Jonah 4: The Heart. God's love, mission and our pain

God's heart for the lost and for us

So Jonah has heard God's call to go to Nineveh.  He has followed his initial reaction to recoil at the very idea of giving an enemy empire the opportunity to turn to God.  Running away from God he has ended up in a fierce storm, and has seen pagan sailors show more of  a heart for God than he had at that point.   He has prayed a prayer of commitment and faith, from the darkest place.  Then he has had a second chance, and has gone to Nineveh and preached – with results that any self-respecting preacher should be thrilled with.  But Jonah isn't thrilled. He is angry. 

So he prays.  It's an interesting prayer: an angry prayer  from a mixed-up and angry heart. But at least he is, in the midst of his darkness, again praying.  God has wide enough shoulders to cope with our angry prayers.   For some of us, if we take nothing else from Jonah 4, we need to hear this.  It's OK – and even necessary – to shout at God, and tell Him what we feel like.

He says to the Lord “I knew it.  It's just typical. I come and preach to this lousy lot of sinners, and what do you do Lord?  You go and send revival.  I knew you’d do it.  You're too soft, Lord, with your your compassion and your covenant love.  I knew you were going to show chesedh (the Hebrew word for Covenant love) to Nineveh....  But I always thought Israel was your covenant people!  I'd rather die than watch Nineveh getting into a covenant with you.”  His heart and his theology were wrong. 

And God challenges him.  The Voice, still and quiet, says “You're angry Jonah.”

“Yes, Lord”

“And you feel you are right to be angry?”  “The purpose” says A J Glaze “was to lead Jonah to reflection so that he could see himself.”  But God doesn't do that by accusing Jonah or pointing the finger.  God could have said,  “Jonah, you disobeyed me once, I have looked after you through all of that, and still you are bitter, and too thick to understand my plan for the nations”.  But he doesn't.  Rather, he gently helps Jonah to see that his heart and theology are wrong.

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And just how wrong.  He ends up sitting on the hillside, makes a bivouac out of a few leafy branches,  and watches to see what will become of Nineveh.  He's thinking, “Maybe they haven’t really repented.  Maybe God can see through all the crocodile tears.  They won't keep it up.   Maybe God will judge them after all.”  So he's watching, waiting for an earthquake, a bolt of lightning, a plague of locusts, or an enemy army appearing over the horizon.  And it's hot up the hill; the leaves on his shelter shrivel up and let the sun in.  Jonah is miserable, exhausted from his adventures, his journey, his preaching.  So God causes a plant to grow over his wee hut, to keep the sun from burning Jonah.  That's better, “Thank you Lord!”

Then next morning, just as Jonah is beginning to feel comfortable again, God sends a worm to attack the plant and it dies, as quickly as it has grown up.  The sun gets even hotter and there is an east wind, the sirocco, blowing across the desert, bringing more heat and dust and drying out the air.  Poor old Jonah is even more miserable than before.  Once again, the depression and self-pity come out: “Lord, take away my life,  it's not worth living!”

Then the still, small voice, again:

“You're angry, Jonah.” 

“Yes, Lord.”

“And you feel you are right to be angry?”

“You bet I do.  I feel so angry I wish I was dead!” 
This guy was really messed up!  There is a connexion between our thinking and our feeling.  Psychology talks about negative automatic thoughts (things that just seem to arrive in your head from nowhere) coming from distorted ideas and dysfunctional beliefs.   Jesus says the truth will set you free – and that implies that deception, wrong thinking, can make you a prisoner. 

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We can see a connexion between commitment to an ugly, violent and hate-filled belief system, and poor mental health: that has become obvious in the actions of the attackers in Nice, Rouen, and Bavaria in the last two or three weeks.  You can see it in ISIS; you can see it in an entity like Westboro Baptist Church; you can see it in racism and white supremacism – and in the “Black supremacism” of Mugabe's Zimbabwe; we can see it in the intolerance that some on both the left and the right in politics have for anyone who opposes their own extreme views.  If we allow hatred, racism, and a feeling of superiority in, it will make us ill.

Then there is a much more personal level.  Remember that Jonah was already worn down physically by what he had experienced in the past few weeks or months.  He had been at risk of his life and indeed had been prepared to die during the storm (In chapter 1).  He had gone through a physically trying experience in the belly of the fish. He had been on a journey overland from Israel to Nineveh; he had been preaching to people he didn't know or like or relate to.  He was doing something for God that he didn't understand.  Physically and emotionally, things had happened that were tearing him apart. His world-view began to fall apart – because God refused to hate the people Jonah hated.  He began to feel he had been humiliated and made to look like an idiot – after all his prophecy of doom was not going to happen.  As a result, he began to sink into the mire of “Poor little ol' me!”  Life's not worth living.  

He wasn't the first person in the Bible to be there.  Moses got so tired and overwhelmed with the task of looking after the Israelites, that he said to the Lord “You may as well kill me now!” (Numbers 11.  15).  Elijah got burned out through hard work, opposition and  a sense of failure, and said “Take away my life for I am no better than my fathers”.  (1 Kings 19. 4)

So if that is where we are today, feeling “Life's not worth living” we are not alone.  We may need to get someone to help us.  To listen, to tell us we are loved; to help us explore the roots of our struggles; to pray with us.  And there are some things we can begin to do for ourselves: we can begin to challenge our deeply held and unhealthy ideas about ourselves, the people around us and the future.

God is there for Jonah Gently but firmly, God speaks: “You valued your plant, with its big leaves, although you didn't plant it or look after it.  Shouldn't I value Nineveh and its thousands of people?  I planted and looked after them.  I am their Father, too.  And they are so lost...”

And that's the punch-line. Boom-boom. Abruptly, the book comes to an end.  God has a heart for broken people.  He has a heart for broken pagans in Nineveh.  He has a heart for the nations.  In his sovereignty, God had sent the storm, the fish, the plant, the worm, and the burning sirocco: and the point isn't that we should resign ourselves  to wahtever bad stuff comes along as the purposes of God.  The point is that God exercised his sovereignty and used sometimes drastic means, to bring his message and his grace to Nineveh.   Look outside, down these streets.  What is there?  People who don't know their left hand from their right, morally, spiritually, emotionally.  People who are spiritually hungry and thirsty.  People who may be praying even as we are hankering for the simplicities of the past, sleeping to block out the present and despairing for the future.  God loves our Nineveh. And it’s called Rosyth!

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And he has a heart for broken Jonah.  The book ends here: but his story goes on: whoever wrote the story of Jonah – if it was not Jonah himself – must have information from Jonah.  So Jonah. was, in time,  able to talk about  his story.  He went on to develop an understanding of Yahweh as the God of all nations; and to grow a heart that reflected that understanding: a heart that cares for the last, the lost and the least; a heart that was secure in having God as his Heavenly Father.  God exercises his power to bring his grace and compassion to the lost, and to bring his healing to his people do that we can be able to bring his grace to the lost.

© Gilmour Lilly 2016

Jonah 3: The mission: being part of a move of God

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The call   Verses1-3a.
We have learned (Chapter 1) about the “voices” that surrounded Jonah and about how we must recognise the voices of our own prejudice, God's love, our spiritually hungry neighbours – and find our own voice in testimony; and we have learned (Chapter 2) how to pray, in the darkest of circumstances, a prayer of faith and commitment.  Jonah has come through these experiences, he has messed up pretty badly; and in fact he is still messed up pretty badly; and again the Voice says to him “Go to Nineveh!”.  This time, there is no argument.  “OK, Lord, I'll go!” 

God takes the initiative.  Not Jonah.  God's grace is at work for Jonah – generously calling Jonah to be involved in what God is doing, despite Jonah failings.  God calls Jonah again: he goes, not because he wants to; he goes not  because he sees things differently.  His heart and this theology are still lagging behind – but with his will he decides to go and preach in Nineveh.  God's grace is at work for Nineveh, quietly insisting that the people of Nineveh will have their opportunity to hear God's word, God's warning,and to turn to Him.   

The City  Verse 3b
As he calls Jonah, God refers to Nineveh. as “That great city” (v. 2).  And as Jonah goes, the writer tells us Nineveh was “very large” (NIV) or “Great to God” (Heb)  – three days' journey to cross.  Some people wonder how accurate this all is:  the writer says “Nineveh was huge” (past tense).  Does that mean the Jonah story was written many years after Jonah lifetime?  Not necessarily.  Is the size of Nineveh. exaggerated?  No.  “Nineveh.” can refer to both the walled city – which was fairly small – and to  “the Greater Nineveh” district centred on and governed by the city, an area that would be three days' travel to cross.  (That would make sense of the talk about cattle as well as of the dimensions of the place.)

Therefore Nineveh was  a place of significance: a populous city and region and the capital of an empire.  And it was “great to God” – not just a figure of speech but a statement of theological truth.  Do we need to understand the significance of the place God has called us?  It may be bigger than we think; and it is important to God. 

The message   Verse 4. 
When Jonah arrives in Nineveh, he begins to preach (the only actual prophecy in the book): “In forty days Nineveh will be overthrown!”  Jonah preaches without offering, apparently, any hope of repentance, restitution or reconciliation. But he knew such things were likely to happen; but his heart wasn't in it.  How do we handle a message of judgement in our world?  Does it come too easy to preach a message like that? Too often as Christians we are seen as "against" things: we need to find a better way of being God's people.   How do we preach judgement without preaching an angry, finger-wagging god?  

• We live in a moral universe.  There is a difference between “right” and “wrong”. Right now I am not going to go into the details of where the boundaries lie. Simply to say that there is “right” and “wrong”.  And that is a good thing.  In a world where the rich get richer and richer, and the poor get poorer and poorer; in a world of Hitlers and Stalins and PolPots and Mugabes, a world of polluted rivers and shrinking ice caps, an world where slavery still persists on several continents, a world where the rule of law is simply an excuse for oppression and a euphemism for the survival of the fittest, it is a good thing, that there is a moral dimension. 
• We have a moral God. That moral dimension in the universe is there because God is a moral being. He has standards.  There is a “judge of all the earth” and he “shall do right”.  There is judgement to come for all the evil in our world – and we are all part of that. 
• The Jesus story – his life, death and resurrection – are about the actions of a moral God.  In his life he demonstrated the rule of God: the justice and compassion of God in contrast to the mess in a broken world.  In his death, he dealt with the sin inside us: he judged it.  If you want to know how God feels about evil, look at the cross. Jesus Christ was “overthrown” in our place.  He took our judgement and defeated our enemy.   In his cross the love and the justice of God meet.  In his resurrection, it becomes clear that there is nothing else that anyone can throw at Jesus, the sacrifice and the victory are complete.  “Right” will triumph in the world.  There is mercy for every person who calls out for it – because the judgement has already been handed down.
• And at the end, nations will be overthrown.  All evil will be overthrown.  But those who have thrown their lot in with Jesus and sought his kingdom have an escape, a hope for the future in a Kingdom where injustice and evil have been overthrown for ever.  Salvation and the Kingdom of God are fundamentally rooted in the morality, the justice, of God. 

So we are to preach the justice, the judgement, and the mercy of God.  We live in a moral universe, and every man and woman needs to be ready for that justice. 

The response  Verse 5 -10 
When Jonah preached, the city repented,  “from the greatest to the least”.  This looks like a grass-roots movement:  somebody, somewhere in Nineveh, began fasting in repentance, and before long his neighbours were fasting and telling their neighbours to fast too.  Normally the Government would do something like call the people to fast.  That is is why the NIV fudges the translation by saying “a fast was proclaimed”.  But the Hebrew clearly says “The people believed God and proclaimed a fast."

Eventually the news – a summary of Jonah's message – reached the King.  He was then running to catch up.  He makes the fast “official” – and includes animals as well as people. Verse 8 in the Hebrew is literally  “let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God” (AV) 

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That may seem a bit extreme: how can the cattle pray? Apparently the King and his officials did not see a problem, nor did the person who wrote the story.  The Gospel message calls for action not semantics – quibbling over the meaning of words. Never mind if the grammar isn't right.  Never mind if you didn't like the opening song or  you'd prefer it if the preacher was wearing a dog collar and gown.  If the message of the Cross, the message of God's justice and God's love, makes sense to you, then you need to do what the people of Nineveh did: believe it and repent: turn your life over to God.  

The constant bellowing of hungry cattle would have been a reminder to the people of what they were doing and why they were doing it.  Specific sins including violence are mentioned.  Here is a head of state and a people ready for transformation.  Here is the kind of societal, national transformation that defines “revival”. It's a bit like the impact of the Gospel on the culture of Ephesus (Acts 19).

And God relented and did not judge the city.  It survived – and went on to strengthen its position as the epicentre of a powerful empire (not alwasy a very nice empire!) 

Revival is like that: it can change the trajectory of a nation. It can avert judgement.  Spiritually it is from heaven down: it starts with God.  But socially it is from the bottom up.  But its results are always mixed and never permanent. Nineveh didn't remain a revival centre.   In the 1929 a move of God started that became known as the “East Africa revival”.  It started in Rwanda, and spread to Kenya and Uganda.  But it didn’t prevent Rwanda from having a civil war and genocide in the 1990's.   Each generation must turn to God for itself, in its own way, in its own time. 

So, people of God, like Jonah, we are not perfect.  Our hearts may not be right; our theology may not be right.  But God calls us to go to our Nineveh... to our world... to get out there, out of our comfort zone. Because he loves the world... God calls us to see our city as “Great to God”  and worth reaching with the Good News. Because he loves the world...

God calls us to proclaim this message of justice and mercy, meeting at the Cross.  Because he loves the world...  God calls us to start with ordinary people, and expect him to start there too. 

Because he loves the world...

And God calls us to expect the miracle to happen, people to turn to him – to reach our generation..  The past generation has had its revival.. The next generation will need its own revival.  We want to see revival in our generation.   Because he loves the world...

© Gilmour Lilly 2016

Jonah 2: Prayer – in a dark place

v. 1 “inside the fish Jonah prayed”   I can't think of a more unlikely, unpleasant, or compelling setting for a prayer, than this. 

Let's face it –  it is unlikely.  I guess you have heard, as I have, stories of sailors being swallowed by whales:  James Bartley, buried in Gloucester in 1909 was described as a “Modern-Day Jonah” although his story is disputed and doesn't prove the Jonah story.  Scientists don't think there is air in a fish’s or whale's stomach – though they believe a man could survive in a whale’s lung. The point is not that the story of Jonah is plausible.  The point is that it is implausible: it had to be a miracle.  Either he survived, miraculously.  Or he died and was raise – miraculously.

And in fact, in his prayer Jonah reckoned himself as  a dead man. 

Can we pray in the unlikely places – where it looks like even survival is unlikely.  Can we pray with an eye to the future when we are facing a reality that suggests there isn’t a  future? Can we pray with the faith that says “It's Friday – but Sunday's coming”? (Good Friday, hoep hangs of a cross, waiting for Easter Sunday).  Can we pray for people to turn back to God in an environment where people are turning away from God in vast numbers? Can we pray for the triumph of God's Kingdom in a world where nations including our own seem to be falling apart?  Can we pray for healing when all looks hopeless? Can we pray for that family member to find faith, while they continue to walk away from faith? 

And it is unpleasant.  Just about unpleasant as you could get.  Pitch dark. frightening, filthy and possible stinking; nobody likes to keep company with a part-digested meal – either one's own or someone else's. Can we pray when we are in unpleasant and painful situations?

But it is compelling, isn't it.  The very horror of it, the very unpleasantness of it, the very real danger and unlikeness of survival, all makes it the more urgent to pray.  There isn't very much you can do.  (No internet; no-one else to talk to; you can't read your bible, you have no chance of cutting your way out even if you have a knife.)  All you can do is call out to God.

And how Jonah prayed!

This is very much a prayer of faith. 
It is written in the past tense.  Verse 2 sums it up. “in my distress I called to the

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Lord, and he answered – Lord, you answered!   It's both a statement of faith, a testimony and a prayer of praise.

In fact the Old Testament doesn’t' recognise our slightly artificial separation between praise and prayer, as though they were different things. To pray is to reach out to God, to connect with him.  How can you connect to God without acknowledging who he is, praising and worshipping him? 

Jonah is able to recognise that his experience of the last few days, the last few minutes – running away from God, the storm, being thrown into the sea,  has been a time of separation from God, of being spiritually and physically at death's door.  He quotes a great deal from the Psalms, including Ps 42. 7:  “all your waves and breakers swept over me.”  His inner life and his very physical life have been in mortal danger. 

In the midst of it, Jonah recognises God's sovereignty.   (v. 3) “You threw me into the sea. Your waves; your breakers.”   (v. 3)   And “you, Lord my God,  brought my life up from the pit.”  (v. 6)  In the midst of it all – even Jonah's own sin and blindness – God has been at work.  And God is still on Jonah's case. 

So Jonah is able to be confident that God who has been at work, will continue to be at work. “You have, so I will...” (v. 4, cf v 8)   The story of God's salvation in his immediate past, of God's sovereignty that is able even to encompass Jonah's mistakes and sin, means that Jonah is able to anticipate God's continuing salvation – even in the place where he finds himself, in the stifling airless atmosphere of the fish's stomach.   So in this dark place, he looks for help from God's holy temple – maybe the temple in Jerusalem, though more likely for  an Israelite, the dwelling of God in the heavens. 

This is a prayer of confession, repentance and commitment.
Verse 8: Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies (NLT)  But the words s translated “ worthless idols” mean literally “Lying vanities” - the word is the same one used at the beginning of Ecclesiastes: “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity”.  It can mean a  mere breath,  vapour, something fleeting, useless, or worthless.  Calvin says they are  “all inventions with which men deceive themselves”  including Idols and false gods but also including the emptiness of going our own way, trying to run our own lives, without God,  as Jonah had done.  

So Jonah is not making a jibe against the sailors with their false Gods, or against Nineveh: he is admitting that he has put himself in the same boat as they, turning away from his covenant relationship with the Lord, for a mere breath.  He has traded the permanent lasting gift of a relationship with God for the perishable goods of his own pleasure. 

But God has kept his hand on Jonah. So Jonah is back into his relationship with the Lord:  (v. 9) “But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you.  What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, 'Salvation comes from the Lord.'”  He doesn't want to be among those who chase after lying vanities.  I is emphatic: “I will praise you and sacrifice to you...

Jonah wants to worship the Lord – with his voice, and by bringing a sacrifice to the Lord. 

He wants to keep his vow to the Lord.  Whatever obedience the Lord requires, Jonah will give. 

His testimony is that “salvation is from the Lord.”

So that is Jonah's prayer, in a dark place.  Praise, faith, confession, commitment.  Not a word of pleading for help.  Now there is  place for saying “Lord, help!”   There is a place for making your requests known to God.  There is a place for being specific in our prayers. But there is also a place for  a prayer like this.   “Over to You, Lord!” It's the spirit of Ps 118. 17:  “I shall not die but live...” 

That's how Paul was:  At midnight, in jail in Philippi, “Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them”. (Acts 16. 25) and the prison walls collapsed in an earthquake.  No wonder, later on, in other difficulties, Paul wrote to the Church in Philippi  “For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance.” (Phil 1. 19 NLT)

You could sum up Jonah's prayer in this way:  “Lord, I have been in a dark, dangerous and frightening place – indeed I still am.  But you're in charge, not me.  You can even use the mess I make, and I can already see you at work; so I know you will bring me through this. And Lord, we all need to put you, not temporary things, first – and I've been chasing the wrong things.  But Lord I will worship you.  I will do what you want.  Salvation is from you.” 

Or in the powerful words of the Lord's prayer: “Father, in Heaven may you Name be honoured.  May your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Give us today the bread we need, forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil , for the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, Lord, forever”. 

So how do we pray in the dark place? The place where -- like the sea in Hebrew

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thinking -- demons are all around?  God is OK with us simply praying "Help!"  God is OK with us presenting our requests to him. But he doesn't want us to panic or to plead for help. He wants us to pray with a robust faith that's rooted in who he is and what he's already done. And he wants us to pray with submission: with repentance and commitment.

And two certainties will follow:
1. Jonah trusts God and wants to obey him. But he still has issues with Nineveh. He is still doing God's will through gritted teeth (as we shall see.)   Like Jonah, we will still have stuff that needs sorted out.
2. And the miracles happen. Jonah survives and is eventually puked up onto a beach in Palestine, to continue his journey.  God will answer! God's on our case and will act.

© Gilmour Lilly 2016

Jonah 1.

Voices: Jonah and his world

“See Nineveh?  It's pretty bad: they are evil, mean, immoral. Their sinfulness is right in my face,”  God says.  

And Jonah is like “Yes. Amen Lord!  I agree.  They deserve your judgement Lord!”

And God says “Go there.  Tell them.  Warn them.” 

Now Jonah lived some-when around 800-750 BCE, in Israel,  when Jeroboam II was King.  Israel didn’t have the Temple: that was in Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.   Israel was always the first to rebel against the Lord, though usually Judah wasn't far behind. As kings of Israel go, Jeroboam was not as bad as some,  He continued to worship false gods, but on the positive side, he bad tried to rebuild the nation that had lost power and prestige.  To make Israel great again.  (Sounds familiar?)   And Jonah was there, bringing words from God about “Restoring the boundaries of Israel” (2 Kings 14. 25)

500 miles North East of Samaria, the capital of Israel, was Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire.  As Jeroboam worked to get Israel back almost to the strength of Solomon's days, there was this empire to the north, getting bigger and bigger.  Demanding tributes and taxes.  And God was telling Jonah, “Go there”.  So Jonah says “What?  You cannot be serious?”  (A quote from John MacEnroe as it's Wimbledon week!)

And God says “Go there, go to Nineveh, and read out the charges against them.”

Now, as I said, Nineveh is 500 miles north-east, overland, across fields and deserts.  So Jonah went and found a boat.  He went to Joppa (Jaffa) and booked  a passage to Tarshish – possible Tarsessus (around modern Cadiz) in Spain, the other side of the straits of Gibraltar.  About as far away as he could go, in the opposite direction.

And (he thought) he had done it.  It looked like he had shaken God off.  Got away from his disturbing, nagging presence,  It wasn't as though he imagined God was limited to one place: Jonah wanted to get away from intimacy with Him.    Jonah 1.  God Nil.  Or so Jonah thought.   But God really isn't limited to one place.  On a ship, crossing the Med, God could still reach Jonah.  He sent a storm, (sovereignly using the forces of nature, as he did again in verse 17.)

Huge, frightening waves... slippery decks, timbers groaning beginning to split, everyone soaking wet, sea water in the hold...  

Picture by G Lilly

So the crew start to get religious. They're from different places and they are praying to different gods.  But Jonah is asleep.  Snoring (the Greek OT tells us!).  Possibly had a few glasses of wine to keep him warm, and drown out that voice.... Sometimes the people of God are running away, sleeping, drowning out God's voice, and people who are not the people of God, are praying, each doing their own thing to try to contact God and find an answer to the challenges they face...   

The sailors do a bit of divination to find out why this disaster has overtaken them.  They recognise that this is no ordinary storm.  And the dice they throw, tell them the problem is the passenger, Jonah.  So they go to the hold.  They shake him, wake him up, and demand to know what is going on.  He confesses it all.  He's a fallen preacher.  He's been running away from God, but God has caught up with him.  At last, it looks as if Jonah is beginning to get the message.  He is beginning to show some interest in speaking out for God – even if that means speaking to foreigners.

As the sea gets rougher they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?’”

“Throw me in. It's not you God is after, it is me.”   At last there is a change in Jonah himself. He is willing to take his punishment.  Here is at least some sign of a conversion, however incomplete.  “He meets again not only God, but the truth from which he fled. He not only meets that truth, but he offers his life for it.”  (Expositors Bible Commentary)

Understandably, the sailors were reluctant to throw a passenger overboard in cold blood.  So they continued rowing for the shore – but the storm only got worse, and eventually they did what Jonah said, threw him overboard.   They were praying “Lord, don't judge us for this.  We're doing what Jonah told us.”  And God comes through:  when Jonah goes overboard, the storm stops.   When they do throw Jonah into the waves, the sea becomes calm.. And immediately, there's a prayer meeting on board.. These sailors from all over the place, with their different gods, begin to fear the Lord. 

That's what we want, isn't it?  In our messed up and godless world, to see men and women – maybe some of them “spiritual”, some superstitious, everyone doing their own thing – beginning to “fear the Lord” and turn to him in surrender and faith.  If it's going to happen, we need a Jonah moment.  We need to hear and deal with the different voices that are shouting at us...

1. We hear the voice of our own prejudice, bigotry and disobedience, and turn from that.  That is perhaps the most difficult bit to sort out.  Jonah wasn't through on this one by any means.  It would take several miracles, a lot of prayer, and listening to God's voice, and a big step of cold, intentional obedience when he didn’t feel like it, before he beat that one. 
2. Responsiveness to the voice of the missionary, compassionate God.   We have to sober up.  We have to get more spiritual.  We cannot afford to drown out the voice of God.   Not with  busyness; not with clever ideas.  Not by surrounding ourselves with people or noise.  Not by substances including our won adrenalin!
3. Understanding the voice of our neighbours – the pluralism, the spirituality as well as the superstition.  Can we understand a world where “everyone prays to his or her own God” and where that is seems as OK?  I'm not asking you to agree with it (far from it!)  But we need to understand it.  We may see superstition, but we may also see an element in belief in the Supernatural.  Are we in the place where we can respond effectively to that?   Heaven help us if we make Christianity all about “believing ideas” rather than about an encounter with God Himself. Many people have abandoned the church not because it is too spiritual, but because it is not spiritual enough. Heaven help us if the world is praying and we are sleeping.
4. Finding our own voice – speaking honestly and faithfully.  The bad news and the good news.  “I am a runaway prophet” is not a great way to be starting, but it was honest.  It is that honesty about his own failure that gave Jonah the opportunity to talk to the sailors about who God is and how the could be saved from their predicament.  We need to find our voice – admitting we have as a Church in the Western world messed up, failed to live the life of jesus.  And we need to find our voice, pointing to who God is. 

So it's not all over for the sailors.  And it's not all over for Jonah, either.   God stepped in again.  He appointed a huge fish to swallow up Jonah (which should not create a problem for people who believe in God:  we don't need to “prove it's possible” and we don’t need to spiritualise it away.)  It's simply a  “miracles of divine intervention.” Chapter 4 tells us the Lord also appointed a Plant (v6) a worm (v7) and a scorching wind (v8). 

God uses things he has made to carry on his work with Jonah.  He is still on Jonah's case. 

Picture by G Lilly

  And he is still at work to bring us to the place where he wants us to be: a place of trust, obedience, intimacy, and engagement with his mission in the world.     Jesus said “unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.”  (John 12. 24 NLT)  that's the Jonah experience.  That's what the people of God need. As we surrender ourselves to Christ and to his mission, then the harvest will come.

© Gilmour Lilly 2016

Malachi 3v13 – 4v6. Responding to God's love: living hopefully

Malachi prophesied late in the history of God's people.  They had been carted off as exiles to Babylon, then after seventy years had come back to rebuild the ruins of their country: broken down city walls and a derelict Temple.   Their enemies were constantly looking for trouble. God said he loved them and was in covenant with them – but it didn't always look like it. Life was a struggle and even when they re-opened their temple, there were no signs of God coming down as there had been when the temple was first opened. So the people were not responding to God's love with the respect and submission to him or the care for one another that he expected.  They got sloppy and lazy and careless

And in fact, some of them were really angry at God:  He says “You have done some tough talking; you have squared up to me...”  People have begun to say “What’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands or by trying to show the Lord of Heaven’s Armies that we are sorry for our sins? From now on we will call the arrogant blessed. For those who do evil get rich, and those who dare God to punish them suffer no harm.”   There is anger here.  And “Genuine dismay” that doing what God wants doesn't seem to make a difference.  There's a sense of futility (NIV) The people were claiming, “It is vain, empty, a deception, to serve the Lord and go about with a long face being sorry for your sins.” And  “Vain” is the word that was used of false Gods.  The people are in effect suggesting that the Lord is as ineffective as these idols.  They are tempted not with paganism but with atheism.  For some of them, hope as almost gone. 
 
Then something happens. Malachi 3.16 says “Then those who feared the Lord talked to each other.”  So who are the people who have been complaining, and who ones who “feared the Lord”?  It's quite possible that some of them at least were the same people!  When God challenged them they began to "Talk to each other,"  to encourage one another to renewed faith. Our words matter. We can either be talking negatively, and undermining one another's faith, or we can be talking positively and building up one another's faith.  We need to respond with repentance when God challenges us. 

When we speak encouragement to one another, God responds... God hears his people's words and a  “book of remembrance” is written. It's  He's a record of what we have done; it is a record of who are his people.  He never forgets about us!  And he never will. He says “On the day when I act, they will be my treasured possession.” (3. 17)  That's a phrase that comes from the earliest days of the nation.  (Ex 19.5; Dt 7.6; 14.2;  Ps 135.4 “For the Lord has chosen Jacob to be his own,  Israel to be his treasured possession.”)  God promises on that Day to fulfil the promises he has made to his people.  As an act of grace, and not because they are anything special, God has chosen his people.  And as an act of grace, he will fulfil his promises to his them.

God says “I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him.” The Father-Son relationship isn't perfect.  As a Dad I know that.  Kids make mistakes.  Dads make mistakes too.  But a loving Dad doesn't write off his son or daughter when they make mistakes.    Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Not our sin; not the enemy.  

In 4.1f The "Day" is surely coming when God's rule shall be established.   Three blessings in particular are mentioned:-
1. Healing:  On the Day of the Lord, The sun rises:  for the wicked it start a bush fire that will “burn like a furnace”.  But for “you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing – health – in its rays.”   Wholeness and healing are part of the Kingdom that God promises through Malachi.
2. Freedom.  God's people “Leaping – or growing – like calves released from the stall.”  Jesus says in John 8: 32 Then “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (v. 32) and “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (v. 36).  The Hebrew word “leap” is connected with the idea of “growing” (KJV)  Some of us need to be set free so that we can grow!
3. Victory over their enemies. “You shall trample down your enemies: squeeze the juice out of them”  God is always the one who wins the battles for his people but he calls us to be part of his victory. 

Don't you long for the day when God acts?    "The Day" in 4:3ff  is “The great & terrible day of the Lord...”

Malachi ends the OT on this note that looks forward. John the Baptist is the "Elijah"that Malachi said would come.  That’s what the angel said to John's father Zechariah (Lk 1. 17) and how Jesus described John (Mt 11. 14)  So the fulfilment of the prophecy, the fulfilment of all prophecy, the fulfilment of the purpose god has for his people, comes through Jesus.  Jesus brings the Day of the Lord, the Kingdom of God, God's rule.

From Malachi's perspective the judgement & the release seem to come at the same time.  The same sunrise starts the fire that burns the wicked, yet has healing in its wrings.  It's a matter of perspective.  In this picture it looks like there is something badly wrong with the steamboat on Lake Geneva: it has water spouting from its funnel.  But of course the boat is in fact sitting in front of the huge fountain called the“Jet d'eau”.

Something wrong with this boat? Picture by G Lilly

The “Last Days” or the “Day of the Lord” is a staged or phased event.  Jesus brings God's Kingdom.  In that Kingdom, nothing can separate us from the love of God.  In that Kingdom, there is healing; there is freedom, there is victory over Satan.  In that Kingdom, there will be complete healing and victory; there will be justice for all; there will be an end to all the violence and fear and oppression that is part of our world now.   The different stages are all part of one thing. They belong together; but they don't have to happen at the same time.   We are living in the midst of it.  Jesus has won the victory.  And the victory will come.  

In the film Force 10 from Navarone, Mallory and Barnsby set charges in the dam, while Weaver and Miller watch from the hillside. Weaver is angry and disappointed when he hears an explosion but the dam still stands. Miller, the explosives genius, is serenely puffing on his pipe, knowing that once the charges have exploded, it is only a matter of time, before the shock waves produce cracks in the dam and the huge pressure of water does the rest.  I think that’s a great picture of the Kingdom of God as brought by Jesus. He laid and exploded the charges. It’s only a matter of time before the whole of history collapses to give place to God’s Kingdom.

So lets hope! Let's speak faith & hope to one another. Let's See the Sun rise. Let's leap like calves from the stall, and tread on the enemy.  And let's speak hope to our broken world.

© Gilmour Lilly June 2016

Malachi 3. 6-14. Responding to God's Love: Surrender

In last week's “Feedback” someone said they have never heard Malachi preached on. Today's section is the one place in Malachi where preaches do go, especially if they are looking for a good text about Christian giving! But the way it is written forces us back to the beginning of the book, and makes us read it as part of the whole book of Malachi. There are a number of echoes from the rest of the prophecy: the Lord's character, mention of Jacob, and the repeated pattern of arguing with God, saying “how have we...?” We need to read this passage, not on its own, but in the context of the rest of the prophecy of Malachi.

And the basis for God's challenge to the nation, is “I have loved you” This section begins “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” It is only my steadfast nature, my constant love, that means you descendants of Jacob the cheat, who are so like your ancestor, are not just greasy spots on the carpet. God's love doesn’t change, even if we do. That is why we have not ceased – to exist, to be people in a covenant relationship with the Lord. So this call to return to how things were, how things should be, is based on a response to God's love.

“OK”, the people ask, “How are we to return to you?” God says “Well, you are robbing me, mugging me” And the people say “How are we?”

God says “in the business of tithes and offerings.” Tithes is an old-fashioned way of saying “tenths” – and reflects a farming community. One tenth of the harvest, one tenth of the flock, had to be given to the Lord. Offerings means in particular those parts of the sacrificed animal that was to be given to the priest (Lev 7. 32)

So what was that all about? It sounds like rules and regulations creating a kind of “tax” that was used to support the Priests and Levites in their work. Yes, the tithe was part of a system that supported the whole structure of priesthood. With God, nothing is wasted! The tithe was part of the income for the Levites who had no land – and therefore no income – of their own (Number 18. 23-24) . And that is how many churches and ministries want to understand the tithe: they see it as a God-given instruction for Christians, so that those in ministry can be supported financially. But the idea of the tenth simply being a tax to support religious professionals, is miles away from the original plan.

So what was the original plan? Let's go back to that farming society in the Old Testament.

When the crops began to be gathered gathered, the people were to bring the “first-fruits” to God. Every first-born animal belonged to God anyway. And when they brought the first-fruits, Dt 26. 5-10 tells us the prayer that they used which ends “ [God] gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; now I bring the first-fruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me. (Dt 26. 9f). The first-fruits are a recognition that the fruit – and the livestock – came from the Land that God had given – or more correctly, lent them. They made the whole harvest “holy”. The first-fruits says “God owns all the do-nuts.”

And by the time the people brought their tithes, they had already given the first-fruits. The tithe is the tribute that is due by the tenant farmers, to the landowner. So what the tithes are all about, firstly, is surrender. It's not “Here is your share”; it's “All I have is yours!”

But that is not the full story. It was more than that: when the tenth was brought to the Tabernacle or Temple, some of it was eaten – in a shared family celebration that included those who brought the tithe, along with the Levites, – all as the Lord's guests! (Dt 14. 22-27) They were even allowed, if they lived too far away, to sell their tenth for cash, and with the cash buy “whatever they wanted” when they got to the place of worship. One scholar (Walther Eichrodt) says “Sacrifice represents God's gifts to man as well as man's gifts to God.” So there is a sense of Celebration in this practise. God is good, and just loves to bless us and look after us.

But God also expects us to use the good things he has given us, to support the poorer members of society. So every third year, the tenths were to be used specifically for not only the Levites but the “foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns” (Dt 14. 28-29) .., No wonder Malachi's message is “bring the full tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house!” The tithe is also about solidarity with all who have need within the community.

So, when the Lord says “Bring the full tithes into the storehouse,” this is more that a demand that people “pay their dues”. It is more than a temple tax. It is a moment of surrender to God; a moment of celebration in his presence; and a moment of solidarity with the least among his people. The meaning of the tenth – the principle behind it, is about surrender, and celebration, and solidarity.

How does that work out for us in the new Covenant? In Jesus' own day, those who recognised Him as their Messiah, would give a tenth of their income – not to the Church but to the Temple. Both Jesus and Peter paid the “temple tax” (Matthew 17. 24) although as Jesus says normally it is the servants, not the sons of the King who pay tax to the King. Peter and Paul continued to observe the Jewish law so we can guess that they brought a tenth to the Lord from what they earned. And that meant, to the Temple. The NT Church doesn't appear to have consciously swapped the tenth over from the Temple to the Church. They certainly didn't buy the idea of a “tax” to support the work of a professional religious class. Rather, they started fresh.

Firstly, they kept the same principles: the old Covenant always prepares the way for the New Covenant. In the Kingdom that Jesus brought, the same principles apply: we respond to God's love – shown to us with such amazing generosity in Christ – with Surrender, Celebration, and Solidarity. We hand our lives over completely to God. “Love so amazing, so divine demands my soul my life, my all.” We celebrate, because we don't give to Jesus, he gives to us. We don’t feed him, he feeds us. When Christians break bread together, Jesus invites us to share a sacrificial meal at his expense. And we express solidarity with one another; with those in full-time Christian work; with those involved in mission; with those who are struggling to survive.

Secondly under the New Covenant, the price was radical: Jesus commended the widow who put in the offering, everything she had to live on. (Mark 12. 41-44) He told the rich young ruler to sell all he had and give to the poor. (Lk 18. 22) The early Church sold up and shared their resources. Lots of people didn't do what the Acts 2 church did. Lots of people ran businesses, carried on a trade, even had slaves – but still took that attitude that everything they owned belonged to God.

And finally, they took practical action. Although it wasn't the Old Testament “tenth”, Paul told the Christians in Corinth to “Set aside each week as God had prospered them” (1 Cor 16. 2) in solidarity with the struggling Church in Jerusalem. There is still something good about a planned and committed approach to giving.

So, should we “Tithe”? Should we give a tenth? Do we have to? That would be legalism, a temple theology won't work when our life together is the temple and Jesus is the high priest. But a tenth is a good starting point. Something to aim for. It's a lot easier to work out than an eighth, or a twelfth!

Blessings. Things were tough anyway in the period after the exile, and drought or a swarm of locusts would have made things worse. Giving their offerings was an act of faith. But God promises to people who are faithful to him in this area, that he will open the windows of heaven, send the rain that they need, so the next years crops will grow; and he will keep the pests away! All their neighbours will see what God has done for them. (verses 12-13) “The nations will call you blessed” – it was to Mary who used these words in the New Testament.

And she was pregnant with the Messiah, because she had said to God's angel “let it be to me according to your word!” God is promising material blessings that are not to be spiritualised away. But just as the tenths and offerings have a deeper spiritual significance, so do God's material blessings. And I believe that as we trust god, respond to his love with surrender, celebration and solidarity, worked out in our giving, God will open the windows of heaven, and pour out blessings – his Spirit flowing into our lives, and his provision of our daily bread. And the world will notice.

© Gilmour Lilly June 2016

Malachi 2. 1 – 3

Who is this guy Malachi and what does he have to say to us?  He speaks to God's people struggling to rebuild their land after 70 years of being deported to a foreign country.  He reminds them that God loves them and actually has looked after them.  And that reminder in chapter 1 is a key to the whole prophecy as Malachi challenges the people to respond to God's love; to keep faith with God.   And in this section he tells us to respond to God's love by loving one another;  to keep faith with God in how we treat the people around us.  

Powerful People:
In Israel, the priests were powerful people. God wanted the priests to use their spiritual power and influence to lead the people in "A covenant of life" (5-7)   They were able to pronounce blessings on God's people in the expectation that something would happen.  (As the people of God, our words matter!)
We have spiritual power. We must  use it in submission to God. We must be  "Resolved to honour”  the Lord.   And we must avoid all forms of spiritual power that don't acknowledge God. Mal 3. 5 tells us God speaks against “sorcerers””.  From star-signs to seances, from crystals to lucky charms, avoid!

And the priests had power over people - people looked to them for "Torah" - teaching based on revelation from God; and it was they who declared what was "clean"or "unclean".  They were the ones who made sacrifices. Everyone depended on them.

But they were giving "Wrong teaching" (v. 8)  I don't know what that sounded like: maybe they were not clear enough about the fact that God is one and cannot be replaced by idols or false gods.  Whatever it was, as a result people had been caused to stumble.

And they were "Showing partiality' (v. 9)   Certain people – probably the rich and powerful, were being allowed to get away with things; the law, which covered not only sacrifices and ritual cleanliness but touched every area of life, was being applied more firmly for some people than for others.  Partiality can influence teaching  – when we teach what is popular instead of what is right!   Partiality can happen when we fail to challenge – on the grounds of friendship (faithful are the wounds of a friend), or gender or money or power; or sentiment. 

The priests were in a position of power. But God is more powerful! He tells the priests they are under "the curse" (not just "a curse"... but "the Curse of 'Dt 28 v 20: "if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God". priests had spiritual power, but in the exercise of such power needed to honour God's name -or risk being daubed with the dung -the bowels of the animals sacrificed - and as that was burned outside the camp they risked being thrown out of their priesthood.

So, how do we use power?  How do we treat people who depend on us?

Family people.
Relationships matter to God - both in the Church & in other contexts. What God says about family life, he says in the context of being a community who all have "one father"(v 10). Yes, by  the time Malachi prophesied, Judah was a nation that had been a nation for hundreds of years & had been through times of serious national crisis. But their nationhood was based on kinship: they were literally related. They shared the same DNA.

For Israel / Judah, then, question of how they behaved in family life, were theological... It was an expression of their being non of the one Father, that their human family life was right.  But there were two things going wrong
1. Marrying "Daughters of a foreign God" that is to say women with a different religion.  Malachi expects that the man who did this would be cut off from the Nation. (V 12) And it is often the case that a Christian who gets into a relationship with someone who is not a Christian, will lose their way spiritually.
2. Unfaithfulness in marriage...cheating on or simply dumping the person you married when you were young. V 13: "There's no point weeping &wailing in prayer, when someone is  weeping & wailing because of the hurt you have caused them.  God's plan for marriage is "One Man, One woman, for life". Yes, God has grace for when we mess up. But what we are aiming for is to make right, unselfish, generous, wise and faithful choices.

People in society.
Finally, God says “you have wearied me with your words”   Another of those “How have we?” moments.  And God says “You have questioned my justice.”   We try to out-god God. We wonder how God can allow bad stuff to happen to god people. (Especially to us!) We follow the norms of our own society or our own convenience.  Believing that evil is rewarded, and living as though evil is good, are two sides of the same coin.  God says “I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud labourers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me. “ (Malachi 3. 5).

We've already looked at power and family life.  The other things God speaks against are about how we behave in society: speaking the truth, paying our workers fairly and at the right time; (for us that may mean paying our bills on time.)  Taking care of widows and orphans – or any who have nobody else to take care of them. Making sure that strangers, foreigners are treated fairly, instead of pushing weaker people out of the way.   God is concerned about how we treat people, in our financial & commercial dealings.

When a person became a monk or a nun, they took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.   It's about how that person relates to God and to the people round about him or her.   Someone summed that up nicely as  Money, sex and power...   This section challenges us to work our our relationship with God, in our relationships with one another.  And much of what goes wrong in our dealings with one another, is in how we handle money, sex, and power.

The people were wondering what God was up to because he had not come to their refurbished temple.  But, he says, one day he will turn up. “But who can endure the day of his coming?” (Malachi 3. 2)

He is not just coming to overwhelm the priests and be present , but to make demands, to refine!  I want to see God coming in power! But I need to be prepared for him to come like a refiner's fire!   When God turns up, we need to be treating one another right, in the areas of money sex and power.

©Gilmour Lilly June 2016