We’re looking at an astonishing claim. In the New Testament, the word “blessing” doesn’t just mean what we mean by it today. It’s closer to shalom. It means every joy and every benefit your heart and soul needs and longs for. And in Ephesians 1:3, we...
In Jonah, the antagonists are the religious, moral people. It’s us. It’s the city-disdaining, city-phobic, religious, moral people. We’re the antagonists, and God is the protagonist. It all comes down to this last question when God says, “Should I no...
History tells us the Assyrian empire brought cruelty and massacre to a new level. It was a violent empire that slaughtered helpless people. And Jonah’s response to it is anger. He wants them punished. Yet, in the book of Jonah, we see one of the grea...
Jonah’s spirituality was fine for his old world and his old situations. But when he’s faced with a new situation, it just collapses. Then, when he’s in the belly of the fish, Jonah begins to reflect and pray, and as the prayer moves along, we see he...
Jonah runs away for two reasons: fear and hate. God has told Jonah to go to Nineveh to warn them, but Jonah refuses. He’s afraid to put himself in the midst of his enemies, but he’s also filled with hate toward them. So the book of Jonah addresses in...
Words like sin, sinner, heathen and heretic have been used for centuries to exclude and oppress people. That’s one reason we need the book of Jonah. Jonah gives a concept of sin that can’t be used to oppress people. In fact, it shows that it’s one th...
Jonah believes in love in general. But he doesn’t understand how God’s love actually operates. If it’s possible that you stand where Jonah stood, then chapter 4 is critical because God gives Jonah an answer. And his answer shows that God’s love, like...
How can we explain Jonah’s mood swings, his tremendous emotional instability, how he’s able to praise God and just a few days later say he’s angry enough to die? The answer is a divided heart. To put it another way, Jonah believed in and served the t...
Do artists get exceedingly angry when their art is chosen for display at the Met? No! So why would Jonah get exceedingly angry when, in response to his preaching, the Ninevites actually turn away from violence and turn to the living God? The answer...
Nineveh was the greatest city the world had seen at its time. And yet, God decides to besiege it and sack it with an army of one. How did he do it? He did it by turning one person, Jonah, into a world-changer. Are you an army of one? You have people...
How did Jonah, who was in utter despair, fear, and rebellion, come to be in a position of triumphant faith by the end of his prayer? Faith is not a talent. Faith is being controlled by the promises of God instead of your own impressions. If we look a...
If it’s true that Jonah, a person who got direct revelation from God, can be blind to grace to the point where it distorts his very life, it’s even more likely that all of us, to one degree or another, are also blind to it. Here is the thesis: o...
There’s a subplot in the book Jonah: it’s Jonah’s impact on the sailors and their impact on him. Do you see the exquisite irony here? Jonah runs away because he hates the dirty pagan Ninevites. He doesn’t think they can change and he doesn’t care eno...
Until you admit that you run from God, you can’t know him or find him. You’re not just a troubled person. You’re not just a hurting person. You’re not a self-sufficient person. Primarily, you’re running. Every one of us has unique, habitual ways of...
We all run away from God. It’s in our nature. And the book of Jonah is all about Jonah running and God pursuing. Most of us are familiar with the words sin and grace, but what they mean is another thing. And here it is: essentially sin is running awa...
