Jonah
Jonah • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Turn to the book of Jonah (near the end of the OT). Since Easter, we have talked about Blessing Our Community. That conversation is not over. We need to keep this idea alive and keep looking and praying for ways that God wants us to bless our communities. Keep this in mind as we go through Jonah because God wanted to bless a community called Nineveh, but God’s servant was reluctant to do so. Let that sink in.
To get the most from this fantastic book, there is some background information that is important to grasp and that’s what we’ll cover today. Before we get there, it’s interesting how many people focus on the fish who rescued Jonah. This is not about a fish.
This story is really about God and me.
I challenge you to
Read Jonah with fresh eyes, meditate on it, and find yourself in the story (believe me – we are in it) and learn what God wants to teach you.
Let’s read the first 3 verses and go from there. FYI – I’m using the Lexham English Bible – free online. LEB puts parentheses around added English words to help us make sense of the sentence. LEB also captures the masculine and feminine forms of original language (e.g. Spanish banō vs bana). Since we’re talking about Spanish, here’s the Spanish word of the day – tissue. If you listen to me ….
And the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
“Get up! Go to the great city Nineveh and cry out against her, because their evil has come up before me.”
But Jonah set out to flee toward Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. And he went down to Joppa and found a merchant ship going to Tarshish, and paid her fare, and went on board her to go with them toward Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
Genre:
Both secular and religious literary experts say that Jonah is a literary masterpiece. I’ll take their word for it because I’m not a literary expert. When it came to book reports in high school, I chose books that were made into movies.
But the question people often wrestle with is Jonah for real?
Is this a historical narrative? Or is this a fictional allegory, parable, or satire?
Did these events truly happen? Was Jonah really swallowed by a fish and barfed up 3 days later? Did Nineveh, this powerful pagan city and brutal enemies of Israel truly repent? Scholars have been debating this for years and there are good arguments on both sides. From what I can tell, most Biblical scholars adhere to a historical narrative – that these events truly occurred and were recorded by the inspiration of God’s Spirit. However, many would also agree that this book contains some dramatic embellishment and finesse for literary and theological purposes. So it’s true, but also contains a little artistic flare to drive home the main points.
Regardless of where we stand on the issue of fact or fiction, it is in the Word of God for a reason. There are personal and theological life lessons to learn. One of those lessons is this, which happens to be
The main theme is God’s love and mercy extends to all people – whether we think they deserve it or not.
Furthermore,
God desires all people to repent, even our abusers, accusers, and enemies (1 Tim. 2:4).
God wants that young woman ….
So,
As we go through Jonah, keep in mind that we who know Jesus Christ received unmerited grace, undeserved mercy, unconditional love and full pardon from sin without deserving it.
If we received salvation as a free unearned gift from God, then should we not want our enemies to receive the same?
Jonah:
Jonah was a prophet of God to Israel (somewhere in the early 700s bc). Jesus referenced Jonah in Matthew – so that gives some validity to the story. Beyond that, in 2 Kings 14, God spoke through Jonah to Jeroboam II, who was one of the bad kings of Israel. So, when we read Jonah’s story, we need to keep in mind that
Jonah was a real person who had a real relationship with Yahweh.
Jonah was a prophet. He heard God’s voice; he served God; he declared God’s word to God’s people. He dealt with a wicked Israelite king. He’s not some namby-pamby prophet who ran from God. To be a prophet of God, there needs to be some level of depth and intimacy and trust on both sides.
Jonah was a man who knew God yet struggled with some theological issues.
I believe there is more to his story than we know.
As we will see in later sermons, there is a little bit of Jonah in all of us. Jonah struggled with obedience when it came to blessing his enemies with a message of repentance. Don’t know if he struggled in other areas … but I think it’s apparent that
Jonah felt the agonizing tension between God’s compassion and God’s justice toward the unjust.
He also had to wrestle with and come to grips with the reality that personal sin and rebellion was costly to himself and the people around him. And
He had to live with unanswered questions and God’s silence.
Yonah in Hebrew is often translated as dove, which often represents peace, security, and in some cases the Spirit of God. Ironic, that a man whose name represented peace was reluctant to proclaim peace.
As I said, there is a little Jonah in all of us.
Lastly, we need to know a few things about Nineveh. Nineveh is in Iraq. Thousands of years ago it was in the heart of an ancient area called Mesopotamia. Nineveh is first mentioned in Genesis 10, some years after the flood.
Regarding the flood, it is my belief that the flood was God’s judgment, not against humanity directly, but against the rebellious sons of God and their offspring, the giants, the Nephilim (Gen. 6). The sons of God had so corrupted all flesh beyond redemption that a flood was God’s only, but regrettable solution.
Genesis 6 tells us that these Nephilim, these evil divine/human hybrids were present before the flood and after. In Genesis 10, we’re introduced to a man named Nimrod. It is believed in some theological camps that Nimrod either became or was a remnant of the Nephilim. This man was evil, and even today his name is associated with many occults. Why is this important?
Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man.
The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and
Nineveh and many other ancient cities in Mesopotamia were founded by an evil man with evil intentions who was connected with evil spiritual beings. That’s the spiritual foundation for Mesopotamia and Assyria. Jonah knows all this.
In Jonah’s day, Nineveh was a major city in the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians were brutal, ruthless and vicious in warfare and in the treatment of those they conquered and citizens who rebelled. They burned, flayed, impaled men, woman, children alive. They were unbelievably cruel and savage. They ruled by intense fear. Talk about a cancel culture.
Assyria was polytheistic. That’s the belief in and worship of many gods – most likely connected to rebellious sons of God and Nephilim. On top of all that, Assyria was an enemy of Israel.
Knowing all that, listen to verse 1 again.
And the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
“Get up! Go to the great city Nineveh and cry out against her, because their evil has come up before me.”
What would you do? God called Jonah to leave the relative safety of his home and his country and walk nearly 700 miles, most of which is in enemy territory, to deliver a message of repentance to a Godless, cruel ruthless people – the enemies of Israel.
“God, you want me to go to ‘those’ people! Are you kidding me! God, anyone but them!”
Got any “those” people in my life?
If so, who?
God had a ministry - a mission for Jonah. Yet,
But Jonah set out to flee toward Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. And he went down to Joppa and found a merchant ship going to Tarshish, and paid her fare, and went on board her to go with them toward Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
Am I fleeing from Jesus – even if it’s in my heart?
Running away from God. Avoiding your “Nineveh” – a particular group of people? Running away from a ministry that He’s calling you to? Are you running from obedience?
As I stated earlier,
There is a little Jonah in all of us. What are you going to do with him?
What are you going to do about your answer?
Admit Jesus is right and Ask for forgiveness. Believe Jesus loves you and died for you. Commit your life to Jesus.