Jonah 1b

Please turn to the book of Jonah – page 774 in my Bible. If you missed last week, that was our introduction. If you missed it and need my sermon notes, let me know. As we go through Jonah, we’ll take it slow and explore possibilities and speculations because I want to bring real life into a story and make it a little closer to home. I think there is a lot between the lines.

Curious - ever felt like running away from God?

I don’t mean in a trifle kind of way or laziness. I mean, your faith is literally hanging by a thread and there’s that temptation to – snip – and I’m done with this faith journey - it’s too hard, too painful – things aren’t adding up. Ever been there? It takes a drastic event (or series) to push a faithful follower of God to that point. I think Jonah was pushed to that point – his pain, his faith, and what God asked of him clashed.

See,

The main theme: God’s love and mercy extends to all people.

– whether we like it or not, and that’s what Jonah wrestled with. It’s easy to talk the talk about God’s mercy, but it can be challenging to walk the talk, especially when asked to extend God’s mercy to “those people.”

Now Jonah was a prophet of God to Israel somewhere between 800-750 BC. Jonah is mentioned in 2 Kings, 3 Maccabees, and Matthew by Jesus, giving validity to the person and the story. Last week I stated that

Jonah was a real man with a real relationship with Yahweh and yet, had real theological struggles.

Jonah 1:1–3 LEB

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.

So,

The Word of Yahweh came to Jonah.

We often assume that the Word of Yahweh is God’s audible voice. Sometimes that’s true – sometimes there’s more than a voice. It’s not always clear, but in the OT,

The Word of Yahweh (LORD) can be God’s voice, His manifest presence, an Angel, or (drum role please) the Son of God - Jesus.

John 1:1–2 LEB

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This one was in the beginning with God.

A lot of that is for another time. But for now, was this Word that came to Jonah just audible, a thought, the bean burrito, or was the Word Jesus present and visible? Don’t know. But we do know that Jonah wanted to get as far away from God’s presence as he possibly could.

The Hebrew word for presence in v3 can mean face.

This is the same word used in Gen. 3 when Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden and they tried to hide from His face or presence. They weren’t hiding from His voice – they were hiding from God Himself.

Why do I bring this up? Jonah could have stayed in Jerusalem or Israel and ignored God’s voice (“La la la – I’m not listening”). Fairly simple to do. But it’s difficult to ignore God when you’re surrounded by God’s presence, God’s people, and the Temple or in our setting, church buildings. Jonah intentionally fled from the people and places and things that would remind him of God and the command to go.

I mention all this for two reasons. 1) Jonah was not wrestling with “Did God really tell me to go?” Jonah knew. He was confronted with the presence and Word of God, and he intentionally chose to rebel and run. This is huge. 2) If you’re drifting or choosing to run from God and His people and His Church – don’t. As we’ll see next week, running away from God is costly. Moving on.

V2 says that

Nineveh’s evil came up before God.

What does that mean? Was God oblivious to their wickedness and then one day He’s like, “Oh, look. I had no idea how bad they were. I should do something.” Of course He knew, so what does this mean?

We don’t know for certain, but it could mean that,

Nineveh was primed to hear about God’s mercy.

Biblical scholars and historians have noted that shortly before the events of Jonah, Nineveh and its surrounding area had experienced natural events that they might have considered omens or “supernatural.” I believe there was a comet, a meteor shower, may have been an earthquake and some economic difficulties. They probably had a heightened awareness of the spiritual realm and were expecting something supernatural.

Did God cause all or some these events? Maybe. Maybe not. Regardless, I think God capitalized on the timing. These events occurred and God said, “AH! They’re ready and the time to act is now! And I know the right person for the job, Jonah” That’s why God told Jonah, “Get up and go!” There is a sense of urgency attached to it.

What might this tell us about God, and His timing, and perhaps the people we’re praying for?

God knows when the time is right and when people are ready to hear.

He knows how to use or even orchestrate events to get people’s attention. What if Jonah had gone to Nineveh three months earlier, of his own volition? Probably would have failed. So, it wasn’t that God was unaware of Nineveh’s wickedness or that He didn’t care – they were not ready.

You can make your own application with that.

Nineveh was primed and God wanted to provide an opportunity for the people to repent. He wanted to save Nineveh. But what if there’s more to it than that?

What if God wanted to save Jonah as well? Not eternal salvation, but internal.

What if God needed to do some inner healing in Jonah?

What makes me ask these what ifs? I’ve always wondered

What would cause a prophet of God to not only disobey, but to run away?

Nineveh – 700 miles east of Jerusalem. Tarshish was roughly 3200 miles west. What would cause him to do something so drastic, so disobedient, so sinful? Was he afraid? I’m sure a little, that’s natural, but not enough to do what he did. Was he an overzealous patriot that painted his face and chest and wore a Viking hat with horns? I don’t think so. A staunch patriot would have stayed in Israel. So what was behind Jonah’s rebellion?

We’ll get to this eventually, but in chapter 4 Jonah became furious when Nineveh repented and received God’s mercy and grace. Jonah said, “I knew that you would be gracious and compassionate and loving to ‘those people!’ I knew you wouldn’t destroy ‘those people! So go ahead, God, kill me. I just want to die!” What would cause such an extreme hateful furious reaction from prophet of God?

I touched on this last week. The only thing I can think of – this is pure speculation – is that Jonah experienced some form of intense grief, loss, or trauma at the hands of the Ninevites. Remember, the Assyrians grotesquely tortured their captives. Maybe he lost some brothers or close friends in a battle. Perhaps he lost a wife, children, or parents. Or maybe he was at one point captured and tortured and escaped. We don’t know, but something tells me Jonah had good a grievous reason to intensely hate the citizens of Nineveh and he desperately wanted justice. Like I said last week, I believe

Jonah felt the agonizing tension between God’s compassion and God’s justice toward the unjust.

What if God said, “Jonah, you have so much anger and bitterness. I love you enough to call you to do something extremely difficult and painful, because not only will this assignment save ‘those people,’ but this will save you.” Think about it –

God could have chosen another prophet, but He didn’t. God chose the one who needed to go.

Imagine Jonah walking the streets of Nineveh, reluctantly but obediently yelling, “Repent, for the end is near.” As he does so, some soldiers walk down the street and see Jonah. One says, “Do we know that guy?” Another says, “Yeah, we killed his family last year. And he’s here telling us about his God’s love and mercy?”

This is the true story of St. Patrick. Around 400 A.D., he was taken captive by Irish raiders. He later escaped, made his way back to Britain, became a priest and then returned to Ireland to preach the gospel. It’s a fascinating story.

At the beginning of the sermon I said it’s easy to talk the talk about God’s mercy, but it can be challenging to walk the talk, especially when asked to extend God’s mercy to “those people.”

We need to take a moment and listen to the Spirit. I know the Spirit wants to speak to us, and I don’t know exactly what that is. But one thing I do know – God chose Jonah for a reason and God did not make a mistake. If God is calling you to do something or go to someone or whatever … you’re the right person. Let’s listen.