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Perhaps God Cares Daniel Darling Jonah / Mercy and Compassion; Indifferent; Mission / Jonah 1:4–6 Proposition: Our disobedience affects many more people than us, therefore christians must obey God to declare His mercy to the nations! Introduction Illustration: Absolom, the son of King David, really wanted the throne. But he wasn’t going to get it. So he positioned himself, literally, on the road before the city gate. As people came to tell King David their problems, he would intercept them and tell them that the king really did not care about them, but that he did care about them. He would get them to share with him their problems. Absolom positioned himself as a representative of the king, and portrayed the king as not caring. Unfortunately, many heard the words and believed Absolom. God commissions individuals to tell others about Him. What do our actions declare about our God? Historical Context: Last week the text introduced God, and rather than going to a theology book or a confession, we allowed Jonah to define God by His actions. We saw that God: • Can speak which indicates a intellect • Can judge morality • Knows geography • Can distinguish between small and great Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:52 AM January 30, 2022. 1 • He is compassionate and merciful – does that seem foreign to you? Or maybe you know that about God, but you do not need His mercy and compassion because you are good. Man was discovered by his actions as: • Doing evil before God • Lacks compassion • Foolish because he tries to away from God’s presence. We still have not decided what type of genre we are dealing with. We know it is a narrative. But what type? • Comedy? The hero wins in the end • Tragedy? The hero loses in the end • Satire? A satirical narrative is an exposure of human vice or folly through ridicule or rebuke. Campbell, Donald K. 1991. “Foreword.” In Basic Bible Interpretation: A Practical Guide to Discovering Biblical Truth, edited by Craig Bubeck Sr., 129. Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook. Proposition: Our disobedience affects many more people than us, therefore we must obey God to declare His mercy to the nations! We are going to look at some observations of the text, and make some applications. They are not necessarily in a sequencial order, but they will come from the text. Exposition Jonah 1:4 The verse begins in an unusual way because the subject is at the beginning of the verse. Sentence structure Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:52 AM January 30, 2022. 2 in Hebrew tends to have a V-S-O sentence structure. Occasionally, when that structure changes, the author is bringing attention to the verse and forcing the reader to notice. • “And the Lord” (‫ – )ויהוה‬Verse 3 ends with Jonah running from the presence of the “Lord.” • Jonah is working hard to move away from God – to create a distance or a gap. What would you do if someone tries to move away from you? • What is God going to do? God has commissioned Jonah to go, in a very real way God has established Himself as sovereign over Jonah and over Nineveh because their sin has come up before Him. But Jonah has not accepted the sovereignty of God. • God “hurled” or “flung” (‫ הטיל‬H. Perf. 3rd M. Sg.) a great wind. The word “flung” has a lot of force, it is the word that is used in 1 Sam. 18:11 of Saul “flung” a spear at David. • God hurled a “great wind” (‫ )רוח–גדולה‬not just a wind but a “great” wind. • Nineveh was a “great” city. So far we have seen that what God has considered great, Jonah has taken it to be adverse to him. • The great city and the great wind are against the plans of Jonah. But they are in God’s plan. • The great wind was flung to the sea, as in the sea where Jonah is. The narrator gives an event that comes sequentially after Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:52 AM January 30, 2022. 3 God flung the great wind. • “And then the great storm was in the sea” (‫ויהי‬ ‫)סער–גדול בים‬. God flung the wind and the wind was on the sea. • This brings our first point: 1. The wind listens to God but the prophet of God does not. God commissioned Jonah, but Jonah refused to listen to the word of the Lord. God does not have arms because God is Spirit, so Him throwing wind is as metaphorical as God speaking because God does not have vocal chords. Both actions are metaphorical to realities where God commissioned something to happen. • The wind and the sea respond to the commission of God. • But Jonah created in the image of God, does not listen to God. • Jonah was a prophet, many times people only think of the prophet as giving prophetic oracles. • But the main duty of a prophet was to urge people to turn to God. This brings our second point: 2. Were there no unrighteous in Israel that God sent Jonah Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:52 AM January 30, 2022. 4 to Nineveh? There is a bizzar, crazy idea that some have that one should not think of missionary service or supporting missionaries until all the people in their area has been reached with the Gospel and are attending a church, preferably their church. They do a sloppy job of exegesis and then declare their crazy thoughts. The context of Jonah’s ministry was during the time when Israel and Judah has parted ways. Israel had established a place of worship so that people would not go to the temple, they continually did wickedness before God. • The kings of Israel did evil before the Lord. • 2 Kings 14:23-29 the reign of Jeroboam was one of wickedness. Jonah had a lot of ministry opportunity. • But God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh even though there were a lot of unrighteous, elect Jews. God cares about the people of Houston, but He also cares for the Western Sahara which is 93% unevangelized, unreached. 3. As Jonah moves away from God, his life becomes more unstable and dangerous. The boat is was given human feelings and thoughts. The boat believes that it is about to be smashed! Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:52 AM January 30, 2022. 5 When God spoke to Jonah, Jonah is on stable ground. But as Jonah moves away from God we see that: • Jonah had to pay for the fare to take him to Spain. • Now Jonah is on the water, who can control the water, not Jonah. • The narrator has presented the story in a way that Jonah tries to move from God, and when he does that his life becomes very unstable and life threatening. We do not know yet why Jonah does not want to go to Nineveh, but if it is that he is scared of them, Jonah hasn’t stopped to consider what what it means to disobey a God who is in control on the dry ground and in the water. A God who nature obeys. Disobeying God will move Jonah from having purpose and stability to chaos. Exposition Jonah 1:5 The narrator moves from God and the sea to the sailors on the boat that Jonah has hired to run away from God. There are three verbs that represent their actions: • “And then the sailors feared” (‫ וייראו‬Q PTN 3 M. Pl.) the word is used in: • Gen. 3:10 when Adam told God that he heard the voice of God and they were afraid. • Gen. 20:8 Abimelech was greatly afraid because he taken Abraham’s wife and God scared him in the night. • Gen. 28:17 Jacob had a vision in Bethel and feared. • Ex. 1:17 The midwives feared God, so they did not obey Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:52 AM January 30, 2022. 6 Pharoah. • The word carries a connotation fear, but a fear of deity that God might be made angry. • “And then each man called for help to their god” (‫ ויזעקו איש אל–אלהיו‬Q. PTN 3rd M. S.) The fear that they have is a fear that a god must be upset, and they respond by calling out to their gods. • “Cried for help” (‫ )ויזעקו‬was used in Ex. 2:23 when a new Pharoah ruled over Egypt who put Israel in bondage. Israel cried out for help. • But who who did the sailors cry out to? • Isa. 44:9-20 God tells Israel through the prophet Isaiah the folly of idolatry. Men craft an idol, and the put eyes that cannot see, place ears that cannot hear, and they want to hear a response from a mouth that cannot speak. • Will they get help? What if they are really sincere? Idols cannot help, so it does not matter how sincere they are, it will not help. • “And then they hurled the cargo” (‫ ויטלו את–הכלים‬H. PTN 3 M. S.). They start to throw the cargo over. They do not get paid to show up at the port, they make money on delivery of the cargo. But getting paid is not on their mind. Which means that the storm as moved past anything they are comfortable! • Supposedly Augustine said “that to be godly is to act like God.” • God hurled a storm, the sailors hurled cargo. Now the narrator goes from the sailors in general to Jonah. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:52 AM January 30, 2022. 7 What is Jonah doing during all this time? This section has a division (atnach) which causes a division in the verse. So that this part of the verse is almost like a new verse is starting and what is interesting thing is that this section begins just like verse four where the subject comes before the verb. • “And Jonah went down” (‫ – )ויונה ירד‬we have to make a decision of how we are going to understand the conjunction (‫)ו‬. There is two ways we can understand: • The ‫ ו‬could indicate a previous action – as in when he first got on the ship he went straight down into the ship and did not come up. Possible, and the implication could be that Jonah is ignorant about what is going on! • The ‫ ו‬can be taken as congruent action – meaning he is aware of the storm but he has decided to go down into the ship. This would indicate that Jonah knows but he just does not care! • Jonah’s actions are described in two verbs: • “And then he lied down” (‫ וישכב‬Q. PTN 3rd M. S.) – God is throwing a storm and the storm is obeying, but Jonah is lying down. • “And then he slept deeply” (‫ וירדם‬N PTN 3rd M. S.) the Niphal has a reflexive which means that he put himself to sleep. One can go to sleep because you are really tired, but here the idea is that he curled up and put himself to sleep. 4. Jonah’s disobedience Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:52 AM January 30, 2022. 8 endangered sailors. We do not know yet what is motivating Jonah to disobey God’s commission. But we do know that his disobedience is endangering the sailors. 5. God’s actions make men fear, except the hard-hearted. I do not mean that God cannot make the hard-hearted fear Him, but just the natural reaction of the fool is to harden their heart to God and think nothing is going to happen. 6. The sailors act like God, but Jonah acts like cargo. This is a crazy situation. The sailors who do not know God and do not worship God are acting as God acted. But God acted compassionately towards Nineveh and His prophet did not act like God! Jonah has a lack of compassion for: • Nineveh – God calls it a great city, but Jonah doesn’t care. • The ship, cargo, and sailors – Jonah doesn’t care that the ship thinks it is about to be crushed, nor does he care that the cargo that people are waiting for will not arrive, and he doesn’t care that the sailors scared. Exposition Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:52 AM January 30, 2022. 9 Jonah 1:6 Now the narrator focuses on the captain. The narrator does not describe how the captain found Jonah. The captain found Jonah and found him sleeping. We are going to see dialog. He wakes Jonah gives him two commands: • “Arise” (‫ קום‬Q Imp. M. Sg.) – wake up. The captain is not asking if Jonah would like to get up. No!!! • “Call” (‫ קרא‬Q. Imp. M. S.) specifically the preposition says to whom he is supposed to call. He to his God. If they all have different gods, then no one has called out the the God that Jonah believes in. • God told Jonah in verse 2 to arise and call against. • The captain almost seems to be reiterating God’s command. • We are left with a question: will God call out to the God he is running from? The suspense of the narrator does not answer the question in our scene. The captain pleaded with Jonah to call out because he is hoping that maybe his God will remember them all, and they will not be destroyed! 7. Jonah has the correct answer to the captain’s theological question. The captain is wondering • if Jonah’s God is compassionate, Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:52 AM January 30, 2022. 10 • if God knows them • and if He can do anything to stop them from perishing. And the answer is that God: • Is compassionate • He does know them • And He can save them Will Jonah help their faulty theology? Or will he only think about himself? 8. Why did God send the storm? The question is not answered yet. But what has been revealed it seems that maybe the purpose is not to kill Jonah, because if God wanted to kill Jonah He could have done that. But Jonah is still alive. We do not have answer yet as to the purpose of the storm. Some might be in a storm and you do not understand why the storm is in your life. • You have felt unstable, and in danger. • You do not know which way to go. • You are wondering why this storm – You might be in the narrative where you do not have the answer to the purpose of the storm. What should do in a storm that you do not understand • Cry out to God • Be faithful to God. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:52 AM January 30, 2022. 11 Conclusion Proposition: Our disobedience affects many more people than us, therefore we must obey God to declare His mercy to the nations! Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:52 AM January 30, 2022. 12