A Preacher on the Run

Jonah 1:1-16

What do you suppose happens when a messenger of God refuses to deliver God’s message? I wonder if you have ever known that God was calling you to do something but you refused to do it? Well, this is exactly what the Prophet Jonah did and here in this passage we get to see the consequences of running from God.

The passage we are considering today breaks down roughly into four parts;

The Call (v 1-2)

The Flight (v 3)

The Storm (v 4-9)

Cast Overboard (v 10-16)

THE CALL (5 minutes)

The name Jonah in Hebrew means ‘Dove.’ You may recall the dove sent out by Noah from the ark to look for dry land which returned to him after seeking in vain. And a prophet, just like that dove - is an emmisary sent out by God into a world submerged in judgement looking for a place receptive to his word of peace.

Jonah’s Father’s name was Amittai which means ‘truth-telling’. And a prophet must be a truth-teller. A prophet is not a PR agent for God, neither is he a politician for God. His job is not to try and make God look good, to make Him more appealing to world in the hope of winning a few more converts. His job is to be a truth-teller. If he fails in this one thing, he fails in everything.

Jonah is mentioned in the book of 2 Kings. He was a prophet to the Northern Kingdom of Israel at the time of Jeroboam II, shortly after the time of Elijah and Elisha.

At this time the word of the Lord came to Jonah; Jonah 1:2

Jonah 1:2 ESV

2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

Jonah was to go not to the people of God, but to a pagan nation, to a city of violence and idol worship, to a brutal and proud people.

The city of Nineveh was a military super power at that time, situated in modern day Iraq. They did not know or care for the God of the Israelites; as far as they were concerned He was not their God. But God knew all about them, he knew what was going on in that city, their wickedness had come up before Him.

God knows about and cares about the moral and spiritual condition of cities and nations that do not know or serve Him. There is not a people group or a city on earth that is outside the purview of His holy judgement.

So God sent Jonah to cry out against them, to warn them of coming destruction unless they repented.

THE FLIGHT (5 mins)

But Jonah didn’t go to Nineveh, he went straight away and boarded a ship to the furthest place from Ninevah he could get to.

Why? Was Jonah just an unreliable man? Was he workshy? Was he scared? Or just in need of a holiday?!

No - Jonah was deeply troubled that God would send him to Nineveh. Was he worried for his safety? No, he was worried that they might actually repent!

The gospel is a two edged sword - it comes first with warnings of guilt and judgement, but then with the promise of redemption through repentance and faith. We must never do away with the call to repentance, for if we do, we also remove the promise of restoration.

Jonah had spent his whole ministry preaching to God’s covenant people, but for all of his preaching, and all of the other prophets that God had sent, Israel remained wicked and unrepentant.

Maybe God had finally had enough? What if Nineveh, a city full of sinful pagans, would do what Israel had not - repent and turn from their sins! Would God take them to be His people instead of the Israelites?

So Jonah heads to the port and manages to find himself a ship going all the way to Tarshish and gets himself a ticket. You can imagine as soon as he gets his ticket he feels at peace, maybe he thought ‘if God really wanted me to go to Ninevah He wouldn’t have let me get all the way to Joppa and get on this ship.

There’s a danger in interpreting positive circumstances as confirmation that you are walking in God’s will for your life. ‘Well, if God didn’t want me to do x then He wouldn’t have let me do y’ etc. It’s easy to let favourable circumstances become a license to sin. The question should be - am I doing what God has commanded? Not - am I being permitted to continue in what I want to do?

THE STORM (5 mins)

So Jonah boards the ship and immediately heads down into the hull and falls into a deep sleep. In fact you could interpret the Hebrew word here as ‘passes out.’

And the Lord hurls a great wind on the seas and a mighty storm whips up around the ship.

All the men, hardened sailors, are crying out to their gods for help. Hard times can turn atheists into men of prayer in a moment.

The captain finds Jonah asleep and wakes him ‘what are you doing sleeping?!’ There’s a parralell here with the story of Jesus asleep in the boat in the storm on the sea of Galilee, but Jesus’s sleep was different to Jonah’s sleep. Jonah slept in a storm of his own making, Jesus woke and made the storm be still.

When ministers of God are disobedient to His commands they fall into a kind of deep sleep just like Jonah. Storms of their own causing rage all around them, wreaking devastation and they are unconscious to it. They don’t see the devastation, they don’t see the judgement of God all around them, they are asleep.

Another thing - When we disobey God - others will suffer. Unbelieving sailors were caught up in this storm because of Jonah, they suffered because of Jonah’s disobedience. I wonder how much we think of that?

It was the pagan sailors who woke Jonah up and entreated him to call on His God! This is almost like the situation we have here in the UK today - voices like Richard Dawkins, Russell Brand and others are calling out to the Church to wake up. Why? There is a violent storm raging all around! God’s judgement against the wayward church is falling upon everyone in the nation.

CAST OVERBOARD (5 mins)

The men cast lots and the lot falls on Jonah. He tells them what he has done and they are grieved - ‘why have you done this’, they ask?! Unfaithfulness to God in the life of a Christian doesn’t even make sense to unbelievers. Why would you choose not to follow the God you claim to worship?

The men ask Jonah what they should do with him and he says ‘cast me into the sea, for I know the storm is because of me.’

The men try to row to shore, not wanting to bring harm to Jonah but the storm just grew and grew.

It’s impossible to try and row your way out of God’s providence. Better to accept His plans whatever they may be, pushing back against them does no good.

Now the men begin to cry out to Yahweh, men who previously cried out to their own pagan idols now are praying to Jonah’s God! This is the strangest evangelistic crusade I have ever heard of! It was God’s judgement against His own prophet that made believers of these men.

They picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea and immediately the storm ceased.

One man was cast overboard and the lives of all the others were spared. Remind you of anyone?

This is a picture of Christ - of whom Caiaphas the high priest said; John 11:50

John 11:50 ESV

50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”

One man has died for the people - One man has taken the wrath and judgment of the Father on Himself so that we might be spared. One man has come offering peace with God to those who are alienated from Him.

This man is not like Jonah - All he ever did was obey the word of His father, the judgement he bore was ours not His. In love He has given himself for us, that we might be spared and reconciled to the Father.

Jonah being sent to Nineveh meant there was still hope for Nineveh, and while God is still sending messengers here, hope remains.

Pray