(Audio and Text)
Title: Intellectual Belief
Man, oh man, do we have a word from the Lord today! In the first three sermons I have told you that Jonah can be a very surprising mirror into the issues and shortcomings of our own relationship with God and today I think that will ring true more than any of the previous three lessons in this book, so brace yourselves with this opening salvo:
What you get out of today sermon will be directly linked to how honest you are with answering the questions that this lesson will ask you.
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
9 So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
Casting Lots: What exactly is it?
The practice of casting lots is mentioned 70 times in the Old Testament and seven times in the New Testament. In spite of the many references to casting lots in the Old Testament, nothing is known about the actual lots themselves. They could have been sticks of various lengths, flat stones like coins, or some kind of dice; but their exact nature is unknown. The closest modern practice to casting lots is likely flipping a coin.
Is it really scriptural?
The practice of casting lots occurs most often in connection with the division of the land under Joshua (Joshua chapters 14-21), a procedure that God instructed the Israelites on several times in the book of Numbers (Numbers 26:55; 33:54; 34:13; 36:2). God allowed the Israelites to cast lots in order to determine His will for a given situation (Joshua 18:6-10; 1 Chronicles 24:5,31). Various offices and functions in the temple were also determined by lot (1 Chronicles 24:5, 31; 25:8-9; 26:13-14). The sailors on Jonah’s ship (Jonah 1:7) also cast lots to determine who had brought God’s wrath upon their ship. The eleven apostles cast lots to determine who would replace Judas (Acts 1:26). Casting lots eventually became a game people played and made wagers on. This is seen in the Roman soldiers casting lots for Jesus’ garments (Matthew 27:35).
Okay, so should WE do it today?
The New Testament nowhere instructs Christians to use a method similar to casting lots to help with decision-making. Now that we have the completed Word of God, as well as the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide us, there is no reason to be using games of chance to make decisions. The Word, the Spirit, and prayer are sufficient for discerning God’s will today—not casting lots, rolling dice, or flipping a coin.
Was it supernatural that the lot fell on Jonah, or just a coincidence?
The Problem with Verse 9:
v9 Look at Jonah’s declaration, does it not seem hypocritical? There is a temptation to say that Jonah is lying, either to himself, or the sailors, or both…but I think what Jonah has fallen into is intellectual belief.
Mike Wilson and I went to lunch after church last week with our families, and Mike shared something very powerful with me, paraphrasing, Mike shared with me:
“Ben, your sermon from James on the will of God and our plans was just what I needed to hear…I came to the epiphany recently that God does not honor selfish prayers, and I had to wrestle with the fact that I had been asking some really selfish prayers, and that was the cause of much of my strife with God.”
Mike then continued, “I think a lot of us these days have become intellectual Christians. We believe in Jesus (Or in Jonah’s case Yahweh), we really do. If you ask us what we believe, we will respond like Jonah and make a correct profession of faith…but it is not enough to know what is right, we must also ACT on what we know is right.
And this is where we find such tension with Jonah. He does truly believe, as a Hebrew should, that he serves the one true God.
But, here is the huge key: Jonah believes, and rightly confesses (intellectual issue) but his action demonstrates that he doesn’t TRUST God. (Faith issue.)
And so it is with us. And so it is with me.
If any of us were to be brave enough to “pull back the curtain” on our most consistent sins. Take a moment, silently here right now…do this with me. Identify one of your most common, gripping sins. Most of us don’t have to think to long on this.
Okay, now just ask yourself: Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
The answer is “Yes!” Right. (As a duty, and I am being totally serious right now, if you did not answer yes, PLEASE talk to me privately before you leave this building today.)
But if your answer was a quick “Yes!” Then we know the problem is not with belief. But the fact that we (myself definitely included) struggle is with FAITH.
Try this humbling statement on for size and see if it fits: “I believe that God is powerful enough to show me the path of deliverance, but my actions demonstrate that I don’t trust God enough to actually follow that path.”
Examples:
I believe that God can deliver me from my anger issues. But I won’t alter or change my approach to how I deal with my anger, either before it gets set off, or as I feel myself starting to get angry.
(In other words: I will behave the same way, and expect God to change my reactions to the same stimuli.)
I believe that God’s best version of physical love for me involves ONLY my spouse. But I am unwilling to deal with the ROOT of my sin and pluck it out violently, because, frankly, that is too uncomfortable.
(In other words: I will behave the same way, and expect God to change my reactions to the same stimuli.)
Close:
And don’t miss the detail in verse 9 of how Jonah describes his God as “…the God of Heaven, who made the sea and dry land.”
Jonah is acknowledging that God is indeed responsible for their situation, he is not leaving it up to chance, or coincidence, or doing what so many immature, ignorant Christians say today with statements like, “Well, I know this, Cancer is not from God!”
The arrogance, and assault on the Sovereignty of God of statements like this make me want to scream at the top of my lungs, “How small is the God you serve!!!”