Who's your Ninevah?

Friend, pull up a chair, we're going to chat about a familiar bible story, the story of Jonah. One of the benefits of having children is getting to re-learn all the bible stories with them. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the Veggie Tales version. :)

Anyways...I've always been so fascinated with the Jonah story. It's a 4 chapter book that has the most curious, open-ended ending. It's like a movie meant to have a sequel, but we never got to see it. Funding ran out or something. So weird. Read it and see!

So, Jonah was a man with the audacity to tell God "no." I mean, he was called to speak the word of God to others; he was a prophet. But Jonah made the decision who precisely he was called to speak to. He felt it was "God's people": the Jews/Israelites. Yet, God said- "get up, go to Ninevah." And Jonah said, "Say what?!?! Those aren't your people! Nope, not going!!" He got up and fled- got on a boat heading in the complete opposite direction.

I wonder how comical it was to God that Jonah was trying to outsmart Him. As if God wouldn't know where Jonah was! Long story short, there is a terrible storm, the guys on the boat figure out it's Jonah's fault, and throw Jonah overboard. The storm stops immediately (all the guys became God followers at that point!) and Jonah gets swallowed by a "great fish."

Three long days. Three long nights. There can be nothing good about hanging out in fish guts. Nothing. Yet Jonah cried out to the Lord and praised him in the midst of it. Pretty incredible in and of itself. Perhaps all is not lost with this guy. Then the fish pukes Jonah up onto the beach.

And God says again- "get up and go to Ninevah." This time, Jonah listens, and he walks through the city preaching that God is angry and they better get their act together before calamity comes from above.

"Then the people of Ninevah believed God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them." (Jonah 3:5) Even the KING got off the throne and repented. This was a city-wide turn around here.
Awesome, right?!? Jonah preached it, and it worked!!! But silly Jonah...his heart is still so hard and self-righteous that he is ANGRY.

He thought they deserved the calamity. He didn't think they deserved a second chance. He was just trying to appease God, do the right thing, you know. But he didn't actually want them seated at his banquet table in heaven. Not them. So God says "Do you have good reason to be angry?"

Jonah says yes, and in fact, just kill me because that would be better than being alive right now. (What a dramatic dude!!) God allows this plant over Jonah's head to shrivel up and die, so then Jonah starts to bake in the sun, and he's sad for loss of the plant. God points out how crazy it is that Jonah has compassion on a PLANT, which is alive one day and dead the next, and yet he doesn't want GOD to have compassion on PEOPLE; 120,000 of them.

That scenario makes me think of Romans 2:3- "Do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that YOU will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?"

Jonah was so judge-y! Who is he to decide who gets to live in the freedom and grace of God's love? Yikes!!

Yet here's the rub- who is YOUR Ninevah?

Don't hide it- we've all got one. There's always one group, one type of person, SOMEONE that gets under our skin. Someone that we would rather run in the opposite direction from rather than hang out with.
I've noticed lately the trend is to turn up noses at the religious people in the church. Yes, Jesus got incredibly frustrated with the Pharisees. Yes, we aren't supposed to argue with them. I'm not sure what the perfect answer is as far as how to be Jesus to them. I just don't know. BUT I do know that the "religious" and "spiritual" in the church, who don't actually know Jesus at all, need Him just as much as the people you think deserve him.

Try to see clearly with His vision and purpose, keep your hearts soft and pliable before the Holy Spirit. He may just ask you one day to share God's word with your Ninevah. And when that day comes, you don't wanna be a hater sitting by a dead tree, do you? Yep, me neither.