A Flight From Faithfulness

The Prophet, His Call, and His Rebellion.

Jonah and his previous “success.” (He was a rather powerful prophet, or at least a well-respected one. He delivered a message to king Jeroboam (I Kings 14:25) instructing him to enlarge the borders of the Northern Kingdom, essentially making it as large as the southern Kingdom. This would've made Jonah the greatest Northern prophet at the time.)

Name means dove (which was also a picture of Israel’s senselessness — Hosea 7:11 “Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.”)

Son of Amittai (which means son of faithfulness, setting the stage for a twist of irony):

Jonah is NOT faithful

God is absolutely the faithful One

The call comes…go to Nineveh. God is not only concerned about Israel. Nineveh is wicked…Assyrians/Israel’s chief enemies at the time.

Instead, Jonah flees (vs.2-3).

Irony: God says “arise” and Jonah chooses to go “down.”

Perplexing: There's nothing in God's charge to Jonah that would indicate God intends to save Nineveh. This makes Jonah's initial response all the more perplexing. Crying out against Nineveh should have been an encouragement to Israel that Nineveh would finally “get what was coming to them.”

I want you to notice Jonah isn’t a reluctant prophet — he’s a rebellious person.

God responds (v.4).

Only one who can command the sea, and it threatens to tear the ship apart.

The pagan sailors are fearful (v.5-6). But, where is Jonah?

When faced with divine threat, the mariners do their best to appease their gods.

Sometimes our rebellion is so deep and our hearts become so hard that we become comfortable in our sin. Jonah was content to sleep in the midst of God's judgment.

Notice the irony of movement here. Jonah was told in vs.1 to arise and go to Nineveh. Instead, he had gone down…and had lain down in the bottom of the ship.

Another ironic twist as the pagan captain has to call the prophet of YHWH to prayer! What happens when culture God’s people become so spiritually hard-hearted that the pagan culture has to call us to spiritual response? What happens when the pagan culture has no interest in spiritual matters and we fall right in?

Illustration: Have you ever met someone who just seems "resigned to fate?" It's not that they're without hope...they could change...but they have no drive to do so. They think that there is no other option. So they settle into the thought, "Well that's just who I am now."

Application: Jonah has been gripped by rebellion this way, and it's a danger we all face. The slow fade of compromise to rejection/rebellion toward God's will leads to comfortable indifference toward righteousness. The best guard against this is to deny, die, and follow, but if we're past that point, friends, ask God to search your heart and genuinely listen to respond to what He says.

The Lord, His Sovereignty, and His Mercy.

It was common in the ancient world to believe that calamity was the result of displeasing the gods. In this case, that was absolutely true. The tempestuous sea was a result of Jonah’s rebellion. In the grand scheme of things, there is a not-so-subtle reminder that sin indeed incites and invites the wrath of God.

Jonah is not oblivious…

He knows who he is

He knows who God is, even calls Him by His covenant name

Confesses God’s sovereignty

Irony: God is the Creator of all, yet Jonah intends to flee His presence?

As the sea becomes more tempestuous, the sailors become more fearful. What will make it all go away?

Another point of irony — rather than cry against Nineveh, which again we have no clue as to how they will respond or how God will respond to their response — but Jonah prefers death over obedience. How deep is his rebellion at this point?

Notice the thing that continues to incite more of God’s anger: it seems to be rebellion. Jonah first, then the fact that he’s revealed to be the problem but to no avail, and finally when the sailors try to row back to land. Jonah is the one who has brought forth God’s wrath, and Jonah is the to answer for it.

BTW, the mariners’ deliverance could not come from their own hand!

At the end of their rope, they cry out to the covenant God of Israel — YHWH. The spiritual sensitivity of the pagan sailors would’ve been a shock to Jonah’s original Israelite readers who relished their position as God’s chosen people but often forsook the call to be a light to the nations, often choosing instead to relish in their own position. Their view tended to be that Gentiles were not worthy of receiving God’s mercy. Even from the opening chapter, Jonah confronts us with the prophets misunderstanding about the nature of God.

As the sea rages ever angrier, the mariners have no choice but to turn to YHWH, Jonah’s God. They plead for their lives! Against their own desires, they know that the fury of the Lord (the angry sea) must swallow the rebellious prophet. Oftentimes, God’s solution is the last thing we want to try, but the only thing that will truly work; the sea ceased its raging.

Notice the outcome. The pagan sailors fear God and offer sacrifices to Him and make vows to Him. What's interesting is that their response to God is what Jonah's response SHOULD have been. The pagans model what it truly means to fear God by sacrificing to Him and making vows, presumably of obedience.

“Fear in itself is of no great value if people remain fixed in their sinful ways, but, if it is God’s purpose to call them to Himself, this fear opens the gate of true godliness for them.” — John Calvin

Irony strikes again as the prophet who is fleeing the call to preach to Gentiles ends up being used by God in the conversion of a boat crew full of Gentiles.

What started as a general fear (vs.5) grew into an intense fear (v.10) that lead to a worshipful fear (v.16).

Illustration: Have you ever watched one of these artists who will do a quick painting and you think the whole time, what in the world are they doing? I've seen it done at a Casting Crowns concert, and when the song is over, they flip the canvas upside-down and your mind is blown because it's now a picture that matches what's been going on in the song. It's really quite fascinating and you find out, the creator was in complete control, even though I had no idea what was going on.

Application: God's sovereignty is displayed in vivid high definition in Jonah chapter 1, and the end of it is salvation.

But what do we take from this?

Disobedience leads to comfortable indifference. And, the longer we harden our hearts, the more calloused we become to God, His call, and His will for our lives. We MUST beware of leaving sin unchecked in our lives. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

God reveals Himself both sovereignly and mercifully in Jonah 1. Who calls the prophet? Who commands the wind? Who controls the lot? Who is sinned against? By Nineveh and then by His own prophet? Who’s will WILL be done? Who saves the pagans? Who summons the fish? It’s God. And through it all, He has a saving purpose. First the pagans. Then Jonah. If the sea is equivalent to God’s wrath, then the fish in some sense spares Jonah. Oh the patience of God that would sovereignly orchestrate all of these events in order to save some pagans, a rebellious prophet, and wicked nation. Surely the Sovereign and Gracious God has mercy to spare for any who will turn to Him.