Sermon Tone Analysis

THE FIRST COMMISSION OF JONAH

JONAH 1:9 - 10 Number 6

INTRODUCTION

We have been looking at Jonah Chapter 1.

We have seen how the servant of the Lord and the prophet of Israel, Jonah, was in trouble with God because he tried to flee from the presence of Yahweh and disobey His clear, sovereign command.

And the result was God decided to discipline His servant whom He loved.

His discipline is graciously given that Jonah might come back to being faithful to the Lord.

And we have seen that the Lord’s discipline consisted in two things in Chapter 1 thus far:

1. God sent a great storm directed at the ship on which Jonah was a passenger.

You can read about that in verse 4; AND

2. I put it to you that the discipline was not just the storm; it was also the words that were uttered to Jonah by those on board the ship: the captain and the sailors.

1.

What does the captain of the ship say to Jonah?

Look at verse 6:

The Captain rebukes Jonah: “How is it that you are sleeping?”

What on earth are you doing?

Here they are in the trial of their lives:

- The wind is hurled at them

- The sea is tumultuous

- The ship is about to break up.

- But God’s servant and prophet is asleep in the bottom of the ship!

The captain couldn’t believe it!

And so he rebukes him for sleeping!

But the Captain not only rebukes Jonah, but he issues an exhortation to him also in verse 6:

“Get up, call on your god.

Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

Here is a man who does not know God; he believes in many gods, but he assumes that Jonah has a God and that He just may be able to save them.

And we examined how all mankind has a revelation of God through what God has made; through creation, and by being made in His image – natural religion, if you like.

That revelation is enough to leave us all without excuse before God’s judgment throne if we do not bow the knee to Him.

But general revelation is insufficient to tell us how to relate to God or know Him intimately:

- For that we need the truth of the Scripture.

We need special revelation.

- In particular, we need Christ.

- He is the only way to the Father.

- His sacrifice alone appeases God’s wrath against our sin and brings peace.

- How ironic and sad: the captain was looking for salvation, but he did not know it because Jonah was too busy sleeping!

Well, if that is how the captain confronts Jonah ….

2. How do the sailors confront and deal with Jonah?

The sailor’s confrontation, you will remember, consists of two parts:

a) First, they decide to cast lots in verse 7; and then

b) They conduct an interrogation of Jonah.

We saw that there is no such thing as luck or chance in God’s economy.

The way the lot falls depends entirely on God.

Proverbs 16:33 sets out for us the key principle:

“The lot is cast into the lap,

But its every decision is from the Lord.”

And so, God uses the pagan sailor’s lot to point His sovereign finger at Jonah, and say: “Thou art the man!”

And that is when the inquisition started.

Do you remember Verse 8?

“Then they said to him, “Tell us, now!

On whose account has this calamity struck us?

What is your occupation?

And where do you come from?

What is your country?

From what people are you?”

God is putting the thumb screws on Jonah to bring him to repentance:

- First the storm

- Then the captain’s rebuke and exhortation

- Then the lot falling to him

- And then the inquisition.

And last time we compared the inquisition found here made by pagan sailors, with the inquisition by Joshua, God’s servant, in Joshua Chapter 7.

Both inquisitions began with the drawing of lots to find the offender, but both end up taking a completely different directions:

- Joshua, as a man of God, focused on the glory of God and in helping Achan deal with his guilt.

But compare that to the sailor’s inquisition: The sailors were ONLY interested in the brute facts and had no interest whatsoever in Jonah’s guilt.

- Their manner is full of alarm and fear.

- There is great haste…

- They are irrepressible and excited.

- Full of curiosity

- Question after question pours forth from their lips before there is even time to answer.

And we saw that the content of their questions showed no concern whatsoever about the morality of Jonah or his guilt before the Lord; just what he had done.

My friends, I put it to you, that there is a huge difference between the admission of the mere fact of sin (which we should be open and honest about), and an acknowledgement of the guilt of sin which stands before holy God.

And the amazing thing about God and His grace is this:

- I can sin against God.

- I can do what is evil in His sight.

- I might be liable to die for what I’ve done as Achan and Jonah were.

- But even in our sins there is a way to give glory to God by dealing with guilt His way, by the way of the cross of His dear Son, who has paid the penalty for sin removing our guilt forever!

Well today we want to focus on Jonah’s answer to the inquisition he was subjected to.

How did Jonah answer?

He simply says in Jonah 1:9:

“I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

He too focuses on the Lord and only briefly mentions the fact that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord in verse 10.

- He didn’t try to cover up the facts.

- Nor did he distort the facts and put a spin on them.

- He admits them briefly, and fully and without reserve.

- But he focused on the God!

And I want to suggest to you, that this is the beginning of Jonah’s repentance:

- It starts with telling the whole truth about what has happened.

- AND then he focuses on the God he has offended.

- Who He is and why we have fallen short of His glory.

- Here we have, dear friends, a confession of faith in the face of sin – and that is the start of true repentance.

Every single one of us daily sin against the God we love and who has saved us.

There are no exceptions!

And so, this is highly relevant to us.

- We need to note what Jonah confesses in his words of repentance here.

- For surely God’s grace is evident in what he says to the sailors, is it not?

- And that grace needs to be evident in our prayers of repentance also.

And what I hope to show you this morning is that when you start to confess your sin to the Lord, often it takes you on a path that deepens your understanding of sin and elevates your heart towards the God we have sinned against.

- At the start, you only think of the facts of what you have done (e.g. the lie, the anger, the lust, the adultery, the lack of love; unforgiveness).

- And often we are even slow to admit the full extent of the facts: we minimize; we rationalize; we blame shift and excuse ourselves, do we not?

- It is easy for us to confess our sins just with our heads but have our hearts a long way from full repentance.

- But as you confess those sins, and you face the God you have offended, you come to see that there are some serious factors that actually aggravate the sin you started out confessing.