JUST LIKE JONAH, SOMETIMES...

"1 The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: ² “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”

³ But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.
⁴ But the Lord..." [Jonah 1:1-4a]
Doesn't this map really drive Jonah's disobedience home, for you??? It's almost laughable--if it weren't so sad, and honestly, so much like us, at times, too. Jonah lived at Gath-hepher, right in the center--close to Israel. When God commissioned him to go to Nineveh, he should have traveled East, but Jonah took a detour. He boarded a ship south of his home and Israel--in Joppa, and headed to Tarshish--it isn't even showing on the map...that's how far west it is (in the opposite direction). I think another thing that is interesting is the choice Jonah made to journey by water; God planned a land trip for Jonah--over some of the lushest area (Nineveh, apparently was not far from Eden--where the four rivers meet--). To get an idea, in modern times, Jonah's trek would have taken him to the port cities south of Spain, rather than to Iraq, near Turkey.

We often wonder at the disobedience of Jonah, but I really think we should give him a break. Think about the commission that he faced. Out of all of God's prophets, only Jonah was sent to a pagan nation--and not to God's own people. Jonah, alone was sent to a nation of unbelievers--not Judah or Israel; not God's chosen people. The Ninevites were wicked--and extremely so; and enemies of Israel and Judah. Unlike Jonah, the prophet Nahum, prophesied their destruction against them (not for the purpose of their repentance) but also as an encouragement to Judah that God had not forgotten the wickedness done to them at the hand of the Ninevites. The Ninevites had a long history of abuses against God's people. And, eventually, they reap the whirlwind at the hand of the Babylonians according to the prophecy of Nahum, around 586 B.C. Who were these Ninevites that Jonah went to such an extreme to avoid prophesying to? Nineveh was the capital of  Assyria. Over and over from about 745 B.C. to approximately 640 B.C., both Judah and Israel suffered horrendously under Assyrian domination--and Jonah knew it, and he would not forget it or resolve to let it go. He was angry, and had every right to be--it wasn't wrong that he was angry; it was wrong that he sinned in his anger. God allows us to have emotions--He gave them to us; but we have to make choices about our response to them.

Jonah wanted to prophesy their destruction--not for the purpose of repentance, but like Nahum (who came later), for their demise and for the comfort of his own people. But God had a different plan, and He chose Jonah to deliver the message. He will do that--give us assignments that make no sense to our human mind--or to anyone else's. Imagine being Jonah, and what it must have felt like--being asked to have mercy on those who have been your fiercest enemies for more than your lifetime; even your ancestors. It would be like asking an escaped slave to gather all slave owners together and preach forgiveness--that's not just showing mercy, but it's hazardous to one's health! Or imagine today, an Israeli Jew going into Taliban territory preaching a message of hope and forgiveness, if they will just stop the violence--or to Hitler and his inner circle...are you getting the picture??? Don't be so hard on Jonah. His task was a monumental one--and I can imagine that he felt that he would never be able to go back to Israel and Judah (or anywhere even close) if he followed God's instructions--no wonder he preferred death to doing God's will!

The Assyrians represent all of those people in our lives that we don't think are worthy. We don't readily admit that, but there are unfavorable people that all of us come in contact with--people who lie, cheat and steal, or are hateful; and we'd rather go to Tarshish, too, to avoid dealing with them. There are those who have falsely accused or attacked you. Perhaps, you have been molested, raped or assaulted--barely escaping with your life, or your sanity...your offenders are your "Assyrians". They are in dire need  of your mercy. They may or may not repent--Jonah knew Nineveh would repent, that's why he didn't want to go. I'm not sure why he was so confident that they would repent, but he was (and he was dead on), and he didn't want God to extend mercy to them. He forgot how greatly he, himself needed the mercy of God--and we do, too. As horrific as someone's crimes, faults and sins are, the amount of grace and mercy needed to cleanse them and make them righteous in God's eye, is no greater than is needed to cleanse a "good" man. It doesn't take more work for Him to redeem some than it does to redeem others--to think otherwise, is self-righteous, not godly-righteous.

Like Jonah, it will be difficult sometimes to forgive and extend mercy and share the Light of God, but just do it and leave vengeance in God's Hand. You can't handle it, anyway.