Jonah just had had a change of heart. After Jesus had sent an uber fish to swallow and rescue him, Jonah was beginning to show God due respect. For three days and three nights, he had been in the belly of this mega fish--and accommodations were less than a Motel Six. No lights were left on. Jonah was now willing to go to Nineveh to call that great city to repent. Still, he was a lot like us--a work in progress.
What is amazing in our text is that Jonah prays to Jesus while in the belly of this fish. Equally important is that his main petition occurs right in the MIDDLE of the book. When you look for the key message of a Psalm, a book of the OT, it is usually in the middle. Here Jonah confesses Jesus as LORD. He says, Salvation, which is Jesus, belongs or comes from God! [Jesus in the Center!]
Martin Luther in the explanation to the first commandment says, "We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things." Jonah here has a new respect and a measure of proper fear for Jesus. He sees how Jesus created the storm that led to his being tossed overboard. He sees that the story of Jesus leads to the conversion of the sailors on board. He sees how Jesus sends a mega fish to swallow him. He sees in the seaweed rotting food in the belly of this monster fish how he is miraculously preserved. Yet, not having seen the crucified Savior on the cross through the lens of faith, Jonah's love for God is paltry, tepid, lukewarm. He does not grasp how true love will seek to reach out to all people. It is not cliquish, clannish, selfish.
In Revelation 3, Jesus spoke to a whole congregation of Jonahs. They were people who were financially rich, self-absorbed, but had no zeal for Bible study or mission work. They were a lot like Jonah. To them Jesus said, "So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!" (Revelation 3:16).
In Jonah 2:10 Jesus speaks to the BIG fish that it is time for Jonah's exodus. Jesus spoke. Reaction? The fish vomits Jonah on the seashore. Jonah goes flying like a missile out of the belly of the fish. As he does, we do right to think Jonah was albino white from all the acid that ate away at his skin. He who ordinarily had a darker complexion now looks like Pale glider, the white walker, a ghost. What a sign to Nineveh this snow-white Jewish prophet will be when he walks into Dodge City. And you can bet, those sailors who had a three day head start on Jonah, had spread the details of Jonah's exodus from their ship into the mouth of a huge fish, a fish that came out of nowhere even as the storm came to a sudden stop. Camel riders likely saw this Albino prophet making his way to Nineveh and this would have given them the heebie-jeebies!
When Jonah got to Nineveh, this monster city, long known for its crimes against humanity, it took him 3 days to walk around this ancient metropolis. As he walked he talked. His message was simple. You people have 40 days to repent, to make a u-turn, to turn to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for forgiveness and give up your corrupt ways. These folks knew of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, how it was nuked for its crimes against humanity. These folks knew how Israel's God split the Red Sea and destroyed Egypt for its crimes against humanity. In one day Egypt was taken down--hard.
Just one look, that's all it took, to see their goose was cooked, if they continued in their sin. The irony here is that Nineveh was more open to repentance, more open to love, open to God's Word than Israel. Israel at the time of Jonah was prosperous, but heartless. It's borders had been expanded but its desire to be a light of love living from Jesus' love was missing. Rather than sending Jonah to Israel for a revival, the ground for repentance in Nineveh was more ready to hear God's Word than Israel, that God desires to abundantly pardon for Jesus' sake.
From the king of Assyria on down, the people were willing to turn around. The love of Christ touched them in a way it did not yet touch Jonah. Jonah was hoping that after his message was delivered, God would nuke Nineveh in the manner He nuked Sodom and Gomorrah. He wanted to see fireworks. He wanted to see an arch enemy destroyed. He, the premier prophet in Israel, a court prophet, had forgotten the main message of the Bible. "God so loved the world!" was not only what Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in the NT, but what Jesus spoke to Abraham and Noah and Moses in the OT. Through Israel Jesus was to come to be the Savior-Redeemer of the world.
When the whole city of Nineveh confessed their sin looking to Jesus, Jonah blew a tube. He was furious. He lost his temper. He yells at God. He says, "LORD, I just knew this is what you were going to do. I knew you were sheer grace and mercy. I knew how patient you are with people. I knew you were rich in love and that at the drop of a hat you turn your plans of punishment into pardon." (Jonah 4:1-2).
Then petulant pouty pensive Jonah muttered, "So, God, if you won't kill them, kill me! I'm better off dead." With a huff and puff he left. God then, in His kindness, caused a miracle tree to sprout. Wonderful shade. A makeshift shelter for the heating swelter. There Jonah sulked. Slowly he begins to become happy with the shade on his right hand from the miracle tree. Things were starting to look up.
Then, the next day, Jesus commissions a worm--a miracle worm. This wonder worm bored a hole into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun arose and the heat burned Jonah's nose. It beat on his head and again he muttered, "I'm better off dead!"
Jesus spoke to Jonah patiently, tenderly, and graciously. "Jonah, get a grip on reality. If you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a shade tree that you did not even cause to grow, don't you think I as the LORD of the universe can change my mind about people that I love? Can I not go from anger over their sin to pleasure over their acknowledgement of sin and receiving my gifts? These poor people, 120,000 of them, did not know their right hand from their left hand until my Word saved them." [Jonah 4:10-11]
Jonah pondered this. He chewed his cud on it. His wheels of his heart began slowly to turn. "If God loves all people, therefore, I can be sure that he loves me. If Jesus forgives all sins, therefore, I can be assured that He forgives me. If God is good to Israel to be good to all the world, then, I should be double happy. If the worms obeys Jesus, the plant obeys Jesus, the great fish obeys Jesus, the storm obeys Jesus, then I too should get in step with the universe." In time, Jonah would see the central message of the OT, namely, God so loved the world--all people.
In time, Jonah would see that just as he was in the belly of the great fish for 3 days and 3 nights, so would His Lord and Savior also be in the belly of the earth. By death and resurrection, Jesus would save Jonah and save us also. He would be patient with the apostles in the New Testament. It took them a long time to learn to see that Gentiles were also part of the scope of Salvation. He would be patient with them when they would stumble, even after Pentecost. He is patient with us who daily sin much. He knows, like Jonah, we so easily lose our zeal for evangelism and our zest for God's word. He knows, we are, a work in progress.
The creed of Jonah and the creed of the OT and the creed of the NT are coherently Christ-centered. What appeared in Exodus 34:6-7 is the heart of the Moses, the heart of Jonah, and the heart of Jesus. Moses writes, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin." [Exodus 34:6-7]
This is our creed. This is the gospel Seed. This is what eventually moved Jonah to write his "God so loved the world" prophetic work.
Jonah had to go through the belly of a great fish to go to Nineveh to see who He was. His strange journey is not unlike our strange journeys through life. Through the patient work of a loving, almighty Savior, Jonah has a turning point, an Epiphany. Jonah, whose name means dove, becomes a dove of love, through the God above, Who would ultimately lay in a tomb for three days and three nights. Yes, Salvation, Jesus, comes from God (Jonah 2:9). When we see Jesus baited the hook of the cross with His heart--love breaks through, faith flourishes, and we, like Jonah grasp a fuller meaning of life.
Amen.
