Get the appJonah- the Reluctant MissionarySample
The Heart of God
What an adventure the story of Jonah has been! We have seen a hard-hearted missionary on the run from God and his life-changing encounter with God’s unrelenting love. We’ve also seen wicked, godless pagans unexpectedly turn in repentance to the almighty, loving and gracious God. God uses Jonah and accomplishes his mission in spite of Jonah’s stubbornness. Even through disobedient refusal to embrace God and obey him, even in suicidal hopelessness, God works redemptively.
The story concludes with God continuing to teach Jonah by sovereignly working through the smallest, most trivial details of his world. In chapter one, God appointed a storm and a fish to teach Jonah. Here God appoints a plant, the sun, the wind and a worm to help Jonah see his self-centered pettiness. Jonah is more concerned with his own comfort than with the eternal destiny of thousands of people.
As Jonah’s attitude and inner feelings are on display for us to ponder, God takes this opportunity to reveal his thoughts and feelings. What we see is more of God’s patient and loving heart for the world. God does not ask Jonah to do something that he does not first do himself. He wants Jonah to understand that obedience is not only doing what God commands; it is also seeing how God sees and loving the way God loves.
We are often just like Jonah. We struggle with being consumed by our own drama, and we can’t see past ourselves to obey God and love our enemies. God patiently calls us out of our self-centeredness and into his mission to the lost. Will we see how God sees and love as God loves? Will we obey with our hearts and not just with our actions?
The life of Jonah points us to Jesus. Jonah does just about everything wrong. Jesus shows us how Jonah should have lived— how we should live. Unlike Jonah, Jesus obeyed the call to bring the Gospel to sinners. Unlike Jonah, Jesus gave his life willingly on the cross to save all who would come to him in repentance. He was cast into the sea of the Father’s wrath for us.
The cross calms the chaotic waters of our lives as we let “the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 12:39-40) point us to the reality of Christ.
About this Plan
It's often easy for us to beat up on Jonah for his self-centered, foolish rebellion. But as we'll discover, there's a bit of Jonah in all of us. Overcome by self-centeredness and personal prejudices, we too sometimes resist God's call. Thankfully, when we act like Jonah, God acts like God—lovingly pursuing us with his unrelenting grace. It's a wild ride, but one you don't want to miss!
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