Yahweh s Mercy to the Gentiles of Nineveh (The Book of Jonah) WestminsterReformedChurch.org Pastor Ostella April 24, 2016 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. 6 Now the LORD 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. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 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." 9 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." 10 And the LORD 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. 11 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?" (Jon.4:5-11) Introduction A significant thing about the books of Kings is that they provide us with a historicalredemptive framework in which to place the rest of the OT including our next book, Jonah. 1 According to 2 Kings 14.23-25, Jonah did his work as a prophet sometime during the reign of Jeroboam II: In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD 25 He restored the border of Israel according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet. We do not know precisely when Jonah gave this prophecy, so if we count down from the last year of Jeroboam, we have about forty years to the captivity by Assyria. Jeroboam s expansion to the northern borders shows that the Assyrians are a growing power of concern to Israel, but distant. King Pul enters the land and takes tribute within ten years of the death of Jeroboam, but he quickly withdrew because of Menahem s gift (2 Kgs 15.19-20). An extremely important fact that we should not miss about the Assyrian Empire is that Nineveh is its capital city, the very place God called Jonah to go (Jon 1.1-2): Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city. This call is given to Jonah twice because, as you know, he disobeys at first then goes. Therefore, some commentators divide the book into two halves based on these commands: Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me, 1.2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you, 3.2 Disappointingly, Longman argues that the book of Jonah is not a historical account. Guardedly, he says that such a 1 view cannot be proven though it may be possible and by the time he finishes, a parabolic view is his stance. His main arguments are the odd idea of being swallowed by a fish, the vagueness of the story (only Jonah is named; the king of the nation is called the king of the city), animals are said to repent, and the citation of Jonah by Jesus may simply be using the story as a parable. Of course, Longman makes it clear that those who take Jonah to be a parable do not deny the miracles of the Bible (not necessarily though some do). He also claims that a parabolic reading makes no difference theologically. In response to Longman: 1) such a fish is no problem for those who believe in the Almighty. 2) The vagueness of the story contributes to its effectiveness as a report of a historical account; as to the reference to the king of Nineveh rather than of Assyria, there are contexts in which one could refer to the president of Washington DC, rather than of America, especially if all your attention was on that city and not on the nation. 3) Surely, the repentance (3.8) of the animals is not intended to be literal, neither by the narrator nor by the king s decree; it is a sign of the depth and totality of the repentance of the people. 4) It is theoretically possible that Jesus refers to Jonah as a parable, but there is no evidence in the text to indicate that He does so. Actually, the context points in the other direction in the Lord s joint references to Solomon, the queen of Sheba, and the men of Nineveh. Furthermore, that which drives a parabolic view of Jonah can drive a parabolic view of Adam, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the miracles of Christ: you can learn that these texts teach that God is Almighty Lord of creation, even if there is nothing said in these texts about an actual intervention in history in the creation. Not surprisingly, this can of worms and principles that Longman opened years ago about Jonah have led him by the same principles to reject the historicity of Adam and Eve (of course belief in theistic evolution does not impact Jonah as its does Genesis). This is a real slippery slope and his principles of interpretation cannot prevent others from going much farther than he presently wants to go because his principles entail the denial of the miracle of the resurrection of Christ the last Adam in historical connection with the first Adam, the first person of the history of the world.
!2 However, it is easy to discern four scenes in four locations: 1) on the ship, 2) in the sea in the fish, 3) throughout Nineveh, and 4) at the east of the city. The action of the prophet can be outlined at each location: disobeying, praying, preaching, repining. On reflection, the real interest of the narrator is not the conduct of Jonah in these locations. The real interest is Yahweh s mercy to the Gentiles of Nineveh, which comes to realization through the disobedient prophet. Therefore, as we will see, everything is set in motion by the call to go to Nineveh, and the Lord God is active at every point along the way: on the ship, in the sea, throughout the city, and at the east of Nineveh. I. In scene one, we observe the prophet disobeying on the ship What can we say about a man of God who knows the sovereign Lord of creation but tries to run away from what God requires of him by fleeing on a ship? One thing for sure, Jonah is an emotional and passionate man. His feelings get in the way of his understanding of God. What he wants and does not want prevent him from submission to what God calls him to do. From our perspective as readers, it is easy to say that Jonah is one of the biggest fools of the OT. His folly is aggravated by what he does as a man who is personally owned by the Lord as His servant and prophet (2 Kgs 14.25). What can we say about his disobedience besides the fact that it is the height of foolishness? Perhaps, it boils down to one central thing: a lack of love to the Ninevites, toward God, and to the sailors. A. First, he was unloving to the Ninevites The Lord told him to go in one direction and he chose to go in the opposite direction (1.2-3): Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me." 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. We are not told how much Jonah knows about the Ninevites as an emerging world power that in the future will wipe the ten tribes off the map. But we can be sure that Jonah knows that his job is to call them to repentance for their evil before me, the Lord says (1.2) that is on a par with the evil that Jeroboam and the Israelite kings did before the Lord (per 2 Kgs 14.24). We might think that the prophet is afraid of what the fierce Assyrians might do to him if he went through their capital city rebuking their false worship. But we are told that Jonah was afraid of God, of what God would do. He was distressed by His knowledge of God, as he says to the Lord at the end of the story: 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 steadfast love, and relenting from disaster (4.2b). He feared that God would bless this people that he did not want to see blessed. As a bottom line, whatever else is at work (their Gentile status, their rising power), 2 he was selfish and unloving while he had the testimony ringing in his ears about how God abounds in steadfast love. B. Second, Jonah is unloving toward God As a recipient of the word of the Lord but refusing to hear and obey it, Jonah withdrew from personal intimacy with God. Hearing God s word and obeying His commands is the place of the presence of God, wherever that may take us on the face of this earth. C. Third, Jonah is unloving toward others, toward the sailors The servant of the Lord is ipso facto a servant of other people. The former entails the latter. Therefore, if God s servant fails in his love toward God, he will automatically fail in his love toward other people. In other words, Jonah s lack of love toward the Ninevites inevitably Since nothing negative is said about the Gentile sailors by the narrator, Bruckner argues that it is not the Ninevites 2 as Gentiles but the Ninevites as sinners that should be judged in Jonah s eyes, just as the prophets call for judgment on Israel for her sins. However, the point of tension is what Jonah knows about God and how that relates, he fears, to the blessing of the Ninevites. Regarding the sailors, Jonah is cast overboard before he knows of their full repentance.
!3 involved him in an unloving relationship with these unnamed sailors. The prophet must recognize that his disobedience may bring cursing upon those around him rather than blessing. So in consequence, a storm threatens the lives of the sailors, striking them with deep fear and the loss of cargo. All the while, Jonah is fast asleep below deck, oblivious to what is happening: But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep (1.4-5). So the captain tries to insure the safety of his crew: he awakens Jonah telling him to pray to his God, from whom we know he is fleeing. The captain tries to discover the reason for the angry sea by casting lots to see who might be the culprit. When the lot falls on Jonah, he tells the truth that he fears the God of heaven who made the sea and dry land (1.9), and that the sea will quiet down if you hurl me into it for I know that it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you (1.12). Reluctant to throw him overboard, they tried harder to row the boat back to dry land. Finally, they acknowledge the sovereignty of God in prayer as they cast His prophet into the sea, trusting that Jonah is guilty and saying, you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you (1.14). The sea was receptive, appeased, and ceased from its raging (1.15). Seeing that, the men feared the Lord, offered a sacrifice, and made vows (1.16). God was merciful to them giving them life to the body and to the soul, despite the disobedience of His prophet and the rippling consequences brought on himself and others. 3 II. This brings us to scene two: the prophet s praying in the sea and in the fish Jonah never really left the presence of God; that is an impossibility. Accordingly, there in the now quieted sea, God appointed a great fish to rescue and preserve him, as we are told (1.17) in its belly three days and three nights. Jonah had turned away from the Lord in an emotional burst of passion. Now he prays in earnest to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish (2.1). Interestingly, there inside the fish, Jonah looks back to what happened when he hit the water and began to sink to its depths (2.2a): I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me. He speaks about the Lord to whom he prayed and says, he answered me. Then, he speaks to the Lord who heard him (2.2b): out of the belly of Sheol I cried [that is, from the belly of death in the sea I cried], and you heard my voice. Thus, combining both parts of the verse, he tells the Lord that he will tell others of this answer to his distress-filled prayer (this anticipates his vow, 2.9). In this prayer (2.3), he also acknowledges that it was God who cast him overboard: For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Sinking into the heart of the sea, he turned to God in thought saying, Lord you have brought this upon me. He confessed God s absolute sovereignty as he descended into the deep. So, there sinking to a sure death, he says to the Lord: I am driven away from your sight (2.4a). His cry from the belly of Sheol is from the belly of the grave; there floating in the depths, his destiny is away from God in death. But his prayer does not end on that note, because in the belly of the sea, he is delivered in the belly of the fish. So, he speaks with hope: yet [nevertheless] I shall again look upon your holy temple (2.4b). The truth is that Jonah is not out of God s sight or away from His presence, therefore, he will see God s temple or dwelling place. He confesses that He will return home to the place of fellowship with God. The belly of Sheol was what he expected, death in the sea. The belly of a fish was a surprise that gave him hope for the future. Consider how God accomplishes His saving will through frail servants. Jonah brought hardship and loss to the 3 sailors by his disobedience, but the Lord chose to use his sin to confront and bless these men by intervening in their lives. The prophet ran from his duty to God, brought consequences upon the unnamed sailors, but God being rich in mercy and sovereign in the bestowal of His grace, revealed Himself to them, saved them, and named them His own as fearers and worshippers of the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.
!4 Once he realizes his safety in the fish (in the presence of God, even there), he states that his descent into Sheol and thus into the earth (to the land whose bars closed upon me; that is, that locked me into the grave) at the depths of the sea (at the roots of the mountains), was into the pit of death from which, he says personally, you brought up my life O Lord my God (2.6). Similarly, he says, when I thought I was going to die, I remembered the Lord, and turning to direct personal prayer again, my prayer came to you, into your holy temple, into your sacred presence, and you answered me (2.7): When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. So, there in the sea in the fish, Jonah reaffirms his covenant with the Lord: Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay (2.8-9a). His covenant renewal ends with a theologically rich word of praise: Salvation belongs to the LORD! (2.9b). III. After disobeying and praying, scene three has Jonah preaching in Nineveh The Lord provided the fish to rescue Jonah from drowning. Taken into the belly of the fish is how he was saved through death in Sheol (i.e. in the grave). Now the fish obeys the word of the Lord, even though the prophet did not obey it: And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land (Jon 2.10). Because of his disobedience, Jonah made an obedient fish sick to his stomach. Nonetheless, even though he is but vomit to the fish, he is spit out onto dry land so he can keep his vow to the Lord. Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you." 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD (Jon 3.1-3a). Jonah renewed his covenant, the Lord reaffirmed his call, and now, he obeys, according to the word of the Lord. As might be expected of the capital of an emerging world power, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city (3.3b). There the prophet warned of coming destruction that will fall in forty days (3.4). In response, the people of Nineveh believed God (3.5). Therefore, they covered themselves, and even their animals, with sackcloth to symbolize their repentance and prayer that God would turn and relent from His fierce anger toward them. Most interestingly, when God saw their repentance, He repented. Thus, we read that God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it (Jon 3.10). 4 Surely, the people of Nineveh were relieved, but Jonah was, shall we say, livid. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he 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? 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 steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is God changed His mind, even though Moses says (Num 23.19), God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, 4 that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? We also know that He planned all things and He works all things after the counsel of His will (Eph 1.11). Thus, we can say that God s relationship to people (blessing or cursing) changes because He is unchanging. Yet we need to probe more deeply to do justice to the reality of some kind of change spoken of undeniably in the text. To say that God s relationship to people changes from blessing to cursing indicates a change in action on God s part and surely what He does reflects His mind and will. The whole idea of a relationship to people He created, and to the creation itself, involves God s condescension in which He took human properties to Himself without altering any of His essential and eternal properties. In terms of this addition of human properties, like the adding of human properties to Christ s deity in the incarnation, God could experience change; He could be angry and decide to judge sinners at a point in time and announce His intention, then call them to repentance, and then if they repent, He could change His mind and decide to withdraw the plan to judge. In terms of human properties that He took to Himself by creating and relating to the creation in space and time, He could truly undergo change while at the same time in terms of His essential and eternal properties, He is not a man that He should repent. This is another theological paradox, which means that we accept both threads of truth (that God is not a man and that He takes human properties to Himself without change in His essence) because Scripture teaches both. Here in the Book of Jonah, we are told that God relents (changes His mind, repents) at the same time that it teaches the absolute efficacy, irresistibility, and unchanging character of His grace and mercy to sinners that He has chosen to save. He does save them and He does so through means that He appoints to attain that end efficaciously.
!5 better for me to die than to live (4.1-3). Where to date in reading the OT have we seen this kind of emotion? Perhaps in the book of Job, but Jonah is extremely pointed about his displeasure with the Lord, which he expresses in prayer no less! He is so intensely angry that he wished to die (and our mouths drop to the floor as we read this), he wished to die because God is slow to anger, gracious, and merciful, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster! Jonah is upset with God s display of mercy. It is just what he feared from the start. To this upheaval of passion, the Lord gingerly responds with a question (4.4): Do you do well to be angry? IV. In an amazing close to the narrative, we see Jonah repining at the east of Nineveh He went outside the city to watch and see happen what he expects will happen when the forty days have elapsed. Waiting there under a temporary shelter he made to shade himself from the sun (4.5), the Lord provided a plant to give him better shade and comfort (v. 6). Naturally, that made Jonah exceedingly glad (6b). The next day, God sent a worm to kill the plant, and He also sent a scorching wind along with the sun to make life miserable for the prophet. So he petitioned again that he might die, saying, it is better for me to die than to live (8b). Then we have record of a brief dialogue in which there is a question from the Lord, Jonah s answer, and the Lord s final response to end the narrative. The question from the Lord is in verse 9a: Do you do well to be angry for the plant? Jonah s answer is in 9b: Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. The Lord s response closes the book (4.10-11): 10 And the LORD 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. 11 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? The parable of the shade-giving plant reveals the selfishness of the prophet in contrast to the love of God. The contradiction is extreme. Jonah s concern about the destruction of the plant and thereby the removal of his own comfort in the sun s heat stands in opposition to his anger at the deliverance of a multitude of people. This magnifies his selfish spirit. The plant protects one man, you, Jonah, the Lord says, but in Nineveh are multitudes of humans (so much more valuable than plants) who need protection from the heat of my wrath. You are selfishly more concerned about the destruction of the plant than about the destruction of sinners in need. Thus, the Lord gives an unusual, but powerful, example of the golden rule. It is clear that you want me to provide you with shade, protection, and comfort from the heat of the sun, then you are to seek that for others. And the lesson goes much deeper in an a fortiori: if human sympathy for a mere plant and the comfort and protection it brings is appropriate for you Jonah, how much more is it appropriate for me your God that you know to be merciful, to show mercy, comfort and protection to thousands of human beings according to my will. For you firmly stated the truth from the belly of Sheol in the clutches of death: salvation is of the Lord (2.9b). Application Many commentators approach this book by either unduly isolating a single theme (say, Jonah s bad example 5) or by claiming that to focus on a central theme would be imprudent (Bruckner). However, it is hardly imprudent to concentrate on a major theme and then attach Consider the apparent misdirection that goes with making Jonah a struggling missionary in a strange land. But how 5 many missionaries would have Jonah s angst with the salvation of an entire city through his preaching? Of course, Jonah truly has a selfish spirit deep in his soul. He is more concerned about a plant and the comforting shade it gives him, than he is about the needs of the sinners to whom God called him to preach. However, this book shows that God s purpose of saving particular sinners cannot be thwarted, even by the rebellion and sin of preachers and missionaries. Moreover, as Calvin puts it, Jonah attempted to frustrate the secrete purpose of God, and in a manner to overrule it by his own will, so that the Ninevites might not be spared (On Jonah, 144), but God preserves men for the purpose of which he has designed them (141).
!6 other themes to it for clarity in preaching and teaching. For example, if we follow the story from the call to go to the Ninevites at the start to Jonah s repining about God s mercy to them at the end, then surely we can conclude that the narrative is about God s mercy to the Ninevites. It is about God as the covenant Lord of Israel who is merciful and loving to an extremely wicked people outside of His redemptive dealings with His people Israel. 6 In this light, we can discuss three implications about God s saving purpose that bear meaningfully on our lives today. 1) The scope of God s saving purpose By this, our understanding of the severity and mercy of God (the message of the Kings) is deepened because we now see on a massive scale that God s mercy accords with His determined purposes of sovereign election and reprobation regarding both Israel and the nations. This truth is not denied by the fact that He is faithful to His covenant with Abraham and to his children and their children s children after them. He is faithful by preserving a remnant for Himself as He did in the days of Elijah when he complained that he was the only believer left in a radically sinful nation. But as Paul reports in Romans 11.4, God told Elijah, I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Then the apostle draws this conclusion (11.5): So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. The fact of a remnant implies the passing over (or reprobation) of others whom the Lord does not choose to save. In the words of Jonah from the belly of the fish: salvation belongs to the Lord (Jon 2.9b). Surely, we should agree with the sailors rather than repining Jonah when they said, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you (1.14). It pleased Him to elect some outside of Israel while passing over many within Israel. So, Jesus said, But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian (Lk 4.25-27). The book of Jonah has the background of the many sins of Jeroboam and the nation. Thus, there were many sinners in Israel but Jonah was sent to the sinners of Nineveh to call them to repentance. 2) The efficacy of God s saving purpose And the Lord uses means to bring about His saving designs. He uses human means, even very real and frail people like Jonah with all his passion. He did so effectually even though Jonah tried to thwart God s purpose, and even though his heart was angry at the display of mercy that God showed these sinners. This very teaching of irresistible grace and love not only emerges in the miraculous repentance of the Ninevites who receive the gospel through an ornery prophet, but it is the truth that drives Jonah all along. He is known for his disobedience, but surprisingly we must recognize that Jonah is a prophet of unparalleled insight and firm confidence in the saving power of God. Strikingly, it is his confidence in God that is the springboard of his whole problem with the Ninevites. Jonah has an unshakable confidence in the saving power, the irresistible grace, and effectual love of God for that is precisely what upsets him so painfully: O LORD, 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 steadfast love, and relenting from disaster (Jon We have a clue to what is going on in the fact that despite the great evil that Jeroboam did in God s sight and in 6 Jonah s sight, the covenant Lord showed him and the nation of Israel mercy in the expansions he made at the northern boarders (2 Kgs 14.23-25). Jonah surely knows that God shows mercy to people despite their sins, but he is a prophet of the covenant Lord whose word He proclaims to His covenant people, Israel. This indicates that he is angry that the Lord shows mercy to sinners outside of Israel, to a people of great evil that is beginning to overflow from the capital city of Nineveh to the international scene. By implication, Jeroboam s movements northward draw a line in the sand against the Assyrians who approach southward. Thus, Jonah s view of sovereign mercy needs to be expanded to include all families of the earth as promised to Abraham and shown by the ministry of Elijah to Gentiles in sovereign election while passing over Israelites in sovereign reprobation.
!7 4.2). What a thing to complain about! How fully human! He is upset at the display of God s love, grace, patience, and mercy, which causes him to complain bitterly. The prophet who speaks for God is a truly frail instrument, but mercifully, an instrument still. For God uses him to get the job done on behalf of the Ninevites. So, Jonah obeyed by the constraining power of God through a stormy sea, distraught sailors, and a great but obedient fish that was made sick to his stomach by the disobedient man of God. If God has a people that He decides to save through the preaching of the gospel of repentance as a necessary means, then He will see to it that they hear the gospel, repent and find salvation that does not belong to them, but to the Lord. He will send His prophet, even if the prophet rebells against his call. The Lord will effectively instill in him the willingness to go and to preach. It may even be that the prophet does his job reluctantly in anger at the Lord for saving a people that he thinks do not deserve it; that he thinks ought to be left to perish. But the word of God, the Almighty says, shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it (Isa 55.11). 3) The mystery of God s saving purpose What I mean by mystery is the fact that the gospel of the resurrection of Christ is hidden in the cantankerous prophet s experience. Jonah is an Israelite, the only Israelite of the book. His experience in the sea in the fish took place in Sheol, in a pit, in a grave. It was a death experience from which he was delivered after three days in order to bring good news to the Gentiles. Therefore, the Jonah event prefigured the coming of Christ, the Israelite, prophet of prophets, king of kings (greater than Jonah; greater than Solomon) in whom God's promises converge and through whom they will be realized. The seed of Eve, the seed of Abraham, the greater Isaac, will die not being spared the knife, but He will be delivered from death in three days in order to bring the good news of God's compassion to the nations. In the work of Christ, we have the ultimate demonstration that God is merciful and abounding in love. Jesus obeyed and willingly gave his life for his sheep, which includes many nations along with a remnant from the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Jn 10.11, 16). Thus Paul says, Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Tim 3.16). The gospel of this book calls us to covenant renewal by affirming that those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love (2.8). With Jonah we must say, But I with the voice of thanksgiving will [worship you because of the sacrifice of Christ]; what I have vowed I will pay (2.9a). And we must worship with a theologically rich word of praise: Salvation belongs to the LORD! (2.9b). May we fall down before the majesty of God in humble recognition of our great need as sinners and may the Holy Spirit warm our hearts with the efficacy of His love that we may not contend with the Lord about His saving will; and may He teach us to wait patiently for His blessing even when things go contrary to our wishes; may we find comfort in knowing that He will give us all that He secured for us by the descent of Jesus into the belly of Sheol, and by His resurrection after three days and three nights. To the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forevermore, amen.