182: Jason Hensley - Exhortation: Jonah

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Welcome to Good Christadelphian Talks. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. And I'm Brian. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week, with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to listen to.

2. 0:33

   And now, let's talk more about this week's talk. This week's class is an exhortation by Brother Jason Hensley that he gave at Simi Hills two days ago on March 6th. So this is two weeks in a row of Chris and I sharing the exhortations that we just heard from our homocleges, which is a little funny.

3. 1:04

   But I do think that both. I thought Josh's exhortation last week was fantastic. And I thought Jason's this week was very, very interesting. Jason is a close friend of mine. I've grown up with him. But he's an incredibly well-studied and thought-out Bible student. And this class shows that. He kind of introduces it in a pretty, I don't know, alarming, I guess not the word, but exciting way.

4. 1:32

   And Jason shares that he's been translating parts of the Bible himself. He is a biblical languages student. And so he's finished his translation of Jonah and wanted to go through the lessons that he kind of thought about as he was seeing different comparisons and relations between the Hebrew used to write Jonah. And the lessons he comes away with are very powerful and really exhortative, perfect foreign exhortation in kind of showing that the theme of Jonah is that God's love and mercy will not be stopped if, you know, the people of...

5. 2:18

   Jonah does everything he can to kind of prevent the people of Nineveh from being saved. And still God's love is shown to them. So I thought it was really excellent. I'm excited to share it. Sorry again for the delay. Like last week, it takes a little bit longer since we're trying to get a class from on that, that was given on that Sunday.

6. 2:42

   But here is Jason Hensley on Jonah. So I've been trying a new method of study here. So we're going to see how this goes. Jonah is the first time I've ever tried it. And this is now the first time I've ever presented it. So you'll have to come to me and tell me if it doesn't make any sense.

7. 3:03

   Because otherwise you're going to get a lot of this from now on. So what I'm trying to do now is I sat down and I translated the book of Jonah. It's the first time ever I've translated a biblical book. And what I wanted to talk about now is just some of the things that came from that.

8. 3:21

   And some of the... You know, when you sit down and read it in the original language, you can sometimes see some of the themes because you see repetitive words and things like that that don't always show up like that in English. So we're going to look at Jonah through that sort of lens, kind of going through thematically.

9. 3:40

   I want to take us through, first of all, God's stance in the book. And then second of all, Jonah's stance in the book. I think that's kind of the two main ideas that are going on. And it's almost the wrestling of God's will and Jonah's will. It's what seems to really be happening there.

10. 3:58

    So we're going to look at both of those. So God's will first, Jonah's will second. And then we're going to come to the Lord Jesus. So, if you'll come with me now to Jonah chapter 1. We're going to start there. Because we want to spend a little bit of time just looking at what it is that God tells Jonah.

11. 4:18

    I think we're fairly familiar with the story. But maybe at like a... I don't mean this to be insulting because this is where I was at before I looked at this. Kind of at like a Sunday school level. Well, you know, because we hear it so much. And if we're talking about the story, oftentimes we're telling it to kids.

12. 4:38

    So, let's try and go a little bit beyond that. Have you ever wondered why Jonah was so bothered by what God told him to do? It's sort of a funny thing, you know. I think because we're used to the story, we just think, oh, Jonah just didn't want to. Right? But if you read what he's told to say, it doesn't seem like something that would really bother him that much.

13. 5:06

    So, we're in Jonah chapter 1. And let's just start at verse 1. So, look for what Jonah is told to say to Nineveh. Jonah 1 verse 1 says, So, that's all that Jonah's told. Go to Nineveh. Tell it, basically, I'm going to flatten it. I'm going to destroy it because they're bad. And Jonah says, no.

14. 5:41

    Right? Like, why does that bother him so much? You know, you'd think that Jonah would maybe think, yeah, like, I get to go tell them that they're a bunch of losers. You know, I've always known that. So, like, that's going to be, that'll be great. Take that, Nineveh. You know, something like that.

15. 5:57

    And that kind of fits the personality that you get a little bit of Jonah here. Right? And yet, he totally doesn't want this. And I think it relates to what James was saying when you go back to Jonah chapter 4. Jonah explains why he didn't like the proclamation. So, James read it in Jonah 4.

16. 6:23

    Jonah says in verse 2. Jonah 4 verse 2. He prayed to the Lord and said, So, Jonah explains, you know, I never wanted this mission in the first place because I just knew you weren't going to do it. Now, here's the funny piece of this. Do you hear that anywhere in what God told him?

17. 7:01

    Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. There's no, like, so that that way I can forgive them, or so that they'll change, or something like that. It's just a, go, tell them, they're going to be destroyed, and then you can go home.

18. 7:18

    And yet, Jonah seems to understand that implicit in this calling is mercy. And that's why he doesn't want this. Now, I'm going to suggest to you that there's a second way to translate this verse. And so, this is kind of interesting. And I think we kind of missed this because not a whole lot of English translations translate verse 2 this way.

19. 7:43

    But another way that you could read this is, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, so far so good, and call out, here's the different word, instead of against, this word could be read to. That sort of changes it. And call out to it. For their evil, now, if you have the ESV, you might actually have a footnote here.

20. 8:08

    That word evil doesn't necessarily mean wickedness. It can also mean disaster. And if you look at the historical records, it actually appears that there was, like, a lot of disaster happening in Assyria at the time. It was, like, a time of economic collapse. This is why, probably, Jonah was sent solely to the king of Nineveh.

21. 8:30

    If you notice, the king is never called the king of Assyria, even though Nineveh was one of the major cities in Assyria. But it's probably because the empire was, like, falling apart at the time. And so, what I would suggest, then, is that there's actually sort of two meanings going on here. On one hand, you get this sense that God says, I'm going to destroy it.

22. 8:50

    You see it there on the screen, right? In Jonah 3, verse 10. And God was definitely going to destroy Nineveh. But at the same time, God says to Jonah, But I don't want to. And I want you to tell them, I've actually seen their suffering. And Jonah hears that, and Jonah says, Ha!

23. 9:10

    I'm not going to do that. Right? I know. You know, you want me to tell them. You're going to destroy them. But I've also seen your suffering. And I want to help you. Right? So it's like the carrot and the stick kind of thing. Jonah says, I'm not having that. Now, if you turn over to Jonah chapter 3, I think we can reinforce that this is what God was saying.

24. 9:30

    In Jonah chapter 3, there's some more evidence as far as what's going on in the Hebrew. I'm not going to go into that. But if you want to talk to me about it later, I'd be happy to. We're just going to move over to Jonah chapter 3 and verse 3. Jonah 3 verse 3.

25. 9:51

    And once again, the ESV is going to help us a lot here with the footnote, which is nice. Because not a lot of translations do that, and I don't know why. In Jonah 3 verse 3, it's now explaining. Jonah's being sent a second time. So he's being sent the second time to Nineveh.

26. 10:07

    He's being given the same proclamation. And there's a little description here of Nineveh, which you'll see in the footnote, but you won't see in the English. So it says here in the ESV, So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days journey in breath.

27. 10:34

    Now the word there exceedingly is very interesting. And I think it is totally a mistranslation. And if you've heard my translation classes, I don't think mistranslations happen very often. But this is one where I cannot figure out any way that the translators got exceedingly from what's there in the Hebrew. And yet like every translation has this.

28. 10:52

    So I don't know really what's going on there. But the Hebrew, as far as I can tell, it's virtually impossible to make it say exceedingly. It is clearly, exceedingly is an adverb. It's modifying that word great, exceedingly great. Right? Sorry to get all grammar-y on you, but I love grammar, man. Anyway, exceedingly is an adverb.

29. 11:16

    And in the Hebrew, you're actually looking at a noun. Right? Like this is, you can't turn nouns into adverbs. That's like big law of grammar. So what this really should say is, now Nineveh was a great city, ready for this? To God. That's one of those like, whoa, that's really different. But that's literally what it says there in the Hebrew.

30. 11:47

    Now Nineveh was a great city to God. And the only thing I can come up with is that the translators were translating this and they thought, well, that doesn't make any sense. So they said, what else could it mean? Well, kind of exceedingly, like the word Elohim kind of means great. Right? Sometimes.

31. 12:04

    So it means mighty. So they decided to use it as an adverb there, but it very clearly isn't. And so I think what we're being told here is God cares about Nineveh. You know, it's reinforcing this message that Jonah wasn't just called to like, cry against Nineveh, but he was told, go to Nineveh, tell them that I see their calamity, I see their disaster because I care about them.

32. 12:32

    And Jonah was just like, I can't, I can't handle that idea. You know, you care about the Ninevites, like that, that does not sit with me. I'm going that way. Okay. So this is the message. This is the book of Jonah from God's perspective. And I think this is very helpful for us because oftentimes we look at the book according to Jonah's perspective.

33. 12:54

    You know, we follow, here's Jonah running away, here's Jonah coming back, here's Jonah being mad about the plant, all of this, right? But in reality, the book is meant to tell us about God. What we're being shown is, here is God saying, here's all these totally messed up people in Nineveh, and I see their suffering, and I care about it.

34. 13:19

    Right? It's not just, oh, you know, they're getting what they deserve. God says, look, on one hand, I'm going to have to give you what you deserve, but I don't want to, so let's change the situation. Okay. Jonah is a book about God's abundant mercy. And here's what's fascinating about it. Now as we turn to Jonah's perspective, Jonah is going to do everything he can to thwart God's abundant mercy.

35. 13:49

    And it doesn't work. Okay. So let's take a look at this. Number one, we know that Jonah runs away, right? So Jonah runs away. That clearly doesn't work. All right. Well, I think typically, as we've read this book, we say, okay, well, Jonah gets thrown into the ocean. He has this life and death experience, and that's where things really begin to change.

36. 14:11

    What's fascinating about that is if you read Jonah chapter two, which is Jonah's prayer, right? You'll notice that there's definitely something that's missing. Now, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'll give you the quick summary. Basically, Jonah two, verses two through seven are Jonah saying, I was dying and you rescued me.

37. 14:35

    I was dying and you rescued me, right? He's just reflecting on, wow, I'm so grateful that God saved me. Good thing to feel, right? Well,

38. 14:46

    let's think about the situation. Jonah was just running away from God, right? So what would you expect Jonah to say? Maybe something like, I'm sorry, you know, oh yeah, I shouldn't have done that, that was bad, you know, whatever. But he doesn't. That's one of the really strange things about this prayer. There is no, I repent for doing something that didn't make any sense.

39. 15:19

    Okay, so Jonah doesn't do that. And instead, look at what we get in verse eight. So, verses two through seven is Jonah basically saying, thank you for saving me. Look at verse eight. This is like the weirdest repentance prayer ever. Verse eight says, those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.

40. 15:39

    But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed, I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. I mean, you translate this in like modern terms, right? You get this whole, thank you for saving me. I'm glad that you don't save anybody else. But, man, I deserved that.

41. 16:00

    You know, like that's basically how that like, works out to. Verse eight is like, condemning everybody else in the world. And then verse nine is saying, but you saved me. And that's good. Like, this is a really weird prayer. And I think often we come to it and we say, oh, yay, you know, Jonah's like turning his life around and everything.

42. 16:18

    And that's not really what's happening. Jonah's just basically saying like, wow, you know, I am so important to God. Like, he made a fish to save me. That's awesome. And like, no way will he save those Ninevites because they all worship idols. Okay.

43. 16:34

    But then verse, chapter three, verse one, where the Lord comes to Jonah again and says, how about Nineveh? Right? Time to go take care of that.

44. 16:45

    So, what's interesting then is Jonah has this like, two-fold message, right? He doesn't want to acknowledge it. He doesn't repent with his prayer. And God comes to him and says, okay, tell them again. I'm going to destroy them, but I don't want to have to. Right? Now, did you notice when we read this, what Jonah says?

45. 17:07

    So, Jonah, we're told in verse four, began to go into the city going a day's journey. Now, that's kind of funny that he goes a day's journey because how big was the city? Three days, right? So, you can see like, he wants to be in there like as least as possible. You know, he doesn't even go through the whole city and tell everybody.

46. 17:27

    He pops in there, says, well, here's what he says, in 40 days, Nineveh will be overthrown and then he leaves. Okay. This is like the worst preaching effort ever. I mean, can you imagine that? Like, it's like going to a group of people and saying, you're all going to die and then just walking away.

47. 17:45

    Right? That's what he does. Like, this is, this doesn't make any sense what he says, but he doesn't want to proclaim the message of mercy, right? He only goes a day into the city. He just says, God's going to destroy you in 40 days. He leaves and God will not let his message of mercy be stopped because somehow, even though there was nothing about this in the proclamation, the king of Nineveh says, all of us need to repent and maybe God will relent.

48. 18:16

    Right? God gets the message across no matter how, like, bad Jonah is at it. Right? So Jonah, Jonah tries to, to mess it up so that it doesn't work and Jonah expresses that in chapter four. He says, well, you know, I didn't want to do this in the first place because I knew you were merciful and I knew that you were going to forgive them.

49. 18:34

    Okay. So, to wrap up the Jonah piece, I think it's very interesting to see what God does. You know, it's this funny, like, story about this plant growing up and a worm. Right? Have you ever wondered, like, what's going on here? What is it that's actually happening? Well, I think it actually centers around that word from the first proclamation when God says, I have seen their calamity or that word evil, right?

50. 19:04

    In Jonah one, verse two, their evil has come up before me. That word in Hebrew shows up all over the place in this book. And one other place where it is is in Jonah four, verse six. So, in Jonah four, verse six, it says, 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 evil.

51. 19:40

    To save him from his evil. Now, the book starts out by telling us here's Nineveh in its evil and what Jonah's being shown is, hey, you know that prayer that you prayed in two, verse eight, where you said, those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope with steadfast love. Well, actually, that's about you too.

52. 20:02

    Right? All you guys are in this together. Here's Nineveh in their disaster and guess what? Here's you in your disaster. And so, I think the whole point of God making this plant is to say, look, you don't deserve this plant, so I can take it away with this worm, you know, whatever. You don't deserve the plant.

53. 20:21

    The Ninevites don't deserve their mercy, but I'm giving it to them. I gave you the plant. Did you like it? Right? And Jonah's like, well, yeah, obviously I did. And he says, well, there you go. That's the answer. You know, it wasn't like the Ninevites earned their mercy by repenting. I mean, this is, this like repentance doesn't even make any sense.

54. 20:43

    You know, you read through it in chapter three, like they're having cows fast, fast, right? Like, how does, how does that do anything? You know, if you, if you decide, like, they had all the animals fast. That, nowhere in the Bible are we told to do that. Like, the Ninevites repentance doesn't make any sense.

55. 21:02

    And yet, it's very much like what's going on with Jonah. You know, Jonah builds this, like, little dumb hut that doesn't seem to do anything, right? Because he's still in the sun, apparently.

56. 21:15

    Ninevites repent doesn't mean a whole lot. Jonah builds this hut to save himself from his discomfort doesn't mean a whole lot. And yet, God says, Ninevites, I'm giving you mercy. Jonah, I'm giving you mercy. Because that's who I am. And that's what he wants Jonah to understand. And so I think that what comes out of this book for us, I know that was like Jonah in 15 minutes, but what comes out of this book for us is really that here's a God of, the best word to use is almost like unrelenting mercy.

57. 21:52

    You know, here's Jonah saying, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to tell him. And God says, well, guess what? They're going to repent anyway and I'm going to forgive them. Right? Like that's, you can't stop it, Jonah. And this is who our God is. And I think sometimes we almost feel uncomfortable with that.

58. 22:08

    You know, we don't like that idea. And yet, that's what this table is about. Let's go to Romans chapter 5. This is our last verse.

59. 22:29

    Sometimes I think we misunderstand what's being said in these verses because we get in our mind that we are sinners today, still forever. You know, we say things like, I'm a sinner. And I don't think that's true. You know, we sin, we mess up, we make mistakes. But the way that God wants us to see ourselves is as saints.

60. 22:56

    You know, he's taken us from being sinners to now we're saints. And with that in mind, take a look at how Paul describes the work of Christ.

61. 23:08

    Romans 5, verse 6. This is God's abundant mercy. Romans 5, 6 says, This is just like Nineveh. You know, while you're trying to figure out how do you even repent? I don't know, make the cows fast. Like, right? This is, while we were weak, while we didn't know what to do, God says, I'm going to have my son die for you.

62. 23:35

    And we sometimes get this idea that like, you know, we have to be perfect before we get baptized. Or we have to be perfect before God loves us. Or we have to know exactly how to follow him. And that's not how it works. You know, that's the message of Jonah. That God sees you as Nineveh and he says, I know what you're going through.

63. 23:58

    I know your calamity. And I want to change it. Verse 7. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

64. 24:22

    God's love, his abundant mercy is shown in that Jesus' death meant something to us before we tried to change our lives. And that the changing of our lives is meant to be our response to the fact that Jesus died for us.

65. 24:49

    Because Paul says in verse 7, Jesus didn't die for us while we were righteous, while we were good people. Jesus died when we were like Nineveh.

66. 25:02

    And so, as we come today to examine ourselves, we remember that we're in the process of changing. God is transforming us from sinner to saint.

67. 25:20

    And therefore, we need to recognize that just as that abundant mercy has been given to us, that must now affect how we see and how we interact with each other. Because if Nineveh can be great to God, how much more are all of us? Thank you for listening to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast.

68. 26:02

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69. 26:19

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70. 26:43

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