Jonah: Disobedience and Desperation

Recap:

Jonah 1:1–3 CSB

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

Last week we talked about how Jonah tried to escape the presence of God and were reminded that you cannot escape the presence of God. There is nothing you can do to get away from God. YAHWAH is everywhere! He is the God who is near and far away!

Romans 8:38–39 CSB

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When you are part of the family of God, NOTHING can separate us from the Love of GOD that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

YAHWAH is omnipresent. This means that HE is everywhere, all the time, all at once. Omnipresence is the name for the belief that God is present everywhere and is not limited to any location or physical space. His Immanence or Immensity!

Disobedience causes a ruckus

Jonah 1:4 CSB

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.

Have you ever heard about Mother Nature? Perhaps you have used that term. Let me tell you something, mother nature isn’t real, but Father God! Make no mistake about this, Jonah, the preacher, the prophet, the messenger of God made the decision to be disobedient; and the Word of God says that FATHER GOD - YAHWAH - threw a great wind onto the sea! He caused such a great storm on the sea that the ships integrity was compromised.

Jonah 1:5 CSB

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.

The storm is terrible, but Jonah is sleeping! There is a storm raging, but Jonah is so out of touch with a basic bit of reality that he can just slumber through.

You can be so out of touch with God, so disconnected, that you do not even realize that the storm is raging around you! You have allowed yourself to be so blinded by your own disobedience, that you are oblivious to the dangers around you.

Jonah 1:6 CSB

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.”

The captain comes down, WAKE UP! Pray to your god! We have been praying to all of our gods and nothing is working!

The pagan is telling the prophet to pray! How crazy is this moment! I want to be very specific here: YAHWAY brought the storm. That’s the capital G - God! There is only one capital G - God! His name is known! Two words are used as names or titles for God far in excess of all others combined: ‘elohim (some 2250+ times in BHS) and yhwh (some 5500+ times).

He is great. He is mighty. And HE will use whatever circumstances to reach the people. He does not need us to do His will, but HE chooses to use us. And in this moment, with this storm, God is using a pagan captain to turn Jonah back to right path.

IF you think that your disobedience only effects your life, you are horribly mistaken. When you choose to run from God, that disobedience causes a ruckus that effects the lives of the people around you. Jonah’s disobedience caused the storm that now strikes fear in the hearts of the sailors. Jonah’s disobedience has caused the storm that threatens to tear apart the ship.

The negative circumstances in your life, right now, may be the result of your disobedience. You may be in the middle of a storm that did not have to occur. Jonah was asleep, completely unaware of the storm, until someone woke him up!

Maybe that is you! Perhaps right now you are being woke up to the reality that there is a storm in your life, and it is all your fault!

Jonah 1:7–10 CSB

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

Here is the reality: people around you tend to know you are in a storm before you tell them your circumstances! YOU are the cause. Reality check: sometimes the problem is YOU! Which means you may need to be woken up to the reality so you can have the breakthrough that Jonah had: I AM THE PROBLEM!

The people knew there was a problem. They came up with a manner in which to discover whom the culprit of the day was: casting lots. Casting lots was a lot like rolling the dice. Of course God caused those dice to reveal Jonah was the one who brought on this misfortune.

They knew it. Then they confronted Jonah.

Sometimes the people who are confronting you about the storm affecting them, are really being used by God to get you bak on the right track! You can get mad, you can get ugly, or you can realize that YOU are the issue!

Desperation

Jonah 1:11–12 CSB

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. 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.”

They are so scared that they are looking for any solution. They ask Jonah, what would it take to appease your God? What sacrifices calm your God down? Their understanding was based on a religious system: do what is right to appease a vengeful angry god. It is folly my friends! I want you to know that we do not have a vengeful God looking down upon us with angry eyes and wrath! We do, however, have a jealous God!

Jonah’s answer seems drastic: throw me into the sea!

We do not know how Jonah has come to this conclusion. Perhaps his thought was simple: if I am no longer in the boat, the people on the boat will be safe. Perhaps, a bit more gloomy, Jonah simply chose death.

Jonah 1:13–14 CSB

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. 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.”

The men clearly did not want the blood of Jonah on their hands. These were hard working good men. They rowed. They struggled. They did all they could, but nothing worked.

SO they CRIED OUT TO YAHWAH! Our Father is amazing. HE used this situation, caused by Jonah’s disobedience, to get pagans to pray to Him! God does not need us to accomplish His mission. He chooses to use us. He can use our obedience. He can use our disobedience. Right here, from Genesis through Jonah - God is telling us something that Jesus reveals fully: our God desires both Jew and Gentile!

Jonah 1:15–16 CSB

Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. The men were seized by great fear of the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

Jonah gets thrown overboard. Let’s come back to that.

These men throw Jonah overboard and instantly the sea stops raging. The storm is over. The waves stop!

Sound familiar?

Mark 4:37–41 CSB

A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?” He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Then he said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” And they were terrified and asked one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!”

This is the same reaction those fishermen have after throwing Jonah overboard. What God is this? Even the wind and sea obey Him!

And they make sacrifice and make vows. And suddenly, just like that God used Jonah’s disobedience to convert a boat load of pagans to followers of YAHWAH!

Jonah 1:17 CSB

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

It is important to pause right here.

Jonah was swallowed by a great fish. Was this a whale? A Goldfish? Perhaps a massive Mahi Mahi?

The answer is simple: it does not matter.

Some read the story and think: this is clearly fiction.

Jesus used the story of Jonah very clearly. He used it as a metaphor for the crucifixion. Death, burial, resurrection.

Cast overboard, what all would consider death.

Belly of the fish 3 days.

Out of the belly to proclaim the word of the lord.

Crucifixion - what all would consider death.

3 days in the tomb.

resurrection to proclaim the VICTORY!

Make no mistake about it: believing that Jonah is fiction is the same as believing the crucifixion is fiction.

BUT IT MAKES NO SENSE!

THAT’S THE POINT!

It is beyond human comprehension! How can it happen? Some things we do not need to know HOW they happened, just THAT they happened.

And here is what happened:

Jonah disobeyed. The sea obeyed. The fish obeyed. God had mercy!

Sometimes we are the problem. Sometimes you are the problem. Sometimes I am the problem. God is going to accomplish His plan. We simply have to figure out how we fit into it. If you make the decision to run from God, actions have consequences. YAHWAH will send storms your way to get you to OBEY! He will discipline you!

Hebrews 12:5–6 CSB

And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives.

Well everything happens for a reason: sometimes that reason is your own disobedience!

Are you being disobedience? Are you running form God?

The storm you are in right now: it is a spiritual problem! All you have to do, is turn to Jesus!