Get Me Outta Here!

Have you ever wondered, "What would I do if I got swallowed by a giant fish?"  That's one that not even the great Worst Case Scenario Survival Guide addresses.  Thankfully, however, the book of Jonah does… and the answer is simple: PRAY!  But that just leads to another question: "What would you pray?"  For me, that answer seems simple, too: "GET ME OUTTA HERE!"

As strange as it may seem, that's not what Jonah prayed.  In fact, he didn't even mention getting out of the fish.  Instead, he spoke to God as if he had already been rescued… as if he somehow recognized the fish as God's deliverance from death by drowning.  Here's what he said…

“I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and he answered me.  I called to you from the land of the dead, and LORD, you heard me!  You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea.  The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.  Then I said, ‘O LORD, you have driven me from your presence.  Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’  “I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me.  Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.  I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.  I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever.  But you, O LORD my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!  As my life was slipping away, I remembered the LORD. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple.  Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies.  But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows.  For my salvation comes from the LORD alone.”

Jonah's prayer reminds me of just how often I pray, "Lord, get me outta here!"  It's obviously our natural tendency to try to escape danger, trouble, pain and difficulty.  What's not natural (because it's spiritual) is to recognize those times and circumstances as God's tools for molding and moving us according to His will.

As they say, hindsight is 20-20, but I have learned looking back that sometimes the trouble I'm in actually spares me from the bigger trouble I could be in.  Or, in other words, it's God's fish to rescue me from the stormy sea.

So as I've spent the past month in Jonah, I've been challenged to thank God more readily for all that He has delivered me from… even when I may be waiting for Him to deliver me yet again.

Jehovah and the General Lee

Bo and Luke Duke fishtail around the turn, pedal to the metal, the General Lee kicking up a cloud of dirt road dust.  Behind them, trying desperately to keep up, is Hazzard County's finest, Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane.  Ahead of them, just across the Chickasaw County line, waits Sheriff "Big Ed" Little.  It's decision time.  Aaaaand… cut to commercial!

Or, in this  case, commentary on the Minor Prophets.  While some liberal scholars put the story of Jonah in the same category of plausibility as the General Lee actually making all those canyon jumps, I'm interested in another connection between the reluctant prophet and the good ol' boys.  It comes out in verses like…

• "Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD" (1:3).

• "All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god" (1:5).

• "Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish" (1:6).

• "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?" (1:8)

The comments of the sailors, as well as Jonah's attempt to escape the presence of Jehovah, reveal  a cultural setting of polytheism with a belief that the various deities operated much like local law enforcement.  Cross the county line and, for better or for worse, you're no longer in the jurisdiction of Dagon, Marduk, Baal or whatever god ruled the territory you just departed.

As the story unfolds, Jonah (who probably already knew better… see 1:9) and the sailors come to realize that Jehovah is neither bound in presence nor limited in power by geographical borders.  As David wrote in Psalm 139 - "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."

It's unlikely that anyone reading this blog holds a polytheistic worldview built on the concept of regionalized deities.  But it's quite likely that many of us, despite the fact that we know better, still try to "run from God" or exclude Him from certain "locations" in our lives.  In fact, I recently heard someone make the comment, "Oops… I better not say that word in church.  It's God's house."  I asked them about saying "that word" in general and the response was, "He doesn't care what I say 'out there'."

It has been said that, "If God isn't Lord of all, He isn't Lord at all."  In reality, Jehovah God IS Lord of all, whether we acknowledge it or not.  We can't make a run for the border whenever we feel like living in a manner that displeases Him.  And if we do, the "God of heaven, who made the sea and the land" has global authority and infinite ability to use any number of speed traps, road blocks and detours to put us right back where He wants us.

Yeeeeehaaaww!

Anybody but the Phillies!

As a transplant to the vast Philadelphia suburb known as South Jersey, I've always been a Philly sports outsider.  In fact, I'm the worst of all evils in the mind of most Philly Phans.  I'm a Pittsburgh Penguins fan… a Dallas Cowboys fan… and an Atlanta Braves fan.  But wait!  It gets worse.  I'm still bitter over the 1993 NLCS.  And therefore, next to my Braves, the team I want to win most is… anybody but the Phillies!  (And there goes half my blog readership!)

So just call me Jonah.  I mean, after all, his outlook on life was "anybody but the Assyrians."  And given the brutality of the Assyrians, who could blame him?  Daniel Luckenbill's Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia describes pyramids of heads, flayed skin wall hangings and many other atrocities committed as Assyria rose to world power status.  In that historical context, "The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 'Go to the great city of Nineveh (the capitol of Assyria) and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me'." (1:1-2)

Now be honest.  Put yourself in Jonah's sandals.  Walking into Nineveh to "preach against it" was suicide.  So you can't help but feel somewhat sympathetic toward the reluctant prophet when he "ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD." (1:3)

But wait!  It gets worse.  Jonah's flight was not motivated solely by fear.  The real reason Jonah ran away isn't fully revealed until chapter four, after God has spared the Ninevites.  "Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.  He prayed to the LORD, 'O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity'." (4:2)

Jonah was not just afraid of the Ninevites.  He was bitter to the point of disgust when they repented and God relented.  Here was God's prophet wanting the very opposite of God's will.  Jonah's desire was Nineveh's destruction.  God's desire was Nineveh's deliverance (obviously conditioned upon their repentance).  And that battle of wills, as we'll see throughout the month, is really what the book of Jonah is all about.

Now, what if, "The word of the Lord came to Lee Martin and said, 'Go to the great city of Tehran and preach against it'."  Certainly I would be afraid.  But I must admit that a part of me would probably also say, "Why?  Those people torture and kill Christians.  Let them get what they deserve!"

So just call me Jonah… again.  I've found over my life that it is indeed a struggle to embrace and exhibit God's heart for those who are so antagonistic toward Him and His people.  But like Jonah, I need to realize that God delivered me when I didn't deserve it.  Though I was under His wrath, when I repented, He relented.  And if His compassion and mercy toward me doesn't soften my heart toward others, perhaps I need to read the book of Jonah a few more times!

Mayday! Mayday!

Yes, it's "May Day" - May 1, 2012 - which means it's time for a new minor prophet of the month.  And what better prophet for a day named after a maritime distress signal than... Jonah!

I just started reading Jonah and formulating some blog ideas today.  So while you wait for my first post with bated breath (sorry!), enjoy some music from one of my favorite bands.

I give you the Newsboys and "In the Belly of the Whale!"