Tag Archive - James

Jonah 3

April 16, 2009 in Other with 0 Comments

Chapter 3 is a really powerful part of Jonah’s story, maybe even the most powerful. People tend to focus on the fish and the plant, but those are really secondary to the story of God’s never-ending search to deliver humans. This is the main course of the little book, and in it I find three awesome principles.

A second time

The Lord said to Jonah a second time, “Go immediately to Nineveh, that large city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” Jonah 3:1-2

I like how this half of the book begins almost exactly the same as the first half. God had a specific task for Jonah to accomplish. The first time, Jonah ran away and almost got himself killed. God intervened in nature and disciplined Jonah until he repented.

Upon Jonah’s repentance, God never mentioned it again (though Jonah does in chapter 4). However, the task still had to be done. Parents do this with their kids all the time.

“OK, you threw your fit, so you don’t get dessert tonight [fill in your favorite method of discipline here]. Now clean your room like I told you to do.”

Discipline is for the purpose of bringing back into line. Jonah was back in line, so God approached him again. Nothing had changed in God’s mind.

Our rebellion doesn’t change God’s plan. It will “be done on earth as it is in heaven”.

 

Jonah’s proclamation

Did you notice that Jonah did not preach a message of repentance? By most standards, he didn’t preach a message at all. In Hebrew, his statement was only five words long – “At the end of forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”

He didn’t cry out, “Repent!” He just said, “You’re toast! Deal with it.” So what made them respond?

  • It certainly wasn’t his passion or Christian love. He wanted them dead.
  • It wasn’t the threat of the Israelites. One Jewish prophet wasn’t going to scare the powerful Assyrians.

I have to believe that it was the message in the context of the messenger’s life. Like I said in Jonah 2 (Part 2), I am making the assumption that there were eyewitnesses to Jonah’s exit from the fish. There is no doubt that they would have followed (or even helped) him to Nineveh. His appearance and testifying groupies would be enough to bring the populace of Nineveh to repent before suffering like judgment from an obviously powerful God. The king’s response, then, is understood.

Our spoken message is not as powerful alone as it is when it is backed up with our life message. You can talk about your experience all you want, but when others start talking about what they have seen God do in/with/through you, that adds unbelievable power.

 

God’s mercy

When God saw their actions – they turned from their evil way of living! – God relented concerning the judgment he had threatened them with and he did not destroy them. Jonah 3:10

God chose to make it clear that it was the people’s “actions”, not just their hearts, that he responded to. This is one Old Testament parallel to James’ assertion that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-26). According to his first call to Jonah, God’s judgment was to be on Nineveh’s wickedness.

It’s not good enough to say, “Please save me,” but never experience life change. The whole Bible shows that an unchanged life is evidence of an unchanged heart.

Guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it are the sources of life. Proverbs 4:23

This is why faithful churches call Christians to things like water baptism, regular church attendance, generous giving, joining a small group, and serving on a ministry team. While these things don’t remove our sin, they do help us fight sin, grow our faith, and give evidence of growing faith.

If you have been a believer for a while and are not actively, visibly demonstrating your faith, it’s time for a heart-check. What’s your Jonah-problem? What is holding you back from doing what God has called you to do?

 

Posts in this series:

Proverbs 18

February 24, 2009 in Proverbs with 0 Comments

Trying to get caught up on postings in Proverbs. Here are some thoughts from chapter 18.

One who has isolated himself seeks his own desires; he rejects all sound judgment. (18:1)

I am an introvert by nature. That is, I’d much rather spend my time alone playing, studying, writing – anything except being with a lot of people. I think a lot of teachers / writers are like that. But it’s precisely because of our purpose that we need to hang with other people.

It’s hard to teach life principles if all you have is theory or book-knowledge. God has called all of us to be disciple-makers. That means that we have to be with other people, whether we like it or not. When we isolate ourselves from others (whether personally or as a whole church), we begin to think and act for ourselves instead of for others. And that’s not God’s way.

A person’s spirit sustains him through sickness – but who can bear a crushed spirit? (18:14)

This is a powerful question. We’ve all seen really sick people pull through because they wouldn’t let their sickness get them down. We’ve also seen otherwise healthy people go into deep depression and despair, simply because their spirits had been crushed.

We are primarily spiritual, not physical, beings. If we take care of our bodies and neglect our souls, we are asking for disaster. Paul reminded Timothy that “physical exercise has some value, but godliness is valuable in every way. It holds promise for the present life and for the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8)

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love its use will eat its fruit. (18:21)

Wow – I had never seen this one before. It reminds me of James’ discussion on the power of the tongue in James 3:1-12. Like the tiniest spark can start a whole forest fire, the smallest word can bring life or death to its hearer.

It also reminded me of one proverb I did memorize early on – Proverbs 25:11 says “Like apples of gold in settings of silver, so is a word skillfully spoken.” I love that word picture!

Amos 7-9

January 5, 2009 in Amos with 0 Comments

I found several things interesting in these last few chapters of Amos prophecy that I want to point out.

1) Amos uses the Hebrew Adonai YHVH (translated “sovereign LORD” in the NET) 20 times throughout, but I didn’t notice it much until these last three chapters, where 11 of them are found.

Adonai is traditionally translated “Lord” and YHVH as “LORD”, but “Lord LORD” is pretty awkward. “LORD of Lords” would have worked, but I like “sovereign LORD”. (Side note: The NET translators kept this translation for most of the nearly 300 uses of Adonai YHVH throughout the Old Testament.)

2) Chapter seven is a great example of what James calls the “prayer of a righteous person” which “has great effectiveness”. In the first six verses, God tells Amos of two terrible things that he will do in judgment on Israel. To both of them, Amos begged for Israel. And both of them “the sovereign LORD” decided to refrain from doing. (Bonus points if you count the numbers of times “sovereign LORD” is used in these few verses out of 20 in the entire book.)

The sovereign LORD showed me this: I saw him making locusts just as the crops planted late were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest.) When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said, “Sovereign LORD, forgive Israel! How can Jacob survive? He is too weak!” The LORD decided not to do this. “It will not happen,” the LORD said.

The sovereign LORD showed me this: I saw the sovereign LORD summoning a shower of fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields. I said, “Sovereign LORD, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is too weak!” The LORD decided not to do this. The sovereign LORD said, “This will not happen either.” Amos 7:1-6

3) Chapters 8 and 9 are full of judgment by the “sovereign LORD” – things that only he could do. I especially love the reference to the “Sea Serpent” – a creature that many believe to be a mythical creature. But I don’t.

4) Amos 8:11-12 and Amos 9:11-15 are two powerful sections that require separate posts.

Listen, Day 35: James

October 20, 2008 in Listen with 0 Comments

Got the family back around the listening schedule for tonight again. Not much discussion because nobody brought paper with them.

Saralynn:

  • The rich will disappear – sort of like is happening in the current economy?
  • I have a hard time reconciling the connection of faith and prayer (chapter 5 and elsewhere – think “mustard seed and a mountain”) with command to pray in God’s will

Dan’l:

Is the "whole truth" always necessary?

October 29, 2007 in Other with 0 Comments

When a witness is sworn into court, they vow “to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” Understandably, in order to have a fair trial, the judge wants all witness to tell everything they know, as accurately as they can remember. But is this necessary in all situations?

In Jeremiah 38, King Zedekiah asks Jeremiah to do something that seems like a lie, and Jeremiah goes along with it. After a private conversation between the two of them:

Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Don’t tell anyone you told me this, or you will die! My officials may hear that I spoke to you, and they may say, ‘Tell us what you and the king were talking about. If you don’t tell us, we will kill you.’ If this happens, just tell them you begged me not to send you back to Jonathan’s dungeon, for fear you would die there.”

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the king’s officials came to Jeremiah and asked him why the king had called for him. But Jeremiah followed the king’s instructions, and they left without finding out the truth. No one had overheard the conversation between Jeremiah and the king. (38:24-27)

Frequently I have been asked by someone about a conversation I have had with another person. I’m sure you have as well. Of course, we don’t want to lie, but it’s not always everyone else’s business.

So if I tell only part of the conversation, like Jeremiah, and intentionally hold back the other part(s), is that the same as a half-truth, which many people call a lie? In other words, is it a sin?

Consider another Bible example. God had told Samuel to go to Bethlehem and anoint one of Jesse’s sons to be the next king of Israel. The current king, Saul, was upset with Samuel, and this would really set him off if he heard about it. Here’s the conversation between God and Samuel:

Now the LORD said to Samuel, “You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king.”

But Samuel asked, “How can I do that? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”

“Take a heifer with you,” the LORD replied, “and say that you have come to make a sacrifice to the LORD. Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you which of his sons to anoint for me.”

So Samuel did as the LORD instructed. (1 Samuel 16:1-4)

The situation is similar to Jeremiah’s. Samuel was to do a specific task, but because of the sensitive nature of the job, God told him to do it in a way that no one would know and to not let them in on the real reason for his arrival.

Again, was this an intentional deception, a lie, a sin? Well, it really can’t be if God told him to do it. James 1:13 reminds us that God never tempts anyone to sin. This was necessary under the circumstances, and Samuel did not hurt anyone in the process.

My conclusion: Deception for the purpose of leading someone wrong is sin. But wisdom dictates that we don’t tell everything we know. This includes gossip and bringing up past hurts as well as knowledge about confidential or sensitive situations. In reference to my previous post, good leaders [and followers] know when to keep information to themselves.

Wise people keep what they know to themselves, but fools can’t keep from showing how foolish they are. (Proverbs 12:23, NCV)

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