[Biblemat] S:> Jonah's Prejudice

Tue Oct 2 14:56:14 CDT 2007

http://www.deusvitae.com/faith/outlines/index.html

                       Jonah's Prejudice

I. Introduction
   A. The story of Jonah
      1. A popular tale
      2. Known to all kinds of people
   B. Jonah swallowed by the big fish (Jonah 1:17)
      1. Easily recognizable story from the Bible
      2. Image used by Jesus to describe His death and then 
         resurrection (Matthew 12:40-41)
   C. While this is well and good, the book of Jonah itself reveals 
      a much deeper story
   D. Let us consider the book and the main story it presents

II. Jonah
   A. Jonah, son of Amittai, a prophet
      1. Mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 as prophesying that Jeroboam II 
         would restore the borders of Israel
      2. Most likely, then, that Jonah lives during time of 
         Jeroboam II or immediately beforehand 
         (late 9th century/early 8th century BCE)
      3. Last moment of Israelite supremacy and prosperity before 
         the end in 722 BCE
   B. Story of Jonah
      1. Jonah 1:1-2: God calls Jonah to go and prophesy to Nineveh 
         of Assyria regarding their wickedness
      2. Jonah 1:3: For reasons explained later, Jonah gets on a boat 
         to head to Tarshish (modern Spain-- Cadiz?), fleeing from 
         God's presence
      3. Jonah 1:4-16: Great storm on the sea, Jonah establishes it 
         is from God, he is cast into the sea
      4. Jonah 1:17-2:10: Jonah in the big fish, prays to God on 
         account of his deliverance, 
          vomited onto the land
   C. Jonah in Nineveh
      1. Jonah 3:1-2: Jonah charged again to go to Nineveh, goes
      2. Jonah 3:3-4: Nineveh a large city, Jonah calls out for them 
         to repent
      3. Jonah 3:5-9: Nineveh actually repents
      4. Jonah 3:10: God relents of disaster toward Nineveh
   D. Jonah's Prejudice
      1. How does Jonah react to the success of his proclamation?
      2. He was exceedingly angry (Jonah 4:1)
      3. He in fact prays to God that he may die (Jonah 4:3)
      4. In fact, this is what "he said in his own country", before 
         he fled to Tarshish, knowing how God is merciful and would 
         show mercy to Nineveh (Jonah 4:2)
   E. What would cause Jonah to act and think this way?

III. The Problem of Prejudice
   A. Jonah was not pleased at God's actions because Jonah strongly 
      disliked Assyria
      1. A good Israelite!
      2. Assyria had harassed Israel many times before
      3. Perhaps the end of Israel at Assyria's hands was revealed 
         to Jonah
      4. Regardless, they were pagan heathens full of idolatry, 
         breathing threats against God's people!
   B. Jonah, therefore, not only wanted nothing to do with them, 
      but would have loved to see their destruction at God's hand
   C. Prejudice is an unfortunate factor that dictates how many 
      people act
      1. Racial prejudice has represented a major difficulty for 
         many societies
      2. Just as pervasive is social or economic prejudice
   D. God's people also often suffer from prejudice
      1. We see with Jonah a form of such prejudice in the old 
         covenant
      2. In the new covenant, however, many also can exhibit 
         prejudice
      3. "spiritual" vs. "unspiritual" persons
      4. "strong" vs. "weak" brethren
      5. "we who have the truth" vs. "those 
         denominationalists/liberals"
   E. What should be done about such things?
   F. Let us return to Jonah

IV. Jonah, God, and Assyria
   A. Jonah 4:4: "Do you do well to be angry?"
   B. The Plant
      1. Jonah 4:5-8
      2. Jonah watches to see what will happen with Nineveh
      3. God provides a plant to keep Jonah cool
      4. The next day, the plant is gone
      5. Jonah asked that he might die
   C. The lesson of the plant
      1. Jonah 4:9-11
      2. God demonstrates Jonah's hypocrisy
      3. Jonah cared for a temporary plant but not people!
      4. Indication that God has every right to pity Nineveh and 
         its people
   D. Even though there are many who do not know God, He still 
      pities them and desires to have mercy upon them
      1. Image in Jonah 4:11: people who do not know their right 
         hand from left
      2. Parallel to Romans 1:18-23
      3. God does not dispute that they are idolaters, but since 
         they did relent and repent, He does not desire their 
         destruction!
      4. Man's prejudice, then, does not stand before God

V. The Kingdom Without Prejudice
   A. We recognize, of course, that Jonah was a prophet of Israel 
      under a different covenant
   B. We are now under a new covenant with better promises-- a 
      Kingdom without prejudice!
      1. 1 Timothy 2:4: God desires that all men come to the 
         knowledge of the truth
      2. Ephesians 2:11-18: Law of Moses taken down, Jew and 
         Gentile can both be part of the same Kingdom
      3. Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11: unity in Christ, breaking 
         down every social barrier
   C. This does not mean that somehow people change roles
      1. Men and women still have their roles in the marriage 
         relationship (Ephesians 5:23-33)
      2. There are still going to be rich and poor people 
         (James 1:9-10)
      3. Slaves are not all of a sudden freed from being slaves 
         (Ephesians 6:5-8)
      4. Being a part of God's Kingdom does not automatically 
         change one's state in life
   D. The Kingdom without prejudice is supposed to change the 
      attitudes of the citizens of that Kingdom toward one another!
      1. That is the essential meaning of Galatians 3:28, 
         Colossians 3:11
      2. While in the world one may be rich or poor, man or woman, 
         higher class or lower class, in Christ, all are one
      3. There is no room, then, for prejudice in the Kingdom!
   E. Prejudice condemned among saints
      1. James 2:1-9
      2. Practice of giving honor to rich persons, despising the 
         weak
      3. All things are to be done, however, without partiality
      4. Romans 14:3-4
      5. Condemning or despising "strong" or "weak" brethren
      6. Romans 14:13-23: let us not put stumbling blocks in the 
         way of each other
   F. Prejudice also not to be shown against outsiders
      1. Let us not fall into Jonah's trap!
      2. Luke 10:27-37: parable of Good Samaritan
      3. We are to love all our neighbors, even if they are people 
         of different racial, social, economic, religious groups
      4. Are there some places where we would not go and promote 
         the Gospel?
      5. If a terrorist wanted to hear the truth, would you preach 
         it to him?
   G. The follower of Jesus has no room to hinder anyone from 
      receiving God's forgiveness (Luke 23:34)!

VI. Conclusion
   A. We have seen the story of Jonah and his prejudice
   B. We have seen that there is no room for such prejudice in 
      God's Kingdom
   C. Let us strive to love all men and promote God's truth!
   D. Songbook/invitation

Ethan R. Longhenry/ disciple_of_iesus at hotmail.com
Evangelist, church of Christ in Norwalk, Ohio
 (http://www.norwalkchurch.org)
Website: http://www.deusvitae.com
AIM: Deus Vitae / ICQ#: 28317056
MSN Messenger ID: deusvitae at hotmail.com
Yahoo! Messenger ID: discipuliiesus

Subscribe to Good News for Norwalk!
goodnewsfornorwalk-subscribe at norwalkchurch.org