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Delayed Obedience Is Disobedience

Jonah 1 – Micah 3

We read the books of Jonah and Micah today.  Well actually, all of Jonah and half of Micah.  I’ll give you an outline of Jonah today and I’ll give you Micah tomorrow.  At some point I may have to give you two outlines in one post!

I love the story of Jonah.  There are many important issues addressed in this book.  I often think of Jonah as representing those that run away from God.  While this is true on a superficial level I think he doesn’t simply represent the lost.  I think he represents more specifically those who actually have a right relationship with God.  The lost can, and do, hear God calling them, and God does use all people to His purposes but Jonah was not a person lacking in a relationship with God.  In fact the story we read today demonstrates that Jonah had a rather vibrant relationship with God.

Jonah was a prophet.  He had a close enough relationship with God to be able to discern God’s directions.  He knew what God wanted him to do; he just didn’t want to do it.  In my lifetime I have witnessed several high profile pastors publicly disgraced by disclosure of immoral acts.  I find it hard to believe that a man who has committed himself to declare the Word of God would be ignorant of God’s will for their behavior.  By committing their immoral behavior they acted as Jonah had; with disobedience.

I can hear some of you now, “Bill, some of these pastors committed adulterous, and sexually perverse acts. How can those acts be equated with what Jonah did?”  There we go again with our scale of sinfulness.  All sin is disobedience.  God does not share our man-made sin scale.  He calls the shots and there are no scales.  You might also say that Jonah was only disobedient for a short period of time and eventually relented and obeyed.  Yes, Jonah repented of his sin and eventually obeyed God.  I could argue that these fallen pastors may well have repented as well and faithfully returned to God; such is the power of grace.

I once heard Pastor Roy Fisher say from the pulpit “Delayed obedience is disobedience!”  I believe he was quoting the late Adrian Rogers but regardless of the origin of the phrase, truer words are rarely spoken.  God asked Jonah to do something and he did not do it.  Don’t quibble with me.  He attempted to run away from God’s presence, as if that could be done, and God had to discipline Jonah before instructing him once again to go to Nineveh.  In between the first and second command to go to Nineveh was a great deal of suffering on the part of Jonah.

That is how it is for you and me my brothers in Christ.  Can we really claim to be ignorant of what God is asking of us?  How could any of who have been on this journey through the Bible together claim such a thing?  We know that everything is God’s and that we are only stewards of that which He has placed in our hands.  We know the difference between right and wrong.  We know that we are to make disciples of all nations.  We know that in everything we do we are to bring glory to God.  Any time we fall short of any of this we are being disobedient.  In that moment of disobedience we have rejected the Lordship of Jesus Christ and placed ourselves at the head of our own little universe.  We know how God responded to Israel and Judah for following after foreign gods.  How do you think He would respond to you and your self-proclaimed deity?

I wonder sometimes if we really get that.  Do we get that every time we sin, whether we consider it a small sin or a big sin, we have proclaimed ourselves a god?  Jonah had to sit for three days in the belly of a great fish, seaweed wrapped around his head, considering the error of his ways.  Do you get the significance of Jonah being in the belly of the great fish for 3 days?  Jonah says he cried out from the belly of Sheol.  Sheol is the Hebrew word for Hell.  Jonah equated his 3 days of imprisonment with 3 days of death.

Jesus Christ rose from the grave after 3 days.  As Jonah said:

Jonah 2:9

“…Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

Disobedience leads to pain, and for the lost it leads to death.  You have accepted Christ but are you obedient?  If not, expect to be disciplined.  Your salvation is secure for it does indeed belong to the Lord.  That does not mean there are no consequences.  What is it that God has been instructing you to do?  Are you doing it?  If not I wonder how things have been going for you.  If you haven’t experienced discipline yet you will.  If you have or are experiencing discipline the good news is the that obedience brings restoration.  Return to God.  Obey Him and celebrate the blessing of salvation that only He can bring!

I will close by sharing a little outline of Jonah provided by J. Vernon McGee.  I found his lead up to the outline interesting because it mentions Nashville, the city in which I live, back when trains still ran through Union Station down town.

Outline

There are two approaches to the study of the Book of Jonah. The one that is the most popular and is followed by most commentators is to note the striking resemblance between Jonah and Paul. Both Paul and Jonah were missionaries to the Gentiles, both were cast into the sea, both were witnesses to the sailors on board the boat, and both were used to deliver those sailors from death. There are other striking comparisons, which a careful study would reveal. Including his trip to Rome, which I consider to be a missionary journey, there were actually four missionary journeys of the apostle Paul. The four chapters of the Book of Jonah may be divided into four missionary journeys of Jonah. The first journey was into the fish; the second was to the dry land; the third was to Nineveh; and the fourth brought him to the heart of God.

That is a very good and reliable division of this little book, but it never actually satisfied me, and I have attempted to make an outline of the book without making a comparison with Paul. Very frankly, I had more difficulty outlining the little Book of Jonah than I did the Book of Revelation.

I have another approach to outlining Jonah, and I want to tell you how it came about. Many years ago, I was waiting for the train one night in Nashville, Tennessee. I was returning to seminary, and at that time I was working on outlines for each book of the Bible, for I started early in that type of ministry. But I couldn’t figure out an outline for Jonah. When I got to the Union Station in Nashville, I discovered that the train was late and that I would have to wait thirty minutes to an hour. I did what I’m sure you do whenever you must wait in an airport or railroad station. I walked around for quite awhile before I sat down. I walked by the popcorn machine; I walked by the cigar stand (today they call them gift shops); I walked by the soda pop vendor; and I walked by the restaurant that was there. I just kept walking around, and I came to the railroad timetable. As I was looking at the timetable, it occurred to me that the Book of Jonah could be outlined according to a timetable.

Three important things are to be found on a timetable. The first is the time and place that the train or plane is leaving. Second, there is the destination of the train or plane. Finally, you need to know the time it will arrive at its destination. I go to many places today on speaking engagements, and if I fly, there are three things that are important to know: the time I leave, my destination, and the time of my arrival.

Therefore, if we look at the Book of Jonah as a timetable, this becomes my outline for the book:

	LEAVE	DESTINATION	ARRIVE
Chapter 1	Israel (Samaria or Gath-hepher)	Nineveh	Fish
Chapter 2	Fish	Nineveh	Dry Land
Chapter 3	Dry Land	Nineveh	Nineveh
Chapter 4	Nineveh	Gourd Vine	Heart of God

McGee, J. V. (1997). Thru the Bible commentary (electronic ed.). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Have an obedient day brothers!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

Hope For America

Song of Solomon 5 – Isaiah 1

Well, we have gone through the Song of Solomon in two days and I have got to tell you that to make sense of this book I think we would need two months!  I’ve been reading the commentaries and even if we just look at this book as a story about Godly marital love there is still a lot of explaining to do.  I cannot do this book justice in this format.  So, of necessity, not wishing to slight the Song of Solomon in the least, but unable to do it justice, I will move on to Isaiah.

Isaiah is the first of 17 prophetic books, not because it was written first but because it is the most comprehensive in content.  Isaiah lived around 700 B.C. and prophesied to the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  The Northern Kingdom had fallen to the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C. and things weren’t looking to good for Judah as well.  Juda was in political and spiritual decline and it was in this atmosphere that Isaiah rose to urge God’s people to return to Him, trust in Him, and obey Him.  He urged them to look to God for salvation.

Below are a few comments and an outline from:

Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-). The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

“Some have suggested that the book has two themes, one for chapters 1-39 and another for chapters 40-66. Judgment seems to be the emphasis in the first part, and salvation and comfort are prominent in the second. Since Isaiah followed the theology of Deuteronomy (punishment must come for failure to live according to the Mosaic Covenant before a time of blessing can come), the two parts of Isaiah can be reconciled. Chapters 1-39 point out the nation’s problem of sin which must be rectified before a proper relationship with the covenant God can be restored. Judgment, emphasized in chapters 1-39, is the purifying force that leads to the forgiveness and pardoning of sins emphasized in chapters 40-66 (cf. 27:9). Ultimately redemption for Israel must come from the “ideal Servant,” the Messiah, who will accomplish what the servant-nation cannot do. This accounts for the so-called “Servant Songs” in the second major division of Isaiah (42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12).

But chapters 40-66 emphasize more than redemption from sin. Those chapters go beyond that to speak of a change in the cosmos, of the Lord’s restoration of His created order. In chapters 1-39 judgment on sin is stressed; in chapters 40-66 atonement for that sin and the resulting change in people and the world system are discussed. Judgment, then, must come before blessing can follow.”

OUTLINE

I.        The Retribution of God (chaps. 1-39)

A.       The Lord’s indictment of the nation (chaps. 1-6)

1.       The heading for the book (1:1)

2.       The Lord’s lawsuit against the nation (1:2-31)

3.       An affirmation of restoration (2:1-5)

4.       The present condition and future consequences (2:6-4:1)

5.       The holy survivors (4:2-6)

6.       The worthless vineyard (5:1-7)

7.       An indictment on sin (5:8-30)

8.       Isaiah’s commission (chap. 6)

B.       Prophecies of deliverance (chaps. 7-12)

1.       The birth of Immanuel (chap. 7)

2.       The coming Deliverer (8:1-9:7)

3.       Exile for the Northern Kingdom (9:8-10:4)

4.       Assyria’s fall and the great  kingdom’s rise (10:5-12:6)

C.       Judgment on the nations (chaps. 13-23)

1.       Babylon (13:1-14:27)

2.       Philistia (14:28-32)

3.       Moab (chaps. 15-16)

4.       Damascus (17:1-11)

5.       The land of whirring wings (17:12-18:7)

6.       Egypt (chaps. 19-20)

7.       The desert (21:1-10)

8.       Edom (21:11-12)

9.       Arabia (21:13-17)

10.     Jerusalem (chap. 22)

11.     Tyre (chap. 23)

D.       Punishment and kingdom blessing (chaps. 24-27)

1.       A time of judgment (chap. 24)

2.       A time of blessing in the kingdom (chaps. 25-27)

E.       The woes (chaps. 28-33)

1.       Woe to Ephraim and Judah (chap. 28)

2.       Woe to Jerusalem (chap. 29)

3.       Woe to the obstinate children (chap. 30)

4.       Woe to the Egyptian alliance (chaps. 31-32)

5.       Woe to the destroyers (chap. 33)

F.       Vengeance and blessing (chaps. 34-35)

1.       The Lord’s day of vengeance (chap. 34)

2.       The Lord’s day of blessing (chap. 35)

G.       Historical interlude: Judah to be in captivity (chaps. 36-39)

1.       God’s superiority to Assyria (chaps. 36-37)

2.       Judah’s captivity in Babylon (chaps. 38-39)

II.       The Restoration by God (chaps. 40-66)

A.       Deliverance of God’s People (chaps. 40-48)

1.       The majesty of God (chap. 40)

2.       A challenge to the nations (chap. 41)

3.       The individual Servant contrasted with the servant nation (chap. 42)

4.       A promise to regather the unworthy servant (43:1-44:5)

5.       The Lord’s uniqueness as the only God (44:6-45:25)

6.       The Lord’s superiority over Babylon (chaps. 46-47)

7.       An exhortation for Israel (chap. 48)

B.       Restoration by the Suffering Servant (chaps. 49-57)

1.       The Servant to be rejected (chaps. 49-50)

2.       The remnant to be exalted (51:1-52:12)

3.       The Servant to be exalted (52:13-53:12)

4.       Salvation to come from the Servant (chaps. 54-57)

C.       Restoration realized and completed (chaps. 58-66)

1.       The restoration to come by God’s initiative (chaps. 58-60)

2.       The coming of the Messiah and the coming of the Father (61:1-63:6)

3.       The nation’s prayer and the Lord’s response (63:7-65:25)

4.       The Lord’s fulfillment of His promises (chap. 66)”

As I read this first chapter of Isaiah I felt I was reading the entire case stating our need for a savior.  I also found myself thinking of our nation.   Billy Graham once said “If God doesn’t punish America He will owe Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.”

Isaiah 1:21-236

“How the faithful city
has become a whore,
she who was full of justice!
Righteousness lodged in her,
but now murderers.
Your silver has become dross,
your best wine mixed with water.
Your princes are rebels
and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe
and runs after gifts.
They do not bring justice to the fatherless,
and the widow’s cause does not come to them.”

I’m afraid I see my country that way; once faithful, now full of greed.  Our “princes”, or politicians, are rebels and companions of thieves.  God speaks of judgment for sinful ways.  He also speaks of the fact that He will wash our sins away if we are willing and obedient.

Isaiah 1:18-19

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;”

This is the hope we have in Jesus Christ.  I believe this hope is available for our nation as well.  A nation is made up of people.  The deplorable moral state of our nation exists because of the lostness of our countrymen.  How do you change a nation?  You change it one heart at a time.  I found this verse particularly apropos.

Isaiah 1:9

“If the Lord of hosts
had not left us a few survivors,
we should have been like Sodom,
and become like Gomorrah.”

The Lord of hosts has left America a few survivors; a remnant, you and me.  America does not have to be like Sodom and Gomorrah.  If a few good men will stand in the gap, if they will share their faith with the lost, if they will be faithful and obedient to the will of God, then this nation will be changed.  What an awesome responsibility God has given us.  By sharing our faith we can be part of God’s saving grace.  We can be part of changing hearts and changing this nation.  The solution to the problems of this nation will not be found in political parties and programs but in Jesus Christ.

I’m looking forward to reading through this book as it has a lot to tell us about the Messiah and His saving grace!

May you have a day that offers you the chance to share Jesus with others!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!