JONAH 1:1-6 - A Rebel and A Storm-Making God

Introduction

I often joke that my day job is the kind of job where nobody who is coming in to see you is in a good mood. Students or parents trying to figure out how to pay tuition, students coming in with questions about their balance, students whose academic performance has impacted their eligibility for aid, and so on. Paying for a college education is intimidating, and sometimes people have to be guided into the right decision (like a student who comes in asking how to take out a fifteen-thousand dollar loan while only owing seventy bucks on their statement!) Students who panic over the prospect of losing their shot at a college degree because of finances don’t always make the most level-headed decisions!

But that’s true in a lot of areas of life--many of which are far more consequential than having a lot of student loans to pay off someday. You don’t have to look far to see men and women who are so desperate to find some kind of peace or happiness in their life that they will make sacrifices that seem shocking to us--a man who chases so hard after promotions and salary increases at his work that his wife and children leave him; a college student who spends every single night getting blackout drunk and giving her body to a different partner every time; a fentanyl addict who risks dying every time he takes a hit; a woman who walks into an abortion clinic because she hates the thought of having to “give up her dreams” to care for a baby; a mentally-ill teenager who decides to have his body mutilated permanently because he is convinced that if he could live as a woman he would be “happy”. All around us every day we see people so desperate for some kind of peace that they are willing to throw away their own lives to find it.

And what do we do about it? We here who claim that we have that peace that they are looking for; we who have come to saving faith in Jesus Christ and through the New Birth have received from Him that freedom from our guilt and shame and fear and are assured of our eternal destiny with Him--how do we respond when we see men and women throwing their lives away in a desperate attempt to find rescue from their plight?

We have, of course, been clearly instructed--commanded, in fact--by our Lord Jesus as to how we are to respond:

Matthew 28:19–20 LSB

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

And yet how often do we apply that command to the people that we see around us every day--the people we work with, study with, in some cases, the people we live with?

We are beginning a study of the Book of Jonah this morning--he was also a man who had been clearly commanded to bring God’s Word to an unbelieving people:

Jonah 1:1–2 LSB

Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me.”

And yet we see here in this book that Jonah struggled to obey God’s command--just as we do, don’t we? But I think we are trying to cut ourselves too much slack if we want to say that Jonah “struggled to obey”--Jonah, in fact, disobeyed the clear command of YHWH to speak to the lost and dying people He was sending him to. Jonah disobeyed his commission to go to Nineveh just as we disobey our commission to make disciples of the world around us. And as we begin this series this morning in these opening verses, we see that

Disobeying God’s DECREE to make DISCIPLES makes us INDIFFERENT to their DOOM

We can see ourselves all-too clearly in these pages--which is alarming, since we will find here that Jonah’s resistance to God’s command to speak turns into full-blown rebellion as this account progresses. In these first two verses we see that when we rebel against God’s command to share the Good News

I. We risk REJECTION of God (Jonah 1:1-3)

When we disobey God, we are essentially rejecting His authority over us; we are rejecting His right to decree what we do, where we go and how we are to commit ourselves. And what is remarkable about this behavior is that we are capable of turning our backs on God’s commands for us

Even if we have past EXPERIENCE of His POWER (cp. 2 Kings 14:23-25)

This is actually what we find in Jonah’s case--turn with me to 2 Kings 14 (it’s on page 321 of the pew Bible). In the opening of the book of Jonah, we see that he is called “the son of Amittai”--meaning he is the same prophet who confronted the wickedness of Jeroboam:

2 Kings 14:23–25 LSB

In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel became king in Samaria and reigned forty-one years. And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin. He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of Yahweh, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.

Consider--Jeroboam was a wicked king who did not worship YHWH or submit to Him, and yet Jonah stood in his presence and commanded him in the Name of YHWH to repair the ruined border of Israel to protect his kingdom from Assyria. He had walked into the throne room of a hostile, unbelieving king and delivered the message God had given him--and the king obeyed!

And yet this time Jonah fled. Speaking in God’s Name to a rebellious son of Israel was different in his mind than speaking in God’s Name to a rebellious Gentile king, the king of Assyria in the capitol city of Nineveh. How many times have you seen God use your testimony to the Gospel to do His work in someone’s life, but you still balk at the next opportunity? Jonah had personal experience of the great power of God, but he still rebelled against His command to speak His Word.

When we disobey God’s decree to bring the Good News of the Gospel to others, we risk rejecting God--even if we have past experience of His power, and

Even if we KNOW we cannot ESCAPE His PRESENCE (v. 3)

Jonah 1:3 LSB

Yet Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, and paid its fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.

Instead of heading to Nineveh (northeast of Israel), Jonah headed to Tarshish, which is west of Israel across the Mediterranean Sea. And verse 3 says that Jonah was going to Tarshish “from the presence of YHWH”. That phrase isn’t just an indication of the direction that Jonah was going--away from Jerusalem, the place where YHWH had set His dwelling among His people--this is an idiom in Hebrew that indicates full-blown rebellion against God.

As one commentator puts it:

Most significant for Jonah, however, was the fact the Tarshish was known as a location where YHWH had not yet revealed his glory or his word.… This is the true goal of Jonah’s flight—banishment from the prophet’s unique experience of the divine presence” (Kevin Youngblood, Jonah: God’s Scandalous Mercy, HMS 28 [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013]: 57).

It is shocking to us to see this kind of behavior from a man who has been so greatly used of God in the past, and yet if we are honest we see the same kind of rebellion lurking in us as well at times. We know that we have been tasked with calling unbelievers to repent and believe the Gospel, but we rebel against the idea--our workplace is too hostile to the Gospel; our relatives or classmates would make us the butt of their jokes about being “too holy” or too judgmental; we don’t know what to do if someone asks a question we can’t answer; or we are just plain scared. And so like Jonah, we just want to walk away from all of it.

But whether from fear of being ridiculed or called hateful or of looking like a fool, at the end of the day we are simply being disobedient. And when we disobey God’s decree to make disciples, we risk winding up like Jonah--in full-blown rebellion, deliberately putting ourselves “out of God’s reach”.

But we know--as Jonah found out--there is nowhere we can go to hide from the presence of the God who has called us to Himself. Jonah risked rejection of God altogether when he refused to obey His command to speak. And like Jonah, when we refuse to call others to repentance and faith in Christ,

II. We invite the STORMS of God (Jonah 1:4-5)

Jonah paid his fare, went down to his quarters, and settled in for his Great Escape from the presence of YHWH.

Jonah 1:4 LSB

But Yahweh hurled a great wind on the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship gave thought to breaking apart.

As one commentator writes about this verse,

Rebellion never escapes God’s notice, and it is foolish for men to think they can resist God’s will with impunity.… The Lord may let a man go to a certain point before He steps in, but when He does move, He moves with no uncertainty. (William L. Banks, Jonah, 2, quoted in Kevin Youngblood, Jonah: God’s Scandalous Mercy, HMS 28 [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013]: 57).

There was certainly no uncertainty about God’s intervention in Jonah’s rebellion--see here that when we invite the storms of God by our disobedience,

He can REDIRECT us by WRECKING our plans (v. 4)

Jonah wanted to get away from God’s presence, but he learned very quickly the truth of what David had written years before in Psalm 139:

Psalm 139:9–12 LSB

If I lift up the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will bruise me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not too dark for You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.

Have you ever had God stop you in your tracks while you were in the process of trying to disobey Him? Consider here the severe mercy of God--that He would rather make a ruin of His child’s life than let him fall away from Him. Jonah was trying to throw away his ministry, his faith and his covenant-relationship to YHWH, but is kept from doing so as God hurls a great wind on the sea.

We see in the next verse that the consequences of Jonah’s sin extend further than just his own well-being--the ship “gave thought to breaking up” (v. 4)--it looked like the vessel was going to actually be pounded to bits in the storm, to the point where the sailors themselves were terrified:

Jonah 1:5 LSB

Then the sailors became fearful, and every man cried to his god, and they hurled the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them...

God is hurling the wind on the sea, and the sailors are hurling their cargo into the sea in order to save their own lives. Consider what it would take for these men to be fearful for their lives and begin praying--they had never seen a storm like this one, and it convinced them that they were about to die.

But while these tough old sailors were making their peace with their gods, where was the prophet of YHWH?

Jonah 1:5 LSB

...But Jonah had gone down below into the innermost part of the vessel, lain down, and fallen deep asleep.

Here is another consequence of disobedience--in the midst of the storms we bring down on ourselves,

Our SIN will make us STUPID (v. 5)

The ship is threatening to break up all around him, the crew were convinced they were about to die, but Jonah didn’t even have the good sense to stay awake during it all. The sailors were terrified by the storm and started praying, but Jonah (who had reason to be afraid of God’s wrath) didn’t bother praying at all--you’ll notice that even after the captain wakes him up in the next verse, Jonah never actually prays.

Christian, look at the stubbornness and apathy and downright stupidity that sin will drag you into if you let it. All of this was so unnecessary in Jonah’s life, wasn’t it? If he had only spoken to Nineveh when he was commanded to, none of this would have happened. But when we allow fear or apathy or rebellion a foothold in our lives, we invite the storms of a loving and faithful God Who will wreck our plans rather than allow us to continue in our foolishness.

So here is Jonah, in the hold of a ship that is thinking about breaking up, its crew despairing of their lives, and he either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that he is about to die. And so in verse 6, when the captain of the ship seeks him out, Jonah doesn’t even answer him:

Jonah 1:6 LSB

So the captain came near to him and said to him, “How is it that you are deeply sleeping? Arise, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

Stop for a moment and think about this--this Gentile sailor, a pagan through and through, a man who is utterly convinced he is about to die. And he says to Jonah, “Does your God care about us?” If ever there was a statement that would absolutely open the floodgates for a conversation about the Good News of the lovingkindness of YHWH, this was it.

But see here the bitter end of that disobedience to God’s decree to make disciples--when we set ourselves against God’s call and turn away from submitting to him,

III. We deny sinners the HOPE of God (Jonah 1:6)

Think of all the ways you could speak the hope of the Good News to a man in that state--he is begging for some sign of hope from Jonah--but look into the next verse and you see that he doesn’t even answer him. When we disobey God’s decree to disciple the way Jonah did,

We are BLIND to their DESPERATION

Jonah looked that poor desperate man right in the eye, and kept his mouth shut. God’s Word lays this moment out for us here in Verse 6 in order to confront us with our tendency to do the same thing. Do you see that same desperation in the eyes of the people you work with, go to school with, share your neighborhood with? You see them throwing their lives overboard in a desperate attempt to deaden their pain, stave off their fears, medicate their dread, rationalize their self-destruction, and you just let them do it?

Here is Jonah in the hold of that doomed ship, trying to flee from God’s presence because he doesn’t want to preach to the pagan Gentiles in Nineveh--and God places another pagan Gentile right in front of him, begging Jonah to give him some hope in his God! What could he possibly say? To say anything at all would be to confess his sin--that he was running from his God, that he didn’t want to be in His presence because He was calling Jonah to preach to Gentiles. He couldn’t say anything to this sailor, because he was ashamed of himself.

And I think that this happens to us when it comes to our failures to share the Good News of the Gospel, even with those who ask us:

We are BOUND by our SHAME

We see the quiet desperation of the people in our daily life--the co-workers, neighbors, classmates--who are struggling hard with their despair and guilt and hopelessness and fear. Perhaps we are ashamed of not speaking up sooner, perhaps it’s because we know they have seen and heard things from us that consistent with our claim to be a Christian, perhaps it’s because we really don’t think deep down inside that sharing the Gospel will even help.

But whatever the reason, the Good News for us is that

1 John 1:9 LSB

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Can you see in these pages that you have been running away from God’s decree to disciple the nations? That there is someone in your personal circle of friends and family who has that look of a sailor on a doomed ship; they are throwing their lives away, piece by piece, and they are looking to you to give them some kind of hope? The Good News for you is the same Good News for them--Jesus Christ, God Himself in human flesh, came to earth to live a perfect life of obedience to God and die on that Cross to pay the penalty for all of your rebellion, all of your fearfulness and unbelief and apathy and hatred and bitterness and indifference. And when you stop running from Him, when you turn and confess your sin and ask His forgiveness, He grants it freely and immediately and completely because of Jesus’ death, and he gives you freedom from the power of your sin because of Jesus’ resurrection!

Are you shying away from speaking to others about that Good News? Then don’t wait for God to do what He did to Jonah--repent before those storms of God’s correction blow into your life. And then in the strength of that forgiveness from His hand, look ahead to ways that you can speak up to others about the hope they can find in Christ.

Every one of you here right now will be given a perfect opportunity tomorrow morning to share the Gospel. (This isn’t some kind of weird prophecy; this is just the way the world works.) Because every one of you tomorrow at some point are going to be asked, “So, how was your weekend??” What a perfect opening to say, “I had a great time at church yesterday; we studied the story of Jonah and how God uses His people to give hope to those who are throwing their lives away...” And then give a quick synopsis of the sermon and the Gospel. And then say you’d be happy to talk more about it with them later!

Another way to be obedient to God’s call to make disciples is to be clear on the Gospel and its importance. Jonah didn’t seem to really grasp the importance of speaking God’s warning to Nineveh--and even when he was asked point-blank whether his God could rescue those doomed sailors, he didn’t have anything to say to them either.

Sometimes our reluctance to share the Gospel is due to our forgetting from time to time how amazing this gift is! We need to keep reminding ourselves of the unbelievable treasure we have in the Gospel--the matchless grace of God, infinite in its scope, that has redeemed us once and for all from the penalty and power of our sin, the unbelievable gift of God’s pardon through the blood of Christ. So prepare to obey God’s call to disciple by delving into the wonder of your salvation and the grace you have received!

There are also times when we hesitate to share the Gospel because we aren’t sure how to do it effectively--we are afraid of messing something up or being confusing or using too much “Christian jargon”. One way to get over that obstacle is to study effective Gospel presentations. There is a wealth of resources available to help you grow in your confidence in sharing the Gospel. Living Waters ministries has a vast library online of encounters Ray Comfort and others have sharing the Gospel with people on the street. It doesn’t mean you have to copy word for word or beat for beat what others do; but watching how different questions are answered and objections are handled can help you grow in your confidence in making disciples as Jesus has called you to. (PAUL WASHER BOOKLETS)

Third--prepare to obey God’s call to make disciples by praying for opportunities to share the Gospel. There won’t always be a terrified sailor fearing for his life begging you to give him some hope in your God, but at the same time we do believe that God providentially arranges our lives (and the lives of others) so that “we will reach out and find Him” (Acts 17:27).

Consider that the Apostle Paul himself asked for prayer that he would find opportunities to evangelize, as he asked the churches to

Ephesians 6:19–20 LSB

...[pray] on my behalf, that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel— for which I am an ambassador in chains—so that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Colossians 4:3–4 LSB

praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been bound, that I may make it manifest in the way I ought to speak.

If the Apostle Paul needed people to pray for him to have opportunities to share the Gospel, then certainly we ought to pray the same thing for ourselves and each other!

Beloved, make it your aim to share this Good News of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life with those who are throwing everything overboard in a desperate attempt to find escape from their misery. Aim to show by your life--and share through your words--the great hope that you have in the Gospel.

We aim here at Bethel for that great Gospel story to be told every week in the way our service is structured--we are called out of the world into the presence of God through the call to worship; we worship Him in song and read His Word together. And then when we hear His Word it exposes our sin, which we confess to Him and hear from His Word His assurance that our sins are forgiven through the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Then in the assurance of that grace, we ask God as our Heavenly Father to meet our needs and provide for us. Then we commit ourselves to His work in this world by giving back to Him a portion of what He has given us. And then we attend to His Word as it is preached, allowing His Word to transform us more and more into the image of Christ in holiness. At the end of the service we are sent out once again with His benediction into the world to obey His command to make disciples.

Do you want your friend, co-worker, neighbor, loved one to hear the Gospel? Then invite them here to church! Let them see the great storyline of the Gospel laid out for them in the order of worship; let them see the love and fellowship that God has created here; let them find here what they have been looking for--that there is hope for their lives, forgiveness for their sin, freedom from their guilt and shame, relief from their desperation. This is the Good News that we have to proclaim to every storm-tossed rebel, every despairing sailor, every backsliding Christian and burned-out preacher— Jesus calls you this morning:

Matthew 11:28–30 LSB

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

He is your forgiveness, He is your escape, He is your shelter from the wrath of God. So let go of your striving, lay down your burdens, let the weariness fall from you as you come--and welcome!--to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Ephesians 3:20–21 LSB

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION:

What are some typical reasons believers do not share the gospel with the lost regularly? Which of those reasons mostly characterizes the hesitancy you have shown in sharing the good news with unbelievers you know?

Prior to the call to go to Nineveh, what experience had Jonah had with the Lord that should have given him the will and confidence to go to Nineveh immediately on the Lord’s command? What experiences have you had in life in which the Lord has shown you His power? How might these experiences fuel greater courage to share the gospel to the most oppositional unbeliever in your life circles?

What is the significance for the sailors of Jonah’s sleeping—Jonah’s indifference—during the storm? What might be the significance of a casual attitude toward telling a non-Christian relative about the love of God in Christ?

What is one immediate decision you can make that will help you be better prepared to share the gospel when the next opportunity for sharing arises?