Disobedience Detour

If you’re hoping to end up there, then you’re going to have to go through here. If you want to get to your desired destination - this road is no longer an option.

If you’re a follower of Jesus you might think of those moments as a crisis of faith. You’re confronted with a binary choice: no nuance or grey.

You can either do what God wants or you can do what YOU want.

Obedience or disobedience. Faith or unbelief. God or self.

Intro to Jonah

Jonah was confronted with that kind of a choice.

Most people, if they grew up in church, hear Jonah and think what? - The whale! (although it’s not a whale - it’s a great fish).

But Jonah is not a story about a fish (only gets 3 verses)

Jonah is a story about a great God, a rebellious prophet and God’s amazing grace towards undeserving people.

For those of you who like to take notes my message today falls under four headings:

God calls.

Jonah runs.

God pursues.

Jonah surrenders.

What I hope to show you through Jonah’s life is that disobedience is a detour.

Running from God’s will puts you on a detour to God’s blessing.

It doesn’t matter what area of life we’re talking about: relationships, your education, money, power, your career.

For EVERYTHING under the sun God has a design. He has shown us what is good. When we decide to reject that design and go our own way we cut of ourselves off from the blessing he wants to give.

God Calls

Lets pick it up in Jonah 1:1-2 with the call of God on Jonah’s life.

Jonah 1:1–2 (CSB)

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.”

Let me set the scene here for just a few minutes.

Verse 1 says the “Word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai...” That phrase, “the word of the Lord came to...” is the same phrase that is used of ALL the prophets.

You might think of Jonah like you’d think of Isaiah or Jeremiah or any of the other OT prophets.

His job description is to hear from God and tell other people what God says. Today - Jonah would’ve been like a Billy Graham. Well known. Respected. Politically influential. The works.

In this instance, God tells Jonah to get up and “go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.”

So we can see two things about Nineveh from this passage.

It was a very large city.

It was a very wicked city.

A Challenging Request

First, it was very large. It was a capital city for the Assyrian empire pack in the day. (just east of the Tigris river opposite modern day Mosul, Iraq).

It had these huge fortified walls…so thick that three chariots could run parallel across it. (it would take Jonah three whole days just to travel from one side to the next) In other words, we’re talking about an Austin, TX not an Abilene, TX.

It was also very wicked. Historians have discovered evidence that the people of Nineveh were some cruelest people of the ancient world.

Skinning enemies alive, fly skins like flags over walls.

Pull out tongues, nail them to ground, languishing in thirst.

Rape women & children and empale enemies on sticks outside gates.

They weren’t the biggest army in the world so they had to persuade people not to mess with them by their utter brutality. “This is what happens when you oppose the Assyrians.”

The hatred was mutual. THESE were the people Jonah was being asked to preach against. Jonah - a Jew from Israel who just happened to be an enemy combatant on their southern border.

A Compelling Reason

This would’ve been equivalent to asking Ben Shapiro to walk into the middle of Afganistan and give a speech about the glories of American capitalism. There was THAT level of hostility and prejudice between Jonah and the Ninevites.

But the Lord was actually inviting Jonah into something amazing. Yes scary. Yes at odds with where his heart was at emotionally speaking.

But he was about to change history for the city of Nineveh and he wanted Jonah to play apart.

He was inviting Jonah into something HARD but it was also an invitation into something GOOD.

Jonah Runs

So what does Jonah Do? We find out in Jonah 1:3

Jonah 1:3 (CSB)

3 Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence.

Notice the play on words here. The word of the Lord comes to Jonah and says “Get up and go to Nineveh!”

Verse three says, “Jonah got up to flee TO TARSHISH - away from the Lord’s presence.”

And when it says Tarshish was “away” from the Lord’s presence it doesn’t mean kinda sorta away. It was 180 degrees in the opposite direction as far as Jonah could get.

(I wish I would’ve sent in a graphic to show you this)

Jonah went DOWN to Joppa (a few miles south located on coast of Mediterranean sea) and boarded a ship to sail 2,500 miles WEST in the opposite direction of Nineveh.

Jonah is not confused. This is not an accident. God says go EAST and Jonah goes WEST. And in going West he choses to go AWAY from the Lord’s presence.

God calls. Jonah runs.

Everybody Runs

Here’s what I know. Jonah’s not the only person who hears God’s call and decides to run in the opposite direction.

I’ve run from God. I bet there’s been at least a recent season in your life that YOU’VE run from God (if you’re not actively running from God right now.)

It’s part of what it means to be human. There’s something wrong and broken in our hearts.

I’m sure, in Jonah’s case, he was justifying his rebellion against God all the way down to Joppa.

These Ninevites are brutal. I’m Jewish. They’d skin ME alive. No thanks.

Even if I DID go and preach. What if they repented and God decided to be gracious to them. I don’t want them to experience grace. I want them to experience judgment.

Here’s the thing: there will ALWAYS be a compelling reason to run from God. Otherwise, nobody would do it.

There’s always a reason. An irresistible temptation. You are NOT unique in your struggle against sin.

How Do You Run?

Usually it’s different things for different people. The best thing you can do for yourself is to KNOW what your thing is.

"Prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it! Prone to leave the God I love...” How do you run from God? Are ARE you running from God right now?

For Isaiah it was filthy mouth. (Isa 6:5) Unclean Lips

For King David it was adulterous sex.

For the Apostle Paul it was envy and covetousness.

For Saint Augustine it was lust and a sex addiction.

What it is for you?

Maybe it’s insecurity. (paralyzed by fear. leaning into a victim status)

Maybe it’s unforgiveness. (holding onto resentment makes you feel strong)

I don’t know what is for you. But I know that everybody runs. Even preachers and prophets like Jonah and myself. Everybody runs.

There’s Always a Ready Ship

Here’s the other thing we learn from Jonah. Not only does everybody run. There will also always be a boat ready to help you flee.

How convenient for Jonah that when he got down to Joppa there just so happened to be a ship ready to take him exactly where he wanted to go.

You want to disobey God with your sexuality?

There will always be a website ready for you to click.

There will always be boy/girl who’s willing to play the part.

You want to disobey God with anger and resentment?

There will always be people who fail to meet your expectations.

There will always be reasons to make yourself the victim.

You want to complain?

There will always be reasons to do so.

You want to compare and envy?

There will always be people with more than you or who do better than you.

There will ALWAYS be a boat going to Tarshish. Why? Because you have an enemy who wants nothing more than to put you on a disobedience detour so you can miss the blessing of God for your life.

Be careful! Not every open door is from the Lord. Sometimes Satan is the one making ready the ship.

Sometimes it’s not a sign from God. It’s a snare of the devil!

Everybody runs. There’s always a compelling reason. And there’s always a ready ship.

God Pursues

So God called. Jonah runs. What do you think is going to happen next?

What would you do if somebody you loved was running from the good and going headlong into self-destructive behavior?

If you had any love whatsoever then you’d try and stop them. That’s exactly what the Lord does for Jonah. The Lord disciplines those he loves.

Jonah 1:4 (CSB)

4 But the Lord threw a great wind onto the sea, and such a great storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart.

God always pursues his children when they decide to run from him. And often that pursuit from God results in personal pain.

God will intentionally bring storms into your life to bring you back to where you’re supposed to be.

And in the moment, it may not make a lot of sense. It the moment, it may feel like God is punishing you or torturing you for no good reason.

Like a dad who yanks his child from an oncoming car (in the moment there’s pain and confusion and anger) but the dad could see something the child couldn’t. It was love that motivated that restrictive action. It was love that caused the pain.

In your life, when you choose to run from God - the storm that he decides to bring as a result is not to harm but to heal. Not to break but to mend.

It’s the mercy of God in the madness of our rebellion.

How God Pursues

How does God do this today? For Jonah it was a literal storm that was about to literally break up the ship he was on.

What it look like for you? I don’t know. But I can share two possibilities:

God will give you NONE of what you wanted or

he’ll give you ALL of what you wanted and it won’t make you happy.

I’ve experienced both. I’m sure you have too. We can see both in the lives of so many people around us.

So many celebrities have all the money, all the power, all the pleasure but they create art that exposes their deep depression and lack of contentment.

Down, Down, Down

That’s somewhat what we see happen to Jonah in this passage.

You see the author use the word “down” over and over in our passage.

He went down to Joppa… (v 3)

down into the ship… (v 3)

down into the hold… (v 5)

fell down and went to sleep. (v 5)

The detour of disobedience will take you nowhere but down. It will lull you to sleep spiritually speaking.

Running from God may feel like it’s going to make you happy… but eventually and inevitably it’s going to take you down to places you don’t really want to go.

I love the quote: sin will take you farther than you expected to go, keep you longer than you expected to stay and cost you more than you expected to pay.

Verse five is such an accurate description of our world today.

Jonah 1:5 (CSB)

5 The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god. They threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep.

Sleeping Prophet. Praying Pagans

The pagans were praying the God’s prophet was sleeping.

There are people all around us on a sinking ship. Trying to feel their way forward to save themselves from the danger that they’re in.

Meanwhile, the people who have an answer and an antidote to the chaos of their life are down in ship, deep in a sleep, running from God.

I’m not saying you’re running on purpose or that you intended to end up where you’re at right now but the reality is you’re down in a sleep and there are people all around you who need you to WAKE UP!

Jonah Surrenders

What does the Lord do for Jonah in that moment? He sends a pagan sailor to WAKE HIM UP!

Jonah 1:6

6 The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up! Call to your god. Maybe this god will consider us, and we won’t perish.”

Don’t you love that?

God’s voice sometimes comes from surprising place.

Maybe for you it’s some stranger in a chapel message.

For the prodigal son in Luke 15 it was hanging out in a pig pen with nothing to eat.

I wonder what it might be for you. Will you have ears to hear what the Lord is trying to say?

What DOES God say through this sailer? GET UP and PRAY to your God.

Get Up & Face God

I love that. God is so good to us in our running from Him. He doesn’t say, “get up and fix yourself...” “Get up and go back to who you used to be...”

He just says, “get up and face the Lord.”

For some of you, that’s where it starts. Just wake up and face God. Stop running. Turn around. And face God.

What does that look like practically speaking?

Jonah spells it out for us. Jonah 1:7-8

Jonah 1:7–8 (CSB)

7 “Come on!” the sailors said to each other. “Let’s cast lots. Then we’ll know who is to blame for this trouble we’re in.” So they cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us who is to blame for this trouble we’re in. What is your business, and where are you from? What is your country, and what people are you from?”

Jonah is being presented with an opportunity to repent.

My favorite definition of repentance is “agreeing with God about the facts.”

The facts are the answers the their questions.

Jonah is a prophet who decided to run from God.

His running from God brought the storm wrecking their ship.

Jonah responds to this opportunity with a spirit of repentance and surrender.

Jonah 1:9 (CSB)

9 He answered them, “I’m a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”

The word translated Hebrew wasn’t just a designation of Jonah’s Jewish ethnicity. It was a word that called to mind that “we are the redeemed ones.”

I’m part of that special people who God delivered from slavery to pharoah in Egypt. I’m part of that special people who worship the God who made the sea and the dry land.

Jonah is preaching the Gospel to these pagan sailors even as he’s confessing his sin.

And that’s what it looks like for you and I to stop running from God as well.

It’s a confession of our sin and remembering our confession of faith. We are the redeemed people of God.

The sailors respond in Jonah 1:10-11

Jonah 1:10–11 (CSB)

10 Then the men were seized by a great fear and said to him, “What have you done?” The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord’s presence because he had told them. 11 So they said to him, “What should we do to you so that the sea will calm down for us?” For the sea was getting worse and worse.

Finally Jonah responds to their question with an act of surrender.

Jonah 1:12 (CSB)

12 He answered them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that it will calm down for you, for I know that I’m to blame for this great storm that is against you.”

Jonah agrees with God about the facts.

He reminds himself of who He is and the grace of God for his life.

Then he offers himself up to God in an act of faith and surrender.

Jonah 1:13–15 (CSB)

13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they couldn’t because the sea was raging against them more and more.

14 So they called out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, don’t let us perish because of this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood! For you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.” 15 Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. 16 The men were seized by great fear of the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

What Surrender Means

Do you think Jonah knew what was going to happen in that moment? I’m pretty sure he probably didn’t.

Here’s what I think he was thinking - I worship the God of the land and the sea. I haven’t been living like I belong to him.

So I’m going to take a leap of faith and throw myself into his arms and trust him to do whatever he’s going to do.

So you might be here this morning and say, “you have no idea what I’ve done. You have no idea the burdens I’m carrying.”

You’re right. I don’t know. But here’s what I do know.

The detour of disobedience ENDS the second you wake up, face God and surrender yourself to Him.

Maybe there’s never been a time when you’ve made a decision like that. Maybe you’ve made that decision in the past but you haven’t been living like it for a very long time.

The same God that chased after Jonah is chasing after you this morning. What will be your response?

Will you jump out of the boat of your rebellion? Or will you stay asleep in the middle of the storm?

Jonah’s Rescue

We don’t have time to unpack the rest of the story but essentially the Lord responds to Jonah’s surrender with an act of deliverance.

Jonah 1:17 (CSB)

17 The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

We sometimes think of Jonah being swallowed by the fish as an act of God’s judgment. It wasn’t. It was mercy.

It was the beginning of God’s deliverance in Jonah’s life.

The fish was a means of grace to lead Jonah home. And it was also a CLEAR evidence that the Lord was the source of his deliverance.

In the Gospel Jesus compares himself to Jonah. His sign was the sign on Jonah.

Jesus would be thrown out into the storm of God’s judgment and he would go down into the belly - not of a fish - but of the grave.

And just as the fish spit Jonah out on the third day - Jesus would rise from death bringing eternal life and salvation for everyone who believes.