Genesis 4-6. ‘Two Ways of Living’
We were having a family Bible time with two grandchildren aged 13 and 10 and had reached Genesis chapter 4 at the point where Cain had murdered his brother Abel and had consequently been expelled from the family of God. We read:
“So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, East of Eden.” Genesis 4:16
This sentence is striking. Leaving the family is what you would expect to read but the writer emphasises what was even more important – Cain walked out from the presence of God, how foolish that is. God had condemned him to be a ‘restless wanderer’ (Genesis 4:12, 14) and Nod simply means ‘wanderer’. He and his subsequent family were spiritually lost and drifting.
It is clear that the writer is not simply describing a nomadic existence as Cain then builds a city that he names after his son Enoch. It is clear that there must have been other people living at the time. Adam was God’s first family but even he and his family had a late neolithic lifestyle. Adam and Cain were horticulturalists, Abel was a shepherd. They were not Stone Age men. Cain was afraid that someone might kill him when he left the secuRity of Adam’s family but the Lord reassured him,
“Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Genesis 4:15
Who was Cain afraid of, who did he marry after he left Adam, who did he build a city for?
Cain’s family
We are then told that Cain’s wife became pregnant and Enoch was born. Enoch had a son, Irad. And again the question comes as to where his wife came from. Their son Irad married and Mehujael was born, who himself married and has a son named Methushael who also married and had a notorious son named Lamech.
Lamech was the first polygamist in this family.
“Lamech married two women.” Genesis 4:19
Lamech was the seventh in line from Adam and he was going to do things his way. The name, Lamech, means ‘powerful’. What is striking is that in this section on the descendents of Cain, neither the Lord nor God are ever mentioned.
Yet Lamech’s descendents were obviously very successful in worldly terms. His wife Adah had two able sons. Jabal, was a successful herdsman who lived in tents, presumably in contrast to the others who lived in the city. His brother Jubal was a musician and he ‘was the father of all who play the harp and flute, very different instruments. Harps have been known since antiquity in Asia, Africa, and Europe, dating back at least as early as 3000 BCE. Flute playing is much older, the oldest flutes are said to have been from about 35,000 years ago. Lamech’s other wife, Zillah, had a son Tubal-Cain became a blacksmith ‘who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron’. This again raises interesting questions. These people were clearly not stone age people. The earliest definite date usually assigned to the casting of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, is about 2500 B.C.. This is 700 years or more after copper is known to have been used. Nevertheless numerous analyses show that copper artefacts, made around 3000 B.C. sometimes contained small and variable percentages of tin.
Lamech, the Powerful, was a ruthless man. He said to his wives,
“I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” Genesis 4:23-24
Mr. David Davies (1818-1890) was a Member of Parliament who was always dwelling on the fact that he was “a self-made man.” Disraeli, after one of his speeches, remarked,
“The honourable and genial member for Cardiganshire is never tired of repeating the information that he is a self-made man. I think the House will agree that whatever the value of the honourable member’s opinion, there is no doubt that he worships his maker.”
Lamech appears to have been such a self made man who was ruthless in his drive for success for himself and his family. Yet his is the last we read of Cain’s family!
Seth’s family
A new section of Genesis now begins with the third summary of God’s beginning with man and it is headed,
“This is the written account of Adam’s line. When God created man, he made him in the likeliness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them ‘man’. When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.” Genesis 5:1-3
Seth, unlike Cain was in Adam’s likeness. This surely not just a physical likeness. It must refer to the fact that men had begun to call on the name of the Lord. There is then another genealogy that is, as so often in the Old Testament limited to ten generations. We read of Enoch who, we are told twice, ‘walked with God’ (Genesis 5:22,24) There was something interesting about Enoch’s end,
“Enoch walked with God, then he was no more, because God took him away.” Genesis 524
Enoch’s son was Methuselah, the oldest man who ever lived, 969 years. Methuselah's son brings us back to the point to this account. He was also called Lamech but this man was clearly very different to his namesake. Noah was this Lamech’s son, a descendent of Seth in every sense. The whole family must have revered God. Noah grew up to be:
“. . . a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” Genesis 6:9
Peter describes Noah as “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). The Greek word for preacher is better translated “herald” and refers to an official entrusted with making public proclamations. Noah’s world is described as being
“. . . corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth” Genesis 6:11–12
In His grace, God commissioned Noah to build an ark to preserve himself and his family from the upcoming judgment by water (verse 14).
‘Call on the name of the Lord’
The message of the Bible is that God longs for all mankind to ‘call on the name of the Lord’, which must mean ‘to walk with God’.
When Abram entered Canaan, he camped between Ai and Bethel. There, “he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 12:8). In other words, Abram publicly thanked God, praised His name, and sought His protection and guidance. Years later, Abraham’s son Isaac built an altar to the Lord in Beersheba and also “called on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 26:25).
Calling on the name of the Lord is essential for salvation and begins when we first speak humbly with the Lord. God promises to save those who, in faith, call upon His name:
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” Romans 10:13 quoting. Joel 2:32
Everyone who invokes the name of God for mercy and salvation, using the name of Jesus, shall be saved (Acts 2:21).
“There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” Acts 4:12, NLT
Using a person’s name helps in a relationship. The first thing we do when we meet someone is to introduce ourselves. To ‘call upon the name of the Lord’ is a sign that have entered into a relationship with Him. There is a difference between knowing about God and knowing Him personally. ‘Calling on the name of the Lord’ indicates personal interaction and relationship. When we call upon the name of the Lord, as a form of worship, we recognize our dependence upon Him.
What saves a person is not the action of “calling upon” the name of Jesus; what saves is God’s grace in response to one’s personal faith in the Saviour that has been called upon. Calling on the name of the Lord is more than a verbal expression; it is also shown in the heart and in deed through repentance.
“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” Romans 10:9
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out” Acts 3:19
‘Calling on the name of the Lord’ is to be a lifelong pursuit (Psalm 116:2). The person who:
“. . . dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty” Psalm 91:1
These are the people who have God’s promise of blessing:
“‘Because he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him’” Psalm 91:14–15
Those who refuse to call upon the name of the Lord are also described in Scripture, along with the results of their disobedience:
“Will the workers of iniquity never learn? . . . They refuse to call upon the Lord. There they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to fear” Psalm 14:4–5, BSB
Even when rebellious or ignorant people neglect to call upon the name of the Lord, He is willing to hear them and accept them. God wants to be found; He is ready to be known:
“I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that was not called by my name” Isaiah 65:1, ESV; . Romans 10:20
Those who ‘call upon the name of the Lord’ are identified as believers. In the New testament, the name of the Lord is the Lord Jesus. He is the embodiment of Jahweh.
“To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.” 1 Corinthians 1:2
In summary, those who call on the name of the Lord are those who recognize Him as Saviour. Whether it is a first-time calling upon Jesus’ name for forgiveness of sins or a continuous calling as the relationship progresses and grows, giving Him lordship over our lives in surrender to His will, calling on the name of the Lord is vital to spiritual life. Ultimately, calling on the name of the Lord is a sign of humility and dependence on God our Creator and Redeemer.
There are only two ways to live, he wants us all to ‘call on the name of the Lord’, ‘to walk with God’, to be ‘sons of God’, to be like Seth, Enoch and Noah not be be like Lamech and his family.
The Nephilim, the ‘fallen ones’
This context makes the subsequent account in Genesis 6 easier to understand. We read,
“. . . the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” Genesis 6:2
The context strongly suggests that the ‘sons of God’ were the descendents of Seth. Yet, as has happened so often in the history of God’s people, sexual temptation can be the cause of his people drifting away from God. The Lord was again deeply upset:
“Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” Genesis 6:3
Rebellion against God and his ways is always the root cause of man’s problems.
There has been wild speculation about the nature of the Nephilim; could they be fallen angels or some other non-human beings? The answer is much simpler. We are told later in Moses Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, precisely who these Nephilim were. Moses had sent twelve tribes to explore the promised land that the Israelites hoped to capture. Ten of the twelve spies reported that invasion would be a dangerous project:
“They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”” Numbers 13:32-33
The Nephilim were simply a race of very tall people; Goliath and his family were some of their descendents. Such giants would naturally become the leaders of tribes in such a pugilistic society and they got what they wanted!
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” Genesis 6:4
The Hebrew word ‘Nephilim’ means ‘fallen ones’. In men’s eyes they were the ‘heroes of old, men of renown’ but in God’s eyes they were fallen sinners who would face God’s judgment. What the world thinks of leaders is not the same as God thinks. This is the second time that ‘the sons of God’ are mentioned in just three verses. It is all too easy for people of God to ‘fall away’ after they were tempted, often by the daughters of men. This repetition surely makes this the key idea of this section – we must be very careful not to join the ‘fallen ones’.
Just as the sons o Cain’s Lamech were very gifted but godless, so the Nephilim were very strong physically but fallen spiritually.
There have always been two ways that people can live, either in harmony with God, as sons of God, or in their own godless way. This is what happened to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden when they were tempted to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They decided to make the decIsions about what is right and wrong, just as Cain did later, but the result was, as always, that they faced God’s judgment. These early chapters of Genesis keep telling us the same truth in different ways, there are just two ways we can live.
One way to life
The original writer of this section of Genesis is obviously stressing that there are two ways people can live, either righteously, with God at the centre, or selfishly, with themselves at the centre. In the final part of this section the way most people were living is contrasted with the way Noah lived.
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:5-8
The difference between these two ways of living is stark.
The next section of the book of Genesis begins with this same contrast and the lesson is clear. God hates it when people decide to live in ways that are not his ways and in the end he will act against all such rebellion. But he is a gracious God and cares for all those who truly turn back to him. This is the message of the whole Bible.
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.” Genesis 6:9-13
Even back then they recognised that God sees what is going on in peoples’ hearts. Noah was ‘a preacher of righteousness’. The apostle Peter draws on this contrast in Genesis when he writes about Noah and the evil world he lived in:
“if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;” 2 Peter 2:5
The choice everyone has is either to live God’s way, as revealed by the Lord Jesus and in the whole of Scripture, or to go my way. The consequence of this decision has always been the same, heaven or hell. Being religious is no remedy, we must be committed to living as God wants and has taught us. Jesus warned the outwardly religious who were not really following him that they are not safe,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matthew 7:21-23
God knows those who are truly his own, there is only one way to life and that is to become his people.
These stories remind us that the essence of worship has always been obedience to the Lord our God:
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. . . . Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” Genesis 6:9,22
The story continues with the same basic lesson, there are only two classes of animals just as there are only two types of people, those God deems clean and those who are unclean. The ark saved the righteous Noah and his family but destroyed the ungodly: such a judgment will come to all people. The animals admitted to the ark in pairs were either clean or unclean. We are surely meant to ask ourselves, ‘Which category does the Lord see me in?’; the good news or gospel is that there is always time to change because of Jesus.
BVP
Jonah 4. Christian or Religious?
A church service began with the audience being asked if they could decipher the following Dingbats:
. .
. . . . . . . . . .
Most got the first one correct – ‘Growing old’ but the second one stumped them, even though the answer seems obvious – ‘Missing the point’.
Unfortunately many ‘miss the point’ when reading the book of Jonah. Chapter 3 ends with Nineveh, having heard that God will judge all evil, repenting and turning back to God. This would be a natural place for the story to end. The central message would then be about the love of God for all people and his hatred of their sin. Instead, the final section of the book is this strange story about Jonah and the plant that withers.
“When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.
And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Jonah 3:10-4:11
This story is about why Jonah is so reluctant to share the gospel about God’s grace with others. This is also the underlying cause of the demise of so many churches in this country. Our problem is not ignorance, it is just that we have ‘missed the point’ about what God expects of his people. Too often we are so unenthusiastic and so begrudging about sharing the message of God’s grace with others, just like Jonah was. Chapter 4 is the punchline of this book and so it is very relevant for most Christians today.
1. Jonah’s anger and Nineveh’s deliverance Jonah 3:10-4:1
The translation of the Hebrew in many English versions of the Bible is very polite but weakens the strength of the verse. The New International Version says, “But to Jonah this seemed very wrong!” but the emphasis in the Hebrew is stronger, “But Jonah considered God’s compassion to be exceedingly evil”. Jonah wasn’t angry because of the evil in Nineveh but because God showed compassion to Nineveh; he thinks this is exceedingly wrong or indeed evil, presumably because the Ninevites were such a bad people.
To understand this reaction of Jonah we need to know something about the Kingdom of Israel at this time – their behaviour was very similar to that of Nineveh. Amos and Hosea, as well as Jonah had been prophets to Israel, pointing out how they had abandoned the God who had chosen them and had descended into being a wicked, idolatrous and brutal people. These prophets had warned them that unless Israel repented God would send their enemy, Assyria whose capital was Nineveh, to punish them, even though they claimed to be God’s people.
Jonah appears to understand the necessity of repentance. Nineveh had repented and therefore their judgment was postponed, but Israel had failed to repent so did this not mean that Israel faced destruction? Jonah’s ministry to Israel was a failure compared to his ministry in Nineveh.
Jonah’s anger explodes. His reaction is typical and explains his strange behaviour in the earlier chapters. Jonah was an Israelite through and through - he loved Israel. His successful mission to Nineveh, Israel’s deepest enemy, made him a traitor to Israel. His teaching had saved their enemy! This explains why he ran away from God in chapter 1. It explains why Jonah was willing to be thrown into the sea. Deep down he didn’t want God’s message of forgiveness to be told to those obnoxious people in Assyria, he felt they deserved God’s judgment. But the all-powerful God had a different opinion and he was determined that his message of grace should not only be shared but he was also determined that his preacher Jonah should not ‘miss the point’, he was meant to be the messenger.
Jonah's prayer shows that he had ‘missed the point’. He quotes from the words that God had said to Moses to explain his character:
“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness.” Exodus 34:6-7
Jonah thinks these words are for Israelites like himself and not for idolatrous Assyrians in Nineveh.
The irony behind that quote seems lost on Jonah. God’s description of himself in Exodus 34 was given to Moses soon after Israel had finished constructing an idolatrous golden calf. God’s compassion for idolatrous Israel was no different to his compassion to the idolatrous Ninevites now!
God then asks Jonah a very penetrating question:
“Have you any right to be angry?” Jonah 4:4
It is worth emphasising that there are few forces so destructive to family and social living as anger. One of the great benefits of being a Christian is that God’s Spirit enables us to control our outbursts of anger that do so much harm.
Jonah has no right to be angry but God is intent on showing Jonah that he is being a hypocrite. Notice how quickly Jonah’s anger at Nineveh’s deliverance turns to delight at his own deliverance.
Jonah experiences God’s grace
It seems that Jonah still cannot believe that God is refusing to show his hatred of sin by destroying Nineveh. So he finds a site east of Nineveh from where he can overlook the city. There he sits, hoping that the repentance of Nineveh was short-lived and that he will soon see some fireballs descend from heaven.
There he sits, stewing and angry, and getting hotter under the collar. However this spot became so hot because of the scorching sun that he built himself a shelter. At this point in the story God again intervenes to save him:
“Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant.” Jonah 4:6
Please do not get het up and worried about the plant growing quickly overnight and that just the next day a voracious worm with strong teeth eats it up. This story has a very strong meaning and it is this meaning that we should be focusing on. A castor-oil plant with giant leaves was provided to give Jonah some shade from the baking heat. The Hebrew has another clever word play that is slightly lost in our translations. The NIV says the plant was given to ‘ease his discomfort’ but the Hebrew literally says it ‘saved from disaster’. Exactly the same phrase is used earlier to explain what had happened to the Ninevites, God ‘did not bring on them the destruction’ that he had threatened. We are meant to see the comparison
This story is full of irony. Jonah experienced exactly the same deliverance as the city. He was exceedingly angry about their deliverance, but for his own deliverance from the heat he was exceedingly happy. We are all so similar, we tend to judge others differently from ourselves, in spite of what Paul tells us:
“You therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgement someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other you are condemning yourself.” Romans 2:1
Jonah’s main concern was himself
The English word ‘idol’ has an ‘I’ as the first letter. This ‘I first’ is the idol God wants to expose. We all have a tendency to be more concerned about ourselves than what God wants. So God acted,
“But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:7-9
Jonah had been so pleased with the plant and it's lovely shady leaves, but he wakes up the next morning to find his comfort has gone and the blazing sun is again threatening disaster on him. Jonah yet again becomes angry, angry enough to want to die. He obviously lacks self control, an essential characteristic of a godly person.
Why is God doing this to his prophet? He gives Jonah relief one day but then removes this the next. Is God being callous? Is this action pointless? God in his wisdom is using this plant to expose Jones idolatrous self concern. Jonah had been delighted when he'd been shown God’s grace and comfort, but he's furious when that same grace is shown to the people of Nineveh. Indeed he was happy for disaster to come on Nineveh but when it comes on him it is totally unacceptable!
He has a completely distorted view of God. He wanted a God who was consistently biased towards helping his own people. He wanted God to punish their enemies but to turn his eyes away from his and Israel’s own sin. It is this idolatrous self-centredness that blinds Jonah to God's grace and from his wanting to show this grace to other people. A key verse in the middle of the book explains why this book was written, it is a warning for those of us who claim to be God’s people but will not live as he wants:
“Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” Jonah 2:8
Jonah was more concerned about his exposure to the burning sun whereas he had little concern for the eternal welfare of 120,000 people! He is blinded by self-concern. So the story finishes with a contrast, Jonah is concerned about himself but God is concerned for the lost.
“And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Jonah 4:10-11
In Hebrew the word ‘concern’ is a very strong word. It means ‘pity to the point of shedding tears’. This gives a ridiculous final scene. Jonah is weeping tears over the poor dead plant, but really his concern was ‘poor me’, Can you picture this story being told later around the campsites of Israel how the hearers would chuckle at such a ridiculous comparison? How much more should God weep for his people in Nineveh, after all he had created them and still loves them in spite of all they were doing. He knows each of their names and even the number of hairs on their head. The city of Nineveh was one of the most ancient cities in their world. Genesis 10:11 tells us that it was one of the first built by Nimrod. What a comparison, 120,000 people or a plant, which should God value more? So the book ends with a cliff-hanger:
“Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh.”
The message for us is clear. Should we not also be concerned for the lost who are in our towns and cities today?
Don’t ‘miss the point’
God wants us to see ourselves in this satire, we must not ‘miss the point’.
1. Do we show God’s grace to others?
Jonah loved it when God showed his grace to him. Israel was the same, they felt they were secure just because they were God’s chosen people. Church people can be the same. We can think that because we are members of churches that follow the doctrines of Jesus that we were safe. How often people, when asked if they are Christians, will reply, ‘ I’m a Roman Catholic’, I go to an Anglican church, ‘I’m a Methodist, ‘I’m a Baptist’. Being a member of a denomination does not mean we are saved. Baptism, confirmation and church attendance doesn’t save us. It is a personal commitment to Christ that saves. The proof of our salvation is that there is evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is because of his presence that we love Jesus and want to please him by obeying him; we love his word; we love his people; we love to involve him in all we do, we love to share the message about Jesus with others; we are looking forwards to being with him in eternity. Such is the evidence that Christ is in our lives and that we are secure in him.
Jonah lurks in all of our hearts. How can we overlook the sins in our own lives and our failings yet criticise others who do similar things?
Jesus warned us in the Sermon on the Mount,
“Do not judge, or you will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Matthew 7:1-2
My attitude to others, my love for them, reveals my attitude to God.
2. Does my self-concern keep me from speaking to others about my Lord and Saviour?
Jonah’s nationalist pride meant more to him than his care for the lost. He cared more about the plant than the thousands in that city.
Rico Tice, a Christian evangelist, tells of a week in his life that he most regrets. His grandmother was dying and neither she, nor the rest of the family, had a trust in Christ. They all thought that their good deeds would make them acceptable to God, the knew nothing of the gospel of God's grace. All the family were staying together in her house for a week waiting for her to die. Rico says that he had plenty of opportunities to go and share Christ with her, to pray with her, but he didn't because he knew his family would not approve. Consequently,
“She died without Christ and without hope.”
Rico said,
“I loved my grandmother and she loved me. The hard truth is I loved myself more than her. I wanted my family to think well of me more than I wanted her to think well of Christ. That's why I didn't speak to her. I loved myself more than I loved her and more than I loved my Lord - so my family’s respect and having an easy life became an idol to me.”
May I ask you, ‘What keeps you from talking about Jesus to your friends, to your family, to your colleagues, to your neighbours?’”
All Christians have an obligation to pass on Christ’s message to those around us. We might say, ‘I don't know enough’. Yes you do, even if you are a new Christian. Can you not share simply how Jesus found you and tell of what he means to you, of his willingness to forgive and how he gives his Spirit to enable us to begin new lives, living for him. We could easily give them an article that explains the message of Jesus. I always try to carry some articles with me now that I can pass on to any I get talking to, whether on a dog walk or visitors to our home. Too many Christians are ‘missing the point’ about why he chose us to be his people.
What is it that stops so many of us making friends with people, sharing some literature or inviting them to our home group or church, so sharing the good news about the Lord Jesus? Is it a concern for ourselves? Jonah and Jesus would ask us all to reassess our values and priorities. To have written this book, in the way he has, must mean that Jonah did come to understand what God was teaching him and that he longed for others to ‘see the point’ for themselves.
3. Do we have the same Spirit as Jesus?
Shortly before his execution, Jesus, a free man, was looking over the city of Jerusalem. He also knew that its inhabitants had also, largely, turned their backs on God. Like Nineveh, Jerusalem was similarly heading for destruction.
Whilst Jonah was weeping for his plant, Jesus was weeping for the lost. Furthermore the religious Pharisees wanted Jesus’ followers to cease talking to others about Jesus and asked him to stop this.
“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes.” Luke 19:40-42
What did Jesus then do for the people in Jerusalem who hated him and all he stood for? He enters the city, teaches the people there and then allowed himself to be crucified on their behalf. That is love! He left all his comforts behind him, entered his world to die so that we can be forgiven and only then did he enter into God’s eternal city, the new Jerusalem.
We have been shown incredible compassion by our Lord. We must therefore show this to others. We, like Jesus’ disciples, must speak out. To do this effectively we must keep praying both for opportunities to be presented to us and for wisdom so that we say what is really helpful.
BVP
Forfeiting Grace – the Message of Jonah
Recently a friend said that he doubted the validity of the Old Testament as there factual inaccuracies and he cited the story of Jonah as an example. This article examines what the book of Jonah is saying to us.
The message of Jonah is all about God’s grace. God treats people, not as we deserve but out of love, just as a mother treats her child. The key idea of the book is given in Jonah’s prayer,
“Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” Jonah 2:8
It is important to know the historical setting of this book. Jonah, son of Amittai, was an established prophet whom God has used previously in the first part of the 8th century B.C. to pass on God’s word to Jeroboam II, the king of Israel (2 Kings 14:25). At that time Israel was a vassal state of the Syrians based in Damascus. The rising power of Assyria would come to weaken the Syrians and this would enable Jeroboam II to regain Israel’s independence from Syria. Jonah lived in Beth Hepher, which is just north of Nazareth, in Israel.
God had sent other prophets, such as Amos and Hosea, into Israel to warn them that their bad behaviour had been noted by God and that his judgment would be coming their way (Amos 7:8, 8:2). Their penalty would be an exile ‘beyond Damascus’ (Amos 5:27), that is to Assyria (Hosea 9:3, 10:6, 11:5). Israel felt secure at the demise of Syria and believed that the day of the Lord would come and be their salvation (Amos 5:18-20). In fact the day of the Lord was to be their destruction.
It was about the same time that God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, that was growing in strength and warn them that God’s judgment was about to descend on them because of their godless behaviour. Jonah was horrified at this command. Nineveh was already becoming a notorious threat to the region. Jonah, like most Israelites hated the Assyrians and wanted them destroyed, not warned.
The kingdom of Assyria later became all powerful and dominated all the surrounding nations with a very firm hand. They subsequently devastated Israel, the northern half of God’s people and were to capture large parts of Judea.
Jonah’s first mistake
Jonah had been told by God to go to warn Nineveh but he responded but that was the last thing he was prepared to do! He decided that what he wanted to do was more important than what the Lord wanted of him, in spite of the fact that God had previously chosen him to be his prophet. What a foolish thing to do! But is it not just as stupid for us, God’s people today, to fail to prioritise the sharing the gospel of the Lordship of Jesus and his coming judgment with those around us today?
“Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.” Jonah 1:1-2
Tarshish was possibly the old name for Tartessos, a city and kingdom in what is now the Andalusian region of eastern Spain. The modern city identified with it is now called Huelva. How foolish Jonah was to think he could run away from God, ‘to flee from the LORD’ (repeated twice in Jonah 1:3) who is both omnipresent and omniscient! Yet is it that different from the behaviour of many Christians today who think more about their holidays in Spain than about sharing the gospel with others, in spite of the commission the Lord has given all Christians ‘to go into all the world and preach the gospel’ (Matthew 28:19)?
Judgment
After the ship set sail, a violent storm broke out that did not abate and the crew became desperate. They threw their cargo overboard and they ‘each cried out to their own god’ (Jonah 1:5). They wondered why this fate had befallen them, could it be that one of them had offended their god, so they cast lots to find a culprit and Jonah was chosen. The crew ‘knew he was running away from the LORD because he had already told them so’ (Jonah 1:10).
“I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” Jonah 1:9
This is a strange way to worship, to run away from his LORD in disobedience!
The God of grace
Conditions on the ship became even worse and Jonah, by this time feeling guilty, suggested that their problems could be solved if he were to die. Jonah must have known that after he died he would come face to face with the living God he had refused to obey. Had he understood that God was full of grace and would still welcome him into his eternal kingdom? When matters became desperate the crew eventually decide to kill Jonah by throwing him into the tumultuous sea. It seems that Jonah was willing to die to give his life for the crew.
The raging sea then became calm. The writer records the effect on the crew. Although previously they had had their own gods, this experience led them to trust in the one true God.
“At this time the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.” Jonah 1:16
They were beginning to understand the grace of God and that he wants to save people.
God, in his grace, did preserve Jonah’s life; he was swallowed by a ‘great fish’. Whenever people are saved from difficult situations it is always the work of God.
“But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.” Jonah 1:17
There has been much debate about how literal this story is. How could a fish swallow a person and vomit him out after three days? How could Jonah stay alive in a fish’s stomach all that time. Such debate can miss the point. This is a forceful story about how the grace of God overcomes man sin. McClaren in his commentary writes,
“Jonah’s refusal to obey the divine command, to go to Nineveh and cry against it, is best taken, not as prosaic history, but as a poetical representation of Israel’s failure to obey the divine call of witnessing for God. In like manner, his being cast into the sea and swallowed by the great fish, is a poetic reproduction, for homiletical purposes, of Israel’s sufferings at the hands of the heathen whom it had failed to warn. The song which is put into Jonah’s mouth when in the fish’s belly, of which our text is a fragment, represents the result on the part of the nation of these hard experiences. ‘Lying vanities’ mean idols, and ‘their own mercy’ means God. The text is a brief, pregnant utterance of the great truth which had been forced home to Israel by sufferings and exile, that to turn from Jehovah to false gods was to turn from the sure source of tender care to lies and emptiness. That is but one case of the wider truth that an ungodly life is the acme of stupidity, a tragic mistake, as well as a great sin.”
Jonah begins to understand God’s grace
It is striking how often when people are in trouble, they pray. I once pickled up a hitch-hiker who had been an infantry man in the battle of Tumbledown Hill during the Falklands War. He explained that as they were descending the hill down to Port Stanley they came under intense machine gun fire. The man next to him was shot in the head and died instantly. Everyone dug in as quickly as they could. Then he added, ‘We all prayed like mad.’ I asked whether those who were atheists also prayed.
“Oh yes, we all did.”
I then asked,
“Do you still pray?”
“No, I don’t need to now!”
He obviously hadn’t understood anything of the love and grace of God. Real prayer is a reaction to the grace of God. In contrast, Jonah prayed ‘to the LORD his God’.
“In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me.” Jonah 2:1
What a great beginning. How often God allows our distresses to bring us back to our senses. The writer C.S.Lewis said,
“God whispers to us in our joys, speaks to us in our consciences and shouts at us in his pains. They are his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
It is only when people have grasped the grace of God that they will continue serving the Lord for life. Then and only then does everything gain a new perspective. Jonah continued,
“From the depths of the grave I called for help and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.” Jonah 2:2-3
Everything becomes very personal. Jonah prays to his Lord, and he knew he was listening. It had been the sailors who threw him into the sea but he now recognised that they were agents of his Lord. The waves that seemed to be drowning him were his Lord’s waves. He knew he was dying, it was ‘from the depths of the grave’ he prayed. ‘But you brought me up from the pit, O LORD my God’, the pit was the grave and it was at this time that his faith came to life again,
“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.” Jonah 2:7
The temple of God represented the very presence of God. Jonah had a personal access to his Lord.
Jonah’s conclusion
Jonah sees that religion offers little to man and nothing to God. What we try to do to satisfy or please God is just vanity. In his prayer he says,
“Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” Jonah 2:8
The Hebrew literally reads, ‘They that observe lying vanities’. The phrase ;lying vanities’ is frequently used of idol worship but today our ‘lying vanities’ can be a wide variety of godless concerns. Some do trust in manufactured idols that reflect their inner desires, others follow vain predictions given by religious devotees, others permit themselves to be influenced by foolish anxieties, and other chase after success in becoming popular or wealthy. In leaving the God who is the source of all real blessings, the fount of mercy, such people abandon all the eternal benefits that could have been theirs. What a vital message this is, not just for Nineveh but for us today as we are beginning to face God’s judgment in so many areas. This life is very short.
An undertaker was taking a vicar to a funeral and they drove along a road with many magnificent houses. The vicar expressed how lovely it would be to own a house like these these but the undertaker brought back a bit of reality by saying,
“Well, by the time they come to me everybody looks the same!”
Jonah comes to his senses too and concludes,
“But I, with a song of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord.” Jonah 2:9
The apostle Paul was to say something similar, and surely all true Christians today can also echo this,
‘Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13
To think like this is to rely on the grace of God. God is always in command, our role is to trust and obey.
“And the LORD commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.” Jonah 2:10
Jonah acts
Again God speaks to Jonah,
“Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim the message I give you.” Jonah 3:1
This time ‘Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD.” He travelled to Nineveh and spent three days preaching in the city. A summary of his message was,
“Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” Jonah 3:4
What else he said we are not told but the effect was dramatic. People were cut to the heart, they believed that this message was from God and decided to repent and start again by living under God’s authority. Even the king put on sackcloth and he then declared,
“But let every man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God.. let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Jonah 3:7-9
This is remarkable. The king understands that God is gracious and that there is the possibility of being forgiven by him. This is the message of the whole Bible. It repeatedly talks of the gracious character of God. The Lord had told Moses about himself on Mount Sinai,
“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” Exodus 34:6-7
There is however a limit to his patience. God continued,
“Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.” Exodus 34:7
Could this have been the message that Jonah taught and that the king of Nineveh and his people responded to?
We then again read of the graciousness of God. The sure way to obtain a response from God is to approach him on his terms, with repentance from their wrongful behaviour.
“When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.” Jonah 3:10
Unfortunately this repentance was limited and later Nineveh turned back tot heir old ways and were again rejected by God. The prophet Nahum later warned them,
“The LORD has given a command concerning you, Nineveh: ‘you will have no descendants to bear your name. I will destroy the carved images and cast idols that are in the temple of your gods. I will prepare your grave for you are vile.” Nahum 1:14
The religion of the Ninevites is contrasted with the gospel of the grace of God for the next verse reads,
“Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace.” Nahum 1:1
Jonah does not have the Spirit of God
Jonah recognised the character of God as revealed in Scripture, and saw that God had decided to forgive the Ninevites as a result of his preaching, yet he himself could not forgive the Ninevites. It’s clear that he did not think they deserved it.
“But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.” Jonah 4:1
He foolishly complained at God for showing grace to this wicked people. He prayed,
“O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” Jonah 4:2
It is clear from the number of ‘I’s’ in the text that Jonah was still putting himself and not his God at the centre of his thinking. It must have been his hurt pride that led him to say,
“Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die that to live.” Jonah 4:3
Jonah needed to understand that ‘grace’, a characteristic of God, must also become a characteristic of God’s people. The Lord’s response was swift,
“Have you any right to be angry?” Jonah 4:4
The self-centred Jonah remained angry. He left the eastern city gates and made a limited shelter for himself and sat down waiting to see what would happen to the city. God, in his love, caused a vine to grow up over Jonah to give more protection from the sun. The lesson God wants the readers of this book to learn is that he is always a gracious God. The text says,
“Then the LORD provided a vine to grow over his head to ease his discomfort and Jonah was very happy about the vine.” Jonah 4:6
This phrase, ‘The LORD provided’, has already been used in this short book,
“But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah.” Jonah 1:17
It appears that this plant, possibly a castor oil shrub which can grow to twelve feet in height and has large leaves, grew in one day as we then read,
“But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.” Jonah 4:8
There are some who get very bothered about the likelihood of such a plant growing and then dying within one day. To do so is to miss the point. Jonah, embittered over the loving kindness God showed to the Ninevites is very grateful to God over a small blessing for himself. This is undoubtedly the lesson that God wants all of us to learn. To teach Jonah this lesson he takes away the small benefit of the vine from Jonah and the blazing sun bore down on him.
“When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die.” Jonah 4:8
Jonah still has not grasped that God is God, that his grace must never be taken for granted and that he is much less significant than God.
“But God said to Jonah, ‘Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?’” Jonah 4:9
How truculent Jonah remains,
“‘I do,’ he said, ‘I am angry enough to die.’” Jonah 4:10
After the episode with the fish Jonah was thrilled to be still alive, but now that Nineveh lives he wants to die. How insidious pride is. God however still wants to teach Jonah and through him teach us about his grace. The Lord said,
“You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh is has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” Jonah 4:11
The lesson of this tale is clear. God wants all people to know of his grace and to have the opportunity to repent. Yet we, his people are so reluctant to make this our priority. There are so many ignorant people around who desperately need to hear the good news about the God of grace, the Lord who cares.
How easy it is to be self satisfied Christians who love our friends within our Christian communities and churches, just like the Jews in Jonah’s day were, and not to be filled with the grace of God for outsiders.
Jesus refers to Jonah
Many people, including senior Jewish teachers, followed him simply because of the miracles they saw, but repentance was not high on their agenda. Jesus said to them,
“A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to the this generation.” Matthew 12:39-40
In Jewish reckoning a part of a day was counted as a day. Jesus is saying that the miracle he will give them is his resurrection on the third day after his death. Yet there is another significant sign people can learn from the story of Jonah
“The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.” Matthew 12:41
Those Ninevites, who were not God’s chosen people, repented and became acceptable to God whereas many in Jesus’ time, who were formally God’s chosen people, the Jews, rejected God’s Messiah. It is a sign from God when many people in foreign lands such as Iran and Iraq are turning to the Lord Jesus whereas so many in the West are rejecting his Lordship, in spite of all the evidence.
In Lukes account of this discussion Jesus then reminds his hearers of the visit the Queen of Sheba made to Solomon when she was seeking answers for the big questions of life. He contrasts her decision with their attitude to himself,
“ . . and now one greater than Solomon is here.” Luke 11:31
This story of Jonah is so important in that it teaches that the God who made this world and all of us in it is a God of grace. Whatever wrongs we have committed against him or others can be forgiven if we repent and start again living in gratefulness to him for forgiveness and living in obedience to him to fulfil his commands.
A headmaster finished his talk at a schools annual prize-giving with these words,
“So the point of life is to discover the point of life and then to make it the point of your life.
This is what the story of Jonah reminds us of. We need to find the grace of God revealed in the Lord Jesus and then make living for him the point of our life.
BVP
2 Kings 4:1-7 The Helper of the Helpless
Hardships in life can influence the way we think. The great Christian scholar C.S.Lewis, who wrote the Narnia stories, was devastated when his wife, Joy, died. He wrote, in his book ‘A Grief Observed’,
“Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. But go to him, when your need is desperate, when all other help is in vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting, and a second bolting, on the inside.”
Fortunately, over time, he came to grips with his grief and came to realise that God not only exists but that he really is all loving, despite allowing us to suffer.
Many of us today have had to face all sorts of wretched problems, debts, deaths, disease and other difficulties.
The Bible is abundantly clear that the Lord really does care for his people. The path to victory, when we are facing such problems is always to keep trusting and obeying our loving heavenly Father. This is what ‘Living by Faith’ means. A poor boy was attending a mission school in Ireland. When asked what he understood by faith he wisely replied,
“It is grasping God with all your heart whatever happens.”
This passage from the Bible tells us of a godly woman for whom everything was going wrong.
“The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbours for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.” 2 Kings 4:1-7
What are we meant to learn from this story? One preacher suggested that the empty pots being filled with oil is a picture of God’s people being filled with his Holy Spirit. He explained that elsewhere in the Bible people are compared to vessels and the Holy Spirit is often represented by oil. The preacher went on to suggest that it is when we are empty vessels, when we are empty of self, that the Holy Spirit is then able to fill us completely with himself and so we become useful for him. This idea is very clever and has some truth in it but it is surely not what God wants us primarily to learn from this succinct story. All Christian teachers, whether in pulpits or in home groups, should work out what is the main point of a Bible passage and then make it the main point of their teaching.
The context of this passage is very helpful here. It is the first of five sections, all of which deal with God’s power to overcome desperate problems.
4:1-7 Destitute woman
4:8-37 Death of the Shunammite’s son
4:38-44 Drought and desire for food
5:1-27 Disease of Naaman
6:1-7 Difficult situation of the loss of an axe
The obvious lesson to be learned from this short story, that occurred around 840BC, is that the God of the universe, our God, is the helper of the helpless and the insignificant.
God’s destitute disciple v. 1
This poor woman was in desperate trouble. Her husband had died and, as if her grief were not enough, she was now badly in debt. Her main asset was her two sons, but her creditors were demanding that they are given to them as slaves to pay off debts. These lads would have been the breadwinners for the family, without them she could starve. Can we not empathise with here dire situation?
Her late husband had been a member of the company of prophets and presumably this was how she knew Elisha. He had been faithful to Yahweh and this was at a time when such commitment was costly.
During the time of King Ahab, he and his abhorrent Queen, Jezebel, had exterminated many of the Lord’s prophets – perhaps this woman’s husband had been one of their victims. Obadiah had been the administrator of Ahab’s palace but he was a brave believer. He had told Elijah,
“Haven’t you heard, my Lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord. I hid a hundred of the LORD’s prophets in two caves.” 1 Kings 18:13
When Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel he told the massed people of Israel,
“I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left.” 1 Kings 18:22
Jezebel and her husband had used the state’s authority and money to encourage the worship of Baal and Asherah and to eliminate the worship of Yahweh.
Today Christians are still being persecuted in many regions of the world. It is not easy to be an overt Christian in countries such as Afghanistan, North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Eritrea, Nigeria and elsewhere. I will never forget an occasion when I took a group of young doctors and students to take a conference in Kursk, in Russia. We were invited to a large Baptist church in the town which was nearly full. Although there were many older women present, there was a marked lack of older men. I asked one lady the reason for this and she replied,
“In Stalin’s time many of our men were arrested by the secret police and taken away. We never saw them again.”
Life can be tough for anyone, irrespective of how they have lived. A devout Christian woman who has served God sacrificially can suddenly be told that she has inoperable cancer or that her husband has died of a heart attack. The faithful woman in our story is certainly desperate. She cried out to Elisha, Yahweh’s servant. She clings to her Lord in faith - faith shares the problem with the Lord and leaves it there.
This is so different to those who rely on their own idols, today’s idols are still man-made. This is often seen in people who idolise themselves and are self centred. The prophet Jonah quipped just over a century later,
“Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” Jonah 2:8
This woman just cries out to God, there is nothing else she can do. This is similar to the message Mary and Martha sent to Jesus, they felt helpless.
“Lord, the one you love is sick.” John 11:3
King Jehoshaphat of Judah was another man of faith. He faced an overwhelming combined invasion force and was desperate so he prayed,
“We have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” 2 Chronicles 20:12
In this instance the Lord did step in and rescue Jehoshaphat and his people but at other times his salvation is in the next life.
God’s loving involvement v. 2-6
The Lord stepped in to rescue the woman in our story but he does so in a way that is most helpful to her. He starts where she is and asks her to act by faith. She turns to God’s servant for help and he simply says,
“How can I help you?” 2 Kings 4:2
God knows everything but what he wants more than anything is to teach us to trust him. This doesn’t mean that the Lord will always answer the prayers of his people as they would like. Archbishop Ben Quashi of Nigeria has told about the atrocity experienced by a local pastor, James, and his family. Muslim extremists had already killed two of his children and they then attacked his wife. As she lay dying from gunshot and machete wounds she said to her husband,
“Is this the end between us, so we shan’t be together again?”
“Hold on to your faith in Jesus,” James replied, “and we shall meet and never part again.”
Then the pastor heard the cries of his thirteen year old daughter as machete blows cut open her abdomen. The militants screamed at her saying that they were about to kill her,
“. . . then you will see how your Jesus can save you.”
The girl replied,
“Jesus has already saved me and by killing me you will simply be enabling me to be with him.”
God often begins to help us learn to trust him by beginning to help us grasp that on our own we are hopelessly inadequate and helpless. He. The woman in our story had virtually nothing to offer.
God’s deliberate concealment
There is a striking phrase in this story. God, through Elisha says to her,
“Go round and ask all your neighbours for empty jars. Don’t just ask for a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all your jars.” 2 Kings 4:4
By asking for the neighbours help she is involving them. Wouldn’t they have asked, “What are the jars for?” Can’t you see them peering out of their windows quizzically? Later she and her sons could tell them of the love of the Lord.
This reminds us that sometimes God’s work is not meant to be the object of public gaze. How different Elisha’s instructions are to those of some modern ‘healing evangelists’ who publicise themselves and so increase their income by using every publicity stunt they can think of. Surely what God would prefer is that those who have been helped, learn to explain the source of their help to others later.
It is so easy for us to promote ourselves by stressing how much God is using us. What he does want is for his people to promote our Saviour, he certainly does not want ungrateful followers. King David learned this balance. In Psalm 40 he starts by emphasising his quiet trust in God,
“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.” Psalm 40:1-2
But then he goes on to say how he later responded,
“I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly.; I do not seal my lips, Lord, as you know. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your righteousness and your saving health. I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness from the great assembly.” Psalm 40:9-10
It is important that we all learn to talk about what God does for all his people,
Past - pardon of sin
Present – peace, purpose and power
Perpetuity – paradise.
But this must be done in a way that glorifies the Lord and not us. Some doors do need to be shut!
Jesus emphasised this is in a section of his Sermon on the Mount which begins,
“Be careful not to practise your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do you have no reward in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets . . . ” Matthew 6:1-2
How easy it is for my religion to be used to glorify me! Jesus continued,
“When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 6:5
Our ambition must be to invest in heaven. Jesus continued,
“Do not store up treasures for yourself on earth, where moths and vermin destroy . . . But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven . . .” Matthew 6:19
It all depends on our motives for using the gifts we have been given. Are we living to glorify our Lord, are we trying to build others up and motivate them or is it for my glory, because of my pride, trying to show off how spiritual I am? The Lord knows.
God longs for faith v. 5-6
Notice how this woman does precisely what she has been told.
“She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons.”
There must be a reason why the sons are specifically mentioned here. God does want our children to be involved in all we do, so that we can pass on what we know about the Lord. Let them see you having your daily Quiet Time with him, involve them in your service of others, show them that you love and revere God’s word. At meal times involve them in thanking God for his grace! We should treat them as nascent Christians, they need to be trained to fear God and taught to obey him. Our children and our grandchildren are our prime responsibility.
Gypsy Smith was an itinerant evangelist in Victorian times. He had no formal education. He was born in a simple gypsy ‘bender’ tent in Epping Forest near Woodford Green – there is a monument in the forest to commemorate the site of his birth. When he was just five years old his mother died of smallpox here in Letchworth. She was buried in St. Nicholas’ Church in Norton and you can see a lovely stone for her there.
Gypsy Smith became a Christian when he was fifteen years of age, partly through the witness of his father, partly through hearing Sankey sing and Moody preach, and finally through a visit to John Bunyan’s home at Elstow near Bedford. He then taught himself to read and began to practice preaching. His ability was recognised by General Booth of the Salvation Army and he subsequently became a very popular itinerant evangelist.
After one of his missions, a lady who had been listening intently, approached him and expressed an interest in becoming an evangelist. They discussed her gifts and her circumstances – she was married and had five children. Gypsy Smith then said,
“Let us praise God that he has called you to share your faith. But praise him too that he has already given you a congregation!”
Our passage emphasises the woman’s obedience and does not discuss any faults she had. In verses 3 to 4 she is given God’s instructions and in verses 4 to 5 we read of her obedience. For the miracle to occur she had first to obey. God could have miraculously produced a few gold coins fro thin air but he chose to involve her in the search for pots. Why did he work this way? What God most wanted for her, and for ourselves, is to build up our faith and he does this by involving us. He asks us all to obey and keep obeying whatever the circumstances. That is to ‘live by faith’. This is how God blesses his people. This is what Elisha did for this woman and it is how we can most help those around us. Everyone needs to learn to ‘trust and obey’ for there is no other way to grow as a Christian.
God’s ambition for you and me is that we should have an increasing faith in the Lord Jesus.
God’s overflowing goodness v. 7
As she poured in her little remaining oil God filled all the jars that the woman and her sons could find. Elisha then gave the woman three commands, ‘Go sell the oil,’ ‘Pay your debts,’ ‘Live on what is left’. She must have been thrilled at the outcome but we are not given any details of this.
What are the greatest blessings God has given you and me? In Paul’s letter to the Romans he lists what he sees as most important:
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2
Paul has no doubt that his faith in the Lord Jesus is fundamental to his being blessed. Through faith he has been given peace and a relationship with God for eternity. But he then continues,
“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5
Paul recognises that God is changing him through all the circumstances of life and this gives him great assurance or hope for the future. God also makes these blessings, that come from faith in him, to overflow to others around us. This is why God blesses us.
“For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” Isaiah 44:3
Jesus wants to bless all people, this is why he said,
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations . . .” Matthew 28:19
There is so much to learn from this obscure nameless widow. Contrast her with a very different character. In the Bible King |Omri (1 Kings 16:23-28) was one of the most significant kings of that time. It was he who built the city of Samaria after buying a large plot of land very cheaply (about £55,000 in today’s money) from a man called Shemer. It was after Shemer that the city was named. Omri was a very shrewd but godless ruler but all the Bible tells us about him is,
“Omri did evil in the eyes of the LORD and sinned more than all those before him . . . he aroused the anger of the LORD by their worthless idols.” 1 Kings 16:25-26
Omri died and he was succeeded by Ahab his son, who married the wicked Jezebel. Ahab was possibly the worst king of all in God’s eyes. This woman in our story gets just seven verses, one more than Omri, but the lesson is so different. We learn that God’s desperate people do matter to him and he will bless us with great peace both in this world and especially in the next, as we serve him faithfully.
BVP