Anyway, he surprised us with this message on Jonah. Cody read the beginning chapters of the Book and then Bro Mike read Chapter 4 at the beginning of his message. So we all got to read all four chapters!
He alluded to Acts 2 when he talked about something happening to Jonah to get his attention (like the miracle of tongues got the attention of the early church). It would be a scary point in our lives when God didn't want to get our attention.
Jonah 4:2 is a really good description of the kind of God we have:
I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
Bro Mike gave an example of someone who was hired by a multi-billionaire. He was given perfect job security and his only job was to give out money. He could go to hospitals, to orphanages, to anyone who needed financial help and give it to them. Then later in life he becomes judgmental and wonders why some of these people, who have very little goodness in them, should be able to receive such largess. In fact, some were obviously evil!
The employee starts to question his employer about the worth of some, forgetting that he, too, was undeserving of his job and certainly didn't merit the special job/salary security he had.
That is a sort of a picture of Jonah. Blessed by God's mercy and compassion himself, he became judgmental and resentful of others who would benefit from the same gifts of God.
(It sort of reminds me, too, of the parable Christ told about the laborers in the vineyard. The ones who arrived early and worked all day were resentful when the newly arrived ones got the same pay. 'What does it matter to you?' Christ asked them. 'Didn't you get what was promised?'
Christ says He is talking about envy -- so those who arrived early were envious because God's grace also fell on the later ones. Doesn't it seem that they should appreciate the fact that they had job security themselves. They should be thankful that they worked all day, knowing that they would receive pay when they left and could feed their families. They didn't have to worry about taking some money home.
But the newly hired likely had worried most of the day, maybe frantic that they would not be able to take food home. Then they were called to work -- and they were so thankful! The parable never says they were lazy, or that they got tired of waiting and went home. They were just not picked first! Shouldn't the earlier ones have said, 'Wow! This is so great! We were worried about you. Don't we have a great God who gives you the same pay as we received?'
So I really loved Bro Mike's illustration about the wealthy man extending grace to others, no matter whether they deserved it or not! And using one of his employees to deliver the good news!
1. The price of running away from God is always more than the price arranged. Jonah went to the port and paid the fare for a trip to get away from God. But that is not all he paid! And innocent bystanders paid something, too! The men on the ship were hesitant to throw him overboard. They seemed to really care for him. They were complete strangers, and yet they cared for him. And yet Jonah didn't care for all those people in Nineveh!
2. What we are running from will be waiting there at the next stop. Think of all those 'police chases' on TV -- do the people ever get away? They have to stop sometime -- all those cars chasing them and a helicopter overhead! They are still going to have to finally deal with it!
Sometimes we are the same. Jonah was so resentful of those folks at Nineveh -- he just couldn't stand the thought that they'd get another chance. How could he ever think he could run away from God?
3. In the end, the grace of God taken for granted by us is offered to others. We are so comfortable here in the US -- we have it all -- we can take it all for granted. John Newton didn't -- for him it was always "Amazing Grace."
Are we at the point of questioning God -- Telling Him, "I don't like the way you distribute grace..."
His ways are not our ways. We need to take hold of Him, draw close, and learn more about His grace.
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