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2 Kings 5:15-19a (ESV)

15 Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.” 16 But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused. 17 Then Naaman said, “If not, please let there be given to your servant two mules’ load of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the Lord. 18 In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.” 19 He said to him, “Go in peace.”

 

            After Naaman, the Syrian military commander,  was healed by God of his leprosy, he made the 25 mile journey back from the Jordan River to the house of Elisha.  Naaman is overjoyed.  Naaman is also changed.  He knows that from now on, there is only one God he can worship, the Lord, the God of the Bible. 

 

            Naaman tries to give Elisha a gift in return for his healing, but Elisha will not accept anything from Naaman’s hand.  Elisha certainly does not want Naaman to think that he had paid for what God had done. 

 

            When Naaman asks to take home a load of earth from Israel, he is showing a changed form of worship.  Many people in those days thought that the only way to worship a god was on the land of that god.  Naaman, whose theology has not yet been all worked out, knows that he only wishes to worship the Lord, and so he will build an altar out of the dirt that he brings home from Israel.  This is serious stuff, Naaman is changed.

 

            But there is one odd request that Naaman has.  He asks for understanding and pardon in regard to somewhere he has to go as he works.  Naaman is a servant of the king of Syria.  This king worships a false god in Syria.  Naaman knows that his job will require him to assist the king, physically offering the king support or giving him an arm to lean on as the king goes into the temple of his false god.  When the king bows down to his false god, Naaman has to bow too.  This is not that Naaman wants to worship the false god, but he cannot stand and still help his king.  Nor would it be acceptable in any of those cultures for the army’s general to remain standing and have his head above the head of his king.  Thus, in order to be the general, Naaman has to bow down.

 

            Naaman asks Elisha to pardon him in this, because he has no intension of worshipping that false god.  Naaman wants to do his job, but not to dishonor God.  Elisha simply tells Naaman to go in peace, which seems to indicate that Elisha understands Naaman’s request and is allowing him to go with the peace of God upon him.

 

            We learn certainly that Naaman is changed, but we also learn here that anyone who has come to faith in Christ will also be changed.

 

Saved people worship only the one true God.    

 

            As Naaman said in verse 15, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.” Similarly, anyone who truly comes to faith in Jesus Christ will realize that there is no other god in the universe.  There is one God, the Lord. You cannot be both a Christian and a Buddhist or a Muslim or a Hindu.  Part of trusting in Jesus is forsaking all other religions for saving faith in Jesus Christ alone.

 

Saved people are grateful to God, but do not try to repay God for grace.

 

            When Naaman tried to give Elisha a gift, Elisha would not receive anything from his hand.  It is very good to be grateful to God for saving your soul just as Naaman was grateful to God for his healing.  However, we cannot repay even an ounce of what God has done for us. 

 

            Imagine for a moment that your favorite musician comes to your house to play for you a private concert.  The musician tells you that he or she is doing this out of kindness to you.  What would it say to the musician if, at the end of the concert, you offered them a five-dollar-bill?  If you did that, you would insult the musician.  He or she already has enough money.  Your puny little gift would only serve to cheapen the event and rob the musician of his or her kindness.

 

            In our sin against God, we owe an infinite debt.  Only the infinitely glorious Son of God, Jesus Christ, could ever pay our debt.  For us to think we are going to pay Jesus back for his work is insulting, and it is insulting on a major level.  We are to be humbly grateful to Jesus, but we dare not think even for a moment that we are repaying him for his work on the cross.

 

Salvation always leads to worship.

 

            Naaman wanted to take earth home from Israel to build an altar.  This is because, once you are saved by God, you will worship God.  No person who has truly had their life changed by God will refuse to worship God.  And no person who has been truly changed by God will refuse to worship God in the way that God requires.  To the best of their ability, those who have been saved by God will obey the commands of God to worship God.

 

            So, for example, when we tell a new Christian to be a regular attendee in church, we are not telling that person to earn his or her salvation.  When we call on believers to be in church, all we are doing is inviting them to do what all believers will naturally do.  All who are saved will worship.  God commands us to worship together as a body.  Thus, if a person is saved, he or she should worship in church.  Salvation always leads to worship.

 

Salvation causes us to examine every aspect of life.

 

            Naaman raised the question about bowing down as he helped his king.  Why that question?  Naaman was doing what saved people do.  When you have been cleansed by God, it will lead you to look at all that you do.  Everything you think, everything you enjoy, every part of your job, all of it will be stuff you examine to see if you are doing what pleases God.  Saved people examine their lives and look to see if they are able to do what they do and still please their Lord.

 

            Ask yourself if these things are true of you.  Christians, have you totally recognized that no other gods exist and that no other religions in the world will lead to salvation other than salvation by grace through faith in Christ?  Is your life full of gratitude to Jesus for his work but not full of attempts to repay Jesus?  Has your faith led you to genuinely worship Jesus as often as you can?  Have you examined all aspects of your life to see if they are honoring to God?

Zephaniah 3:17

 

The Lord your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;

he will rejoice over you with gladness;

he will quiet you by his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing.

 

            The above is another verse that is often quoted out of context and applied without discernment. However, it is also an amazingly sweet verse that we should consider.

 

            In the context of Zephaniah’s prophecy, we find that God is promising some radical judgment for the people of Judah for their rebellion against him. These people call on the name of the Lord and then turn and bow to Baal. They break the covenant that they made with God on a regular basis. So it is no surprise that God will promise them judgment.

 

            What is a surprise, to those who do not know God, is that God would follow the promise of judgment with promises of mercy. God warned people to repent in order that they might be spared his wrath. Then, as we see in 3:17 above, God promises more than mere forgiveness for his people who will turn to him and repent of their sins. God promises a rescue that will lead to him singing for joy over his beloved people.

 

 

            Now, I’m not going to suggest that every Christian put this verse on a t-shirt and make it a common symbol of our faith. Sadly, such sloganizing cheapens the meaning behind such a beautiful promise of God. In the verse above, God told rebellious Judah that, if they would repent, he would not only forgive them, he would effusively love them. In a similar way, we who are believers can see the gospel.

 

            The good news is that, though we all rebelled against God just like Judah and earned his wrath, God has offered mercy in Jesus. All who come to know Jesus by grace through faith are forgiven children of God. As John points out in John 1:12, those who put their trust in Jesus are more than forgiven, they are given the right to become children of God. God loves his children. He effusively loves his children. So, just as Zephaniah promised the people of Judah that God would sing for joy over the remnant that he rescued, so too we can rejoice that our God rejoices over us as his children if we are in Christ.

Habakkuk 1:5-6

 

5 “Look among the nations, and see;

wonder and be astounded.

For I am doing a work in your days

that you would not believe if told.

6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,

that bitter and hasty nation,

who march through the breadth of the earth,

to seize dwellings not their own.

 

Habakkuk 1:12-13

 

12 Are you not from everlasting,

O Lord my God, my Holy One?

We shall not die.

O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,

and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.

13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

and cannot look at wrong,

why do you idly look at traitors

and remain silent when the wicked swallows up

the man more righteous than he?

 

            Sometimes we let familiar, biblical phrases become part of our doctrine only to find out that the application of such phrases are hermeneutically unsound. So, for a few paragraphs, I intend to show how a failure to use proper context leads to confusing interpretation of the Bible and inconsistent doctrinal stances.

 

            Let me set the stage before working to make a hermeneutical point about the passage above. Habakkuk is a prophet of God who is amazed and even frustrated that God would allow the people of Judah to dishonor God so much. He wonders where the justice of God is. He wonders why God is not, as the law has promised, judging the rebellious nation for their sin. This is found in the first 4 verses of chapter 1.

 

            When God responds, he tells Habakkuk to be ready to be shocked. Habakkuk has no idea what is coming. God is about to do something amazing, something unheard of. God is going to use the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, to come in and judge the nation for sinning against God. That is verses 5-6 above.

 

            Then Habakkuk is shocked and even more dismayed. Of all the nations that God might choose, Habakkuk cannot stomach the concept of God using Babylon to punish Israel. In verses 12-13, the argument Habakkuk is basically making is, “No way; they’re worse than us!” Later in the book, God will show that he is both planning to use the Babylonians and to judge them for their wickedness.

 

            Now, let me make the hermeneutical point that has my attention. Have you ever heard someone talk about and even express wonder at the fact that God cannot look upon evil, his eyes are too pure? That concept comes from Habakkuk 1:13 which asks, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” Time and time again, I get questions like, “If God is too pure to look on evil, how could Satan have been in his presence in Job 1?” Sadly, those questions come from an over-application of Habakkuk 1:13 that goes well beyond the author’s intent.

 

            Look at the verse in its context. Habakkuk is expressing his utter chagrin that God might use the Babylonians of all people to judge Israel. So, speaking poetically, Habakkuk is trying to say, “Hey God, you are better than that. You can’t use those awful people to judge us. You can’t dirty your hands by using them as tools.” Habakkuk is not trying to make some sort of theological point about God not somehow being able to look at evil. The point he is trying to make is that, to Habakkuk’s mind, using the Babylonians as a tool for God’s will seems to be unthinkable.

 

            Think hermeneutically. What is the author intending to communicate to his readers with that sentence? He wants his readers to grasp that Habakkuk, like many people, struggles with the fact that God uses what appears to be dark and evil to accomplish his plan without himself being tainted with darkness or evil. God uses the evil actions of evil nations to swirl together to somehow accomplish perfectly righteous ends. God does not do evil. God does not author evil. God is not corrupted by evil. God is holy. And this concept of God working his will in this way is just beyond what human minds can fathom. God is god and we are not. God is totally good, even when we cannot understand how that can be.

 

            The hermeneutical point that I want to make ,then, is to show how a single verse like the one above is very often taken to mean far more than the author intends to communicate. To pretend that God somehow cannot see evil is inconsistent with the fact that God is omniscient. He knows us. He knows our thoughts. He never fails to see us, even when we are evil.

 

            Now, don’t get me wrong, God is pure. His purity cannot b compromised by the evil that you and I do. In fact, were you and I to be thrust into the unveiled presence of God without a covering for our sin, we would be destroyed by his holiness. God told Moses that we cannot look on him and live. God will never be corrupted by us, but he will eventually destroy all sinful corruption from the world.

 

            So, my caution here is to be careful as you read and apply passages. Whenever you come across a verse like Habakkuk 1:13, don’t take it out of the flow of the author’s discussion. Yes, I know that many phrases like “you who are of purer eyes than to see evil” are really catchy and will preach well. But please, let context and author’s intent drive the way that you handle the passage. Don’t rip phrases out of their context and make your theology from them. While the one I’m using as an example is not greatly harmful, it is confusing and inconsistent when taken out of the prophet’s poetic meaning. And the truth is, God’s word is far better, far stronger, far more powerful than our pithy little quips. God’s word does not need for you and me to find meaning beyond its clear meaning in its true context.

2 Kings 23:31-32 (ESV)

31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.

 

            Political change does not and cannot change the heart of a nation. While I would certainly agree that we want to be involved in the political process, voting for men and women of character and promoting laws that promote righteousness, no amount of political reform will ever make the people of a nation have different hearts toward God and the things of God.

 

            One example of this truth is found near the end of the narrative of 2 Kings. In chapters 22-23, we find the record of the reign of King Josiah. King Josiah is described in the Bible in a very unique way. No king before him or after ever turned to God with all his heart as did Josiah. Josiah was also incredibly zealous for the name of God. He enacted political and religious reform in Judah and even over the land of Israel in ways that nobody had seen in history. He tore down altars to pagan gods and did away with practices which God declared to be evil. It was one of the greatest house-cleanings that ever happened.

 

            But, when Josiah died and his son Jehoahaz took over, things went right back to the way that they were. The verses above tell us that Jehoahaz, unlike his father before him, did evil in the sight of the Lord. Just one generation after the greatest outer reform Israel had ever seen, the people and the leaders again dishonored God with their hearts and actions.

 

            All this reminds us of a simple truth. We cannot reform the nation or even our town with outward changes. We reform only when God changes hearts. Only the Lord can see into the hearts of men. Only the Lord can change the hearts of men. And without that kind of God-sized heart-change, true national reform does not take place.

 

            So, let us pray that God change the heart of our nation. Let us join God on mission to make disciples. These acts are the only things that will change our world.

2 Kings 19:34

 

“For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

 

        Have you ever looked at our society and thought that it was hopeless? Have you ever looked at a lost friend with whom you have tried and tried to share the gospel and thought the task impossible? Have you ever looked at battles in the culture war of today and thought that there was no way they would turn out right? Have you ever looked at the progress of the church and thought that she has lost?

 

        Ponder the situation of 2 Kings 19. The enemy was all around. There was no hope. No way was the outcome of this battle going to be positive. The people of God were outnumbered. The warriors of the Assyrians were too skilled. Jerusalem was going to fall. That is, unless God showed up.

 

        But God did show up. He sent an angel to get rid of an army of 185,000 men. God won a mighty victory. And in that act, God did 3 things. God defended his name. God defended his plan. And God did the impossible.

 

        In the verse above. We see that God promised that, what he was about to do, he was going to do for the sake of his own name. That may sound strange to the person who has never studied that topic through Scripture. However, if you have been exposed to it, you know that God does what he does for the sake of his own glory. God will be honored. He will not give his glory to another. He will always do what brings glory and honor to his name. This is right, as God is the most glorious by far, and for God to seek another’s glory above his own would be completely improper. And it is good for us, as God’s magnifying of his own glory is the way that we receive the greatest joy as we see the glory of the One who made us for his glory.

 

        God also says that he was going to do what he was going to do for the sake of his servant, David. Language like that in the Old Testament is a reference back to the covenant that God made with David in 2 Samuel 7. There God promised that a descendant of David’s, part of David’s kingly line, would reign on the throne forever. With New Testament eyes we can see that this was a promise of the coming of Jesus, God’s Son, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. Simply put, God would not let Jerusalem fall because God was actively preserving his people, at least a remnant of them. So that he could bring his promised King into the world through the lineage that he had promised for all of the Old Testament. God had promised and promised a rescuing King to come through a specific people and specific family, and God would not fail to bring that promise to pass.

 

        So, because of God’s passion for his own glory and his preservation of his promise, God did the impossible. God simply took out the undefeatable army. God did something only God could do. God showed his glory. God kept his promise alive. God was not defeated, no matter how strong the worldly opposition appeared to be.

 

        You know, we live in a world that tries to make our faith look small and ridiculous. Sometimes, when we are not careful, we can begin to fear that somehow God’s church and God’s plan will not be victorious. But let us be careful. Let us remember how God, in one moment in Old Testament history, took out a nation’s army for the sake of his name and his plan. If God could do that, he can certainly do mighty things through us for the sake of his name and his plan. Let us have hope and courage in the face of opposition. Let us not stop sharing our faith or championing the cause of justice and morality. Let us be sure that the things we would wrestle for are God’s glory and God’s plan. Then, let us work and watch and know that God will not ultimately be defeated. He will be victorious. He will do the impossible. He will see his plan completed and his name glorified.

Micah 3:5, 8 (ESV)

5 Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets

who lead my people astray,

who cry “Peace”

when they have something to eat,

but declare war against him

who puts nothing into their mouths.

 

8 But as for me, I am filled with power,

with the Spirit of the Lord,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob his transgression

and to Israel his sin.

 

     The minor prophets are often difficult for us to read today. We just don’t live in their world. Thus, sometimes, we fail to see the significance of the things being said. When we read words like those above, we know that something important must be happening, but how are we to deal with that for today?

 

     Here is an illustration that might help you understand the situation of Micah’s day. Think for a moment about a gangster movie, any mob flick from years gone by. In all of those movies, there were dirty cops who took bribes from the mob in exchange for ignoring the lawless behavior of these powerful men. But, for the movie to have a hero, there would be a few good cops who stood for justice no matter what.

 

     One way to think of the prophets is as the law enforcement officers of God’s holy covenant. Israel made some very clear agreements with God at mount Sinai. In those agreements, God spelled out how he would rule Israel as their God and how he would protect Israel as his people. The protection was contingent on Israel’s following the commands of God as spelled out in the covenant law. At the same time, the covenant contained clear stipulations for what God would do to the nation should they decide not to follow him and turn to false gods.

 

     During Micah’s day, the people of God who had agreed to the covenant provisions were refusing to follow God. They and their leaders were doing evil in God’s sight. Thus it was the duty of the prophets of God to remind the people of the law. The prophets were to tell the people that God was going to do what God had promised to do if they failed to turn from their sin and return to the Lordship of their God.

 

     What was happening, however, was something entirely inappropriate. The people who were claiming the office of prophet or teacher in Israel were actually refusing to declare the clear word of God to the people. These charlatans would speak well to any person who paid them, fed, them, or otherwise treated them like royalty. They would speak harshly to anyone who dared oppose them or who refused to give them whatever they wanted. So, like dirty cops in a gangster flick, most of the supposed prophets were using their position for personal gain and were ignoring the clear word of God.

 

     Micah, however, was not like the other prophets. He spoke God’s word to God’s people, Micah would clearly declare to Israel that they were living outside the bounds of the contract that the nation had made with God. He clearly warned them of the consequences of their behavior, including the coming judgment of God as promised in the law. Micah was not mean, just honest. And because of Micah’s devotion to the clear word of God, he was the true prophet of God.

 

     With this picture in mind, we can see at least two ways to handle a passage like Micah 3. First, we can see that the word of God is true and priceless. Like Micah, we dare not compromise the clear teaching of Scripture, regardless of the supposed rewards offered us by our society. While some of the things that God’s word declares will not be in favor in society, we must not compromise the Scripture. Attempts to make the teachings of God more palatable to a people who are already rejecting God only lead to the kinds of compromises, heresies, and flat-out sin that we see in the false prophets of that day. Honor God by clearly, ,lovingly, and powerfully upholding his word.

 

     Another take on this passage has to do with its gospel implications. Every minor prophet passage, including this one, shows us that there is a standard and that people never fully meet it. Thus these passages point us to the coming Son of God who will fully satisfy the law of God on our behalf and who will fully and perfectly take upon himself the penalty that we should have had to pay for breaking that law. What a joy it is to have a Savior who keeps us from living in a world of dos and don’ts. Now, because of the Savior, if we are in Christ, we live in a state of grace, the requirements of the law fully done, the wrath of God fully satisfied. There is no longer a fear that we can do the wrong thing and be outside of the covenant that God has made with us. The New Covenant makes all who are in Christ part of God’s forever family.

1 Corinthians 15:47-49

 

47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

 

            I find that the passage above, along with the similar use of this language in Romans 5, is something we do not often think about in our context. Are you in Adam? Are you in Christ? How are the two different? We just don’t often think in these terms.

 

            As Paul responded to the questions that the Corinthians had about how human bodies would be resurrected to live eternally, he drew to mind a massive comparison and contrast. Paul basically told the people that there are two kinds of people in the world: those in Adam and those in Christ.

 

            The people who are in Adam are represented by the first man. Adam sinned against God. Adam fell. Adam died because of his own sin. In all this, Adam is not a picture of rescued and redeemed humanity. Adam is, instead, a picture of fallen, rebellious, and lost humanity that is headed for judgment. [I’m not, by the way, arguing that Adam did not personally receive grace, but simply that he is the representative of lostness in Scripture.]

 

            Christ, the second man, is the alternative to Adam. Christ lived perfectly. Christ died, but only to rescue others, not for his own sin because he had no sin. Christ rose from the grave to live again. When Christ rose, his body was changed, glorified, and made able to live in the presence of God eternally. Jesus is God who became man to do what man on his own could never do.

 

            If you are in Adam, you will not live in God’s presence eternally. If you are in Adam, you will die and then suffer the full wrath of God for your sin against him. If you are in Adam, you will face infinite punishment for offending an infinitely holy God by your own imperfection. If you are in Adam, when you die you die.

 

            If you are in Christ ,represented by Jesus, you are covered by Jesus’ sacrifice and Jesus’ righteousness. If you are in Christ, you will, after you die, be allowed into the presence of God. If you are in Christ, you will be raised from the dead, given a glorified body, and be allowed to live forever in God’s presence with perfect joy and perfect peace for a perfect eternity. If you are in Christ your sin, which would have condemned you, is totally covered by grace. If you are in Christ, you need not fear death, because death for the one represented by Jesus is a step toward perfection, not an end at all.

 

            The amazing thing about the gospel is that we cannot do anything to earn the representation of Christ. To be in Christ, we simply believe in him, place our trust in him, and then begin to live for him. To be in Christ, we stop thinking that we are the center of the universe and realize that Jesus is. Of course, all this faith and turning on our part is preceded by the sovereign grace of God who is the Author of salvation and the one who receives all glory for every part of our salvation.

 

            Today, perhaps it would be worthwhile to think in the strange contrast that Paul paints. Are you in Adam? Are you in Christ? If you are in Adam, what do you think about that? If you are in Christ, how does that give you joy and change your life?

1 Corinthians15:17b-19

 

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

 

            What would make our faith worthless? Today, Hollywood tells us that the important thing is to have faith, regardless of the object of such belief. Many Christians reject that empty kind of thinking out-of-hand, but, do we really distance ourselves far enough from it?

 

            In the passage above, Paul makes a very clear statement that is worth our attention. If Christ is not alive, not raised from the dead, our faith is totally useless. That’s it. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. If Jesus is not alive, the game is over. We should, in fact, be pitied more than anyone else, if we are foolish enough to believe in a God-man who has been raised from the dead if indeed this is not true.

 

            Now, here is the question: Christians, would you consider your faith to be totally worthless if Jesus is not alive? This actually gets to the heart of your faith. Would your faith fall apart were the whole Jesus thing not true?

 

            Think about what we do with our faith. We sing praises. We feel good about doing so. We gather together in familial groups. We support each other. We socialize. We do good things in the world. Yet, if Jesus is not alive, these things are all worthless—all of them.

 

            This tells us something important about our faith. The only way that our faith matters is if Jesus, the real man who lived on this earth 2,000 years ago, is physically alive right now. The only way that our faith has any value is if Jesus lived a perfect life, died as a sacrificial substitute who paid the penalty for the sins of God’s children, and then physically came back to life. Everything in Christianity, absolutely everything, hinges on the question of whether or not Jesus paid for our sins and then got up out of the grave to live forever.

 

            So is your faith worthwhile or worthless? Let me take the question deeper. Assuming Jesus is alive, does this change your answer? Would your faith, the faith you live out, be worthless if Jesus were dead? If your faith would not be worthless to you were Jesus dead, your faith is not biblical Christianity, or at least not consistent, biblical Christianity.

 

            So, Christians, for us, this passage calls us to remember the centrality of the resurrection. Our faith is an objective faith—a faith with an object. Our faith is that we have hope for eternity because, and only because, Jesus was sacrificed in our place for our sin and then rose from the dead. Without that object, nothing in our faith matters, not singing, not praying, not adopting, not giving, not caring, not fellowship, not discipleship, not anything. If Jesus is dead, nothing matters.

 

            But, because Jesus is alive, we have hope. Because Jesus lives, we have meaning. Because Jesus is alive we worship, we praise, we give, we love, we adopt, we study, we evangelize, we go on mission, we love our neighbors. Because Jesus lives we have a reason to live. May we remember that our faith has life only because of the fact that Jesus lives.

Jonah 2:8-9

 

8 Those who pay regard to vain idols

forsake their hope of steadfast love.

9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving

will sacrifice to you;

what I have vowed I will pay.

Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

 

     The prayer above is from Jonah. This is no major surprise. Jonah ran from God and was caught by God. Jonah was brought to a place where he realized that God was in control and that no idols have any power at all.

 

     What is surprising, however, is the state of Jonah when he prayed the wonderful words recorded above. Jonah was in the belly of a fish in the sea. Jonah should have been dead. He had forsaken God. He had refused the command of the Lord. He had run, hoping to avoid any responsibility to obey God. He had run, hoping that God would judge the Assyrians.

 

     Jonah, in the heart of the sea, in the stomach of a fish, realized that any attempt to pay homage to anything that is not God is futile. Jonah understood that trying to do things his way did not work. Jonah understood that nothing and no one could stand in God’s place.

 

     Then Jonah prayed something odder still. He declared his expectation to keep his vows. He expected to offer to God things that he had promised God. He expected to worship God with a heart of thanksgiving. How? How could a man in the tummy of a sea creature think that he was going to get the chance to honor God through obedience?

 

     The last line tells us. Jonah knew that salvation is from God. Jonah could have simply drown. God did not choose to let that happen. God was not going to let Jonah escape his duty simply by dying in the sea. No, God had a plan for Jonah. God was not going to lose—he never does. God chose to save Jonah by having a fish swallow him.

 

     And once Jonah understood that idols are worthless, that God is worthy, and that the Lord is the source of all salvation, the fish swam to shore, vomited Jonah out, and swam away. The prophet, for his part, had a job to do. He was going to obey God and offer right praise to the Lord over all the earth.

 

     Of course Jonah misses much in the remainder of the book. But his prayer in chapter 2 is right on. If we pay heed, if we give homage, if we serve anything other than God, we act as fools. We must not treasure that which is not God—at least not in the same way or to the same degree that we treasure God. Anything that is not God must be infinitely lower in our estimation than our Creator. He is worthy of our worship. He is worthy of our obedience. And one reason why God is so worthy is that he is the sovereign source of our salvation just as he was the sovereign source of Jonah’s salvation at sea.