Jonah 1:3-16
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Last week, we left off having dealt with the clarity of God’s threefold command to Jonah.
Arise- Go to Nineveh- Cry Against it
And we touched briefly last week on Jonah’s disobedience to God despite God’s clear command and call.
In verse 3
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.
I’ll put that map up again I showed last week previously.
But suffice it to say, there is no mistaking Jonah’s position.
He has decided to defy the Creator and Sustainer of All things.
He’s gonna take God on, and he’s going to do so by running.
This reminded me a course I took in college, where we learned about a innate response our bodies just do in a moment of danger.
Fight or flight.
Defined by Psychologist Dr. Carolyn Fisher
“The fight or flight response, or stress response, is triggered by a release of hormones either prompting us to stay and fight or run away and flee.”
In that case there are options whenever we come into contact with something that frightens and both are linked to our own survival of that current situation.
(Hiding out Scaring Lauren)
Jonah has decided that he will both fight and flight. Jonah will fight by flight.
He is leaving, heading in the complete opposite direction.
And there’s a phrase here thats repeated twice, heading to Tarshish “From the presence of the Lord.”
Now let’s be clear here: And answer what he is obviously NOT saying.
Jonah is not ignorant of God’s attributes, specifically here, Jonah is not ignorant of the attribute of omnipresence.
He knows that by virtue of being God, God is present everywhere.
Jonah would have no problem, even at this point in his life, affirming what David wrote in .
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.
Jonah would have known this.
Jonah is not a first year student of theology. He’s a seasoned prophet
So what does it mean here?
I don’t normally do this, but I do think it is helpful here.
The
The Hebrew word here for presence carries with it, the meaning “away from the face of”
Thus, it could be translated here, “From the face of God” From in front of God”
But what does that mean?
The idea here, He is fleeing from the blessed service of God that accompanies the man who is faithfully obedient to minister according to the will of God.
He is not able to flee God’s presence, but in his mind, he is able to flee from serving where God’s desires him to go.
The imagery is probably best understood to mean God’s face and his desire is tp go with Jonah to Nineveh, but Jonah is running from the face of God and the service of God in a complete opposite direction.
He has no desire to serve God in this way. So the servant flees from the face of the King.
We do this as well.
Knowing full well who God is. that he is present everywhere, that he is omnipotent, sovereign, and holy, we still are set on doings things our way.
But for the believer, for the person on which God has set his affection, we cannot expect that He will allow this behavior to go unchecked.
When a believer chooses in his sin, to go against the will of God, God will exercise his sovereignty to the believer’s temporary detriment, that he might preserve the believer for an eternal benefit.
Again, he sets out to be temporarily detrimental, in order to be eternally beneficial.
In this case, He will bring affliction on Jonah, ultimately to do something for his purpose in going to the nations and also he is doing something for Jonah eternally.
Beloved I want o encourage you this morning.
The same things happens with believers today.
When we experience the discipline of God in this life, it is temporary pain in this world, but it is designed to provide us with something eternal ultimately.
At times, like children, we don’t see what is best for us, O but the One who is not bound by time. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are the same to Him. 200 years ago, he knew what was going to take place today.
We study history to know what happened, we study trends to see what will happen, but those things are all readily available to God, who always works according to His glory and for our good.
In other words,
And he does that often through disciplining his rebellious children.
and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”
For whom the Lord loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”
We cannot expect to disobey without expecting the God who knows all things and has all things at his disposal to get our attention and to correct us somehow.
A poem written in the 1800 by a man named Francis Thompson is entitled “The Hound of Heaven”
Its a beautiful poem, and its autobiographical of this man who was on drugs and God was faithful to pursue him to bring him to his knees in submission through difficulties.
“I fled Him down the nights and down the days
I fled Him down the arches of the years
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind, and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped and shot precipitated Adown titanic glooms of chasm-ed fears
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
Hounds chase down things
I fled Him down the nights and down the days
I fled Him down the arches of the years
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind, and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped and shot precipitated Adown titanic glooms of chasm-ed fears
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase and unperturb-ed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat — and a Voice beat,
More instant than the feet:
“All things betray thee who betrayest Me.”
All things betray thee who betrayest me.
I don’t know of a more fitting way to describe Jonah.
Jonah has betrayed God. And now, God is His sovereign providence will cause all things in Jonah’s life to betray him to bring him to submission.
Look with me in verse 4 and 5
The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.
The word here hurled is wonderful imagery. Its exactly the same word used in when Saul is seeking to pin David to the wall.
Saul hurled the spear for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David escaped from his presence twice.
Saul’s hurling of the spear is no match for the young spry David and he escapes.
Jonah is no match for the sovereign God of all creation.
When God strikes, he does so accurately and purposely.
The Lord takes aim and strikes back, and his does so with pin point accuracy.
The target: The rebellious prophet Jonah.
His means: A great wind, a storm, and the waves.
God’s discipline is specific to Jonah’s rebellion. God is pursuing Him with all knowledge and while being absolutely all power and his presence everywhere.
And we see its effective.
The ship is about to break up.
This was a storm like these men had never seen before. From everything I’ve read, this was a big ship he would have been on.
It was a ship full of cargo, they would not be making the trip across the mediterranean sea in a little Jon boat.
And all these sailors would have been experienced men. I’m sure they’ve dealth with storms before.
This time it was different. This time the Creator is displaying his power over Creation, just to show how little their big ship is.
Theirs two reactions among the people on board.
Look in verse 5
Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.
Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god.
Why?
Because the ship is about to go down.
The sleeping prophet at the bottom of the ship may be disobedient, but the winds and waves, they obey the sovereign God, and they are accomplishing His purposes to make this ship unsailable.
The men who had taken on storms before have given up hope of righting the ship with their strength.
There is something about fear and death, that for the unregenerate unbeliever places within them a sense of hopelessness, and rightly so.
Presumably these men are crying to false gods and idols. But idols cannot hear, and false gods are not in charge. They are no help. Pagan prayer offered to false are no help.
And these men panic, because they do not the God of the storm.
And they in their feeble attempts will throw everything out of the ship just to stay afloat a little longer.
I think this is familiar to us right now.
This crisis has exposed many helpless idols in many people lives.
Many people worship money.
But our money becoming more and more worthless day by day. More money is not fixing this problem.
Many people worship government.
And while appreciate and pray for our leaders, it is obvious that they cannot control this.
Many people worship sports. Those are gone.
What worthless will we cry and cling to now? One thing that I pray will come out of this is that many people will see the idols for what they are.
Our life as we know it can be turned upside down in an instant, and its then you and I better know the God of the storm.
Thats not the only thing that we see in verse 5 though.
The storm is sent for Jonah. These men are affected by the sin of Jonah.
Here we see again, the effects of our sin are not isolated. My sin affects other people. Your sin affects other people.
You will bring trouble to those around when you choose to defy God. Sin has consequences. Sin has broken leaders of countries and the countries themselves. Sin has broken pastors and churches. The sin of dads and moms have broken children and families. Church, our sin is not just affecting us.
Jonah’s sin threatened the lives of every sailor aboard that ship.
And he is sleeping like a baby.
It is one thing to be in a state of rebellion.
Its quite another to be at peace with it. He’s at peace with his sin. No tossing or turning. Jonah is sleeping. Soundly.
One commentary said, Jonah has silenced his conscience. He no longer heard or listened to the voice of God.
Jonah is not sleeping soundly because he has peace with God.
Jonah is sleeping soundly, because he is at peace with himself in sin. That’s dangerous and a bit hypocritical of the man who in just a few short verses will claim to fear God.
Sin should bother us.
Sin should not be a soft pillow. Sin should steal our sleep until we repudiate it and repent from it and return to being obedient to God.
But Jonah has to have a pagan captain wake him up.
Look in verse 6
So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”
How can you sleep in this? Jonah, the cause and source of this calamity is asleep. this obviously baffles the captain. I’m sure it made him angry.
And listen to what he says,
English Standard Version Chapter 1
Arise, call out to your god!
Now, don’t miss the irony here.
Remember the threefold command of God to Jonah in verse 2
Arise- Go to Nineveh- Call Out.
Here the captain says “Arise, Call out to your god.”
Notice the captain is no longer organizing the rescue of the ship by sheer man power.
Even the pagan captain knows that this storm must be stopped by a higher power than he, but he doesn’t know Jonah, and He doesn’t know Jonah’s God.
He doesn’t use the special name for God here in verse 6. He doesn’t use the name Yahweh.
He uses the general term Elohim. But Jonah’s God is not like the others.
“Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?
In fact, Jonah know the God of the wind and the waves.
Jonah knows that the same God who is threatening the ship, and is the same God who by His power, had used the wind and the waters before to destroy the entire Egyptian army of Pharoah- the self proclaimed god of Egypt.
Let me remind you of what Moses said when reflecting on that event in
“You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them; They sank like lead in the mighty waters. “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?
Jonah’s God is the God of the winds and the waves, and if they are to be saved, Jonah’s God will have to be the one to calm the sea. Why? because he is the Creator of it.
The Captain is right to call on Jonah’s God.
“Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”
Indeed.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), .
Jonah’s God, Yahweh. The I am. He is the one who controls the wind and the waves. He is the only One to keep them from perishing, not only in cold depths of the sea. He is the only one that can save from the fiery depths of Hell.
In Matthew Chapter 8, we read of a similar situation.
When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
Matthew 8:23-
Answer, he is the God man. Jesus. He is fully God. Fully man.
and the only one that can save.
Who are you trusting in today?
In the middle of an all out panic in the world today, who is that you are trusting in?
There is only one who can save. We’ll see God do that next week.
But this week, we have to stop here and ask, who are you trusting in?
We learn from Jonah- that for those of us who fear him, we ought not disobey him.
We learn from the sailors.- that there is no hope in anything other than the one true and living God.
Put your faith in Christ today. Trust in Him.
Application:
are you being disciplined?
Do you know God?
Are you at peace with your sin? Sleeping soundly? ignoring the discipline so long as you don’t have to obey God.
Do you know the God of all? The Sovereign one over all creation. Are you trusting in Him?