Who is this God?

Jonah 1:4-17

1. INTRODUCTION

a. We forget that our actions and decisions have consequences. Here in this story of Jonah, we see exactly that. We see that all our decisions have consequences. Jonah reminds us the God of whom we serve. Jonah is a constant reminder of God’s sovereignty and faithfulness.

a. The God of Strength (능력의 하나님) (1:4-9)

b. The God of Grace (은혜의 하나님) (1:10-17)

2. BODY

a. The God of Strength (능력의 하나님) (1:4-9)

i. Verse 4 opens with God responding to Jonah’s disobedience. We saw last week God’s call to Jonah. God called Jonah to a task and Jonah responds by running away from his calling. This sparks God’s response in verse 4. One thing to take note here in verse 4 is how active God is. I am really loving my study in Jonah as it reveals to me how active God is involved not only in the life of Jonah, but it reminds me how active God is involved in my own life.

ii. God does not just sit in Heaven and watch us and is disconnected from us. What we see here in Jonah is how intricately He is connected to our lives, how actively He is working in our lives.

iii. So how does God responds to Jonah’s disobedience? God throws a great wind on the sea and a great storm causes the ship to be destroyed. So from verse 3, we see how Jonah was going to Tarshish. We can picture Jonah ready to embark on his trip. Jonah probably gets his cell phone, puts it on airplane mode, takes out his pillow, so he can nap. During Jonah’s trip, verse 4, God throws a great wind to cause a great storm. This storm finally reaches Jonah where he was travelling and we see in verse 5 that all the sailors cry out to their own god.

iv. This storm was so great that it was causing their ship to be destroyed. This actually was probably a pretty big boat because it was most likely a trade boat. This is why it says in verse 5 that they started to throw the cargo away to make the boat lighter.

v. But it was then that Jonah was down in the deck of the ship, sound asleep. Jonah had his headphones on, and he was sleeping well. Here in verse 5, it says that Jonah was literally passed out. The word used here is the same word used in Genesis 2:21 for when God put Adam to sleep so he could perform his surgery. So we could tell from this situation that nothing was going to wake up Jonah, not even a great storm such as this.

vi. The irony here of this situation is that all the men were praying and frantically throwing their cargo away so that they have a better chance to survive the storm. They were fighting for their lives, looking for every piece of cargo they could throw away so they could live. While they were running around the boat, throwing things away, verse 6, the captain saw Jonah.

vii. He asked Jonah how could you be sleeping right now? Don’t know you what type of situation we are in? Get up, pray to your God and ask Him to save us.

viii. This sounds familiar. In Jonah 1:2, God calls Jonah to arise and go cry out to the unbelievers at Ninevah. Here, in verse 6, the command calls Jonah to arise and cry out to your God. The commander is calling Jonah to pray like everything depends on prayer. Pray with your life on the line.

ix. The irony here is that the unbelievers here have more faith than Jonah. The unbeliever’s are telling the believer to pray. The irony here is striking. The only one who would understand what is happening, who could effectively pray and act, is dead to the world while the sailors who were actively praying, awake and trembling in fear.

x. This is an astounding statement here by the commander. His statement here tells us that most inhabitants in Palestine at this time believed in some god. They saw the doom that was impending on them. Their response was prayer. But what was the reality? This is exactly what the devil tries to do to us when we are in trouble. It is to tell us to pray. You see, the devil doesn’t tell us don’t pray. No, the devil convinces us to pray. The problem is, false religion makes it sound like all religions are the same. There is no one true God. But what does this situation here prove? It proves that false religion can’t give a solution for situations like these.

xi. This is why their response is verse 7. They realize that this is no ordinary storm. Their navigation tools did not detect a storm like this coming. This reminds me of the movie “The Perform Storm”

xii. From this scene, we see that this was no ordinary storm. While it was not the same storm, we could see that the people were in panic. If any of us saw a storm of this magnitude, we would have panicked.

xiii. So what was their response? Their response is, God must be judging someone. So they cast lots. The most common word used for “lot” indicates that they were either stones or pebbles that were painted or colored. When the stones were thrown, if two dark sides landed up the usual interpretation was no. If two light sides landed up, that meant yes. A light and a dark side meant throw again. So they throw the rocks and it lands that Jonah was the problem.

xiv. Let’s examine Jonah at this time. Verse 6, the command calls Jonah to pray. God was telling Jonah to repent through the mouth of the commander. Even through this, Jonah doesn’t pray. It doesn’t start verse 7 by stating and Jonah prayed. Jonah prayed to God asking God to spare them. Rather, we see Jonah’s silence.

xv. We see the 2nd miracle of God in revealing who’s fault this was. As soon as they find out it was Jonah’s fault, they ask him verse 8. Tell us now. They ask him, what is your job, what did you do that your God is punishing us and lastly, where are you from? Who is your God?

xvi. Jonah responds in verse 9. He says He is a Hebrew, and his answer he is classic. He says, I fear the Lord God of Heaven who made the sea and the dry land. Jonah’s reply is a standard reply. He identifies himself as Hebrew which is a term used commonly by Israelites in explaining themselves to foreigners. Jonah then follows his statement by stating I fear, I worship Yahweh. So who is this Yahweh? They probably didn’t know much about Yahweh. Yahweh is the God of Heaven. He is the supreme one and only true God. So why is He the one true God? He is the one who made the sea and the dry land.

xvii. They were probably going back and forth explaining that Jonah’s God wasn’t the only one true God. But Jonah probably explains to them so that they understand. They heard stories about a certain God and finally, in verse 10 we see they quickly understand.

b. The God of Grace (은혜의 하나님) (1:10-17)

i. Now when we read verse 10, Jonah by this point knows all about the suddenness of the storm and has seen God control the lots. He cannot fail to recognize that his attempt at flight has proved futile. If he has not already told, he is beginning to tell the sailors that he has been fleeing Yahweh (v 10). It is time to give up and to confess everything. The men in the boat now understand who this God is, Yahweh.

ii. What’s striking here? It says in verse 10, that they became extremely frightened. The expression is literally “they feared with a great fear.” They were already afraid (1:5) because they realized they were going to die. But here, in verse 10, they were even more afraid than before. They were afraid beyond death. They realized they were now under divine punishment. They would have known what it means to be punished by their own god and now to see that they were being punished by the One true God, they were beyond afraid. The pieces of the puzzle have been completely fit together. The storm is indeed a divine judgment of a most serious sort: the God Yahweh is punishing one of his prophets who has disobeyed his word. And the crew is caught in the process. They were now suffering because Jonah decided to not listen to God.

iii. Don’t we love when we have to suffer because of someone else’s mistake? Well, this was why they asked the question, how could you do this?

iv. This situation causes for an interesting response. Verse 11, “what should we do to you that the storm may become calm for us?” The question isn’t, what should we do? The question is what should we do to you? At the same time, the question is timely and needed. Jonah, the one who was disobedient and under the punishment of God, was now the only one who could tell them what would turn God’s wrath away from them.

v. This is what prompts Jonah’s answer in verse 12. Jonah’s reply is blunt and shocking. They must kill him. The death penalty is the penalty he deserves—nothing short of it. Jonah is hardly suggesting that he be sacrificed to the sea.

vi. Jonah knows that the upshot must be that he should perish. He is the target of Yah wen’s weapon and sooner or later it will catch him. He accepts his fate and is prepared to face it at once. Finally, he realizes how terrible is the sin that he has provoked this terrible storm.

vii. This should remind us of how great our sins are and the punishment that we deserve. It should remind us of the death we are to die for the sins we have committed. Again, it reminds us of Romans 6:23, that the wages of sin is death. Here, Jonah recognizes that the wages of his sin is death.

viii. Verse 13, however the men are unwilling to take Jonah’s life. Rather, they plan to row to land, but they could not. The storm was unwilling to let them out. Verse 3 is huge. Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of God. Now, he was in no position to run from the presence of God. The storm started to get worse.

ix. So the men cry out to God. They rise up to God and ask for forgiveness. They don’t want to be guilty for innocent blood. They conclude their prayer by recognizing God’s sovereignty and power. They were seeing that they had no choice, and that this was Yahweh’s will. They conclude the prayer, You, Yahweh, have done as you wanted. They were realizing that Yahweh wanted Jonah killed. He was now accomplishing this. The storm provided the divine verdict and showed the penalty.

x. Verse 15, Jonah’s words were accurate once again. The sailors’ actions produced immediately the desired result. Just as God threw the storm in response to Jonah’s disobedience, God saved the sailors after they had thrown the cargo, Jonah overboard.

xi. This caused them in verse 16, that now, these men feared God greatly. They realized their prayers were answered. Not by their deities, but rather by Yahweh. Jonah was not in fact innocent (v 14) but very much guilty. They had done the right thing and Yahweh had spared them.

xii. We reach some difficulty here in verse 16 where some people believe that these men became believers and others think that they came to know Yahweh is truly God and He is definitely one out of many Gods to be considered. We don’t know for sure if they believed and were saved because the Bible doesn’t give us any clues about this. What we can know though is the importance of what God did here.

xiii. What we saw in our reading of Jonah 1 is clearly that sin calls for a response. The response is death. All who have sinned must suffer the consequences of sin, and we know the consequence is death. We saw that in Jonah’s response in verse 12, throw me into the sea. He knew the wages of sin was his own death. He acknowledged it and He knew he deserved death.

xiv. Yet in verse 17, we see that God appoints a fish to swallow Jonah and save him. God’s judgment to Jonah was that he would have to die. For his disobedience, God would use the storm to judge Jonah. But even through His judgment, God preserves Jonah. This is similar to us. There are some times where we go through trials that cause us to question “Why is God doing this to me?” But even in those situations, God saves those to whom He has appointed.

xv. What is the greatest picture of this? It is through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we were dead in the wages of sin, Christ came to die for the ungodly. When the wages of sin called for us, Christ paid that debt with His own life.

xvi. The story of Jonah as we will see, is a continued prophecy of Israel. Like Jonah, God commissioned Israel to be His people and witness. Like Jonah, Israel was commissioned of God. Like Jonah, Israel was to be obedient to the will of the Lord. While Jonah was among the unbelieving, they came to the knowledge of God. Jonah was miraculously preserved in the sea monster. Israel also was preserved in the plan of God through the centuries of exile and dispersion. The book of Jonah serves to remind us that the prophecies regarding Israel are true, and even when they failed to meet those requirements, it shows us how God will keep His promises to us. If God is faithful to Israel despite their disobedience, it reminds us how God will be faithful to us as well.

3. CONCLUSION

a.