Character of God

Character of God:

When we think of the story of Jonah we might think of it as the children’s tale of the guy who got eaten by a giant fish. Sadly, with that attitude the riches of the book of Jonah are missed completely.  The cultural climate of Jonah’s time (c.760 BC) was disastrous. The nation of Assyria was incredibly powerful and savagely brutal in their unquenchable thirst to conquer other nations. Additionally, the spiritual climate of the Israelites was horrific. Israel had split into two nations approximately 100 years before - and idol worship was rampant in both the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern kingdom (Judah).

Jonah was well aware of both this contemporary cultural climate as well as the merciful nature of God. So when the Lord came to Jonah and commanded, “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against its wickedness because it has come up before me” Jonah was GREATLY disturbed. Jonah knew about the character of God because Jonah knew his Bible. Jonah knew that God had promised Abram (before God changed his name to Abraham) that all of the nations of the world would be blessed through his (Abram’s) offspring. This wasn’t a blessing exclusive for the nation/people of Israel because: 1) Israel wasn’t a nation yet at the time of God’s promise, and 2) God said ‘all peoples of the earth.’

Jonah also knew his Bible regarding Moses in Exodus 34 (when Moses had asked to see God’s glory), and that nobody - not even Moses - could handle the fullness of God’s glory, i.e. God’s love, grace, compassion, mercy, and lovingkindness. Exodus 34:5-7 reads, “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him (Moses) and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.’” It was this tiny glimpse of God’s genuine character that left Moses’ face glowing!

Jonah knew his Bible so he knew that God is; compassionate, longsuffering, forgiving, and overflowing with faithful covenant love. Jonah was a contemporary of Isaiah and while Jonah may not have ever read Isaiah’s writings - Jonah was certainly privy to character of God, which Isaiah wrote about in Isaiah 28:21, “The LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim (WRATHFUL JUDGMENT), he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon (WRATHFUL JUDGMENT) — to do his work, his STRANGE work, and perform his task, his ALIEN task.”

See, Jonah knew - just as Isaiah did - judgment is the strange and alien task of God. Wrathful judgment is NOT God’s default or primary response. Judgment is God’s last resort.

So Jonah knew that when God said, “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against its wickedness...” God was saying that He wanted the Assyrians to repent. Jonah knew that God wanted - in fact DEEPLY DESIRED - to show them love and mercy. God did NOT crave the opportunity to burn them down in blood-thirsty judgment - even though it was sorely deserved. That’s why God told Jonah: “Go and tell them to repent.”

Instead of going to Nineveh Jonah FLED in the opposite direction in order to get as far away from the Assyrians as possible. In Jonah’s mind this would ensure they would have no way of hearing the gracious and merciful message of God’s character - no way of hearing about His compassion, longsuffering, and lovingkindness.

While inside the giant fish Jonah expressed his insight into God’s loving and missional character when he prayed, “Those who cling to worthless idols (like the Assyrians) forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed (to be God’s prophet, i.e. missional ambassador to all the nations) I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD.”

Jonah’s heart quickly turned back to stone after being puked up on shore by the great fish; rather than singing the praises of God before the Assyrians (as he had pledged to do as a prophet of God while inside the great fish) - the Hebrew Bible tells us “On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned...’”

Jonah’s proclamation was not one that demonstrated the essential, loving, gracious character of God. Instead Jonah decided to highlight God’s strange and alien task - His wrath and judgment. Jonah didn’t praise the LORD and sing of salvation in the presence of the Ninevites as he had promised God he would do. Instead Jonah gave them a bleak message of judgment with the hope that they would reject Jonah and God. But God always accomplishes His mission - always. The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) tells us they ALL repented: “The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.”

In the book of Jonah it’s easy to lose the forest for the trees. The point of every book in the Bible, and the Bible as a whole, is to convey the essential nature and character of God - our Creator, our Father, our Savior, and the Spirit that never leaves us and empowers us.

From before the moment Adam & Eve rebelled in the garden, even before the foundation of the world, God established the plan for humanity’s redemption. God Himself would step down from heaven and tabernacle, i.e. pitch His tent and live with us. God in the person of Jesus Christ would willingly and obediently die at our filthy hands, but then He would rise victorious to redeem those who murdered Him. Jesus would RISE as our Champion Who is eternally untainted by sin, unimpeded by death, and He would restore perfectly that which humanity destroyed - our relationship with our Creator.  As LaSor notes, “Yahweh is concerned with pagan peoples and commands his servants to proclaim the message to the nations.”

When is the last time you sang the praises of God’s salvation to the modern day equivalent of an Assyrian - a mean-spirited, hate-filled, cruel, and broken idol worshipper? When is the last time you sat down with the Bible and desperately plead with God to show you His glory?

Christians who see a discontinuity between the character of God in Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament are ignorant to the fundamental and essential nature of our Creator - that perfect and eternally holy God of Trinity. How can anyone truly call themselves "Christian," i.e. follower of Christ, if one has never encountered the living God of faithful love? Salvation is NOT the end game of Christianity – a thriving relationship, i.e. LIFE, with our Creator is.

God allows redeemed Christians to stick around on earth so that we can truly experience that authentic, thriving, amazing LIFE in Christ with other Christians within the Body & Bride of Christ. The Body of Christ is, in fact, the exclusive vehicle of mission, disciple making, kingdom advancing, and humanity’s redemption. Moses knew the character of God and experienced it to the point of beaming with radiance. Isaiah understood the default character of God as patient, merciful, and compassionate – not wrathful & craving blood-thirsty judgment.

Being a Christian isn’t one choice among many world religions, but rather is the exclusive source of genuine LIFE because Christ is the exclusive way, truth, and life.  That’s why Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;” and why Stephen said, “Salvation can be found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Jonah knew the character of God but didn’t want to share it.  Today most ‘Christians’ can’t share the character of God because we don’t know it. Most don’t know it because people are too selfish, too self-centered, too egotistical, and mere infants in faith who have never moved “on to maturity.”

Before anyone can follow Jesus they have to truly and intimately know Him - which comes by God’s grace through faith - not from us. To know Jesus one has to learn about His character. To learn about Jesus’ character one has to be ‘born again,’ as Jesus said to Nicodemus and as the Apostle Peter wrote about. But salvation is only the beginning!

Jonah understood what the Apostle Paul would write about nearly 800 years later, “‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

Evangelism, i.e. sharing the ‘good news’ of Jesus Christ, the exclusive God-man, is a HUGE part of what being a Christian is all about because: 1) it fulfills the Abrahamic Covenant – bringing salvation to ‘all peoples,’ which is God’s missional plan of salvation to the ends of the earth; 2) it demonstrates obedient service to God, selfless love, and faith-in-action; and 3) it magnifies and exalts God’s glory – which God loves!

People who say they don’t need to go to church because their relationship with God is “their business,” may be Christians, but they are misguided. Christianity isn’t a “me thing,” it is a “we thing.” People who say they don’t need to share the gospel because that isn’t their knack or wheelhouse are misguided as well.

Feet attached to people who don’t believe the good news don’t go anywhere to share anything with anyone because the gospel of Jesus Christ is something they don’t truly believe in the first place. Otherwise how could they, like Jonah, refuse to preach a gospel of love and repentance to a lost and broken world they were formerly stuck in before someone shared the light and hope of Christ with them?

So are you selfishly hoarding God's grace like Jonah or are you living out the gospel of Christ by adorning the character of God?

Blessings,

-Kevin