Jonah

Outline

God will Rescue Us - Even from our own foolish mistakes

Teaching

All throughout this book, things are opposite from what one might expect. Something that I love doing is predicting thigns in a movie. And not jsut like predicitng the ending, but the little things all throughout. How the hero will break into the room, what line the character will say, or how they will win the battle. If you were to try and predict anything in this movie, you would be absolutely lost. Everything is inverted. THe prophet of God is actually the one who rebels, the wicked king is the one who repents, even the sailors, I guess they had the same view of sailors, crass and vulgar, they are more aware of God than Jonah is. This whole story has plot twist after plot twist after plot twist.

“The major purpose of the book is to teach that the message of God’s grace and forgiveness should not be withheld from anyone. The Hebrews had been chosen by God as a special people but did not understand their responsibility to share their knowledge of him with other peoples. They regarded their election as an exclusive privilege. God desired to teach Israel through Jonah’s experiences that God’s love and compassion included all peoples and nations Bible Study Introductions (Bellingham, WA: Logos, 2024).”

Opening

Good morning everyone, well it is good to be with you this morning. And I just want to take a moment and say how true that really is. I was off for two weeks after my wife Mary and i had our son Jack, and then I was supposed to be here last week and I ended up being sick and wasn’t able to be here, and it feels like it has been forever since I have been here at Sunny Brae and wow, have I missed it. I truly love being a part of this church and it is such a blessing to gather with you each and every week, as we follow God together. If you are new here, we use the phrase “Welcome Home” alot and it really is so true, and I hope that you feel welcomed here and that you feel at home here at Sunny Brae.

Intro

We run a program here called Sunny Tots. It is a midweek playgroup open to the community for young families. Then, every week throughout the summer, our we pick a different park in the city and meet there. Its a great opportunity to get outdoors, continue to connect with families, but to also take advantage of the beautiful weather God has blessed us with. This week, I was having a conversation with some of our summer students and we were trying to choose which park would be best for us to visit this week. I suggested one that we hadn’t been to before so they searched to find it online to be able to share a link so that families could find the park.

Wednesday comes and we start driving to the park. Things were going well, and then as we’re starting to get closer to the park, I said and right up here we’ll turn left. To which Luc replied, I thought it was right. I assured him that I knew where we were going and directed us to the park. We arrive and pull right up to the sign that says Hildegard Park. To my surprise the students said this wasn’t the park we were supposed to be at and that I had taken us to the wrong park. You see, somewhere in our conversation, I showed a park on the map, they found the name of a park and link to a website, we had actually picked different parks. You see, I had a destination in mind, and took us exactly where I thought we were supposed to be going. Meanwhile the students, who had told everyone where to meet, actually had a better idea of where to go than I did.

This summer we’ve been going through a series on the minor prophets. These are a collection of 12 short prophetic books at the end of the Old Testament. We have looked at the radical love of God, and the hope that He brings in spite of the injustice both in us and around us. This week we are brought to probably the most well known of the Minor Prophets, we will be looking at the book of Jonah.

And now if you know the story of Jonah, you may see the reason I tell this story. The story of Jonah is the story of a man who thought he knew better. He thought he knew where to go, he thought he knew what was best, when in reality, God, the author of everything, saw it all in perspective and truly had the correct destination already planned.

The book of Jonah has a very natural flow with four chapters.

Chapter One Jonah flees from God

Chapter Two Jonah’s Prayer to God

Chapter Three Jonah Preaches - City Responds

Chapter Four Jonah’s Anger - God’s Grace

This morning, as we move through the book of Jonah, I want us to pay close attention to what we can learn of the character of God through the book of Jonah. What does the story tell us of who God is and what we are called to do in light of that.

Movement One

Jonah flees from God - God works even in our disobedience.

This book opens in a very common way for a prophetic book in the Old Testament. It opens with the phrase “The word of the Lord came to _____ (in this case Jonah) and said, “Go to… and say” and it goes on to explain where God wants the prophet to go and what He wants them to say. This formula is seen repeatedly throughout the bible specifically in almost all of the prophetic books. Biblical scholars refer to this as the prophetic call. The prophetic call is a divine encounter where God commissions a person to be his mouthpiece to the people. One bible commentator said that this call is actually more of a divine summons, than an invitation.” This is a weighty task that is being placed on a person. And so here, as with so many of the other prophets, we see God called Jonah to go and preach a message. However, verse one is about the end of the similarities between this book and the other minor prophets.

In the entire Bible, there are approximately 80 times when the Bible uses this form “and the word of God came to ____ and God said Go and”. And out of the 80 times, there is only one instance, one time where someone disobeys. The other 79 times, the person goes and does what God commands, this right here, Jonah is the only time where the person disobeys. Some people, initially push back, or resist, saying I’m too young, have you seen them etc, but this is the only time when someone gets up and simply goes the opposite way, completely disobeying God.

Verse 3 God says go to Nineveh verse three Jonah goes to Joppa and boards a boat to Tarshish. Now incase you’re anything like me and you’ve forgotten everything from your middle school ancient geography class, I just want to show you a little something. So here is a map that shows the locations of a couple places.

So first here we have Gath-hepher, this is where Jonah is understood to have lived. And then on the top right you can see this is Nineveh. This is where God is calling Jonah to go and preach. This is approximately 800 kms. A long journey. about a month or two of walking. But the scripture tells us that Jonah actually goes to Joppa.

Its actually the exact opposite direction of Ninevah. But he didn’t actually stop there. Verse three tells us that Jonah went down to Joppa and boarded a boat to Tarshish. Now, I’ll bring up Tarshish just to show you where it is, but it actually doesn’t fit on this map so we’re going to have to zoom out a bit. Oh and no actually still doesn’t fit on the map, we’re going to need to zoom out a little further… okay and one more time… perfect! That’s it. Great. This is a journey of about 4000km’s. This is literally as far as you can get from Nineveh.

Who knows the old rhyme, Columbus sailed the ocean blue in… {Pause ask them} … 1492? well this is still about 2,000 years before that, so the americas haven’t been discovered yet. This is pretty much the end of the known world. You can’t get much further than this. Jonah is getting as far as he possibly can away.

He boards the boat, and runs. And then surprise surprise, if you’ve never heard this story, the ship comes into a big storm, the sailors cast lots to see who’s to blame, and and comes down to Jonah, and in a last ditch effort to save the ship from sinking, he says throw me over. Jonah thinks this is it. He realizes he’s done this terrible thing, he’s disobeyed and run from God and he says, just kill me. End it all and that will appease God. Let me be the sacrifice. Wow so noble eh?

But what we see, is such a relief. Vs 14-15 “they pray, “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” and then vs 17 says “And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights”

The first thing this story teaches us about the character of God is that He will rescue us. Even when its from our own foolish mistakes.

Jonah put himself in this situation. He’s the one who ran from God, he’s the one who thought getting on a boat would be a good idea, and yet rather than letting him die in the storm, God sent a fish to rescue him. The other part that I love about this is that he rescued him and simultaneously reminded him of his calling. He could have just stopped the storm and let him back on the boat, but he used circumstances that were undeniably God, and gave him the time and space to think on what God had said to him. which leads him in chapter two to pray to God.

What an encouragement it is to know, that God is always near, waiting and ready to help us, even when we’ve put ourselves into the difficult situations. I know there are times where I’ve been afraid of what would happen, because of my own actions. I made choices, and there are consequences to pay, but God is near and there to rescue me and walk through the difficult days ahead. What a relief that is to know that God does not choose only to rescue from situations that are out of my control.

Section 2

I invite you now to move down to chapter 3 opens and in verse 1-3 we see that god is giving Jonah another chance. We almost see a recommissioning from earlier.

“Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord”. - Jonah 3:1-3

We see fully on display here, the grace of God. He could have saved Jonah, and then picked someone else to carry out the mission. But he is gracious enough to give Jonah the second chance. He chooses to continue to work with Jonah in spite of his short comings. God is gracious (beyond what seems logical).

Are there ever times in your life where you feel that you’ve been disqualified? Or that you feel that you’re not good enough to be used? You can sit here at church, look around and see 20 people that would make more sense for God to choose than you. And yet, God doesn’t choose to pick someone new, he chooses to reinstate Jonah. give him the second chance. God is gracious

In fact, God, in his wisdom recognizes that Jonah could actually be the best positioned person to give this sermon. Who better to proclaim that God can take what was wrong and use it for good. Jonah has literally just ran from God and in a spectacular way, has been restored and recommissioned to do the work of God. What a testimony this could be to the people.

And yet, as the chapter continues, rather than using this as an opportunity for to be used, Jonah gives the world laziest sermon, I think probably ever. In the original Hebrew, his sermon is literally 5 words. That’s it. It translates to 8 words in English, “3:4 it says “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown”. No mention of god, no mention of repenting, no mention of anything really useful to be honest, just 40 days and you’ll be toast. and yet, verse 5 says “and the people of Nineveh believed God”

The whole city repents. The whole people, repents. All from Jonah’s short, sorry excuse of a sermon. One thing that encourages me, if God can use this sermon of Jonah’s, it stands to show that He could even use my sorry excuse of preaching.

But chapter three goes on, it explains the peoples repentance, and how they cry out to God and verse ten says,

“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.” - Jonah 3:10

This shows us an Old Testament example of what we see in 2 peter, God wishes that none should perish but that all should reach repentance. God’s desire is that the people of Nineveh should repent. He sends Jonah there, not because he wants someone to watch them suffer, but so that the nation can receive the word from God and be saved. Here we see that God is ready to forgive. When the people are sinning, God warns them to them that destruction is imminent, but when they repent, and turn from their sin, he immediately saves them. He doesn’t wait to see what will happen. At the very first sign of repentance, God spares Nineveh.

I wonder sometimes how many of us need this reminder? I think sometimes we don’t actually expect God to do this for us. we can think that we aren’t deserving of it. I’m not sure who needs to hear this today, but the same as we see here, if you repent and turn from your sin, God wants to forgive you. There is no clause to his forgiveness, there is no minimum height requirement for your guilt. He simply wants to walk in a right relationship with you, and he’s standing here waiting to do so. Don’t let shame block you from a relationship with God. Shame tells you that you are sin, that you are what you have done. God is here looking you in the eye, saying I already paid the price. I knew everything you’d ever do before Jesus died on the cross. There is nothing as freeing as being fully known and still loved. We hide behind walls thinking that, if they fully knew me, they couldn’t love me. If they truly saw how broken I was, they wouldn’t associate with me.

God knows every detail of who you are, and yet looks at you and says, you are my child, created in my image. You are loved.

PAUSE

Final Section

Unfortunately, Jonah missed this message. He goes into Nineveh, preaches his lazy message, God works, saves the people and 4:1 says

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry”.

He’s annoyed that God forgives. He goes on to pray to God, this strange arrogant prayer, complaining to God. Saying this is what I said way back when I was at home. This is why I ran away, because I knew you would forgive them.

“I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster”

-4:2

Jonah is angry at God for saving these people. Now, it’s important for us to understand some of the background here. Nineveh was a dreadful city. Reminder, the opening line of this book is God saying that “their evil had risen to his ears”. They were the capital of the Assyrian Empire, a ruthless people who literally had the tactic of terrorizing their opponents into surrender. Without going into too much detail, they were a horrible nation that had done horrible things. If we could fully know the extent of it, Jonah may well have seemed right to be angry. And yet, God still forgives them.

Often times, in the prophetic books, when we’re trying to understand the message, it would be best for us to look for ourselves in the person or people receiving the message from God. However, here in Jonah, its actually in the prophet that we should see more of ourselves. The whole book actually operates as a mirror for us to see ourselves in.

So when I look into the mirror of Jonah, I should ask myself, who am I still holing onto resentment towards?

we all have reasons for resentment. We all have reasons to hold grudges. People hurt us, people are rude, people will wrong us, directly or indirectly, intentionally or not. And yet, Ephesians 4:31 says “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” It doesnt says, put away bitterness towards the nice person. Or only be angry at the people who are awful. It says put away all bitterness, wrath anger clamor and slander.

Christians don’t have a right to hold a grudge. As people who are forgiven, we are called to forgive, not to hold onto past pain. That is how we will walk in the newness of life, is with a clean conscience, knowing I am forgiven, and ready to forgive those around me.

So today, I’m not sure where you’re at, but as we come into this time to respond, ask yourself, what is it that God is asking me to do. Do I need to accept his forgiveness, or do I need to forgive another? IF you have never experienced that forgiveness of God, start there. Recognize that He is here, that he loves you, and he wants to remove the stains of your past. Come forward today, and pray with one of the members of our prayer team, it would be their pleasure to pray over any of these with you today.