Jonah 2:8

For those who don't know, I like to write about those things in the Bible that really affect me. One of those verses is Jonah 2:8. After I read it, I couldn't get it out of my head for about four or five days. I ended writing almost two pages on it. I'll publish it here and on the other blog(s) I am a part of. It is kind of long, just to warn you. I encourage anyone to post their thoughts on this matter.

Those who pay regard to vain idols
Forsake their hope of steadfast love.
Jonah 2:8 (ESV)

There are some fundamental questions that we must ask about this passage. What does it mean to pay regard to vain idols? What does it mean to forsake the hope of steadfast love? And what is God’s steadfast love? For this last question, I am going to assume that the steadfast love that is mentioned in this verse is God’s because that is the only love that is steadfast and that love is only ascribed to God.

In order to understand what it means to pay regard to vain idols I think that it is useful to look at verse nine. Jonah juxtaposes verses eight and nine. In verse eight he talks about paying regard to vain idols. In verse nine he talks about sacrificing to God with the voice of thanksgiving. So paying regard to vain idols is the same action as sacrificing to God. Therefore, paying regard to vain idols is the same as worshiping them. We worship what we sacrifice to. Those who pay regard to vain idols are worshiping those idols.

What does this lead to? This leads to their forsaking their hope of steadfast love. Before I talk about the word forsake I think that we should ask the question about why they had hope in the first place. Was salvation offered to them and they didn’t take it? No, I don’t believe this to be the case. In the context of the book of Jonah, he hadn’t gotten to Ninevah yet and hadn’t offered the word of salvation to the people there. Rather, I think that the answer to this question lies in his heritage. Jonah obviously was a Jew, and as a Jew, he was a member of the chosen race and the hope of steadfast love was offered through the Jewish line. This then makes the idolatry even more amazing. The idolatry was committed by those that had the privileges of God and had seen His works and yet they followed after vain idols. How much more should we take heed of this. While I do not believe that the people who are referred to in this passage are saved, we certainly have the same flesh and are just as prone to idolatry and “doing what we hate” (Rom. 7). And because we are as capable as these people were we need to take heed as to what the result of that idolatry was and is. It is the forsaking of God’s steadfast love. The term forsake is the same term that is translated as abandon in Psalm 16:10 where David praises God because He does not abandon his soul to Sheol. In that verse abandonment is the utter and absolute removal of David from the presence of God. That is what is being referred to here. It is the utter abandonment of the love of God. It is a complete 180 from God’s love to the love of an idol which is directly opposed to God. If we are delighting in the worship of something other than an idol, then we are abandoning the love of God. And why is this so devastating?

What is so important about God’s steadfast love? Psalm 6:4-5 says “Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of you steadfast love. For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?” I want to just focus on this verse for a little bit. Here, David is crying out for deliverance, but not for his sake, it is for God’s sake. Now did David not think that salvation was important for his own sake? Of course he did, as we will see in a little bit. But the ultimate goal of his salvation was for the sake of God’s steadfast love, because if David were to die and descend to Sheol then He wouldn’t be able to praise God. So there is a connection, then, between our salvation and God’s glory. We are saved in order that we might offer God praise and remember him. That is the goal of our salvation. David was very concerned about this. He longed for and cried out for his salvation in order that he might offer God praise because God must be glorified. This is very much the same as Piper’s frequent comment that “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.” These verses are telling us that it is God’s steadfast love that allows us to praise God and thus be satisfied in Him, thereby glorifying God.

David says the same thing in Psalm 16:11: “You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” God makes known to us the path of life, and in that life there is fullness of joy and pleasures for all eternity. We are saved to be satisfied in God which is what glorifies Him because it comes through His steadfast love. This thought is also echoed in II Thess. 1:10 where it declares that our salvation finds its purpose in glorifying God and marveling at Him. Both of these verses (Psalm 16:11 and II Thess. 1:10) come after the description of hell. Hell is the abandonment by God where there is no praise of God or remembrance of Him. This is torment to the utmost degree. God is the most beautiful and glorious thing to ever be and to be denied that after you come to know this is torture.

So how does this apply to Jonah 2:8? When we commit idolatry and pay regard to or worship false idols we reject God’s steadfast love. We forsake and abandon that which brings us to the Most Glorious. By forsaking God’s steadfast love we forsake the means of getting us to God’s house (Ps. 5:7), which is where we can gaze upon God’s beauty and learn about Him (Ps. 27:4). It is in this sanctuary that we can offer up sacrifices with thanksgiving and shouts of joy (Jonah 2:9, Ps. 27:6). How important then does this make Jonah 2:8 to our everyday lives. Every time we commit idolatry we are turning our backs to that which saves, that which brings us joy, that which satisfies our souls. We lose fellowship with our Beloved. For anyone who is married, imagine losing fellowship with your spouse. Imagine committing adultery. This is what our idolatry is. Forsake all idols. May we be a generation that seeks God’s face, and that has clean hands and clean hearts and has not lifted our souls to another (Ps. 24). Enter the sanctuary of God, through His steadfast love, and offer up yourselves as living sacrifices with shouts of joy and with all thanksgiving, for in that will God be most glorified in us and we will be most satisfied with Him.