Bible Basics: The Growth of Faith

            The story of Jonah is an amazing and fascinating one.  Jonah most likely grew up like most Hebrew boys.  It is a guess, but I will assume that Jonah was taught about God by his parents.  We will assume that Jonah’s parents faithfully worshipped the God of Israel.  This would have been a challenging situation because of the chaos and spiritual anarchy that was prevalent in Israel at that time.  When Jonah was alive (in the 8th century B.C.), the country of Israel had been ravaged by civil war.  The country had been divided into a northern half and a southern half. The northern half of Israel was led by a succession of ungodly kings.  They did not follow the God of the Bible.  Instead, they worshipped the pagan gods of their neighbors.  Jonah was born and raised in the ungodly, idol-worshipping northern half of Israel.  The southern half of Israel was where the Temple of God resided (in Jerusalem).  We do not know if Jonah’s parents made trips to worship God at the Temple in Jerusalem.  Those details are not available.  What we do know is that Jonah worshipped God and that God had called him to be one of His prophets.

            Jonah bursts into our attention with the book that he authored, the book that bears his name.  It would seem that what we call the Book of Jonah is an autobiography of sorts.  While we do not have any details of Jonah’s early life in the book of Jonah, we read in the opening verses that God gives Jonah a message and a mission.  God called Jonah to deliver a message to the city of Nineveh (the capital of the Assyrian Empire).  This message was one of judgment and coming destruction.  The mission was to go and preach this message in the streets of Nineveh.  It is at this juncture in Jonah’s life that we see Jonah go AWOL.  Jonah refused to preach the message, and he would not obey the mission God gave him to go to Nineveh.  Jonah opted to disobey God and take a boat ride in the opposite direction.

            Many people assume that Jonah was afraid to go to Nineveh for fear that they would kill him because of his message.  Most of us can understand and relate to overwhelming odds and dangerous activities.  Most people would view preaching in Nineveh like going to Nazi Germany (in the late 30s and early 40s) and speaking against Adolph Hitler in Berlin.  Yet this is not the case.  I’m not saying that preaching in Nineveh was not dangerous.  I’m saying that is not why Jonah disobeyed God and ran the other way.  Jonah was prejudiced.  Jonah viewed his Hebrew pedigree with a mindset of superiority.  Most Hebrews were like that.  They felt privileged and special.  After all, the Hebrew people were the descendants of Abraham.  God chose Abraham and made a special covenant with him.  God promised Abraham that his offspring would be special and blessed.  The Hebrews were Abraham’s offspring and they were the special people of God.  Therefore, all other nations and people groups were less and inferior - at least that was the thinking of the average Hebrew, Jonah included. Here is the interesting truth that many people miss.  When God told Jonah to go preach to the Assyrians, Jonah was afraid that they might listen to the message and repent.  If these hated Assyrians humbled themselves and repented, Jonah was afraid that God would forgive them and show them mercy.  Jonah wanted to avoid that possibility, so he ran.  The Book of Jonah is about God showing great mercy and forgiveness.  However, before God could and would show mercy and forgiveness to the Assyrians (yes, they would repent), God had to teach Jonah a few lessons. 

            God stepped into Jonah’s life and grew his faith through some hard-learned lessons.  Jonah did not understand how much his faith needed to grow.  How often does that apply to us?  How often are we quite content to live with a puny faith?  A faith that seeks our will not God’s will?  Now, of course, we probably would not concede that we have a puny faith.  Most people mistakenly think that their faith is ample, abundant, and large.  Like Jonah, we often don’t know what we don’t know!  God is not upset when we have a small faith, but God is not content or pleased for our faith to remain small.  Like Jonah, we will be led by God to grow our faith as we face life’s challenges and difficult situations.  Facing these obstacles forces us to grow in our faith.  Join me next week as we continue to learn from the life of Jonah. Keep looking up!