Sermon Tone Analysis
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The Story of Jonah
We’re all probably familiar with the story of Jonah.
Interestingly, most of the story we know takes place in chapter 1, with a little in chapter 2.
I wanted to take a deeper look at this fishy tale and see what more God can teach us.
Jonah was a prophet in Israel.
Jonah was a prophet in Israel.
He’s not just an abstract person, Scripture places him in history.
Jeroboam bar Joash reigned from 786-746 BC.
So we know when Jonah lived.
We also know his father’s name, Amittai
And that he was from Gath Hepher.
As a prophet, Jonah had one job, to deliver messages for God.
The message God wants Jonah to deliver is not a nice one.
Jonah is to cry out against Nineveh because of all of it’s wickedness.
What was going to happen to Nineveh was not God being mean.
It was punishment for their actions.
Has God ever given you an unpleasant message to deliver?
Sometimes we see the wickedness in others and feel compelled to “Deliver a message from God”!
Are you sure the message is from God?
Could it just be from you?
How much of the unloving reputation Christians have is because someone delivered their own message, but called it a message from God?
And if it is a message from God, how do you deliver a difficult message?
Do you deliver it in love and concern,
Or in self-righteousness?
Are you acting in agape love, or just edifying your knowledge and spirituality?
So Jonah has a simple yet unpleasant job.
What does he do?
Jonah runs!
Jonah heads the exact opposite direction from Nineveh.
Tarshish is the farthest city in that direction.
If Jonah goes any farther, he’s Christopher Columbus!
Notice, Jonah didn’t call in sick.
He didn’t even run from his job.
He’s trying to run away from God.
Silly Jonah.
We do the same thing.
God tells us to love our enemy and we come up with five reasons to hate him.
God tells us to help the poor and we make excuses why we can’t.
God tells us to go to some mission field and we find a dozen reasons why we can’t
We may not run to another city, but we certainly run from God.
So Jonah goes to Joppa and finds a ship going to Tarshish.
Tarshish is the farthest city in that direction.
If Jonah goes any farther, he’s Christopher Columbus!
Then Jonah goes down into the ship.
Silly Jonah!
Did he think he could hide from God in the hull?
If God can find you on the deck, He can find you in the hull.
But don’t we hide things from God all the time, or at least try to ?
How many secrets are you keeping, hoping and praying that God doesn’t notice?
Found you!
God stirs up the wind and the wave against Jonah and the ship that he is on.
Often the consequences of our decisions impact the lives of others.
Just as Jonah’s decision to take this ship to Tarshish has impacted these sailors.
Our decisions to disobey God can have consequences on our families, our friends, even complete strangers.
Jonah’s decision was wrong, but that doesn’t mean the right decision won’t have unpleasant consequences for others.
What do you do with an unpleasant task from God?
What do you do when your decisions have unpleasant consequences for others?
I bet the sailors were scared.
They cried out to false gods and that didn’t help.
Well, false gods rarely do help.
Then they started throwing cargo overboard.
OK, maybe Elijah mocking them seems not nice,
But what do you expect calling on false gods?
Then they started throwing cargo overboard.
When a sailor throws his livelihood overboard you know it’s serious.
Where is Jonah in all this?
Fast asleep in the hold of the ship.
At least Jesus didn’t have a reason to worry.
At least Jesus didn’t have a reason to worry.
He is God of course.
He would calm the storm.
But Jonah was simply oblivious about what was going on.
And sure enough, just like the disciples, the captain comes in and wakes Jonah.
What’s the big idea sleeping at a time like this!
The captain does not sound happy.
This is not some pleasure cruise, the men are about to die.
And none of their gods has helped them.
Call on your God, maybe He can save us.
It couldn’t hurt.
After all, none of their gods has helped them.
Who know if it
Casting lots was a common way of trying to determine the will of God.
These men are scared, and probably a little panicky.
The storm is destroying their ship.
They’ve thrown the cargo overboard.
And non of their gods has helped them.
Can you blame them for being panicky?
So they decide to figure out who has caused this mess.
Surprise, the lot falls on Jonah.
Dude, what is going on here?
Now that they know this is all Jonah’s fault, they want to understand why.
Why has this trouble come upon us?
What do you do for a living?
Where do you come from?
What country and of what people are you?
This sounds like a bad
Jonah is a Hebrew.
OK, that is not a surprise to us.
But it probably is news to the sailors.
He fears the Lord, the God of heaven.
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