Prodical Prophet

Introduction

Through the various events of the last 18 months, we have come face-to-face with the reality of God’s sovereignty in a way that we never have before. Who would think that in all our bigness and technology that we pride ourselves with, that a small microscopic virus could shut down the world!

Much of the time when we talk about God’s sovereignty, people become nervous and don’t like to discuss the subject because it seems to create a flurry of unanswered questions. Such as, is God sovereign over pandemics, death, evil, politics, abortions, and the Taliban? Is He sovereign over Christian’s being martyred, earthquakes, and tsunamis? If we do talk about God’s sovereignty, we limit our discussion to those events that bring personal benefit and welfare, like how God brought us to meet our wives, or put us in the right place at the right time to purchase our home or land our job. But the truth of the matter, according to scripture, is that God is truly, and absolutely sovereign over everything and everybody, past, present, and future without exception.

Psalm 135:6–7 ESV

6 Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. 7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.

Our series for the next four weeks will be viewing God’s sovereignty from the perspective of the life of the prophet Jonah. Jonah was a man very much like us, when things were going well, he was praising the Lord, but when life didn’t go his way, or when he was asked to do something he didn’t want to do, he ran away and wanted to die and became angry as if he thought that life somehow revolved around him and his dreams. We will split this series up into the following sermon titles:

The Prodigal Prophet (Chap. 1)

The Praying Prophet (Chap. 2)

The Preaching Prophet (Chap 3)

The Pouting Prophet (Chap 4)

My hope and prayer is that by the end of the series, we will have a greater understanding of how God’s sovereignty affects every area of our lives, and that as a result, we would be filled with hope in and praise for our incomprehensible God and His perfect unchangeable plan!

Text: Jonah 1

Main Idea: God has the sovereign right to command, and we have the responsibility to obey.

Background:

Unlike most all the other prophetic books, the book of Jonah is more concerned about the prophet rather the the prophet’s message. Jonah takes place during the reign of Jeroboam II, King over the 10 northern tribes of Israel, while Uzziah was King over the 2 tribes of Israel in the south.

Jeroboam II was one of the strong military leaders of Israel’s history. According to 2 Kin. 14:25–28, he imposed his authority on the territories of Damascus and Hamath, thereby restoring Israel’s northern frontier to where it had been in the days of Solomon (1 Kin. 8:65). It is clear that Jeroboam’s reign, together with that of his Judean contemporary Uzziah, ushered in a period of remarkable peace and prosperity. As both Elisha and Jonah had prophesied (2 Kin. 13:19–25; 14:25), the northern kingdom enjoyed territorial expansion at the expense of Syria. By the outward appearances of population growth, territorial expansion, and commercial activity, Israel was indeed blessed by God.

As a result, Jonah, along with many of his countrymen, had responded with a national pride and ethnic bias that blinded him to the grand scope of God’s grace. Jonah was to learn, along with the nation, that Israel did not have a monopoly on the redemptive love of God (Acts 10:34, 35; Rom. 3:29). The story affirms the words of Ps. 145:8: “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

In the New Testament, Jonah’s theme of God’s mercy on the nations is used by Jesus as a rebuke to unrepentant Israel (Matt. 12:38–41; Luke 11:29–32). If the Ninevites repented at the preaching of the prophet Jonah, who was rescued from confinement in the huge fish, how much more should Israel repent at the preaching of Jesus, the Son of Man, who will be resurrected from the tomb. In a sense, then, Jesus magnifies God’s mercy on the Gentiles in order to rouse Israel to envy and repentance; the apostle Paul would do the same by his preaching to the Gentiles (Rom. 11:11–14).

1. God’s Sovereignty Commissions Jonah (1:1-2)

a. How: By the Word of the Lord

Lit: the word of Yahweh, which is the most holy name for God…the covenant keeping, protector of Israel, who commissioned with the same word, Moses at the burning bush.

With some variations, wording like this is used some 112 times in the Old Testament to describe the giving of a divine message to a prophet.

Exodus 3:4–6 ESV

4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Like Moses, Jonah was given a commission directly from Yahweh, and therefore was called to unquestioningly follow His command.

Jonah the son of Amittai - This designation identifies Jonah as the historical character we read about in 2 Kings 14:25 (in reference to Jeroboam II), “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.”

Being commissioned by God is no small thing! Note that God has always seen fit to commission his weak, faithless people to carry out His commands, for we read in the Gospel of Matthew, these words from Jesus:

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

b. What: To Call Out Against Nineveh

The wording of this phrase (call out - imperative mood indicates a possibility, not a reality) indicated to Jonah that this pronouncement of the Lord’s judgment on the feared and hated Assyrian Empire was reversible, and offered an opportunity for repentance.

Note the difference in the wording of Nahum’s pronouncement of judgment on Nineveh just 100 years later:

Nahum 2:13 ESV

13 Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.

Which reminds us that though the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, there will be a day of reckoning. Paul speaks to this in his letter to the Corinthians (cited from Isaiah 49:8):

2 Corinthians 6:2 ESV

2 For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

c. Why: Because Their Evil Has Come Before God

A statement of the omniscience of God. God sees, hears, and knows all:

Psalm 139:1–5 ESV

1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

2. God’s Sovereignty Oversees Jonah’s Flight (1:3)

a. When He Flees From the Presence of the Lord

Jonah, a prophet of God, somehow thinks he can flee from the presence of God (2x in v. 3).

Psalm 139:7–12 ESV

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

We don’t know at this point why Jonah attempts to flee from the Lord and not obey His word. However, in 4:1-3, we have a hint.

b. When His Plan Works Out In His Favor

Note that Jonah’s plan to go to Tarshish was not prevented by God, in fact, Jonah was actually able to find a ship going there.

BTW, Tarshish location was difficult to pinpoint…some scholars think it was in the southern part of Spain. Other scholars think the term designates distant Mediterranean coastlands in general (on the other side of the Mediterranean sea).

3. God’s Sovereignty Pursues Jonah (1:4-16)

a. By Calling On His Creation To Chastise Him (4)

the Lord hurled - note the obedience of God’s creation to His directives. Unlike human beings, the height of God’s creation, all creation obeys His commands!

hurled - the subject of the verb (God) in the hifʿîl stem causes the object of the verb (wind) to participate in the action of the verb as a sort of ‘undersubject’ or ‘secondary subject’

Psalm 107:25 ESV

25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.

b. By Using the Unregenerate To Rebuke Him (6)

God’s discipline on your sin, my sin, will always affect those associated with you.

These experienced mariners were frightened, even understanding that aa god was responsible for this travesty.

Numbers 32:23 ESV

23 But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.

Galatians 6:7 ESV

7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

Numbers 14:18 ESV

18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’

Though each person will experience God’s discipline and judgment for their own sin and not others, this verse informs us the the affects of God’s discipline and judgment will be felt by those around the sinner.

c. By Controlling the Lots to Indict Him (7-10)

There is no “chance” with God. All things are controlled by Him, even down to the smallest lot or dice.

Acts 1:24–26 ESV

24 And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

d. By Receiving Worship From the Gentile Pagans (14-16)

Here we see that the unlearned, pagan mariners recognized God’s power and glory as God revealed it to them. As a result, they worship Him!

Oh that God would wake us, who are His people from our lethargy and Spiritual stupor and see Him in all His glory, even when things are going well!

Luke 19:38–40 ESV

38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

4. God’s Sovereignty Preserves Jonah (1:17)

a. In Appointing A Great Fish To Swallow Him

the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow - In Biblical Hebrew, ‘stem’ refers to the relationship of the verb’s subject to the action of the verb. That is, stems convey grammatical ‘voice’ relationships. The piʿʿēl stem expresses the bringing about of a state. The object of the piʿʿēl verb’s action “suffers the effect” of the action; i.e., it is put into a state by the action. In the sentence “the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow” the direct object [fish] is put into the state of swallowing by the subject of the verb [LORD].

All creation is at God’s command...

God commanded the Ravens to feed Elijah.

1 Kings 17:5–6 ESV

5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. 6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

Note that God not only commands His creation, but the creation He commands has been prepared by God for the task He appointed for them.

b. In Keeping Him Alive In the Great Fish

God’s sovereignty has made the laws, and He can change their outcome at any time He chooses.

In Jonah’s case, God keeps Jonah alive, changing the normal digestion process of food into a place of preservation. We’ve seen this before:

Daniel 3:24–27 ESV

24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” 25 He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” 26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. 27 And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.

So What?

Do we take serious our calling by God, or do we pick and choose what we will or will not obey?

Are we presently running from God, and somehow justifying our flight by how things are working out?

Do we realize, that as a child of God, he will pursue us, and discipline us, even to the detriment of those around us?

Are we aware that the very reason we are still alive is because God preserves us, even in our sin, so that we will obey Him and ultimately bring Him glory?