Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Recap of the story thus far.

What a strange story to have in the Bible, right?

Jonah is a story that shows us that the Bible cannot be just a book about how to live.

Unless Jonah is simply here to show us how not to live.

Because so far he seems to do everything wrong.

Tempted to feel sorry for Jonah by this point.

Today, however, we see that he finally does something right.

When God calls him this time around to go to Nineveh, instead of running, Jonah gets up and goes.

This is a real turning point in the book – and even though he now obeys, we’re tempted to feel sorry for Jonah.

Some of us may be wondering: “who does God think that he is?” Poor Jonah.

So he didn’t want to go preach to his mortal enemies… some of the most brutal and wicked people in human history?

Give him a break, God.

Apparently God gets what he wants.

He will make your life a living hell until you give in and do what he wants.

If you’re thinking that way about the story, let me just point something out.

This whole story is actually about Jonah - it’s about God’s relentless pursuit of Him and his desire be near to Jonah.

God desperately wants to allow Jonah to experience more of who He is.

He wants Jonah to understand better who He is and what He’s about.

God is after Jonah’s heart.

Project Nineveh is clearly not God’s primary objective - or he would have given up on Jonah and figured out another way or called someone else to go.

Nineveh was simply the way God was going to teach Jonah what He wanted Him to learn.

And we should feel very comforted that Jonah is in the Bible because it’s a story of God’s patience and persistence with Jonah.

If God is willing to put this amount of love and care into Jonah, then maybe he would show the same kind of love and care to me.

How does God respond to our failures?

We should feel very comforted that Jonah is in the Bible because it’s a story of God’s patience and persistence with Jonah.

If God is willing to put this amount of love and care into Jonah, then maybe he would show the same kind of love and care to me.

Today’s episode begins with Jonah right back where he started.

The language and structure of these verses is almost identical to the first couple verses in the story back in chapter 1. Jonah is literally back at the beginning of the story - with God calling him once again to “Arise and go to Nineveh.”

We’re going to get into the story of Nineveh next time… today I want to spend some time reflecting upon what the story thus far teaches us about God’s character - specifically how God deals with our failures.

We’ll look at just 2 things this morning: 1) How the world deals with failure; and 2) How God deals with failure.

1.

How the world deals with failure

So Jonah is now back on dry land.

The horrifying ordeal of the storm and the fish is over.

Now what would Jonah be saying at this point?

What is he feeling, and thinking, and planning, now that he’s back in the land of the living?

He tried to run from his Lord and Master - a course of action so wrong that God stopped him by sending the most intense storm the prophet had ever experienced.

I think Jonah would be feeling like a complete failure - that he’s now worthy of being treated like a second-class member of God’s people.

I imagine Jonah sitting on this beach much like the disciples in John chapter 20, after the crucifixion of Jesus… after they had all run from him and betrayed him and then watched him beaten and killed.

An event that would have been extremely traumatic after all they had witnessed and learned from Jesus.

What were they to do now?

How would they pick up the pieces of their lives and move on?

How could their Lord ever forgive them.

Now what would Jonah be saying at this point?

What is he feeling, and thinking, and planning, now that he’s back in the land of the living?

Jonah may have been feeling the same way.

Little did he know… little did those disciples know, that their failure was all part of God’s plan to equip and grow them.

It’s likely that when Jonah’s feet touched dry land once again, that he was prepared to head back to Israel, tail between his legs, expecting to hang up his role as God’s prophet.

He had failed… and failed in such a way that ought to disqualify him from ministry as God’s prophet.

This was the OT prophetic equivalent of a pastor committing adultery.

Jonah expected God to respond to his failure the way that people do.

When people fail, it causes disappointment and frustration… which leads to grudges and resentments.

The truth is that so many of our relationships—at work, in our family, with our friends and neighbors—eventually sour and spoil because of the grudges we hold.

“You owe me” we think… OR “you’ve let me down” OR “you’ve hurt me” — “so now I’m done with you!”

Most of the time, we can’t help many of the grudges we feel.

It’s part of our broken humanity.

When other people fail us or let us down, we can’t help trust them less.

We can’t help but ask less of them.

We can’t help but see them in light of their failures.

We can’t forget how they’ve failed… we might be able to forgive, but we can’t forget and that colors how we interact with them from that point on.

In biblical language, we can’t help but count their sins against them.

It’s even possible for us to hold grudges against ourselves - this is called regret.

Regret occurs when we experience the consequences of something we did in the past.

I’m sure Jonah has some regret.

I’m sure that if you asked him right now if he could go back to before he ran from God if he would do things differently, that he would.

So much money wasted - on the fare for the boat… on the sailors cargo that had to be thrown overboard.

Not to mention the physical and emotional energy of the sailors he had wasted.

The fear he had caused.

The time he had wasted.

He had ruined his reputation as a prophet of the Lord.

So much loss as a result of his decision to run.

If Jonah knew then what he knows now, I’m sure Jonah would take it back… do things differently.

If he would have just obeyed the first time.

What about you?

What resentments do you have?

Do you wish you would have apologized and tried to reconcile that relationship all those years ago?

Rather than letting years of bitterness and isolation build up?

Do you wish you would have never taken that 1st drink or that hit or that toke?

Do you wish you would have never seen those very first images?

Or that you would have resisted the temptation to look a second or a third or a fourth time?

How much time and money have been wasted on our addictions?

How many relationships lost?

How much hurt have we caused?

How much time and money have you wasted on that addiction

Your future self will always tell your present self to obey the first time around.

Because our failures lead to grudges which leads to broken relationships and hurt.

It leads to isolation and alienation.

It leads to all kinds of resentments.

Failure leads to lost opportunities.

It can often disqualify us from doing what we want to do with our lives.

This is what’s happening right now in the NFL.

At what point do you disqualify someone from playing a game for a living?

I’m sure that Ray Rice would go back to that Atlantic City elevator and do things differently.

He’s now out of the l

Imagine, then, what could be more stunning to him—or more humbling—than to be so promptly recommissioned with his earlier assignment?

And what could possibly be more gracious of God than to offer to him this second chance?

Jonah certainly didn’t deserve it.

But Jonah gets one.

It’s as if nothing has changed since God first called him to Nineveh.

It’s as if the holy and righteous God is choosing to forget Jonah’s sin of disobedience and has hurled that sin into the depths of the sea as Jonah comes out of it.