The Reluctant Servant

I love reading about Jonah pouting and complaining to God about His calling to Nineveh. Jonah is a prophet with whom I can identify, though not necessarily with pride, because Jonah’s behavior and conversations with God are so familiar to our human condition. God told Jonah to do something he absolutely did not want to do. Ever been there?

God’s directive to Jonah was to go to Nineveh to convict them of their wicked sins. Jonah did not want to go because He knew God would be merciful and gracious, slow to anger, one that relents concerning coming calamity. Jonah unwisely runs away, thinking He can escape the presence of the Lord.

“Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ‘Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.’

Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.” Jonah 1:1-3a Berean

On his way sailing to Tarshish, a storm threatens to capsize their ship, drowning them all. Jonah’s shipmates knew that he was fleeing the Lord God Almighty and eventually threw Jonah into the sea:

“‘What have you done?’ The men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them…” Jonah 1:10b Berean

God had a whale prepared to swallow Jonah up, thereby saving him. While in these dire circumstances, Jonah calls out to the Lord. With every expectation of dying, Jonah has a change of heart, sees the vanity of life, and prays a most beautiful prayer of petition and renewed commitment to obedience:

“As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord. My prayer went up to You, to Your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.

But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, I will sacrifice to You. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation is from the Lord!” Jonah 2:7-9 Berean

Jonah’s prayers when helpless and facing death are heard by God, Who makes a way of escape for Jonah. It also is so for us, even when we initially refuse and try to run from His will. God is not surprised and has already prepared rescues for many of us, saint and sinner alike, rebellious or not, saving us from our dire circumstances. Hearts change when facing death, becoming fully convicted without any other hope.

Jonah was then sincerely obedient to do what God told him to do. But wait—was he? Well, Jonah obediently preaches the coming doom and disaster to Nineveh’s inhabitants if they do not repent, just as God commanded Him to do. But he is not happy about it! He is resentfully obedient and, as he predicted, the people of Ninevah became aware of their sins, repenting with fasting and prayer. Jonah watched as the people of Ninevah turned back to the Lord to receive forgiveness.

Instead of rejoicing that all were saved by God’s mercy, Jonah gets angry that God does not destroy them. Apparently Jonah is tired of preaching disaster when He knows that God will show compassion and mercy when they repent. If God is going to save them anyway, why bother preaching a word of judgment if they do not repent? Perhaps in his own eyes, Jonah feels like a fool.

After having been miraculously saved from death himself, Jonah was so furious he actually wanted to die:

“Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord, saying, ‘O Lord, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.

And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ But the Lord replied, ‘Have you any right to be angry?’ Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.

So the Lord God appointed a vine and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’ Then God asked Jonah, ‘Have you any right to be angry about the plant?’ ‘I do,” he replied. ‘I am angry enough to die!’

But the Lord said, ‘You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night. So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?’” Jonah, Chapter 4 Berean

Jonah, the reluctant servant, is actually angry about God’s compassion and mercy! He accuses God because of His nature: “See, I know what You are like. You’re gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster. I knew you would do this and that’s why I ran away!” He is still in disagreement with God’s plan though He did do as instructed.

Disagreeing with God’s instruction, as well as His decision to save Nineveh, teaches Jonah some valuable lessons. God finds Jonah pouting and complaining that God is forgiving the people of Nineveh instead of punishing these sinners as he had predicted. Jonah gets really angry, just like some preachers get angry and preach against sin with threats of eternal damnation instead of salvation and redemption.

Some are continually railing against sin without mercy for the sinner instead of ministering the way out of it. God teaches Jonah about compassion by His nurturing of a plant that brings comforting shade, later causing it to die. God shows Jonah’s care about the plant is like God’s care for the people of Nineveh. Seeing it from God’s viewpoint, Jonah was humbled and had nothing more to say about it. The plant and the people belong to God and He will do justly with all in His hands.

Basically, God says to Jonah: “It’s all My creation, My business, not yours.” And it is surprising how many of God’s servants do resent God’s mercy towards others. So many seem to want others to “earn it.” Perhaps we want others to suffer the same struggles we have had in coming to God, but where is love and mercy in this? Where is God’s compassions that never fail? Jesus said that all would be paid the same: granted salvation freely. Consider this parable Jesus told in Matthew 20:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a person who owned some land. One morning, he went out very early to hire some people to work in his vineyard. The man agreed to pay the workers one coin for working that day. Then he sent them into the vineyard to work.

About nine o’clock the man went to the marketplace and saw some other people standing there, doing nothing. So he said to them, ‘If you go and work in my vineyard, I will pay you what your work is worth.’ So they went to work in the vineyard.

The man went out again about twelve o’clock and three o’clock and did the same thing. About five o’clock the man went to the marketplace again and saw others standing there. He asked them, ‘Why did you stand here all day doing nothing?’ They answered, ‘No one gave us a job.’ The man said to them, ‘Then you can go and work in my vineyard.’

At the end of the day, the owner of the vineyard said to the boss of all the workers, ‘Call the workers and pay them. Start with the last people I hired and end with those I hired first.’ When the workers who were hired at five o’clock came to get their pay, each received one coin.

When the workers who were hired first came to get their pay, they thought they would be paid more than the others. But each one of them also received one coin. When they got their coin, they complained to the man who owned the land. They said, ‘Those people were hired last and worked only one hour. But you paid them the same as you paid us who worked hard all day in the hot sun.’

But the man who owned the vineyard said to one of those workers, ‘Friend, I am being fair to you. You agreed to work for one coin. So take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same pay that I gave you. I can do what I want with my own money. Are you jealous because I am good to those people?’

So those who are last now will someday be first, and those who are first now will someday be last.” Matthew 20:1-16 NCV

We belong to God and it is His decision what He does, how He blesses those that serve Him. We see God’s heart revealed, as well as perhaps His sense of humor, in this account of His dealings with Jonah. God’s promise of universal salvation of all expounds on the Lord’s nature of compassionate mercy. The decisions God makes can be trusted to teach us His truth. He works within us through Christ until we accept and surrender to His ways.

God may not put us in a whale’s belly, but there are innumerable troubling circumstances that He uses in this world to bring us to repentance. He surely can leave us trapped in dark and dismal circumstances until we yield, surrendering to His directives. In this way, we learn His ways, as we obey what He tells us to do. We can then say with the Psalmist:

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.” Psalms 119:72 Amplified

It is good news that our God is compassionate, slow to anger, and ever merciful, even to us reluctant servants! One wonders what had happened to Jonah, clearly a prophet of God used to bring forth God’s message to the people of that day. Was Jonah "weary of well-doing,” delivering all the threatening judgments that God said would happen that did not come about because our God is a forgiving and merciful God? Perhaps Jonah became so tired of seeing sin rule all around him that he finally saw his own vengeful heart.

The lessons to Jonah are clear. It is God’s business to extend His mercy and compassion to whomever He will, stated this way by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament:

“What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! For He says to Moses: ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” Romans 9:14-16 Berean

“This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” I Timothy 2:3-4 NASB

Our Lord’s compassion is present in this account of God’s dealings with Jonah. Praise God that man’s desires or efforts do not determine the outcome, God’s mercy does. The servants of the Lord are carrying out His will in many matters, but the final outcome is in always up to God. What happens to us is totally dependent upon God’s mercy, and He’s got a lot of that!

“We can make our plans, but the final outcome is in God’s hands. We can always prove that we are right, but is the Lord convinced?

Commit your work to the Lord, then it will succeed. The Lord has made everything for his own purposes—even the wicked for punishment.” Proverbs 16:1-4 Living Bible

God’s nature is found in mercy and love. His decisions affect all that happens, choosing what and with whom the truth and justice of His nature is revealed. We who desire to be more like Him find we have hearts increasingly filled with His compassion and mercy for all. We know it will take time, even ages, but due time will come, whether it seems that way or not, for every knee to bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.

God is absolutely not dependent upon what man desires or works hard to accomplish. He made a way of escape for all through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sometimes Christians do speak and act as if God is not in charge, that He is helpless to defeat satan, unable to fulfill His plan because of the will of men. Do we not yet know that there is not one decision God has made to which fallible man is not subject? He oversees the choices people make in life.

God wants us as loving sons and daughters, not robots. Yes, the people of this world have long been subject to an enemy, but we do see the Lord of the universe having a plan for this world of people He so loves! Remember, satan can only work in the dust realm of the earth. The father of lies has already been defeated by our Lord Jesus Christ, who is leading the battle for victory over our enemies within and without. He intercedes between us and our enemies, leading the charge as Michael, the archangel, the Chief Messenger of Revelation.

Jesus Christ most certainly does not need to intercede between us and a vengeful Father, for our sins are blotted out and God remembers them no more.

“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” Isaiah 43:25 NIV

“For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more." Hebrews 8:12 Berean

Our Lord Jesus does not need to plead with His Father for our forgiveness. It is already accomplished. Jesus connects us with Father God, and, as he clearly states in the gospels, “if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Father God is one with our avenger and protector, Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords. We have God the Father’s power and authority through our Lord Jesus Christ fighting every battle on our behalf.

We are at rest while ever ready to provide God’s words and comfort, wisdom and deliverance, to others. Nothing happening in this world surprises God. Evil has not caught Him by surprise, nor is He wringing His hands at what we humans do. There are many, many, mysterious things that God does that we do not correctly discern. When we are called and chosen by Him, our lives move on to the path God has set out for us whether we understand or agree, even when we join Jonah in being reluctant servants.

When we surrender to Him, we are locked in, destined to go His way. God is a most excellent Father who will train us up in the way we ought to go. He is a God Who builds relationships and connections, creating us for His own pleasure. God teaches willing hearts of His ways, delighting in our growth as well as being merciful at our stumbling. Remember, stumbling while learning to walk is natural for young ones. God, like the parent of a toddler celebrating their little one’s first stumbling steps, rejoices in our process of growth. He promises us:

“The steps of a man are ordered by the Lord who takes delight in his journey.

Though he falls [stumbles], he will not be overwhelmed, for the Lord is holding his hand.” Psalms 37:33-34 Berean

The Lord delights in the steps of a man who is walking after Him. Do you believe that? It is far from the preaching some hear, where God’s supposed disgust with His sinful creation is expressed. Earlier in this Psalm, we are admonished not to fret, not to get “all heated up” about evildoers, because God will deal with them. If we can only accept that God is not a vengeful God but a God of mercy, love, and hope, we won’t be troubled by the evil in the world, either.

We learn not to observe and judge the man who stumbles, condemning their unsteady spiritual walk, when it is just what God has set up to teach this one about Him by drawing Him to Himself. Mistakes equal learning when God’s Spirit is instructing us concerning the kingdom of God. What God allows, even with disasters remove all human hope, is used for good to change His servants. His purpose is always just, beyond the purposes and efforts of humans, always working towards unfolding His great plan for the ages.

Many times we can look back at losses and endings, seeing now the blessings and growth from those times of discipline through adversity. We rest in knowing that God knows what we need. He provides His disciplines required for us to mature in His ways, to go beyond observing or being confused by His acts.

God has the purpose, plan, and power to redeem us to the uttermost. He says so, many times. When we, His people, delight in His ways, here is His promise to us, in three different translations:

“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him.” Psalm 37:23 NIV

“The steps of a man are established by the Lord when he delights in His way; Psalm 37:23 ESV

“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in His way.” Psalm 37:23 KJV

How we need to show God that we delight in Him, as He is delighted with us! If He created us for a loving relationship with Him, why wouldn’t He be delighted to hear from us, to have us draw near His throne to worship and learn from Him? We might fall into disagreement with God’s decisions —until God invites us to come up a little higher in the spirit to see as He sees. We know that His ways and nature are higher, and better than ours.

If God thought like a man, He may have said about Jonah: “I’ve had it with this guy and his rebellion. Thinks he can hide from Me? Ha!” God could have just rubbed Jonah out. Instead, God sees Jonah’s weary heart and provides instruction that comforts him. What a tender and patient heavenly Father! As Jesus taught the parable of two sons who were told by their father to work in the vineyard, He reveals differences in their hearts about obeying their father.

One son is reluctant but later is obedient, while the other says he’ll do it but doesn’t. With whom do you think God is pleased?

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not’, he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir’, but he did not go.

Which of the two did what his father wanted?’ ‘The first’, they answered.

Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” Matthew 21:28-32 NIV

Here is evidence that reluctance does not equal disobedience. Most parents would rather have a reluctantly obedient child who disagrees with them but still obeys than a child who superficially agrees but does not obey, or is rebellious and refuses their direction. Jesus said the tax collectors and the prostitutes, thought to be the worst sinners of the time, would enter the kingdom before His audience of learned but unbelieving Jewish religious leaders. Jesus is saying it does not matter how you start out if, in the end, you obey the Father.

The (self)righteous Jews say they are obedient, doing what their Father wants according to the laws of Moses, yet it is just words without action or heart to fulfill them. This same condition exists today in lukewarm believers giving lip service to God’s will while their hearts are far from Him. Rest assured, God’s love has them covered, though they may arrive later than the ones who have turned from deeply sinful lives to find God’s ways. Great need always searches out great love.

It is not the appearance of being religious that will open the gates of His kingdom. If that were the case, the religious leaders of Jesus’ days on earth would have been first to enter. God looks upon the heart of man, discerning the thoughts and intents of us all, judging beyond our words and our actions to our inner man.

“For ‘God has put everything under His feet.’ Now when it says that everything has been put under Him, this clearly does not include the One [Father God] who put everything under Him.

And when all things have been subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will be made subject to Him who put all things under Him, so that God may be all in all.” 1 Corinthians 15:27-28 Berean

Isn’t this absolutely great news? We do not need one thought of vengeance for sinners nor to be disappointed like Jonah when God restores all. We can be eager, not reluctant, to be a part of wiping tears off faces until He completes this work. It has begun, this Day of the Lord, and the completion may take eons, but it will be fulfilled. Why would He say it if He will not do it?

We are the light in the world that all need to see to know the One True God, to see the mercy and justice, love and compassion that is our God’s nature. God brought it to Nineveh, but they surely did not witness it in His servant Jonah. Yet God was so compassionate and merciful with this man who had been serving Him. And Jonah did know God’s nature better than some do today!

We are to be clothed with His nature, not found naked, in this hour. God has a Body of believers in unity who are already being refined by the fires of God’s presence. The purification is happening as the day of our salvation draws nigh! Those who do not believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Him to lead us to the Father, just don’t know the Nature they are ignoring. If they knew Him, they’d love Him like we do!

He does create in us a willingness, a desire to run to do His will rather than be reluctant to accept it, let alone fulfill it. God is the changer of hearts and has all in His hands. Regardless of occasional reluctance to go where He leads or stumbling upon the obstacles in our path of life, we are invited to progress in God. We remain in His spiritual school, enduring all with patience and faith until His promises are fulfilled within us.

The kingdom of God is within us and we look to its completion, for God surely has begun a good work within the hearts of His chosen and He will complete it.