Jonah’s preaching, that every soul in the kingdom was converted, from the king on his throne down to the humblest subject in the streets. Even the animals were garbed in the habiliments of mourning and penitence, as the grace of God manifested itself in the sorrow of the repentant sinners. Now in this account of Jonah’s re fusal to serve and in his attempted flight to Tarshish, the higher critic has found much comfort. One of the favorite arguments of the modernistic school is the baseless assertion that the revela tion of God in the Old and New Testa ments constitutes an evolution of the idea of God. They falsely state that beginning with a God of restricted au thority who was merely a tribal deity,
that God is only the Father of those who love and serve Him. To the enemies of God’s message, Jesus said, “ Ye are the children of your father, the devil, and the works of your father ye will do.” So the conclusions of higher criticism are baseless here. Their premise is also faulty. There is no evolution of the idea of God, nor does the Bible anywhere teach the universal fatherhood of God! One of the strongest arguments of the critical school, however, for their falla cious philosophy, has been the conduct of Jonah. When God called him for one specific service, he fled from the call of God and headed for Tarshish. The higher critic has sought to show that Jonah believed that God’s power was restricted to Palestine. So if he got be yond the confines of Palestine, his God could not reach him. The most cursory examination of Jo nah’s creed, however, will show that such is far from the truth. The unbe liever, infidel, atheist, or higher critic can find no comfort in this record, for his weird idea of Jonah’s belief in God. For Jonah believed in a God who was omnipotent and universal. If you will read again the first chapter of this noted book, you will find that while the storm was raging at its height, Jonah slept in peaceful security in the heart of the ship. When the captain wakened him and said, “Who art thou?” Jonah’s reply contained his creed. Hear again these marvelous words, “ I am a Hebrew; and I fear the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.” Is that a tribal deity? Is that a description of God whose power was circumscribed by the geo graphical limits of Palestine? Jonah recognized the universal nature of the Creator, and knew that he could not journey beyond His reach. The question arises then, “Why did Jonah flee toward Tarshish, if he was not striving to get out of the reach of God? Why did he take this ship that would bear him away from Nineveh?” Let us remember that Jonah, like all the prophets of Israel, was intensely patriotic. He loved his own nation and people, and the most bitterly-hated en emy possessed by Israel at this period was Nineveh. When the Word of God came to Jonah saying that He would destroy Nineveh unless they repented, Jonah in the fervor of his patriotic heart, said, “ That suits me. If God will wipe out Nineveh, that will constitute a patriotic victory for Israel, and I will get as far away from Nineveh as I can.” In other words, Jonah was an ordi nary human with the passions, the in terests, and the psychology of any mod ern man. This same instinct of patriot ism was manifested in some of the most cultivated Christian men of the twenti eth century when the United States of America entered the World War. Men who had radiated love, and had talked about the international brotherhood of man, began to curse the Germans and damn the Kaiser, only because that race (Continued on Page 26)
character. Not even His bitterest ene mies impugn His veracity or question the honesty of His statements. So it is with a great deal of assur ance that we turn to Christ’s testimony concerning the historicity of this man Jonah. In thé course of His ministry among men, Jesus made two references to Jonah as a historical character. In one He gives the experience of Jonah as a type of His own burial and resurrec tion. When the scribes and Pharisees demanded of Him proof of His deity, they asked that this proof be given in the form of a sign. Jesus replied to their demand, “ A wicked and adulterous gen eration seek after a sign. There shall no sign be given you, save the sign of the prophet Jonah. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so must the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the depths of the earth.” These two expe riences are interdependent and equally historical. Since the resurrection of Jesus Christ is established upon the most un questioned evidence, and since the ex perience of Jonah is as real as was the resurrection of Jesus, this testimony of the Saviour is of peculiar and striking force. The second reference that Jesus made to the historicity of Jonah was a cita tion of the repentance of Nineveh. As Jesus was teaching and preaching in the course of His ministry, He met with considerable hardness of heart, and in some cases, with outright rejection. On one of these occasions our Lord said, “ The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment against this generation and shall condemn it, because they repented in the presence of Jonah; but behold, a greater than Jonah is here.” We have this authority of Jesus for saying that Jonah as a character is as truly his torical as is the person of Jesus Him self. One of the fascinating things in the writings of Jonah is the manner in which his character is displayed in this very brief section of his autobiography. Jonah is perhaps one of the most honest writers in literature, for he writes boldly and bluntly of his own faults. He tells of his stubbornness as he set his own judgment against the command of God. He tells without apology of the waywardness of his conduct as he fled from the call of God. But with a rare dependence, he gives no explanation and offers no excuse. He is content to say with charming simplicity just what he did and offers no motive for his conduct. This course of procedure has laid the prophet open to another assault on the part of the critics. Jonah seems to have been the first foreign missionary. He was called of God to bring a warning of the consequence of sin to a foreign people. With that warning he was to deliver also an offer of redemption and mercy if they would turn to God and repent. This service he refused at first. Later, however, repenting of his refusal, he returned and preached to this nation with tremendous effect. So widespread was the revival that resulted from
Jonah Is Cast Into The Sea
men gradually evolved the idea of a God who is the universal Father of humanity. Of course, any honest student reading the Scripture with anything more than casual interest will realize that this theory is not borne out by the text. In the first place, it is nowhere stated in the Old Testament that God was a tribal deity. In fact, the first revelation of God in the Scripture is the highest revelation that the Bible contains. The first chapter of Genesis opens with the record of an omnipotent, omniscient Deity, who by His spoken word created the heavens and the earth, and all things therein. There is certainly nothing tribal in the picture of the Creator that Moses draws in the first book of the Bible. We further see that this God who is the Creator is a beneficent and kindly deity. In those same early writings we find Him walking and talking in Eden’s garden with the creatures whom He has created. That picture of a loving God in intimate personal communion with His creatures is never equalled, even in Holy Writ, until Jesus Christ comes saying, “And when ye pray, say, Father.” The Saviour, however, was careful to state
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