An Introduction
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Amen. Thanks Regent.
Well everyone, welcome back to another college night here at Coram Deo. If you’re new with us, my name is Cody Rogers…
We have just started a teaching series in the book of Jonah and last week, as we were kicking it off, I mentioned that we were going to have a 2 part introduction.
Last week was sort of a fake introduction, because while I think it heavily relates to what we are going through in the book of Jonah, we spent our time in Romans talking about salvation.
This week, however, is way more of what you expect an introduction to a teaching series to be.
Tonight we are going to be doing our best to understand what exactly it is that we are reading when we open this book in the Old Testament.
I think there are many of you who have never truly, authentically, spent time reading the Old Testament. And I know there are many of you that feel intimidated or overwhelmed by the Old Testament and I want to say to you that this message is for you.
You see, one of the many reasons we are intimidated by the Old Testament is that we are very unfamiliar with it. It seems a lot more foreign to us than the New Testament does.
But, one of the things that can quickly cause us to feel more comfortable with an Old Testament book, is to understand what we are getting ourselves into.
It’s like buying a car, or an instrument, or even a new style of clothing.
You’re more comfortable once you’ve gone in a test drive, played it at the store, or tried it on the dressing room and took a snap to ask your best friend what they think.
And guys…the same principle actually applies to reading the Old Testament.
I want to encourage you tonight, that if you are a person that is intimidated to read the OT, then look to see what we are doing tonight and follow after.
Look to see how we put Jonah through a test drive, to see what we are going to expect. Look to see the types of things we focus on, and at the end…I’ll tell you how to get to the same types of points I go to tonight.
Alright, enough said.
Let’s get into Jonah. Tonight we are just in the first 2 verses.
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
Jonah was a real man.
We know this because other historical books reference him.
23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. 25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher. 26 For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. 27 But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did, and his might, how he fought, and how he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah in Israel, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
We also know he was a real man because Jesus spoke of him like he was.
40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
From a real place.
Says he was from Gath-Hepher
With a real call.
Show Map
Jonah was portrayed in a satirical way.
Satire is “the exposure of human vice or folly.”
SNL Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evUWersr7pc&list=PLJWjjhh7UMnAAGi5eyAsL9MNZzRpw2_ln&index=13
Now, what is this video making fun of?
Taco Bell.
Does this accurately portray every single aspect of what Taco Bell does? Absolutely not. But this video does a fantastic job using storytelling to reveal some of the oddities and silliness of Taco Bell’s philosophy of business…or even the oddity of mankind to love such a thing.
The whole point is this…satire is written in a way makes human vice or folly super exposed.
And that’s what Jonah is.
It’s a book, written in a way to expose the silliness, the folly, the stupidity of Jonah.
The book itself is clearly written so that we would not want to be like Jonah.
#dontbeajonah
As we go along in this book we are going to see multiple times that Jonah just does the unimaginable and the ridiculous. We are going to see him do things that just don’t make any sense… and we are going to see the people around him, the unbelieving pagans, seem to be the only ones with any sense.
Now, was Jonah actually like this? Yes. In some ways he must have been, otherwise God would not have included it in his word. These events actually happened, Jonah’s response to the things we will read actually happened, but we are going to see that intentional language is used in this book to show just how ridiculous he was being.
But we should be asking the question, why?
Why is Jonah written in a way that it emphasizes the weaknesses, some would say stupidity, and certainly the cruelty of Jonah? Well, the answer is.
To emphasize the compassion of God.
Not just to Israel, but to the nations, to God’s enemies.
This confronts those who say the OT God is different from the NT God.
This confirms that the God of Jesus is the same God.
This reminds us that God never changes.
And to challenge us.
-To remember God’s compassion.
For us and for the world.
-To reflect God’s compassion.
On others.
If there’s one thing I want you walking away with tonight…I want you asking the question that the author of this book wants you asking and that’s this…
Am I responding to the compassion of God appropriately?
