Jonah

JONAH

Want to look at the book of Jonah. Between Obadiah and Micah.

Minor prophet. Not because less important but because small.

Jonah like Noah’s Ark. One of those favorite children’s stories.

Loaded with theology. Loaded with application for us.

Prophet of Northern Kingdom, 760 B.C.

1. God says, “GO.”

(1-2)-Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”

The Ninevites have a problem. Their problem is God. They are a tremendously wicked nation. They are sitting in the crosshairs of a holy God. And God’s wrath is loaded up and aimed at them. And in a very short time, He will be bringing His fierce wrath against them. And this understanding shows the beauty of what God is going to accomplish here.

This God whose wrath is loaded up and ready to judge them wants to save them from that wrath. His wrath is absolutely justified. It is so much deserved. And yet, in His inexpressible love and mercy, He wants to forgive them. Not only does He desire it, but also He moves to make it happen. Their rightful Judge will act to be their Savior. Isn’t that our situation as well? Eph. 2:4-5- “But God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” Michael Card’s song, “Jubilee” says, “To be so completely guilty and given over to despair, to look into your Judge’s face and see a Savior there.” We see in this story of Jonah a loving and forgiving God who would one day send His Son to die for our sin.

2. Jonah says, “NO.”

Vs. 3- “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”

Notice he does not say, not going to Nineveh, staying put. But I am going to get up from here- Joppa- ship- Tarshish. Nineveh is due east. I am going due west. Sounds like he really does not want to go to Nineveh. What is his problem?

When we get to chapter 4:2 we see it pretty clearly. But let’s set the stage a little bit here. Nineveh was the capitol of Assyria. They were known for their atrocities and cruelty. When they went to war and conquered others, they had no mercy on them. They would skin people alive, impale them on posts. They would build mounds of skulls so people who went by would see it and be terrified of them. Assyria was like a by-word for cruelty.

Nahum 3:1- Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. It’s [prey] never departs. 19- All who hear news of you will clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually.

Everyone knew how cruel they were. Jonah grew up about 300 miles from Nineveh in northern Israel. He knew all about them. He knew about their cruelty. Not only that. But he could look at the political landscape. And he may have seen them as an increasingly prosperous people who were a growing threat to Israel. And if he did see that his fears were realized. Because it was about 40 years after this that Assyria came against the 10 northern tribes of Israel, conquered them and took them into captivity.

And so the more Jonah grew, the more he learned to despise them. Not only were they cruel and wicked and deserving of the worst kind of punishment, but they were Gentiles. They were not God’s chosen people. And Jonah saw them as inferior to him.

When he looked at them he saw them as deserving to be despised, hated, punished, trashed, obliterated. They deserved no love, mercy, or anything else good. How could God ever care about them? How could God desire to pardon them? And its just like God to come along at a time like this…and commission Jonah, who hated these people, to go and preach to them. Nineveh needed a preacher so they could repent. And Jonah needed to learn some lessons too. God is often quick to throw us into some of those mixes to teach us some lessons isn’t He? He is often quick to throw us into circumstances that go against the grain of our comfort zones or force us to think of something or someone other than ourselves. He is very good at putting us into situations that show us our hearts.

Jonah could not stomach what God was asking him to do. He wanted not part of it. So he gets on a boat and heads west, in the opposite direction. But God was not finished with him. “You can run but you can’t hide.” God is ever dealing with His people. He is always working to mold us and shape us and change us into what He wants us to be. And He would certainly do that in Jonah’s case.

So God sends a great storm, so great that the ship was about to be broken up. These guys were sailors who were used to storms but this one was so great that it scared them. They cried out to their gods, and threw cargo over the ship to lighten it. Where is Jonah during all of this? He is down in the bottom of the ship sleeping.

How could he be sleeping at a time like this?

When you read this, you think of Jesus sleeping in the boat on the Sea of Galilee during the storm. He was weary from His work. He was perfectly righteous, perfectly in the will of His Father. The storm was divinely appointed and through it Jesus would show His power over nature. Everything was as it should be. His was a sweet sleep. Jonah’s was not s sweet sleep. In fact I would venture to suggest that Jonah’s was a sleep of depression.

He was in such a stupor and misery that nothing mattered to Him at this point. Why was he miserable? Because he was running from the will of God. And for the true child of God, disobedience always brings misery.

(Kevin’s word about chastening of God.)

If you are God’s child you cannot walk away from Him, you cannot be in disobedience to Him and be at peace.

Heb. 12:6- “For whom the Lord loves He chastens.”

It is my belief that Jonah was experiencing the chastening of God. So he is hiding in the bottom of the ship, as far away as he can get with the covers pulled up over his eyes. Life is miserable for the disobedient child of God. And when we are disobedient to God, we will come to know His heavy hand of chastening. I’m thankful for that aren’t you? I’m prone to wander. And thank God that He loves us enough to make us miserable enough that we will return.

Another thing I might throw in here. Jonah’s disobedience brought consequences. Disobedience always brings consequences. We are so deceived into thinking that we can enjoy our sin and get away with it. But there will always be consequences.

It may be anxiety or worry (which are sins in themselves but sometimes they are exacerbated by other sins).

Lack of joy

Stale prayer life

Unfruitful worship

Coldness to spiritual things

And by the grace of God, we will not always suffer the consequences that we could or should, but we will always be robbed of some blessing that we would otherwise have.

The captain of the ship found Jonah and confronted him. “What are you doing sleeping. All the rest of us are doing everything we can to save this ship and our lives. We are calling on our gods. You need to call on yours.

Maybe He will consider us and we won’t perish. And though the text does not tell us so, I am sure that Jonah began to do that.

Then they all decided to cast lots to determine exactly where the problem was. (Used extensively by ancient people, even the Jews). So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. And they began to ask him for his resume. They wanted to know everything about him so they could determine what they were up against. And he answers them in verse 9- “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.”

(ELABORATE)

They knew that he had fled from his God. So they asked him why he did it and what could be done to make things right. The sea was raging even greater and they wanted to know how it could be made calm again.

He told them, “Pick me up and throw me in the sea and everything will be calm again. This whole thing is happening because of me.”

They did not want to do this because they were afraid they would be killing innocent blood and would cause themselves even more trouble. But all their attempts to return to land failed and they were left with no choice. So they prayed to the God of heaven, threw Jonah into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16- “Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows.” (Peter, Luke 5)

One of the things that is so prominent in the book of Jonah, in fact the most prominent, is the sovereignty of God over all of His creation. God is orchestrating and controlling everything here to fulfill His purposes.

· The Word of the Lord came to Jonah

· The Lord sent out a great wind

· They cried out to the Lord and the sea became calm

· The Lord prepared a great fish

· Jonah prayed to the Lord

· The Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah

· The Lord God prepared a plant

G. Campbell Morgan said, “People have looked so hard at the great fish that they fail to see the great God.”

Is God sovereign over everything in your life? Life takes on a rich, rich meaning when I can see every situation and circumstance as divinely appointed by God, meant for His glory and my good. And when I can learn to glorify Him, thank Him, praise Him and be faithful to Him whether the providences He brings are sweet or bitter, that is abundant life.

Sarah Edwards- “What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore His goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives; and He has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left us! We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be.”

So Jonah is thrown into the sea and God appoints a fish to swallow him, and he is in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. And this belly becomes his unique closet of repentance.

He is not changing his attitude about the Ninevites, but he is changing his attitude about disobedience to God.

He knows that his situation is a result of disobedience to God. So he cries out to God. He acknowledges God’s sovereignty over his situation, repents of his disobedience, and seeks deliverance.

God answers his prayer, speaks to the fish, and the fish vomits Jonah onto dry land.

Let’s pause at this point and apply what we have seen so far from Jonah’s situation. Look at your life for a moment. Are you running from God? Is there some way that you are being disobedient to Him?

Is there something in your life that is not right and needs to change?

· Maybe it is a secret sin that you have clung to and cultivated. You know it is sin but you have refused to let it go. You have refused to treat it with radical amputation. Maybe it is something that is too big for you and you need to seek help. Don’t let your pride or love for that sin keep you from seeking the help you need.

· Maybe it’s a relationship you are involved in that is not healthy and does not represent Christ. But you cling to that because it is more important to you than Christ. If it is not pleasing to God, you need to let it go.

· Maybe it is a tension between you and another person where one or both of you need to go to the other to seek forgiveness, clear the air and make things right before God.

· Maybe you feel the hand of God upon you and you know that you need to go and share Christ with someone in your sphere of influence. You have not done this because of the fear of man or whatever else. Maybe its time you repented and responded to God’s command.

· And maybe you are sitting here this morning. And you know that you have been running from God all of you life. You have heard the gospel message many times but you have turned your back on it. You love the things of the world more than you love God. Your whole life is an act of disobedience because apart from Christ you can do nothing to please God. Realize that with the passage of time, all you are doing is storing up wrath for the judgment of God. And if you continue to reject Christ, His judgment will fall hard upon you. You have no promise of tomorrow. Your life could be over this day. Today is the day of salvation. This hour, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.

Well let’s search our hearts this morning. And my prayer is that if there is some disobedience in your life and in mine, that the storm of God’s chastening would rage around us. And that He would shake us from our folly and force us into the belly of repentance, and from there, we can find real calm.

God is still not finished with Jonah. Now that He has his attention, He commissions him again. And this time, Jonah says yes.

Another thing that is rich in this book is the patience of God. We see His patience with one of His own, Jonah. We are reminded of Jesus’ patience with His disciples. And indeed, God is very patient with us as well.

He goes to Nineveh. He enters the city, begins to walk through it and preach. “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”(3:4)

Because of your wickedness, the judgment of God is going to fall on you in 40 days. And the people of Nineveh believed his message. “The most reluctant evangelist on record received the greatest evangelistic response in history.”

The king ordered a fast, the people put on sackcloth (Even the animals were covered). And they cried out to God in repentance.

And God answered their prayer and relented from the disaster that He had planned for them. The whole thing from start to finish was orchestrated and accomplished by God. God initiated it and God accomplished it.

Why was there such a huge response? It wasn’t because Jonah used the right gimmicks or had clever message. It was because God opened their hearts, and brought them to life. He is a loving and merciful God. Jonah said, “For I knew that Thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil.”(One who relents from doing harm.) (4:2)

This is in contrast to Jonah, who is angry at their repentance. In fact, he is so miserable that he just wants to die. He goes and sits on the edge of the city. God raises a plant to shield him from the heat. The next day God appointed a worm to damage the plant and it withered.

Jonah’s response- “It is better for me to die than to live.” (4:3) (Cheese and crackers with that whine)

But the Lord said, “Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle.” (4:10-11) Jonah is more concerned about that plant and his own comfort than he is about souls who are lost and perishing. How calloused he is.

We need to examine our own hearts here. Do we care more about our possessions, our hobbies, our comforts, our sports, our televisions, our food, our politics than we do about taking the gospel to people who are perishing? What is our purpose?

· We must consider God’s commission to Jonah. As he had a Nineveh, each of us does as well.

· I am thankful for Bible Chapel’s commitment to missions. May we continue to be diligent in that area.

· Pray for the lost.

· If you are running from God in any way, may you know the chastening of God. And may you repent.