Jonah part One
Notes
Transcript
Handout
The book of Jonah is written in a time of unrest. The nation of Israel has been split into two halves. You have the northern kingdom known as Israel and you have the southern kingdom known as Judah. The southern kingdom of Judah followed the rightful line of David while the northern kingdom served a different line of kings. Jonah served as a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel under an evil king in a time when Israel was living in sin and at war with the nations surrounding them.
In the fifteenth year of Judah’s King Amaziah son of Joash, Jeroboam son of Jehoash became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He did not turn away from all the sins Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit. He restored Israel’s border from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word the Lord, the God of Israel, had spoken through his servant, the prophet Jonah son of Amittai from Gath-hepher.
Jonah was prophet at a time when Elisha the prophet had died. It was a time of spiritual loss in Israel. An evil king, an evil nation, and now they’ve lost their prophet. Jonah was also prophet in a time, not just of spiritual danger, but also physical danger. Israel was under the threat of war from the Assyrian empire which within a hundred years of Jonah would destroy the entire nation of Israel and erase it from history. Assyria was a wicked place to be and its capital city, Nineveh became the heart of darkness in the empire. Nineveh and the Assyrian people were exceedingly violent. We see snip its in the book of Nahum and how the prophet describes Nineveh.
Woe to the city of blood, totally deceitful, full of plunder, never without prey. The crack of the whip and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and jolting chariot! Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over their dead. Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute, the attractive mistress of sorcery, who treats nations and clans like merchandise by her prostitution and sorcery,
Nineveh’s walls were covered with story after story of their violence. This was what they were known for to every nation around them.
The Call
The Call
The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,
Something we see throughout Scripture is how God works through the likes of regular ordinary people. The word of the LORD came to Jonah. He wasn’t a king or a person of great importance, although God can use those people too. What we know about Jonah is that we don’t really know anything. We know God had spoken to him in another instance but we don’t know if that was before this call or if that was after this situation. Either way Jonah heard the voice of God calling to him. Today God speaks to us a little differently than He did back then.
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So he became superior to the angels, just as the name he inherited is more excellent than theirs.
In the days of Jonah God revealed Himself to His people through the voice of His prophets. Today He has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ. When we come to know Jesus and His grace and mercy transforms our hearts we are filled with the Holy Spirit and the presence of God fills our lives. In this New Covenant we live under we have access to the very throne of God. We can take our requests and hurts directly to God who hears our prayers.
But you don’t believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Christ is our good shepherd. He speaks and His sheep hear His voice and follow Him.
There have been times in my life where I felt the Holy Spirit convicting me and calling me to do something and there is no mistaking when the Lord is calling. When we have a relationship with the Lord and are walking with Him growing in our faith we can clearly hear His call on our lives. I don’t mean that I have heard an audible voice from God because I haven’t. But I hear God speaking to me through His Word as I read and I feel my heart being burdened for the things God’s heart is burdened for.
How do we know when God is speaking to us?
Conviction not Condemnation
When it is in accordance with His Word
Calm-fidence
When it makes us uncomfortable
When it communicates itself in
Overwhelming desire
Ministry gifts
God’s blessing
Affirmation of others
How often do you make time to hear from the Lord?
“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
This call that God put on Jonah’s life was one of the most difficult calls we see in Scripture. Jonah was tasked with going into the heart of darkness and calling the enemies of Israel to repent. You might expect a couple of responses from Jonah after hearing this calling.
Denial: That wasn’t really God’s voice. I’m just hearing things. This isn’t real. I am just going to ignore it and forget about it.
Anger: I hate those people. They hate Israel. They are trying to kill us. They don’t deserve a prophet. They deserve to die.
Fear: I can’t do that! They are scary. They will kill me. I can’t do that its impossible. Its too dangerous. It will never work.
Sorrow: Why do I have to this. Why couldn't it be someone else? This is a disaster. This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me.
Faithful trust and obedience: I don’t understand why You’re doing this or how You will do this but I trust You. I will go.
If we are honest, these reactions tend to be the same ones we have when God calls us to something. Think about when you have felt God calling you to share the Gospel with your friends. How many of these do you go through when you feel that conviction? Usually we kill the call of God on our lives at the denial stage. We just block out His voice and harden our hearts to His call so that we never have to be inconvenienced, that is if the distractions in our life allow us to feel empathy for our lost friends or afford us a moment of peace to hear that still small voice of the Lord.
How we respond to God’s call on our life is important. Nothing reveals what we believe to be true about God more than how we obey Him.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works. You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder. Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete, and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Our obedience is not how we are saved but it is the evidence that our lives have been transformed by the Gospel.
In what ways is God calling you to surrender?
In what ways is God calling you to trust Him more?
How do you respond when you hear the voice of God in your life?
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.
Here we see Jonah’s response. His plan is to get out of God’s presence. To go as far away as he can. He buys a ticket and boards a ship and sails west in the opposite direction of Nineveh.
Throughout the Old Testament and especially in the book of Jonah there is this relationship between East and West. East is typically seen as evil and representative of Israel’s enemies while West is seen as being holy like Israel. When Adam and Eve are kicked out of the Garden they are sent out East from Eden representing the new sinful nature they have from the fall. We see Abraham and Lot, Lot chooses the land east of the Jordan where Sodom and Gomorrah is. Abraham takes the land West. Here in Jonah this pattern continues. God calls Jonah to go East into Assyria and to the city of Nineveh. In response Jonah runs to the west.
The author of Jonah is communicating Jonah’s heart throughout all of this. It is almost as if Jonah is taking a position of moral supremacy to God. His attitude is communicating that Jonah feels like God doesn’t know what is just or right anymore. He is taking himself further west symbolizing that he is holier when in reality he is choosing to rebel against God. He is trying to put God in the position of East and Himself in the West as if he knows more about Nineveh than God does. “You don’t actually see what these people do because if you did you would never ask me to do what you’ve asked me to do.” “You should be destroying these people not sending a prophet to them. Not offering them a chance of forgiveness.” And so Jonah goes west in an attempt to escape God’s presence.
For anyone here who is in this same place as Jonah, you’re running from God, hardening your heart to His voice, maybe you’re angry or hurt and feel like God is to blame hear the words of this Psalm.
Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; you are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know all about it, Lord. You have encircled me; you have placed your hand on me. This wondrous knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it. Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night”— even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to you.
No matter the circumstance God is with us. Even darkness is not dark to the Lord. He is with us on mountain tops and He is with us in the lowest of lows. There is nowhere we can go to escape His presence. When we are deep in sin and rebellion to God He is there with arms open to welcome us back home again. When life is scary and we are surrounded by uncertainties He is there holding our hand guiding us along the way. We serve and attentive God. He is not absent or negligent. He is caring and intentional about His relationship with us. In times when God is silent it does not mean He is far off. No matter where Jonah ran to there was no escaping God’s presence. Even Nineveh was under the Lord’s watchful eye. God saw their wickedness and still sent a prophet to show His mercy.
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. 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. 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.
Jonah wasn’t getting away from this call on his life. No matter how far he ran he could never outrun the Lord. God threw a great wind onto the sea and cause a great storm that threatened the passengers of this ship. All who were aboard were afraid for their lives and were desperate to survive. They were crying to their gods and throwing things overboard. Meanwhile, Jonah lay fast asleep. There is something scary about being so comfortable in your sin that you can get a good nights sleep. When you’ve hardened your heart to God so much that you feel no remorse or conviction of your sin or you’ve lied to yourself so much that you feel justified in your rebellion that is one of the most dangerous places a person could ever find themselves. This wasn’t an overreaction on God’s part. Jonah had cut himself off and the Lord was about to wake him up.
Repentance is a beautiful thing and it is the theme of this whole book. Repentance is when we turn away from our sin and follow God. It is a very physical word. We are walking one way and physically turning and going in the other direction. It is a complete 180 turn. This idea of repentance is essential to all of Scripture and to the Gospel. We as a human kind are cursed and broken under sin. We are dead and cast off away from God. On the run trying to heal our souls with sin after sin after sin. The beauty of grace is the promise of new life and healing. It is a call to die to the old self to the old way of living and to put on new life through faith in Jesus Christ. When put our faith in Christ we repent of our sin, we die to ourselves and we become new creations.
Just like Jonah we were asleep in our sin but there came a time when the Lord called us awake.
Everything exposed by the light is made visible, for what makes everything visible is light. Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Christ is calling us believe in Him, to repent of our sin and be brought into His marvelous light. The invitation is open. There is nowhere you can go to be too far from God’s mercy and forgiveness.
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.” “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.
It was time for Jonah to make his confession and come clean. He had been running and hiding but it was time for the truth. It can be a painful experience to confess our sins. It can be scary. We don’t always know how people might react. We feel shame and guilt and we just want to hide. The Lord is bringing Jonah into the light so that he can heal. There is no spiritual healing done in secret. Secrecy only create more shame and guilt in our life. Let the Lord’s light shine in our darkness and expose our sin so we can deal with it properly. Turn the lights on, get the trash out, and clean house. I don’t mean everyone needs to know our business. We don’t have to tell everyone our sin, but you cannot overcome a sin in isolation. We need people in our lives that we can confess our sins to. People we trust who love us and will speak mercy and grace into our lives. Jonah was ready to confess, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t consequences. In Christ we are free from condemnation and eternal judgement but that doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want without repercussions. Our actions have consequences both good and bad. How we live matters. When we sin we need to have humility. Healing is better than comfort. Repentance and confession hurt in the moment but until we do those things we can never heal.
Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, “How could you do this?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. So they said to him, “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?”—for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.” However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them. Then they called on the Lord and said, “We earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O Lord, have done as You have pleased.” So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah is thrown overboard and the storm immediately stops. It says the men were seized by great fear of the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. These men’s lives were forever changed because of their interaction with Jonah. It is amazing how God can even use the rebellion of Jonah as a testimony to His faithfulness. In this chapter and throughout this book we will see that everything that Jonah comes into contact with throughout the book fears the Lord and is obedient to the calling that God has on their life. The winds and the waves obey. The dice that the sailors roll to cast lots obey. The sailors obey. The fish appointed to eat Jonah obeys. In a few weeks we will see that the Assyrians are obedient. The ivy that offers shade to Jonah is obedient. Even the worm that eats the ivy is obedient. The sun that rises and the east wind that make Jonah hot. all of these things are obedient to God except for Jonah. He is the only one. The man who thought himself to holy to go to Nineveh finds himself the only one in this chapter disobedient to the Lord.
It is kind of a gut check. It makes you think twice about how obedient we are. Just because I go to church and sing songs on Sundays are there places in my life where I have been running away from the LORD and if so what is the next step?
Repent of your sin and be obedient to the call of God on your life
Confess your sin and be made accountable
Take 5 minutes to pray and have an invitation with no music.