mgpcpastor's blog

Today at Friday Bible Study we sought to apply Brian Chapell’s Fallen Condition Focus to the book of Jonah.
Those of you who are regular readers will recall that as Jesus walked on the road to Emmaus with the two travellers: ‘with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them [the Emmaus travellers] in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
Think for a moment that as they walk those seven miles that Jesus mentions the book of Jonah. There was plenty of time, they walked seven miles. After all Matthew and Luke revealed that Jesus specifically mentions Jonah at another time. So this is not fanciful speculation.
We are challenged not to sentimentalise such an idea. What we are doing is trying to identify the same ‘Fallen Condition Focus’ that Jesus would have. Remember that the ‘Fallen Condition Focus’ is:’the mutual condition that contemporary believers share with those for whom the text was written that requires the grace of the passage to manifest God’s glory to His people.’
So, what did we find?
Firstly we tried to orient ourselves with the question: Is a sermon the applications of which would be acceptable to a Jew, a Muslim or a deist really a biblical sermon? For instance a sermon on the first chapter of Jonah could make the application: Obey God’s commands.’ People from all three of the groups mentioned above would probably have no problem with that. What are the things concerning Jesus that are contained in the text? If we don’t find them then our sermons are not sermons at all. Not Christian sermons, at any rate.
Another key is to remember that God is the hero of the Bible. Everyone else has failings. When we read Jonah we are not primarily learning about a runaway prophet, a big fish or a repentant city. We are learning about God.
To help the study group I tried to identify three areas that the FCF will generally fall within. These were: requiring God’s mercy; receiving God’s mercy and responding to God’s mercy.
Consider Jonah’s commission from God: ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.’
In these words the following facts emerge: The God of Israel holds other nations to account; their actions matter to Him; He judges those nations; and yet; He holds out the prospect of mercy by the sending of Jonah to warn them. The nations need God’s mercy, and God holds out the propsect of mercy to them.
We turned to the words of Jesus in Matthew 12: 39-41: ‘…but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.’
Those who were seeking miraculous signs were told that the only sign they would receive would be the sign of Jonah. Part of the message that Jonah shared with Ninevah was his deliverance by God in the belly of the fish. The prophet was obedient to God’s command to preach to the city. He introduced the idea that the city had forty days to repent. The idea that he also spoke of the fish is implied in Jesus’ words.
The people of Ninevah were convicted of their need for God’s mercy and turned to God that they might receive that mercy. They did so as a result of the testimony of one who had spent three days in the deep.
Jesus would ultimately show the sign of God’s judgement and mercy as He emerged from the grave on the third day.
This is not trying to find rabbits in hats. This is engaging in the same reading process of the Scriptures that Jesus used.
If we say that the book of Jonah is about obeying God’s commands; trusting God when you’re in a tight spot; faithfully preaching God’s word; and accepting God’s will then we have not said anything wrong: we have just not said everything right. By doing so we failed to truly represent the Bible’s message.
A final application: consider God’s discourse with Jonah in Chapter 4. Jonah clearly does not understand or accept the breadth of God’s mercy and the fact that God shows it to whoever He wants. Instead of burdening Jonah with guilt about his selfishness, God again tells Jonah of His mercy. Jonah’s motivation for telling others about the mercy of God is not guilt, it is meant to be a greater and deeper understanding of God’s mercy.
This is a Gospel understanding of the Scriptures. Your and my motivation for telling others about Jesus is not a sense of guilt or obligation, it is a sense of gratitude and an understanding of His mercy.
That is Christ in all the Scriptures.