Headed Down

Jonah was a prophet

God called him to preach to wicked people of Nineveh

But instead He runs toward Tarshish

Gets on a ship

Thrown overboard by the crew

Gets swallowed by a whale

Finally learns his lesson and goes to Nineveh

One of my favorite books of the whole bible = Jonah

Top ten shortest books, but is packed with lessons

The usual, I’d say obvious, lessons:

Echoes resurrection of Jesus

“Salvation of the Lord” Jonah 2:9 (Not by Works)

God won’t cast us aside for faithlessness

God’s purpose will succeed even if we fail

God is God of the Gentiles too (Even in O.T.)

I guess the big idea of Jonah is:

Jonah couldn’t see beyond his own selfish desires

Wanted God to punish the Assyrians

How could God have Mercy over such a people

So before he could relay the message he had to be broken, he had to learn about God’s Mercy

Only God decides where to pour out His Mercy

We all fight God, so it’s easily relatable to us as a people

Today I just want to look at one Idea:

Read Jonah 1:1-5

Paraphrase Verse’s 6-17

Read Jonah 2:1-6

So after repenting and agreeing to do it God’s way, God had the whale spit him out

Did you notice, during this time, the direction Jonah was going?

I don’t mean toward Tarshish, I mean he was headed Down

So, the point I want to make is this

When we fight against God (or refuse to do it His way) it is always a downhill ride

And if we do things God’s way, the only way we can go is up