DAY 16 MORNING Matthew 12:38-42
JONAH: JESUS CHRIST IS OUR RESURRECTION AND OUR LIFE
Jesus said “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.”[1] Just as Jonah was raised up from the belly of a whale, Jesus would be raised from the dead. Jonah was sent to the people of Nineveh, the ruling city of the Assyrians when Jeroboam was king of Israel during a time of peace. (2 Kings 14:23-25). This was a time of 40 years of peace, when Assyria had left Israel alone but Jonah knew that the Assyrians ruled by fear, violence and intimidation, with terrible methods of torturing. So when Jonah fled in the opposite direction to Assyria, he went to Tarshish. When he boarded a ship, there was a storm and the sailors on board the ship asked Jonah, “What on earth are you doing here” and he said, “fleeing from God’s presence.” The sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea. When a big fish swallowed Jonah alive, for three days and three nights, Jonah prayed in the belly of the whale. Jonah cried out to the Lord in his distress. Seaweed wrapped around his head he cried out ‘When my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.’ Jonah offered praise and thanksgiving in the belly of the fish and the fish vomited him up. The word came to Jonah a second time. God is a God of the second chance. The living God hears every cry and told Jonah again to get up and go to Nineveh that great city. Jonah’s bleached clothes and bleached hair from the acids in the stomach of the fish would have made him a horrific sight to behold. “40 days more” he said, and “Nineveh shall be overthrown.” When the news reached the king of Nineveh he covered himself with sackcloth and ashes and even cows fasted. Then God gave grace to the heathen and relented and Jonah was angry. Jonah did not have God’s love for the Assyrians.
Jesus said that Jonah’s 3 days in the belly of a whale were a sign revealing how he would die and be raised again 3 days later. Jesus Christ is our resurrection and our life.
MISSIONARY MONKS: CUTHBERT 634-687[2]
Cuthbert was Aiden’s successor. He was a hill shepherd who was called to be a monk. He trained at Ripon monastery, went to Lindisfarne and became prior. He was devoted to simplicity, love for the poor and miracles were a strong feature of his life. Although he tried to remove himself from public life many of his brothers encouraged him to take more leadership responsibility and therefore have wider influence. In 685 he finally accepted this and was consecrated as Bishop in York Cathedral. He was one of the most lovable of saints. The historian Bede said[3] he went “most commonly unto those places and preached in those hamlets afar off in steep and craggy hills, which other men had dreaded visit, and which from their poverty as well as uplandish rudeness, teachers shunned to approach; tarrying in the hilly part, he would call the poor folk of the country to heavenly things with the word of preaching as well as the work of virtuous example.” He spent the end of his life in a cell on Lindisfarne in Northumbria in solitude and prayer. He helped start a missionary movement that grew the church significantly in the North of England and now saw missionaries going further afield.
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PRAY for “the Turk in Netherlands the eighteenth largest unreached people group in Europe, whose language is Turkish and whose primary religion is Islam There are 309,000, 0.0% Christian and 0.0% evangelical. ”[4] In Europe like Jonah we have been running in the wrong direction. The unreached are now living in our cities in Europe. Dutch Turks now form the largest minority in the Netherlands, living in large cities in the West of the Netherlands. You showed Cuthbert your heart for those that had been shunned and neglected. Show us your heart for the Turks in the Netherlands, today.
DAY 16 EVENING Psalm 76-80; Re-read Psalm 78
PSALM 78: JESUS’ DEATH AND RESURRECTION IS FORESHADOWED BY ISRAEL’S “GRAND STORY” OF DELIVERANCE FROM EGYPT
Psalm 78:1-6 “My people hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old- things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders he has done” Is life on earth for you and me like a “Fiddler on the roof”? In the delightful Musical about a Jewish father with 3 daughters, Tevye begins with the very first words of the film saying that life is just like that for him ‘trying to scratch out a living without breaking his neck.’ There are many memorable songs in that musical, “Tradition” and “If I were a rich man.” “Miracle of miracles,” is the song that Motel the Taylor sings when Tevye permits him to marry his daughter Tetzeitel. “God took a Daniel once again and walked him through a lion’s den. See clip below from film. [5] Why did God create man? Was it because he wanted a bride for his son, or was it because God wanted a bigger family? There is a Jewish proverb that says that God created man because he likes stories. In a beautiful passage in John chapter 17 when we hear the heartbeat of God, as Jesus prays to the Father before going to the cross, it seems like God the Father, God the son and God Holy Spirit wanted to share their love with man and there is a longing in the heart of God that there might be union and communion, God with man. In Revelation 21: 3, the grand narrative becomes clear. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying now the dwelling of God is with man and he will live with them they will be his people and God himself will be with them and be there God there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away.”
In the Psalm 78, God of the universe shares his heart. He wants to reveal his heart to his children, telling stories. “Listen to the words of my mouth.I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old— things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us.” A long time ago, I had the wonderful opportunity for a short time to home-school my children and the best part was the extended times of reading stories to them.[6]How are we to read the Scriptures? The scriptures have been read, orally for millenia, read out loud in company with other people. The God of the universe has shared his heart through stories, and every generation has a responsibility to retell those stories to the next generation.
Hans Boermsa,[7]says that early church exegesis emphasised reading Scripture a) in the light of resurrection (b) in the community of faith c) as a coherent story. For the past 400 years however our vicars and pastors have effectively been trained in theological colleges and seminaries, to read the bible by Voltaire and Rousseau, presupposing the Scriptures are a work of man rather than sacred texts. Psalm 78 is one of a number of ‘big picture Psalms’ 68, 78, 105,106, [8] “that tell the grand story usually to encourage Israel to learn from history and not repeat the mistakes of the past. They provide a theological compass for the future.” Reading scripture in the light of the resurrection, in the community of faith, as a coherent story is a unifying way of celebrating the diverse expressions of people of God, whether Orthodox, Pentecostal, Catholic, Methodist or Anglican. JC2033 is a vision from Olivier Fleury, former leader of YWAM Switzerland, to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, through multiple grassroots events in 2033, with acts of unity witness and celebration. [9] Psalm 78 celebrates that the God of Israel made himself known through delivering Israel from Egypt. This foreshadowed Jesus’ deliverance of mankind from sin on the cross. There is a grand story and God’s saving acts in the history of Israel are just the prelude, the climax of that story is yet to come.
PRAYER Lord, may the next generation be told the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done… for yours is the kingdom the power and the glory.
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[1] Matthew 12:40
[2] Taylor, A Mission heroes, (reference Tinnion, C Wonder-worker of England St Cuthbert) YWAM England, 2010.
[3] Bede Ecclesiasical History IV:27 quoted in Neill, S. The history of Christian missions, Penguin, 1964.
[4] Data provided by Joshua Project https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/18274/NL
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvVeJJ-TnK4
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUnDPHAyKc8
[7] Boersma, Scripture as Real Presence, Baker Publishing, 2017.
[8] Tidball, D. Signposts, IVP, 2019.
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