Lesson 33: Hide and Seek

This week's lesson deals with the prophet Jonah. You're probably familiar with the story: God calls Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh, Jonah decides to go AWOL and head to Tarshish instead, storm comes up, Jonah gets thrown overboard and then swallowed by a big fish who apparently doesn't like Hebrew food and spits him up on the shore three days later. Jonah preaches, the city repents, and he pouts because now the Lord won't destroy the city.

What do we know about Jonah? Not a whole lot, really. The Book of Jonah doesn't really talk your ear off with details. Fortunately, in 2 Kings 14:25 there is another reference which identifies Jonah as a prophet (which his book does not), and as living in Gath-hepher (Hebrew, "the winepress of digging") which was a small town about three miles north-east of Nazareth.

Why did Jonah get on a boat when the call came to go to Nineveh? He must've known you can't get to Nineveh by sea any more than you could take a cruise liner to Las Vegas. I think part of what motivated him was the belief that the house of Israel was somehow special, almost to the point of being an exclusive club. Yes, they had been given special promises and blessings, but if they checked the fine print they would've seen those promises extend to anyone who was obedient to God's commandments.

So Jonah opens up his mission call, "Jonah, you are hereby called to serve as a missionary and are assigned to labor in the Assyria Nineveh mission..." To really understand the reaction to the call, imagine being called to serve a mission in Germany during World War II. The Assyrians had quite a reputation for being very brutal in battle, and afterward with any survivors.

He didn't get on the boat because he was afraid of the Assyrians, he got on because he didn't want to waste his time on a people he felt didn't deserve a chance to repent. Even after the whole city of Nineveh were in the process of repenting in sackcloth and ashes, and the king had imposed a mandatory fast for the whole city (including animals), Jonah went outside the city to pout and hoped the Lord would still use the smite button on Nineveh.

Great story, but what can we apply in our lives today?

First, how about "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" (Doct and Cov 18:10). We tend to prejudge others, a lot. So much that we don't often realize we're doing it. We feel someone is more trustworthy because they are wearing a clean crisp suit, or less trustworthy because they are wearing a thread-bare t-shirt and look like they haven't shaved since birth. But "the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (1 Sam 16:7).

The resurrected Savior taught the Nephites, "unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them" (3 Nephi 18:32).

Second, God is the undefeated champion at Hide and Seek. We could sooner hide ourselves from His sight than we could hide our thoughts and desires from Him. To say that God is all-seeing and all-knowing isn't exaggeration or hyperbole. To the faithful, this means there is no depth of despair or suffering where He cannot reach with comfort and peace.

Third, if God can show mercy to a bunch of "heathens", maybe I have a shot too. One of Satan's tactics is trying to get us to believe that we have traveled beyond the Lord's reach or past the "point of no return". "There's no way you can come back after the things you've done..." I find it somewhat ironic that Satan tries to lure us out by telling us we can go back any time we want, but once we're out he says we've come too far to go back again. Remember the story of the prodigal son? The Father is always watching and will not let us make the return journey alone.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught:
"Just because God is God, just because Christ is Christ, they cannot do other than care for us and bless us and help us if we will but come unto them, approaching their throne of grace in meekness and lowliness of heart. They can't help but bless us. They have to. It is their nature" ("Come Unto Me", BYU Fireside address, 2 March 1997).

I wonder if Jonah had accepted his call to Nineveh with the same zeal as the sons of Mosiah had when they took the gospel to the Lamanites (see Alma 17-26), would the people have been truly converted? It's hard to tell from Jonah's brief account if the people really understood why they were repenting. Judging from Nahum's prophecies, it didn't fare well for them later. If Jonah had tried to help them instead of standing back far enough to get a good view when they were destroyed, would he have had results similar to Ammon and his brothers?

Lesson 30: Learning from Zeke

This week's lesson has a few points which have great application for daily life.

In 2 Kings 18/2 Chronicles 29 we are introduced to King Hezekiah (Hebrew for "Jehovah is my strength"). His father, King Ahaz, had taken all the gold and silver from the temple and given it to the king of Assyria. 'Zeke's first order of business after assuming the throne is to repair all the damages done to the temple and get the priests sanctified and back on track. The priests "brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord ... and ... [carried] it out abroad into the brook Kidron" (2 Chron 29:16).

Passover was to be held on the 14th day of the first month, but since the priests and temple wouldn't be properly sanctified in time, passover was rescheduled for the second month. Apparently it has been a while since they had observed the passover, so he invited the Northern kingdom to come for passover as well. It might not seem like much, but North and South haven't been getting along, so this was a huge step. Many who were invited "laughed them to scorn, and mocked them" (2 Chron 30:10), but there were a few who humbled themselves and accepted the invitation. The passover celebration was such a success, the people decided to extend it for another week.

Later, the king of Assyria was rampaging through Israel and Judah with no signs of slowing down. 'Zeke prepared Jerusalem as best he could, repairing the walls, making weapons and shields, and appointed military captains. He also had his workers tunnel 540 meters through limestone under the city to bring the waters of the Gihon spring into the safety of Jerusalem. Then he approached the Lord in prayer, pleading for help.

Meanwhile, the Assyrians are taunting the people, essentially saying "the gods of the other nations couldn't save their people, what makes you think your god will save you?"

The prophet Isaiah came to reassure 'Zeke, and during the night an angel of the Lord came and killed 185,000 of the Assyrian soldiers (2 Kings 19:35).

So, it's a really cool story, but what do we get out of it. Let's see how many I can get through:

1. "...be ye clean..." (Isaiah 52:11)
'Zeke recognized the need to be clean before the Lord and made sure the proper steps were taken to sanctify the temple and those who officiated there. Through the power of the atonement, we have the precious gift of repentance so even if we weren't clean yesterday we can become clean today (or at least start the process). When we "...[bring] out all the uncleanness" from our lives, we should take it to our "brook Kidron", which was well outside the city, and leave it there. Whatever our individual weakness is, we need to remove the triggers which lead to that behavior. Elder David A. Bednar taught, "The standard is clear. If something we think, see, hear, or do distances us from the Holy Ghost, then we should stop thinking, seeing, hearing, or doing that thing" (David A. Bednar, "That We May Always Have His Spirit to Be with Us," Ensign, May 2006, 28–31).

2. Better Late Than Never
Rather than wait another year to hold the passover on the prescribed dates, 'Zeke wanted to have it done as soon as possible. How many times have I heard people say "I can repent later" as they do something they know is wrong. Some even made plans to "live a little" and then repent in time to serve their missions (several of them didn't actually end up going). 'Zeke and the priests didn't calculate how much time it would take to repent and be cleansed so they could leave it to the last minute, they worked to put things in order now.

3. Do What it Takes
I imagine tunneling through 540 meters of limestone isn't an easy task. If they decided to only go 530 meters, the whole city would've been taken because no one would have any water. Christ referred to Himself as the "living water" (John 4:10-11) and it's not a big stretch to apply this to the efforts needed to bring the spirit of Christ into our lives. According to other sources, workers were carving out the tunnel from both ends. In our lives we'll find that as we work to move closer to Christ, He is also moving closer to us. Just as the father of the prodigal son didn't let him make the journey home alone, Christ doesn't make us walk home on our own either.

4. Trust God
After we have done, or are doing, everything we can, we need to trust God to keep His promises (and He has a very good track record). I think the story would've had a dramatically different ending if 'Zeke had sat around saying "please help me out of this one" without doing anything on his part. I heard someone say once, "if you want God to direct your footsteps, you have to move your feet." I'm sure we'll all have times in our lives when we are figuratively surrounded by an unbeatable army. Whether it is by an angel during the night, chariots and horses of fire, or three hundred men with trumpets and lanterns, trust God to deliver us (and usually in a way we haven't considered). The world will taunt and try to discourage us, but we need to stay strong in our faith.

I'm sure there are countless other applications we can pull from the story (and I didn't even get into King Josiah). Feel free to comment on anything that sticks out to you. One of my favorite parts of teaching Sunday School is hearing the insights from the class.