Jonah pt 2

Prayer

Introduction

One of the best known stories of the Old Testament, perhaps of the entire Bible is the story of Jonah. We all know the way the story goes broadly. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach, but Jonah goes the opposite direction. Gets himself swallowed by a fish and spit back onto shore. He kinda learns his lesson, preaches to the Ninevites, they repent, Jonah gets angry at God, then something happens with a plant and a worm. The end. Because of our familiarity with the story, we can be tempted to skim over it when we read, but I think it is an important book – along with the rest of the Minor Prophets, that has much to tell us as Christians today.

Scripture

Our passage this morning will be Jonah 1:1-3. If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word. We do this to show appreciation to God for His Word and in recognition that these are the most important words we can possibly hear today for they are God’s very Words. Jonah 1:1-3 says,

Jonah 1:1–3 ESV

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

Thank you, you may be seated.

I want to spend some time this morning laying out the historical setting of Jonah. We need to know who Jonah is, who the Ninevites are and what is going on in the world so that we can better understand and interpret this amazing story.

The book of Jonah starts somewhat abruptly with the phrase, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai.” Who is Jonah son of Amittai? The book of Jonah really doesn’t tell us much about him beyond his penchant for disobedience and anger. Fortunately, we have another reference in Scripture of Jonah, in 2 Kings 14:25. It says,

2 Kings 14:25 ESV

25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.

I’m aware that this is a passing reference and doesn’t seem to tell us much. We still don’t know who Amittai is or anything like that, but what this passage does tell us is important. It tells us that Jonah was a known prophet in the Northern Kingdom during the reign of Jeroboam II. We also know that God had used Jonah in his prophetic role to help re-establish the boarders of Israel which had been eroded by her enemies. That tells us that Jonah has experience hearing form God, obeying God, seeing God work and move. Keep in mind that Jeroboam II was not a righteous king and that God restored Israel not because they returned to Him, but because God was simply being merciful.

The verse in 2 Kings is also helpful because it gives us an approximate date for Jonah’s ministry. We can comfortably say that Jonah was a prophet in the middle of the 8th century B.C. It is even probable that Jonah preached to Nineveh sometime around or shortly after the year 760 B.C.

Knowing the approximate date of Jonah’s ministry is not just helpful for intense games of trivial pursuit. I know that you are all planning on being on Jeopardy and winning lots of money because you know the date of Jonah’s ministry. So, who is Jonah? He was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II in the middle of the 8th century B.C.

Now what about this place called Nineveh? God tells Jonah to arise and go to the great city. Nineveh is an important city approximately 500 miles as the crow flies north east of Jonah’s hometown. Nineveh was an important city and capital of the Assyrian Empire. Does the name Assyria ring any bells? Assyria was a constant thorn in the side of Israel. What had happened in the Assyrian Empire was that it had had some great success and expanded and conquered, but then it went through a period of decline where it really wasn’t much of an empire anymore. This is the setting for the story of Jonah. The Assyrians are really a just a loose conglomeration of mostly independent city states.

Before Jonah’s time, Assyria had forced the king of Israel to pay tribute to them. Israel had come under their yoke. But now, Israel was experiencing a time of restoration while Assyria was experiencing a time of decline. We also know that eventually the roles reverse, and Israel declines again, and Assyria grows in strength – eventually destroying Israel and taking them captive.

I realize that this seems like just a bunch of ancient history, but it is important for the story. Why would Jonah be so reluctant to go to Nineveh? Because he knows that judgment on Nineveh means that Assyria never bothers Israel again, but a restored Nineveh? That could mean trouble for Israel in the future. And in fact it does.

We are told in our text that the evil of Nineveh had “come up before God”. We do not know exactly what specifically was going on in Nineveh at this time. If you have ever watched the Veggie Tales movie about Jonah, you would know that the Ninevites constantly slapped each other with fish. The reality is really much worse. The Assyrians were known for their barbarism. Here is what one commentator tells us about the practice of some of their kings,

“Archaeology confirms the biblical witness to the wickedness of the Assyrians. They were well known in the ancient world for brutality and cruelty. Ashurbanipal, the grandson of Sennacherib, was accustomed to tearing off the lips and hands of his victims. Tiglath-Pileser flayed victims alive and made great piles of their skulls.”

So, what is Nineveh? It is the brutal, wicked (known for their wickedness) capital city of the enemies and eventual conquerors of Israel. It is the last place you or I or Jonah would want to preach.

The opening of the book of Jonah would have been shocking to an Israelite. Go to Nineveh? Preach to Nineveh? Why not just go ahead and destroy them? It would kill two birds with one stone! Assyria is judged and Israel is saved from them! And we should also realize that there is some ethnocentrism going on here. We can use the “R” word, can’t we. There’s some, what we would call today, racism and prejudice in Jonah’s heart. Jonah is fine to prophesy in Israel, but he doesn’t want the Ninevites to hear that good news and repent. Again, Nineveh’s destruction is geopolitically good for Israel.

Despite Jonah’s desire to see Nineveh destroyed, God had other plans. God eventually would use Nineveh’s repentance as an example. If they who were so wicked listened and repented, why not you?

God tells Jonah to arise and go, and Jonah rose and went – the wrong way. He got on a ship in Joppa to flee to Tarshish. Now we don’t know exactly where Tarshish was, but many think it was on the southern tip of Spain. What we do know is that Tarshish was at the extreme western reaches of the known world. Sometimes going to Tarshish was used as a euphemism for going way out to sea. This is not just a short trip for Jonah. We know that during King Solomon’s reign, that ships would sail to and from Tarshish to bring treasures to Israel, but it was a 3-year journey. All that to say, Jonah was not simply taking a leisurely Sunday drive to think about what God told him to do. He was determined to disobey. He would not deliver the message to Nineveh.

And Jonah understood exactly what he was doing. Look at the repetition in verse three. Look how Jonah is fleeing not only his commission, but he is fleeing the presence of God. Jonah knows that his disobedience has serious ramifications to his relationship with God. There is a theme in Jonah that we shouldn’t miss. Jonah went down to Joppa, down into the ship, he is in the inner part of the ship, he is thrown into the sea and goes down into its depth, down to the bottom of the sea, down to the belly of Sheol, down to the roots of the mountains. Jonah is not only distancing himself from his commission, but he is also distancing himself from God as it were. And yet, Jonah thinks it is preferable to disobey and rebel and break his relationship with God rather than to obey and preach to Nineveh.

In Israel, there was a common blessing that would be proclaimed to the people. It is found in Numbers 6:24-26. It says,

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

For the Israelites, it was the face of God, His presence that was the fountain of blessing and grace and peace. If God turned His face away, if you no longer were in the presence of God, that was not a good thing. So it is very significant that we are told twice that Jonah was fleeing the presence of God. He was fleeing the blessings and peace and comfort that comes from proper worship and obedience. Again, this was a man who knew better. He had seen God be merciful to Israel even though she didn’t deserve it. He should want nothing more than to be in the presence of the Lord, but instead the prophet rebelled. He was a rebel prophet called to preach to a wicked people.

In Matthew 12:41, Jesus claims that he is the one that is greater than Jonah. There are a number of parallels between Jonah and episodes of Christ’s life that you may notice throughout the book. This morning we should not overlook the fact that Christ was sent by God to preach to wicked people. The Eternal Word took on flesh and came to the wicked city - came to earth. Not begrudgingly and rebelliously like Jonah, but for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. Christ not only preached forgiveness, but made forgiveness possible through His perfect life, death and resurrection.

Application

So, what are we to make of all this? I know there was a lot of history and facts, but we should not leave having only learned some interesting historical facts. My goal is not to equip you to win at Jeopardy. My hope is that you are equipped for eternity. In what ways can we take what we’ve heard this morning and apply them to our daily lives? Here are a few areas of application that I think might help.

We must recognize that sometimes God calls us to do things that might seem to be detrimental to us or our way of life or goes against our preferences and presuppositions. In fact, I would argue that many of the things God calls us to do go against our most natural and basic desires. Is that not why we must die to self?

We should also not forget that disobedience to God’s callings and commands has serious relational consequences. You and I cannot ignore the law of God with impunity and expect God’s face to shine upon us. That is true on a national level, and it is true on a personal level. We need the face of God to shine upon us, but far too often we flee the presence of God through disobedience.

Finally, one of the amazing things about the story of Jonah is God’s willingness to forgive those who repent. Why else would God send an Israelite prophet to a wicked, foreign city? We ought to see God’s command to Jonah to go preach to the wicked as an invitation for us as the wicked to repent as well. What I mean, is that so often when we hear stories, we make ourselves the heroes and admittedly that is difficult in the story of Jonah, because he is so flawed. So, we should rightly realize that we have the tendency to act like both the wicked Ninevites and the rebellious prophet and as such, we need to repent of our wickedness and our rebellion.

And at the same time realize that we are rescued from drowning in our sin by Christ and it is He who restores us to right relationship with God.

Conclusion

Perhaps you are here this morning and you realize that you are like the wicked Ninevites in that you have never heeded the law of God. You have always been a wicked and rebellious person. No, I understand that you don’t flay people alive, but you live in a state of rejection of the one true God. Nineveh was eventually destroyed for her wickedness. God stayed His hand because of their repentance, but they never truly trusted in the God of Israel. They went back to their evil. Is that you? Have you been convicted of sin in your life, and repented of it, but never actually trusted in the God of Scripture? I fear that has happened often in our culture. People feel bad for a terrible thing they’ve done. They weep over it. They soothe their consciences, but they never fully submit to God. Then, once the fear of punishment is gone, so is the fear of God. Or maybe a better way to put that is this, Do you fear punishment more than you fear God? True repentance is not a one time act, but instead is a turning away from the very nature - dying to the self that produces those wicked desires and trusting in Christ alone for salvation.

Or maybe you are more like Jonah. You know God. You have heard from Him and served Him in your life, but for some reason, right now you are living in a state of rebellion. You have figuratively gotten on a ship going the wrong direction. Your relationship with God is broken and you feel so distanced from Him. Whatever your rebellion is, put an end to it. Repent now, turn the ship around. Do not wait for a giant storm and fish to force you back in the right direction. God will not allow His people to rebel with impunity. He will do whatever it takes to restore us in relationship. He will discipline His people as sons. And that is a good thing. It is a blessing to us because restored relationship is what we need. We need God’s face to shine upon us. Repent now of any and all rebellion and be restored in your relationship with God through Christ.

We are about to continue our time of worship by transitioning to a time of worship through response. We believe that any time we hear the Word of God, we respond either in worship or in rebellion. If Jonah tells us anything, it should be that rebellion is unwise at best. Please respond in worship whether that worship looks like crying out to God in repentance or whether that worship looks like rejoicing for the patience and deliverance God has given you in the past.

Our time of response is going to look a bit different this morning from our normal way of doing things. If you need someone to talk to or pray with or if you have any questions, instead of coming forward, I ask that you just stay at your seat and once we’ve dismissed and everyone has filed out, I’ll come talk to you for as long as you need.

Let’s pray.