Hiatus

I've been on vacation for almost two weeks, which was nice. However, part of that time was spent assessing personal priorities, and it turns out that as much as I like blogging and believe I have something to say, it's at the bottom of the list of personal priorities -- and things which I say I value more than the blog are getting pushed out.

For example, I have a lot of weight to lose; you can't lose weight if you don't exercise, and I only have a fixed number of hours in the day. I also have two children who deserve to have a better Dad than the one who sits in front of that stupid flat screen monitor half the time, and I have a wife who works much harder than the average wife who deserves not to have to work that hard -- she deserves to have a better husband than I am.

There are also the issues of whether I am doing in real life what I blog so passionately about here, and again there being only so many hours in the day, you get the idea. What about my church? What about that trailer park? What about my pastor? What about the Gospel and lost people?

So that all said, thanks to you loyal readers. Keep your powder dry. booyah.

Not enough love [4]

OK -- so we get it, right? God shows mercy to Jonah, and to Ninevah, and then Jonah is a bit of a twerp about it and gets huffy. If it were right to say this about God, I would say He snarks Jonah about his attitude, but it's not right to say that about God -- so we'll say that God chastizeth Jonah, and chideth him with the holy sarcasm. And Jonah, after two doses of the holy sarcasm, snarks God and says, "yes, it suits me fine to be this angry, and I'm angry enough to die.

But why is Jonah so worn out again? First, it's because God is steadfast in love to the enemies of Israel -- to the Assyrians, whose king lives in Nineveh. But as if that wasn't bad enough, Jonah also had this vine that God "appointed" (what a curious word) to give Jonah shade, and God "appointed" a worm (again -- curious) to kill the vine, and then God made it even hotter than before with a wind hot with the hotness of hot that He controls because, of course, God is God -- sovereign, omnipotent, holy, just God. So Jonah is twice-vexed (that's "vex-ed" for those who cannot read the KJV) over God -- first for not killing the Ninevites (whom Jonah hates), and then for killing the vine (for which he was exceeding glad, again from the KJV).

Now, this is God Jonah is talking to and mad at. Jonah is mad at God because God proved His love for sinners by sparing the repentent Ninevites and then killed a vine which God appointed in the first place. God. The God for whom we ought to have the highest view, and always keep His glory in sight. Yahovah God. Elohim. El Shaddai. Addonai. Yahovah-Tsidkenu. Yahovah Sabaoth. Kadosh. Shaphat. El-Gibhor. "Sh'ma-Yisrael-Adonai-Elohaynu-Adonai-Echad" God.

And Jonah is mad at Him. You'd think that Yahovah would have something to say about that -- because when Job is mad at Yahovah-Tsidkenu, He (God) makes a little bit of a scene and makes Job -- the righteous man Job -- give an account for himself.

But Yahovah has something else in mind here, because He says this instead:

Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest 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 sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

God says this -- in Hebrew anyway, if not the KJV English. And the first thing which is clear here is that God is a little concerned that Jonah has all this good tidings for a weed which appeared out of nowhere.

Listen: Jonah didn't build his booth under a shady spot and God took it away in a kind of tug-of-war. Jonah was sitting there skulking over the Ninevites in repentence, and God grew a vine up there -- if we take the text seriously here -- overnight one night to give Jonah a little respite, and Jonah "had pity of the gourd". That is, this thing which appeared out of nowhere, and like the grass it withereth, and the flower thereof it falleth away, Jonah got attached to the vine. But somehow, Jonah can't get excited about the sinners in the city. He's all angry eyebrows at God for being steadfast in love.

That's sort of jarring, if you're reading this story with me. Jonah, says God, cares more about the weed than he does about people -- because the weed makes him feel good (or better, anyway), and the people make him mad. And listen: God says that Jonah's "pity" is a pity for something which he never raised a finger to see come to this place. The weed came out of nowhere, and Jonah thought it was dandy, but Jonah had nothing invested in the weed.

But God doesn't stop there. He says to Jonah, listen, little fella: it's one thing for you to be attached to the weed which you didn't do anything to nuture, but look at that city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand. (For you who cannot count in King James, "sixscore" is 6 x 20 = 120, so 120,000 people)

The implication is not that this city sprung up out of nowhere and suddenly God pitieth it: the implication is that there are 120,000 people in there, and God has been working on them a long time. The contrast is that Jonah can have pity on this thing which is just hay waiting for the baler, but then shouldn't God -- who has been working on this city a long time, because He's El Shaddai, Addonai, Yahovah-Tsidkenu, Yahovah Sabaoth, Kadosh, Shaphat, El-Gibhor, "Sh'ma- Yisrael- Adonai- Elohaynu- Adonai- Echad" God -- have some kind of pity on these people upon whom He has been working a long time.

You know: steadfast in love kind of working. The kind of work Jonah accuses God of doing in the first place. God's mouth is here telling Jonah -- and us -- that we ought to check ourselves if we think that God doesn't have enough love. We are the ones who do not have enough love -- because let's face it: we are like Jonah. We are the ones who are somewhat enthralled with the idea that God is coming to knock over the idols in everyone else's temple, that God is going to pour out the winepress of His wrath on the unjust. We think we will be his Beautiful feet, and everybody else is going to get under the footstood of the Lord.

But God says, "I have spent a lot of time -- which I created, btw -- in steadfast love for these people. For the ones you think are ready for the threshing floor." Somehow Paul was willing to say

in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God

but we find ourselves unwilling to implore anyone or imply that Christ is making this appeal to every man, woman and child.

And for what? Seriously -- what is the issue? That God is not Holy? That God is not Just? That God is not Creator and can do as He sees fit? Dude: what God sees fit to do is offer an appeal to all men, and that appeal is to be reconciled unto Himself. It is exactly equal to and demonstrative of the same principles inherent in declaring, "repent and be saved!" Be reconciled to God!

Those people over there in that city which has historically tried to kill us and trash the name of God. Those people over there who think that think pornography is a valid form of entertainment. Those people in that city where sin is named as a virtue. Those people who are no different than us, except that God has sent us to them.

We can sit here, with God asking us, "so is that anger good for you? How about that weed that is dying which you thought was cool -- being angry about that is good for you, too?" Or we can throw our arms around this God, this Lord our Righteousness, the Lord of Hosts, The Holy One and Judge, Mighty God, -- and one more who for the ones who don't have a full scorecard yet: this resurrected Lord and Christ, born of a virgin, who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and who humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross -- and say to Him, "you're working that long and hard, but I'm not gonna tell them you love them. You only love me -- well, us. You only love us, the ones who are already saved to eternal life."

Can you do that? I can't do that. I'm going to be in the Lord's house on the Lord's day with the Lord's people -- including the ones which are in church right now, who got baptized by accident, but don't actually have the Gospel. Because God loves them, and to say otherwise sounds like I care more about the leaves I still have to rake up in my yard than it does about the appeal God is making to people.

That's not an argument, btw: that's what I'm going to do. You choose for you, and when Jesus comes back, we can ask Him whether we should have been more cautious about whether we could tell people that the Cross is a sign of love to all people.

Not Enough Love [3]

So the King of Nineveh treats God like a King because he's a king and knows about that stuff -- you don't spit in the eye of a regent who can mop you up like a drippy nose. And he turns from his ways and begs for forgiveness -- and makes everyone else beg, too, just to show he means it. But apparently that's not what Jonah was looking for. Jonah wanted fireworks. Jonah wanted to see the broken teeth [Psalm 3, for the repulsed].

But Jonah, apparently, knew that when God is calling forth judgment, He is also extending an offer of clemency -- that is, the willingness to forgive for the repentent. In Jonah's words, He's a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. And that has Jonah in a bunch -- in fact, he'd rather die than think about it any more.

And God, master of sarcasm, says to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry?" Think about that -- God says to Jonah, who's in a huff for sparing the Ninevites after He has also spared the disobedient Jonah from the belly of the big fish, "Is that being angry good for you?" Really, I'd feel sorry for God if He wasn't the Universal Creator and Sustainer, the Sovereign of all things -- because He's always got to explain himself to guys like Jonah.

You know: the point here is that Jonah is right in theology and wrong in praxis. God is merciful and steadfastly loving -- but we should rejoice in a God who is that good -- not just Just, not just Holy, but Good. And Jonah, who knows God is like that, ought to rejoice -- but he's tooo angry to rejoice.

And to prove it, Jonah made a booth there outside the city to see if God would change His mind -- about killing the Ninevites, not about killing Jonah. So what does God do with that? Pillar of Smoke? Still small voice? Maybe an Elijah moment where He takes out Jonah's booth with fire just to make sure this minor prophet understands who's God and who's the clay pot?

What God does is give Jonah a vine -- a little shade for his booth. The ESV says, in very proper English, that the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. Seriously -- this is the God who spoke Light into being, and who designed the Heavens so they could mark out time for us. And to make sure Jonah, who is bearing a grunge against God, gets the edge taken off the heat while he's stewing about the destruction of Ninevah, God "appoints" for him a plant for shade. There you go, Jonah: is being angry good for you? Well, have a little shade -- maybe you'll like it better.

And of course, Jonah think's that good. Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. That didn't get him to give up his grudge, of course: it just made him happy to be miserable. But God's not done with this vine yet. When dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. Because, as we know, God is in charge of the universe. He's God: sovereign God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, without whom nothing that is made has been made. And he uses all that Eternal fire power to kill Jonah's plant -- not Ninevah, and not Jonah -- in order to make Jonah faint with heat. He does that to Jonah -- rather than judge him or open up the earth to swallow him or send the Kanzanjammerites or whoever was available to haul him off into slavery.

Which, of course, changes the situation for Jonah, who apparently thought he could live with his frustration in the shade of the vine, but now that it's hot and he's still mad about Ninevah, he'd rather be dead. That's what it says there in Jonah 4: he asked that he might die and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

So what does God do? I mean -- His glory is at stake, right? His eternal position as King of kings is on the line because He has this prophet here who wants to die rather than be happy about the sparing of these evil men on account of God's steadfast love. Shouldn't God at least stake out justice at this point, or maybe Holiness?

Instead, God says this: "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" It's funny, because it's the same phrase he uses above, except the object of the verb is now "the plant" -- so it's the same divine sarcasm. "Is that anger about the plant good for you, Jonah?" And Jonah, who has just been prodded, prods back: "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die."

Listen: are you like that? Would you rather be dead than happy when joy for sinners is at stake? We're about to come to the crux of this story -- the real message from God to Jonah, and therefore to us, and I wonder: would we really rather die with a furrowed brow rather than rejoice for the sake of God's mercy to sinful men? I mean, Bill Gates has an amazing life -- and he's not saved. Can we be happy for the blessing God has given him in this life -- so much so that we can say to Bill, "dude, God has blessed you! He has shown you steadfast love -- like 20 billion times over! If you can see that, check yourself against God's law. You are not innocent. And you need a savior from the judgment that's coming -- because the one who's coming is both Lord and Christ. He has the authority to judge you, but the ability, and the willingness in love, to save you. Have you ever thought about that? What can you do in the face of such a thing?"

Because we could say to Bill Gates, "Dude, you can't serve God and Mammon. God is God, not Windows, not the Gates foundation. The wrath of God is coming for people like you, but God saves those whom he has chosen, and if you're one of those you'll repent and believe." And that'd be true. But I'll bet we wouldn't get a second chance there; God probably meant to harden his heart anyway.

Anyway, God has an answer for Jonah who thinks God's sarcasm isn't very well meant. We'll wrap that up next time -- maybe late Friday.

Not enough love [2]

Now, last time we started thinking about why Jonah ran away from Nineveh, and why Jonah was angry and wanted to die. And the reason I have started this series -- which I admit I have not outlined ahead of time, so I don't really know how long it will be -- is because while I love Paul, and empathize with Paul, and who is it that blogs that doesn't want to someday be considered like Paul, the chief of sinners, I am probably like Jonah. I think my first real spiritual insight into myself after being saved was when I realized that I am exactly like Jonah.

Now, here's how I'm not like Jonah the son of Amittai: I don't hear from God audibly and receive marching orders from the dispatches of heaven. I'm a good baptist and I confess that the gifts have ceased even if I do not confess that God never does any miracles anymore. So my first insight into the Christian life was not that I am a prophet.

What I first realized about me as a Christian was that I am still afraid of God. Think about that: here I am, a guy who has received only blessing and mercy from the Almighty Creator of all things, and I am still afraid of Him. Now, in some respects, many people would rightly say, "Hey cent: the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, so good on you." But that's not what I mean at all.

I have a healthy fear of the Lord in terms of His right and ability to judge me, and in that I know I am still humble before Him as a sinner. But what's actually really scary, really gut-turning to me about God is that He's going to ask me to do something which I will hate to do and refuse to do because it offends me.

For example, some day God is going to lay it on me that I have to make nice with Dave Armstrong. In theory, that day is here already -- because in principle, you should love your enemies and do good to those who do evil to you. But I'm not even remotely convicted by that. God has far more immediate matters for me to attend to, and those are even more scary than trying to find a way to make peace with DA.

Another example is that God has laid that stupid trailer park on my heart. It's like 30 trailers, and I can't even force myself to drive through there yet. And when I even walk past it, I can smell the cigarettes and see the trash cans full for beer cans ... brother. God wants me to talk to them? And tell them about Jesus? Couldn't we start with Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace or something -- I mean, they need forgiveness and all that, but they're not like me. I say words like "bifurcated" in normal conversations, and I read books -- can't I be a minister to the kids on the campus of the John Brown University instead? Don't kids at a Christian college need Jesus, too?

So look: in Jonah I see a guy who is like me. He wants to be a minister to God the way he wants to minister to people and not necessarily the way God wants him to minister to people, and not necessarily to the people God wants him to minister to. And he's serious about it. He's a prophet to Israel, darn it! He's not going to Nineveh -- Nineveh?! where the King of Assyria lives?!? -- and tell them that God is planning to judge them! God ought to judge them! They're sinners! Let them die in their sin! Look at all the beer cans in their trash, and can't you smell that cigarette smoke? Look: I'm going to Springdale to preach against the sins of FBC Springdale and University Baptist for cathedral-building and legalism, and let somebody else who cares preach against Nineveh.

And look at how Jonah preaches to the Ninevites when he actually goes: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Judgment, baby! Wrath of God -- just like Christmas! oh wait -- we don't want to tell them that. Wrath of God like Sodom and Gommorah, dude! Fire from heaven! No mention of repentence, no mention that God might think twice about this: get convincted by the judgment, and then when your city falls down you're all set. Thank you, Jesus.

Jonah does not say, "Judgment is coming so repent", but only, "Judgment is coming". God's judgment. Because He didn't want the Ninevites to get any bright ideas. God told me to tell them they are under judgment, and that's it: that's all I'm going to do. "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" That way I can be faithful, and I don't have to worry because God going to deliver judgment. He said so.

And that's fine, I guess -- Jonah says his bit and then goes out if the city to watch the excitement. Kinda like the Grinch, but in a far more prophetic way, I am sure. Much more dignified and holy. "That's a noise," grinned Jonah, "That I simply MUST hear!" So he paused. And then Jonah put his hand to his ear. And he did hear a sound rising over the snow. It started in low. Then it started to grow...

Listen: if I was the king of Assyria, the things I could understand would be war and judgment -- because I am good at war, and I run a tight ship. What I say goes, and what I expect is that I'm going to do what I said I was going to do. We don't read the Five Disfunctions of a Team in my court -- I killed that guy because he was boring me to death with his blah blah blah about "trust". You know what I trust? I trust that when I tell my executioner here to cut your head off, he'll do it and not ask me about whether to use the big axe or the small one for your scrawny little MBA neck. And then everyone will trust me to do what I say.

But in that, the king of Assyria knows that God will do what He pleases. All the pomp of his court will not impress God anymore than the pomp of the house of David impressed him, the Assyrian king, when he came and plundered those so-called sons of Abraham. So if God is going to render judgment on Nineveh, what's the only course of action?

If I were the king of Assyria, I'd do what I expect the weak and puny kings around me to do when I come with my army and send in the messenger that I am here to clean house: I expect them to beg. If they want to keep anything at all, and not pay a dear price for resisting me, I expect that they treat me like I can do what I say I can do. So listen: you people remember that 5 Disfunctions guy? If you don't want to end up like him, beginning right now, do as I do and beg God to spare us. He's sent this messenger to us who says we have 40 days, and we have already lost 3 days because this guy walked from front to back, so close the businesses, close the market, and get out the sack cloth and ashes. And to show I'm serious, I'm going to do it too -- because if God is coming to judge us, the only thing we have to show is our plea for mercy. he can do whatever he pleases.

In that is Jonah's complaint to God: "Let me die, because I know you show steadfast love." Listen: Jonah's complaint was not, "God, you promised to smote the evildoer, and you squelched -- you broke your promise! Now that I know God is a promise breaker to Israel, I just want to die!" It was, "I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That's why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!" (MSG, since I have been disavowed by the Truly Reformed)

Jonah is sick unto death because God is rich in love, and that love is the foundation of forgiveness! See: I want God to be this God who is easy to understand, and transparent to the sinner who ought to just either be struck by lightening or whatever, and if I threaten them with this God of War against evil, I also expect they will not turn from their evil ways. They will get what's coming to them, and amen: the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.

But God's plan is not to put the world to death! I mean, can anyone say amen to that? In this specific incident, God has poured out mercy to the enemy of Israel! When I act like my first goal is to make sure that people are only scared of hell, and that only the Glory of God in justice is demonstrated to them, I am the worst kind of fundy -- the worst kind of stupid, narrow-minded, one-note systematic donkey that can ever represent the cross of Christ.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Jonah was mad at God for sparing Nineveh, and God said to him, "Jonah: Doest thou well to be angry?" That is, "Jonah: is that the right thing to do? Is that what this is all about?"

And God sends this vine to teach Jonah a lesson. A vine. That's where we're going to pick up next time.

Not enough love [1]

Jonah 4:1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2And he prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." 4And the LORD said, "Do you do well to be angry?"

5Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, "It is better for me to die than to live." 9But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die." 10And the LORD said, "You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"

That Jonah: you have to wonder about a guy who does the wrong thing for the right reasons.

See -- Jonah hated the Ninevites because they hated Israel. They were enemies of Israel, and made war on Israel. But when God said to Jonah, "you're my prophet -- go tell Ninevah that their time of judgment is at hand," what did Jonah do? He refused to go. He ran the other way -- headed out to Tarshish on the first boat he could find.

Now, those who have only passed through this book in their 365-day reading of the King James (or even the tNIV -- let's not be prudes about who misses this point) may have overlooked something in what Jonah does here. You'd think that Jonah, having heard from God that Ninevah was up for review, would have gone to tell the Ninevites that their day is done. Dudes: you have had your 15 minutes of fame smacking Israel around, but now God is going to flatten you out like a Persian rug under a heard of camels.

That's what I'd think if I heard the words (back in Jonah 1:2), "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me." Yes! Thank you, God! The battle belongs to the Lord! Let's go and take out some enemies of the Lord.

But that's not what Jonah thinks. See: when God tells Jonah, "Go tell Ninevah that their evil deeds are on my list," Jonah goes to other way. And here in what we call Chapter 4, Jonah explicitly says it is because he knows God, and God has this thing He does -- being gracious and merciful, slow to anger and ... steadfast in love. And that's the ESV, so let's not strain any gnats here. Jonah ran away from what God told him to do, and away from the Ninevites, because he didn't want them to hear or experience the steadfast love of God.

And let's be honest: he didn't preach to them the steadfast love of God, did he? "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" was what he preached -- only the judgment. But what he feared was that God would love them and show them love because that's what He does. That's who He is. The King of Ninevah declared a fast and a repentence, and even the animals somehow participate, and when God saw them repent, He spared their destruction.

Think about that: God loved these sinners. Jonah was angry becuase he knew God loves sinners. These sinners -- who we know factually went back to persecuting Israel. God loved them and spared them. Jonah disobeyed God because he knew God was going to show love to sinners.

That's not the end of this story, but I have to get ready for work. Stay tuned for more.