Jonah 1-2

Outline for Two Series Sermon

The story of Jonah unfolds in seven episodes:

A: Jonah's commissioning and flight (1:1-3)

B: Jonah and the pagan sailors (1:4-16)

C: Jonah's grateful prayer (2:1-11)

A': Jonah's recommissioning and compliance (3:1-3a)

B': Jonah and the pagan Ninevites (3:3b-10)

C': Jonah's angry prayer (4:1-4)

D': Jonah's lesson on compassion (4:5-11)

The final section, which has no parallel, is the culmination of the story, the section that contains the primary message of the story.

Introduction

The book of Jonah was written to the Post-Exilic Community. When one reads it clearly, this book of Jonah is not about Jonah. This will become crystal clear at the end of the story. The story is about us as God's people. It is about our attitudes and our actions. Through telling us the story of Jonah, the author invites us to examine our own lives to see the extent to which there is any "Jonah" in us. Jonah is never called a prophet in the book, though the phrase "the word of the LORD came to" indicates he was a prophet, a fact that is confirmed in 2 Kings 14:25. The author wants Jonah to remain "Joe Israelite."

The story of Jonah is a study in contrasts. Jonah will be contrasted with the "pagan" sailors and the "pagan" Ninevites. The story of Jonah is also a study in comparisons. The "pagan" sailors and the "pagan" Ninevites will be compared to God. The point of these contrasts and comparisons is the contrast between Jonah and God. God will be seen to have a heart of great compassion. Not so Jonah.

Application: The purpose of the book is that readers (Primary and secondary) might compare their own hearts to that of God to the end that our hearts might become more like God's.

Lets survey the first two chapters of Jonah

THEME: WE CAN'T ESCAPE FROM DIVINE RESPONSIBILITY

Part 1: Jonah’s commissioning and flight from and back to God

I know we have read the book of Jonah several times; As we begin to survey this text, I want to ask you and me a question. Who do you and I identify with? Jonah or Pagan sailors?

A: Jonah's commissioning and flight (1:1-3)

Authors often begin stories by setting the stage and introducing some kind of conflict. The conflict usually grows throughout the story until it reaches a climax before it is resolved.

In the opening scene (Jonah 1:1-3) the author sets the stage by introducing the two key characters—God and Jonah—and then by quickly introducing conflict between God and Jonah.

1:1a “The word of the LORD came to” is a typical for introducing divine speech to a Prophet, as in 1 Sam 15:10; 2 Sam 7:4; Isaiah 38:4; Jere 29:30; Zechariah 7:8).

“Jonah” means "dove”. The word "dove" is used in the Old Testament as a symbol of Israel as "silly and without sense" (Hosea 7:11).

“Amittai," his father’s name, means “faithfulness.” Jonah's full name, "Dove (silly and without sense) son of my faithfulness," tells the whole story about him. Throughout the book, Jonah will prove himself true to his name.

Pause: why names? I did not like the name I was first given-had to change it 13 years later

Someone might think that I am reading too much into the meaning of Jonah's name. But it can be easily established that quite frequently names have theological significance in the context of Hebrew stories. Take for example the opening chapters of Genesis. Adam means "humanity," and Adam is the representative of the human race. Eve means "living," and she becomes the "mother of all the living." Cain means "acquired," and Eve only acquired Cain with the help of the Lord. Abel means "vanity," and his life ended up being in vain, as he was killed in the prime of his life. Seth means "replacement," and Eve celebrated him at his birth as a replacement for the son she had lost.

In spite of how silly and senseless Jonah is, God's love never lets him go. This is the fundamental word of encouragement that God speaks to us through this book: yes, at times we are silly and senseless, but God's faithful love never lets us go.

Jonah was commissioned to go and speak against Nineveh’s wickedness (1:2).

“Get up and go” is one command- “get up” is used to make “go” more vivid. I would stress that Jonah’s call is an urgent call. The sense of his call is something like "go at once."

“to Nineveh, the great city-” Nineveh") was a major city in and the last capital of the Assyrian empire

V. 3 “But Jonah Got up to flee to Tarshish from before the LORD (a divine name)” Is followed by 3 more occurrences of verb from the root Having "gone down" from the mountains to the coast, Jonah "went down" on board ship.

v. 3 Reads : Jonah got up

To flee to Tarshish from before the LORD (from the mountain country)

He went down to Joppa (to the coast)

He found a ship

Going to Tarshish

He paid its fare

He went down on to it

To go to Tarshish from before the LORD

The repetition of Tarshish in the opening, middle, and closing lines and the repetition of

"From before the LORD" in the opening and closing lines serve to underscore the radical departure of Jonah from his God's call and presence.

Jonah was not, however, simply trying to get away from Nineveh, he was also trying to get away from God's presence, as the text makes clear by the repetition of, "from before the LORD" at the beginning and end of verse 3.

B: Jonah and the pagan sailors (1:4-16).

Qn. What would you have done best if you were Jonah?

In this long passage, the word the author uses is a fourfold repetition of the word "fear" to focus our attention on this concept as the central theme of the section. The original readers of the story confessed to fear the Lord, just as we do. By means of the use of structure of this section the author invites us to ask the question: Is our fear of the Lord fact or fiction?

In relation to the storm (v. 4-5) Now, the LORD hurled a great wind onto the sea, so there was a great storm in the sea. (The ship contemplated being broken up.) 5. The sailors feared and each cried out to his own gods.

Jonah’s confession of faith in response to sailors’ investigation -v. 9 He said to them, "A Hebrew I am, and the LORD, the God of Heaven, I fear, who made the sea and the dry land."

From the sailors when they knew who Jonah was-v. 10-11 Then the men feared a great fear and said to him, "What is this you have done?" because the men knew that he was fleeing from before the LORD, because he had told them. 11They said to him, "What should we do to you, so that the sea will become quiet from upon us?" because the sea was walking and storming.

After they hurled him to the sea and storm quieted-V.15-16- Then they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea stood still from its/his raging. 16Then the men feared a great fear—the LORD, and they sacrificed a sacrifice to the LORD and vowed vows

There are three key contrasts in Jonah 1:4-16.

The first involves the fear of the Lord.

At beginning the sailors, themselves never say that they fear the Lord, yet the narrator clearly informs us that by the end of this scene the sailors do in fact fear the Lord. At the beginning of the scene the sailors simply "fear" (Jonah 1:5).

In the middle of the scene, they "fear a big fear" (Jonah 1:10).

At the end of the scene, they "fear big fear the Lord" (Jonah 1:16).

This threefold repetition shows the progressive transformation that is taking place in the sailors, a transformation that results in their becoming people who truly fear the Lord. By way of contrast at the center of the scene Jonah himself tells us that he fears the Lord (Jonah 1:9), yet the narrator offers us no evidence that this is in fact the case. The question we are left with is: Are we like the "pagan" sailors or like Jonah?

The second contrast involves prayer.

At the beginning of the scene when the violent storm arises the "pagan" sailors pray (Jonah 1:5). To be sure they pray "each to his own gods," but at least they pray!

By the end of the scene, they are no longer praying to foreign gods, but are praying to the true and living God (Jonah 1:14).

By way of contrast Jonah never prays. Ironically, Jonah is summoned to pray by the "pagan" captain of the ship (Jonah 1:6) with words that are strikingly similar to God's commissioning of Jonah (Jonah 1:2), but the narrator never tells us that Jonah heeded this summons.

The "pagan" sailors look more like people of faith than does Jonah. The question we are left with is: Are we like the "pagan" sailors or like Jonah?

The third contrast involves a key term in the book, the word "perish."

Two times in this scene "pagans" are concerned that people do not perish.

The first is when the captain summons Jonah to get up and pray to his God, so that perchance Jonah's God might take notice of the situation, resulting in the people on the ship not perishing (Jonah 1:6).

The second is when the sailors reluctantly determined to throw Jonah overboard, praying that they do not perish if in fact it is the case the Jonah is an innocent person (Jonah 1:14).

Throughout this scene Jonah shows no evidence of being concerned about the possibility of people perishing. The question we are left with is: Are we like the "pagan" sailors or like Jonah?

Through these three contrasts the author shows us that things are not always the way they appear. It would appear that Jonah is a person of faith and that the pagans are not. But when we look at the evidence, the "pagans" are unquestionably people of faith by the end of the scene. Again, are we like the "pagan" sailors or like Jonah?

The author also sets up a key comparison by which the "pagan" sailors are dealing closely with God. At the beginning of the scene the Lord "hurled" a great win "to the sea" (Jonah 1:4), and in response the sailors "hurled" the ship's cargo "to the sea" (Jonah 1:5).

At the end of the scene the sailors "hurled" Jonah "to the sea" (Jonah 1:15). By the repetition of the verb "hurl" the author associates the "pagan" sailors with the Lord.

By this repetition the author is saying that the "pagan" sailors are like God, or are God-like, or even godly.

No such comparisons are drawn between God and Jonah. The question we are left with is: Are we like the "pagan" sailors or like Jonah?

Finally, the sailors make a profound confession of faith in the sovereignty of the God of

Israel at the end of the scene. When they said, "For you, LORD, just as you desire you do" (Jonah 1:15), they used liturgical language that was familiar to ancient Israelites. As ancient Israelites listened to the story of Jonah being told and heard the words, "For you, LORD, just as you desire you do," they would have thought immediately of liturgical texts they themselves used like Psalm 115:3 and Psalm 135:6. They would have been amazed to hear these "pagan" sailors using their own liturgical formulae to confess faith in the sovereignty of their God.

This scene closes with the narrator giving evidence that 14 Jonah: A Commentary this was not an empty confession of faith, by reporting to us how the "pagan" sailors offered sacrifices and made vows to the Lord in response to his grace, a response that faithful Israelites would themselves have made. The question we are left with is: Are we like the "pagan" sailors or like Jonah?

By means of contrasts, comparisons, and confessions the narrator invites us to enter into the story in order to compare our own lives with those of the characters. We no doubt confess all the right things, but is there evidence that our confession is fact and not fiction?

C: Jonah's grateful prayer (1:17-2:1-11)

Jonah’ sought way back to God in prayer.

If Jonah were just "Jonah" ("dove/silly and senseless"), the story could be over. Jonah rebelled against God and then suffered the consequences of his rebellion. But Jonah is also "Ben-Amittai" ("son of my faithfulness"), so the story is not over. In his faithfulness to Jonah God provides a fish to deliver Jonah from a watery grave.

Jonah remained inside the fish for three days and three nights. In contrast to being in the water, being in the fish was a good place to be, and thus was a place of deliverance. As a place of deliverance being inside the fish was an appropriate place for Jonah to sing a song of thanksgiving (Jonah 2:2-9). As is typical of songs of thanksgiving, Jonah's song celebrates both his trouble and his deliverance. Jonah's trouble can be summarized in terms of his descent into the realm of the dead which is portrayed in language typical of the Old Testament in the ancient Near East.

In contrast to being in the land of the living, however, being in the fish was not a good place to be, and thus was a place to be delivered from. The latter is evoked in the New Testament's analogy between Jonah's being inside the fish and Jesus' being inside the grave (Matthew 12:40). Jonah's deliverance is described in terms of being brought up from the pit, language that is reminiscent of psalms like Psalm 16 and Psalm 30. In their original context these texts describe deliverance from near death experiences. They describe these experiences, however, in language that sounds like actual death. Because of this use of language, such texts are open to being interpreted as resurrection texts. The New Testament records just such an interpretation of Psalm 16 in Acts 2:31, where we are told that the language of Psalm 16 speaks "of the resurrection of the Christ."

The absence of any response of the Lord directly to Jonah, the gapping of the Lord's speech to the fish, and the choice of the word "vomit" converge to indicate the Lord's displeasure with Jonah at this point. In spite of this displeasure, Jonah is still the object of God's faithful love, so we continue on to the second half of the story to see how this faithful love of God plays out.