August 20, 2026 - Jonah 1-4

It’s fairly common, especially in a seminary missiology classroom, to ask the question, “Was Jonah a missionary?”  Always, there is divided opinion, though most seem to answer, “Yes.”  I’m not so sure.  When I define “missionary,” I mean someone who, in answer to God’s call, gladly and passionately goes to another people to take the gospel to them, and that in an incarnational (personal, physical presence) sort of way.  Jonah fought God’s instruction all the way.  He went and preached and was done.  He was even angry at the possibility that the people of Nineveh would hear the message and respond in repentance.  The book actually tells us more about God’s missionary heart (he genuinely cared about Nineveh and encouraged her to repent) than about any supposed missionary zeal on the part of Jonah.  Perhaps we should call Jonah “an unwilling missionary,” but a missionary nevertheless.  But we certainly know this, our God is a missionary God who desires to see saved a people “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

What shall I do my God to love,

my loving God to praise?

The length, and breadth, and height to prove,

and depth of sovereign grace?

Thy sovereign grace to all extends,

immense and unconfined;

from age to age it never ends,

it reaches all mankind.   -- Charles Wesley (1742)