Jonah 1:1-16
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Today we are looking at the life of Jonah over 4 Sundays, God willing. What a book! It is so unlike all the other books of the minor prophets. This is one of 12 mini-books, as it were, which is why they are called minor. Jonah and the others were not lesser prophets it is just that not so much was written in relation to them or recorded of what they said. We come across Jonah in one other place in the Old Testament in:
25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.
The King of that time was Jeroboam who reigned from 786BC to 747BC. This, then tells us when Jonah was around. We have no written record of the actual prophecy that Jonah gave but it came to pass. Not every word of God has been written down for us only that which is necessary for us. God can speak to us through any number of instruments but normally and mainly through Scripture.
When we look at the New Testament Jesus mentioned Jonah on two or three separate occasions as we shall see as we go through this book. Jesus called Jonah great. And that might come as a surprise to us as we travel through this book! I am sure that you already remember the story of Jonah from when you were kids but this is no kid story if all we remember is the great fish. Jonah was a great man of faith. His faith in God was truly remarkable and he had a grasp on what God was like. So, let us pick up the story in the first chapter:
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
This book starts just like many of the other books of the prophets. The Word of the Lord came to Jonah. Jonah heard God speak. Oh it is unmistakable when God speaks. And Jonah did not doubt when he heard. He just didn’t like what he heard. Rarely does God speak and it be the very thing we want to do. In fact, it is often the very opposite. This could be in regard to a particular sin and say, stop doing that and go and sin no more. Or, it could be that He will ask us to do something that puts us out of our comfort zone. Or, it could be He asks us to give up something. Or, it could be that He sends us somewhere we do not want to.
Now I could speak of my own calling to Swansea. We did not want to come to Swansea to start with. We wanted to be in or near London. We wanted to be closer to my family and closer to the airport to go to Macedonia. That is what we wanted. We wanted to go East and possibly North. Instead God wanted us to go West. The opposite direction. There was no doubt. God made it happen that it was impossible to mistake His leading. Perhaps, we could have held out, perhaps we could have forced to go elsewhere but instead the leading of God was easy - to Swansea we came.
Now Jonah’s way was being made easy. It was to go East to a large city that was well known. This was the easy way, the way of God’s leading. But what do we find? He starts to go West. Maybe he heard the song: Go West Young Man. I don’t know but all he knew was that he was not going to go where he was told to go. Now this is incredible for a prophet. He heard. And he heard clearly. He knew what God wanted him to do. He was just not going to do it. Oh I wish that we would all hear His voice and that without a doubt know what He is saying. And, my friends, if you are a Christian, you do hear His voice:
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.
Are you hearing? I know that you are. Perhaps, though, you are refusing to do what you hear. Such was Jonah. It is not that he did not know God had spoken to him. He just didn’t want to go. Why? This might surprise you but it also goes to our very own hearts for this story is not here to titillate us and go tut tut about Jonah but go straight to piercing of our own heart and conscience.
Jonah was racist. That’s why he did not want to go. They were not Jews. They did not worship the true God, they had their own gods. He wanted them to be judged. We will hear more on this as we go through this book.
Jonah goes and gets a boat from Israel to Spain. From Joppa which is close to Tel-Aviv to close to Gibraltar. He was going as far as it was possible in the known world from doing what he had been called to do.
Little did he or the merchant seamen know what kind of journey they were about to have.
Jonah is a sea story which has at its heart a great storm, one which threatened the lives of the crew.
Now we come to verse 4 which says: “The Lord let loose a hurricane on the ship”. It was so bad that the ship was beginning to be torn apart. And they all cry out to their gods to no avail. But in the midst of this was one who was asleep, seemingly oblivious to this massive storm. Does this remind of another time when this happened:
22 Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. 23 But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. 24 And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!”
Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 But He said to them, “Where is your faith?”
And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”
This story is more alike than we know thus far. Jesus was sleeping with peace with God. Jonah was also sleeping but a different reason. I have noticed that Christians who sleep a lot, beyond the health reasons, is because they are avoiding God.
This passage gives us a stark picture of their fear of these seasoned sailors and of their desperate efforts to avoid shipwreck. Jonah, their passenger, has not emerged with honour from the story so far. He has rejected God’s call to go and preach to the people of distant Nineveh and in taking ship he is trying to escape the responsibility God has laid upon him. But now the lot has been cast for they asked who is to blame for their scenario and this time there really was someone to blame, the stranger they had taken onboard with them: Jonah. They ask a ton of questions. Who are you? What do you do? and so on. In this he neglected to say that he is a prophet.
Jonah had thought that God is the God of Israel but what had been revealed to him is that God is inescapable.
Indeed, if Jonah had read the Psalms he would have already known for:
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
Now, with his new found knowledge, in the midst of this storm Jonah declared his fear of God who made Heaven and earth, land and sea. And for the first time he accepted his fault and gave the solution. Except the solution placed the responsibility upon those seafaring men. And what honour they had. They did not want to throw him overboard as he had said but wanted to save his life. But the hurricane became even worse that in the end they had no choice. They were worried about committing murder. Now do you see what I mean about Jonah placing his responsibility upon them. He could have easily gone over the side by himself but he expected them to make the choice! And as they were all going to die anyway. They prayed to the God of Israel even when Jonah did not and then they picked him up and threw him overboard. And sudden calmness came upon them and the sea. Oh the men had been afraid but now they were very afraid not of their situation but of the God of Heaven and earth, of land and sea.
Jonah who had been rebellion against God through his attitude against the Ninevites had instead been with other pagans who worshipped other gods and through it all God was glorified. If Jonah had not run then these pagans would not have heard about the Israelite God: they were “accidentally” converted.
Why had Jonah run? Because the Ninevites were the enemy of Israel and was capital of the Empire of Assyria. And he thought that God was the God of Israel only proved by the very fact that God had restored the land according to his prophecy back to Israel during King Jehoboam’s time. For this Jonah delighted. But to be sent to a Gentile city was not in his resume. God was exclusively God of the Hebrews, wasn’t He? This is where Jonah gets a rude awakening. Surely God cannot be interested in them, over there. And as we go on we find out that God is indeed God over all nations who brings judgement or peace depending upon their actions.
Perhaps we’d all like to go to Hawaii as long as there is no volcanic eruption but what if God told us to to Pakistan or Afghanistan or North Korea. It is easy to go to where we want which maybe Hawaii but maybe it will be to Timbuktu. Or maybe closer to home to the homes of refugees and migrants and asylum seekers. Jonah never doubted that God could change hearts, he just didn’t want the hearts of the Ninevites to be changed.
Do we loathe people that much that we would be happy to see the destruction of certain groups of people? This is not the way of God even in the Old Testament. We seem to think that the God of the Old is not the God of the new. That is heresy. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. God has always sought the repentance of all people no matter who they are regardless of their religion or race or sex. This book is evidence of grace before judgement to all peoples.
What is our attitude to peoples not like us or practising a different religion to us? Do we dismiss them out of hand as unworthy of the Gospel? God through Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
And finally, is God calling you to do something and you have not yet done it? It’s time to stop running. Maybe it is us who need to repent.
Benediction
Benediction
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Bibliography
Bibliography
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Scofield, C. I. (Ed.). (1917). The Scofield Reference Bible: The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments. New York; London; Toronto; Melbourne; Bombay: Oxford University Press.
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Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be amazed. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 14:16 21 October 2018.