Why Not Turn Around?

Scripture

Jonah 1:4–16 ESV

4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.” 7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

The old farmer claimed that he could command his mule with nothing more than a few soft words, no whips or prods necessary. She would respond, he claimed, with nothing more than gently spoken commands. So his buddy down at the feed store asked for a demonstration. “Prove to me that your old mule will respond with nothing more than gentle language.”

Out in the field they went, the farmer, his buddy, and the mule. As the friend watched, first in awe and then in horror, the farmer took a huge piece of lumber, a two-by-four about six feet long, and swung it with all his might, hitting the mule on one ear! When the animal stopped braying and bellowing and prancing around, the farmer then said, quietly, “Come here” and the mule came. “Sit”, and the whimpering creature sat. “Back up”, and she backed into the harnesses of a waiting plow and waited calmly for him to hook up. “You see? She’ll respond to a simple voice command”. But his friend objected, “Whatever are you talking about? You said all you had to do was talk to her, but you hit her with this huge two-by-four! What do you mean, you just command her with words! That’s not what I saw!”

“Oh, that,” said the farmer. “Well, first I do have to get her attention!”

Did it take a 2x4 to get your attention? What has God done to get your attention? Maybe God is trying to get your attention right now and you are asleep just like Jonah?

I do believe, that just like the storm in this account, that God works in our lives to get our attention. The question is what is the storm in your life that God is using right now to get your attention, and further are you paying attention or are you asleep in the bottom of the ship not even paying attention to the storms that rage all around you.

Jonah is a mirror. It is a reflection of the human condition and our desire to flee from God when caught up in sin.

This has been true of humanity since the very beginning in the garden of Eden. They disobeyed God and they hid.

They attempted to flee from the presence of God, the very thing that Jonah is attempting to do.

But we can’t flee from the presence of God.

Psalm 139:7–12 ESV

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, 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 cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

Jesus’ death on the cross reestablished the relationship that was damaged by sin.

Ephesians 2:18–19 ESV

18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

We have fellowship and yet he is not content to let us wander off to do whatever we want.

Luke 15:3–4 ESV

3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?

He will not leave us alone as we wander in sin.

Hebrews 12:6 ESV

6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

This is where we begin the account today, we must consider how God attempts to get our attention.

God Getting Our Attention

Jonah 1:4–6 ESV

4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

The great wind is God trying to get Jonah’s attention.

Remember God will do something to get our attention or raise some kind of awareness within us that will cause to realize that we are on the wrong path.

Think of the prodigal son.

Luke 15:17 ESV

17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!

I am sure there have been times in our life where through events or a divine awareness your attention has been grabbed.

These storms did get some attention.

Consider first the sailors.

Fear. This was some kind of storm.

They prayed and then acted. Kind of a lesson there for us.

Work with all your might, but never trust in your work. Pray with all your might for the blessing in God, but work at the same time with all diligence, with all patience, with all perseverance. Pray, then, and work. Work and pray. And still again pray, and then work.

George Müller (Philanthropist and Preacher)

The two are important. What I want you to notice in Jonah is that he did neither.

He did not pray and he did not help throw the cargo overboard. Instead he was asleep, a deep sleep, a sleep of someone who is unprovoked by the gravity of what is happening around him.

To awaken to the need to repent Jonah needs to be woke up. This is just want the captain did and immediately began to ask penetrating questions.

Christian, why are you sleeping? Why aren’t you praying? Why aren’t you working? Don’t you see the storm all around?

They will quickly come to the truth that Jonah is to blame and the reason that Jonah is to blame is wrapped up in his answer to the question and what people are you.

What People Are You?

Jonah 1:8–10 ESV

8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

The pagans were trying to cover all of their bases. They prayed to all of their gods. They brought out all of their idols.

They prayed to the god of the clouds and the god of the water and the god of the wind, all to no avail. As the storm continued, and continued to get stronger they figured they had to go find out who was to blame and they finally landed on Jonah.

The line of questions was a way for them to further discern who the god was that they needed to pray to and so Jonah gave the answer.

He spoke truly of who God is. He is the God of heaven and sea and dray land. God is the creator of it all and as such he is the one who rules and reigns over it all.

The problem in Jonah’s story is that he says that he fears the Lord. This is unequivocally untrue. His actions proved this to be the case, and the pagans that he was traveling all new that if Jonah was truly a man who fear the Lord he would not be trying to flee from him.

The text even records their response when he says that he is a fearful follower of God. They asked him what he did. They recognized that what he said and what was happening is a result of him trying to flee from God.

They knew that if God was who Jonah said he was and is then you can not run from God he is everywhere.

Yet, we live the same way. We claim one thing with our mouth and we live out our life another way.

We come to church on Sunday morning and then go out to eat and treat the waiter or waitress poorly. We do our devotions in the morning and then lose our mind when the barista as Starbucks puts too many or too few pumps of the vanilla sauce in your drink.

We profess one thing and live another way and then we wonder why God does not bless us, we wonder why God does not answer our prayers, we wonder why God seems to continually be taking us out to the woodshed. It is because we are professing one thing with our mouth and living a different way and God will not let those who are his to continue is a lifestyle that brings dishonor to him.

Yet the thing that does not cross Jonah’s mind is something that is slow to cross our mind as well and that is that God is near to us and he is quick to offer forgiveness if only we would repent. If only we would just turn around.

Just Turn Around

Jonah 1:12–16 ESV

12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

Jonah had an interesting response to the question of what should we do, he said to just throw him into the sea. I mean it does seem like a valid point.

I read many commentaries that said that this act by Jonah made him a type of Christ, someone who was willing to lay down his life to save others.

Yet, Jonah was different than Christ in that Jonah wanted them to throw him in, he could not even jump into the water. Jesus went to the cross willingly.

Some see this as Jonah admitting his sin. I do not see that either. There is not confession of sin here, there is no remorse, it is simply Jonah doing what is common among all of us instead of simply repenting he chose to keep on running.

Jonah makes a comment later in the book about why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh, it was because he knew that God was a merciful God. Yet, Jonah was unwilling to take that news of mercy to Nineveh and in this instance I believe he was unwilling to accept that mercy himself.

What would have happened if Jonah would have repented and told the sailors to turn the boat around? I mean I know the sailors tried to turn the boat around themselves, but remember the storm was happening because of Jonah’s actions and Jonah though his best response was instead to be thrown into the waves instead of turning the boat around and doing what God had commanded him to do.

Sometimes we are in the midst of the storms of life and the best choice is to confess and repent our disobedience and to turn the boat around. That is what repentance is. Turning. Turning from something to something. Specifically turning from sin and turning to a God that offers us forgiveness of sins through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross of calvary.

Today I know that God is trying to get our attention. I know that God is calling us to examine our lives. I know that God is calling us to repent.

Today we do not examine Jonah’s life to shake our finger at him, but instead to point that finger in our own direction to find the area of our life where God is trying to get us to find the Nineveh that God has called us to.

I believe that God has called each of us to a Nineveh, the question is are you being obedient or are you running.

If you are being obedient then don’t get cocky. Instead continue to look to God for guidance and allow the Holy Spirit to lead you as he causes you to walk in greater paths of righteousness.

If you are being disobedient, then today is the day to accept God’s mercy, to receive His grace, to repent and turn the boat around. Stop running from a good God, and instead allow him up and take you back home.

I mentioned the 99 sheep and the earlier. There is a lesson there. We think of repenting as us having to clean our life up before God will take us. But this could not be farther from the truth. God instead picks us up as we submit to him and then he cleans us up as we submit to him.

What is your choice today? There are only two choices: to trust God or to continue trying to ride the storm out thinking that it may get better.