This Sunday I am teaching, and so this week I have been preparing a lesson on Jonah. I'm sure you all know that Jonah was swallowed by a fish, and that's neat and all, and then he went and served a mission to the people of the city of Nineveh, and that's neat and all too. But I've really been concentrating on the man Jonah - and what the HECK his big problem was, with all of this.
Jonah's father's name was, translated, "Truth". And I don't find that an accident. Jonah was a man who loved the truth. He loved God's justice, and he loved God's law. He loved the law so much, that he didn't know how to get along with people who weren't keeping the law, or loving God by keeping His commandments. He was a love-of-God-aholic. This man was so passionate about the law, that when God called him to be a missionary to sinners, he would rather run, because he didn't know how, or didn't like, that God would possibly accept those sinners. He couldn't comprehend forgiveness or wrap his mind around mercy, and in this blindness, he missed the most important message God has to offer all of us - LOVE.
Now, let's understand Jonah for a second. The people of Nineveh were EVIL. Nahum 3:1-4 teaches us a little bit about these people:
"Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not; The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases: and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses: Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms and families through her witchcrafts..."
Are we seeing the picture of why Jonah doesn't want to go there?
These people are bloodthirsty people, full of prostitution, battle, endless artwork of killing lions, and MURDER. These people are terrible people.
In the end, though, Jonah goes and cries repentance, and the people, in a short time, are dressing in sackcloth and ashes, the king is declaring public fasts, including their livestock in on the fast, so even their cattle aren't allowed to eat, and all of this in the hope that God will forgive them for their many sins.
But Jonah? He still has a problem with this. It's not enough for Jonah, that these people have repented. He still can't understand how God would just forgive them like that, and so Jonah sits tight to watch, hoping that he can see God working some of His miraculous JUSTICE.
God, trying to teach Jonah a lesson about his attitude, blesses Jonah with a gourd - basically a plant that will grow vines enough to provide Jonah with some shade, while he sits on the hilltop hating Nineveh.
Then, because God is God, and He knows how to teach a good lesson - he kills the gourd.
The gourd dies, and the sun is hot, and Jonah is miserable - unto death. So God asks him: "Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?" And, in juvenile angst, Jonah replies, "I do well to be angry - even unto death!"
But Jonah is missing the point, and God tries to teach him. See, the gourd represented the people of Nineveh. When God destroyed the gourd, he allowed Jonah to see what it would be like, if he had decided to destroy the people of Nineveh anyway. It would have been sad, and something miraculous and beautiful (like a human life) would have been destroyed. But Jonah has more sympathy for a dead squash plant than he would have for an entire city of people, who, pretty clearly, God explains are not accountable - are not aware of the sins they were committing. And God loved them.
So I wonder. What can we learn from Jonah? Are we ever so hateful of someone, that we would have more sympathy on a squash plant than we would have on their own souls, if they were to be destroyed by God?
So I was preparing my lesson, researching Nineveh, when I came across an interesting fact.
Nineveh is located in modern-day Iraq. Not just modern-day Iraq, but modern-day Mosul. Mosul is, aside from being home to many Muslims individuals, at present, is it also occupied by a host known as ISIS.
ISIS is a group that is terrible and bloodthirsty, calling themselves the Islamic State, they have driven Christians out of the city, and murdered more Christians. Children, innocent people, they have shot, beheaded, slit throats, raped, starved, stoned, and more. They are a force of terror and evil in this world.
Upon discovering this, I burst into tears, because suddenly, I felt I understood Jonah greater than I ever had in my life. I finally sympathized with him. I finally felt how he must have felt. Jonah had seen a great evil, and could not move past it. He valued squash more than the lives of these sinners.
Now, the rest of my blog post I am not focusing on ISIS. ISIS is a barbaric group, who know better. The tenants of their faith, and the innocents pleading for their lives have been warning enough for these people. But I am going to talk about Muslims in general.
For years, I have seen white Americans, Christians, and others, hold fast their hatred of the Muslim religion. (Muslims are hated even more than Mormons, in America, and that's saying something.) I have seen post after post on social media defaming and slandering Muslims and their faith, completely ignorant to the fact that A) Not all Muslims are terrorists, B) Not all Muslims are murderers, and C) Not all Muslims want to kill infidels. These are a minority, who interpret the Koran to fit with their political leanings and personal vendettas.
I have seen friends post bigoted articles spreading lies - that young virgin women are brought to their marriages handcuffed, in order to be raped - these articles taking photos from Islamic, symbolic cultural celebrations and spreading complete lies about what is actually happening. I have seen friends post articles boasting the number of murders Muslims commit, while good-natured Jews are off winning Nobel Peace Prizes, to contrast the two and paint the members of Islam as bloodthirsty terrorists. And these are articles from my friends - who I usually handpick for their values.
This makes me furious, because I love Muslims.
As a missionary for the LDS church, I had more doors slammed in my face, and more curse words sent my way from "Christians," than I ever had from Muslims - and I was serving in a plentiful Muslim community. The Muslims I knew were kind, they were respectful, they were generous. The Muslims I met were thrilled with the love that we had for our God, and were impressed at the sacrifices we were willing to make for Him. Did they want us to be Muslims? Well, yeah! Because they loved us! (If it's any consolation, we wanted them to be Mormons! So it was only fair.)
I remember Ahmed dearly. We met with Ahmed for weeks. He was a devout Muslim, who said his prayers, and believed his faith. I remember he wouldn't even shake our hands - I take that back. He shook our hands once, and prefaced it by saying that in his culture, it wasn't polite to touch a woman you weren't related to, but he respected us greatly, and so he shook our hands. I remember he would always walk us to our car, to make sure we were safe. When we came to visit, he would always have fruit juices for us, and chopped melon and cantaloupe. (He got offended when we were so excited to teach him that we forgot to eat the melon. Ah, I miss the cultural customs!) Ahmed was an amazing man, and I loved him dearly!
I remember we decided to stop teaching Ahmed, when, after several weeks, he was still being stubborn. (He wasn't really listening. He just wanted us to be Muslim. But I don't blame him. He thought it would bring us peace and happiness.) About a week after we saw him for the last time, we had a phone call from Ahmed late at night. Ahmed was upset - as one of the roommates in the house he was living in phoned the police on him, for waking up in the early hours of the morning to say his prayers. His roommate was a Christian, and, as Ahmed explained, was not being very "Christian" at all, in insulting his religion and his faith. Ahmed asked us to pray for him - to pray that he would have peace with his roommates, and that they would not discriminate against him anymore, and hate him.
I remember crying, that anyone could hate Ahmed for living his faith, ESPECIALLY someone claiming to be "Christian." Because his faith was different than theirs, they hated him. He was devout, and they hated him.
Now I want to go back to Jonah, and I dare say that many people in our society are Jonahs. You see evil being done by people claming to act for Islam, that you are so blinded by hatred that you fail to see that these same evils, (ISIS, etc), are committing evil against their own people. The news would tell you that ISIS only killed Christians, and yeah, those were their targets. But have you heard how they have forced toddlers (Muslim) to be recruited to their ranks? Have you heard how they have stoned citizens (Muslims) in the streets? Have you heard how, due to their violence, patients in the hospital (Muslims) are being sent home to die - because they can't get their cancer treatments? If you think for one second that all Muslims are bloodthirsty, that they are all evil, you fall under the sinful category of Jonah, who could see only the evil, that he failed to realize that there was beauty there, and that the vast MAJORITY was beautiful, in their ability to love and turn to God.
I've had to de-friend a couple people on social media now, but unfortunately, I can't de-friend the entire world. Because I love Muslims. And I will not hear "Christians" speak against the brothers that I love so much, out of complete ignorance and blind hatred. They have seen evil, as did Jonah, but they have felt more sorrow for the gourd than they do for their faithful Muslim brothers, upon whom they seek only destruction and justice.
But I know that God is just. God is merciful. And for the vast majority of Muslims, who oppose radical murderous groups just as much as you and I, God is understanding.
Don't hate. Look for truth, and you will find it.
