The Jonah Generation and Kayne
Ezekiel Kaufmann wrote in his book “The Religion of Israel”:
It is a classic statement of the Israelite idea of repentance, one of the sublimest creations of religion of Israel. Paganism knows of confession, and atonement, but is ignorant of repentance. Jonah is outraged, not because he is a narrow-minded zealot, but because he is a champion of divine justice. He is the voice of the ancient idea that sin must be punished.
As the exponent of divine justice, according to Kaufmann, Jonah could, therefore not accept the idea of repentance.
Both Martin Luther (the reformer) and John Calvin (two well-known early church fathers) in their commentaries on the book of Jonah place the focus on Jonah’s grief over the plant versus. the people of Nineveh.
However, I believe we should focus today on the question in Chapter 4.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,1 and yhe was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? zThat is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a agracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and arelenting from disaster. 3 bTherefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, cfor it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, d“Do you do well to be angry?”
Some interesting things are happening here. In the original text of Jonah in Verse 6 the name Yod Hey Vav Hey is being used. Yet throughout Chapter 3 Elohim is used when talking about the God.
Some will say that this is just a writer’s preference, and it might be, however, I would suggest that God is placing Jonah in the same position as Nineveh. Nineveh is facing pending destruction of which they were warned to turn away from and now Jonah is facing discomfort from the weather and his anger towards God.
Some other commentators would also suggest that Nineveh is full of gentiles, and Jonah is an Israelite. So in part, Jonah’s anger is that through their repentance they received the same mercy as the Israelites did from God.
I don’t claim to have any prophetic insights into what God was thinking, or exactly what lesson he was or was not trying to teach Jonah or Nineveh. I don’t have some deep profound new message for you.
I have a simple one.
Our city, our country, or the world is full of places and people just like those in Nineveh. You know the ones we mock for their anti-God laws, practices, behavior. The ones we say well that fire, or tornado, or whatever is a warning from God cause God is judging them. Did anyone read Job lately?
Yet we were called to go into the world and make disciples of Yeshua so that whoever believes and is baptized will be offered salvation. Yes that means prostitutes, drug addicts, murders, rapists, and every other horrible sinner has the ability to obtain the same salvation as the church going believer who is good at hiding his addictions.
Yet too often we make comments like they are too far gone, I’m not going there, they won’t listen. Or even worse, those who profess Jesus with their lips after living a portion of their life anti to Jesus’ calling, we state well we will see if their actions change, this is a gimmick, I’m not really sure they are saved. We have no grace for them, we have no empathy or compassion, our mercy stopped at the Torah terrorist stage, we have no real distress for where they are at or for their struggles. What’s worse is we are growing colder even towards brothers and sisters that believe similar to us. We have decided to turn on Sabbath-keeping, Feast loving, Torah pursuant believers. Hey, we have 7-10 customs of our faith in common but the 3 are deal-breakers. We will take up our own cause but not the mandate of God towards them? We are 21st century Pharisees….
We all know of people who believe you must keep this day or that day, or say a name correct or not in order to be saved.
Jonah’s job was to go to the city and cry out. It wasn’t to correct their calendar, it wasn’t to set them straight on the name of God, it wasn’t to call their Federal Holiday’s Idol worship. It was to call them to repent as a nation and turn back to God. He didn’t want to do it. Do we really want to do it? Do we do well to be angry?
Jonah prayed…… Have you ever read Jonah 2 over and over again and truly tried to understand the emotions that Jonah might have felt?
They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.
Let us not forsake our own mercy and realize that even in the story of Jonah (the three days it took him to get to Nineveh) the forty days he prophesied about just like the 40 years in the wilderness.
No one is too far gone, and there isn’t sin you or anyone else has committed that God cannot cleanse you from. The entire Bible is about repentance, redemption, and restoration to the greater things of God and His Kingdom. Do we really believe that?
Yeshua's blood was shed for all. All can be grafted in, you won’t be in the Kingdom unless you are grafted into the Kingdom. There is no separate salvation for Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, or any other race or creed. We should be seeking out the calling to go to those, even in our city. We shouldn’t rejoice in the destruction of others. We should rejoice when a person calls out to Jesus as their salvation and not become a stumbling block for them to renounce him.
We have witnessed this very backlash from believers over Kayne West. Now Kayne is just like any of us, a man. Yet the greatest backlash this man has received has come from the Christian community. Yet the top search on Google was Jesus. I don’t know Kanye, I don’t know if he has repented of his sins, and I am certainly not his judge. Kayne isn’t the first to receive backlash and Kayne won’t be the last. But we must be careful as believers to grow angry when God is doing something we may not like, or understand. We must not be looking for the destruction of Christian authors, pastors, teachers, or anyone. There should be no joy in the destruction of anyone. There should be joy in the repentance and acceptance of Yeshua by all.
We must be careful to not become a Jonah Generation, one unwilling to extend the very mercy we have received.