When a Child of God Rebels - Apr. 30th, 2023

[Text:]

Jonah 1:1–3 KJV 1900

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.

[Pre-Introduction:] 

Preliminary remarks, thanks, honors, invitation for children to children's services, metadata (location, time, speaker, subject, reference)

[Introduction:] 

Illustration of standing at the crossroads of decision

Jeremiah 6:16 KJV 1900

16 Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

She Kept Throwing Stick

Years ago an old Scottish woman went to country homes to sell thread, buttons and shoestrings. When she came to an unmarked crossroad, she would toss a stick in the air and go whichever way the stick pointed. One day she was seen tossing the stick into the air several times. “Why do you toss the stick several times?” someone asked. She answered, “It has pointed every time to the road going to the right, and I want to go on the road to the left. It looks smoother!” She kept on throwing up the stick until it finally pointed toward the road she wanted to go.

—Walter B. Knight

[Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 1610.]

[Sermonic Proposition:] 

Be Greater than Jonas, Avoid Rebellion

[Sub-introduction:] 

Textual observations (see Canvas markings for ideas, words to define, connections, contrasts, context, culture, background items to clip)

Jonah is one of fourteen Old Testament books that open with the little word “and.” These books remind us of God’s “continued story” of grace and mercy. Though the Bible is comprised of sixty-six different books, it tells only one story; and God keeps communicating that message to us, even though we don’t always listen too attentively. How long-suffering He is toward us!

[Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Amazed, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 71.]

In dealing with any book of the Bible, we need to distinguish between what Dr. G. Campbell Morgan calls the essentials and the incidentals. The incidentals in the Book of Jonah are the fish, the gourd, the east wind, the boat, and even the city of Nineveh. The essentials here are Jehovah and Jonah—God and man—that is what the book is all about.

[J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary: The Prophets (Jonah/Micah), electronic ed., vol. 29 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), xiv.]

[First Main Point:]

God Makes Things Clear through His Word Regarding His Direction & Objective Will for His Servants (Jon. 1:1)

A - Arise & Go to the Heart of Paganism (antichrists) (Jon. 1:2a)

Where do we see wicked philosophies that breed violence and persecution arising today?

B - Cry Against Its Verified Wickedness (Jon. 1:2b)

How do vain philosophies, pagan rudiments, and profanities trend toward ONE-WORLD religion, and persecution of those of "The Faith/Way"?

Explain this point, Illustrate it, apply it through Christo-Centric Historio-Redemptive program, MOVE ON.

[Second Main Point (Chiasm):]

Instead, We Directly Flee from Our God Ordained Responsibility to Confront Worldly Evil & Wickedness (Jon. 1:3)

A - We Arise, But for to Descend Away (So We Think) from the Face of God

God had commanded his prophet, “Arise, go to Nineveh.” Verse 3 begins (literally), “So Jonah rose,” as if Jonah were about to obey the Lord as prophets were expected to do (cf. Gen 12:1, 4; 22:2–3; 1 Kgs 17:9–10; 18:1–2; 2 Kgs 1:15; 1 Chr 21:10–11, 18–19).

Genesis 12:1 KJV 1900

1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

Genesis 12:4 KJV 1900

4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Genesis 22:2–3 KJV 1900

2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. 3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

1 Kings 17:9–10 KJV 1900

9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.

1 Kings 18:1–2 KJV 1900

1 And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. 2 And Elijah went to shew himself unto Ahab. And there was a sore famine in Samaria.

2 Kings 1:15 KJV 1900

15 And the angel of the Lord said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.

1 Chronicles 21:10–11 KJV 1900

10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. 11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee

1 Chronicles 21:18–19 KJV 1900

18 Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the Lord.

But the verse continues surprisingly, “to flee to Tarshish from before the Lord.” As H. C. Brichto wrote:

One would be hard put to imagine a narrative beginning better designed to strike an ancient Israelite audience as discordant, incongruous, absurd. A monarch charges a deputy, trusted and long in his service, with a mission which, altogether in the line of his duty, will take him to one end of his lord’s far-flung empire. Without a word of demurral, without a suggestion of motive, the deputy proceeds—and ever so casually—to head in the opposite direction.

[Billy K. Smith and Franklin S. Page, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, vol. 19B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 227.]

By fleeing from the Lord’s presence Jonah announces emphatically his unwillingness to serve God. His action is nothing less than open rebellion against God’s sovereignty.10 Such an occurrence must have shocked those who first heard or read the story. Had not Amos, the contemporary of Jonah, stated, ‘The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken—who can but prophesy?’ (Amos 3:8; cf. Jer. 20:9)?

Amos 3:8 KJV 1900

8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

Jeremiah 20:9 KJV 1900

9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, Nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, And I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

[Donald J. Wiseman, T. Desmond Alexander, and Bruce K. Waltke, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 26, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 111–112.]

It’s possible to be out of the will of God and still have circumstances appear to be working on your behalf. You can be rebelling against God and still have a false sense of security that includes a good night’s sleep. God in His providence was preparing Jonah for a great fall.

[Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Amazed, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 73.]

Some Christians assume that, because circumstances are favorable, what they are doing must have God’s approval. Jonah was able to buy a ticket to Tarshish and begin his journey. He could have concluded, as many Christians do, that this was a sign of God’s blessing. It was not.

“… you cannot always interpret the good circumstances as being God’s will and the unfavorable circumstances as not being God’s will.”67

“The ready way is not always the right way.”68

“An officer in an army may resign the commission of his president or king, but an ambassador of the Lord is on a different basis. His service is for life, and he may not repudiate it without the danger of incurring God’s discipline.”69

[66 Wiersbe, pp. 378-79.

67 McGee, Thru the …, 3:744.

68 Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, p. 1142.

69 Gaebelein, p. 74.]

[Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jon 1:3.]

B - Down to Joppa (Portal/Terminal)

“And he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish …” Joppa was about the only seaport that Israel ever had until Herod built Caesarea Philippi hundreds of years after Jonah. Jonah might have been surprised to find ready transportation available for the very place to which he had decided to flee. Satan always provides transportation for the soul running away from the Lord. And, as Spurgeon once said, “Evil also has its mysterious providences, and it is not always right to do what seems to be convenient.”

[James B. Coffman, Commentary on Minor Prophets: Joel, Amos, and Jonah, Revised Edition., vol. 1, The James Burton Coffman Commentaries (A. C. U. Press, 1986), Jon 1:3.]

Jonah went down to Joppa, while Jesus went down to Jerusalem; 

Jonah went down into a wooden boat to sheol, while Jesus went up on a cross to Paradise; 

Jonah sought his own life and lost it, while Jesus lost His own life only to find it.

As he flees, what a lot of going down there is! He went down to Joppa; he went down into the ship; he went down into the sides of the ship: and in the next chapter he has to confess, “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains”—down till he could go no deeper, unless he had sunk into the pit of woe: but that could not be; for, whatever his failure, he was a child of God still and the Lord was about to restore him in a marvelous manner.

Oh, that we all might lay this to heart! The path of the one who acts in self-will is always a downward one, let the profession be what it may. One may boast of acting for God, and talk of having His approval; but if self is served instead of Christ, the feet will soon slide, and the steps will be down, down, down—till humbled and repentant, the soul turns back to God, and is ready to own the wrong of its behavior.

[H. A. Ironside, Notes on the Minor Prophets. (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, 1909), 200.]

“Joppa’s greatest export was God’s compassion.”56

[56 Charles R. Swindoll, The Swindoll Study Bible, p. 1068.]

[Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jon 1:3.]

C -  We Search Until We Find a Hopeful Vessel for Our Secret (So We Think) Absconding

We Flee from His Face, 

We Search Until We Find an Escape, 

Joppa figures in the New Testament as one of the first places the gospel spreads among the Gentiles. Many of its people believe in the Lord after Peter comes and raises a disciple named Tabitha from the dead (Acts 9:36–43),

Acts 9:36–43 KJV 1900

36 Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. 37 And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber. 38 And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them. 39 Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them. 40 But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up. 41 And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive. 42 And it was known throughout all Joppa; and many believed in the Lord. 43 And it came to pass, that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon a tanner.

and it is in Joppa that Peter has the inspired dream that teaches him that even Gentiles can be clean (Acts 10:9–16, 28).

Acts 10:9–16 KJV 1900

9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: 10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, 11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: 12 Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. 14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. 15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. 16 This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.

Acts 10:28 KJV 1900

28 And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

We could think of it as the place on the borders of the Holy Land where the mercy of the Lord Jesus begins to overflow beyond Israel, pouring out to the whole world. In doing so it follows in Jonah’s footsteps.

Of course Jonah has no intention of preaching good news to the Gentiles when he goes to Joppa, heading for Tarshish. But neither did Peter when he went to Joppa, nor Saul when he came from Tarsus. The prophet is precursor to the apostles precisely in the intensely ironic relation between his intention and God’s sending. The mission that God has for his people is often quite different from the mission statements they write for themselves. But the Lord God of Israel has a way of getting his way with his people, for the blessing of the nations. Hence it is essential that Peter and Paul, like Jonah their precursor, did not choose their status as apostles or missionaries. As their Lord made clear, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16).

John 15:16 KJV 1900

16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

This is his story, not theirs, which is why it is in the end not the story of something vain and unreliable like human religious experience but rather of something glorious and triumphant, the grace of God for all nations.

[Phillip Cary, Jonah, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2008), 42–43.]

We Pay the Fare Thereof, 

We Ultimately Fall Further from His Face

C' - We Are Headed (So We Think) to the Edge of the Earth, In the Opposite Direction from Where God Called Us to Go

Note the emphasis on “Tarshish” in our text

In Genesis 10:4 Tarshish is listed along with Elishah and Kittim, both associated with parts of Cyprus.

Genesis 10:4 KJV 1900

4 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.

Though the location remains uncertain, it is used in texts to refer to the farthest known point in the west. The conflicting geographical indications in ancient texts suggest the possibility that it refers in a more general sense to far off islands.9 In Solomon’s day the ships going to Tarshish would not return for three years (1 Kings 10:22).

1 Kings 10:22 KJV 1900

22 For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

[John H Walton, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Old Testament): The Minor Prophets, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, vol. 5 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 105.]

In one sense, we could suppose that Jonah is moving up in the world, heading in the direction of wealth and power. But the text warns us against that supposition by repeating its description of Jonah’s movement as a descent: he “goes down” into this ship of Tarshish, falling yet further away from the face of the Lord and thereby drawing that much closer to death, like those who, as the Bible often puts it, “go down to the pit” (Ps. 28:1; 30:3; 88:4; 143:7; Prov. 1:12).

Some memorable passages about the ships of Tarshish in the books of the prophets reinforce this warning. Isaiah, for instance, pictures the Lord bringing down everything the world looks up to, including the ships of Tarshish:

Isaiah 2:12–17 KJV 1900

12 For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, And upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: 13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, And upon all the oaks of Bashan, 14 And upon all the high mountains, And upon all the hills that are lifted up, 15 And upon every high tower, And upon every fenced wall, 16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, And upon all pleasant pictures. 17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, And the haughtiness of men shall be made low: And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

And then there is a passage from the oracle Ezekiel addresses against Tyre, the Phoenician city on the Mediterranean seaboard north of Joppa. Also known for its wealth and splendor, Tyre will go down like a ship sinking on the high seas, carrying all its cargo to the bottom:

Ezekiel 27:25–27 KJV 1900

25 The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas. 26 Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas. 27 Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.

The prophet has his finger on the pulse of every rich person’s nightmare. What if our cities, our civilizations with all their technology and power and wealth, go down like a ship foundering at sea? The whole infrastructure of our opulence is frailer than we like to imagine, buoyed up over the heart of the sea like a fragile wooden vessel that could easily be swallowed up by the abyss tomorrow. This is the nightmare evoked by the eschatological lament over Babylon the great in the last book of the Bible:

Revelation 18:17–19 KJV 1900

17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, And sailors, and as many as trade by sea, Stood afar off, 18 And cried When they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! 19 And they cast dust on their heads, And cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, Wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! For in one hour is she made desolate.

Fleeing in the opposite direction from Nineveh, Jonah is nonetheless descending into the heart of the nightmare that always threatens the wealth of the great city.

[Phillip Cary, Jonah, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2008), 43–45.]

B' - We Pay Whatever It Takes to Avoid Responsibility 

We Essentially Become Responsibly Irresponsible

There are no free rides in life and that is especially true for a child of God that is on the run from God. Can you think of times in life where we had to pay the fare because of our disobedience to God? Jonah boarded the ship and went down into it.

• Jonah’s disobedience was extensive, he fled to Tarshish;

• Jonah’s disobedience was expensive, he paid the fare.

[Jack Andrews, Understanding Jonah, The Jack Andrews Expository Studies (Wordsearch, 2010), 16.]

“So he paid the fare thereof …” What an exciting text for a sermon is this! Whatever soul turns from the Lord finds always that a price is exacted. The prodigal son paid for his excursion into the far country with a sojourn in the swine pen; Judas paid for his “thirty pieces of silver” with a hangman’s rope in the “field of blood” (Acts 1:19):

“Attempting to run away from God is like fleeing light and falling into darkness, relinguishing wealth and welcoming poverty, abandoning joy and receiving sorrow, or giving up peace in order to have chaos and confusion!”[22] [[22] William J. Banks, op. cit., p. 19.]

[James B. Coffman, Commentary on Minor Prophets: Joel, Amos, and Jonah, Revised Edition., vol. 1, The James Burton Coffman Commentaries (A. C. U. Press, 1986), Jon 1:3.]

See Jonah 2:6

Jonah 2:6 KJV 1900

6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The earth with her bars was about me for ever: Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.

Having charted his descent towards the land of the dead, Jonah now introduces an all-important contrast: But you brought my life up from the pit. Since the noun šaḥat, ‘pit’ or ‘grave’, often parallels in Hebrew poetry the term Sheol, there is good reason to understanding it as referring here to the abode of the dead.46 At length the downward journey ceases and Jonah’s descent is dramatically reversed. This change in the direction of Jonah’s movement brings to an end a series of descending steps which may be traced back to the beginning of chapter 1. From his initial flight in 1:3 Jonah’s progress has always been downwards (cf. 1:3, 5, 15; 2:2) and each stage symbolizes a further movement away from God.47 Now, when Jonah can sink no lower, the Lord intervenes and raises him upward.

[Donald J. Wiseman, T. Desmond Alexander, and Bruce K. Waltke, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 26, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 128.]

A' - Down to the Boat and Away (So We Think) from the Face of God

Things have an uncanny way of coming back to where it all began, so goes the account of the McLean House, See Article “The Peculiar Story of William McLean”

Illustrate how McLean is more representative of Jehovah than Jonah (i.e., he was not “running from war” but taking care of his family), when the need arose, McLean said “Yes,” on both accounts (beginning & ending).

[Concluding Application & Invitation to Act:]

The general principle is—and this applies as much to Christians today as it did to Jonah so long ago—that when someone turns away from the will of God for his life, then he is willfully putting himself out of God’s presence and denies himself the blessing which is attached to happy obedience. Our sins, in other words, put us outside of the favour and blessing of God. God’s way of blessing for Jonah was in the east, towards Nineveh, but Jonah went west and into trouble. The east-west distinction is significant because it highlights the radical difference between God’s way and man’s way. That is why the psalmist, when speaking of the forgiveness of sin, says,

Psalm 103:12 KJV 1900

12 As far as the east is from the west, So far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Let us follow our Saviour God to the east and not chase our sins to the west!

Living by faith

The flight of Jonah calls us to follow the Lord. We are to learn from Jonah’s mistake. We are not to put ourselves outside of God’s will or his presence, as did Jonah. In the New Testament we are called to follow Jesus Christ. We are to flee to him, not from him. We are to embrace him by faith. We are to trust him as our Saviour. We are to obey him as our Lord. We are to live by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). And this will be our delight and our joy as God has promised in his Word.

[Gordon J. Keddie, Preacher on the Run: The Meaning of Jonah, Welwyn Commentary Series (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 1986), 18, 25.]

Be Greater than Jonas, escape the rebellion in your heart that only leads to the lowest place of death and despair, find hope through faith in the “Greater than Jonas,” Jesus Christ.