We don’t pay enough attention to the book of Jonah.  For one thing, it’s in the middle of the misleadingly labeled “minor prophets,” which are some of the least studied books of the Bible.  These are usually studied in a setting that attempts to cram an entire book into about 40 minutes of class time, only to move on the next week and do the same thing again with another.  There are 66 books in the Bible, and while they’re all very important, there’s no denying that some of them—like the gospels and Acts—are more important than others—like Song of Solomon and 3 John.  But the trouble with Jonah doesn’t end there—it actually stands in a somewhat privileged position in comparison to the other minor prophets.  This is the only one that is commonly taught to kids.  The reason for that is somewhat obvious given the simple structure and length of the story; and it’s great that the children learn it.  But this has an unfortunate side effect: adults tend to think of it as a “kids’ story.”  It’s not.

To begin with, while it’s easy to focus on the thread introduced in the first three verses—Jonah’s foolish attempt to run from God—there’s a lot more to this story, particularly when it comes to Jonah’s motivation for fleeing.  We’ll skip ahead to the point here: the book of Jonah is supposed to teach Israel about racial bigotry, and to highlight their own failures to live up to the standards by which they happily judged the Gentiles.  The details here are a topic for another time, but if you’ve read the book, it should be easy to see those themes.  That’s some pretty heavy material for a cute kids’ story!

However, while there is plenty to learn from Jonah about God’s broad, unchanging moral expectations and his abundance of grace, mercy, and steadfast love (Jo 4.2), this book also looks forward keenly at the New Testament.  Chapter 2 records the prayer Jonah spoke “from the belly of the fish” (2.1):

“I called out to the Lord, out of my 

               distress,

        and he answered me;

out of the belly of Sheol I cried,

        and you heard my voice.

For you cast me into the deep,

        into the heart of the seas,

        and the flood surrounded me;

all your waves and your billows

        passed over me.

Then I said, ‘I am driven away

        from your sight;

yet I shall again look

        upon your holy temple.’

The waters closed in over me to take my

               life;

        the deep surrounded me;

weeds were wrapped about my head

        at the roots of the mountains.

I went down to the land

        whose bars closed upon me forever;

yet you brought up my life from the pit,

        O Lord my God.

When my life was fainting away,

        I remembered the Lord,

and my prayer came to you,

        into your holy temple.

Those who pay regard to vain idols

        forsake their hope of steadfast love.

But I with the voice of thanksgiving

        will sacrifice to you;

what I have vowed I will pay.

        Salvation belongs to the Lord!” (Jonah 2.2-9)

The first thing to note here is that Jonah is describing salvation in progress—not in the future, although he’s still in the belly of the monster when he prays these words.  It’s also not fully accomplished, yet.  He says that God “brought up [his] life from the pit,” but he also voices faith that he “shall again look upon [God’s] holy temple,” an event as yet unrealized, as is the case with the vows he promises he will keep.  In fact, this recorded prayer tells of an earlier, unrecorded and already answered prayer: “I called out to the Lord…and he answered me.”

The surprising conclusion is that Jonah does not view being swallowed by a giant sea creature as a punishment for his disobedience.  On the contrary, he sees this as an instrument of God’s salvation!  From what?  From death by drowning.  The dangers he lists in this prayer are all about the sea—“the flood surrounded me” (v3), “The waters closed in over me” (v5), “weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains” (vv5-6).  We could list more of these, but would quickly run out of space.  He was drowning in the sea, and as he recognized he was dying, as his “life was fainting away” (v7), he “called out to the Lord” from “the belly of Sheol”—from the grave (v2).  Yet even in that state, he trusted that God would bring him back up from the grave.

“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12.39-40)

Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection follow the same pattern as Jonah’s—both were willingly sent to their deaths by Gentiles, remained three days in “the grave,” and then arose, transformed, through the power of God.  The reasons were different, and parts of these two experiences are connected only symbolically, but that’s the “sign of Jonah” Jesus predicted.

Today, he expects his followers to imitate that same sign, and undergo a death, burial and resurrection that’s connected to Jesus’, but looks a lot like Jonah’s, too!  As Jonah appealed to God for salvation from his watery grave, and at the same time vowed obedience to God, so today baptism is “an appeal to God for a good conscience” (1Pe 3.21), a transforming encounter with death.  Learn from Jonah.  Leave the old rebel in his watery grave, and pay your vows to the Lord.

Jeremy Nettles

…if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. (Ezekiel 33.4-5)

In this passage, God explains the prophet’s responsibility by comparing his role to that of a watchman for a city.  This man is selected to bear the burden of keeping the whole populace informed of an invading army’s appearance on the horizon.  In our safe and cushy society we struggle to comprehend this, but in reality there is always the danger of invasion by a hostile force bent on taking our property and killing or enslaving us.  None of those outcomes is acceptable, so we ought to be on guard; yet if all we ever did was to patrol our borders, we wouldn’t get anything else done.  We might say it’s a sacrifice worth making for security, but then we’d eventually realize that we need things like food and shelter, and here we’ve ignored those inevitable necessities in order to focus on a definite maybe.  What’s the solution?  Select a trustworthy person whose job it will be to constantly watch for that invading army.  Now we can all focus on doing our jobs in relative safety, knowing that the trumpet will sound if danger appears.  That’s the prophet’s job, and it’s a huge responsibility.  If he falls asleep on duty, or just doesn’t bother to watch and warn, the people of the city will be caught completely unaware and unable to effectively fight off the danger.

However—and this is just as much a part of God’s point in telling Ezekiel all of this—even if the watchman does his job, that’s no guarantee the populace will heed the warning.  In the text quoted above, God makes it clear to Ezekiel that he’s not liable for the people’s response, only for carrying out his own duty.  When he blows the trumpet, he has fulfilled his obligation, and now the responsibility to act upon that signal rests with the people who hear it.

This is a principle found in the New Testament, as well.  Wrapping up a parable about servants left to tend the manor while their master is away, Jesus said:

“And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating.” (Luke 12.47-48a)

It’s not that ignorance excuses bad behavior (although it may lead to some degree of mercy).  Rather, the point is that some people unequivocally know the master’s expectations and yet reject them, and those people will be shown no mercy.  He follows up the parable with a broad moral:

“Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” (Luke 12.48b)

Nehemiah provides an excellent example for us to follow.

…Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” (Nehemiah 1.1-3)

Has the situation at Jerusalem really changed lately?  It’s not as if the walls and gate were just recently destroyed—that happened when Nebuchadnezzar took the city, all the way back in the year 586 BC.  It was now the year 445 BC.  The exiles who’d returned at the decree of Cyrus apparently at least had aspirations to rebuild the walls, but had met resistance and made little or no progress.  This problem was not new.  But this is the first Nehemiah is hearing of it.  How does he respond?  “As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying” (Ne 1.4).  After some time to reflect, he takes his opportunity when he comes before the king to request of him, “send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' graves, that I may rebuild it” (Ne 2.5).  The king agrees, and Nehemiah’s life changes drastically from that day onward.  He travels back and forth, acts as a governor, a militia leader, a spiritual leader, and a construction foreman, for a period of at least twelve years.  He wasn’t born into this authority; he wasn’t elected; he wasn’t really even appointed by an official.  He made the plan, he approached the king with it and got his stamp of approval, and then showed up at Jerusalem and started telling people what they ought to do.  God granted him great success in all that he undertook.

The time is past when we didn’t know what God expected of us.  God took that into account, calling them “the times of ignorance” (Ac 17.30).  But now, the trumpet has been sounding for 2,000 years.  Almost everyone has heard it, and is responsible for heeding the warning.  Those who have already responded to the trumpet have a further responsibility—to continue the fight against Satan and his minions, and to repeat the trumpet’s warning for those few who haven’t yet heard.  Now, God

commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. (Acts 17.30b-31)

Jeremy Nettles

Sometimes God gives us hints.  For example, he told Abraham, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Ge 12.3).  With the benefit of hindsight, we can say that this refers to Jesus, but there’s no way Abraham could have figured this out when God first made the promise!  God has given some of these hints to us, too, and we’re still left speculating as to what exactly they mean.  To be clear, he’s revealed to us far more than to Abraham, or anyone in the Old Testament era.  “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,” and this is more than the understanding, but the actual substance of those things!  They come “through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2Pe 1.3), meaning Jesus.  But there are still some mysteries remaining. 

One of these topics concerns the nature and involvement of angels in the world today.  From the hints and tidbits God has shared with us, mankind has built a detailed and often amusing set of conclusions.  Examples include guardian angels, longs lists of angels by name, a hierarchy of different types of angel (cherub, seraph, archangel, etc.), elaborate stories about Satan’s angelic origins, and more.  It’s not fair to say that all of this is complete nonsense, but much of it is the equivalent of attempting to recreate an elaborate work of architecture based on observations of two or three tiny bricks that may have come from the original building.  It’s a foolish pursuit; but there’s a kernel of truth at the center, a small hint God has shared with us, and while we ought to toss out the whole set of man-made ideas and stories about angels, we also ought to hold on to what God has actually told us.  Angels appear far too often in the Bible for us to consider each instance here, but a few are worth mentioning and examining.

When Elisha was surrounded by an army dedicated to killing or capturing him, God sent an army of angels to assist him, but they remained invisible.  His servant was afraid, but Elisha reassured him,

“those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6.16-17)

We could easily dismiss that as the product of another time, under a different covenant, and far different from our own situation today.  Yet, in one of the most contentious and confusing passages of the New Testament, Paul strongly implies there were unseen angels around in his day, too!  He says that “a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels” (1Co 11.10).  What exactly this means will be debated until Christ returns; but Paul had been talking about worship, and especially the worship of the assembled saints, and here he says that angels are at least somehow involved in that worship.  Are they actually present?  We don’t know—but Jesus tells us in Matthew 18.20 that he most certainly is, and angelic participation is no great leap from there.

In that same chapter Jesus says something about angels that should get our attention:

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18.10)

Their angels?  Does each child have his own angel?  Does each adult?  What’s going on here?  Again, we don’t know, but when Peter was supposed to be in jail and yet showed up outside the house of Mark’s mother (in Acts 12.12-17), the Christians inside “kept saying, ‘It is his angel!’” In chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, letters to the churches of Asia begin, “to the angel of the church in” each city.  Perhaps these are all unrelated, and in Peter’s case the story could reflect a misconception among early Christians, not so different from when they insisted Gentiles converts be circumcised.  But in any case, it’s easy to see how, through the centuries, people turned this sort of hint into the concept of the guardian angel.

The author of Hebrews throws us another curve: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (He 13.2).  This reason doesn’t matter much, unless it’s still possible to encounter angels in the New Testament era.  It’s worth noting that during the life of Christ and the early church there was also tremendous demonic activity on earth, some of which left little doubt something both evil and supernatural was going on.  It’s understandable that God may have loosened their chains, so to speak, in order to more clearly demonstrate the power and goodness of his Son.  Perhaps he also increased angelic activity on earth at the same time, and both have since stopped.  But that’s speculation, just like the elaborate catalogue of angels’ names and jobs—we really just don’t know.

But although we don’t see obvious angelic activity around us today, God has at least hinted that they are still here, doing his bidding on earth, and generally going unnoticed.  We shouldn’t assume we’ll get—or have already gotten—angelic assistance with our battles and struggles in this life.  Even if they’re right next to us, we’ll be like Elisha’s servant, completely blind to their presence.  But it is good to ponder the hints God has given us, and to appreciate that he would consider sending his agents to help us.  Then, we should trust him all the more as we seek to do his will in this world.

Jeremy Nettles

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19.17-18)

The latter part of that passage is quoted 9 times in the New Testament and upheld as the basic rule for how to manage all our relationships.  When we view it along with just a little more context, it seems more narrow than that.  God’s law uses three terms interchangeably here: brother, neighbor, and son of your own people.  That shouldn’t be too surprising—after all, he gave this law to a relatively young and small nation who all descended from the same father, Israel.  God appeals to their sense of familial devotion, since nearly everyone forms strong bonds with the members of their immediate family.  God wanted the Israelites to extend that kind of love to the rest of the nation, so he reminded them constantly that they were brothers.  Paul says

the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Romans 13.9)

Nevertheless God thought it necessary to add an enormous amount of commentary to further explain how this principle is properly applied in this or that situation.  This fills most of the law presented in Exodus 20-23, Leviticus 18-20 and 25, Numbers 27 and 35-36, Deuteronomy 17-25, and assorted tidbits in between.  To be clear, this amounts to only a fraction of the text devoted to laws that fall under the umbrella of the greatest of all the commandment in the Law of Moses: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (De 6.5).  There’s a lesson to be learned there, but also much to gain from examining the conflicts God anticipated among his people, and his prescriptions for solving them in a manner that was just, loving, and gave him honor.

Jump forward into the modern day, and while we may still at least try to subscribe to the notion we are all one big family and brothers with the whole human race, we certainly have not maintained that as the working definition for our term, “neighbor.”  We usually reserve that word for the people who happen to live immediately adjacent to ourselves.  We’re occasionally willing to extend the label to cover others who live nearby, but we’d never say the our neighborhood covers the entire earth, and even when using the slightly expanded definition of “neighbor,” we feel obligated to add a qualifier to set apart those who live closest to us.  They become next-door neighbors to us, in contrast to the perhaps dozens of other neighbors who don’t deserve that same, highest degree of neighborliness from us.

Even under this restricted sense of the word, the Law of Moses has plenty to teach us.  God told Israel, “You shall not move your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set” (De 19.14).  He told them, “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another” (Le 19.11), and “You shall not see your bother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them.  You shall take them back to your brother” (De 22.1).  He told them,

If a man borrows anything of his neighbor, and it is injured or dies, the owner not being with it, he shall make full restitution. If the owner was with it, he shall not make restitution; if it was hired, it came for its hiring fee.  (Exodus 22.14). 

How many disputes between next-door neighbors today fall into one of these categories?  There are more of these specific scenarios in the Law, and they help to remind us that even over thousands of years and thousands of miles, people are people.  We continue to create the same basic conflicts over property lines, broken promises, ignoring each other’s setbacks, and failing to return borrowed items.  If only our neighborly gripes were limited to these!  Yet the principle God taught to Israel so long ago would address every one of our conflicts.

He didn’t go silent on the topic after the Law of Moses.  Jesus mentions an apparently common saying among the Jews during his ministry: “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy” (Mt 5.43).  Sometimes we complicate this even farther, and our next-door neighbors actually become our enemies.  Yet, Jesus’ instructions still cover our situation here: “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5.44).  It’s not easy to love an enemy—to desire and pursue what is good for someone who harms or seeks to harm us.  It’s difficult to pray on their behalf, too.  But Jesus tells us that loving our friends is nothing to be proud of—that’s easy, and many awful people still love their friends.  This is also the point Jesus makes in his parable of the Good Samaritan.  A lawyer, “desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” (Lk 10.25)  and Jesus’ response in the next several verses demonstrates that God doesn’t care what your enemy says to you, does to you, or thinks about you. Your enemy may very well hate you, and take every opportunity to inconvenience or harm you.  You still have an obligation to “do good to everyone” (Ga 6.10).  Take your cue from Jesus himself: 

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Ro 5.10)

Jeremy Nettles

There are many things in life we simply take for granted—things that go without saying.  “Church” has been a cultural assumption for so long that it’s tough for some to see the reasons behind it.  Why do we go to church?

Upon some reflection, most church-goers could provide some kind of answer to that question, but these answers won’t all agree.  Nevertheless, the explanation that would be given most often is straightforward: “God told us to.”  That’s a good answer.  God’s instruction should be all we need to spur us into making this practice our habit.  But while God’s command is clearly the prime cause of our weekly gatherings, it doesn’t tell us the purpose God had in mind for them.

But there is a purpose—in fact, there are many goals and ends that are furthered by our gathering each week:

To Break Bread

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. (Acts 20.7)

Luke’s narration here makes it very clear what was the chief purpose of their gathering: “to break bread.”  In this context, it’s obvious he doesn’t just mean they were sharing a meal—this was the Lord’s Supper.

To Stir Up One Another

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10.24.25)

While reminding his audience that they should make a habit of going to church, the author here slips in another major reason and purpose for doing so: “to stir up one another to love and good works.”  We can’t do that very effectively if we have no fellowship, and we can’t have good fellowship if we never see each other—a lesson everyone learned anew during the lockdowns of 2020.

To Put Something Aside

On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper… (1 Corinthians 16.2)

It’s clear that this  points to a joint treasury of some sort, in order to avoid the hassle and delay of taking up collections later.  The implication is very strong that this was to be done during the course of their regularly scheduled assemblies, and it’s another purpose for having such assemblies.

To Proclaim the Lord’s Death

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11.26)

We’ve already determined that sharing the Lord’s Supper is a primary purpose in going to church, but Paul here tells us that it’s about more than just individuals observing the ritual—in addition to the private, inward goal of examining oneself, there’s a collective public aspect to it, in which all can see that we believe Jesus died on the cross to bear the penalty for our sins before the Father.

To Instruct

Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. (1 Corinthians 14.19)

While discussing the merits of supernatural spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues and prophesying, which were prevalent at that time, Paul shows these early Christians that the more showy gifts weren’t as valuable as the ones that could be directly used for teaching.  Another purpose of gathering as a church is “to instruct,” and of course from the other side, to be instructed.

To Convict

But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all… (1 Corinthians 14.24)

This goes along with instruction, but is more confrontational.  All people, and especially those who are not Christians, need God’s word spoken in church to make them aware of their transgressions and obligations.  This is one more reason to assemble.

To Build Up

What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. (1 Corinthians 14.26)

All of the activities in which the church engages while assembled are to pursue this goal: the edification of the whole church, and each individual present.

This has not been a complete list.  There are other goals and purposes within and beside the ones mentioned above; but one more ought to be included:

To Worship

…the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. (1 Corinthians 14.25)

This one seems obvious, and seems to go without saying, but it’s alarmingly easy to forget.  All of the other purposes, including the several we found just in this section of 1 Corinthians 14, lead to this one.  It’s all about glorifying God and worshiping him in his presence.  We tend to make everything about ourselves, but that’s not how “church” was designed!  Just as the cause of our weekly assemblies was God, he is also the ultimate purpose.  Remember why God wants you to go to church.

Jeremy Nettles