Jonah, The Anti-hero

The story of Jonah as it should have been:
Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me.” So Jonah went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Nineveh. He paid the fare and went on board. While they were sailing to Nineveh, Jonah preached to the sailors on the ship. They all repented and turned to God. In fact, when they reached Nineveh, some of the sailors got off the ship and went with Jonah into the city. There they all cried out, “In forty days, God will destroy Nineveh.” When the people heard it, they all repented, from the greatest to the least of them. There was a great revival, and many people got saved. Then Jonah left some of the sailors to be pastors and elders in Nineveh while he returned to Israel to report the great work God had done in Nineveh.
That, perhaps, is how the story should have gone. And perhaps it might have gone very nearly that way, if not for one person—Jonah. Yes, Jonah did preach in Nineveh, but only after God used His sovereignty to say, “You’re going, and that’s that.” And yes, the sailors did turn to God, but not because of Jonah’s preaching. It was only after they threw Jonah overboard and saw the sea calm down that they “feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows” (Jonah 1:16).
I, like PJ, am a big James Bond fan. So I understand the analogy he made between Jonah and agent 007. In the earlier movies, it was rather cut and dry. Bond was the good guy, working for MI-6. The bad guys were such characters as Dr. No, Goldfinger, and various agents working for SPECTRE. In the more recent films, James Bond is still the good guy, but perhaps more reluctantly. He has some personal issues he has to work through as he is carrying out his mission.
As Pastor John said, these recent films depict agent 007 as an anti-hero, or a reluctant hero. In a sense, that’s what Jonah is. He goes to Nineveh, alright, but not because he is anxious to do God’s will. In fact, he’s kind of the bad guy in this story. Our James Bond has gone AWOL.
One thing I noticed as I read the first chapter of Jonah is that we are told three times that Jonah was fleeing from the presence of God. Three times! This tells me that this fact is rather significant. I also notice that, in verse 9, he tells the sailors, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
Can you see the irony in that? Psalm 111:10 tells us that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. The testimony of the Bible is that those who fear God obey Him. And yet, here we have rebellious Jonah, fleeing from the presence of God, but saying, “I fear the LORD.” I wonder how much Jonah truly feared God.
This concept of fearing God is significant. There are several passages in which we are called upon to fear God. Now, to clarify, we are not talking about being afraid of God in the same way we would be afraid of a thug in the back alley, brandishing a gun, and saying, “Your money or your life!” Instead, we are speaking of a reverential awe of Him. To fear God is to be struck with wonder at the glory of God, so that we would fall down on our faces in worship before Him and offering our lives in service to Him. Those who truly fear Him cannot help but to obey Him.
This is not Jonah. His actions betray him. By acting in outright rebellion against God, he is demonstrating that he does not truly fear God.
But what about us? How do we view God? Have we got such a vision of His glory that we cannot help but fall on our faces and say, as Isaiah did, “Here am I, send me”? When we disobey God, what is the source of our rebellion? Pride? Selfishness? The Sin Nature? Yes, I think all of these can be factors. However, I also believe that our sin stems from the fact that we do not fear the LORD as we ought.

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. God accomplished His work in the hearts of the sailors, as well as in the city if Nineveh, despite Jonah’s rebellion. What does this say about God’s sovereignty? What encouragement can I gain from this when I find myself falling short? How can I safeguard against having a careless attitude toward sin in light of this truth?



2. What does it mean to fear the LORD? Is fearing God just an Old Testament concept that doesn’t apply to us today? To what extent do I fear the LORD? How can I pursue growth in this area?