7.18.24
This week we are looking at the nature of how sin works in our hearts. And what we learn from Jonah is that sin hides itself deeply in our hearts. We can even be highly religious, committed to God and obeying his Word, and yet still be consumed by various sins.
One of the key details of this account in the opening chapter is how Jonah fell into a deep sleep…in the midst of a terrible, life-threatening storm! How in the world was that possible? It’s interesting that the word that’s used here to describe his sleep is not the normal word for “sleep”. But it’s the word that was used of Adam when he fell into a deep sleep when God removed a rib from him to create Eve. It’s almost like a trance. So what was happening?
When the deepest loves of our heart are revealed, they control our thoughts - our emotions - so deeply that they control our very identity. We all know the disappointment of something not working out the way we had hoped. And that is normal. But there are times when the loss of that thing was SO important, SO central to who we are as a person, that it begins to unravel us. And when that happens, our very identity as a person begins to fall apart.
Jonah wasn’t just angry that God would send him to preach the message of repentance to his worst enemies. He was having an identity implosion. If you look at other texts in Scripture, we see that Jonah was a very successful and popular prophet. He served under a king who was enjoying the success of expanding the kingdom. And Jonah was at the center of all that. And now all that was being threatened. Because Jonah knew that if God had called him to preach repentance to his worst enemies, he would probably have mercy on them and forgive them. And that would threaten everything about his identity as the popular prophet to the greatest nation on earth.
Most of us have experienced seasons of identity implosion. Something happened and life itself began to fall apart. We became unglued - and could hardly function rationally. And it’s good for us to examine our grumpy responses to losses in our lives. It’s healthy for us to be honest about the control that some dreams or circumstances have had over our hearts. And what Jonah shows us here is that we can often fall into a deathly sleep - oblivious to the world around us - because our very identity has been crushed (or threatened) by life’s circumstances.