Jonah's Commission: Its Sovereignty and Righteousness
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” — Jonah i. 2. “And He said unto me, TJepart: for I tvill send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.’” — Acts xxii. 21.
IT was partly, then, with the view of constructing-, so to speak, a handle against His professed and peculiar people, and of “provoking them to jealousy,” that Jehovah, the God of Israel, the God of all the earth, planned and executed this memorable dispensation of His righteousness and forbearance towards Nineveh. And for the prosecution of this purpose, and in selection of an instrument, an agent suitable, a vessel meet, or to be made meet, for the Master’s use, the lot fell on Jonah. “The word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it: for their wickedness is come up before Me.”
We may notice concerning this command as delivered to the prophet — (1) the sovereignty-, and (2) the righteousness characterising it.
I. It is a Sovereign command. It is THE KiNG who speaks — “the King of kings,” speaking in that character; a sovereign Lord, not o-ivinii account of His matters. His command is brief, imperative, laconic. There are no explanations accompanying it; no details given; no prediction of the issue; no information offered, nor the hope of any. It is also a very sudden, abrupt summons to duty; no preparation going before — no vision paving the way, or throwing light on the purpose.
Usually, a prophet, ere thrown into a new and difficult position, might look for a new and special preparation. Thus, ere Isaiah was led to say, “Here am I: send me “— though it was on the very sad and sorrowful commission, “Go, and tell this people,
Hear ye, indeed, but understand not: and see ye, indeed, but perceive not: make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy; and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and healed,” — his dutifulness and implicit loyalty to his Heavenly King- were toned into fresh purity and power by his ever noble vision: — “I saw also the Lord, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.” And when his “eyes had seen the King,” and his soul was abased unspeakably’; and when his peace was made unspeakable through the fresh removal of his sin, the purging of his iniquity, sealed anew as it was by the sacramental pledge of the “live coal from off the altar;” in the joy of free and full forgiveness, in the charmed life of the acknowledged friend of God, in the reanimated adoration of one who had been admitted to the High Court-room, the audience and presence-chamber of the King, Isaiah is prepared for any message or mission, to any people, anywhere. His only care and question will be, Is this the message of my King and my God? Then, “Here am I! send me” (Isa. vi. 1-10). Thus did the Lord deal with Isaiah. But to Jonah there is given no vision — no special, predisposing, preparatory vision at all, such as might have disciplined his soul for stern and sorely trying duty — duty altogether different from any he had ever had in hand before.
Jeremiah, also, besides his visions of “the rod of an almond tree,” and “the seething-pot, with the face of it towards the north” (Jer. i. 11, 13), had another most blessed advantage. He was admitted to full and familiar conversation with the Lord concerning the commission assigned to him. Indeed, the Lord graciously so shaped His communication as, reverently speaking, to draw out the young prophet to a free statement of his feelings. Evidently, the word of the Lord, when it came to Jeremiah, seemed to court the prophet’s full unburthening of all his mind. “Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Manifestly this was designed to be the introduction to a free and unembarrassed conference. So Jeremiah accepted it. “Then saith I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.” And to this the gracious Lord replied, — entering, shall we not say? most feelingly and most fully into His servant’s fears and anxieties, accepting his confidence and honourable confessions concerning his intirmities, and graciously encouraging while arming him against them — “But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me. Behold, I have put My words into thy mouth” (Jer. i. 4-9). Most confirming to the inexperienced prophet-elect must this most condescending interview with the Lord have been; the Lord acting to him the part rather of his Father than of his King.
Isaiah had a glorious view of the King; Jeremiah had a confidential conference with his Father. To Jonah there is given no vision. To Jonah there is given no conference. Simply and suddenly, the naked and imperative command comes forth, “Arise, go to Nineveh, and cry against it.” There is no illustrative, symbolical commentary as by vision; there is no explanation proffered by word of mouth. In high and sovereign state, as with the prompt and studied brevity of military peremptoriness and precision — as when the general on the field condescends on no explanations to his officers, but simply gives the word — so, when the Angel of the covenant, the Head of the Church, Immanuel, the Captain of the Lord’s host, the same that appeared to Joshua with a drawn sword over against Jericho, has a great evolution of his generalship to execute, and one of his staff to send to Nineveh, the word is with all brevity and haste, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it.”
Was this no trial to His poor servant? Assuredly it was. Yet herein nothing happened to Jonah but what is common to the faithful. There is much of the military discipline in the discipline of the Christian life. The Lord, as your Father, will uniformly admit you to all familiarity of emotion and expression in your dealings with Him; but, in His dealings with you. He will sometimes expect the implicit, immediate submission, without inquiry, without explanation, and without delay, which an absolute sovereign may demand. Nay, He may even painfully
24 Jonalis Mission: its Sovereignty.
point forth to you the difficulties of your duty — the greatness and soreness of your trial. He may admit that the city against which He sends you is great and wicked — “that great city, whose wickedness is come up before Me.” The one only thing which He may not conceal may be the danger of your position. He may even touch the very core of your most sensitive feelings — whei’e the trenching on them in the slightest measure must needs be very painful. “Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom tJtoii lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering, upon one of the mountains which I shall tell thee of” (Gen. xxii. 2). And what is your refuge, what is your strength, in such an hour? Is it not the character of Jehovah, which is “known in Judah — His name, which is oreat in Israel?” When the overstrained heart-strino-s are like to crack under some peremptory, inexplicable appointment from God, what shall restore their tone but a flight by faith and adoration to the rectitude of Jehovah: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. xviii. 25): to the sure goodness of Jehovah; “Truly, God is good to Israel” (Ps. lxxiii. 1): to the unsearchable wisdom of Jehovah; “He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names; great is our Lord, and of great power; His understanding is infinite” (Psa. cxlvii. 4, 5)? This God is your refuge. All these His attributes, in their searchless glory, are committed to you in a covenant of promise — risking to you, therefore, ere you can be injured, the injury and ruin of Jehovah’s faithfulness, and righteousness, and goodness, and wisdom: “Be not dismayed, for I am thy God.”
To this refuge Abraham fled in the trial of his faith; and he was rewarded by receiving his son again from the dead in a figure, and being made to see — in the substituted ram for a sacrifice, and the symbolic resurrection of Isaac, when to his father he was already, by this mysterious command, “as good as dead” — a figure of the substitution, and death, and resurrection of the Lamb of God, and of the salvation thereby of the children of the promise; by “seeing,” in short, in all this, “the day of Christ afar off, and he was o-lad.” To the same refuije — in confidence of his Lord’s righteousness, goodness, and wisdom — Jonah did not flee, till, having himself undergone, as the type of the same seed of Abraham, a symbolic death and resurrection of his own — even as “the Son of man was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” — he returned to his allegiance, chastened and subdued, ready to render implicit obedience to a Sovereign who giveth not account of any of His matters — who doeth whatsoever pleaseth Him in heaven and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places (Psa. cxxxv. G).
II. But this command to Jonah was also Rifrhteous. It was sovereign, but not in arbitrary sovereignty. It had its foundation in perfect rectitude. And that feature of His command the King condescends clearly to state and establish: “Cry against that great city, for their wickedness is come up before me.”
Thus also in conferring with Abraham anent His intended vengeance on Sodom, Jehovah seeks in great condescension to justify His purpose to His friend; and, speaking after the manner of men, “The Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come up to Me” (Gen. xviii. 21). Thus, — though knowing all things and needing not to make investigation, — in order to express His rigid justice more emphatically, God clothes Himself, as it were, with the person of an earthly magistrate, who will pronounce no sentence on hearsay evidence, but will personally investigate the case and satisfy himself; and so He speaks of having “come down to see whether they have done altogether according to the cry that is come up unto Me.” It is formally judicial.
And so here. It is a case of judicial procedure. The judge is satisfied of the guilt. He is weary of keeping silence. He is at last “come, and will not keep silence, and the heavens shall declare His righteousness, for God is judge himself” (Ps. 1. 2, 6). Nineveh has had a long day of grace, a long period of forbearance, an unmerited respite and reprieve, slighted also and utterly abused. The Lord sits down at last on His tribunal. The case is to be called and judged. And Jonah is sent forth as God’s pursuivant to summon the culprit to the bar, to be the King’s counsel also to plead against him.
In this light the trial of Jonah’s faith and duty was not so intense as in the former. Unquestionably the trial is alleviated by this representation of the righteousness of what the Lord is about to do. And why may not Jonah, in the King’s name, on the King’s message, taice the King’s highway to his new sphere of duty, bidding cahii defiance to all manner of evil, assured that in loyally prosecuting the quarrel, and maintaining the government and honour of his Lord, no evil can befall him? For “if God be for us, who can be against us?” What then though the city be “great,” and the mission mysterious? The city is intolerably “wicked.” The mission is in perfect righteousness. And Jehovah Himself is Judge.
Jonah may not, indeed, be strong enough yet for thus prosecuting fearlessly the work given him to do. He may not yet set himself so simply, so fully, in the word and wisdom of the Lord as to silence and crucify the wisdom of his own carnal reason, — the light of the Lord not yet being allowed calmly and alone to shine upon his heart and indicate his path. He may need to be brought through a terrible experience of his own, before his faith be pure enough, before his shield and sword for such a warfare be welded into sufficient tone and temper for securing him the victory. “Judgment may begin” first on himself, in the appalling affliction that his waywardness brings upon him. But shall the Lord’s quarrel with Nineveh therefore not be pleaded? Nay; it shall be pleaded more emphatically by far on account of any such delay. Jonah shall come to them at last with all the unshrinking strenuousness and firm nerve of a man who, fresh from terrific trial, visible and invisible, feareth not the face of clay. The very presence of the man among them shall say. If judgment begin upon the prophet of the Lord, what shall the end be of them that obey not His word? If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the wicked and the ungodly appear? (1 Pet. iv. 17, 18). And when then he shall deliver Jehovah’s word of judgment, — as if his own soul were standing in the gates of that eternal world from which he has been miraculously redeemed, and his eye filled with its tremendous revelations, — there shall be a tone of unflinching certainty and majestic terror in his voice, w-orthy of the redeemed herald of the King of kings, in fixing amazement and conviction into the hearts of His foes.
And thinkest thou, O man, who hast learnt the melancholy work of persuading thy conscience to refuse the office of crying against thee, of haling thee to judgment, ot” bringing thee before Jehovah till the controversy be pleaded out and closed — oh 1 thinkest thou that that messenger, though he flee from his work, never will return and resume it? Though that Jonah, that prosecutor, that disobeying prophetic conscience of thine, descend into the deep sea for secrecy, and tarry there for days or even years, the Lord shall command his re-appearance; and in re-invigorated, unearthly power at last, shall he preach to thee the preaching that the Lord hath bidden him. “Hast thou found me, 0 mine enemy?” is the question which you are doomed to have on some future day to ask: “Hast thou found me, 0 mine enemy?” For, until “the conscience be purged in the blood of Christ from dead works to serve the living God,” and so exercised as to be kept “void of offence towards God and towards man,” you lie open at any time to a visitation of relentless and remorseless arrest, from which you shall find no open path of escape, no opportunity either for retreat or appeal. Therefore, ere “thou goest with this adversary,” still an adversary, “to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite” (Luke xii. 58, 59).