Jonah 1:1-3
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Two weeks ago, we dealt with a lot of the background information of Jonah.
This week we will get into the actual text of the book.
Let me remind you of a few things we learned last time.
We dealt with The man Jonah.
Jonah was a prophet of God. A true prophet of God.
True Prophets were
We also learned that he was a prophet of good news to the people.
Though some prophets (like Amos and Hosea) had the joy of delivering unequivocal bad news (Amos- brought news of judgment) (Hosea had the wonderful privilege of comparing the people of God to a Harlot and taking a prostitute to be his wife.)
But Jonah’s prophetic ministry u until this point was different.
Jonah even in the midst of an unrepentant sinful nation declared news of prosperity.
of good news to the people.
God, in an act of what we can only determine was mercy and grace, was blessing Israel despite their wickedness.
We see during this time, their borders were re-established to their prominence as in the days of Solomon.
Despite the wickedness of the nation, God had blessed them.
Doesn’t this sound familiar.
I’ll just say at this point. Having blessings as a nation doesn’t mean that that nation is following God in obedience.
Nevertheless. Jonah had the privilege of announcing good news to them, Even though both the King(Jeroboam)and the people were wicked. This would have no doubt made him very popular among the people.
But now he will be asked to do something very difficult.
God, in an act of sheer mercy and grace, was blessing Israel.
But now, his task will be different.
Look in verse 1.
To bring God glory by showing that he is the Sovereign God who saves wicked people.
Lastly, two weeks ago, we emphasized the importance of current obedience to God and to His will.
So this week, we will jump in to the text and the story of Jonah.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,
The word of the Lord came to Jonah.
Let’s stop there to say-What an enormous privilege. The Word of the Lord came to Jonah.
This is really the formula you see in the Old Testament for the commissioning of the prophet of God. We see this phrase over 100 times in the Old Testament.
The Word of the Lord came to Isaiah
The Word of the Lord came to Elijah
The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah
The Word of the Lord came to Ezekiel.
Here- The Word of the Lord came to Jonah
And when the Word of the Lord came to a prophet, there was a purpose.
The Word of the Lord
The Word of the Lord coming to Jonah had a purpose beyond Jonah.
That purpose was to speak the Word of the Lord to those whom God has picked and chosen for this message regardless of the outcome.
And while some prophets were asked to do and say some very difficult, no prophet until this man Jonah dared to defy God.
He is the only prophet
This is story is a story of disobedience. Its not a cute fairy tale. This story is one of Jonah’s serious sin and rebellion.
Sometimes prophets were asked to say and do very difficult tasks to the point where as the deliverer of the message, they would be hated by the people.
But regardless of that, the prophet was not allowed to change the message, or change the audience, or to change anything for that matter with regard to the Word of God. (Preachers should take note here).
The prophet was not allowed to change the message, or change the audience.
They were charged with speaking the word of God to the people of God submitting only to God.
I’m reminded of Jeremiah. In , Jeremiah reflects on how “The Word of the Lord” caused him to be hated. It brought him reproach, but Jeremiah cannot stop declaring the Word.
Listen to what he says
Listen to what he says
For each time I speak, I cry aloud; I proclaim violence and destruction, Because for me the word of the Lord has resulted In reproach and derision all day long. But if I say, “I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name,” Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it.
Jeremiah, regardless of what the people would say or what people may do to him, he understood that he could not shut up the Word of the Lord within himself.
He would not dare defy God and speak anything else.
He could not hold it in. He understood the job of the prophet.
The job of the prophet was to deliver the Word of the Lord to whom the Lord would send him.
Again, Jonah would have known this as well. This was not the first time the Word of the Lord had came to Jonah.
That was the job of the prophet.
Say what I have said to those I tell you to say it.
And yet, no prophet until this man Jonah dared to defy God.
Jonah would have known this as well. Again, this was not the first time the Word of the Lord had came to Jonah.
This one is a story of disobedience. Its not a cute fairy tale designed to entertain us about a fish. This story is one of Jonah’s serious sin and rebellion.
But he hadn’t always been this way
We talked about that last week. (Jonah was faithful).
For that matter, I can imagine Jonah anticipating this task.
You can imagine maybe Jonah would have been ready to hear the Word of the Lord so that he may get the chance to announce some more good news to Israel.
But this time its different.
This time, God is not sending Jonah to Israel.
This time, God is sending Jonah to Assyria- specifically its capital city of Nineveh.
But his task this time was not to announce good news but judgment unless they repent.
Read with me again.
Verse 1-2 God’s clear command to His Servant Jonah.
Verse 1-2 God’s clear command to His Servant Jonah.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
Three commands here and a reason.
Verse 1-2-God’s command.
Verse 1-2-God’s command.
Three commands here and a reason.
Arise.
Go to Nineveh the great city.
Cry Against it.
The reason:
For their wickedness has come up before me.
I want you to see this threefold command here. This is the mission. This is what God is telling Jonah to do.
1. Arise-
This Word here implies immediate action.
Jonah is not to delay. There is to be no hesitation.
He is to go immediately. God is clear.
Jonah is to do this now. Not when he is ready. Not when he gets around to it. He is to do it now.
Delayed obedience in this case is disobedience.
Go Now.
2. Go to Nineveh the great city.
I have already said, Nineveh is the capital city of Assyria. Nineveh was a great city.
Not necessarily speaking here of quality but quantity.
Assyria was a large empire, so you can imagine how big its capital city must have been. Significant. A lot of people. Wicked People.
And Jonah is to go there. Now.
Now at this point, this second command must have been difficult for Jonah to understand the reasoning.
He was a prophet of God to Israel.
Now God is telling him to go to Nineveh. Assyria. Why?
This wasn’t in the job description.
In studying this week, I learned that this was the first time a prophet of God would have been sent into a foreign land to declare his Word.
Sure there were many prophecies about other nations but even those were given to Israel, but this time, God himself would speak through His prophet to another nation.
But just because this would have been a first for Jonah or any other prophet would not excuse his direct defiance of God’s command.
God is not mistaken. God is clear. Arise Go to Nineveh.
3. Cry against it.
Effectively, preach the judgment of God.
Preach repentance.
Let them know what will be their end if they remain on the same road.
Jonah is to go in and preach judgment on the nation. Call them to repent.
Why? Because their wickedness has come up before me.
Arise. Go to Nineveh. Cry against it .
Now church verse 2 is not a hard verse to interpret. There is no haziness here. no vagueness here with God’s command.
But look what Jonah does.
But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
Show a map.
God tells him to go to Nineveh. Instead, he goes to Joppa to board a ship to head hundreds of miles away from Nineveh and he is willing to pay to do it.
And beloved the question we must ask here:
What’s going on here with this prophet of God?
At this point we should note that Jonah’s defiance against God is not for lack of knowledge.
Its not that he is an unbeliever.
Surely, if this were an unbeliever, we would expect him to disobey God. (This is true today.)
Jonah’s disobedience would be no surprise to us if Jonah was an unregenerate unsaved person. But Jonah is a prophet of God set apart for the service of God.
Its not that he doesn’t know God.
This is a man again, to whom, the Word of the Lord comes. This is a prophet of God.
This is a man schooled in theology. He is a man who knows very well the God he serves.
He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.”
This is a man who knows God. Its not that he doesn’t have a relationship with God. He fears this God.
So its not that he doesn’t know God.
We should also note that Jonah’s defiance against God is not for lack of knowledge of the Word of God or what God expects of him.
We should also note that Jonah’s defiance against God is not for lack of knowledge of the Word of God or what God expects of him.
Its not that he doesn’t know what to do.
Its not that he is ignorant of God’s commands.
Its not that he is ignorant of God’s commands.
We have stated this plainly even today: The command is clear.
“The problem in obeying God is not that we do not understand
Arise- Go to Nineveh- Cry against it.
That isn’t hard to understand is it. There is no need for Jonah to take a few days to decipher what God is saying.
There is no need for him to spend days in his study pouring through books trying to find out what God meant by Arise Go to Nineveh Cry Against it.
There is no need for him to call together a few of his friends to try and ascertain exactly what the Lord is saying here.
It would foolish for Jonah to even as believers often do often disingenuously, “Let me pray about it.”
No God has been clear.
Jonah understands. Very clearly I believe.
So again-
Jonah’s actions here are not a result of a lack of relationship with God.
Jonah’s are not not a result of ignorance of what God has commanded him to do.
Jonah’s actions here in verse 3 seem to be put simply, downright, stiff necked, hard hearted, rebellion and defiance against the living God.
It is not lapse in intellect. Its a lapse in morality and submission.
God says do this.
Jonah says “I will not.”
And as we will see later that his actions will prove that he would rather die than to obey God in this.
He flat out rejects and rebels against the Sovereign Creator of all Things.
he tells the God of everything, “No.”
But beloved before we go too hard on Jonah. Let us stop to consider our own lives.
What is the source of our rebellion? The first question to ask is:
Could it be that you are an unbeliever? Perhaps you have no desire to follow the ways and will of God.
In that case friend, I must urge you this morning to repent and believe the Gospel. Believe in and submit to Jesus who died to save those in rebellion.
But what about believers this morning? Why do we defy God.
Like Jonah, its not that you don’t know God.
Those of us who are saved are united to Christ. We have been Chosen. Adopted. Saved by His matchless grace.
What is the source of our rebellion then, believer?
Its not that we don’t know who God is. If we are saved, we know Christ. We are united in Christ. Raised with him. Set free. Given new life.
So the next question becomes: Is it ignorance?
Is it that God has been vague in his commands?
We are not ignorant.
No I don’t believe we can claim ignorance any more than Jonah can.
We are not ignorant. God has given us his Word.
God has been clear in His commands.
God is not vague. He is clear in his commands.
Like Jonah. It seems the heart of our disobedience is downright, stiffnecked, defiance.
Let me just ask a few things beloved.
Husbands- Has God has not been clear?
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
But in the Spirit of Jonah like defiance, we say things like,
Has God not been clear? Children?
“Well I don’t love her anymore.”
“I’m gonna do my own thing.”
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise),
“I’m just fine without her.”
Wives- Has God not been clear?
Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
Epehsians 6:1-2
Yet again, in Jonah like fashion:
“I’m not following him.”
“I’m gonna do my own thing.”
“I’m just fine without him.”
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
Or maybe you don’t say that aloud, but you run him down to all your friends.
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
What about God’s command to children?
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise),
Is that not clear?
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Believers in general.
What about sexual immorality? Adultery? Lust? Pornography? Homosexuality?
Has God not been clear?
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
But again in Jonah like defiance, we fill our thoughts, our minds, and our hearts with perverse and evil things.
Oh but more group.
Church, has he not been clear.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
I found it interesting this week to find out that Jews, as a part of their celebration of Yom Kippur “The Day of Atonement.” Which by the way they fail to understand the true Day of Atonement was Good Friday the Day Jesus cried It is finished. That is the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement.
I would submit this humbly to you this morning.
We are quick to see the problem with Jonah’s defiance of traveling to Nineveh to preach judgment to an entire city, while we defy God by not even speaking to our next door neighbor or our family about the Gospel.
God has been clear.
Its not a lack of clarity. Its a lack of obedience.
We
I found it interesting this week to find out that modern day Jews, as a part of their celebration of Yom Kippur “The Day of Atonement.” Which by the way they fail to understand the true Day of Atonement was Good Friday the Day Jesus cried It is finished. That is the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement.
Nevertheless, it was interesting to read that the Jews read the book of Jonah on the Day of Atonement, and at the end of its reading, they all say with one voice, “We are Jonah.”
This may be the ironies of ironies. They say that while currently living in rejection of the Word of God and its fulfillment in God’s Son.
But they are right to conclude that we are all Jonah.
We have the privilege of God’s Word given to us.
It is clear what he has commanded, and every single one of has at some point even in our Christian lives, have rebelled against God’s will.
The Good news is, God disciplines the believer when he or she rebels.
Why?
For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
We will see this with Jonah. God will turn the sea upside down to the point where no ship could ever hold Jonah safe.
God will appoint a portion of His creation a fish to swallow him up, to bring him to submission.
God disciplines those whom he loves.
Believers we would do well to take the down time we currently have to assess our lives. To repent and align ourselves with God’s will.
Thankfully God is still the same.
God is also clear in his reasoning.
We have been commanded like Jonah to go to the world, a wicked world.
Look at the end of verse 2.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1
for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
My prayer is that, this particular time we are in right now, serves as a tiller in hard soil of so many hearts, and that believers would forsake their disobedience and remember God’s commands.
God has commanded us to go and make disciples in this wicked world.
Jonah ran the opposite direction. The command was clear. His opposition was strong.
We need to repent of our Jonah like Spirit that knows clearly what God commands and expects, and yet run away and go the complete and opposite direction.
But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.
