Jonah’s Epic Fail

Pray & Intro: A whale of a tale (fishing stories)

Yet Jonah isn’t about the world’s best fishing story, not even about a man being swallowed by a fish, it’s not even mostly about running from the will of God (although it is that)… but (particularly) about a man who misses the heart of God—His compassion for the lost. (By the time we arrive at the end of this series we will get this whole picture of Jonah clearly.)

Jonah 1:1–16 ESV

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. 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.

What do we learn here about God and Jonah, and about us and how we should be responding to God’s command and his character?

God Beckons & Jonah Bolts

1. The word of the Lord came to Jonah – here’s your primary evidence that Jonah is not an allegory or parable but an actual historical account: b/c the Bible treats him as a historical figure

a. 2 Kings 14 refers to him as God’s prophet in Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II

b. What is said here by way of introduction sounds exactly the same as the first two narratives about Elijah in 1st Kings, “and the word of the Lord came to…” Some prophetic narratives in 1 and 2 Samuel bear the same mark, among others.

c. We have recorded at least two different occasions that Jesus referred to Jonah as a historical, literal figure. (Mt. 12 and 16) Each time he said that this evil generation seeks a sign, but that the only sign they’d get was the sign of Jonah (a reference to Christ dying and being buried but coming back to life after three days). Christ’s point leads to this scorching conclusion from Luke 11:32 – “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

2. Go to Nineveh – Arise, and go to Nineveh

a. That great city in the heart of the Assyrian empire (500 miles away, east bank of Tigris river)

b. These are not just sometime enemies of Israel, but they are an evil and idolatrous people.

c. No other prophet is ever recorded as being asked to actually go to a foreign nation to deliver God’s message. (Others prophesied against Gentile nations, such as Nahum does a century later against the same Assyrian empire.)

3. Jonah runs from God’s call, “away from the presence of the Lord.” – Jonah didn’t arise and go, but he rose to run.

a. Tarshish? – Somewhere out in the western Mediterranean, associated with the end of the world. Jonah is getting as far away as he can… from the presence of the Lord.

b. Now there’s a deliberate use of satiric irony in this narrative to the point of really poignant humor.

c. What on earth is Jonah thinking? Here we have a God-fearing man trying to get on a ship and sail away from God. But are you going to sit there and tell me that you have never known plainly (as the nose on your face, a direct command from the word of God) and not just downright ignored it as though you could run from God? ***

d. Why did Jonah run? B/c he didn’t want to obey. Why didn’t he want to obey? Chapter 4, verse 2 tells us. He knew that if he pronounced God’s judgment on them, and if they repented that God would relent. He knew that God is gracious and merciful and forgiving. Jonah didn’t want that. He wanted to keep God’s grace to “us” but not to “them.”

e. Jonah wouldn’t pay the price to be God’s called instrument to the lost in Nineveh, but he’d buy a one-way ticket on a boat in Joppa in the opposite direction of God’s calling.

God Persists & Jonah Naps

(or God storms and Jonah sleeps!)

1. God pursues Jonah. – God, a perfect Father, disciplines those he loves. Aren’t you glad? Seriously, aren’t you glad that God doesn’t just let you go on your merry way (just take that ferry to tomorrow and never look back)? Aren’t you glad that he pursues and chastens you to set you straight and give you joy and lasting fulfillment in being in his will for his glory? And aren’t you glad that God pursues you so that through your obedient instrumentality God might be glorified in bringing others to himself?

2. But look at this next thing we see about Jonah, as severe an indictment against him as running from God. While the pagan, idolatrous sailors are crying out to their gods for help and throwing things overboard to try and save all their lives, Jonah sleeps.

a. The captain’s words are perfect. The pagan calls on the prophet to pray. (Irony.)

b. Jonah is the one who serves the one true God and yet he ignores the plight of these pagan men about to die. He does not truly behave as one who fears God but instead is asleep, ignoring God’s compassion toward those who are perishing.

God Is Omnipotently Faithful & Jonah Obstinately Flounders

1. God controls the outcome of casting lots, pointing to Jonah.

2. The questions in verse 8 come pounding in like repeated blows to the breadbasket. (boxing punches to the stomach, jabs to the midsection, taking the wind out of you)  They knew nothing about Jonah. He’s not being faithful to the God of his people nor to his particular calling as a prophet of God.

3. His answer and their response equally astonish me.

a. You would think this would come out like bitter gall in Jonah’s mouth. I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord. Really, Jonah? At this moment I think there is some serious doubt as to whether you are really fearing God, since it means to worship and obey him. – Like being caught in a sin and admitting, “I am a Christian, and I love Jesus.”

b. Their fear turns to exceeding fear. They see clearly what Jonah has done. Can you imagine their thinking? Jonah, you’re telling us that you fear the God of the Hebrews, whom we’ve heard about, who is the God of the sea and the land, and you thought that fleeing from him on the sea (and in OUR boat) was a grand idea?

4. When they ask what to do, Jonah gets all noble. (uh) Jonah didn’t care for their lives but now that he’s caught, and sees that God isn’t going to let him get away with this, he’d rather drown than obey. And he almost gets his wish.  Do you not think that there might have been another way to stop this storm? Jonah’s REPENTANCE, perhaps?

5. But these pagan men show greater concern than Jonah that another should perish, and make every attempt to keep from hurling Jonah into the sea. You’d think they would have had plenty of motivation to have just chucked him in right when he said it.

6. God keeps kicking up the storm. (11b and 13b) That’s the gracious faithfulness of God to Jonah, to these men, and to the Ninevites. – Do we not see this about the storms that God causes or allows in our lives, that he might be feared, that his will might be accomplished, that he might be glorified in our hearts and in the lives of others, even when all we can see is the storm? (What a tragedy when, instead of trusting God, we decide that we know better.)

The Pagan Sailors Get It Right

(Look how God uses this storm in his providence, in spite of this floundering prophet’s disobedience and selfishness.)

1. Unlike Jonah, they pray to the Lord. (Jonah doesn’t pray, Jonah can’t pray.) They care that the Lord should not hold this against them. They recognize that this is his doing.

2. So when they finally throw Jonah overboard, they do so as a last resort (from an earthly standpoint) and they do so committing him back into the hands of his Lord.

3. When the sea stops, they worship God.

a. The men went from being scared of the storm to being exceedingly afraid of Jonah’s God (b/c of what Jonah had done) to now greatly fearing the Lord in the sense of true honor and worship.

b. This reverent worship of the Lord comes out in their sacrifice and making vows, which at the time was the response expected from those who fear the Lord.

Conclude: How do we bridge the gap…

From Jonah to Jeffy

Now you may well have already taken the applications we’ve passed along the way and thought of specific areas to implement things into your life, but let’s be sure we get to the issue behind the issues. Jesus wants my heart. And if I treasure him rightly, then I’ll treasure what he treasures.

· Jonah was called by God, set apart for a purpose, and he tried to run from God. What has Christ called you to? Now it may very well be that there is sort of a grand application here for some of you that God is calling you to missionary service or some other ministry and you are trying your hardest to ignore it and run the other way.  But it may also be that with you (like it is for me), that the something here seems minor (yet is actually supremely major). Do I sometimes give lip service to “fearing God,” while displaying the exact opposite in my conduct, speech, and attitude? – God has called us to obey, and to obey gladly, from the heart. God has called us to be set apart for him, to live a life of holiness. (What do I use to justify watching ***?Game of Thrones? To justify putting others down and building me up? To justify my anger and impatience toward people who are quite honestly just less than perfect individuals to be around. To justify my despondence with circumstances or life in general? And on, and on.)

· Jonah disobeyed b/c there was something important about God’s heart (character) that wasn’t getting into his heart (taking root in his character), namely God’s compassion for the lost, not just to “us” but to “them” as well. Have you got it all together as a Christian? Has our church got it all together? Or is there something incredibly essential here to learn about how God always desires to still be at work in us to cause us to grow?

Looking ahead: If you haven’t read Jonah chapter 4 recently or before that you can recall, do it before next session. You’ll see just how important it is to understanding all that’s going on in these earlier three chapters of Jonah. It’s almost like reading Jonah, getting to that point, and realizing, “Huh, I need to go back and read that again now that I understand Jonah’s attitude and how it needs correcting.”

· Such is the case in the verses we covered just now, we’ll continue to see that Jonah’s epic fail was bigger than his flopped attempt at getting away from God’s will. It was a heart condition.

· It affects Jonah’s prayer of gratitude in the second chapter when we learn that Jonah is thankful for God’s grace to him but learn later that he’s not a fan of God being gracious to others.

· We learn in chapter three that even as Jonah changes course and obeys God’s will with his second opportunity, his heart remains hardened.

· And so God tries to teach him a lesson about grace in the final chapter.

That’s where we’re headed. Read up on it several times to let God’s word and work through Jonah and to Jonah marinate in you and start changing the flavor or your own heart.