush? And he said, Yes, angry enough to die.

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Jonah 4:10Then the Lord said, You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night.

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Jonah 4:11And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?

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Who is your favorite character in the book of Jonah?

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The Whale 5 votes God 3 The King of Nineveh 1 The Sailors 1 The Worm 1

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The oddness of the books ending

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The oddness of mourning the dead bush while resenting Gods love for the lost souls of Nineveh

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A hermeneutical question:Why is it that we, the people of God, have remembered this story, down the generations?

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One of the stories we remember from the heritage of Israel:

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Deuteronomy 23:3No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

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One of the stories we remember from the heritage of Israel:

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Jonah 4:9, 4:2-3Jonah mourns for the dead bush while resenting Gods redeeming love for the lost souls of Nineveh

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What do we learn, about God and about ourselves, from the story of Gods desire for the redemption of Nineveh, and Jonahs resentment of this?

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hastings 2012 01 saving jonah

Spiritual