Resisting the Call
Mike Romero is the President of Heritage Trust Company in Oklahoma City. Prior to this he served as Senior Vice President, Chief Development Officer with WatersEdge (formerly the Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma). Mike started his legal career in the Tax & Estate Planning practice group at McAfee & Taft. Mike and his family have been members at Council Road since 2008, where he enjoys teaching and participating in missions. He currently serves as a church trustee.
The author of Jonah doesn’t really give us the reason why Jonah resisted the call. Resisting is too generous; Jonah was flat out rebellious. I wonder why? Did he just hate the Assyrians that much? Did he hate God? Or, hate that God could save people who he thought were too evil to be saved?
The prophet, Jonah, is first referenced in 2 Kings 14:25. He had the good fortune of being a prophet to Jeroboam II during a time of prosperity. As a reminder, Israel split into two countries at the end of Solomon’s reign. Israel in the North, Judah to the South. The Hebrew Bible records that none of the kings in Israel were good including Jeroboam II. However, God exhibits His grace even in bad situations and with evil people.
As an interesting aside, Genesis 2 talks about the creation of a garden in Eden. Eden is a region of the land God created on page 1. The garden is a particular location in Eden. Verses 10-14 discuss 4 rivers flowing out of Eden. The northern most are the Tigris and Euphrates. The southern rivers flow through Egypt and Ethiopia. Tracking forward to Genesis 15:18, Abram (Abraham) is promised all the land from the great river in Egypt to the Euphrates. This sounds striking similar to Eden (the Promise Land). When the Israelites return to the promise land under Joshua, they never secured all the land promised to Abraham. It wasn’t until Solomon that the land borders came close to what was promised to Abraham.
Earlier in 2 Kings, the nation of Israel was under constant attack and oppression with its borders rapidly diminishing. Then 14:25 describes God bringing prosperity to Israel expanding its borders to close to what they were under Solomon. This is interesting to me. All of the kings of Israel were evil but yet, Jonah became the prophet to Israel and saw the expansion of the borders to approximately what they should have been as promised to Abraham. God blessed Israel and Jonah was the voice.
Jonah saw extraordinary blessing from God. And then, God called him to go to “Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” (Jonah 1:2) In case you are wondering, the “great city” reference is a hyperlink back to Genesis 10:12. Nineveh was established by Nimrod who is the grandson of Noah. This is a deep rabbit hole that I won’t go into now. All this to say, Nineveh had a bad reputation.
Jonah knew of God’s grace. He saw it first-hand in his own nation. He also knew the scriptures, in particular Exodus 34:6 which reads, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Jonah also knew the role of Israel from Exodus 19:6, “for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” This includes being a kingdom of priests to the evil Assyrians.
This brings me back to my original question. Why did Jonah flat-out refuse to deliver the message of God’s grace to the Assyrians? Why did Jonah go the exact opposite way? Did Jonah think he could escape the reach of God? Jonah knows and has deeply experienced God’s grace and prosperity. He knows the scriptures well. In my mind, it is inexplicable he would act in such a way.
And then I think about my own life and walk with the Lord. Jonah’s rebellion could have resulted in everyone on the ship dying. His rebellion could have kept people from hearing about the grace of God. I don’t think I’ve put anyone’s life in danger (except for maybe my fast driving.) But I have resisted making calls or talking to neighbors when I felt the Lord nudging me. I don’t know how many times the Lord put someone in my heart, and I just didn’t make the time to reach out. Instead, I offered a quick word of prayer and told myself that was good enough. It is always good to pray, but sometimes you have too just be present. This presence can be in the form of a text, a DM, a call, or just showing up. If the Lord is nudging, then call.
It is easy for me to judge Jonah’s rebellion. It is much harder to view my own shortcomings. I don’t even classify it as rebellion in my mind. This is because I know my good intentions, even when I don’t execute. Don’t get me wrong, Jonah’s response to God’s call is sickening. In spite of it, God acted graciously. He saved the sailors along with a whole nation. He even saved Jonah, but I’m getting ahead of myself. God’s grace covers you too. Just ask.
The Man Up podcast hopes to encourage men to connect with God and with other men. Our podcast will cover a range of topics that are relevant to our day and to the heart of man. It is the hosts’ desire to help men find and live out their divine purpose in life. We believe that all men and women are created in His Image and that our ultimate example is the Messiah. We hope you are encouraged to live a godly masculine life.
