The Purpose of This Blog

In response to the challenge by the Southern Baptist Convention that churches take on the task to share the gospel with unengaged unreached people groups, the missions team of Harmony Pittsburg Baptist Association felt the need for a way to focus prayer on the task. This blog is intended to facilitate prayer for those contemplating their role in fulfilling the Great Commission. This on-line prayer guide may prove useful to those exploring a call to missions involvement as well as to those who have sensed a call to pray for those who will go to the front lines.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

The Reluctant Missionary -- Why?

It would be a mistake to say that Jonah's preaching was successful beyond his wildest dreams.  It was successful beyond his wildest fears.  When the whole city repented at his message and the Lord relented from their destruction, Jonah was not happy.  In fact, he became angry.  Here's how The Message paraphrases the opening of chapter four:

"Jonah was furious.  He lost his temper.  He yelled at God, 'God! I knew it--when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen!  That's why I ran off to Tarshish!  I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn you plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!  So, God, if you won't kill them, kill me! I'm better off dead!'"


Most preachers fantasize about having the kind of response to their preaching that Jonah had, but not Jonah.  Why did he want the Ninevites destroyed?  Commentators usually point to Jonah's nationalism as a lesson in prejudice. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a nation known for its aggression and brutality.  They were feared or hated by all the nations who stood in their path of conquest.  Jonah knew what they would do (or had done, depending on when the book is dated) to the Northern Kingdom.  They would be pitiless, so why should he pity them?  Jonah "pre-judged" an entire people, condemning them in whole without thinking of them as individuals.  We do the same with our racial or class prejudice and with our ethnocentrism.  We view entire groups as inferior or less worthy without regard for the character or abilities of individuals.  We follow Jonah in preferring that God would punish them rather than bless them.

I believe the Lord wants us to see that there is more to Jonah's anger than just prejudice.  If prejudice were the whole of the explanation, the story could have ended with Jonah's outburst and God's explanation of concern (see the last verse).  Why did God deem it necessary to take Jonah through the experience of the plant that shaded him and then died?  What was He showing Jonah and what does He wish to show us? He shows us that at the root of Jonah's anger is a self-centeredness that was more interested in his own comfort than in the welfare of thousands of innocent others.  The one factor that more than any other keeps Christians from doing our part in evangelizing the nations is unwillingness to disturb our preferred lifestyle.  We are more concerned about our own welfare than we are about the passion of God to reach the lost.

Something must happen to end our stubborn willfulness.  One of the events that led to the Lord's revealing to me my resistance to the call to missions was hearing a sermon by Charles Stanley on "The Problem of Brokenness."  He uses Jonah as an example of a man who refuses to humble himself in submission to God.  God is not just using us to get a job done (bearing light to the nations); He is also molding us into Christlikeness in the fashion of Philippians 2:5-11.  If the Lord of glory was willing to humble Himself and give up His rights, how could I do any less?

As we pray today, may we humble ourselves before Him.  May we confess that our failure to join Him in reaching the nations is a symptom of self-centeredness.  Let us ask Him to do whatever it takes to bend our will to His.

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