As we continue on in this blog series on The Impact of Calling, we have arrived to part three. This blog is dedicated on Jonah, a prophet who wrestled with the calling God gave him. While it can be exhilarating to write and share about those who pursue God’s calling willingly, it got me thinking about those who do not want to follow God’s calling willingly. This is actually a scenario in Scripture we see often with those who turn away and fight against God’s purposes. With that being said, this brings us to one such man being the prophet Jonah. So we will begin with the first four verses of Jonah 1.
The Lord gave this message to Jonah the son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish. But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.
Jonah 1:1-4 NLT
The book of Jonah’s main purpose is to teach us about God. Through Jonah’s experience, God, the all-powerful Creator, reveals that though he is a God who will pour out his wrath on the wicked, he is also one who eagerly pours out his mercy on those who repent – including those we would too quickly deem beyond mercy.
Those we would deem beyond mercy would encompass the prophet Jonah who initially rejects God’s commission to go to the city of Nineveh to announce the Lord’s judgment against it because of how wicked the people are. Nineveh was located in Assyria which at that time would be recognized as essentially a terrorist state with its great violence. Assyria’s well-being posed a threat to the livelihood for the nation of Israel. Because of this, Jonah goes the opposite direction by a ship sailing to Tarshish because he knew that God would withhold judgement from the people of Nineveh if they stopped their evil ways as he knew that God is a merciful and compassionate God.
However, God intervenes via a life threatening storm, one of Jonah’s Goliath’s (referencing the previous blog on David) and Jonah realizes his sin in disobeying God. He realizes to save the pagan sailors, they must throw him into the sea to be saved, which the pagan sailors rejected doing at first. However, some time passes and out of options, the pagan sailors reluctantly throw him into the sea so the lives of those on board would be spared and after doing so the storm stopped. When the raging storm stopped, after the danger had passed, the pagan sailors became seized by great fear of the Lord, they respond in offering Him a sacrifice and make solemn vows. In response to this, Daniel C. Timmer writes, “Jonah’s anti-missionary activity has ironically resulted in the conversion of non-Israelites.” This points to God’s sovereignty, Jonah thought he was in control by fleeing from his calling by going the opposite direction, but it is God who is actually in control.
Through God’s patient and loving interaction with his prophet, Jonah ultimately does go and preach God’s word to Nineveh and the Ninevites response from the greatest to the least, they declare a fast and put burlap to show their sorrow. Furthermore, they put a stop to their evil deeds. As a result God does not carry out the destruction he had threatened against Nineveh and Jonah gets angry at the Lord’s mercy.
What I want to draw out here in the calling of Jonah, is that Jonah wrestled with God’s calling and greatly opposed it from the very beginning. The calling itself was a “Goliath” to Jonah. Jonah’s race and nation had become not merely good things that he loved, but idols. Initially Jonah’s patriotism trumped the calling God gave to him and that shaped his identity rather than letting or allowing God to shape his identity. The book of Jonah ends without a revelation of what Jonah’s heart posture comes to be as it ends with God asking Jonah a question and which we do not see what Jonah’s response is. However this question is aimed at the reader of the story of Jonah as well.
Mikaela and I have given many presentations on our goals and approach of doing ministry in Norway alongside of our partners in pointing to the impact of calling God has had in our lives. I am going to wait until another blog to share about that calling in our lives in greater depth, but what I want to insert briefly here is part of my testimony is that doing or being a part of international ministry was the farthest thing from my mind six years ago. So much so that I initially did not involve myself in international ministry at Ball State Christian Campus House my first semester there as a student. I simply disqualified myself by these words in my mind, “That’s not me, I will never get involved in international ministry, after all I am just a country boy.”
What I realize from that experience in my reflection, I find parallels in my story and Jonah’s story. Being a country boy had become my identity and that shaped how I perceived God could use me. In other words, I put limitations on how I believe God could use me and my pride in being a home grown country boy had become an idol for me. So to share this experience with you, I want to humbly and lovingly pose this question to you, “Do you put limitations on how God can use you?”
In John 14, we are given the account of Jesus providing answers to the disciple’s many spoken and unspoken concerns and in verses 12-14 he tells them this.
I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!
Jonah 14:12-14 NLT
With Jesus, there are no limitations in how God can use you!
With the story of Jonah in mind, I was recently reading a book by Timothy Keller in regards to calling as he is an American pastor, theologian, and Christian apologist. In his book titled, “The Prodigal Prophet: Jonah and the Mystery of God’s Mercy.” Keller writes,
The mission of Jonah to Nineveh bristles with practical lessons for us. There is the lesson about mission. Jonah’s call to leave his homeland to preach God’s Word was unprecedented in the Old Testament, but this is the mandate given to all believers by Jesus. So while we are not all called to be preachers or prophets or missionaries, every believer is called to go.
It means to be willing to leave safety and security in order to share the good news of Jesus with others. This may or may not entail leaving physical and social locations, but it always means risk and vulnerability.
Mission is not only for a spiritual elite, or for the well rested, or for people with the gift of gab, or for outgoing personalities, or for those with theological training. It is for every person who belongs to him. It is because God is by nature a sending God. He never calls us in to bless us without also sending us out to be a blessing to others.
Timothy Keller
As Keller illustrates well, each and every believer is called to go. And honestly I found that empowering in knowing that God is indeed by nature a sending God as he seeks to bless all peoples and all nations. God is an incredible God who meets us where we are at, He did so through Abraham, David, Jonah, with many other people in the Bible, and He does so with each and every one of us today.
So maybe if you are wrestling with this question currently or have wrestled with this in the past, engage God’s Word and see that His Word is alive and powerful can speak to any person in any season of life.
God looks for a heart posture that seeks His will to be done, not a plan from us that encompasses our will be done. Even if our heart posture is initially not one that seeks His will to be done, He still chooses to use us because He wants us to be a part of building His kingdom here on earth so that ultimately we can love and serve Him and love and serve others.
An undeniable truth I have come to learn about God is that God qualifies the unqualified. Because we so easily unqualify ourselves before the race even begins. The lie of the enemy Satan is to tell you that you are not qualified, but in this blog I seek to represent God’s Word and tell you that are qualified and empowered to build God’s kingdom here on earth. My challenge to you is take time every day and ask God how is He calling you? I promise you He is calling you and He has commissioned you through his One and Only Son Jesus Christ, whom he made you right by, to do powerful things even if they seem small to you or I. We are all called to go. Blessings