JONAH SUFFERS A RELAPSE

          Even God’s prophets struggled with their faith.  They, too, were men with like passions (i.e., with a nature like ours / Js.5:17). Such was the case with Jonah (Jonah 4:1ff).  Riding the crest of a great wave of “revival” in Nineveh, one would expect that Jonah would be elated (on cloud nine), but he’s not.  In fact, he is just the opposite - - displeased with the outcome and actually angry with God.  Or, as one writer has stated, Jonah is “sinfully mad”.  Like Elijah (1Kgs.18), Jonah appears to be sorely depressed and wallowing in self-pity - - he just wants to die (Jonah 4:3).  And to make matters much worse, with daring arrogance he speaks to God telling Him in essence, “I knew better than YOU” (Jonah 4:2).  What is Jonah’s problem?  After running so well, what was hinderering him?

          Jonah suffers a relapse.  Sinclair Ferguson pens the diagnosis as, “spiritual infantile regression”.  Jonah is beset with a mindset

that is threatening to ruin his life.  Theodore Laetsch captures Jonah’s sad state of mind with this keenly insightful observation:

The Jews were always in danger of forgetting that it was part of their mission to be a light to the Gentiles.

Too readily they were satisfied with possessing the Gospel for themselves;  Finally they became bigoted nationalists,

opinionated separatists, repelling the surrounding nations rather than attracting them and winning them for Jehovah.

In this particular respect Jonah was thoroughly a Jew.  The very idea that the Gentile nations, particularly wicked Nineveh,

were to participate in the saving grace of God was repugnant to him.  Jonah was merely the representation of Jewish particularism.

          This bigoted way of thinking continued to haunt the nation of Israel throughout their latter days. Eight hundred years later, Jesus repackaged the story of Jonah in what we have now refer to as “the story of the prodigal son” (Lk.15:11ff).  In that story the elder brother represents Judaism and the younger brother represents the Johnny-come-lately Gentiles.  Just like Jonah, the elder brother could not sanction the idea of The Father showing grace to the one living in a far country engaged in reprehensible deeds.

As we have seen so often in this brief treatise, WE COME ONCE AGAIN TO SEE OURSELVES IN THE FACE OF JONAH.

                                                  Terry Siverd / Cortland Church of Christ