Sermon Tone Analysis

Minority Report: Jonah

Prophets… bring God’s message… good or bad… popular guys (Micaiah… Ahab/Jehoshaphat)… scary guys (Samuel)…

Jonah… served during Jeroboam II’s reign in Israel… most popular prophet of the day, prophesying victory for Jeroboam in ....

for the prophets that were NOT successful… Jonah was a SUCCESSFUL prophet

On this occasion… the CALL from God is different than anything he’s seen / heard before

The Call

He was told to rise and go to Nineveh… a foreign city… someplace the prophets in Israel usually didn’t go to

An honor: to be the first foreign missionary

Jonah didn’t look at it that way...

the distances required a journey of a month or so… if he traveled the normal 15-20 miles per day… city was second in size to Babylon

The people were relentless and persistent in their sins… jonah was to preach against this city

That distance required a journey of more than a month, if Jonah traveled the normal distance of 15–20 miles a day.

The great city was second in size only to Babylon

The reason God sent Jonah to preach “against” Nineveh (i.e., to pronounce its doom under God’s judgment) is that its wickedness had come up before Him, that is, the people were relentless and persistent in their sins.

The Call is Intimidating

Verses 1-2

Nineveh… modern Iraq… northwest of Baghdad… home to Sennacherib’s “palace without rival” (archaeologists have found it)

This nation (Assyria) was a great threat to Israel

Nineveh was a great city in that nation… a wicked nation

there were approximately 5 times the amount of people in Nineveh than in Jerusalem… you could not find a more impressive city… capital of Assyrian Empire when northern kingdom fell

A quote from an Assyrian general / leader:

I stormed the mountain peaks and took them.

In the midst of the mighty mountains I slaughtered them; with their blood I dyed the mountain red like wool.

With the rest of them I darkened the gullies and precipices of the mountains.

I carried off their spoil and their possessions.

The heads of their warriors I cut off, and I formed them into a pillar over against their city; their young men and their maidens I burned in the fire!…

I built a pillar over against the city gates, and I flayed all the chief men who had revolted, and I covered the pillar with their skins; some I walled up within the pillar, some I impaled upon the pillar on stakes, and others I bound to stakes round about the pillar.

One commentary called Nineveh the “Second Sodom”… it was wicked

They were not just against the Lord… HE was against THEM...

The Call makes us want to run

Verse 3-5

Jonah outright rebels… heads the other direction

Tarshish was the farthest known geographical point at that time

Debate whether it was southern Spain or Carthage in North Africa… set off from Joppa

MANY believe Jonah paid for the whole ship himself… quite a price to run

What price do we pay to run?

For God alone of all things cannot be escaped from or contended with.

If he wills to seize and bring them under his hand, he outstrips the swift.

He outwits the wise.

He overthrows the strong.

He cuts down the lofty.

He subdues rashness.

God cannot be escaped or contended with.

If he wills to seize and bring Jonah under control, He will… He outwits the wise and overthrows the strong, cuts down the lofty

God is the principal person in the narrative, not Jonah.

He takes control immediately

God doesn’t give up on the Call

Jonah should’ve known… what probably started as a tap on the shoulder became a storm on the sea… as Jonah hardened his resolve, God resolved to greater measures

Some commentators have maintained that Jonah’s statement to the sailors in verse 12 is his final way of escaping his mission.

In one sense, that is true.

Jonah will not go to Nineveh.

He would rather die than preach to that wicked people (cf.

4:3).

Others have lauded Jonah for his willingness to give his life in order to save the sailors.

Perhaps there is also some justification for that view.

But principally, Jonah realizes that he cannot escape or defy the Lord of heaven and earth and get away with it unscathed.

The author lets us know immediately that Jonah can neither escape nor defy God.

Verse 3 ends with Jonah fleeing “from before the face of Yahweh.”

Verse 4 begins, “But Yahweh.”

Into the path of Jonah’s horizontal flight from God, the Lord “hurls” (mt) a great wind onto the Mediterranean, which causes a violent storm with enormous waves.

Thus Jonah’s flight is brought to a dead stop only shortly after it is begun.

Getting Jonah’s attention… while he was sleeping

How do you sleep well during a storm?

Exhuastion… and I’d argue he was mentally, physically and emotionally drained as he ran from God...

OR… he could have simply been so content with his decision he was going to bed

Trying times turn people to God

STORMS cause lots of reactions

Resigned despair… “woe is me”

Fear… sailors were petrified

Organized religion… they each turned to their gods

Secular common sense… get rid of the cargo!

Escapism… Jonah was sleeping his troubles away

“Their” gods… not God… polytheistic society

They drew lots… their situation must be someone’s fault, right?

And they drew lots between them, and so forth.

Neither because of this example, nor because the prophet Jonah was found out by lot, are we to believe indiscriminately in lots, “since the prerogative of individuals,” as Jerome says, can in no way “make a general law.”

For in that instance pagan men were compelled by a storm to seek by lot the source of their danger.

The captain summons Jonah to pray to your god and then calls Jonah’s god “the God” (mt; the niv reads simply “he”).

The sailors have already prayed to their various gods with no saving result.

Perhaps the unknown God of Jonah will hear and keep them all from perishing.

The captain hopes to locate at least one god who has power to say to the storm “Peace, be still!”

(cf.

rsv) and thus rescue them all from perishing.

Something NEW: they already KNEW that Jonah was running from God because he told them… and now God has shown up

REACTION of sailors: they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh… how possible?

There were animals on the ship, so it’s not unbelievable… their reaction was one of faith and belief… THEN the focus shifts to Jonah

In utter relief and gratitude, and with overwhelming awe at the sovereignty of Yahweh, the pagan sailors offer an animal sacrifice to Yahweh and make vows, verse 16.

There has been some discussion among commentators about how it would have been possible to offer such a sacrifice on a ship, but again, those who are familiar with the history of sailing know that animals were often carried on ships to provide fresh meat for the crew, and the fire of a sacrifice could easily be contained.

The notice of a sacrifice really is not unbelievable.

We are not told what the content of the vows was or what the future relation of the sailors to Yahweh would be.

In fact, the sailors now disappear from the story and are not mentioned again.

But certainly the Lord of the world has used Jonah to convert one small group of heathen, and so Yahweh’s purpose has begun to be fulfilled.

The focus of the story now shifts to Jonah, who is sinking to his deserved death.

JONAH makes a confession of faith… NIV says he worships Yahweh… best translation may be FEARS...

two meaning in the Biblical sense

ONE - to obey

TWO - to stand in awe

Jonah was not doing well with either one… knows the right words, but it’s lip service only at this point

That Jonah makes such a confession of faith is totally ironic.

He says that he “fears” (NIV: worship) Yahweh.

“To fear God,” in biblical usage, can have two meanings.