Jonah

Jonah 1:1 NOW the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. 3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

To begin with Brothers and Sisters, Christian Friends, Well Wishers and Saints of God This particular text deals with an instance in the scriptures where God tries our character in the area of Forgiveness and Repentance.

Point one. Jonah Runs Away When God Calls Him

The book of Jonah is an autobiography about Jonah and He tells his story around 793-746 B.C. during the reign of Jeroboam II.

Jeroboam II rule in the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Jeroboam II was an evil Israelite king just like his daddy Jeroboam. And God punished Israel for their blatant disregard for Monotheistic worship of the Lord God Jehovah, the true and living God.

They worshipped idols and So God lead them into Assyrian Captivity. If God led they into Captivity because it was something unholy that they were doing. Say Amen. Because you’ll remember when I taught you that when Israel acted up! God got enemies to whip up, beat up on, capture and kill some the Israelites to teach them a lesson.Then in phase two God would then turn right back around and beat up on and kill the people who He let beat up on Israel. So touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm.

The bible says that there came a time when God was sick and tired of the many atrocities and godless sins of the Assyrians particularly it’s capital city of Nineveh. Oh brothers and sisters Nineveh was some kind of town. It had over 120,000 people in it. It was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Nineveh was a hustling and bustling town. It was called the Robber City. It was called the Robber City because it was a town filled with criminals.

Wrong was right and right was wrong. In Nineveh a million wrong things could happen to you and nobody cared.

And the imperative question, the significant question, and the important question here is, “Why didn’t Jonah want to go to Nineveh and preached to the Ninevites like God had told him to.

1. The Ninevites had beaten, and burned people in kettles of hot burning oil, they pillaged folk and even killed some of Jonah’s close kinfolk.

2. The Ninevites would drag innocent people to death through the main streets in town.

3.The Ninevite crowds would cheer the horrible, horrid and horrific crimes commited. It was entertainment to them like Superbowl Sunday.

Nineveh was some kind of town. And the bible says that when God told Jonah that he was assigned to go and preach to those no good low down folk in Nineveh, Jonah took off running in the opposite direction.

Jonah tried to run away from the assignment. How many time have God given us assignments that we have took of running in the opposite direction? The bible says that Jonah took off and immediately went down to Joppa Look at verse 3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Point 2. Run Run Run all you want but you can’t hide. Jonah the Prophet forgot one very important Immutable Attribute of God. Listen Not only is God Omnipotent and not only is God Omniscient but God is also Omnipresent. God is everywhere at the same time. You can’t run from God.... Jonah is trying to run from the presence of the Lord.

In the 2023 the modern application is “we ought to have sense enough to know that ( sing) where ever you go, what ever you do, God is right there looking at you.

God calls and Jonah runs right? But we can’t hide from God. You can’t just ghost out on God and act like everything is going to be alright! You can’t play hookie and take a vacation from church and blame it on Covid. And some people plain old just stop coming and sit on the couch drinking and watching football or what ever and ain’t going to nobody church. and say Look I’m just not going and leave me alone. This is a sin and a shame.I’m not perfect but I do know what a sin and a shame is.

And so the bible say that the ship takes off and now they are headed for Tarshish. And Jonah the prophet go heew wee thank God I’m getting away from there. Jonah goes down into the haul of the ship and goes fast asleep. And all I can say is run Jonah run, run all you want but you can’t hide from God.

Point 3.The Punishment of Jonah

4 But the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, which made the sea so stormy that the ship was in danger of breaking apart. 5 The sailors were afraid, and each man cried to his own god. They began throwing the cargo from the ship into the sea to make the ship lighter.

Listen 3x seemingly at this point its somebody else problem, but Jonah is putting everybody and everything on the ship in danger. Obedience is always better than sacrifice. And so everybody is calling on their god and many of them were paganistic in nature and they believed in idol gods. The called on their idol gods and the more they called on them the worst the storm got.

I don’t call on nobody but my God, because I know He’s Able. He’s the only ONE who can make a difference in every situation. My God isn’t limited to anything. My God is a storm stopper.

The storm is unusual and the bible says in verse 5 But Jonah had gone down far inside the ship to lie down, and he fell fast asleep. 6. The captain of the ship came and said, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray to your God! Maybe your God will pay attention to us, and we won’t die!”

The storm is raging, the waves are lashing, dashing, and whipping all across the Mediterranean sea and the wind is whaling and howling screaming! And Jonah is down in the bottom of the ship fast asleep. All hell is breaking loose in your life and the very one that caused the hell is at home fast asleep. They aren’t thinking about your issue.

The bible says that People are throwing over their valuable cargo. That’s their cash crop that they are throwing overboard. And In the church we often times try to lighten the load and throw valuable cargo overboard. Let keep the valuable cargo on board of the Old Ship of Zion.Let’s keep songs like Amazing Grace let keep praying fervent prayers,let keep giving our tithes, let keep learning the word of God and keeping the main thing the main thing.

The bible says in verse 7 Then the men said to each other, “Let’s throw lots to see who caused these troubles to happen to us.”When they threw lots, the lot showed that the trouble had happened because of Jonah. 8. Then they said to him, “Tell us, who caused our trouble? What is your job? Where do you come from? What is your country? Who are your people?”9 Then Jonah said to them, “I am a Hebrew. I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” Jonah knew that he was out of order and he kept on with bad behavior. 10 The men were very afraid, and they asked Jonah, “What terrible thing did you do?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD because he had told them.)11 Since the wind and the waves of the sea were becoming much stronger, they said to him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

3. The Point of Reckoning

The point of reckoning is when you realize that they have realized that you are the cause of the trouble!!! Jonah is saying I am the cause of the trouble in verse 12 Jonah said to them, “Pick me up, and throw me into the sea, and then it will calm down. “In other words if you want this storm to stop, Y’all going to have to throw me overboard”. I am the cause of the trouble... The men tried to row and row the boat out of the storm, but the more the rowed the worst the storm got. And so verse 15 says they took Jonah and threw him overboard into the Mediterranean Sea.the bible say the Mediterranean Sea immediately got calm. Jonah is Down into the Mediterranean Sea. Jonah went Down in the Water, Down in the sea, Down to the bottom of the sea, and God sent a Ketos fish that swallowed Jonah whole and took Jonah Down to the bottom of its belly. In other words Jonah went Down Down Down 8th softly Down.

Point 4. Jonah Punishment

That was Jonah’s Punishment. He was disobedient. He was being punished for a sin of Omission. Omission is when we don’t do what God told us to do. Jonah is down in the great Ketos fish’s belly. And there in the bottom of that Ketos fish Jonah began to pray Oh don’t you hear Jonah saying now Lord Now Lord. The bible say that this story has to be real because Jesus talked about it in Matthew 12:39-40 and the prophecy was Just as Jonah was down in the belly of the Ketos Fish for three days and three nights, like wise the Son of Man will be down in the grave for three day and three nights. So Jesus authenticates the story too be real.

Point 5. The Conversion of Jonah

In Chapter 2 we find the Conversion of Jonah. Jonah began to say pray in obedience, Jonah now prays like he’s commissioned and commanded and compelled to do whatever God says. And then in Jonah 2:10  Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and the fish threw up Jonah onto the dry land.

Jonah is now Converted. And the preacher has got to be converted first before he can convert anybody else to God. And so God Calls but this time Jonah Obeys. And what would normally be a three day’s journey, Jonah did it in one.

Look at Chapter three.

The Conversion of Nineveh.

Nineveh was a huge city with over 120,000 people in that day and now thousands of years later on the same site the city of Mosul has 1,683,000 people. And Jonah goes in to Nineveh and walks from one end to the other. And begins to Preach Repent. Turn from your wicked ways. Jonah’s message was so powerful until even the King of Assyria humbled himself down and dressed in sackcloth and sat in ashes . The king proclaimed a fast for the whole nation, and everybody repented. The crime rate went down. the Murder rate went down, the laying and playing was at an all time low, the drinking doping and partying was down. the gambling was down.

The bible says the People listened to Jonah’s sermon. This is the great Conversion of Nineveh. For the Preacher Pastor Teacher Leader Shepherd Poiman Bishop Elder Priest or Minister this should be hallelujah, Glory to God, it should be Shouting in the camp. But Jonah is actually up set that people are being Converted. Wait nah preacher how you gon be mad because people are coming to church, paying their tithes, loving one another, treating each other better, moving the church forward and being on one accord>>>>

The whole City of Nineveh Repented and asked God for forgiveness. And Jonah got mad that God’s mercy and blessings that was shared with Israel’s enemy. Jonah hated those people. And the bible says that Jonah moved out to the outskirts of town, and sat on a hill and pitched a tent and waited for Nineveh to flip, flop, and falter but they stay righteous.

In fact they stayed righteous long enough for a Caster Bush to grow 12 feet tall and give Jonah shade from the hot sun. And In Chapter 4 God showed Jonah his hypocritical ways. Meaning you said one thing but you mean something else. Jonah you preached for them to repent but got mad when they did. And this is how God fixed Jonah, So God sent a worm to eat the Caster Bush up overnight and Jonah woke up and got mad.

Jonah got so mad with God until he wanted to die. And God said Jonah you mean that you’re mad enough about a caster bush dying to want to kill yourself. The Lord said Jonah I made the caster bush grow. And Jonah I caused the Caster Bush to die. It’s mine Jonah and I do what I want because I’m Sovereign. And Jonah because I’m Sovereign I can save Nineveh if I want to.

So in essence you better get on board because I’m God and God all by myself and I saved you did I, and you could have been dead down in the Ketos fish‘s belly.

And Jonah said and Lord that’s the reason I didn’t want to preach to them in the first place. Jonah 4:2 says “You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love.”

Let me help somebody Our God is a gracious and loving God who give grace and mercy to whom He pleases

I’ve got to close here and so as I leave you here today um um um. I just want to say

Thank you heavenly Father for being a great good and gracious God who look beyond our faults and sees about every one of our needs, Please sir to have mercy. Oh Lord um. Oh Lordy.

And Thank you Jesus for saving my soul and making me whole. um um yes

Thank you Jesus for picking me up and turning me around and putting my feet on solid ground.

Thank you Jesus for my health and strength even when the devil want to kill me. Because I should have been dead sleeping in my grave. Oh Lord you made old death behave, Thank you Jesus.

Thank you Jesus for putting food on my table and a roof over my head. A car to drive to wonderful church and beautiful people Thank you Lord.