Right Destination

Psalm 31:21-22 (Opening) 21  Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. 22  I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help. Introduction Our lives are perfect. That’s why we come here, right? Because our lives are perfect. We come here every week to thank God for our perfect lives and pat each other on the back, congratulating each other for being perfect through yet another week. Ok, that’s obviously not true. I don’t know anyone who has a perfect life. People may make it so their life looks perfect on Facebook, but God doesn’t rely on Facebook. God knows what’s going on in our lives all the time. He sees and knows everything. He knows what we need, want, and desire before we even decide we’re going to pray about it, assuming we are going to pray about it. Life is messy. Christians make mistakes; and we try to hide those mistakes from other people, both Christians and non-Christians. We know when we do the wrong thing, when we sin, and we’re ashamed of it because we understand what sin is. Some of your non-Christian friends may not have a good idea about what sin is. They may take their cues from our government. If the government says it’s okay, then it must be okay. That may have been the case here in this country in the distant past, but today, there are lots of things that are legal but are immoral. Sometimes, Christians can start to drift a little bit off the “straight and narrow”. That drifting can be easily corrected when it’s just started happening, but after a while, it becomes harder and harder to pull yourself back onto the path. Sometime, when you have someone you trust with you, try an experiment. Go out into a parking lot or a big field, far away from everything. Pick a place as your destination, say, a tree or a particular car or store, someplace that is a good distance away from you. Have your trusted friend tie a blindfold over your eyes so you can’t see where you are. Once that’s done, start heading to where you decided was going to be your destination. Because you can’t see where you’re going, if you get just a little bit off target, each step you take will put you even further off target of where you wanted to go. Your trusted friend is there to make sure you don’t hurt yourself or get hurt in any way. Sometimes, we simply decide on our own to change the destination that we’re headed to. It would be like our trusted friend deciding that they would turn you toward a new destination. It’s not where you wanted to go, and you still may not make it there because you can’t really see where you’re going. Once you stop and take off the blindfold, you may be really confused until you figure out where you’ve ended up. Rescued? Jonah’s story is similar to that. Jonah got a very clear message from God, telling him what he was supposed to do. Jonah 1:1-2 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.” Jonah didn’t just ignore what God told him to do, he rebelled against it; he did the exact opposite. He went as far in the other direction as he could, or at least he tried to. He got on a ship headed to Tarshish. But God sent a terrible storm, and once the sailors on the ship figured out the storm was because of Jonah disobeying God, they threw him overboard. Once they did that, the storm stopped. That could have been the end of the story, but it wasn’t, because God wasn’t done with Jonah yet. Jonah 1:17 17 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. Many people have a problem with this verse. In fact, this is one verse that is used by a lot of people to say they can’t believe what the Bible says. How can a fish swallow up a man, and how can that man live in that fish for three days? Most people try to explain it with the long answer. They try to explain what kind of fish it was. The Greek word in the Septuagint could be translated as whale, which may or may not be what the writer was trying to get across to his readers. The Hebrew simply calls it a great fish. There’s nothing specific as to what type of fish it was. And the Hebrew word simply means a creature that lives in the water. So even though to us a whale isn’t a fish, it meets the Hebrew language definition of what a fish is because it lives in the water. People have spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out what kind of fish that lives in the Mediterranean would be big enough to do what we read here in the end of Jonah chapter 1. Was it some kind of whale? A great white shark? Or was it something else? So, let me stop here for a second, and ask you a question. Does it really matter what kind of fish it was? Do you really need a scientific explanation for how Jonah survived for three days in the belly of a great fish? Honestly, let’s just chalk this one up as a miracle. There are all kinds of miracles in the Bible, why can’t this be a miraculous event? Why can’t God just make it happen? It says God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. It doesn’t matter what type of fish it was, or even how big it was. This miracle happened, and it saved Jonah’s life. God provided a way for Jonah to safely get back to land. It doesn’t make sense to us, and that’s OK. Mark 10:27 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” In my mind, this event falls under the “all things” category. I can’t explain to you scientifically what happened; what species of fish it was, how Jonah had enough air to live for 3 days, how he didn’t get dissolved by the fish’s stomach acid. It’s not explainable. But God did it. That’s what we read here, and maybe I’m naive, but I’m just going to take it on faith that it’s true and move on. Thankfulness While Jonah was in the belly of the fish, he prayed. I think any of us would have prayed in that situation. Compared to how long he was in the fish, we don’t have much of what he probably prayed. But Jonah prayed. Jonah 2:1-2 1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. The word Sheol is used to represent several different things in Hebrew. It can represent the grave, it can represent death in general, and it can represent the place where dead people go when they die. Jonah seems to be using it in the last way. After he was thrown into the sea, he sank like a stone. He felt that his life was leaving him, and he was moving to the place where the dead reside. He compares the fish to the afterlife. Jonah had tried to run away from God, to go the opposite direction of where God wanted him to do, and hopefully get away from God’s watchful eye, so he wouldn’t have to go to Ninevah. Now Jonah realizes that God can see him and hear his prayers, even when he’s in this most unusual place, the belly of a fish. Jonah 2:3-4 3  For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4  Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ Jonah admits to God that he is being punished for what he did, that he is the cause of his problems, but God is the one who is executing that punishment on him. And he also admits that God is the one who was responsible for the storm, and that He controls the wind and the waves, which is more than I think Jonah was admitting when he got on the boat in the first place. He realizes he can’t be in God’s presence if he is a sinner; but that he will see the temple again. Most scholars think Jonah is referring to the temple of God in heaven, the one that the Temple in Jerusalem was supposed to be a copy of. Even though Jonah was from the northern kingdom of Israel, he still longed to see the Temple in Jerusalem, and the one in heaven. Jonah 2:5-6 5  The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6  at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. Jonah must have felt like he sank for a long time before being “rescued” by the great fish. He sank to the point of being wrapped in seaweed, all the way down to what he calls “the roots of the mountains” which sounds like the very depths of the sea to me. He thought he was dying; that he was going to the place where no one returns from, the underworld, the grave, where the souls of the dead reside. He uses the word “pit” which is a synonym for Sheol. He honestly thought he was a goner. Jonah 2:7 7  When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Jonah must have been praying while he was sinking to the bottom. There’s no mention of him praying before the sailors threw him off the ship, although all the sailors had prayed to their own gods to stop the storm. Once the storm stopped, the sailors sacrificed to God, and that seems to be when Jonah started praying. Was he being selfish? Did he only start praying because his life was in jeopardy? Isn’t that human nature? Most people tend to ignore God until something goes wrong. When trouble starts, people either blame God, or suddenly start praying to Him. It’s like the old saying “There are no atheists in foxholes.” As soon as the bullets start flying and they think they’re going to die, that’s when the petitions to God start. Jonah knew his prayer was heard. How did he know? God sent the fish. It wasn’t the preferred method of transportation to get Jonah out of the trouble he was in, but it’s what God sent, and God used it to teach Jonah discipline. He realized his failures, he realized the sin he had committed, disobeying God. Jonah 2:8-9 8  Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9  But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” I don’t think Jonah was much different than we are. He was willing to sacrifice to God in thanks for being saved by Him. God saved Jonah in an unusual way, that’s for sure. How many of you can say you were saved by being swallowed by a fish? But in a way, we’re all saved in the same way that Jonah was saved. We’re all saved because of the sign of Jonah, and because of a fish. Delivered That’s what Jesus says in Luke; or at least the way I read it. Luke 11:29-30 29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The sign that was given to that evil generation is what provides salvation for us all. Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection is a miraculous sign, just like Jonah’s three-day salvation by a fish. Of course, it’s an interesting thing to point out that during the first century, the fish was used as a method of identifying fellow believers. The Greek word for fish, ichthys, is an acronym in Greek for Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior, and was drawn in the dirt to secretly identify oneself to others as a Christian. It was also carved into the stone in the catacombs of Rome to identify where the Christians met to worship in secret. As for Jonah, at the end of three days, he was unceremoniously deposited on the shore of the sea. Unceremoniously is an understatement. Jonah 2:10 10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. And that’s a rather faithful translation of the Hebrew used there. It’s not a pretty picture. It brings to my mind Jonah, laying on the beach, surrounded by various other stomach contents from the fish that brought him safely to dry land. Like I said, not a preferred method of transportation, but it seems it was an effective teaching tool. I’m sure Jonah’s time in the fish wasn’t pleasant, and it was probably distressing to him. Maybe he didn’t realize God was using the fish to save him, and he expected to become fish-lunch. Maybe he didn’t realize the protection God was giving him until he ended up on the beach. Paul told the congregations in Rome that this sort of thing helps us grow in our faith and righteousness. Romans 5:2-5 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And as we get into chapter three of Jonah, we’ll see, at least for a short time, that God’s discipline of Jonah for running away does make him obedient. Jonah realized things could have been worse; God didn’t have to send the fish to save him. But God had a plan for Jonah, and He wasn’t done with him yet. Conclusion Jonah’s miraculous salvation from the depths of the sea should tell us a something. First off, for God, nothing is impossible. God can do whatever He wants. That doesn’t mean that He will, so when something bad happens, don’t expect that God will rush in and provide a miraculous solution to your problem. Sometimes He just lets us work it out the best we can. Sometimes He sends someone to point us back to the path. Sometimes He just makes things easier for us. But He always forgives us when we admit we’re wrong and work on changing for the better. Sometimes it takes someone getting all the way to rock bottom before they realize their mistakes, change their ways, and start following God. Once you get to rock bottom, there’s no where to go but up, right? We may try to pull ourselves up from the bottom, but that doesn’t work. And during those rare occasions when it does work, it doesn’t work for long. We’re right back where we were before, sinking again. We need God to send a fish to scoop us up and bring us to safety. Remember that the Greek word for fish is Ichthys, which is an acronym in Greek for Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior. We need to make sure we’re relying on the Fish to save us when we fail and start sinking deeper and deeper into the water. In a way, you could look at the first two chapters of Jonah as an allegory for our lives. We are just living our lives, minding our own business, and our of the blue we get a message from God about what He wants us to do. But we decide we don’t want to do what God wants us to do, we go in the opposite direction. That’s when things start getting really bad. While the storm is raging around us we realize that it’s only there because of our own disobedience, the consequences of what we had done. So we admit our guilt, ask for forgiveness and are plunged beneath the waves. God saves us and eventually He brings us home. But the way that all happens isn’t necessarily the way we would have expected. If you try the blindfold experiment I talked about in the beginning, if you really want to get to the destination you picked before you put on the blindfold, ask your trusted friend to help you make corrections to your direction as you walk where you’re going. They could even lead you by the hand if you get way off track. That’s what Jesus does. He’s our trusted friend in life to help us get to that destination that we’ve decided that we want to get to. He’s the one that will lead us to heaven, so we can spend eternity with Him. If that sounds like something you need, if you need Jesus to be your trusted friend to guide you, let’s talk about it. Romans 1:16 (Closing) 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Bible Study Hebrews 12:3-17 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.