Sermon Tone Analysis

! JONAH:  THE UNWILLING MESSENGER

 

Jonah 1

Introduction

                The book of Jonah is probably one of most maligned book in the Bible.

Why???

Because it has the story of a man who is swallowed by a great fish (or as Jesus said “a whale”).

Ray Stedman in his sermon “Jonah:  The Reluctant Ambassador” wrote:  “There are some interesting historically—verified incidents of men who have been swallowed by fishes, very much like Jonah was.

I would recommend Harry Rimmers’ book, The Harmony of Science and Scripture, in which he tells of an Englishman, a salor, who fell overboard, and was swallowed by a fish.

A day or two later the fish was seen floating on the surface of the water, and was taken ashore.

When it was opened up, the sailors, to their amazement, found their shipmate alive.

He survived the experience, but his skin had turned a chalky white and remained so for the rest of his life.

Dr.

Rimmer talked with him and learned the details of his experience.

It was clearly verified.

There have been other accounts like this, probably half a dozen altogether.

It has happened to others besides Jonah.”

Let’s look at this very interesting book.

Not just because of the fact that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish but because of the lessons that we can learn about God and our relationship to Him.

 

I.

The Call of Jonah VV. 1-2

!! “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai”

!!! Jonah—a historical person  2 Kings 14:23-25 “In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Josah king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years.

He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit.

He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arahab, in accordance with the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai the prophet from Gath Heper.”

!!! “Word of the Lord came to Jonah”:  God’s call done in many different ways

!!!! Grandpa Grant called to preach on a hot summer night in Southern Missouri

!!!!!

A farming community in which the yearly “Revival” was held during the hottest part of the summer

!!!!!!

After all the crops had been planted

!!!!!! Before the harvest

!!!!! Group of men were standing outside the small country church, waiting for the evangelist to arrive

!!!!! Word was received that the evangelist had become sick and would not be able to come

!!!!!

Other men turned by my grandfather and asked him to preach the revival

!!!!!

This was the first of many sermons that he preached over the years

!!!!  

!!!!

Other call’s in the Bible

!!!!! Isaiah in 6th chapter of Isaiah

!!!!!! Saw God as a Holy, Righteous Being sitting on a throne

!!!!!! Saw the seraphs crying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the earth is full of his glory.”

!!!!!! Isaiah cried “Woe to me!

I am ruined:  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty.”

!!!!!! Heard God’s question:  “Whom shall I send?

And who will go for us?”

!!!!!! Responded: “Here am I.  Send me!”

!!!!! Jeremiah 1:4—9

!!!!! Moses:  the burning bush

!! V. 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

!!! “Go”

!!!! Leave your comfortable home

!!!! Leave friends and family

!!!! Leave the friendly confines of the Northern kingdom

!!! Where:  “to the great city of Nineveh”

!!!! Capital of Assyria:  the monarchy of Assyria lived there

!!!! Forty-eight miles in circumference

!!!!!

About the size of Indianapolis inside the belt of I-465

!!!!

A large population for that day

!!!! Wealthy—Nahum 2:8—9

!!!!! “Nineveh is like a pool,

!!!!!!

And its water is draining away.

!!!!! ‘Stop!

Stop!’  they cry,

!!!!!! but no one turns back.

!!!!! Plunder the silver!

!!!!!! Plunder the gold!

!!!!!

The supply is endless,

!!!!!!

The wealth from all its treasures.”

!!!! Powerful and dominate (the city that for some time ruled over the Kings of the earth)

!!!! Yet, a heathen city

!!!!! Without the knowledge and worship of the true God

!!!!! Wicked city

!!!!!! “Their wickedness has come up, that is, it has come to a high degree, to the highest pitch; the measure of it is full to the brim; their wickedness has come up, as that of Sodom, Gen. 18:20, 21.

It has come up before me—to my face (so the word is); it is a bold and open affront to God; it is sinning against him, in his sight; therefore Jonah must cry against it; he must witness against their great wickedness, and must worn them of the destruction that was coming upon them for it.

God is coming forth against it, and he sends Jonah before, to proclaim war, and to sound an alarm.

Cry aloud, spare not.

He must not whisper his message in a corner, but publish it in the streets of Nineveh; he that hath ears let him hear what God has to say by his prophet against that wicked city.

When the cry of sin comes up to God the cry of vengeance comes out against the sinner.

He must go to Nineveh, and cry there upon the spot against the wickedness of if”    Matthew Henry’s Commentary

!!! “And preach”:  “Webster’s Desk Dictionary”

To deliver (a sermon)

To advocate (moral principles, conduct, etc) as right or advisable

To give advice in an insistent, tedious, or moralizing way

!!!

This 3rd definition was what Jonah was to do

!!!! Speak what?:  “against it” against the way of life in Nineveh

!!!! Speak why?:  their wickedness had come up to God:  GOD NOT LOOK ON SIN

!!!!!

When men’s sin was great during the days of Noah, God sent the flood

!!!!!

When men’s sins were great in Sodom and Gomorrah, God sent burning sulfur on the two towns

!!!!!  

! THE ESCAPE FROM GOD????

!! V. 3a “But Jonah ran away from the LORD, and headed for Tarshish.”

!!! “Ran away”:  Jonah

!!!! Didn’t just try to ignore God’s call

!!!!!

By staying in his home town

!!!!!

By spending some extra time at the Temple worshipping and serving

!!!! Ran

!!!!!

As fast as he could

!!!!! Away from the place where he had heard God’s call

!!!!!! Thought that God only existed in the local area

!!!!!! Psalmist said that he wished that he was back in Jerusalem so that he could worship God for in his mind God could only be heard and worshiped in Jerusalem

!!! “Headed for Tarshish”

!!!! City in what we call Spain today

!!!!

One scholar says that Tarshish was as far west as Nineveh was east from Jonah’s location

!! V. 3b

!!! “He went down to Joppa”