An Unlikely Conscript

God’s compassion for the Ninevites is surprising enough, but He was just getting started. He took it to another level by drafting Jonah for the task. We don’t know a lot about Jonah. We don’t even know if he wrote the book named for him or if he told his story to someone else who wrote it down. One thing we know for sure, though, is that he didn’t want the job.

One might think that warning Nineveh of impending doom would have been much faster and easier if God had used an angel, a dream, or somebody besides Jonah. But He didn’t. And He had His reasons. Have you ever noticed that when God intervenes in human affairs, He almost always uses people in the process?  

Human Instruments for Divine Purposes

Jesus won the ultimate redemptive victory on the Cross, but ordinary human agency is a crucial dimension of God’s plan. After all, the point of the Incarnation was for Jesus to become a man. Noah’s ark didn’t descend from heaven to miraculously save his family from the Flood. Noah had to build it. God promised Abraham, “I will bless all nations through you.” And when Jesus gave the Great Commission to a group of disciples, He said, “You go and make disciples among all nations.”  

To this day, God continues to work through human beings to accomplish His big plan. Jesus promises to be with us and to give us power for the task, but He doesn’t bypass us to get the job done more efficiently. Our participation matters. Our words and actions are a primary means by which God is glorified. If we don’t recognize that, our view of God’s sovereignty can sometimes be misapplied to get us off the redemptive hook. “It’s God’s job to save the world,” we might think. “I’m just going to live my life.”

Strange as it may sound today, throughout much of history, many Christians viewed the Great Commission as applying only to the original apostles. Many believers assumed that the work of global gospel proclamation had been accomplished in the first century and was no longer relevant. According to some accounts, at a minister’s meeting in Northampton in 1785, a young cobbler named William Carey was asked to suggest a topic for discussion. Carey had been studying the Bible and may have read Voyage Round the World, the tale of Captain James Cook’s adventures in the Pacific. Hesitantly, Carey asked the gathered preachers, “Was not the command given to the Apostles, to teach all nations, obligatory on all succeeding ministers to the end of the world, seeing that the accompanying promise was of equal extent?”^xxv A senior minister interrupted Carey. “Young man, sit down!” he said forcefully, “When God pleases to convert the heathen, he’ll do it without consulting you or me.”^xxvi

To suggest that “God is so great, He doesn’t need us” can sound spiritual, and there’s an element of truth to it. God accomplishes many things without our involvement, from the orbit of the planets to cellular reproduction in sea anemones. But it’s worth asking, How has our all-powerful God chosen to be glorified? One important way is when His people, like the Lord Jesus Himself, complete the work He has given them to do (John 17:4, 18). It is more awesome, one could say, that God employs broken vessels like us than if He just did it Himself. God's love and patience are displayed as He works through Abraham’s spiritual descendants to fulfill His ancient promise. He delights to see us grow into Christlikeness as we pray, “Thy will be done,” and then do His will.  

A Hostile Witness

While Jonah was an unlikely messenger to Nineveh because of his resistance to the mission, he did have a few relevant qualifications on his resume. He was already a prophet who had spoken to the king of Israel. He had a reputation in his homeland. He recognized the voice of God. He had exhibited a degree of faithfulness in an increasingly godless culture. It’s possible Jonah was one of the godliest people in the world at that time. Plus, he was strong-willed enough to take on a huge and dangerous challenge.  

On the ship to Tarshish, Jonah told the sailors, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. …[It] is my fault that this great storm has come upon you” (Jonah 1:9, 12). He had all the facts correct, but he still missed the point:

He knows Yahweh is the creator and controller of nature (1:9), he knows he is in rebellion (1:12), he knows Yahweh is his only deliverance (2:2–10 [3–11]) and that Yahweh is gracious, compassionate, patient, and relenting (4:2). Jonah is the type of person who could pass any seminary theology test. But Jonah’s actions demonstrate that knowing and submitting/trusting are two very different things. Jonah’s orthodox theology is his downfall because he thinks he can control the when and the how of the theology—that he can control the God of his theology.^xxvii

As another scholar puts it, “The prophets were not mere machines; they had power to resist the will of God. However, this is the only instance on record where a prophet refused to carry out his commission.”^xxviii That’s quite a distinction.  

I appreciate that Jonah is an open book. He may be wrong, but at least you know where he stands. And he’s determined: “Jonah does not merely ignore or turn and walk away from Yahweh; he intentionally sets out to go in the opposite direction, and as far as he possibly can.”^xxix He sticks to his convictions through the rest of the story. But his strengths and self-certainty have a dark side. When God sends a tremendous storm on the open sea, “That he does not repent to Yahweh or even ask the sailors to take him back to dry land so he can fulfill his mission, let alone volunteer to jump, shows that his attitude and choices have not changed.”^xxx

Jonah’s advice for the sailors to throw him overboard is an acknowledgment of God’s sovereign power, but it isn’t yet repentance or obedience.  

He knows, now, that he cannot flee his responsibility, but that does not mean he will obey. …Instead of addressing Yahweh, he addresses the sailors. By asking them to throw him overboard, he is seeking escape through their hands. Jonah’s request for sailor-assisted suicide is not out of mercy for the sailors but out of a selfish desire to escape it all and die.^xxxi

While we can admire Jonah’s forthrightness, he also elicits our pity. Here is a man who went “down” to Joppa (Jonah 1:3), down into the ship, down below deck (1:5), then down into the Mediterranean Sea (2:6) and eventually into the belly of a fish. Is it possible to sink any deeper?

During his three days inside the fish, Jonah does seem to humble himself and ask God for help. Quoting various Psalms (evidently knowing God’s Word well), he cries out for mercy, vows sacrifices of praise to God, and testifies, “Salvation comes from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). Scholars debate whether Jonah’s response represents genuine repentance. Some read his prayer as a rather self-centered reflection, unlike David’s prayer in Psalm 51. Jonah never explicitly admits that he was wrong to disobey God. However, I read Jonah’s humility as genuine at the time. Whatever the case, after his traumatic experience and dramatic beach landing (the fish deserves some sympathy, too), Jonah’s resentment of the Ninevites remains. Ethnocentrism dies hard. Jonah knows better than to disobey God a second time, but his attitude hasn’t substantially improved.  

Does this remind you of anyone? It’s basically the story of Israel in the Old Testament, the record of a stubborn and uncooperative people. There are no surprises for God in Jonah’s story. He chose someone He knew would be a challenge. Why would God entrust a message of compassion to so obstinate and unmerciful a messenger? I believe God chose Jonah for this assignment partly to illustrate His amazing sovereignty and grace. As outwardly righteous as Jonah may have been, he was still a product of his culture. He personified the willfulness and self-righteousness of his generation. Yet God had bound Himself by oath to fulfill His promise to Abraham. He would do so whether or not His servants chose to cooperate.

Ironically, even as Jonah fled from his assignment to preach to Gentiles, he ended up doing so anyway. And, at a practical level, Jonah’s rebellion and flight might have played into God’s strategy for shaking up Nineveh. Imagine Jonah arriving at the city gates with his skin bleached by the digestive juices of a giant fish, shouting about God’s coming judgment on a city that worshipped a fish god (among others). No wonder he got their attention! Even in his rebellion and flight, he was playing into God’s plan.

Yet another of God’s purposes in choosing Jonah was to illustrate for Israel and hundreds of millions of people through the ages essential elements of His character and plans. What happened in Nineveh didn’t stay in Nineveh. Jonah brought the story of his own disobedience and the Ninevites’ repentance back home with him, much to Israel’s shame. The Israelites were supposed to be a nation of priests who conveyed God’s truth and blessing to the nations. They had failed in their role. A brash, verbal processor was just the person to illustrate their condition. God uses different personalities for various roles in His great drama, all for His glory.

God’s Habit of Choosing the Wrong Person  

God’s words to another prophet, Samuel, ring true through the ages: “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Despite appearances, God’s choices are always perfect and that includes His selection of imperfect people for noble tasks. We can be unlikely ministers of the gospel in all kinds of ways. Jonah's unwillingness makes him seem like a poor candidate. For some of us, it might be a lack of confidence, experience, health, finances, or skills. The barriers are real, just as Jonah’s concerns were real. But God still wants the news of His surprising compassion to reach the far corners of the world. The fact that we don’t appear well-suited at the moment need not keep us from playing a role in the divine drama. God is incredibly patient and loving as we learn and grow.

Throughout Scripture, we see examples of God choosing unlikely candidates for His work: Moses, the fugitive; Rahab, the prostitute; Gideon, the coward; David, the adulterer; Peter, the denier; and Paul, the persecutor. In more recent times, he has continued the practice. William Carey, the young cobbler chastised for asking about the relevance of the Great Commission, became known as the “father of modern missions.” William Borden, an aristocrat from Illinois, gave his life for the gospel in Cairo at the age of 25. He was on his way to serve the Uyghur Muslim people of China. When he died in 1913 after a three-week battle with cerebral meningitis, he left the equivalent of $25 million to several mission organizations. Gladys Aylward, a diminutive London housemaid turned down by a mission agency, spent her life savings to buy a ticket on the Orient Express through a Russian war zone. Her service to orphans in China inspired the 1958 film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.

And God is still using unlikely people today. As a boy, I had the privilege of meeting Elinor Young, a woman who made her way to the wilds of New Guinea as a missionary. She stood out in any setting because she was small in stature, wore leg braces, and used crutches. Elinor had contracted polio as a child. She also stood out to me because she was full of joy. She was called to be a missionary when a guest speaker visited her rural Washington town. She tells the story in her book Running on Broken Legs:

The guest speaker was a man from China whose broken English indicated his origins and his physical appearance confirmed what he told us of severe malnutrition in his village during his childhood. His legs were bowed, his stomach protruded, and so did his teeth. He told us that living conditions in his village changed when missionaries brought the message of Jesus to them, and most of the villagers believed. They no longer needed to give large amounts of their food crops to the idols or profits from crops to buying opium, so they were better nourished.

The speaker pled with our handful of farm families to see God’s heartbeat for the people of the world who did not yet know Jesus. Then, of all things, he asked, “If anyone here feels God wants you to be a missionary, would you step up to the front here and say so openly?” What a thing to ask of this audience of farm families. No one there could accept such an invitation. Except one. Me. I felt it was time to let my church family know what I knew in my heart. My stomach tightened, hoping the people there would understand.

I retrieved my crutches from under the pew in front of me and walked down the short aisle. As I did, I saw embarrassment in the eyes of the adults. I saw they were thinking, Oh dear, this little girl doesn’t know what she is doing. I became embarrassed, knowing this looked like a foolish goal, and that made me look foolish.  

Over thirty-five years later, Ormel, the only man who had been there that was not already in heaven, told me what happened after the service. He said that one of the men apologized to the speaker that the only person who had responded to his invitation was that “poor little crippled girl” who could never achieve such a goal.

As Ormel related this, he asked me, “You want to know what the speaker said to that?”

“Yes, please.”

“That dear Chinese man said, ‘Whom the Lord calls, he will use.’”^xxxii

God assigned Elinor an improbable task—sharing His love with the Kimyal people. That fierce tribe inhabited some of the highest and most rugged mountains of New Guinea. When Elinor arrived, the Kimyal, who were small in stature, marveled, “Look who the Creator has sent us! A small lady just our size. And she has bad legs, just like some of us. He must love us very much!” Soon, Elinor learned the Kimyal language, shared the gospel, and began translating the Bible. Since she couldn’t walk well with her braces, the new Kimyal believers carried her from village to village among the 13,000-foot peaks. They called her “Bad Legs” and announced everywhere they went, “Bad Legs has brought a good message!”

Elinor Young exemplifies God’s unmatched ability to use any of us. She served among the Kimyal for 18 years. One of the most inspiring videos you can watch on YouTube is “Indonesia’s Kimyal People Welcome the New Testament.”^xxxiii You can also find a short film about Elinor’s story, appropriately called “Bad Legs.”^xxxiv It’s worth showing to your children or grandchildren. The bottom line? Fruitful messengers are not always the obvious ones.

You’ve Been Chosen, Too

We may not be as aware of it as Elinor Young, but we all have “bad legs.” We’re all imperfect vessels. It could be that those legs are the very things God wants to use for His glory. If, like Jonah, what’s holding you back is a faulty perspective about God and the people He loves, I suggest yielding more readily than Jonah did. And if you can’t muster your heart to follow God in what He may be calling you to do, you can pray with me, “Lord, please take away ideas and desires that are not from You and replace them with Yours.”

Jonah was called to an overwhelming task—persuading more than 100,000 people in a foreign country to repent and change their lifestyle! We can feel overwhelmed as well. About eight billion people live in the world today. If we all stood in a line, taking up a foot of space each, that line of precious souls would stretch to the moon and back almost three times. It’s impossible for us to truly comprehend such numbers. Think of driving coast-to-coast across the U.S., with men, women, and children lined up on the side of the freeway for all 2,800 miles. That’s barely scratching the surface of how many people exist on Earth today. You’d have to drive that cross-country route about 500 times to glimpse each person even once. Most of them do not know Jesus as their Savior. More than half of them do not even know a Christian.^xxxv

Not only do we have a lot of people to reach, but they also comprise many people groups, each with a unique language, culture, history, and worldview. Of the 17,000 people groups in the world today, about 7,000 still have almost no access to the gospel.^xxxvi About a quarter of the earth’s population are born and die without ever hearing, much less understanding, God’s offer of salvation.^xxxvii That is overwhelming on an even bigger scale than what Jonah faced.  

Nevertheless, amid vast opportunity and need, God continues to use unlikely people to bless the nations. He has a wide cast of characters for His divine drama, and there’s a place for you to play a part. Remember, God doesn’t limit Himself to volunteers. He didn’t ask Jonah if he wanted to go to Nineveh. He didn’t ask the disciples if they’d like to make disciples of all nations. And He didn’t ask Paul if he felt inspired to take the gospel to the non-Jewish world.  

The key to the impact of God’s people isn’t their skills or evident qualifications, as helpful as they may prove to be. More fundamentally, it boils down to the question Jesus asked Peter repeatedly over breakfast on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, “Do you love Me?” (John 21:15-17). As we fall more in love with Jesus, we become like Him and share His passion for a lost world. Our instructions may not be as clear as Jonah’s, but God is just as much in control of our path.

Are you willing to trust God for new roles or responsibilities that seem scary? Will you take some steps toward those who have little or no access to the gospel? It can make a big difference in your life trajectory, whether or not you ever move to a far corner of the world. Over the centuries, millions of Christians have contributed to the fulfillment of the Great Commission in a huge variety of ways. So don’t get overwhelmed by the task; if you do, keep moving anyway. I love the saying, “Courage is fear that has said its prayers.” The spiritual needs of the world are vast. Let’s pray anyway, “Lord, raise up your chosen instruments!”

Discussion Questions

1. What are some examples of times God used you to do something instead of acting directly Himself?
2. This chapter describes Jonah as qualified but unwilling for his assignment. What about you? Is your involvement in global missions limited by your skills? Experience? Motivation? Or something else?
3. What makes you an unlikely minister of the gospel? What examples from the chapter resonated with you? (e.g., Moses, the fugitive; Rahab, the prostitute; Gideon, the coward; David, the adulterer; Peter, the denier; Paul, the persecutor; William Carey, the cobbler; William Borden, the aristocrat; Gladys Aylward, the maid; Elinor Young, the polio survivor)  
4. Are you willing for God to use your “bad legs” for His glory?
5. What steps can you take this week toward those with little or no access to the gospel?