1 00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:13,280 So friends, our teaching scripture today comes from Jonah 2 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:21,040 chapter 4, verses 1 to 11. It says, but this was very 3 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:23,640 displeasing to Jonah and he became angry. 4 00:00:24,080 --> 00:00:27,040 He prayed to the Lord and said, Oh Lord, is this not? 5 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:32,439 Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? 6 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:36,560 That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning, for I knew 7 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:40,440 that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and 8 00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:44,480 abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. 9 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:48,920 And now, oh Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better 10 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:53,640 for me to die than to live. And the Lord said, Is it right 11 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:57,320 for you to be angry? Then Jonah went out of the city 12 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:00,520 and sat down east of the city and made a booth for himself 13 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:03,320 there. He sat under it in the shade, 14 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:06,360 waiting to see what would become of the city. 15 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:11,200 The Lord God appointed a Bush and made it come up over Jonah 16 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:14,840 to give shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. 17 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:19,440 So Jonah was very happy about the Bush, but when dawn came up 18 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:23,000 the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the Bush so 19 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:25,400 that it withered when the sun rose. 20 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:30,160 God prepared a sultry E wind and the sun beat down on the head of 21 00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:33,920 Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. 22 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:37,320 He said It is better for me to die than to live. 23 00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:41,720 But God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about 24 00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:45,040 the Bush? And he said, yes, angry enough 25 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:47,960 to die. Then the Lord said, You are 26 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:51,040 concerned about the Bush for which you did not labor, and 27 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:54,640 which you did not grow. It came into being in a night 28 00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:58,120 and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned 29 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:01,800 about Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than 30 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:05,680 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their 31 00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:11,320 left, and also many animals? This is the word of the Lord. 32 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:17,640 It's good to be with you this morning. 33 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:21,360 I'm going to set this right here. 34 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:27,080 So we're used to hearing a story of Jonah paired with a little 35 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:31,440 scene about a whale, and we'll get there. 36 00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:35,960 But the story of Jonah ends with a moment about a Bush providing 37 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:39,120 shade to Jonah. And then he gets really angry 38 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:42,200 because the Bush kind of Withers and goes away and disappears. 39 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:44,720 And God asks Jonah a question that we actually never really 40 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:47,160 get the answer to. So sorry, I'm not going to be 41 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:49,360 able to provide too much clarity. 42 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:54,720 But the Bush is as important a part of the story as the whale 43 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:56,960 is. And both the Bush and the whale, 44 00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:03,600 when we read the story of Jonah, are reminders of the unrelenting 45 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:08,680 mercy of God, the unrelenting mercy of God. 46 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:11,520 And we're going to get there into the story, but first we 47 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:18,120 have to get the proper context. So between 1969 and 1973, the 48 00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:22,320 United States Air Force dropped more than 1/2 a million tons of 49 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:26,120 bombs on the countryside of Cambodia. 50 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:31,760 And this campaign was a secret. Congress hadn't authorized it. 51 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:34,320 The Cambodia people hadn't really done anything to provoke 52 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:37,520 it. It was a spillover from the war 53 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:41,600 in Vietnam. And North Vietnam was using the 54 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:45,240 Cambodian territory along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, you know, to 55 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:48,800 bring their supplies. There were supplies. 56 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:51,720 And Richard Nixon authorized what came to be known as 57 00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:55,600 corporate bombing, indiscriminate, indiscriminate 58 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:58,400 bombing of rural Cambodian territory. 59 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:02,120 So this bombing completely destabilized the country, as you 60 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:04,800 can imagine. It drove rural populations into 61 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:06,960 the cities. It sort of shattered civil 62 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:10,920 society and created the conditions of desperation and 63 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:13,280 chaos. There were more bombs dropped in 64 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:17,760 this small region of Cambodia in that period than all of the 65 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:20,720 bombs dropped by the Allied forces in World War Two. 66 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:27,640 You can only imagine how destabilizing this was for the 67 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:31,680 Cambodian people. So when the Khmer Rouge and 68 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:36,320 authoritarian style government sort of entered into Phnom Penh 69 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:43,160 in April of 1975, they were walking into an A situation that 70 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:45,120 the United States had already broken. 71 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:50,320 And on the heels of all of this, what followed was one of the 72 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:53,680 most concentrated episodes of genocide in the 20th century. 73 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:57,040 In less than four years, the Khmer Rouge killed between 74 00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:02,120 somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million people, roughly 1/4 of 75 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:06,320 Cambodia's population. Forgive me, I'm having a little 76 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,480 hard time. They emptied the cities. 77 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:11,240 They abolished money and religion. 78 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:16,720 They snuffed out family loyalty. They sent children to spy on 79 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:19,360 their parents. And in a former high school in 80 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:23,600 Phnom Penh, they built a prison called Tul Slang, or An 81 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:27,800 estimated number of 17,000 people passed through, and fewer 82 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:33,360 than a dozen survived. The rest were tortured until 83 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:36,040 they confessed to whatever their interrogators needed them to 84 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:39,360 confess to, and then taking them to the killing fields and 85 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:41,960 executed. The prisoners kept meticulous 86 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:46,800 the The prison kept meticulous records, an effort overseen by a 87 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:50,200 former math teacher who took on the name of Comrade Doik. 88 00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:56,200 We're going to come back to him. There are photographs of nearly 89 00:05:56,200 --> 00:06:00,640 every prisoner, face forward, face to the side, sometimes with 90 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:06,920 a number hung around their neck. The photographs are still there 91 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:10,600 and thousands of faces looking back at you from the walls. 92 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:15,080 And I visited Tul Slang in January as part of my trip with 93 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:19,760 Parker and and John to visit the campuses of Asia's Hope in Phnom 94 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:23,160 Penh and Baatenbong. If you're new with us, you 95 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:25,400 should know that we have a very deep partnership with an 96 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:29,320 organization called Asia's Hope that provides family style 97 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:34,800 orphan care in Bata Bong, Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Northern 98 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:38,360 India, Thailand. Over the past 20 years, this 99 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:41,880 ministry, which was birthed out of this church and on the 100 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:48,360 leadership of John McCollum, has rescued more than 1000 kids who 101 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:51,960 have been caught up in sort of the fray of what followed from 102 00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:54,680 this incident. So the wonderful work that 103 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:57,120 Asia's Hope families get to participate in. 104 00:06:57,120 --> 00:06:59,200 And, and by the way, in the upcoming months, we're going to 105 00:06:59,400 --> 00:07:01,800 update you a little bit about what our involvement will be 106 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:03,480 there moving forward. That's part of why I'm 107 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:07,760 highlighting it here. But this wonderful work that 108 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:10,240 Asia's Hope families get to participate in and what we get 109 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:14,120 to support it comes on the heels of US foreign policy decisions 110 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:20,760 for more than 50 years ago. 50 years later, there is still 111 00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:25,320 enough destabilizing force in the region that every single 112 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:29,600 week, the national director of Cambodia's Asia's Hope, Savorn, 113 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:32,640 who I hope will be with us this summer, that's him in the 114 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:35,160 middle. You can see Parker and I there. 115 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:38,760 Apparently even in Cambodia, we still kind of dressed alike. 116 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:46,560 But every week, Savorn gets a call from somewhere in the 117 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:49,640 country, wondering if he has room to take in a kid from 118 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:52,080 someone who's trying to find them a home. 119 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:56,280 And as I toured the halls of Tuleslang and saw the pictures 120 00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:59,160 of people turned into the the prisoners onto the wall and 121 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:01,600 walked past the display of skulls from the people who'd 122 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:06,240 been brutalized in this place, I found myself asking that a 123 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:09,960 question that a place memorialized, such as it is, is 124 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:14,040 designed to help us ask, how could this happen? 125 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:20,520 Like, how does this happen? And being somewhat of prayer, I 126 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:22,600 didn't ask that question into an empty space. 127 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:25,840 I found myself praying this question, Lord, how can this 128 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:28,000 possibly happen? I found myself repeating a 129 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:30,760 prayer that I pray often. And it's a prayer that we're 130 00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:34,159 trying to lean in together into this community. 131 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:38,000 Lord have mercy, how can this happen? 132 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:39,799 How can something like this be happening? 133 00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:45,200 And friends, I'm now squarely into midlife. 134 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:50,800 I turned 48 on Tuesday, which is your is your notification that I 135 00:08:51,160 --> 00:08:52,720 have a birthday coming up this week. 136 00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:58,640 And I've been a pastor just shy of two decades. 137 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:03,360 And I have heard enough stories to know that everyone has that 138 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:05,120 kind of question about something. 139 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:10,280 How does this happen? Why is this happening? 140 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:14,280 You read in the history books, you shake your head in disbelief 141 00:09:14,280 --> 00:09:16,120 about the way that some people were treated. 142 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:19,880 Or you watch the news and you see in real time the way that 143 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:23,200 people have been treated, the way people are presently being 144 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:25,520 treated. Or some of you, you get a little 145 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:28,120 bit more up close and personal in your own story. 146 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:33,000 You know, you sit down with your grandfather a few weeks before 147 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:37,160 he died, and you know, he tells you that he left home at the age 148 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:40,200 of 16 because his father took him out to the barn and whipped 149 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:44,160 him like a horse. And then you realize that this 150 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:46,760 is the man who, just a decade and a half later, fathered your 151 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:51,120 mother. Every single one of us has a 152 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:56,080 story that surfaces, a question, How could this happen? 153 00:09:56,240 --> 00:09:59,160 Why does this happen? And, Lord, when are you going to 154 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:03,480 make it right? And some of you have this kind 155 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:07,720 of question about injustice and oppression that has been done to 156 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:14,320 you or to your loved ones. And I open with this story about 157 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:18,000 Cambodia because we have a deep and growing connection there. 158 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:20,920 And I think it might be the closest shot we have at getting 159 00:10:20,920 --> 00:10:24,200 our hearts close to what it feels like to be on the 160 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:27,920 receiving end of geopolitical machinery that oppresses the 161 00:10:27,920 --> 00:10:31,960 weak. This is the context of the book 162 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:36,720 of Jonah. We've been in a series on the 163 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:39,080 minor Prophets called the Book of the 12. 164 00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:43,320 And one of the things that we've been trying to do in our reading 165 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:45,560 of the prophets, one of the things that our teaching team 166 00:10:45,560 --> 00:10:49,760 has been trying to do is to help us get present to the particular 167 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:53,320 handicap that we sort of have in reading the prophets from our 168 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:57,440 place in history and from our place as part of empire. 169 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:02,080 So the prophets are mostly writing to a people who have 170 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:04,920 been under the boot of the oppressors, the Egyptians and 171 00:11:04,920 --> 00:11:07,120 the Assyrians and the Babylonians. 172 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:10,680 These are the empires that have wreaked havoc on the people of 173 00:11:10,680 --> 00:11:12,760 God. The prophets are the one who 174 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:17,200 find themselves leaning deeply into the whisper of God and they 175 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:20,520 hear things from God and God gives them things to say to 176 00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:24,160 people. And there are three scenes for 177 00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:30,240 us this morning from the book of Jonah and maybe a short 4th one 178 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:33,440 if we have the time. But the three scenes are this 179 00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:37,120 running, the rescue and unending mercy. 180 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:43,960 OK, you guys with me recovered from the opening maybe. 181 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:50,160 OK, first up is the running. God comes to Jonah, and he asked 182 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:53,920 Jonah to go and preach to the people in the city of Nineveh. 183 00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:57,680 And if you haven't read the story of Jonah, I will say that 184 00:11:57,680 --> 00:11:59,040 there are going to be some spoilers. 185 00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:02,200 But you know, it's been around since the 18th century BC. 186 00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:05,000 So you've had a minute. It's 4 short chapters. 187 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:07,720 You can go read it in about 6 minutes. 188 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:13,600 Essentially, God comes to Jonah and asks Jonah to go to Nineveh 189 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:16,640 to give them a word. And we're told that God has 190 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:21,800 heard of the wickedness that is going on in the city, city of 191 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:25,040 Nineveh. And God wants to sort of 192 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:27,200 withhold his judgement from the city. 193 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:31,480 And he says to Jonah, I want you to go and I want you to be an 194 00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:36,240 ambassador to a place that is outside of my my people. 195 00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:39,120 And I want you to talk to them about the mercy that I have. 196 00:12:40,560 --> 00:12:43,360 And you might think that, you know, this is like what profits 197 00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:44,720 do? Like, what's the big deal, 198 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:47,800 Jonah? Can you just go to Nineveh and 199 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:49,400 do the thing that God is asking you to do? 200 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:53,320 But Jonah books a ticket on a boat heading in the opposite 201 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:56,480 direction. So this is how the story opens. 202 00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:03,120 Verse 3 writes Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the 203 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:06,480 presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found 204 00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:11,120 a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid his fare and he went 205 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:15,760 on board to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence 206 00:13:15,760 --> 00:13:19,200 of the Lord. Three times the text says that 207 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:22,640 he was going to Tarshish, and which I apparently can't say 208 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:26,280 this morning, and twice we're told that he was doing so 209 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:29,160 because he was fleeing the presence of the Lord. 210 00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:32,240 Now, there's some helpful context here. 211 00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:35,200 Tarshish is a real city. But the way it's meant to work 212 00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:38,600 in the story is it's meant to cue the reader or the listener 213 00:13:38,600 --> 00:13:42,680 to the reality that Jonah is trying to get as far away as 214 00:13:42,680 --> 00:13:46,160 possible from the presence of God and whatever it is that God 215 00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:49,800 is trying to do in Nineveh. But why is that? 216 00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:55,320 Well, because Nineveh is the capital city of the Assyrian 217 00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:57,920 people. And Assyria during this time was 218 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:00,800 known for its aggressive military expansion. 219 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:05,080 So it was a military machine that was waging war all of the 220 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:07,640 time. And the Assyrians, friends, they 221 00:14:07,640 --> 00:14:11,520 didn't just conquer people, They really, really conquered people. 222 00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:15,360 Part of their mode of being in the world was to terrorize, 223 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:19,040 shock and awe. Total destruction. 224 00:14:19,720 --> 00:14:23,440 Their own royal inscriptions, which survive by the way. 225 00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:25,720 You can go read them and have been translated. 226 00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:31,600 They boast about what they do to conquered people, flaying 227 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:34,960 enemies alive and draping their skins over the city walls. 228 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:40,200 Sorry if there are tender ears. Probably should have issued a 229 00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:43,560 warning this morning. Impaling prisoners on stakes 230 00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:47,760 outside conquered cities. Cutting off hands, feet, noses, 231 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:53,440 ears, stacking piles of heads, and within a generation of 232 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:57,800 Jonah's ministry, Assyria destroyed the northern Kingdom 233 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:01,520 of Israel entirely. The population was deported, the 234 00:15:01,520 --> 00:15:05,080 10 northern tribes of Israel were destroyed, and the people 235 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:08,960 were dispersed and scattered and absorbed into other cultures, 236 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:14,440 never to be consecrated again. Perhaps you've heard of the Lost 237 00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:17,280 Tribes of Israel. That's what's happening right 238 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:21,720 here. Jonah himself is also from the 239 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:24,920 Northern Kingdom, and it was just a generation before him 240 00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:29,280 that suffered these losses. And so the empire that is 241 00:15:29,280 --> 00:15:33,320 destroying his people and his land and his tribal territory, 242 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:37,160 this is the empire that God is asking him to go and preach 243 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:42,320 mercy to. So this is not an abstract 244 00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:44,680 theological problem for Jonah. It's personal. 245 00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:50,000 His people are being deported and scattered and absorbed and 246 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:54,360 erased. And God says, go tell Nineveh 247 00:15:55,160 --> 00:16:01,400 that I am slow to anger, that they should stop their campaign, 248 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:04,160 that they should repent, and that I will withhold my 249 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:08,720 judgement from them. And you're like, what? 250 00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:14,160 It would be like God coming to one of our older boys in the 251 00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:20,360 Botzenbaum Student Center whose parents parents were likely 252 00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:23,840 killed by the Khmer Rouge. I think we have a picture of no 253 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:29,840 his his parents were likely killed by the Khmer Rouge and 254 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:34,760 asking him to go and preach a word of mercy and the love of 255 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:37,440 God to the guy that ran the prison at Tul slain. 256 00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:45,040 That's what this would be like. This is our our present day 257 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:50,160 Jonah. So Jonah leaves. 258 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:51,920 He doesn't want to be a part of it. 259 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:55,560 The thing that is presently in Jonah's heart is a cry for God 260 00:16:55,560 --> 00:16:57,600 to bring justice to the whole thing. 261 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:01,040 He wants God to make right the wrongs that his people had 262 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:03,080 experienced at the hands of these people. 263 00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:06,640 And so he leaves. And we don't actually find out 264 00:17:06,640 --> 00:17:11,960 why Jonah flees to Tarshish on a boat until chapter 4, where 265 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:17,240 Jonah himself tells God exactly why he left and exactly why he 266 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:22,640 didn't want to come to Nineveh. Chapter 4, Verse 2 Oh Lord, is 267 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:26,040 not this what I said while I was still in my own country? 268 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,280 That is why I fled to Tarshis at the beginning. 269 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:33,760 For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow 270 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:37,680 to anger and abounding in steadfast love and ready to 271 00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:42,240 relent from punishing. I didn't want to go because I 272 00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:44,360 knew that you would be merciful to them. 273 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:49,120 And this is where we start to feel the tension of this story. 274 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:52,560 We start to see the way that the story is meant to work on us. 275 00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:55,320 And this is a story that buries the lead. 276 00:17:56,600 --> 00:17:59,120 We get almost all the way through the story before we find 277 00:17:59,120 --> 00:18:01,160 out why Jonah doesn't want to be a part of it. 278 00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:04,520 I knew that you would be gracious to them, which is why I 279 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:10,160 went the other way. And friends, I suspect that you 280 00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:13,960 and I all have had some kind of moment like this. 281 00:18:15,120 --> 00:18:17,000 You know, you're on your way following Jesus. 282 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,600 You're learning how to love by reading about Jesus and the 283 00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:21,960 gospels. You're getting into the 284 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:24,640 teachings about forgiveness and reconciliation. 285 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:26,880 You're getting some healing. You're in community. 286 00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:29,520 And then you have this moment that you realize that if this 287 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:40,760 story is true, I'm going to have to talk to my mom or my dad or 288 00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:45,480 your wife or your ex-husband or your roommate from 10 years ago, 289 00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:48,120 or the kids that left home and moved the grandkids to another 290 00:18:48,120 --> 00:18:51,480 city and cut you off because that pattern in you from so long 291 00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:54,080 ago never got healed. And now there's unreconciled 292 00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:58,600 stuff. So the way that the book of 293 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:01,760 Jonah works, and it's where we're headed next in the story 294 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:05,760 is that the scene is set with an outlandish request, which 295 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:08,440 everyone reading the story would have picked up right away. 296 00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:15,160 Go, says God, and extend my mercy to the city that was built 297 00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:22,120 on the blood of your people. Imagine, says God, how much 298 00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:27,480 mercy there must be inside of me and at my disposal such that I 299 00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:29,120 could ask you to do such a thing. 300 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:32,320 And Jonah is like, no, thank you. 301 00:19:34,120 --> 00:19:38,800 He's super angry. I'm not here for it, he says. 302 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:47,080 I'm headed to Tarshish on a ship and after a couple of reads of 303 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:52,760 the story, you start getting to this spot back at the beginning. 304 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:56,040 It's short enough to reread and reread and reread. 305 00:19:56,040 --> 00:20:00,160 And at about the 4th or the 5th time you get to this point in 306 00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:02,880 the story where Jonah is on his way to Tarsus, and you begin to 307 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:08,120 ask yourself, where am I running away from the presence and the 308 00:20:08,120 --> 00:20:12,280 mercy of God? Where's my Joppa? 309 00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:16,840 Where's my Tarshish? Is there any place in my life or 310 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:22,640 in my story where God's mercy is being extended and I'm inclined 311 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:28,840 to turn my nose up at it? That is why I fled to Tarshish 312 00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:32,360 at the beginning, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and 313 00:20:32,360 --> 00:20:37,080 merciful and slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and 314 00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:45,080 ready to relent from punishing. And so the question is, friends, 315 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:47,680 is there anyone in your life right now where if God asked you 316 00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:52,800 to go and extend to them the mercy of God, there is just 317 00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:55,880 something in you that you would want to go the other direction? 318 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:03,120 I mean, it makes sense. Like there have been people in 319 00:21:03,120 --> 00:21:08,640 my life who are like Nineveh to me, People that I have trouble 320 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:13,040 imagining the infinite mercy of God being able to reach, or 321 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:16,720 parts of people that I assume are beyond the scope of what I 322 00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:21,760 expect to be remedied. What I actually want is justice. 323 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:28,440 I want them to be punished. It's my confession, and the 324 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:33,840 story of Jonah is really meant to help us see that most of the 325 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:37,080 time when we're headed to Tarshish, booking a ticket in 326 00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:40,520 the opposite direction of where the mercy of God is moving 327 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:44,160 towards, what it means is that we have a deficiency of God's 328 00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:50,000 mercy at work in our own lives. It shrinks our imagination for 329 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:53,280 the mercy that God could have for others when we have such a 330 00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:57,440 little dose of it ourselves. You know, we can't quite see how 331 00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:00,880 generous God would want to be with others with with God being 332 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:04,160 so slow to anger and merciful and abounding in love. 333 00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:08,000 It's because we ourselves are in low supply of those things. 334 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,680 We can't see the slowness of God's anger for others because 335 00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:16,800 we constantly are imagining that maybe God is angry with us and 336 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:19,960 we have this hard time imagining the abundance of mercy that God 337 00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:23,600 has for those who trouble us. Because we have yet to truly 338 00:22:23,800 --> 00:22:27,920 allow ourselves to receive the fullness of God's mercy for us. 339 00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:33,080 We find ourselves at times like the servant in in Jesus's 340 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:35,480 parable. In Matthew chapter 18, he says 341 00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:40,840 that a king is settling his accounts with his servant and 342 00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:44,320 one of the servants owes him 10,000 talents, which is like an 343 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:49,520 absurd amount of money to be in debt, and he's unable to pay it. 344 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:53,080 And the king forgives the entire debt when the servant begs for 345 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,640 mercy. But that same servant goes out 346 00:22:56,640 --> 00:23:02,400 and finds the one that owes him 100 dinero, a not unreasonable 347 00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:06,400 amount of debt, but he grabs him by the throat and he throws him 348 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:12,600 in prison when he can't pay. The story that Jesus tells is a 349 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:16,360 telling to Peter, who's saying to Jesus, Lord, how many times 350 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,760 am I required to forgive somebody that offends me? 351 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:25,200 And Jesus effectively says that the number doesn't really matter 352 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:28,520 because once you taste the mercy of God, the math doesn't math 353 00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:32,920 anymore. This is part of what the story 354 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:35,720 of Jonah is about. But, you know, Jonah doesn't 355 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:39,560 really know this yet. He hasn't encountered the mercy 356 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:43,240 of God for himself yet. And so his imagination is 357 00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:46,240 shrunk. The idea that God's mercy could 358 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:48,840 be extended beyond the bounds of his people. 359 00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:51,920 Jonah just doesn't want to have anything to do with it. 360 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:55,880 And, and in the story, the way that it has been read various 361 00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:59,360 times throughout history, the work that the story was meant to 362 00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:02,360 do for the original audience of God's people was to serve 363 00:24:02,360 --> 00:24:05,720 essentially as a parable in a prophetic form. 364 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:09,480 You know, Israel has been with the recipient of extraordinary, 365 00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:15,760 unearned Divine Mercy, the Exodus, the covenant, the 366 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:19,280 patience of God through centuries of unfaithfulness. 367 00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:23,400 And what God is trying to say is that the same amount of mercy 368 00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:28,800 that I have extended to you, I'm extending beyond the boundaries 369 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:33,680 of your imagination. Who is that for you friends? 370 00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:40,960 Somebody in your family, like a old friend. 371 00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,720 And before Jonah is going to be able to preach a word in 372 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:52,160 Nineveh, he's going to have to experience the mercy of God in a 373 00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:55,560 way that is personal and tangible. 374 00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:00,800 And so Jonah is running, and what does God do? 375 00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:06,280 Well, God does what God does. Whenever someone runs from God, 376 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:11,280 he goes after. And this brings us to the 377 00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:15,400 rescue. So there's this section in the 378 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:19,080 story of Jonah that doesn't really seem very real. 379 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:22,920 It's actually quite hard to tell what kind of book Jonah is. 380 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,320 And we're about to get into some strange parts with, you know, 381 00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,280 weird swallowing of a whale and all that kind of stuff. 382 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:31,600 I mean, Jonah doesn't swallow a whale. 383 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:33,400 He gets swallowed. You get it. 384 00:25:34,360 --> 00:25:37,680 The Jonah buys a ticket to Tarshish to escape the presence 385 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:39,200 of the Lord. And then the text said that the 386 00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:43,960 Lord and his pursuit after Jonah hurled a great wind upon the 387 00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:47,040 sea. And before we get to the part of 388 00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:52,400 the whale, let me just say that most scholars do not believe 389 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:56,440 that the text of Jonah is historical or biographical 390 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,640 because of how the text is written and when it's written, 391 00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:03,720 Most scholars would place Jonah in something like a blend of 392 00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:06,240 historical fiction and a really long parable. 393 00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:10,480 There's this guy named Jonah. There's a real city of Nineveh. 394 00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:13,080 And some of this stuff probably happened, but the story is told 395 00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:15,960 more like Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son. 396 00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:18,520 There's enough details in the story where you just like, did 397 00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:22,120 this happen? But then it's weird enough where 398 00:26:22,120 --> 00:26:23,880 you're just like, this probably did not happen. 399 00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:27,840 So I just want to say that on the outset is that, you know, if 400 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:30,280 you're new to reading the Scriptures, you have some 401 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,520 questions about even why I would say that this probably actually 402 00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:36,040 maybe didn't happen. I'm happy to meet with you and 403 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:38,280 talk with you a little bit about our imagination for the 404 00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:41,360 scriptures and how we read in line with the history of the 405 00:26:41,360 --> 00:26:43,960 church. But I just want to say to you 406 00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:47,880 that the way that the story works is a little bit more like 407 00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:52,280 a parable. The important thing in this 408 00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:55,120 story is not whether or not Jonah was swallowed by a whale. 409 00:26:55,120 --> 00:26:58,560 The important thing in the story is the function that the whale 410 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:03,120 plays. The point of this part of the 411 00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:07,560 story is that God is a God who comes after us and rescues us. 412 00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:12,400 That's what we should get. And so Jonah books his ticket, 413 00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:14,400 and he gets on the boat, and he's headed to Tarshish. 414 00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:18,480 And God, in pursuit of his prophet, hurls a great wind onto 415 00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:22,240 the sea. And the storm is so violent that 416 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:25,640 the sailors, I mean, like rough Mediterranean men who've seen 417 00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:30,480 everything, are terrified. They're throwing cargo 418 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:32,080 overboard. They're crying out to their 419 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:34,440 guns. And Jonah is below deck asleep. 420 00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:39,160 And so the captain comes down, makes his way down, and he wakes 421 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:40,720 Jonah up. And he's like, listen, man, 422 00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:43,160 everybody is praying. Why are you not praying? 423 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:48,400 And eventually they cast lots to figure out whose fault this is. 424 00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:51,960 And the lot falls on Jonah. And they ask him, who are you? 425 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:53,520 Where are you from, and what have you done? 426 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:56,680 Like, why have you put us in this situation? 427 00:27:57,760 --> 00:27:59,960 And Jonah tells them, he says, I'm a Hebrew. 428 00:27:59,960 --> 00:28:03,200 I worship the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the 429 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:05,400 dry land, and I am running from him. 430 00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:10,600 And the sailors are terrified because they understand 431 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:12,960 immediately what Jonah apparently does not, that you 432 00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:15,800 cannot outrun the God who made the sea by getting on a boat. 433 00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:20,920 So Jonah tells them to throw them overboard. 434 00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:23,600 And here's one of those details in the text that's easy to miss. 435 00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:27,280 Hang with me here. The sailors don't want to throw 436 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,720 Jonah overboard. They they have no covenant 437 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,600 relationship with Yahweh. There's no history with Israel. 438 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:35,800 There's no reason for them to care about what happens with 439 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:37,800 this man. And yet they try everything they 440 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:43,000 can to row to shore before they finally, reluctantly throw Jonah 441 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,680 overboard. And the moment Jonah hits the 442 00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:50,000 water, the storm stops. It's a parable. 443 00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:54,160 It's a funny story, isn't it? But the text says something 444 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:57,840 quite extraordinary, a little foreshadowing of what is to 445 00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:01,200 come. These sailors, these outsiders, 446 00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:03,480 these people who were never supposed to be part of the 447 00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:08,840 story, they offer sacrifices to God and begin to make vows to 448 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:12,440 Yahweh. The people Jonah would have said 449 00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:17,960 are outside the bounds of God's mercy are worshipping God on the 450 00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:21,400 very boat Jonah boarded to escape being the carrier of 451 00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:24,320 God's mercy to those who are inside or outside the 452 00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:26,680 boundaries. You can see the irony here, 453 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:30,200 right? The story is already doing what 454 00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:34,800 Jonah doesn't want it to do. The mercy of God is already 455 00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:39,360 moving beyond the borders that Jonah has drawn for it. 456 00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:42,920 And Jonah isn't even in Nineveh yet. 457 00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:45,400 He's in the opposite direction. Do you guys see this? 458 00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:49,880 It's a little bit of comic sprinkled in there. 459 00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:58,520 So friends, then as you know, Jonah sinks and the text says, 460 00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:00,760 and this is the line that the whole story turns on. 461 00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:05,320 The Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah. 462 00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:10,600 God sends a storm. He sends a fish, and the same 463 00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:13,880 God Jonah is running from is the God who comes after him in the 464 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:17,320 depth of the water. Jonah is in the belly of a fish 465 00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:20,920 for three days and three nights. And this is where the story 466 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:26,640 slows down and we see that Jonah himself begins to experience the 467 00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,800 mercy of God from the belly of a fish. 468 00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:34,200 He begins to pray. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord 469 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:37,520 his God from the belly of a fish, saying, I called to the 470 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:41,160 Lord out of my distress, and he answered me out of the belly of 471 00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:44,280 Sheol. I cried, and you heard my voice. 472 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:49,000 You cast me into the depth, deep into the heart of the Seas, and 473 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:52,680 the flood surrounded me. All of your waves and your 474 00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:58,320 billows passed over me. Friends, this is the prayer of a 475 00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:05,280 man who is experiencing the mercy of God for himself. 476 00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:14,080 I went as far down as a person could possibly go, and you were 477 00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:16,560 found there. You found me there. 478 00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:23,120 And you know, I'm reading this in the primary sort of pastoral 479 00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:26,720 question that comes to my mind that I want to invite you to 480 00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:30,880 consider is, have you allowed yourself to sink into the waters 481 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:36,400 and receive the mercy of God, or are you still treading water? 482 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:46,320 Have you been down to the deep? I mean, this is what our friends 483 00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:48,120 in a A. They know really well, don't 484 00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:51,800 they? If you do not have a friend who 485 00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:58,200 is in a A, you should find one because they know this really 486 00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:01,040 well. That whole rock bottom thing is 487 00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:05,240 real. And my question for us this 488 00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:10,280 morning is, have you let yourself sink and be rescued by 489 00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:14,120 the mercy of God? Friends, the belly of the whale 490 00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:18,160 in this story is not an angry God punishing or forcing or 491 00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:22,960 shaming Jonah into compliance. The whale is the life raft, a 492 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:28,520 place of refuge in the chaos for the situation that Jonah has put 493 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:31,320 himself in, running from the presence of God. 494 00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:36,840 Most of us, when we, you know, find ourselves in troubled 495 00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:41,640 waters, we tend to swim away from the things in our life that 496 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:45,920 are designed to hold us long enough for God to show us his 497 00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:52,040 unrelenting mercy. And, you know, things like 498 00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:57,680 community and vulnerability and deep friendship that can wound 499 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:04,240 from time to time, or marriages that do more than their fair 500 00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:06,920 share of revealing what is wounded and maybe a bit 501 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:11,280 problematic inside of us. We tend to flee these things. 502 00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:14,560 You know, we pull back from the friendships. 503 00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:16,120 We bounce from friendship to friendship. 504 00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:19,600 Just dosing out enough, little vulnerability in each one. 505 00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:24,000 You guys know this little trick. You just a little bit vulnerable 506 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,120 in each of your friendships. It begins to feel like you're 507 00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:29,440 being known, but you never let one single person in on the 508 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:33,960 whole thing. That's not good, but that's what 509 00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:38,200 we tend to do. Just a quick aside, you know, 510 00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:42,440 for my married, my married friends, your marriage is a 511 00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:45,200 whale and you are in the belly of it. 512 00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:53,640 But it is a lifeboat that is meant to be the place where you 513 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:57,440 come to the end of yourself and receive the mercy of God. 514 00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:05,360 And the same is true of you single people, your singleness 515 00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:08,440 and your actual need for deep, deep community. 516 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:13,600 This is a whale for you and you are in the belly of it, and it 517 00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:18,199 is meant to be a thing that can hold you long enough for you to 518 00:34:18,199 --> 00:34:20,280 notice where the mercy of God is in it. 519 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:27,520 So I went as far down as a person can go and you were 520 00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:32,360 there, says Jonah. And then the fish deposits him 521 00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:35,679 on dry land. The the fish in the story of 522 00:34:35,679 --> 00:34:40,080 Jonah is the mercy of God for Jonah foreshadowing by the way, 523 00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:43,600 the tomb from Good Friday and Easter morning. 524 00:34:44,199 --> 00:34:49,679 And so on the dry land, God comes to Jonah again and the 525 00:34:49,679 --> 00:34:54,040 word of the Lord comes to Jonah a second time saying, get up, 526 00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:58,880 get yourself to Nineveh, that great city that I'm trying to 527 00:34:59,720 --> 00:35:04,080 get a message to proclaim to it, the message that I tell you. 528 00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:09,000 And so Jonah gets up and he, he sets out and he went to Nineveh 529 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:10,680 according to the word of the Lord. 530 00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:15,240 He comes to Nineveh. He preaches basically a meh 531 00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:21,320 sermon, doesn't really say much, but everybody repents and 532 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:25,200 believes in God. They proclaim a fast. 533 00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:27,320 The king gets everybody in on it. 534 00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:29,440 He says we are going to go all in on this. 535 00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:34,320 Even the animals begin to fast. The animals put on sackcloth and 536 00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:36,400 ashes. The people put on sackcloth and 537 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:37,760 ashes. Remembers. 538 00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:41,680 Works like a parable. Everyone in the whole city turns 539 00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:44,920 towards God and repentance in hopes that God who has sent them 540 00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:48,680 Jonah, would rescue them. And you know what he does? 541 00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:56,520 And this brings us to the unending mercy of God, which is 542 00:35:56,520 --> 00:36:03,240 very displeasing to Jonah. Still we read again. 543 00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:05,440 This was very displeasing to Jonah. 544 00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,960 He prayed to the Lord and said, Oh Lord, is not this what I said 545 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:10,520 while I was still in my own country? 546 00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:13,560 I mean, This is why I fled to Tarsus at the beginning, for I 547 00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:18,400 knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, 548 00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:21,920 abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent. 549 00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:27,560 And now, oh Lord, please take my life for me, for it is better 550 00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:30,280 for me to die than live. And the Lord said, is it right 551 00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:34,360 for you to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city 552 00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:37,800 and he sat down east of the city and he made a little booth, a 553 00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:40,800 shelter for himself there. And he sat under it in the 554 00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:43,160 shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. 555 00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:45,320 Jonah is sitting outside of the city. 556 00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:47,720 He's facing the city. And he's like trying to figure 557 00:36:47,720 --> 00:36:50,560 out what's God going to do? Is God going to drop the hammer? 558 00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:53,200 I sure hope so. And I'm going to wait until it 559 00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:58,320 happens. And as he's doing that, the Lord 560 00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:01,360 appoints the Lord. God appointed a Bush, a 561 00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:05,320 shrubbery, a vine, and made it come up over Jonah to give shade 562 00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:08,680 over his head to save him from his discomfort. 563 00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:11,800 And so Jonah was really happy about the Bush. 564 00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:16,200 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that 565 00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:18,600 attacked the Bush so that it withered. 566 00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:23,640 And when the sun rose, God prepared a sultry E wind, and 567 00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:27,240 the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and 568 00:37:27,240 --> 00:37:30,000 asked that he might die. He said, It is better for me to 569 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:34,160 die. It is better for me to die than 570 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:37,880 to live. But God said to Jonah, is it 571 00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:40,240 right for you to be angry about the Bush? 572 00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:44,280 And he says, yes, it's right, I'm angry enough to die. 573 00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:47,480 And then the Lord said, you are concerned about the Bush for 574 00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:50,800 which you did not labor and which you did not grow. 575 00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:53,400 It came into being in a night and perished in a night. 576 00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:58,080 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city 577 00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:02,440 in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know 578 00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:06,080 their right hand from their left, and also many animals? 579 00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:09,960 End of text. Curtain closes. 580 00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:16,560 The point of the parable here in the closing, right here at the 581 00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:24,200 end, friends, is that our view of the mercy of God is so small 582 00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:29,600 compared to the actual infinite, unending mercy of God. 583 00:38:31,720 --> 00:38:35,680 We trouble ourselves with things like bushes and shades and oh, 584 00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:39,440 that didn't happen. And we overlook the 585 00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:50,450 expansiveness of God's mercy. I want to come back to Comrade 586 00:38:50,490 --> 00:38:55,240 Doek. That is him many years later. 587 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:02,320 So the guy who oversaw told saying prison left Phnom Penh. 588 00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:05,080 He escaped and lived on the border of Cambodia and Thailand 589 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:08,440 in a refugee camp for almost 20 years without being noticed. 590 00:39:10,240 --> 00:39:14,520 And he disappeared until about the late 1990s, when he was 591 00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:18,360 found by a photographer and was the first senior Khmer Rouge 592 00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:21,400 leader to be tried by a tribunal. 593 00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:29,800 And in those intervening 20 years, someone showed up in his 594 00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:32,240 life and shared with him about the mercy and the love of God. 595 00:39:34,240 --> 00:39:37,840 And he, comrade Doric, surrendered his life to Jesus 596 00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:44,080 and received God's mercy. And then he was sentenced to 597 00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:48,160 life in prison. He came into his tribunal 598 00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:54,000 carrying a Bible. He apologized to the victims as 599 00:39:54,000 --> 00:40:04,720 best as he knew how in the time. And this would be a story that 600 00:40:04,720 --> 00:40:09,720 ends like the story of Jonah. We're left sort of wondering, 601 00:40:09,720 --> 00:40:15,840 like, really, Lord, what about the justice part? 602 00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:25,160 For that, you're going to have to go read the prophet Nahum, 603 00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:31,800 because Nahum also writes about the same city. 604 00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:41,760 And what you read in the Prophet Nahum is that somehow God is 605 00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:49,560 both infinite and mercy and will make all things right, that 606 00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:55,440 there is real justice to be had. I don't know what it's like for 607 00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:58,360 this guy right now to be in the presence of the Lord. 608 00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:04,680 But what I do know is that the story that we are in the mercy 609 00:41:04,680 --> 00:41:11,520 of God is infinite even for such a one as this who cries out to 610 00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:16,560 the Lord. Lord have mercy on me and for us 611 00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:19,640 on this side of understanding all of the things. 612 00:41:19,640 --> 00:41:21,520 I would just say that the math doesn't math. 613 00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:26,440 And this is the story that you live in. 614 00:41:28,720 --> 00:41:32,760 And so as we head into a time of ministry, I want to invite those 615 00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:35,760 of you who have parents that are sorry, those of you who are 616 00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:38,240 parents who will have kids coming back into the room. 617 00:41:38,960 --> 00:41:42,080 I'd love for you to go back to greet them and to meet them as 618 00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:43,600 they come in. They're going to be coming in 619 00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:46,600 shortly. We're going to return to this 620 00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:49,280 practice. So if you have a kid that's 621 00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:52,160 going to be coming into the room for worship, just go ahead and 622 00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:53,960 go back to the the pole back here. 623 00:41:55,200 --> 00:42:00,200 We'd love for you to just greet your kid, welcome them into 624 00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:02,480 worship as we do. I want to invite you to stand 625 00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:06,320 and Parker, you're welcome to come up if you have any, 626 00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:08,880 anything by way of ministry time this morning. 627 00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:13,080 But you know, as I was praying this morning, I had a sense 628 00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:21,040 that, you know, for some of you, it is your own self that you 629 00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:25,920 think is beyond the mercy of God, that there is some, you 630 00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:30,640 know, part of you that you are wondering like really, can God's 631 00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:34,720 mercy really, really extend all the way down? 632 00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:39,560 And if you are part of our prayer ministry team, would love 633 00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:43,520 for you to come up and begin making yourself available to 634 00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:46,000 pray for folks. And we're going to worship this 635 00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:47,640 morning. And, and I just want to say to 636 00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:52,560 you, if you are having trouble imagining the endlessness, 637 00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:57,400 unrelenting mercy of God, I think that there is a dose of 638 00:42:57,400 --> 00:43:01,440 mercy for your own life, that God is desiring to pour it out 639 00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:05,840 onto you, and that out of the abundance of mercy for your own 640 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:11,080 self, God will grow your capacity to have mercy on us.