The backslider's return

How is it possible for a child of God to backslide badly from the presence of God?

Does Jonah's story give us some of the telltale signs of spiritual desertion and is there a clue as to how we may be restored?'

One of my favourite hymns is that of Robert Robinson:

Come thou fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.

He continues:

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it,
Seal it from thy courts above!

Later in his life, Robinson was travelling in a carriage when a young lady began to hum the melody often used for his hymn. He asked her if she liked the words and she explained that it was her favourite hymn. Robinson said to her: 'I would give a thousand worlds to enjoy the feelings I enjoyed when I first penned those words.'

He bitterly regretted the way he had distanced himself from God. Most of us know people who once walked closely with God but do so no longer - even those who have been signally used.

Jonah enjoyed enormous spiritual privilege. God revealed his Word to him: 'The Lord does nothing without revealing his secrets to his servants the prophets'. God spoke indirectly to the people through prophets like Jonah. Only a chosen few had this tremendous privilege. He also enjoyed gracious spiritual fellowship with God.

Downward progression

Apparently Jonah was used by God to such an extent that the Word of God had left an indelible impression upon his contemporaries, and was remembered by their grandchildren. Ordinarily, engaging in such a ministry acts as a preservative to those involved in it, but when that fails, none of the past ministry can be placed in the balance alongside present disobedience. Part of Jonah's tragedy was that he forgot how desperately wicked even the believer's heart is. If you glance at the underlying motif of the first chapter, the whole progression is down! It weaves in the atmospherics that are suitable to the spiritual message. He goes down to the harbour, he goes down into the boat and when he is in the boat he goes down to his bunk, and when he is down in his bunk, he goes down into deep sleep, and eventually he is down in the ocean and finally goes down into the belly of the great fish. In all this he is conveying to us what happened to him spiritually.

First, he turned from the Word of God: 'The word of the Lord came to Jonah . . . Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it . . .' (v. 1-2). The Word of God arrived at Jonah's front door: 'Go!' It is not the difficult things in Scripture that are our problem. It is those that we could not conceivably misunderstand that we find so difficult! We are open to whatever God says to us so long as it is not what we do not want to hear. We divert God's Word from our lives.

But secondly, Jonah's turning from God's Word was accompanied by turning from the presence of the Lord. 'Jonah ran away from the Lord.' (1.3). Jonah's conscience had gone to sleep. Our consciences are only as strong as the extent to which they are informed by God's Word. Jonah had diverted God's searching glance away from his conscience until in the midst of the crisis he was asleep.

Jonah wants us to notice the consequence of his decline. It is as though he is saying to us: 'Do you see certain things in me? These are the signs of spiritual decline. Watch out for them!'

Circumstances

First, he trusted circumstances, circumstances which he interpreted as providences! His ambition is to go to Tarshish. He goes down to the local seaport of Joppa with his little bag of money and what does he find? A boat going to Tarshish! 'How kind of God to understand my situation! God has asked me to go to these enemies of his people. He knows how difficult that is, that my reputation as his prophet is at stake, and now he has provided a way of escape. I've always believed that God was gentle with his people.' C.H. Spurgeon tells the story about a boy who always threw something when he got angry. In his inimitable way, Spurgeon said: 'I was never surprised the boy got angry, but what always amazed me was that when he got angry there was always something at hand to throw!'.

Preaching and practice

The second telltale sign of spiritual decline was that his practice began to contradict his profession. Look at verse 9: 'I worship the Lord the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land'. He is trying to hide from the God who made the sea. He would have known the great Psalms: 'Whither can I go from your presence? If I were to take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth...' Where would God be? Everywhere and anywhere. Jonah would have died for the theology that God is universally present but his problem was that he would not live for it. He must have known that the moment he descended the gang plank at Tarshish, God would be there to meet him. The gap between profession and practice began to show itself in him as it always will with us too.

In a time of crisis

And in the third place, his spiritual decline was seen in the way in which he was weakened in time of crisis. He captain went to him and said: 'How can you sleep?' The apostle Paul sailed the very same stretch of the Mediterranean sea and faced a similar storm but he stood out in the midst of the terrified hardened soldiers with God's Word. He was ready for the crisis. This is a very telling contrast.

No confession

There is a fourth sign here. Jonah ducked their question when they asked: 'What do you do?' The real answer was: 'Actually chaps, I'm somebody who goes about different places telling people what God has told me about his grace and I encourage them to respond and give their lives without reserve to do his will.' Jonah could no longer talk like that. There was no confession - the result of turning from the word and presence of Christ.

Despair

It will not surprise us to discover that the fifth consequence in Jonah's life was his despair of future usefulness: 'Pick me up and throw me into the sea and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come to you.' (v.12). And yet Jonah wants us to know that there can be restoration from spiritual decline. God has been at work sending the wind, following every event and preparing the great fish because God wanted to work in Jonah's heart. Calvin says: 'The belly of this great fish becomes a kind of divine hospital in which Jonah is graciously healed and wonderfully restored.' Jonah wants to take us by the hand through the steps of his own restoration and lead us back into God's presence.

The return

What are the steps that lead back into fellowship with God? In verses 4 and 7, Jonah mentions the temple: 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again towards your holy temple.' Why the temple? Because the temple was the place of sacrifice; the supreme place on earth where God promised to meet with his forgiven people. Jonah is now longing for the presence of God and not only that but for the Word of God. You can trace almost every phrase Jonah uses in this prayer to one or another psalm in the Psalter. Why? Because Jonah was recalling God's Word whilst he was in the belly of the great fish - ransacking what he had learned of Scripture. The man or woman who turns to God longs to be exposed to everything that God has got to say. That is what Jonah says at the end of verse 9: 'What I have vowed, I will make good.'

A second time

Then do you see how he is concerned to see the salvation of others? 'Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.' Jonah did not give a rap for the pagan sailors or the pagan Ninevites until God humbled him under his mighty hand and showed him how desperately he needed the grace of God. When he began to taste God's grace, his own heart was melted and he now sees these pagans as those 'forfeiting the grace that might be theirs'.

'The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.' This is good news. God has given us one sign that leads us to know that he will restore backsliders: 'To this generation, no other sign will ever be given than the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so also for our salvation and restoration the Son of God was in the belly of the earth three days and three nights.' Now as our risen Saviour and restorer he comes to us with his Word a second time, and says to us: 'My children whatever I say, do.'