Sabbath: The Jonah Saga
Read for This Week’s Study: Jonah 1-4, 2 Kings 14:25, Isa. 56:7, Isa. 44:8, Matt. 12:40, Rev. 14:6-12.
Memory Text:
(Acts 10:34-35 NIV).I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right
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The Jonah saga is the account of a Hebrew prophet working well beyond his comfort zone. Alive during the reign of Jeroboam II, about 750 B.C. (2 Kings 14:25), Jonah is the only Old Testament prophet whom we know of who was directly called to be a missionary in another country. The truth that the Creator of all races did not intend to limit salvation only to His chosen people is stated repeatedly in the Old Testament, especially in Isaiah and the Psalms, even though popular Israelite theology at the time of Jonah did not accept that the Gentiles were also in God’s plan to partake in salvation. Even in New Testament times it was a hard lesson for the Jewish believers to learn.
In the four chapters of Jonah, we read an honest record of Jonah’s reluctant pioneering experience as a foreign missionary, both the positive and the negative. Here a person’s inner, and very human reaction to the call of God is preserved, along with a powerful appeal for the need of foreign missions. A few guidelines for foreign missionaries and cross-cultural witnesses emerge from the book, which also points to solutions for some of the issues and problems modern missionaries face.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 25.
(39)
Every human has resisted God. This resistance is called sin. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God". God in his love and mercy died for us while we were yet sinners and offered his free gift of grace. How many times has our God of love and mercy reached out and saved us! How can we but be grateful! He draws us to himself first and our response is to come to him, accept his gift, and just love him.
Yes, Martha, but we should not stop there. We must spread our new found love of Christ to others... That is our commission.
Nineveh was not just some foreign country, it was the most bitter enemy of Israel which shows up in the way Jonah reacts to God's mercy. I don't think Jonah was against witnessing to others outside of his own country but to bless his worst enemy seems to have been a bit hard for him.
Sometimes it is hard for us as well especially when we feel threatened in doing such a thing. Seems to me like what Elijah faced with Ahab and Jezebel which he was a little touchy about.
Had the Bible not explicitly declared Jonah to be a prophet (2 Kings 14:25; Matthew 12:39) there might have been questions about whether Jonah was actually a prophet, or just an unwilling messenger forced into missionary activity. Jonah would probably be a prophet easy to reject in our tough generation. If his message was not smooth or soft it would be effortless to point to his flawed conduct as a reason not to listen to him.
Some Christians might even consider themselves more righteous than the prophet, and so require Jehovah to communicate with them directly, but certainly not through the faulty brother (Jonah 1:3). However such an excuse was not available to the people of Nineveh (Jonah 3:1-4). They needed to listen to the one God chose to use or forfeit the grace and mercy God had already extended to the wicked generation (Jonah 1:2).
It is God’s peculiar right and privilege to use whom He wills to deliver His message to the erring or lost soul. The Ninevites clearly recognized that what Jonah said was righteous, and that mattered more than the prophet’s resume of reluctance or narrow-minded view of salvation. They probably prayed for the prophet too, to whom they were grateful (Jonah 3:5-10).
If the devil tells the truth it must not be rejected because it appeared to come from the devil. In fact the wily Serpent will communicate truth through objectionable vessels if he senses this will be a reason to reject it (Revelation 12:9). Test everything, and if the word of the witness is consistent with scripture talk with the Lord about what to do, and if necessary repent (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
Hugh, you bring to mind a point in my past. When I was a young teen, then listening to worldly music, I heard the rock-opera, Jesus Christ Superstar. In spite of its serious errors, God spoke to my lost heart through that Satanic production. He asked me what I would do with Jesus? A seed was planted. It took a Seventh-day Adventist distributing literature, whose name I do not know, to get me to where I could fully answer that question. I thank God for speaking to me through imperfect means when I was far from Him.
Question! Does GOD have the right to save whomever HE wills?? HE does say that HE would be gracious and merciful to whomever HE wills!
Only if we are WILLING
I believe this speaks directly to what our attitude should be toward anyone who seems to be fighting against what we believe. This could be anyone from a family member to the members of ISIS.
We know that, in the end, those who reject the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ will be destroyed. May God help us, like Jonah, pray that they will know the joy of salvation--- even if, like Jonah, we find our hearts to not be in the prayer!
As Christians we must try as much as possible to do away with our own prejudices and biases so that we can response to God,s calling .
Jonah's missionary experience speaks directly to the sin of disobedience. I have heard some say that they do not expect that God will send us far away from our families, but that is exactly what God does. He makes a way especially when we are 'out of our comfort zones.' Sometimes all God wants us to do is obey, have faith in His directives and bring honour to His name. When we disobey, as Jonah did, we often find ourselves in the 'belly of the beast,' even if not literally. May God help me to be obedient.
Sometimes,some of our pastors do reject where there are posted because there maybe no electricity,pipe born-water and other meccerities of life and it paved a way of rejecting God's call for evangelism of which should not be so,may God help us to reaffirm our faith in him.amen
I agree with Hugh. Ellen G. White cites in LAST DAY EVENTS that God will use unlikely people, unpolished, and very much unlike those in leadership who we would expect to finish the work.
Hugh Dalhouse,
Please explain more thoroughly what do you mean by, "if the devil tells the truth that it should not be rejected. "
This is new to me.
Thanks
Raphael,
Thanks for the invitation to clarify. Certainly we ought not to sit at the feet of the Devil, or by extension his false prophets and teachers. However if the Devil approaches and should declare, "God is love" or "the seventh day is the Sabbath," as the Bible declares, such truth should not be rejected as false simply because of who said it.
The sly Satan can easily have truth proclaimed by one who is thought to be evil if that by itself will cause rejection of the truth. As well God may choose to use worldly folk (whose father is the devil - John 8:44) to communicate truth and the saints miss out because of the vessel. The heathen king Nebuchadnezzar testified of truth in Daniel 3:28.
Jesus instruction to the people concerning the hypocritical Pharisees was to listen and do when they spoke the truth (Matthew 23:2, 3).
Hopefully this helps if only a little.
I always beware of the truth from the devil. He is a cunning character to trap you somehow
Hugh Dalhouse,
Please explain more thoroughly what do you mean by, "if the devil tells the truth that it should not be rejected. "
This is new to me.
Thanks
Hi Raphael, I think this is the reply of Hugh Dalhouse to your request:'' However if the Devil approaches and should declare, "God is love" or "the seventh day is the Sabbath," as the Bible declares, such truth should not be rejected as false simply because of who said it.
The sly Satan can easily have truth proclaimed by one who is thought to be evil if that by itself will cause rejection of the truth. As well God may choose to use worldly folk (whose father is the devil - John 8:44) to communicate truth and the saints miss out because of the vessel. The heathen king Nebuchadnezzar testified of truth in Daniel 3:28.
This lesson helped me focus on my inabilities of self-reliance. As I focus on the experiences of Jonah this week, I have come to realise that too often I am filled with my own self importance, expecting God to do what I ask of Him regardless of the effect on others. Praise God for His Perfect Love and discipline (Revelations 3:19)
Was Joseph a prophet? No book in the Bible bears his name, but he was given dreams, understood visions by the power of God and according to Joseph, was sent to Egypt by God. So perhaps Jonah is not the only one of the old testament prophets, unless I am not understanding the qualifications clearly. Moses was also sent to Egypt in part to save a pharaoh and his people from themselves and exalt the true God, who was wonderfully exalted. Elijah was sent to Zarephath wasn't he? Didn't God have a purpose to save?
Daniel became a prophet in Babylon where he has witnessed to the whole world, I believe sent of God through divinely appointed circumstances. We must look at one of the first sent "prophets"(as God referred to Abraham) to the land of Canaan to give the inhabitants there the knowledge of the true God that they might repent. For some, their probation from that time lasted a few centuries until they filled up their probation with resolute rebellion.
I'm just trying to understand why the statement of only Jonah going outside of Israel since to me it seems inaccurate.
I believe a good point is made in this part about Jonah's experience being filled with lessons for all who would serve God today as His witnesses.