Part 1.1 - A Prophet On The Run
The Book of Jonah • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
Well, that was Isaiah; Jonah was the prophet that said, ‘Lord, here am I, send someone else.’
Jonah was called by God to preach the word; what was the word? Well, it was the word of the Lord. It’s the same Word we find in…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
One of the greatest blessings that can ever come to a man is to be given the Word of God. It was the greatest blessing and advantage that Israel had. The greatest blessing Nineveh ever received was the great awakening recorded in Jonah.
God’s Word was a blessing to Israel, Nineveh, and Jonah because it revealed God’s will to them, their duty and their responsibility.
To know God’s will and do it leads to great blessings, but for a person to be ignorant of His will is a tragedy. One of the worst judgments God can bring upon man is to have the Word of God taken away from him, but listen, when people refuse to honor God’s Word, He removes it from them.
11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, That I will send a famine in the land, Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord:
Oh, let me tell you something church, we must “…strengthen the things which remain...” -
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
Paul gives a charge here to
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
Nineveh was wicked and in need of the Word of the Lord. The Lord commissioned Jonah to deliver His message of judgment.
What should have been a blessing and privilege turned out to be a burden and a pain for Jonah.
The man of God heard the word of God but refused to do the will of God.
Jonah was a man on the run. How many of us have ever run from the call of God on our lives?
When we are on the run from God we will have no peace, no joy, no purpose, and no direction. Jonah heard from God, but flat-out disobeyed God. Jonah went in the exact opposite direction that God told him to go.
When we are on the run from God anything can and will happen to us.
With the help of the Lord, I want to look at some things concerning “A Prophet On The Run” this morning...
Running For God
Running For God
I want you to understand that things weren’t always this way for Jonah - at one time, we find him running for God...
23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years.
24 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
25 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.
As a prophet to the ten northern tribes of Israel, Jonah was a contemporary of Amos, Hosea, Joel and Isaiah.
The nation enjoyed a time of relative peace and prosperity. Both Syria and Assyria were weak, allowing Jereboam II to enlarge the northern borders of Israel to where they had been in the days of David and Solomon.
Spiritually though, it was a time of poverty; religion was ritualistic and increasingly idolatrous, and justice had become perverted.
Prosperity had made the nation bankrupt spiritually, morally, and ethically.
As a result of this, God was to punish the nation by bringing destruction and captivity from the Assyrians in 722 B.C. It was then, 30 years after the death of Jeroboam, Assyria destroyed Israel.
Something very important we need to take away from this and many other accounts in the Bible is that before God sends judgments, He sends His preachers to call the people to repentance, so they might escape.
One of these men was Jonah, and the first time we meet him in the Bible, we find him running for God...
The second time we meet him, here in our text today, we find him...
Running From God
Running From God
1 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
When the Word of the Lord came to Jonah, Jonah knew it was the word of the Lord. Make no mistake about it, if we are going to have God’s divine direction for our lives then we must hear from God.
One man put it this way: “The call of God was a powerful call (the word of the Lord), it was a personal call (it came to Jonah), and it was a purposeful call (he was to go to Nineveh).”
Jonah’s name means peace, but we learn early on in this book that Jonah did not want the peace of God to come to the people of Nineveh.
Jonah’s father’s name was Amittai and his name means faithful. We learn from this passage that Jonah was not faithful to God.
Has the word of God come to you? God calls for salvation, for sanctification, and for service!
God’s command to Jonah was clear. God commanded the prophet to arise and go.
The prophet heard a specific commandment. God’s divine directive to the prophet was to arise, go, and cry. God’s commands are not negotiable. This was not up for debate or discussion.
His divine directive to His church is to arise and go...
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
It’s very important to understand here that God called Jonah to go where he didn’t want to go and to preach to a people that he didn’t want to preach to.
God has called us to go into all the world and preach to all people; no matter what color, what nationality, what social standing, or what background they may have. Jonah was not only to arise and go, but he was also to preach. God told Jonah where to go and what to do when he got there.
God told Jonah to go to Nineveh.
Nineveh was a wicked city and Jonah didn’t want anything to do with it.
Jonah was a prophet on the run.
Here’s the thing; we are either running with God or running away from God. Jonah didn’t like God’s plan and Jonah didn’t like God’s command.
Warren Wiersbe wrote, “(Jonah) forgot that ‘God’s gifts and His call are without repentance’ (Rom. 11:29). At one time or another during their ministries, Moses, Elijah, and Jeremiah felt like giving up, but God wouldn’t let them. Jonah needed Nineveh as much as Nineveh needed Jonah. It’s in doing the will of God that we grow in grace and become more like Christ.”
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
The question that comes to everyone’s minds here is why did Jonah flee?
I believe it is quite obvious in the Bible that Jonah didn’t want God to spare Ninevah.
Assyria was the rising world power destined to destroy Israel; and Jonah knew this. Jonah also knew the notorious brutality of the Assyrians. They were a cruel people who thought nothing of burying their enemies alive, skinning them alive, or impaling them on sharp poles under the hot sun.
The reasoning Jonah had was that if no opportunity were given to Ninevah to repent, then God would judge them.
It’s funny that Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord...
Jonah had to know that he couldn’t escape the omnipresence of God, because there is no place where God is not - the Bible teaches us this truth!
But nonetheless, what does Jonah do? He runs in the opposite direction of where he was supposed to go!
We do not have to be physically running from God to be spiritually running from God.* We can come to church, teach a class, sing a special, preach a sermon and still be on the run from God! You don’t have to leave the church to leave Christ!
• When we skip church we are running from God
• When we stop reading the word of God we are running from God
• When we quit praying we are running from God
• When we distant ourselves from Christian friends we lose accountability we are running from God
May God help us to learn this lesson: We cannot flee from the presence of the Lord!
Albert Barnes wrote, “Jonah fled, not from God’s Presence, but from standing before Him, as His servant and minister. He refused God’s service, because, as he himself tells God afterward, he knew what it would end in, and he misliked it. So he acted, as men often do, who mislike God’s commands.” If God’s call is on your life, you need to submit and surrender under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
The disobedient direction of the prophet is seen in his fleeing.
As far as Jonah knew, his plan was working - He made his way down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.
Just so you know, the devil will always provide a ship going to Tarshish.
People who live by circumstances would say, “Look what God did for Jonah! He provided a ship to the place he wanted to go!” The problem here is God doesn’t lead us out of His will or against His Word.
Be careful about determining God’s will by your circumstances.
The ready way is not always the right way.
Whenever we decide to do wrong, evil helps us.
Satan will use people, places, and positions to lead us away from God.
Convenient circumstances do not mean we are necessarily in God’s will. On the other hand, trials do not mean you are necessarily out of God’s will.
Satan wants the child of God out of the will of God.
What have you found in life that has taken you further away from the will of God for your life?
Conclusion
Conclusion
Come back tonight, we will continue looking into the life of Jonah...
From these first three verses come the truth that when God calls and commissions us, we need to obey. May we learn from Jonah what not to do! Has the word of the Lord come to you? Have you responded to the call of God to share His word?
Are we on the run from God as a church? Are we obeying His command to share the gospel? If you are not saved the Lord is calling for you to trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior! For His saints He is calling for you to serve!