Christian Living

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Jonah: Unwilling Winner of Souls
By Patricia Backora, author of the book
Tough Love in Christ’s Millennium
Which you can order online from: http://www.publishamerica.com
Book of Jonah

Let all those who feel inadequate as personal evangelists take heart: The salvation of a soul ultimately depends upon My grace, not the zeal of the evangelist! The Prophet Jonah got souls saved in spite of the fact he didn’t even love those souls, didn’t really want them saved, and didn’t even want to preach to them in the first place!

Jonah knew that in the future, I would use the Kingdom of Assyria to punish My people Israel for her idolatry. The City of Nineveh was the capital city of that mighty empire. I told Jonah to go warn the Ninevites that their entire city was about to be destroyed because of their sin.

Jonah was in a quandary. If he obeyed Me and went to deliver My warning to the Ninevites, there was an outside chance they could repent. If their repentance was genuine, I might even spare their lives. Jonah knew My loving nature, that I was gracious and merciful, as well as just. He felt that if he was instrumental in their reprieve from destruction, he would be betraying his fellow Israelites. He faced a difficult choice.

He decided to flee in the opposite direction, and sail west to Spain instead of going northeast to Nineveh to preach My warning to Israel’s foes. He hadn’t been at sea long before his ship got caught in a terrible tempest, and was about to sink.

The captain urged every man to call upon his gods for deliverance. Jonah was down in the hold, fast asleep, while the heathens watched and prayed to their false gods. Jonah was roused and urged to get busy and pray, or they might sink.

Still, the wind blew ever harder, and the waves grew higher and more turbulent. The sailors tossed out as much cargo as they could to lighten the ship, but to no avail. In utter desperation, the sailors drew lots to find out who was to blame for the storm. Jonah won the draw. He told them He was an Israelite, confessed his guilt, and told them the only way to stop the storm would be to throw him overboard.

They obliged him, though they cried out to Me not to lay his death to their account. A whale swallowed Jonah at once. The disobedient prophet thought for sure I was executing him by feeding him to a fish.

The heathens on board the ship were amazed at how calm the sea became once Jonah was gone. They swore they’d never again offer sacrifices to any other god; only to the Lord God of Israel, Jonah’s God. I had brought good even out of Jonah’s disobedience. I have the power to do that. Jonah had been an unwitting partner in My work, merely by being where he wasn’t supposed to be in the first place and getting thrown overboard!

To Jonah’s surprise, he remained in the stomach of the great whale without being digested. For three days and three nights he sat there in abject misery, praying for Me to spare his life so he could go and do what I’d ordered him to do in the first place. His prayer was inspired by the Psalms.

Finally, the whale spit him out on the beach. Jonah hardly stopped moving till he got to Nineveh. Although he was deeply repentant and thankful for My mercy, he still didn’t relish the task set before him, giving Israel’s arch-enemy a chance to repent.

His was a simple, no-frills style: No special music to set the mood, no freebies, no vocal theatrics, no help from acoustics and lighting technicians, no tears, no prolonged, impassioned altar pleas, no melodramatic organ music to sway emotions, no pledge cards to fill out, no glossy literature, not even any follow-up ministry to monitor the spiritual growth of his new converts. Just a detached monotone voice preaching the same, short lethargic sermon over and over: “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed.”

Jonah shed plenty of tears in the whale’s belly, but none for the Ninevites. And he wasn’t too thrilled by the successful outcome of his mission. To his utter shock, the King listened to his laconic sermon and the holy fear of God struck him. He ordered the whole city to repent, and to express their sorrow with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. I was glad for them, and spared that generation of Ninevites.

Hoping their gesture might be too little, too late, Jonah went outside the city to tarry awhile to see what would become of it. The evangelist’s “follow-up” was a death watch! Notice that he didn’t deal with new converts the way Christ, the One greater than Jonah, would do. Jonah didn’t spend his remaining time in the area ministering My love to those people, and teaching them My ways so they and their descendants could get to know Me better and resist temptation in the future. The converts were left unchruched.

That brief season of repentance was eventually forgotten and the Ninevites did return to their old wicked ways. There was no love between the two nations. Israel would, in time, be brutally conquered by the Assyrians. They, in turn, would suffer divine retribution, and Nineveh would finally be destroyed.

Jonah finally realized that the Ninevites had been spared My judgment. He grew very despondent over the huge success of his mission, and the salvation of all those souls.

The sun grew hotter, and beat down on the head of the dispirited prophet. He made himself a crude shelter, but I made him an even better one by causing a shade plant to spring up for him. He was so happy to get that relief from the heat. One common cliche among Christians is: “God won’t ever do anything for you if you don’t put some feet (self-effort) to your faith.” But I can’t be reduced to a set of theological rules. I am far too great for that, and My wisdom and goodness are immeasurable. I provided the extra shade for Jonah to show that I still loved him, and to provide him a very necessary object lesson on love.

Much to Jonah’s dismay, I caused a worm to attack the plant the next morning, so that it withered and died. Jonah’s first reaction was fury, then severe depression. His death wish persisted. He just didn’t want to go back to Israel, knowing he’d aided and abetted the enemy. He’d forgotten that I had ordained the Nation of Israel to be a Light to the Gentiles, to show them My great salvation and love.

My, how sad Jonah was. First, the salvation of all those heathens, and now this. But I told him that I had created those precious souls, and didn’t want to see any of them destroyed. And yet here he was, crying over the death of a mere plant which had quickly sprung up, only to wither away the next morning.

Jonah himself had abundantly received My mercy. I’d granted him a second chance to do My will. That is an act of My unmerited favor. There have been many who never did get second chances to obey Me. And, Jonah had been saved from drowning in the sea. Miraculously I had suspended the creature’s digestive processes. That whale was an obedient creature. It carried out my orders to transport Jonah back to the Holy Land and spit him out on the shore. One major motivation in sharing the Gospel with the lost is: Remember what the Lord did for you, and be grateful enough to want others to receive the blessings of His merciful grace.

Christians are wisely taught that the true evangelist is willing to sacrifice even his own physical comfort and well-being to go to the foreign mission field, so souls can be saved from the greater discomfort of hell. But Jonah’s deliverance from the hot sun meant more to him than the deliverance of his enemies from My wrath. Jonah didn’t meet many of the criteria for a good soul winner. Still, My will overruled Jonah’s initial unwillingness and those souls were won.

It is My Spirit of Grace Who brings men to repentance, in spite of balking believers.

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