Good Evening. I ‘ve got some good news for you. Or maybe you won’t like it so much but it’s still going to happen. I’m going to be bringing the Word to you tonight and on Sunday. So, I get to do something that I don’t normally get to do. We’re going to have a two-part message for tonight and Sunday. For both messages we are going to be in the book of Jonah. Tonight, we’re going to be in chapters 1 and 2, and on Sunday we’ll be in 3 and 4.
So are you ready to dig in?
As you’re finding Jonah in your Bible, I want to give you a little bit of information about this book. Jonah is one of the books of the minor prophets. It is in the “minor” prophets, not because they are less important, but because the books are shorter. Jonah is only 4 chapters long. Obadiah, the book before Jonah is only 1 chapter long, and is the shortest book in the Old Testament. Compare that with the major prophet Jeremiah, which is actually the longest book in the entire Bible, with 52 chapters. While Psalms has more chapters, most of them are very short, so it isn’t as long as Jeremiah.
Next, Jonah stands out as different from all of the other prophets, and all other prophetic books. Similar to most other prophets, the book starts out, “the Word of the LORD came to Jonah.” Now, all of the other books of prophecy go on to basically communicate the message that God is giving through the words and poetic language of the prophet. They record the message that God wants to communicate with to the people.
Jonah is different. While it starts out similar to other books of prophecy, Jonah only says 8 words of prophecy in the entire book (5 if you’re reading Hebrew). Instead, Jonah is a narrative about a particular time in the life of the prophet Jonah.
While it is different from other prophets, Jonah still does what all other prophets do. That is, the Book of Jonah reveals to us who God is, and calls us to respond to god, and to life the way He wants us to live.
So the question before us this evening is this: What do the first two chapters in Jonah reveal to us about who God is, and how are we to respond?
Now, we’re going to be painting with some pretty broad brushstrokes tonight and on Sunday. There is so much packed into these 4 chapters that we could spend weeks and weeks looking and still have more to find. So we’re going to look at a few of the broader messages we get from Jonah.
One of the first things we see is that God is concerned with, and cares about, all people. Not just his “chosen” ones, not just the ones that claim to be his followers. Now, we’re going to leave that for a bit. We’re going to revisit it on Sunday, as the last two chapters in Jonah speak even more on that point.
So, let’s suffice it to say that it very possibly took Jonah by surprise to hear that God wanted him to bring a message to people who were not Israelites. Sometimes I try to imagine what Jonah’s reaction was to this revelation from God.
G: Jonah
J: Yes God?
G: I am calling you to be a prophet
J: Wow, I’m humbled God. What message would you have me bring to your chosen people Israel?
G: Actually, I need you to go to Nineveh.
J:
G:
J:
G:
J: Sorry, I think you have the wrong number.
So, Jonah doesn’t like this at all, and to e perfectly honest it’s understandable. The Ninevites are not nice people. The descriptions of Nineveh in the Bible are not pretty, and some may say that they are exaggerated caricatures as there was no love lost between the two nations. But even extra-Biblical sources, such as the writings of ancient historians Herodotus and Aristotle, describe Nineveh as a lawless and sinful place.
If Nineveh existed in the Star Wars universe, it would surpass Mos Eisley as the most wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Suffice it to say that Nineveh was one place that Jonah didn’t want to go. So, Jonah decided to run away. He wanted to get as far away from Nineveh, and from God, as he possibly could. Nineveh was located to the East of Israel, so Jonah went West, and Tarshish is just about the furthest West that it was possible to go at that time. Tarshish was located in Spain, past the Straights of Gibraltar, and thought to be near the ends of the Earth.
So, Jonah runs away from God, and from God’s calling on his life. But here’s the thing that we learn about God. Just because we stop pursuing God, even run away from him, doesn’t mean that He stops pursuing us.
God continued to pursue Jonah, even on his way away from God. Verse 4 says that God hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.
You see, God wasn’t punishing Jonah here, God was trying to get Jonah’s attention. He knew Jonah was running away, holed up sleeping in the bottom of the boat. He was essentially saying to Jonah, “You may be running, but I’m not done with you yet.”
Have you ever been in a situation like that? You know what God wants you to do, you know where God wants you to go, but you decide to do the opposite. And then your life just seems to not work. Right? A lot of people thing that this is God punishing them for their disobedience. But I think it’s much bigger than that. I think it’s God calling out to us, “I’m not done with you yet.
God isn’t done with you yet. Are you running away from God? Have you heard his call on your life, but you’re running in the opposite direction? Does it feel like your life is in a tempest and your ship is about to fall apart? God is calling out to you that He isn’t done with you yet.
And Jonah realized that all of these things were happening because he was running away from God. So, he surrendered himself to the sailors and told them to throw him overboard. The sailors resisted at first, trying even harder to get to land, but in the end, they had to give in. They threw Jonah into the sea, praying that God wouldn’t punish them.
Here’s the thing, even when Jonah relented, and gave in to God, there were still consequences for his behaviors. He was still thrown into the sea, as far as he and the sailors knew, to his death. Just because we repent doesn’t mean we are free from the consequences of our choices. Adam and Eve were still cast out from the Garden. Moses was still not allowed to enter the promised land. David’s child conceived in adultery still died. Israel was still sent into exile.
But the consequences don’t have to have the final word. Yes, Jonah was thrown overboard, seemingly to his death. But God wasn’t done with Jonah yet. Verse 17 says that God appointed, or prepared, a great fish to swallow Jonah. No one knows what kind of fish it was that swallowed Jonah. Some people think it may have been some kind of whale, or maybe some other large aquatic animal. Some theologians think it may have been a singular fish that God created specifically for that instance and that there was never another fish like it before or since. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t think it really matters what kind of fish it was, but what it reveals to us about God.
God is not surprised by our rebellion. God is not taken aback when we run away. God had prepared that fish long before Jonah got on that boat bound for Tarshish. God wasn’t caught off-guard when Jonah tried to flee from his presence. He was prepared for it. God wasn’t caught off-guard by your rebellion. God wasn’t stupefied when you decided to life your life on your own terms instead of His. No, he was prepared for it.
For many of you Teen Challenge is your big fish. For many of you TC is the big fish that God prepared for you long before you took your first pill, your first shot, or your first drink, hey, even before you were born.
The fish was the vehicle of deliverance for Jonah. The fish was the way the God delivered Jonah out of the consequences of his disobedience. But what we have to realize, is that deliverance isn’t always glamorous. In fact, it can be downright messy and disgusting.
I don’t know what it’s like to spend 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of a fish. I don’t know what it’s like to spend any amount of time in the belly of anything, but I can image it wasn’t pleasant. I have been to a fish market, and I will tell you that it was not my favorite place to be when it comes to fragrances. Now take that kind of smell, and add whatever digestive juices this fish had, and I think perhaps the greatest miracle in the story of Jonah was that he was able to stay conscious at all during that time.
But he was, and it seems as though he used his time wisely. Chapter 2 of the book of Jonah is composed almost entirely of the prayer of Jonah to God. Jonah cried out to God. Jonah repented of his rebellion. Jonah thanked God for his deliverance. And Jonah pledged to follow after, and to obey, God again.
And God heard his prayer. And God, who pursued Jonah throughout his rebellion, delivered Jonah again. Chapter 2 verse 10 says, “The Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.” I don’t know if you’ve ever been vomited upon, but I have a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old at home, so I have some experience in being vomited on. But Jonah wasn’t just vomited on, he was actually part of the vomit. Again, his deliverance wasn’t pretty.
So, don’t be surprised if you end up getting a little bit messy when God delivers you.
God is pursuing you this evening. Like Jonah we have all run away from God. Isaiah 53:6 says, “all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned – every one – to his own way.” But even though we have turned from God, He has not turned from us. Like He did with Jonah, God pursued, and is pursuing, each one of us. And he allows and places storms in our lives to get our attention and to let us know that he hasn’t gone anywhere. And when we turn back to him, it’s not always pleasant, it’s not always easy. Some of us may even envy Jonah, all he had to do was to be thrown into a raging sea and spend some time in a fish. That may seem like nothing compared to some of the consequences you see coming your way.
But know this. God wasn’t caught off-guard by your disobedience and rebellion, and he has already prepared for your means of deliverance. The only question you need to answer is this, are you ready to jump overboard and get a little messy?
