The High Cost of Running from God’s Call

Read the Book [8 mins]

Introduction:

vv. 1-3) The Call

Jonah was the Son of Amittai (true [to God]). In 2 Kings 14:25

2 Kings 14:25 NKJV

25 He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher.

Jonah’s names means dove. We understand this 2 Kings passage to be the same prophet as in our book because the father is mentioned. Jonah was a common name; however to have the same father named Amittai and be a prophet cannot be a coincidence.

Jonah’s contemporaries are probably Joel, Amos, and Hosea.

Jonah prophesied during the days when the Assyrians were expanding their empire. They were quickly becoming a threat to all the surrounding regions especially the norther kingdom of Israel.

Jesus spoke of Jonah twice in His public ministry:

Matthew 16:4 NKJV

4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.

Luke 11:29–32 NKJV

29 And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to say, “This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. 30 For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation. 31 The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire and was a large and prominent city. It was not an Israeli city either; God was calling Jonah to go to a pagan, Gentile city and call them to repent.

Ancient historians say that Nineveh was the largest city in the world at this time. And God wanted Jonah to go because He saw their wickedness.

pagan gods were confined to certain places. The true and living God was not. He sees it all, and it may come to a point where it demands the specific warning and His judgement.

[3] Jonah does only one thing that God asked him to do. Arise…

He didn’t want to do what God told him to do.

This is where I believe many have a tendency to be overly harsh with Jonah.

Ninevits were a wicked people.

Nahum 3:1–4 NKJV

1 Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. Its victim never departs. 2 The noise of a whip And the noise of rattling wheels, Of galloping horses, Of clattering chariots! 3 Horsemen charge with bright sword and glittering spear. There is a multitude of slain, A great number of bodies, Countless corpses— They stumble over the corpses— 4 Because of the multitude of harlotries of the seductive harlot, The mistress of sorceries, Who sells nations through her harlotries, And families through her sorceries.

Lost people he loved to these wicked people.

[example of forgiveness] Jonah did not want to see these men and women forgiven.

The distant city of Tarshish was thought to be toward the end of the earth, and is always associated with ships in the Bible. Jonah wanted to go as far as he could to escape God’s presence.

Psalm 139:7–12 NKJV

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; 12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

Dangerous impulses:

Brave but wrong

self-denying but wrong

freedom but wrong

caused him to be a hypocrite

“All the while the ship sailed smoothly over the sea, Jonah forgot his God. You could not have distinguished him from the veriest heathen on board. He was just as bad as they were.”–Spurgeon

[Ring of Fire]

vv. 4-9)

Jonah probably thought:

“I can go to Tarshish if I want to. I paid the fare. I’m not a stowaway.” Yet, “Apologies for disobedience are mere refuges of lies. If you do a wrong thing in the rightest way in which it can be done, it does not make it right. If you go contrary to the Lord’s will, even though you do it in the most decent, and, perhaps, in the most devout manner, it is, nevertheless, sinful, and it will bring you under condemnation”–Spurgeon

While the storm raged, Jonah slept. Perhaps because the storm outside seemed insignificant to him in comparison to the storm inside, the storm that came from his resistance against God.

i. What a curious and tragic scene! All the sailors were religious men, devout in their prayers to their gods. Yet their gods were really nothing, and could do nothing. There was one man on board who had a relationship with the true God, who knew His Word, and who worshipped Him — yet he was asleep!

ii. “Jonah was asleep amid all that confusion and noise; and, O Christian man, for you to be indifferent to all that is going on in such a world as this, for you to be negligent of God’s work in such a time as this is just as strange. The devil alone is making noise enough to wake all the Jonahs if they only want to awake… All around us there is tumult and storm, yet some professing Christians are able, like Jonah, to go to sleep in the sides of the ship.” (Spurgeon)

iii. The nature of Jonah’s sleep is also instructive, and too much like the sleep of the careless Christian:

Jonah slept in a place where he hoped no one would see him or disturb him. “Sleeping Christians” like to “hide out” among the church.

Jonah slept in a place where he could not help with the work that needed to be done. “Sleeping Christians” stay away from the work of the Lord.

Jonah slept while there was a prayer meeting up on the deck. “Sleeping Christians” don’t like prayer meetings!

Jonah slept and had no idea of the problems around him. “Sleeping Christians” don’t know what is really going on.

Jonah slept when he was in great danger. “Sleeping Christians” are in danger, but don’t know it.

Jonah slept while the heathen needed him. “Sleeping Christians” snooze on while the world needs their message and testimony.

iv. Some sleeping Christians protest that they are not asleep at all.

“We talk about Jesus” — but you can talk in your sleep.

“We have a walk for Jesus” — but you can walk in your sleep.

“We have passion for Jesus — I just wept in worship the other day” - but you can cry in your sleep.

“We have joy and rejoice in Jesus” — but you can laugh in your sleep.

“We think about Jesus all the time” — but you can think while you are asleep; we call it dreaming.

v. Charles Spurgeon described how the believer might know that he is not asleep. “What do you mean by a man’s being really awake? I mean two or three things. I mean, first, his having a thorough consciousness of the reality of spiritual things. When I speak of a wakeful man, I mean one who does not take the soul to be a fancy, nor heaven to be a fiction, nor hell to be a tale, but who acts among the sons of men as though these were the only substances, and all other things the shadows. I want men of stern resolution, for no Christian is awake unless he steadfastly determines to serve his God, come fair, come foul.”

vv. 10-17) reluctantly thrown overboard

d. The sea ceased from its raging: The immediate end of the storm proved that Jonah’s God was for real, and that Jonah’s resistance to that God was the real problem. In a logical response the sailors feared the LORD exceedingly, sacrificed to God and made promises to serve Him.

i. The sailors moved from fearing the storm to fearing the LORD, just the disciples in the boat did when Jesus calmed the storm (Mark 4:35-41).

ii. “Brethren, I wish I had meet words with which I could fitly describe the peace which comes to a human heart when we learn to see Jesus cast into the sea of divine wrath on our account. Conscience accuses no longer. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of against him. Memory can look back upon past sins, with sorrow for the sin it is true, but yet with no dread of any penalty to come. It is a blessed thing for a man to know that he cannot be punished, that heaven and earth may shake, but he cannot be punished for his sin.” (Spurgeon)

e. And took vows: Notice that the vows of the sailors came after they were delivered. Based on this, many commentators believe that the sailors came to a true faith in God.

i. Spurgeon preached a sermon with four wonderful points based on the actions of the crew in this chapter.

Sinners, when they are tossed upon the sea of conviction, make desperate efforts to save themselves.

The fleshly efforts of awakened sinners must inevitably fail.

The soul’s sorrow will continue to increase as long as it relies on its own efforts.

The way of safety for sinners is to be found in the sacrifice of another on their behalf.

Conclusion//Application:

Jonah’s commission our commission

Numbers 6:24–26 KJV 1900

24 The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: 25 The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: 26 The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.