A Bad Prophet - By: Andrew V. Ste. Marie

Good to see everyone. We've got something special today. Andrew St. Marie, an Anabaptist historian and author of a number of books, was passing through the area, so I asked him if he would maybe be our guest teacher for Sunday school.

So last week we were talking about Michael Sadler, and Andrew has written a biography of Michael Sadler. I appealed the scripture, which is what he said in his trial, "The Life and Writings of Michael Sadler." So I'm also looking for his input. In the second Sunday school, we'll be talking about the Schleithaum Confession, so he would know a lot more about it than I would. So I'd say it's wonderful he's with us. He also wrote a biography about Conrad Grebel entitled "March Forward with the Word." So yeah, if any of you would like to read his books, Scroll Publishing carries them, and he's got his own publishing house as well.

So we're now going to turn it over. He's not going to be talking about Anabaptists; he's going to be talking about Jonah for Sunday school. We'll just turn it over to you then. I will turn this mic off, and you can use that mic. And just use whatever time you need to finish, and then sit down. When you're finished, sit down, and then we'll do the announcements and everything as normal after that, okay?

So if you want to come on up. Well, thank Brother David for that introduction. He said I could use all the time I want, but I'm quite aware that he wrote a book in which he said if you take more than your allotted time, that's like an airplane pilot who just keeps circling and circling and won't land, and all the passengers are angry at him. So we'll try not to go too far over anyway.

Well, thank you for your hospitality and warm welcome. As Brother David said, we're talking this morning about a bad prophet. Normally, we think of prophets as people who are exemplary for their righteousness. We think of people like John the Baptist, people like Isaiah, like Elijah, who were holy men who lived austere lives and lives of great righteousness. But today we're talking about a prophet who was a bad man.

And the story of Jonah is the story of a bad prophet and a good God. The message and theme of the book of Jonah is that God is radically, amazingly, and unfathomably good. It's a revelation of a God who loves his enemies.

It's a revelation of a God who is not willing that any should perish. It's a revelation that it is the goodness of God which leads men to repentance. It's a revelation of these things to a bad prophet, to a wicked city, and to us today.

Now, Jonah was a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel. In the days of Rehoboam, Solomon's son, the kingdom of Israel split into northern ten tribes and the southern two tribes. Jonah was from the northern kingdom. Now, Jeroboam, the first king, Jeroboam I, the first king of the northern kingdom, had departed from the pure worship of God. Now, he didn't go into worshiping the pagan gods of the countries around Israel. What he did was he set up two golden calves at the northern and southern ends of his kingdom and claimed that those were images of Jehovah and that people should worship at those shrines for those golden calves rather than at Jerusalem at the temple.

And so in his mind, he wasn't departing from worshiping God, but he was mixing it with idolatry. And 18 times the books of Kings say that Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, made Israel to sin. It's a very serious thing when we cause others or influence others to sin.

Now, the kingdom of Israel experienced a lot of political instability, and dynasties changed several times between the foundation of that kingdom and the time of Jonah. The idolatry, the worship of gods other than Jehovah, came in during the reign of Amri, who was the founder of one of these dynasties. And Amri was the most wicked king Israel had had up to that time, and his son Ahab was even worse. Stirred up by his wife Jezebel, Ahab introduced worship of Baal and other heathen gods.

Now, following the reign of Ahab and two of his sons, God raised up Jehu to cleanse the land of the Amri dynasty and cleanse the land of idolatry, which Jehu did partly. He returned them to the worship of God, but it was the worship of those two golden calves that Jeroboam I had claimed were images of Jehovah. So he only took Israel partly back to God.

Now, Jehu had four descendants follow him in his dynasty in ruling the land of Israel. And during the time of these descendants, the Syrian Empire oppressed the land of Israel.

God began to cut Israel short, 2 Kings 10 says, under the Syrians, and Israel lost a significant amount of its land to these foes. But God had mercy on the Israelites, and Jehu's grandson, Jehoash, had three victories over the Syrians and reclaimed a few of the cities. Then Jehoash's son was Jeroboam II, and it was during Jeroboam II's reign that Jonah was a prophet. And God decided to have mercy on the land of Israel, on the kingdom of Israel. So we can turn now to the first place Jonah is mentioned, 2 Kings 14 and beginning in verse 23.

2 Kings 14, beginning in verse 23.

In the 15th year of Amoziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria and reigned 41 years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. He departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord, God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-Hepher.

For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter, for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash. Now, the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did and his might, how he warred and how he recovered Damascus and Hamath, which belonged to Judah for Israel, are they not written in the books of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

Now, Jonah was the son of a man by the name of Amittai, who it seems he was a prophet as well. I'm not sure if that the prophet refers to Jonah or to his father Amittai. In any case, Jonah was a worshiper of the one true God. He came from the land of Zebulun, the tribe of Zebulun, and he was a prophet and proclaimed God's word to these wayward people of Israel. The people were bitterly afflicted by the Syrians, and although Jeroboam II was a wicked man, God was ready to deliver them from this oppression. And this was Jonah's prophecy. I believe these two verses here are a summary of Jonah's preaching at that time.

For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter, for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash.

This was a patriotic message of the recovery of Israel's borders and Israel's land. It was a message of bringing Israel back to international prominence and having victory over their hated enemies, the Syrians.

Jonah's preaching was probably quite popular. With a message like that, how could it not be? Now, we don't know exactly what Jeroboam II thought himself, thought of Jonah, but even though he was an idolater, he probably appreciated what Jonah was doing. I mean, how could something like that fail to have a positive effect on the morale of the people and the military?

And it came true. God allowed the Israelites to recover their borders and to even go on the offensive all the way to Damascus, which was the capital of Syria, and have great victory over the Syrians.

Now, Jonah had a fairly easy mission, apparently, at the beginning of his ministry, but God had a new mission in mind for him. He was at heart a bad prophet. He liked his homeland-exalting mission and his patriotism, but God had something bigger in mind for him.

Now, Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, not to be confused with the Syrian Empire. Now, at the time of Jonah, the Assyrians were still on the rise. They were a fairly loose confederation of city-states, depending on exactly how your chronology is.

Nineveh probably wasn't even the capital of the Assyrians at the time of Jonah, but it was a very prominent and large city at the time. Now, the Assyrians are never mentioned in the Bible before Jonah, but we know from archaeology that Israel and Assyria were already enemies long before the time of Jonah.

Ahab himself had led a confederation of Middle Eastern kings to fight against the Assyrians at the enormous battle of Karkar, and the Assyrians won. And the Assyrians put the Israelites under tribute. Jehu paid tribute to the Assyrians, as did Joash, the father of Jeroboam II. Now, eventually, the Assyrians would become the world power, and they would defeat Israel and totally scatter them, bring them into captivity, and dilute their identity, bringing in pagans into the land of Israel, and that's the origin of the Samaritans. But that, of course, is all in the future. Now, what I just said about the previous monarchs, as I mentioned, is not mentioned in the Bible, but we know from archaeology that the Israelites and Assyrians by the time of Jonah were already enemies.

So now we can turn to the book of Jonah, which is between the books of Micah and Obadiah.

And we'll begin reading at chapter 1 in verse 1. Now, the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me." Now, this was a radically new mission for Jonah. It was not at all unusual for God to give a message of doom and judgment against a foreign nation to an Israelite prophet.

Jeremiah and Isaiah had prophesied against other nations, but they had never gone to those other nations to preach that in person. God was telling Jonah to go to the prominent city in the Assyrian Empire and proclaim its doom in person in the city.

This shows us God's intolerance of sin, but also his mercy, his willingness to send a message of warning to those who had provoked his wrath. Verse 3, "But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa. And he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord."

Now, Jonah was obviously very displeased with this new mission he had been given. We're not told at this point in the book why he was displeased. That's saved for the dramatic climax. But he flees not just from his mission, but from the presence of the Lord. A prophet, imagine this, someone who should be close to the heart of God wanting to flee from the presence of the Lord.

Verse 4, "But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his God and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep." The Septuagint says he was snoring.

Jonah slept soundly through the storm. He probably imagined that he was God's favored prophet. Of course, God was going to protect him. And too many people, even today, think that God will bless them even as they're in the midst of rebellion and disobedience.

Verse 6, "So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, 'What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.' And they said everyone to his fellow, 'Come and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us.' So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, 'Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us, what is thine occupation?

And whence comest thou? What is thy country, and of what people art thou?' And he said unto them, 'I am in Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.'" Jonah knew who God was. He feared the Lord, but was apparently unafraid to obey him, unless, of course, it was only at this moment that he started to fear the Lord.

Notice that although the shipmaster had asked Jonah to pray, there's no record here that Jonah actually did so. Verse 10, "Then were the men exceedingly afraid and said unto him, 'Why hast thou done this?' For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them." Now, of course, here are these idolatrous shipmasters, and they have asked Jonah who he is, and Jonah has told them that he fears the Lord, the God of heaven. And of course, here's this storm coming from the heavens, and they're like, "You have offended the God of heaven?"

And they are exceedingly afraid, and they can't believe that Jonah would have done something like this. But more significantly, it says here that Jonah had already told them what he had done. The sailors were more afraid at Jonah's disobedience than Jonah was. And they had already knew that Jonah was here in this ship because of his rebellion against God, because he had been brazenly rebellious enough to report his grievances of his God to these pagans.

Jonah was a member of God's priestly nation, the nation that was supposed to show the glory of God to the whole world. And Jonah himself was a prophet who was supposed to have this mission of representing God to people, and yet he had complained about his God to these pagans.

Verse 11, "Then said they unto him, 'What shall we do unto thee that the sea may be calm unto us? For the sea wrought and was tempestuous.' And he said unto them, 'Take me up and cast me forth into the sea. So shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.' Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said, 'We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood, for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.'" The sailors were showing a better demonstration of God's heart of love and mercy and compassion than what Jonah was.

They were having more compassion on Jonah than he was on the Ninevites. They tried hard to save Jonah's life, to keep from doing this, and they begged God, if this was not what he wanted to please, not blame them.

But interestingly, Jonah had not asked for God's guidance on what to do, and he also didn't repent. Repentance would have been, "I belong in Nineveh. Turn this ship around and get me there as fast as you can. I'll pay you whatever it takes."

No, Jonah was still stubborn. He would rather drown than go to Nineveh.

Verse 15, "So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows." Now, God, the benevolent and all-wise deity, even in the midst of this situation that Jonah had created, he used Jonah's disobedience to reach even more pagans than was on the original plan.

Despite the poor witness left by Jonah's brazen rebellion, these sailors feared and sacrificed to God, who had revealed himself to them. Verse 17, "Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."

Now, in Bible storybooks, we often see the picture of Jonah kind of treading water there by the side of the ship, and then the fish comes up and swallows him. What actually happened, as is going to be shown in the next chapter, chapter 2, is Jonah sank, got tangled up in seaweed, and was probably dead at the time that the fish swallowed him. At least he was near death. Of course, if you're without oxygen for four minutes, you're in brain damage territory. And by the sound of chapter 2, Jonah was without oxygen for a whole lot longer than four minutes.

So chapter 2 in verse 1, "Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly and said, 'I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the sea.

The floods compassed me about. All thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, 'I am cast out of thy sight. Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul. The depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.'" Now, these phrases about descending into the belly of hell, compassed to the soul, the earth with her bars about me forever, they indicate to me that Jonah had probably died after he had been cast out of the ship.

His soul descended to the abode of the dead. He despaired of ever being in God's presence again, despaired of ever entering the temple again. But yet hope entered his soul. He said, "Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple."

Then the Lord, true to his merciful character, brought up Jonah's life from corruption and revived him in the belly of the fish. Verse 7, "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple."

Jonah knew where to turn in this hour of trouble. He had to turn to the very person he had sinned against. Jonah's prayer holds regret for his punishment and maybe just an ounce of actual repentance. At the end, Jonah's tone becomes triumphant. He is confident that God has heard his prayer, and he would again be allowed to enter the temple.

Verse 8, "They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." Now, this verse about lying vanities, the lying vanities are obviously idols. And Jonah seems to be saying, "Those who worship idols have forsaken the opportunity to experience God's mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee." He's even in this prayer of regret and maybe repentance, he's still saying, "Those who worship idols are outside of the scope of God's mercy, but I will get mercy.

I will sacrifice to thee. I will pay my vows." He now has full confidence that God will deliver him, and he plans his sacrifice, his thanksgiving, and he declares that salvation, deliverance from his present disaster comes from the Lord.

And despite the promise of worship, this prayer does not include any confession of guilt or plea for forgiveness. Verse 10, "And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." And Jonah received what he prayed for. Even this prayer that's rather faulty, God accepted it and heard Jonah's prayer and delivered him first from the belly of hell, then from the belly of the fish.

It's God's loving and merciful character that we see here, loving even to his enemies. God could easily have just left Jonah to be the fish's lunch, picked another prophet to do the job, or sent an angel to do the job. But God was going to teach this bad prophet how good he really was.

Chapter 3, verse 1, "And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 'Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.'" God had delivered Jonah from his disaster, but not from his mission. A boat had taken Jonah away from Nineveh, and a fish carried him back. Jonah was given the opportunity to demonstrate repentance by preaching in love to those who were headed where he had just been, the belly of hell.

So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. So at least outwardly, Jonah obeys this time, and he goes to Nineveh. But as we'll soon see, it was not out of love that he went.

Now, Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. That probably refers to the size of the surrounding district that the city of Nineveh ruled over. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

Now, we have no record that Jonah said anything more than that. "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Now, I don't know what you would think if somebody came walking through Chambersburg saying, "Yet forty days in Chambersburg will be destroyed." I would not necessarily think that God had sent this person. I would not necessarily think that I needed to do anything or could do anything about it.

But it's amazing what the Ninevites got out of this message. The Ninevites, of course, who are idolaters, were very superstitious, and any kind of unusual thing to a superstitious pagan can be a sign. So here comes this man walking out of the desert, probably smelling and looking rather fishy, and he has this message.

And they took him seriously. It says, "So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them." They didn't just believe Jonah; they believed God. They recognized that God had sent this man to them. They recognized that it was their fault that this judgment was coming.

It says in verse 6, "For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, 'Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not?'" This incredible repentance came about because the Ninevites guessed what was behind Jonah's terse, threatening message.

They guessed the truth that Jonah had wanted to hide from them, the truth that God was gracious and merciful, that he was willing to forgive upon repentance. Indeed, why would God send a message of warning if there was no hope of mercy?

The Ninevites believed God enough that they were willing to turn from their sins in repentance, begging for his mercy. Now, what was God's response? In verse 10, "And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. And God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not."

This shows the incredible good nature of God. In response to their repentance, God also repented or turned from the pronouncement of judgment. "The judge of all the earth does right. He does not punish the righteous with the wicked." These men, although formerly wicked, had turned from their wickedness to righteousness. God responds to repentance by giving mercy.

Ezekiel 18:21-23 says, "But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him.

In his righteousness that he hath done, he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should return from his ways and live?"

Chapter 4, verse 1, we are coming to the climax of the story. "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry." We are getting to the real reason why Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh. God saw the repentance of Nineveh and responded with mercy and forgiveness. Jonah, however, who was God's chosen prophet, he should have been close to the heart of God. He should have participated with God in God's thoughts about the situation.

Jonah is angry with God for showing mercy on Nineveh. Sometimes we too are angry when our neighbor receives a blessing. Verse 2, "And he prayed unto the Lord and said, 'I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.'" This is the climax of the story of the book of Jonah, the shocking element in the entire book when God's prophet reproaches God for being good.

It's the real reason Jonah wanted to flee and avoid the mission. It's because he knew that God was good and that if the city of Nineveh would repent, that God would spare the city. And Jonah was a patriot, and Jonah hated his enemies, and Jonah did not want the city of Nineveh to stand. He wanted them to get the judgment. And so when he finally got to the city, that's all he told them, "You're going to be judged. You're going to be destroyed." And they guessed God's goodness and repented. And the truth he wanted to hide from them, they discovered.

And Jonah reproaches God for being good. He's like the man who is sitting on a branch and sawing on the branch that he's sitting on. Jonah was perfectly pleased with God's mercy and goodness when he needed it, but he was not pleased with it when someone else did.

Verse 3, "Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."

Now, it would be perfectly easy to imagine God saying at this point, "Well, good, that makes two of us." But that's not the way God is. God says in verse 4, "Then said the Lord, 'Doest thou well to be angry?'" Jonah was so angry at God's goodness that he would rather die than see Nineveh stand.

And God just asked him a gentle question, "Doest thou well to be angry?" Now, as I was studying, I found that this question is rather hard to translate exactly what is meant here. It can be taken in two senses. The sense that King James gives, "Is it good for you to be angry?" which itself is a rather ambiguous question that can be taken more than one way. Or the other way, "Are you really that angry?" Now, either way you take it, God was nudging Jonah gently to repentance of his bad attitudes. But Jonah seems to have misunderstood God's question by his response. Verse 5, "So Jonah went out of the city." This is in response to God's question. "So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city.

Jonah went to the east side, the side opposite from his own homeland, and he waited to see the destruction of Nineveh." He seems to have understood God to be saying, "You know, it's not good for you to be so angry. You're being impatient. Just wait. I will destroy the city. Just be patient." And so Jonah went out to sit on the east side of the city and wait to see what would happen.

Verse 6, "And the Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd."

Now, even in the face of this new development, God is still merciful to this bad prophet. He did not let Jonah set out in the desert in the hot sun. He gave him a plant to shade him. Was Jonah grateful to God for the gourd? It says he was exceeding glad of the gourd, but it doesn't say he thanked God for it.

Verse 7, "But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass when the sun did arise that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted and wished in himself to die and said, 'It is better for me to die than to live.'" Now, God's purpose in giving this gourd to Jonah was more than just having something for him to sit under. That was part of it. But there was more. It was to teach Jonah a lesson.

The very next day, the gourd died and a strong wind blew over Jonah. And this man of emotional extremes, he was exceeding mad, and then he was exceeding glad of the gourd. Now he's exceedingly angry that he wishes to die again.

Verse 9, "And God said to Jonah, 'Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?' And he said, 'I do well to be angry even unto death.' Then said the Lord, 'Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not labored, neither madeest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle.'" God draws a comparison, a contrast between this gourd and the city. The gourd was temporary. It was very transient. It had a one-day lifespan. But man was made to have an eternal lifespan.

God originally intended people to live for eternity, to be immortal. And through his mercy, God has made a way that people can be immortal, even in spite of sin, if they repent of their sins.

Jonah gave no labor whatsoever to the gourd, but Nineveh was the handiwork of God. God had created all the people of Nineveh. God had created all the cattle in Nineveh. God had created all of them. And he intended the people of Nineveh to have an eternal life of fellowship with him.

And so God draws this contrast between the gourd and Nineveh. Jonah is more upset about a plant than he is about a whole city of people. This passage gives us the final glimpse in the book of God's heart of goodness.

Now, who was God trying to reach with the mission to Nineveh? He was trying to reach the Ninevites, but he was also trying to reach Jonah. Because Jonah was a man who hated his enemies. Jonah was a man unwilling to go preach to others because he knew that God was good. Jonah was a man of emotional extremes, a selfish man who was more interested in his own comfort and his own self-interest and the good of his own country at the expense of others, others who are the image and creation of God himself.

He was more concerned with nationalistic affairs and hatred for Israel's enemies than that another nation could see God's goodness and repent and partake of God's blessing. Jonah, preaching in Israel the destruction of her enemies, seems to have embraced the idea that God, even though he was the maker of all men, was still more concerned and bound to one tribal entity and was only loyal to the Jews.

But God's benevolent response to this bad prophet was to send him and then resend him on a mission which brought him face to face with himself in his badness and God in his goodness. In love and mercy, God did not bring a railing accusation against Jonah, but gently confronted him with his own selfishness and hate and prompted him to embrace the benevolence, magnanimity, and goodness of God for all people.

Why does the book of Jonah end so abruptly? We have no record of Jonah's final response to God. I think it's because we are supposed to finish the story for ourselves. We are supposed to put ourselves in the story and answer God's question.

Are we bad prophets? Will we realize the immense goodness of God and his love and care for all people, his desire for all people's salvation? Will we come face to face with our need to act in accordance with God's benevolent vision for all people and the expansion of his kingdom to every corner of the earth? We are without excuse. We have more than Jonah had. Jesus said, "Behold, a greater than Jonah is here." Thank you very much.