Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Big Idea
Tension: how does God bless Nineveh with forgiveness?
Resolution: Through the curse of Jonah.
Exegetical Idea: God blesses Nineveh with forgiveness through Jonah’s cursing.
Theological Idea: God uses the law to compel us all to run to Christ.
Homiletical Idea: The curse of the law leads us to the blessing of Christ
Objective: We want people to see that God saves.
Intro
Introduction:
Exposition
Jonah Cursed Nineveh
Inciting Incident
God called Jonah a second time: Now, this story picks up where we left off.
Jonah has been vomited out of the fish onto dry ground.
We don’t know what happened next, how long he was on the beach or what.
Personally, I think he went back to the temple in Jerusalem.
But, regardless.
Wherevere he is, the Word of the Lord comes to him a second time.
God is being so gracious and so kind to him.
Here is this prophet, who has run away when he received his message.
He has been reckless and dangerous and hidden in the bottom of the boat when he’s been confronted.
He’s been self-righteous and so stuck-up in the fish.
And here God is giving him his message a second time.
Here we should just note, God loves to use broken sinners for his tasks.
Call out to it the message I tell you: And God tells Jonah call out against Nineveh the message I tell you.
Now, this word, against, is not actually the same word that was used in chapter 1 when God originally sent Jonah.
It is a kinder, lighter word.
So there is a hint that God is telling Jonah, “Hey Jonah, call out against Nineveh, but remember teh mercy I just showed you.
Remember the grace I just showed you.
Remember how kind I have been towards you.”
Rising Action
Jonah arose and goes to Nineveh (seems like he’s obeying God): Well, Jonah does as he is told. he stands up and he goes to Nineveh.
It’s probably about a 500 mile journey.
ALl this time it seems like he’s being obedient.
Whereas before he ran away from God, now he is doing what God asked him to do.
In fact, it says, “according to the word of the Lord.”
So we’re kind of on teh edge of our seat, what will Jonah say?
How will Jonah respond?
Has Jonah finally understood what God is about?
Climax
Denouement
The omens on Nineveh: Now, as we are talking about Jonah going to Nineveh, it is appropriate to note hwat was historically happening in Nineveh about this time.
We know from archaeology and from history, that Nineveh and the Assyrians are going through something of a crisis.
There is a civil war that has just caused a lot of conflict.
There has been a devastating earthquake.
There has been a famine where many people in Nineveh starved.
And so, as Jonah is headed towards Nineveh, we can assume, “Okay, now would be
Jonah cursed Nineveh, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown”: But Jonah gets there, and he preaches against Nineveh.
And he says, “yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
Now, Jonah is here citing a tradition of Old Testament prophets who would frequently talk about God’s judgment on cities using this language.
The omens on Nineveh
The omens
So Jonah here is preaching disaster that is coming.
In other words, there is not really any of the mercy that he’s been shown.
He can’t reciprocate .He can’t pay it forward.
He is like the dead sea.
You see, the dead sea is the lowest point on earth.
And the Dead Sea in Israel is this sea that has received the flow of the Jordan River for centuries, but it doesn’t empty out anywhere.
It has so much minerals that it is bitter and undrinkable.
And the sea is just sinking deeper and deeper into the earth.
Jonah is like that.
He has received eerything that has been doen for him gladly, but he can’t let any of it go forward.
As a result, he sinks deeper and deeper into himself.
The kindness and the grace of God have not touched his heart, and so he is all fire and brimstone, all judgment, all curse.
Is Jonah wrong to curse Nineveh?: Now, God is going to deal with Jonah a little later in chapter 4. But we should ask right now, was it wrong for Jonah to point out just how sinful Nineveh was?
After all, Nineveh was a wicked city.
Nineveh was the ISIS of its day.
They worshipped many gods other than God.
They were violent and took pleasure in torture and painful death.
They were sexually immoral.
They were the equivalent of a modern terrorist state.
They were unspeakably evil.
This is the group that not long after Jonah’s life would take israel and scatter many of its inhabitants across the face of the known world.
They were a wicked city and under God’s judgment.
God is a pure and holy God, and he will punish all people who are evil.
Nineveh is a sin city, and they are under God’s judgment: Around the same time as Jonah, mayb ea few years later, maybe earlier, there was a prophet who prophesied against Nineveh named Nahum.
And this is what he prophesied in , ,
Around the same time as Jonah, mayb ea few years later, maybe earlier, there was a prophet who prophesied against Nineveh named Nahum.
And this is what he prophesied in , ,
- Of course, the
How could God be so angry?: Of course, our gut impulse is to ask, “How could God be so angry?
How could he be so wrathful?
How could he punish sin like this?”
You know, this is a good question.
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