Jonah 4,1-11. 3. Trinity

Jonah 4,1-11 3323

3. Trinitatis 49 

Sosipater, Romans 16,21

Pontius Pilate and his wife Claudia Procula, Ethiopian Church. cf. 27. October

Prosper of Aquitaine, 463

Presentation of the Augsburg Confession, 1530 

25. Juni 2023

1. ℣ As a father shows compassion to his children,

℟ so so Yahweh shows compassion to those who fear Him (Psalm 103,13). 

O Yahweh, who bears our burdens; sustain us when we call upon You, so that we are comforted by Your redemption of our lives and the safety You provide for us.  Amen. (Psalm 55,22a.16.18a Gradual)

2. »But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to Yahweh and said: „O Yahweh, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in merciful steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Yahweh, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.“ And Yahweh said: „Do you do well to be angry?“ Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now Yahweh God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said: „It is better for me to die than to live.“ But God said to Jonah: „Do you do well to be angry for the plant?“ And he said: „Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.“ And Yahweh said: „You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?“« 

 3. We often tend to compartmentalize the Prophets, thinking that each prophet had a solitary ministry all to himself. Several Prophets had overlapping ministries which shows that Yahweh was simultaneously sending several prophets to Judah, Israel and even the surrounding Gentile nations. Jonah’s prophetic contemporaries were Isaiah, Hosea, Joel and Amos. They were 4 of the 12 minor Prophets whose ministry spanned roughly 133 years, from 848-715 bc. 

4. Hosea prophesied God’s love and faithfulness to Israel despite their unfaithfulness and idolatry. Joel warned of God’s coming judgment and called for repentance and hope in God’s mercy. Amos denounced the social injustice and religious hypocrisy of Israel and Judah and announced God’s righteous wrath. Jonah was a reluctant prophet sent to preach to Nineveh where he learned about God’s compassion and forgiveness.

5. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and was a threat to Israel, Judah and the surrounding nations. Jonah describes the Assyrians as evil, which says they worship idols and such worship has effected the morals of the empire so that love for their neighbor is lacking. This is the same judgment the Prophets levied against the Israelites. Jonah lived during the reign of Israel’s king, Jeroboam II (793-53 bc). Jonah’s prophetic contemporaries were Hosea, Amos and Joel who were likewise calling Israel and Judah to repent of their own idolatry. 

6. Jonah expected Nineveh to reject His call to repent and thus be destroyed by Yahweh. Much to Jonah’s surprise and consternation: the people of Nineveh believed God (Jonah 3,5)! They repent, put on sackcloth, ashes and fast from food and water. The king, probably Adad-nirari III (reigned: 811-783 bc), declared: »Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish.« (Jonah 3,9). The king was not referring to his Assyrian god, Ashur, but referring to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – Yahweh.

7. Jonah is a prime example of an imprecatory prophet. Imprecate: to invoke judgment, calamity or curses upon one’s enemies or those perceived as the enemies of God. There are 21 psalms that have imprecatory verses. Moses’ 3. Sermon in Deuteronomy is imprecatory. Jesus’ woes upon the Pharisees are imprecatory. 

8. But Jonah’s sin was his initial refusal to call Nineveh to repentance. Yahweh sent him to do that very task, but Jonah fled because he did not want Nineveh to repent but rather to be struck by Yahweh’s terrifying wrath and judgment. 

9. We likewise are tempted to live rebellious lives, fleeing from God, caring not if others suffer or blindly live day after day unaware of God’s impending wrath. Yahweh punished unrepentant wickedness in the Flood, Sodom and Jerusalem. Yahweh’s message to Jonah is His message to us in the 21. century: your evils have ascended before Me; repent and live.

10. God the Father calls us to repentance in His Scriptures when we read them or hear them preached. In the Scriptures we see that Yahweh spared repentant Rahab and her family at Jericho, King Hezekiah’s Judah and Nineveh. Jonah’s prophetic contemporary, Joel, proclaimed: »It shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the Name of Yahweh shall be saved« (Joel 2,32). Thus in the Lutheran Augsburg Confession: „Isaiah 53,11: By His knowledge shall He justify many. But what is the knowledge of Christ unless to know the benefits of Christ, the promises which by the gospel He has scattered broadcast in the world? And to know these benefits is properly and truly to believe in Christ, to believe that that which God has promised for Christ’s sake He will certainly fulfill“ (ac 4,101). 

11. Jesus has redeemed us from all sins and delivers that gospel of forgiveness through the Word and Sacraments. We hear and receive this gospel, by the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts; we believe this salvation obtained for us and given to us by Christ. 

12. My conscience does not torment me,

Though accused by the law;

Christ frees me and acquits me,

Has the debt paid it all,

That nothing can condemn me:

Jesus sinners does receive. (Jesus nimmt die Sünder an selk 569,7 2021 Erdmann Neumeister 1718) 

This is most certainly true. 

13. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7).  Amen. 

14. Let us pray. Grant, O Lord, we beseech Thee, unto Thy servants who do commemorate in the Holy Sacrament the precious death of Thy dear Son and receive the blessed Communion of His body and blood, that they may approach Thy holy table with true repentance, faith, thankfulness and charity and, being filled with Thy grace and heavenly benediction, may obtain remission of their sins and all other benefits of His Passion. Amen. (3. Trinity, Vespers Collect 2. The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.) 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

 

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

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