Running to . . .?
July 26, 2009
Jonah 1:4-16
Last week we began to take a look at one of the most famous Bible stories, the story about a prophet named Jonah. Most people know him because there is something in the story about Jonah being swallowed by a whale and living. Now, that’s a story to remember, and it’s not a fish story. But we will talk about Jonah being swallowed up next week.
When we last saw Jonah he had been told by God to go to the great city of Nineveh, in Assyria, what we now call northern Iraq. He was told to proclaim to the people of Nineveh that God was going to destroy them if they didn’t repent from their wicked ways of living.
Jonah knew the Assyrians were the strongest nation in the world and they were marching toward Israel and within 40 years would destroy the nation. Jonah couldn’t stand the thought of these people being forgiven, and experiencing the grace and love of His God, so he made his plans to go in the opposite direction, as far away as possible.
So, Jonah planned his getaway, and instead of traveling the 500 miles through the mountains and desert to Nineveh, Jonah traveled to Joppa and boarded a ship to go to a place located on the Southern tip of Spain, a city called Tarshish.
Tarshish was a wealthy Phoenician port city, located about 2,300 miles from Joppa. It was believed it would have taken about 1 year by ship to reach Tarshish. It was as far as Jonah could get from Nineveh.
Tarshish was believed to be at the ends of the earth. Because, if you remember your history and geography, most people thought the world was flat. And if you looked to the west from Tarshish, all you would see is water and more water.
So, Jonah ran and boarded the cargo ship and began to settle in for the long, relaxing trip to the ends of the earth. Thinking there’s no way God will find me there. However, there was a storm, and it wasn’t just a storm, this was the grand daddy of them all.
In verse 4 we read . . . the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. In Hebrew it literally says the storm was so bad “...the ship itself thought it was going to break up.”
The sailors on the ship were probably Phoenicians, some of history’s greatest sailors. They were well-acquainted with storms and they knew this was a supernatural storm. Verse 5 tells us “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.”
You see, these guys were so afraid, they cried out, the Hebrew tells us they were screaming wildly, screaming to any god they could pick, hoping somehow their god would have the power to stop the storm. But the storm wasn’t letting up, so they threw some of the cargo overboard, hoping that would give them better control of the ship. But that wasn’t helping.
Let me stop for a moment. Have you ever been in a really bad storm while out at sea? You see, we envision a nice cruise liner taking us out to sea for a great vacation, but this was not what these sailors were encountering. Ever watch Discovery Channel’s “The Deadliest Catch?” That’s what they were facing.
Jonah and his new shipmates were experiencing winds and waves pounding the ship like they had never experienced before. These were the kinds of waves which would cause you to pray.
Now while all this was going on the captain wondered, hey where’s this Jonah dude? Not only could Jonah have helped throw cargo into the water, he could have been praying to his god. Where was Jonah? He was in a deep sleep, like a person who was unconscious. How could he sleep at a time like this? Jonah was so tired from running from God, that he was physically, emotionally and most especially spiritually exhausted. When we disobey God, we are reduced to trudging through this world on our own power. And we can’t make any headway against the storms of life on our own strength.
I believe the deeper issue for Jonah is that he was depressed, and if you’ve ever been in the deepest part of your depression, you couldn’t get out of bed, you struggle to just sit up, let alone get up and fight a storm. And we’ll see this again for Jonah in chapter 4. This prophet of God who was used to relying on God’s strength had been living on his own strength, and it wasn’t working.
So, Jonah is in a deep, deep sleep in a boat which is getting tossed about like toy boat which a child is playing with in a bath tub.
It’s like trying to swim with a stone tied around your waist. In Psalm 32:4, David said, when He disobeyed God his, “bones wasted away and his strength was sapped as in the heat of the summer.”
So, in an ironic twist the pagan captain of the ship finds Jonah sleeping in the belly of the boat, and tells him to wake up and pray to his god, since maybe his god will take pity on the sailors and they won’t perish.
Nothing is working, these experienced and rugged sailors are panicking. They realize the gods, any god is not going to help them. They realized this was a supernatural storm caused by a god who is really angry at someone. So, the only thing they can think of doing is to draw straws to see who is to blame for this storm. Jonah draws the short straw and is correctly believed to be the cause of this supernatural storm.
Can you imagine stopping in the middle of this storm, the boat is getting tossed about in the sea, and you find the straws, make sure one is short and gather everyone around to see who gets the short straw. But, God was in control and the sailors were about to find out just how much God was in control.
The sailors threw question after question at Jonah, as if he was in a major news conference. “Who are you? Where are you from? What have you done to cause this storm? Who’s your God?”
And Jonah told them his story. I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. When Jonah said that, the sailors became even more afraid. Remember, the sailors traveled to Israel, which is where they picked up Jonah. So, they had some understanding of Judaism. They also understood that it was Jonah’s God, the God of heaven and earth, the God who made the land and the sea. He was the creator of this terrible storm. The sailors now knew there was absolutely nothing they could do to battle the power of the God of all creation. They were doomed.
Since Jonah told them he was running from Lord, they wanted some answers about what Jonah did that made his God so angry that He created this storm.
Now, as they are talking, the sea is getting rougher and rougher, so no help is coming. As a last resort, they asked Jonah what they should do to stop the storm.
Jonah told the sailors, Pick me up and throw me into the sea, and it will become calm. I know it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.
How’s that for instructions from someone? Just throw me into the raging sea and the waters will become quieter. That’s not exactly what the sailors were probably looking for. They may have wanted to hear something like, “guys, if we all get down on our knees and we pray together and I ask God to forgive me, I know He will and we will be okay, the wind and storms will stop.”
But that’s not what Jonah said, he told the sailors, just throw me overboard, it’s my fault you have this problem, so go ahead and do it, and he probably thought, I won’t have to tell those rotten Ninevites about God’s grace and they’ll never have the chance to repent.
But in an interesting switch, the sailors cared more about Jonah than he cared about them or the Ninevites. They started to row even harder to get back to land. And as they rowed with more desperation, straining harder and harder, the storm grew worse and worse.
When rowing didn’t work, they did something Jonah hadn’t attempted. They prayed, they cried out to the same God who called Jonah, the God who made the sea and dry lands.
Then after exhausting every possible method to save Jonah, the ship and themselves, they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
So, Jonah was right, this prophet really did have a connection with God which surpassed even what the sailors could have imagined. Hold that thought for a moment. Let’s finish chapter 1.
The raging sea became quiet, just like the waves in a wave pool when the motors are turned off. Instant calm. How did these pagan sailors respond? At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.
They began to worship the one true God. It’s a strange twist, Jonah wouldn’t go to Nineveh to prophesy to the Gentiles, but when he tried to run and escape God, he was put into a situation where Gentile sailors put their faith in the one true God because of Jonah’s weak, brief, and halfhearted faith.
You see, nobody had experienced this kind of miracle from God. These non-believers thought the gods had power. But they never really saw it happen just like that. I mean imagine praying for a terrible storm to stop and in a flash, the storm stops, and you have calm seas. It does not slow down, but it stops. Storm one second, no storm the next. That’s what happened when Jonah hit the water.
There are so many similarities to the story in Mark 4, when Jesus went to sleep in a boat which was caught in a storm. The disciples woke Jesus up in a panic, and Jesus quieted the storms, which shocked the disciples. Because, again, nobody experienced the power of God via nature.
Today, I basically recapped the biblical story for us. Now what’s the point of what happened?
As much as Jonah was running from God, remember this one thing, he never lost his connection with God. I need to tell you how cool that is. Think about it, sometimes we run from what God is calling us to do, because we just don’t want to do it, the reason does not matter. Yet, we still have an opportunity to call on God and know that He will hear our prayers, He will still be with us, never bailing out on us, even when we’re running in the wrong direction, with the wrong crowd, doing the wrong things. God promises us He is faithful and He does not go back on His word. This is why Jonah could say, throw me overboard. He assumed He would die, but He knew the storm would stop and the sailors would be safe.
Next time we think about running or we are running from God, know that God will not abandon you. He will stay with you, He will be a constant presence in your life, even when your body is running from your heart and spirit . . . God is there, always.
A couple of other final points . . . .
God loves everyone. Sometimes it seems hard to believe God can love us, or that God can love those other people. Yet, He loves, because He is love. So, don’t give up on people, don’t stop praying, don’t stop living the life you’re supposed to because others aren’t living the life they’re supposed to . . . and it hurts. Do what is right in God’s eyes. You never know how others will respond to your grace and love, because remember, grace and love hurt, it hurt God’s Son, and it will hurt us.
Remember Jesus did not run, even though He was sent to a planet full of sinful people, people who would despise and reject Him — people who would treat Him so cruelly that He would intimately know suffering. In Philippians 2, Paul tells us Jesus . . .
. . . made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became OBEDIENT to death even death on the cross.
Jesus faced the most difficult command God ever issued. He knew the unimaginable pain and separation He would suffer on our behalf if He were to obey. He asked God if there were another way, but when the answer was “NO” Jesus was obedient and today, we can enjoy a relationship with God only because of His obedience.
Instead of running from God, let’s look at the opposite track as our purpose in life, running to God. We’re not prodigal believers, we are people on a long journey who find the wonderful joy of life with Christ, of a life in which the old person is changed into a new person, a life in which
joy replaces sadness,
faith replaces doubt,
trust replaces distrust,
peace replaces bitterness, and
life replaces death.
Who wants to run from that?
