As the Dove Flies
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Dr. Chute - “Brian, whenever God has called for me to go somewhere and I have listened and gone in faith, I have never regretted it.” From Georgia to Alabama to Michigan to California.
He told me this when I was a senior in college and considering the merits of moving from California to Kentucky for Seminary.
From Kentucky, I moved to Indiana, from Indiana I moved back to California - from California I have found myself here. And though, unlike Jonah in this text I did not have an audible word from God telling me that I ought to move - but I was following what I felt through prayer, community affirmation,
So before we get into the text, I want to address a question that some of you might hear from skeptics.
You may have heard: “You Christians believe that donkeys talk and that a men can live in the belly of a whale.”
We believe that God caused a donkey to talk once.
We believe that God used a fish to judge a disobedient prophet who was told to preach a message of repentance and decided to run the opposite way.
Or you may have heard someone describe Jonah as being a “fairytale”. And in a mocking manner may ask:
Do you really believe this?
Do you really believe this?
Yes.
3 comments I want to make about this.
Jonah is referenced in 2 Kings 14:25.
25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.
King Jeroboam II is the He in this text. And though the Legacy of Jeroboam 2 is that he did not do the will of God (which comes from the preceeding verse.) We read here that the words of God that Jonah spoke to Jeroboam which he actually listened to. So Jonah isn’t just a one off prophet who got eaten by a fish that one time.
2. Jesus speaks of Jonah as if Jonah was a real person in Matthew 12:39-41.
39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 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.
We’ll address these verses at a later date - but if we should trust anyone’s opinion on the Scriptures it should be Jesus’.
3. We believe: 2 Tim 3:16
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
This includes Jonah.
4. There are harder things to believe in the Bible than a man being swallowed by a fish, remaining in the fish’s belly for three day and then being spit out on to dry land. If Jonah is something that is too hard to believe - then wait until you hear about the time that God became a man, was crucified, died and buried and then rose again.
So yes, I believe the Bible, including the weird things. Especially the weird things.
However, I do want to add that though I do indeed believe that the Bible speaks of Jonah as a historical narrative - it does use some poetic elements. Some of which I will mention this morning - but poetry does not threaten history. A masterful writer can tell history and use poetic language.
Vanessa and I were talking about Jonah the other day. She mentioned how she was watching the VeggieTales movie with the kids and how the movie describes the story of Jonah about God being God of second chances… and while that is somewhat true of Jonah… it is much more true of Nineveh.
I imagine most of us are all fairly familiar with the message of Jonah. However, most people focus on Jonah as being about a fish, or about a disobedient prophet. But the book of Jonah is ultimately about God, and his mercy.
His power over all of creation. The text shows clearly that God is not merely some tribal deity but he is sovereign over all of creation. The wind, the storm, the waters, the fish, the nations, the plant, the worm.
But we also see God’s love, and God mercy toward sinners, toward Jonah, and Nineveh - and we will also see his mercy toward us.
I’ve divided the text into three different movements today:
The Lord Speaks
The Dove (Jonah) Flees
The Storm Rages
The Lord Speaks
The Lord Speaks
As we look at verse 1, I want to make a few comments on the introduction:
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
The book opens with a phrase familiar to the Biblical Prophets - the word of the Lord came to…
God has spoken to Jonah and given him a message.
Before we move on though I want to look at Jonah a little closer. As I mentioned he is a prophet who delivered the word of God to Jeroboam II.
Jonah’s name means dove. Some have observed that Jonah, as a dove flies in a flighty pattern away from God’s call.
Hosea 7:11 compares the dove (Jonah) to being silly and without sense. This likely refers to the flight plan of the dove. And Jonah himself acts silly and senseless throughout this book.
Yet, Jonah is not merely identified by the name dove. As we see with the other prophets we are given the name of his father. Amittai, which means “my faithfulness.” Jonah is the Son of My Faithfulness. And Hebrew scholar, Mark Futato, notes that “despite Jonah’s silly and senselessness Jonah remains the Son of God’s faithful love.”
And that is something to remember throughout the book - that God remains faithful to Jonah, even though Jonah is not faithful to him.
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
The message that the Lord speaks to Jonah, is for him to go out to Nineveh and to call out the evil.
I have a map here to help with the geography…
Point to Israel and Judah…
To track Jonah’s journey he is from Gath-Hepher (as we read in 2 Kings 14) then be goes south to Joppa - then attempts to go the opposite direction.
Nineveh is the capital of Assyria. Assyria was the nation that conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 722BC, Assyria was conquered by Babylon in 609BC.
Nineveh was 500 miles away from Jerusalem to the Northeast. Jonah tries to head 1000 miles to the west to Tarshish.
You might wonder what sort of evil the Ninevites participated in - and one example is that they prided themselves in cruel forms of torture and execution. One commentary compared them to a new Sodom and Gomorrah.
So while it is wrong for Jonah to flee from the Lord, it does sort of make sense - that he would not want to visit a wicked nation and enemies of his people.
The Dove Flies
The Dove Flies
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.
Instead of going Northeast to Nineveh. Jonah goes down to Joppa and then down to the ship. And then in verse 5 we will read that Jonah goes down to the inner part of the ship. Jonah isn’t just going away from Nineveh. Jonah is seeking to go away from the presence of the Lord - which is what we see repeated at the end of the first and last sentence of verse 3. This word for go down (ירד) is used 4 times in the book of Jonah. Three of those are in our text for this morning - the 4th in chapter 2. It is a phrase that is generally used with going down into the grave, or going down into Sheol. While Jonah is intended to go away from the presence of the Lord he is actually bringing himself closer to death. When we get to chapter 2 we will see that Jonah considers himself as good as dead.
Jonah is seeking to find a place where he can escape from God’s presence. Yet if he had listened to David in Ps 139:7-8
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!
And Jonah, when he is in the belly of the fish - what he calls the belly of Sheol - will learn that even there God will hear his prayers. He cannot run from God’s presence - and for Jonah this is ultimately a good thing - even if it is a result to Jonah’s disobedience.
The Storm Rages
The Storm Rages
While I titled this section: the storm rages - do not think that the storm is acting upon its own - but rather God has caused the storm to come upon the sea. And we read exactly that in verse 4.
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.
The text tells us that the Lord hurls the wind upon the sea. This isn’t the only place we see this language. Psalm 107:25 doesn’t say hurled but also describes God raising a stormy wind upon the sea. This Psalm is one that where God sends a storm upon the sea, but then he also calms the storm. As we also see in Jonah. And also in Christ Jesus’ calming of the storm.
So even though Jonah in being silly and senseless to try to flee from God - God makes it clear that he is God over the sea
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.
The fear of the mariners here is a key to the severity of the storm. By trade these men sail this sea back and forth - for them to be afraid of a storm shows that it is not a normal storm.
And it’s not likely for skilled mariners to drop their cargo at the first sign of a storm.
As the Lord hurled the wind upon the sea so the mariners begins to hurl the cargo off of the ship.
And yet we also see the first key to who these mariners are. Each one of them cried out to their own god. We can assume that these were pagan sailors. And when their crying out to Baal, Moloch or Poesiden didn’t work - then the captain goes to wake Jonah to cover all the bases.
And so he goes to find Jonah - who has one again gone down… and each time Jonah goes down, he is attempting to go further from the presence of the Lord - but he is going closer to the grave.
It’s amazing that he can sleep with the massive guilt that must be upon him for having received the word of God and blatantly disobeying it.
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 captain comes to Jonah wakes him up and speaks to him with the same language that God first addresses Jonah with. Arise Jonah, as the Lord in verse 1 called you to arise. Then the captain tells him to call out to his god… as the Lord told you to call out against the city of Nineveh.
Verse 6 - who is concerned with who is perishing? The pagan captain is more concerned with Jonah, and the others on the ship, perishing than Jonah is concerned with those in Nineveh perishing.
What we think about God should drive how we think about other humans.
The storm rages on, and based upon the captain’s words to Jonah he thinks that they haven’t called out to the appropriate tribal deity at this point. And Jonah up until this point seems to think that he’s outrun YHWH.
Jonah learns that God is not only the God of the Jews - but of the whole world. Romans 3:29
29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
If you’re familiar with the story you already know that Jonah’s reason for not wanting to go to Nineveh is because he knows that God will be merciful to them if they repent. Jonah thought, rightly, that the Ninevites were a wicked people who deserved what was coming to them. So Jonah runs. He foolishly thinks he can outrun God - as if God is not also the God of the Mediterranean Sea.
Yet the message that Christ has given his disciples is not all that different than the message that Jonah has been given. And in many cases, our response is not very different.
Consider the captain - he has a concern for man - for Jonah and the other sailors, (surely his boat and cargo as well) - but he has the wrong God. Jonah has the right God but the wrong concern. Our belief about God should drive how we treat others - and this would mean that we teach them the words of life when they are perishing.
The Lord Jesus gives us a greater message when he tells us to go make disciples. More than Jonah we have the promises of Christ. He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth will be with us always even to the end of the age.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We ought to be careful not to throw stones at Nineveh though. As we look through the scriptures we find that we may not have cruelly tortured anyone… but we are all guilty of sin.
At the cross of Christ, those who were as wicked as the Ninevites, or worse, find that God is still merciful.
Yet even so, do we not all have temptations to do as Jonah does?
If I share the gospel with that person and they believe does that mean I will have to see them at church every week? What will my church look like if THOSE people start attending.
And I sincerely hope those are caricatures but I’ve seen this and worse.
Or even worse than that - and much more similar to Jonah…
If I share the gospel with that person, and they believe - God will forgive them… and I don’t want that - they deserve what is coming to them. We don’t get to decide who God will show mercy to. He will do it with or without us - but it is far better for us to be obedient his call to preach the good news than to those who need the soothing balm that is the gospel of Jesus.
Now don’t here me say that everyone needs to go street preaching at First Friday… maybe you do… but that’s not everyone’s gift. I’ve seen some very talented street preachers, and I’ve seen some very bold, yet foolish ones.
I also don’t believe in guilty evangelism. I know guilting people into evangelism doesn’t work - for the
What is God calling you to do? And I mean that in the sense of WHAT DOES GOD’S WORD CALL US AS CHRISTIANS TO DO? Proclaim the good news to a world that is dying.
The gospel is good news - and the Christ who believes in Jesus has the joy of telling others that message. And yet not unlike Jonah we are called to point evil, and warn of the wrath to come.
The wrath that they would eventually flee for a time… until Nahum prophesies their destruction in Nahum 1. Their destruction would come at the hands of the Medes in 621.
Each of us are sinners deserving the same wrath that Jonah was called to pronounce upon Nineveh - but we have a message of grace… though sinners deserve judgement. Christ has been judged for those who believe in him.
Christ Jesus died to save us from our sins, having paid our debt, and rose again on the third day, taking our sins and giving us his righteousness - and is now seated at the right hand of God
Whenever God calls you to do something - whether it is moving across the country - or walk across the street - it is always worth it.