Jonah: Fleeing

If you have not already figured out we are about to begin going through the book of Jonah. First of all I feel like those kids need to reenact every story in the Bible and the way that kids remember important stories of the Bible is mind blowing to me. However, Jonah is a book that absolutely everybody knows because of the absurdity of the story. A prophet of God living in the belly of a fish for 3 days.

This one story will instantly make a block buster movie!

Some background of Jonah is that Jonah is an OT prophet who is only mentioned one other time in the Bible in which he prophesied to the King Jeroboam that he would restore the borders of Israel by recapturing territories that were lost by previous kings. Jeroboam was a terrible king who hated God but God allowed for Israel to prosper under his reign.

Jonah was able to see God’s compassion on a group of unworthy people.

This same compassion is evident throughout the book of Jonah as well. God repeatedly demonstrates his compassion directly in front of Jonah. Yet Jonah is oblivious to this aspect of God.

I completely understand that some of you may be thinking that this story can could be repeated by any person that has ever stepped foot in the church so why would we be going back over this book.

This book’s meaning has more impact on us today more than ever. This book describes a Christian’s need to follow God’s will in absolutely everything even when it seems ridiculous for us to do so.

This book also demonstrates that God’s will is going to be done regardless if we are on board or not.

Let’s dive into the scriptures.

Jonah 1 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. 4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.” 7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

The first point we are going to look at today is:

1. Jonah’s Calling

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.

This is so ironic to me. God calls Jonah to warn the Ninevites to repent from their evil ways but immediately Jonah bolts in the complete opposite direction.

Jonah starts running towards Joppa and could either go towards Nineveh or run in the complete opposite direction towards Tarshish. We know the story and know which direction he picked. He ran towards Tarshish which may not mean much to you but to put it in terms of cities that we know the distance between tarshish and Nineveh was about the same distance as Key West, Florida to Seattle Washington. The whole reason he fled was because Jonah knew God would be gracious and allow for the evil people to repent.

The prophet who knows that whatever God tells him to proclaim will come true decides to completely run away from his life calling because he hated a group of people so much.

So many times we want to look at the call of Jonah as a person who is running away from the ministry or a specific ministerial calling on his life but in reality Jonah had already been called to do great things for God and succeeded in doing so.

WE need to look at the life of Jonah more like a person who is completely running away from God after many years of faithful service.

Or as any person who is rebelling against a Holy God.

I would venture to say that there are many times in our lives in which we have acted like Jonah. There are times whenever we know that God is calling us to do things but yet we willingly rebel against what He has called us to do.

We may feel God calling us to share our faith with a co-worker or friend but instead of us coming out and saying anything to them we just hope that the conversation of church will come up or we are waiting on the perfect opportunity for us to share Christ with them.

WE are more like Jonah than we would generally like to admit.

So Jonah gets the call from God but yet goes completely in the opposite direction as far away in the known human world as he could go. This is not something that Jonah just accidently wondered into because he had to actually pay the fare in order to run away from God. Jonah willingly ran from God just like whenever we begin running away from God in our own lives.

Jonah knew what he was supposed to do yet he completely refused, then we get a glimpse at:

2. Jonah’s Turmoil

Jonah 1:4–6 ESV

4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

God causes a great storm to alert Jonah and bring him back to himself. God always has a way of bringing his children back to him. In Jonah’s case it was a storm but this was not your average storm because the professional Sailors who are on the water every single day of their lives are terrified.

This is a funny picture to me because I instantly think of people like those on deadliest catch who are in gigantic waves regularly but are now screaming and crying in a panic and have began throwing all of their supplies and produce over board in order to save the ship.

Jonah’s disobedience to God does not only affect him but rather his disobedience is now affecting sailors business. These sailors are now losing their income because they are throwing it into the sea because of the storm that God caused to bring Jonah back to him. This should show us how seriously God takes it whenever we run from him.

God takes sin so seriously that HE is willing for the storm to completely destroy the Ship and kill Jonah and the Pagan sailors! This is pretty terrifying to me because how many times have I personally brushed off sin without truly realizing who I have sinned against.

Jonah’s consequences to his sin didn’t only affect him but yet everyone on the boat was affected.

This should show us that whenever we sin, more often than not our sin will affect multiple people and the longer we stay in the sin the more people are affected.

Jonah’s sin is costing all of the people on the boat extreme heartache and yet he is sleeping soundly in the bottom of the boat.

How can Jonah be asleep in the boat whenever the people who are on the water for a living are terrified!

While the sailors were throwing all of the cargo overboard they were also praying to any and every god that they could think of so that their lives would be spared. One of them then runs below deck to wake up Jonah and beg Jonah to begin praying to his god because their gods are not listening to them.

Jonah awakens and then his plan is revealed to the entire ship:

3. Jonah’s Plan

Jonah 1:7–16 ESV

7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

We now get to dive into Jonah’s thought out plan in order to continue in rebellion against God. These pagan sailors came up with the perfect way to see whose is the reason for the great storm that is about to completely destroy their ship and also send all of them to their deaths.

We know and Jonah knows the reason why the storm is raging but the sailors have not yet figured it out. So they all cast lots to see who is the unlucky one who has to own up to the disaster.

If you are Jonah in this situation you probably like your odds of the lot falling on someone else. He is probably over there breathing a sigh of relief because there is a good probability that the lot is not going to fall on him.But you cannot forget that God is in control of absolutely everything.

How dumb can Jonah be to allow for the sailors to cast lots instead of fessing up to his wrong doing.

Obviously the lot fell on Jonah and the sailors then began to interrogate him.

They ask him:

What is your occupation?

Where do you come from?

What country are you from?

What people group are you from?

The sailors are asking Jonah all of these questions in order to appease the correct god. They are wanting to pin point what the cause of the great storm is so that they can fix it themselves. If it was because he was a farmer they could plead with the god of the crops. Or whatever other god Jonah has offended.

They wanted to pray to the correct god out of the pantheon of gods to stop the storm.

Jonah instantly becomes ultra religious and begins to state that he fears God and that he is a Hebrew.

BUT he never tells the sailors what his profession is! Jonah is a prophet of God!

Jonah’s profession is relaying what God has called him to say but yet Jonah will not tell the Sailors this. Jonah is still running from God’s calling on his life.

The sailors now understand that they are in a much bigger predicament than they originally thought and begin asking Jonah what they need to do in order for the storm to subside.

The sailors predicament is that they do not know the True God and have now seen his power and control over everything.

They like the Ninevites that Jonah was called to preach have no hope because they do not know worship God. Yet Jonah still has not shared with them who God is.

The sailors now are asking Jonah for the solution to the storm. They are looking at all the wrong places instead of looking to the God of the universe. They are looking for a way to stop the storm because the storm has not slacked up and is continuing to intensify.

Jonah’s solution was for them to throw him overboard into the storm for him to die. This shows even more the rebellion of Jonah!

At first glance this seems like a noble response in order to stop the storm, but Jonah is saying for the storm to cease you must murder me. Jonah does not have enough decency in him to even jump over board himself but would rather place his blood on the pagan sailors hands.

A person named Bruckner states it this way:

Jonah does not seem to be capable of simple repentance. He could have sought forgiveness during the storm and committed himself to go to Nineveh. But perhaps he believes too much “water passed under his ship” by this time. Perhaps he is not sure that his repentance would bring forgiveness. He wants to believe in a God who only judges and does not forgive. He would rather die in the sea than suggest to the sailors that they turn around and return him to Joppa to complete God’s call to Nineveh.

The sailors then show how much they truly care about Jonah and how uncaring Jonah is for their lives or consciences. The sailors then begin rowing has fast and hard as they could in order to make it back to the shore. They did not want to throw Jonah overboard so they are attempting the impossible.

Needless to say the storm and the waves were too strong for the sailors to row to shore.

They now have to face the decision to throw Jonah overboard.

Before they throw Jonah overboard they pray to the one and only true God and ask for his forgiveness and pardoned their lives for Jonah’s death.

They understand the God the controls the sea and the universe will judge them for their sin. They also understand that they do not want to be on the wrong side of his judgement. God is all powerful and a righteous judge. There is not a sin that is going to go under punished and the sailors were in complete understanding of this.

The sailors who went from being pagan worshippers are now worshipping the true God. Jonah who was running from God was still being used by God in his disobedience to bring people to a right understanding of God.

The sailors ultimately throw Jonah overboard. This is crazy to even think about that Jonah would rather die than do what God has called him to do.

But remember that God’s plan will be carried out regardless of our own wants and needs.

4.Jonah’s demise

Jonah 1:17 ESV

17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

God now sends a great fish to swallow Jonah. The most misconstrued scripture in the Bible is that Jonah got swallowed by a whale that is not at all what Scripture says. Jonah got swallowed by a big fish and lived in the fish 3 day and 3 nights. Jonah who thought that he was escaping God through death now is in the belly of a big fish. He went from being in control of his own life to God radically changing him back to his own will.

God uses what he wills to bring people back to him.