Jonah: Commissioned to Go
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Jonah
Intro
This morning we are looking at possibly one of the most popular stories in all of Christianity. Jonah! And it really is an amazing story. I’m sure that most of you here are very familiar with it. There have been movies made from this story with cute vegetables. There is even a musical production of it that is really quite good. And it is most notably known for the great fish, commonly called a whale, which we do not know that it was. But they typically call it Jonah and the Whale despite the great fish, being only present in 3 verses of the entire book.
But it is memorable story that we are fond of telling our children and it is a scary story for children making them not want to swim in the open sea. But when we think of it, we also bring in our mind the story of Jonah’s rebellion.
But Jonah is so much more than just the rebellion of Jonah. It is a beautiful picture of God’s grace and unending love and mercy. Which for some may come to you as a shock. There is another misconception that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath and anger. And when you come to Jonah, you cannot help but see the complete goodness and love of God. It is a love that you can find in every book of the Old Testament as well. He doesn’t change from the Old Testament to the New. He is the same.
And Jonah reminds us of that. And because it tells of a fish swallowing a man, many have dismissed the book of Jonah as fiction, a mere fairy tale. There is a debate going on as to what type of book is this. Is it poetry, we read of a poem by Jonah in chapter 2. Is it an allegory or a parable? Well it cannot be those, because it is written as a historical narrative. mentions Jonah as living during the time of Jeroboam II (about 793–753 B.C.), and Jesus referred to Jonah as a historical person ().
Some may point out, well this may seem to be a historical narrative, but it really isn’t because it refers to the King of Nineveh and Nineveh was actually just the capital city of Assyria, so it should have read the King of Assyria. But this was a common thing in those times to refer to the king associated with the capital city.
For example, King of Israel is called the King of Samaria. Also, King of Syria is called the King of Damascus.
And so it is very much a true story.
And faced with the reality of the message Jonah delivers, we have to come to grips in our own lives of how we so often run from God and his calling to us. And also step outside of ourselves. Jonah, although a major character in this book, is also not necessarily the focus. The evil, wicked Ninevites who the whole story is progressing towards. They are the ones that God is seeking to save.
Yesterday was Cheeseburger Crusades but it was also the Pride Festival. And for those who were able to go, I thank you and rejoice that the Gospel was preached. But it gives us pause doesn’t it. There are people all around us that may be living a decent life based on culture terms, but when put up against with the law of God, they are all going to Hell. And do we care about that? Do we truly and sincerely care about the lost?
Jonah ran from it. And we are so quick to point the finger at him and highlight his faults, but do we recognize a hypocrisy in our own? Are we preaching Christ out of duty or demand or because there is an event, or is there a desire and love to seek and save the lost? And as I was preparing for this sermon series, I was struck myself at all the people around me who do not know God. And they need to know God. Jonah reminds us of our call and commission.
· , Scene 1: Commissioned to Go
· , Scene 2: Rebellion of Jonah- Runs and goes in a ship
· , Scene 1: The Defiance of Jonah- three days in the belly not praying or repenting, maybe contemplating
· , Scene 2: The Humbling of Jonah- He prays and repents
· , Scene 1: Effectiveness of Jonah- preaching in Nineveh
· , Scene 2: Mercy of God- God relenting
· : Anger of Jonah- Jonah outside the city
· Theology of Jonah
Body
I think this is a pretty interesting beginning. The book does not take time to go into details describing the who, what, where, when, why. It sort of addresses those questions, but not with very much depth at all. It’s almost as if, they are unimportant. It does not draw it out like some narratives or stories we read where the author will spend 4 chapters describing a house. No, it jumps straight into the story and sort of reads like a newspaper. As we look through the story, you will notice very quickly that the author, Jonah, is jumping from event to event.
And so, one may be quick to miss the unfolding drama of the events. You can be quick to simply read through Jonah and miss the meaning of the book and even its connection and relation to the whole scope of Scripture. It is not a random story, but fits perfectly in the story of redemption we read throughout the Bible. And wouldn’t that be a shame. To miss out on all the twists and turns of a really delightful book and to come away from it just thinking about a great fish!?!?
So, as we go through the story, I want you to try and picture in your minds eye, what is going on. So, the beginning. And like I mentioned before, the book does not take time to go into details describing the who, what, where, when, why, but it does touch on them.
Who: We are introduced to the two major characters of the story. God and Jonah. It is interesting that there are no other named characters we know of in this book. Well, maybe with the exception of fish. But the only people we know of are God, Jonah, and a people group—the Ninevites. It is rather unusual but the focus of the book is between the interactions of God and Jonah. So what exactly is going on here? Well we see a specific relationship between God and Jonah. God gives a command and Jonah is expected to obey the command.
What: To get up and go to Nineveh. Now that is interesting that the choice of words is to get up and go. There is a progression that is supposed to occur, but does it happen? Jonah is to go up. But as we read throughout this book, in Jonah’s rebellion, he goes down.
1:3- Down to Joppa, down into the ship to Tarshish
1:5- Down in the belly of the ship
2:6- Sank to the foundations of the mountains
There is a downward progression, but he is supposed to be going up.
Also, he is not given a very long message. Now there could’ve been more and in later chapters we read more of the words Jonah gives, but this is what the story is about. Jonah is to go and deliver a message. And it seems to be a doom prophecy. But for those who know the story, we know it doesn’t have that purpose. God uses Jonah and his message to deliver the people.
And we know that Jonah does not like this, nor does he want them to be delivered. He hates them.
In the midst of all the political corruption of Israel, Jonah remained a zealous patriot. [1] But he was reluctant to go to them because he resented them. They had been used by God, they the Assyrians, to punish Israel. Assyrians commonly impaled, dismembered, decapitated, and disfigured defeated peoples. These reliefs also provide insight into the life of ancient Palestine at the time of Assyrian dominance. The Assyrians were ruthless and harsh overlords.[2] This city was the epitome of pure evil.
Where: We don’t know where exactly he received the message, but it could’ve been where he was born in Gath-Hepher (). There we read of Jonah’s first prophecy.
Why: Have you ever thought to yourself while reading Jonah, why doesn’t God just destroy them like how he destroyed Jericho or even like Gideon and his mighty men. Or maybe to repeat history Sennacherib also moved to attack Jerusalem, but the biblical account states that Yahweh killed 185,000 of the Assyrian soldiers while they slept, so Sennacherib and his forces returned to Nineveh. This miraculous event is recorded three times in the Old Testament (compare ; ; ).[3]
Why send a prophet to them? Prophets did not typically preach to non-Jewish people groups. Well I believe it lends to the theology of Jonah being a proclamation of God’s mercy and love.
So Scene 1, we see Jonah is commissioned by God again to deliver a message. But he runs.
Imagine disciples or Isaiah.
We are reminded of Adam and Eve. God comes down and calls to them in the cool of the day and then run and hide. But can you run and hide from God? We are reminded of Moses. “Send someone else” he pleas. But God gets what He wants. And so we already know that thins will not turn out well for Jonah. He should not run, but he should respond appropriately in obedience to God. Jonah is acting out of character as well. What we read in is that he responds positively to the call of God, but here he responds negatively. And so already, from the beginning we have a quiet pause as we try to answer a couple of questions.
1) Why is Jonah running from God?
2) Why not deliver a message like he had before?
Now we have looked at these questions already, but we can also think of how they apply to us as well.
Conclusion
We already see that we are all very much like Jonah aren’t we? We are commissioned by God and called by Him. But what is our response? Jonah begins with this question, but it also ends with the same question. What is our response? Hopefully, it will not take a great fish to get us to act appropriately.
But, as will be later developed in this book, we are fearful people. We also are a people who holds grudges. But God is just. We know that. We cannot be quick to hump to God’s mercy. Which is a major theme of this book, and overlook his justice and wrath. Jonah was to carry a message that would confront the people and expose them. To show that God is not blinded to their deeds. He knows.
[1] Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Jonah (Person). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, p. 1205). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
[2] Sieges, A. (2016). Nineveh. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[3] Sieges, A. (2016). Nineveh. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.