Justice, or Mercy?
Jonah 1:10-17
Introduction:
The story is told of a mother who approached Napoleon, begging for mercy, seeking a pardon for her
son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense
twice and justice demanded death…
"But
I don't ask for justice," the mother explained. "I plead for
mercy."
"But
your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied.
"Sir,"
the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is
all I ask."
"Well,
then," the emperor said, "I will have mercy." And he spared the
woman's son.
Mercy. We’ll see as we get further
into this book that Jonah’s heart was hard toward the pagan Ninevites, he was
focused on their evil and wanted only justice for them—in the form of the wrath
of God Almighty. In fact, when they later repent and are spared by God, he says
that is why he didn’t want to go, he knew that if they turned
from their evil God would relent from destroying them (4:2)! Ironically, in
fleeing from God’s call to go to that pagan city, Jonah gets on a boat full of
pagan sailors. As he slept below deck and the storm raged, Jonah was seemingly unconcerned
about what the crew was facing above him. They jettisoned the cargo, but their
lives were at risk as the storm raged around them. But now as these terror-stricken
men stand before him, pleading for some explanation of what was happening, and
some direction about what to do… Jonah seems to soften at their plight… He
knew his rebellion against God had brought the storm, why should they go
down with him and the ship? It seems God was working in Jonah, softening his
heart, leading him toward repentance — but he wasn’t quite there yet. We’ll see
that he was also working in the hearts of the pagan, gentile crew, revealing
his power and justice, and He soon would reveal His grace and mercy…
The BIG Idea: God’s mercy, the only hope for fallen humans, has been
extended toward us in Christ… Let’s back up a verse and remember the…
Context: God had used “lots” to expose Jonah’s sin. And, by the way, our sin is
likewise known, for “…all have sinned and fall short…” (10). The
Lord will bring to light the things hidden in darkness… Everyone, until
they believe, like Jonah, is in rebellion against God.
10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him,
"What is this that you have done!" For the men knew that he was
fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
What have you
done? That rhetorical
question harkens back to the Garden, and the context of the Fall, as God spoke
to the man and the woman of the consequences of their sin. God will by no
means leave the guilty unpunished. His justice demands judgement. These men
hadn’t had a course on Bible doctrine, but they had enough truth evidenced in
this supernatural storm that had come up out of nowhere, and that now
threatened to break up their ship—coupled with the simple testimony of Jonah, “I
fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry ground…”
Jonah was running from THAT God, but God wasn’t going to let him get away! What
have you done Jonah! They were, literally, in the same boat with him, and they
“…feared a great fear…”
We are reminded
again that, 800 years later or so, there were some men on a boat with another
prophet, a Prophet greater than Jonah, and much more than a prophet. The men
woke him from sleep as well. But Jesus stood up in the boat, and with a word
calmed the stormy sea – “Peace, be still!” And then those men
likewise, “…feared a great fear…” They asked, “Who is this man, that
even the wind and the waves obey Him?” They knew they were in presence of
holiness, and that standing before them was a power that they were struggling
to understand. Their teacher was no mere man! These pagan sailors in the
storm with Jonah were terrified, because the power of Jonah’s God was evident,
and His wrath against Jonah’s rebellion left them all in peril! This points us to
the big idea, we don’t need justice, we need mercy. That is…
The BIG Idea: God’s mercy is the only hope for fallen humans, and it has
been extended toward us in Christ. First, we see that…
I. God’s wrath against sin must be satisfied (11-12). And, “…the wages of sin
is death…” (Rom 6:23; Heb 10:30,31). One takeaway from the Book of Jonah must
be the holiness of God, and His wrath against sin. (E.g. 1:3, “…their evil
has come up before me…”).
11 Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you,
that the sea may quiet down for us?" For the sea grew more and more
tempestuous. 12 He said to
them, "Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down
for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon
you."
From the
perspective of the sailors they saw the awesome power and the wrath of Jonah’s
God in the storm. Indeed, as the writer to the Hebrews said, “It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God…” (Heb 10:31). The
Egyptians knew it the night of the tenth plague, as God sent judgment and death
into every home. Pharaoh’s army experienced it as they pursued the Israelites
and the waters of the sea came crashing over them… In fact, the first man and
woman experienced it as they were cursed, along with all creation, and were
driven from paradise into a fallen world of thorns and thistles, a world with
death. Wasn’t that harsh, for one little bite of fruit? I don’t think we grasp
the holiness of God, and how horrible sin is before Him. When God appeared to
Moses on Mount Sinai, he expressed his character to Him. We read in Exodus
34:6-7…
6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The
LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love and faithfulness, 7
keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the
fourth generation."
Even as I read that my eyes and my mind go to the attributes
like merciful and gracious, loving and faithful… but it also says He “…will
by no means clear the guilty…” His justice, His wrath against sin, must be
satisfied. God is love, He is also holy and just. The New Living
translation says in Habakkuk 1:13a, “But you are pure and cannot stand the
sight of evil.” We can’t focus on God’s love and grace, without also
recognizing He is holy and just. He will not simply overlook sin. He had told
Adam, “The day you eat of it, you shall surely die…” (Gen 2:17). Paul
may be referring to that verse when he said, “The wages of sin is death…”
(Rom 6:23a). As God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, He said, “…call out
against it, for their evil has come up before me…” (Jonah 1:2). Our sin is
like a stench in the nostrils of God, and yet Christ “…bore our sins in his
own body on the tree…” That is the horror Christ anticipated in Gethsemane
when he said “Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me… yet not my
will, but your will be done.” He willingly drank the cup of God’s wrath
against sin, so that we could drink the cup of blessing and life.
Too often, like
Jonah, we know what God wants, we know what He has said, and still, we choose
to turn our back! We rationalize, we’ll ask forgiveness later, but still in the
moment we choose to do things our own way.
Jonah tried to put space between himself and God, and sometimes, we do
the same thing. In Numbers 32 God says that because of unbelief, all the adults
that came out of Egypt, 20 years and up, all except for Joshua and Caleb,
would perish in the wilderness. And the new generation had to be warned to
learn from their fathers’ failure, “…you have risen in your fathers’ place,
a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel!” (Num 32:15). Moses
warns them to believe God, to fail to do so is sin, and he says, “…be sure
your sin will find you out…” (Num 32:23). In other words, “You can run, but you can’t hide!” He has appointed a Day in which He will judge
the world in righteousness. God’s mercy,
the only hope for fallen humans, has been extended toward us in Christ.
II. We cannot save ourselves by our own effort (13; cf. Titus 3:5). 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to
get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous
against them.
There is
something in fallen humans that makes us think we’re ok, our situation is not
that bad. We are not too far gone. We just need to tighten our belt a little. The
sailors were told by Jonah what needed to be done, but they were unwilling at
first. “Ok, we’ve got a problem, let’s row a little harder...!” Most people
think they can make their way to safety, they think they can be saved by human
effort. Paul told the Ephesians that salvation is “…not the result of
works, that no one may boast…” Standing before the holy Creator of the
universe, we all deserve judgement. But even from the beginning, in the wake of
the sin of the first humans, God extended mercy, and gave hope for redemption,
as he promised a Seed who would crush the serpent’s head, and gave the man and
the woman skins, as a covering for their nakedness. God’s wrath against sin
would be satisfied, in the fullness of time, as the sinless Son would come into
the world, and bear our sins in His body on the tree… He was righteous, yet He
willingly drank the cup of wrath, the judgment that we deserved, so that we
could be saved. Paul wrote…
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our
Savior appeared, 5 he
saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to
his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy
Spirit, 6 whom he poured out
on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs
according to the hope of eternal life (Titus
3:4-7).
That sentence is a sermon for another day, but for now I want
to point out v.5a, “…he saved us, not because of works done by us in
righteousness, but according to his own mercy…” The sailors on the
ship with Jonah wanted to know, “What should we do?” It was time to
surrender, to believe God, to take God at His word, the little that they had
from Jonah, and to cry out to Him for mercy, because… God’s mercy is the only
hope for fallen humans. Thank God, it has been extended toward us in Christ.
III. Coming to God on His terms, we will find mercy (14-16). “…they called out to the Lord,
"O Lord, let us not
perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased
you."
First, notice that the word Lord in the ESV is written with all
capital letters, indicating the personal name of the God of the Covenants. They
call out to God, Yahweh, the God of history, the God of the covenants, the
God who is (14). In these three verses, the name of the Lord is used five times. The men
called out to the Lord, Yahweh, they
feared the Lord, then, after the
storm ceases, they made sacrifices and vows to Him. In short, they believed,
and they worshipped Him. Contrast Jonah,
God’s prophet. He has testified
that He feared the Lord. He told
the men what to do to avert their imminent destruction. But, as far as we can
tell, he hasn’t prayed—and we learn in chapter 2, only with his life slipping
away, about to drown, does he “remember the Lord”
and pray!
The prayer of
the sailors is personal, and specific. “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life…” They don’t
want to be judged for taking a life, but if God had ordained this as the only
way they could be saved, that is how it must be! This is different than Pilate,
who washed his hands as he condemned Jesus on the insistence of the Jewish
leaders. Remember how the leaders responded to Pilate, “His blood be on us
and on our children!” (Matthew 27:25). There wasn’t an expression of
personal conversion in any of those words! These sailors see that God was angry
with the prodigal prophet, and by Jonah’s own word, they knew what they had to
do. And first they pray, essentially, “Lord,
your will be done!” Ironically, as Jesus went to the cross, God’s will was
being done, even as Jesus had prayed in Gethsemane, “not my will, but yours.”
They
submit to the prophetic word in fear (15a). 15 “So they picked up Jonah and hurled
him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.” As far as we know, the only Word of God they had was the
testimony of Jonah, coupled with the evidence of the storm. They had tried
everything else, now they see there is nothing else to try. Either they all die, or this man would have to
die so that they could be saved. God had “hurled” the great wind onto
the sea after Jonah, the sailors first “hurled” the cargo into
the sea, and now they submit to God’s word, and “hurl” Jonah into
the waves.
They respond to God’s power and grace
in worship (15b-16). “…the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord
exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.” Notice that these men did not make vows or promises to God
in the midst of the storm. They only prayed for mercy and expressed faith in
v.14. In verse 15b, the storm seemingly ceased as soon as Jonah hit the
water, disappearing under the waves. Their response is the kind of fear the
disciples had when Jesus calmed the stormy sea… In Mark 4:41, immediately after
Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves and there was a great calm, the disciples
“feared a great fear,” the identical phrase that describes the sailors
when the storm ceased. These sailors had seen how this storm came up so
suddenly out of nowhere, and they saw how quickly it all turned calm when they
obeyed the Word of the Lord. They saw the power and the presence of Yahweh,
even there on the sea, and they responded to Him in worship. God is holy and
just. But those whose hearts are opened to Him, who come to Him on His terms,
find mercy. That mercy has been extended
toward us in Christ.
IV. The Father, in His love, shows mercy for prodigals (17). We read in v. 17, “And the LORD appointed a great fish
to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and
three nights.”
When we return to Jonah in two weeks
we’ll look at this verse with Jonah’s prayer, which includes a reflection on
what happened in his heart once he went under, sinking deeper into the sea,
closer to death. God was working to get His word to the Ninevites. He was
working too to get His word to the crew of the ship that carried Jonah. He
was also working in the Prodigal Prophet, saving him from certain death,
sending a great fish, not to kill him, but to save him! We are reminded
that God is sovereign, and will work for our good, and for His glory. God
spared Jonah’s life, and gave him time to repent. And despite human rebellion, God
would send the Son in the fullness of time, without sin, to give his
life for us, and to be raised from the dead three days later!
What is God saying to me in this passage? The BIG Idea is that God’s
mercy is the only hope for fallen humans, and it has been extended toward us in
Christ.
What would God have me to do in response to this
passage? The sailors
rowing with all their might, trying to get back to land, illustrate the
futility of religion or good works to bring us to God. We were equally without
hope before we knew Him. Paul describes
the condition of fallen humanity and the basis of our conversion in Ephesians
2:1-5,
And
you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2
in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of
disobedience- 3 among whom
we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the
body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of
mankind. 4 But God,
being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been
saved… (Eph 2:1-5).
That was the position of the Ninevites, that was the condition of the Phoenecian sailors, that was Jonah's need... and by the way, that was your position and mine... But don’t miss
verse 4, “…BUT GOD…” God is just and holy, He is also rich
in mercy. If you have been “rowing hard,” trying to save yourself, Jonah
is your “cease and desist” order. Cry out to God for mercy, trust in Him
alone. If you have believed, but have turned away from the Father’s face… know
that He loves you too much to let you go… He will do what is necessary, to lead
you back home. If necessary, He’ll send a storm, or even a great fish! Like the Father of the prodigal son, He is
waiting. Come home. AMEN.
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