Francis West

Jonah, 20th century (?), Etching, 222 x 300 mm, Private Collection; Courtesy of Estate of Francis West

Falling Away

Commentary by Hilary Davies

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The first verses of Hebrews 6 (1–8) carry a warning that could not be more severe:

it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, … and then have fallen away.

The remarkable Old Testament story of Jonah shows us the terrifying consequences of such a lapse. In the etching Jonah by Francis West, the prophet stares fiercely through the body of the fish in which he is imprisoned down towards the sea floor. It is as if he sees opening beneath him the ever greater depths of the belly of Sheol into which he has been cast by his disobedience to the command of God: he has failed to go to the city of Nineveh, as requested, and denounce the wickedness of its king and citizens.

Here is one who has heard the word of the Lord, and has said no: he flees to Joppa and boards a ship to get as far away from the Lord as he can (Jonah 1:1–3). Now, despite his powerful musculature and mature beard, which should denote strength and experience, he is entombed in unnatural circumstances and surrounded by sea creatures, like the octopus and the lobster, which are ritually unclean (Leviticus 11:10–12).

But his refractoriness is interspersed with expressions of great faith in the promises of his Lord:

I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord. (Jonah 2:8–9)

Jonah has offered himself as a sacrifice by exhorting the sailors to throw him overboard so that they may be saved from the storm. He does return to Nineveh to fulfil his prophetic calling (Jonah 3).

But then, astonishingly, he goes off in a huff when God takes pity on its repentant citizens. Yet again, Jonah has said no to the purposes of his Creator (Jonah 4:1–5). This is a man who seesaws between acceptance and denial: he knows yet he rejects; he falls away yet he persists, teetering constantly ‘on the verge of being cursed’ (Hebrews 6:8). The great fish that immures him is the vacillation of his own mind; the creature’s enormous staring eye becomes the all-encompassing and inescapable eye of God.

See full exhibition for Hebrews 6

Hebrews 6

Revised Standard Version

6Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2with instruction about ablutions, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3And this we will do if God permits. 4For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt. 7For land which has drunk the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed; its end is to be burned.

9 Though we speak thus, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things that belong to salvation. 10For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love which you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. 11And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, 12so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. 16Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath, 18so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. 19We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, 20where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizʹedek.

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