You Can't Escape God
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Introduction
Introduction
This morning we are beginning a new study in the book of Jonah. Our children that were at Summer Safari heard four lessons on this book.
Now, don’t get too excited because there are a lot of things to look at in this book, so I doubt that we’ll be finished in four lessons.
This morning we want to lay the foundation for our understanding. So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Jonah chapter 1.
We are going to begin with verse 1.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:
The Man
The Man
From the book, we really only know three things about Jonah.
His name is Jonah. His name means “Dove.”
He is the son of Amittai.
And that the Word of the Lord came to him.
However, we know some other things about him from other texts.
He was a servant of the Lord from Gath Hepher. Look at 2 Kings 14:25.
He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.
The town Gath Hepher was a town in the tribe of Zebulun (Josh. 19:10, 13).
And Jonah’s ministry is one of four Old Testament prophets who ministries were referred to by Jesus:
The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.
Let’s begin looking at this book that has a great story and a wonderful message.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
The Message
The Message
He was told to go to the great city Nineveh and preach against it. Their wickedness had come to the attention of God.
Jonah’s Response
Jonah’s Response
But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
Jonah decides to go in the opposite direction. Nineveh is in present day Iraq. Tarshish is believed to be in present day Spain.
Now if you are like me, it is easy to judge Jonah. But how many times do you and I run in the opposite direction from where God tells us to go?
God told Jonah to go to a city filled with people that the Jews hated. Jonah doesn’t want to warn the Ninevites about God’s impending judgment—He wants God to carry out His judgment on Nineveh.
In his mind, there is NO way he is going to help those nasty Ninevites! So he does what a lot of us do when God tells us to do something that we don’t want to do—RUN AWAY.
You Can Run, But Can’t Hide
You Can Run, But Can’t Hide
So he goes to Joppa.
And finds a ship that is headed to Tarshish—to him the farthest
He paid the fare.
And went aboard—the Hebrew is more than simply going aboard—it is going down into the ship. Jonah went down into the deepest part of the ship.
Then he sailed toward Tarshish.
But God
But God
Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.
The Lord “sent a great wind on the sea. . .” The Hebrew actually says “God hurled a great wind on the sea. . .”
Such a violent storm arose that the ship was about to break up!
The Fear of the Sailors
The Fear of the Sailors
All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
All the sailors were afraid. These were seasoned sailors who knew the sea, these guys are scared!
They were so scared that they were each praying to their own gods.
It got so bad that the sailors began throwing the cargo overboard—this is how we know the storm was bad!
Jonah Doesn’t Care
Jonah Doesn’t Care
I love the last part of this verse—“But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep?”
The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.”
The captain wants every person on the ship to pray to their gods—hoping come god will listen to them and rescue them.
So he wakes Jonah up and tells him to pray to his god!
So far, Jonah didn’t want the Ninevites to live!
Now Jonah doesn’t care if the sailors live.
And the reality is Jonah doesn’t care if he lives!
Jonah doesn’t care!
The Search to Understand
The Search to Understand
The sailors want to understand why they are having such bad fortune. Look at verse 7.
Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
The cast lots—and Jonah was identified as the cause of the storm.
So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
Who is responsible for the storm?
What do we do to make is stop?
Where do you come from?
What is your country?
From what people are you?
So Jonah answers their questions. Look at verse 9.
He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
Jonah is a Hebrew.
He worships Yahweh.
Who is the God—Elohim—who made both the sea and land.
This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
Telling them where he came from scared them even more. It is assumed in the story that they knew the power of the God of the Hebrew.
And they knew Jonah was running from Yahweh.
And Jonah knows EXACTLY why the God sent the storm!
The Problem Continues
The Problem Continues
The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
The wind God hurled down continued to grow and grow!
And the sailors want to know how to make the storm stop!
Remember they have already thrown their cargo overboard.
The ship was struggling to stay together.
Their circumstances were looking really bad!
Jonah’s Answer
Jonah’s Answer
“Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
The answer is simple! Throw—hurl—the same word used back in verse 3—Jonah into the sea.
And for the first time he takes responsibility for the situation—it is his fault!
The Men Don’t Like the Answer
The Men Don’t Like the Answer
Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.
The men try to row back to shore.
But the sea continues to get worse.
Then they cried to the Lord, “O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased.”
They even cry out to Yahweh.
Pleading with God to not to hold them responsible for killing Jonah!
Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
The took Jonah and hurled him into the sea—same Hebrew word as in verse 3, and 12.
As soon as they did, the sea became calm.
And the men were amazed.
At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
These pagan sailors responded in awe of Yahweh! Offering sacrifices to Him and making vows to Him.
But what about Jonah? Well, chapter 1 ends by telling us:
But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.
So What?
So What?
Let me ask you a question:
Do you care about the things God cares about?
Are you running from God this morning? If you are, you need to learn the lesson that many of our campers learned this week—when run away from God, you are actually running to God!
If you are running, let me ask you the final question: What is God going to have to do to get your attention?—Do you need a “BIG FISH?”
