I Knew It
By Anthony Casperson
7-20-24
Earlier this week, I decided to watch a mystery movie. (Something I’ve done a bit of recently, in the name of research for a novel I’m writing. But that’s beside the point.) And as I considered starting the film, I literally said to myself, “I hope I don’t figure out the whole mystery before we’re halfway through this time.”
The comment wasn’t meant in an “I’m so smart” kind of way. Rather, there tend to be patterns in storytelling. Repeated refrains that are at the heart of specific genres. Sure, there can be slight alterations or different takes on the genre’s tropes, but someone familiar with the pattern will likely be able to predict certain aspects before the end of the tale.
When it comes to the most common, tried-and-true repetitions, we can predict with almost absolute certainty almost from the beginning.
And this pattern recognition isn’t only found in fictional stories. We can expect people to act in certain manners because that’s who they are. Especially when the pattern is a part of their core identity.
Over the summer, we’ve been looking at God’s self-identified biography. He’s a God who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” This is true of him in both the Old Testament and the New Testament—despite our culture’s tendency to see God as harshly judgmental in the OT and only loving in the NT.
But as the repetition of this bio has reappeared time and again in our glance through the OT, it’s shown us that biblical authors see God’s love and justice as two sides of the same coin. That we sinful human beings deserve the results of judgement, but because of God’s love, he offers forgiveness to those who seek it.
And this character pattern of God is so much a part of him that people can predict his actions in this regard, even before a person repents.
Don’t believe me?
Well, let’s take a look at the book of Jonah. Yeah, the guy who was swallowed by a whale—although, actually it’s called a “great fish” in the book, but when have cultural misconceptions ever skewed our thoughts the wrong way?
Anyway, we have Jonah, prophet of God. He’s told to go outside of the land of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and go to the people of Nineveh, largest city of the Assyrian nation.
But Jonah doesn’t want to do that. He tries to go the exact opposite direction, but God causes a big storm to hit the ship he’s on. Jonah tells the other people onboard that if they throw him out of the ship, the storm will stop—which it did. And then the great fish swallowed him up.
In the belly of the fish, Jonah prays this super-flowery, way-too-poetic prayer to God that was meant to be him asking for forgiveness. And the fish throws Jonah up. (Apparently, the fish had good taste in prayer, and knew that wasn’t one.)
So, the slightly-digested, acid-bleached-skinned prophet finally decides to trudge across the desert land to Assyria. And when he gets to Nineveh, Jonah preaches a sermon which is so abysmal that “half-hearted” doesn’t even begin to describe it. I mean, it’s five words in the Hebrew.
But beyond our normal expectations for such terrible preaching, the whole city of Nineveh repents. (Maybe it had more to do with how the prophet’s appearance. The guy who looked like that would definitely know a thing or two about God’s judgement.)
And while the repentance was unexpected, God’s forgiveness wasn’t.
When we get to chapter 4 of the book, we find that this was the whole reason why Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh. In verse 2, the prophet’s words indicating this. It like he exclaims, “I knew it. I knew you’d do this, God. I said it before I even left Israel. If I go and proclaim judgement to the Ninevites, they’ll repent, and then you’ll forgive them and the judgement won’t come.”
God’s pattern of being merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love was such a well-worn trope that Jonah knew it would happen before the opening credits finished. And he wanted nothing to do with Ninevite forgiveness, so he refused to go…until God’s judgement came for him.
While there’s a lot more that can be said about Jonah—and I’ve written some in other blogs—our series this summer requires us camp out here in Jonah 4:2.
Think about it, the covenant loyalty/steadfast love of God is so expected by the people of the Old Testament that when a prophet is told to proclaim judgment to a foreign people, he’s like, “You want to offer them forgiveness too, God?” The call to proclaim judgement automatically led the prophet to assume the offer of forgiveness.
Words of judgment proved God’s loving offer of forgiveness for those who accept it by repenting.
And the prophet himself wanted this outcome so little that he did everything he could to keep the forgiveness of God from the Ninevites. He ran the wrong direction, preached a terrible sermon, and even complained when the people repented. Jonah showed more of the vindictive and spiteful personality that our culture attaches to God in the OT than God himself proves in the verses.
The fact that God’s character is so aligned with his steadfast love that someone could predict it before another word was spoken should prove to us that the love of God lived out in the person of Jesus is the same love shown in the OT. Judgement poured out on the cross so that we can receive forgiveness.
And notice one last thing about Jonah 4:2. The prophet ends his complaint with a unique bit that also shows us the connection between God’s steadfast love and his judgment that’s been there since Exodus 34. He adds that God is, “relenting from disaster.”
Remember, back in Exodus, I pointed out that God’s visitation of the iniquity of the fathers to the third and fourth generation actually shows the lengths to which God wants to offer forgiveness. He’ll continue offering forgiveness, despite the rejection generation after generation. Yeah, that’s how much God wants to relent from disaster.
This proves that the purpose of proclaimed judgment is for those who hear it to repent and be forgiven, just as Jonah knew it would happen. If that weren’t the case, why would Jonah act like it was so obvious? And it’s not just God’s steadfast love that is a repetitious pattern for him, but even the proclamation of judgment being a call to repentance so that God can forgive.
We get it wrong when we think that judgement and punishment is all about God getting some sort of pleasure out of harming those who refuse to worship him. No, every ounce of judgment from him is meant to cause us to see that we are in the wrong and need to repent. Even the promise of the final judgement—after which there is no more forgiveness—is meant to call us to repentance so that we don’t reach that place of eternal separation from him.
If all of this wasn’t true of God’s proclaimed judgment, then tell me why Jonah knew the end result long before he preached his miserable sermon?
How can a promise of judgment not be a call to repentance, if it’s such a sure pattern of God’s character?
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