Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet
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Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet
Introduction to the Prophet
Intro: What comes to mind when you hear about the book of Jonah? Is it a contrary person running from God? Or Is it the giant fish? Especially how big does a fish have to be to allow a grown man to live inside him for three days. How is that possible, how do I explain this weird portion of the scriptures to my unbelieving friends and family, because this subject is one of the things everyone is at least partly familiar with.
What if you learned that the fish is only mentioned for a couple of lines and is not the main point of the story.
Read Verses: 1-3
MP: The Book of Jonah demonstrates what can happen when people repent of their sins and turn to God.
I. God Spoke To Jonah (V. 1)
Author is unknown. Jonah is one of the 12 books that make up what we refer to as the Minor prophets. Unlike many of the prophetic books, that say things like theses are the words of Obidiah or Amos, the opening line jumps right into the story by saying “When the Lord commanded Jonah, son of Amitay...”
Date: Although there is no named author we do know that the book was around at least by 200 BC because there is a reference to the 12 prophets “is mentioned in , an apocryphal book written shortly after 200 b.c.
There is a proposed middle date of somewhere between the sixth and fourth century, so right around the time of the Babylonian exile or right after it.
The earliest date would be the time of Jonah’s ministry, which places in the first half of the eighth century.
Genre and Purpose: When we read the Bible, it is important to know what kind of genre it is. If it is apocalyptic and some more prophetic, dealing with destruction and end times, then the language will be strong, and more figurative. If it is historical narrative, it is pretty straightforward because the author is recounting history.
As people who follow a mighty, sovereign God, we are accustomed to miracles and supernatural events, so we can take many things, like the resurrection of Jesus or the fish swallowing Jonah with seriousness. Some people my want to take the book as allegory or a parable and look for meaning in the characters, the names, and places, but the evidence seems to show that thinking it is allegory does the events and more importantly God, a disservice by muting his power and authority in His universe.
The classical view is that Jonah is historical. “Ancient tradition regarded the book as historical. The Jewish scholar Josephus, for example, used it in his first-century account of Jewish history (Ant. 9.12.2). R. H. Bowers demonstrates how the church fathers, while recognizing the remarkable nature of the events, nevertheless treated the book not only as history but also as prophecy confirming the power of God to raise the dead. He cites Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. 370), for example, as arguing that “if the resurrection of Christ be credible so is that of Jonah, and vice-versa.”
Jesus himself compares his death and resurrection to Jonah’s account of living in the fish for three days and then being spit out onto land. He does not treat that allegorically or just as a story, but he uses it literally. To go one step further for Jesus’ references to Jonah, it is more difficult to deny that Jesus was assuming the historicity of the conversion of the Ninevites when he continued in v. 41 (cf. ).
The book has a bit of satire and irony but it is considered a masterpiece of Hebrew literature.
Structure: Jonah is divided into two parts: Chapters 1 and 2 deal with getting Jonah to obey God and get him to Nineveh. The second half is in chapters 3 and 4 deal with Jonah preaching in and around Nineveh, the people’s response and Jonah’s response to the Ninehvites repenting.
God and Jonah are the main characters and the only two named characters as well. They are the focal point and God is the one directing the action. He is making the storm happen, he directs the fish and he controls the weather at the end. As we go through the book we will see how people respond to God and we can make connections to our own lives.
II. God Commands Jonah (V. 2)
Assyria was Israel's neighbors to the northeast , in modern day northern Iraq. Depending on when the book it written, Assyria was on their way up in power and world conquest, or they had been established for a period of time as a regional power. (Amos, Obadiah, Jonah (NAC)): “Nineveh was a city whose reputation called for direct action from the Lord. The term “great” designates nothing more than its size.
Nineveh was situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, opposite the modern city of Mosul, north of the city of Zab. It was an old city, dating back to approximately 4500 b.c., and one of the principal cities of ancient Assyria.”
“They were well known in the ancient world for brutality and cruelty. Ashurbanipal, the grandson of Sennacherib, was accustomed to tearing off the lips and hands of his victims. Tiglath-Pileser flayed victims alive and made great piles of their skulls. Jonah’s reluctance to travel to Nineveh may have been due to its infamous violence.”
Or he knows the Assyrians are essentially the enemy and he is asking “How could God request that ‘those people’” are offered the same grace as God’s people, the Israelites.”
Sometimes it is hard to understand God’s grace and who receives it.
In the movie Breakthrough, the teacher asks the boy who survives falling into the lake, “why do you think God chooses who lives and who dies.” And he doesn’t have an answer for her.
In his forthcoming book called Something Needs to Change, David Platt, who was the president of the International Missionary Board, talks about a hiking/missionary trip he took to the Himalayas. Before they come to a village, his friend who lives and works in the region, prepares them for the absence of girls between the ages of 12 and 20 in the village. He tells them that the area is extremely poor and so sex traffickers come and talk the parents into leaving the village to go to the larger city with promise of earning money for them.
Platt is shaken by this revelation and he says, “Why, God? If you are in control of all things, then why do you let this happen? Why Have you not saved these girls from this slavery? Why have you not struck down every single one of these traffickers.”
Jonah seems to forget that God showed the Israelites grace all throughout their existence from His election of Abraham, to the leading of the nation through the wilderness during the Exodus from Egypt.
In his book, even though Platt doesn’t understand everything he is experiencing yet, he reads and 19 which is when Jesus is in the temple and he reads the scroll of Isaiah
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
Jonah has spoken with God and received His word to proclaim to the Ninevites to repent.
The Old Testament prophets got to function as a precursor to Christ by warning People and calling them back to repentance and more importantly back to God.
And to give them the Hope that they are not forsaken. To provide freedom to those of us who are held captive by sin. He gave sight to the blind, both physically blind and also the spiritually blind. That we can be enriched through God even if we are.
Application: When God commands us to do something, it is for a reason and we have to trust Him.
Even though we don’t know how it will turn out or why he wants us to do it. Or eve that it is what we think of as fair or unfair.
Abraham did not know what would happen when God told him to move his family 4-5 hundred miles east. Joseph did not know what woul dhappen to him when he was in the pit and sld into slavery. Paul did not know what would become of the guy who was blinded on the road and had to trust someone of a group that he was there to persecute. Ruth did not know what would happen to her and her mother in law after her husband died.
But each of these people sensed the call of God on their lives and knew that it was more than a job or a purpose. They knew that it was a life changing event to be called by God, to participate and live in his Kingdom.
TS: Have You ever sensed that God was commanding you to do something and you were really against it. Or sometimes in Christian speak we say I am not called to do this or that. And so we make a decision either to obey or disobey.
III. Jonah Disobeys God (V. 3)
The narrator tells us that Jonah that Jonah Got up, so far, so good, Jonah is obey god, becuase in verse 1 God tells Jonah to get up and go. But Instead of going to Nineveh, Jonah goes down to Joppa to get on a ship to head to Tarshish.
Tarshish was at the end of the known world it was probably a Phonecian seaport in Spain, near the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea. Some 2000 miles away from where Jonah was.and further from where God told him to go.
God said Go east, and Jonah wanted to go west
Not only did Jonah Go in the opposite direction from God, it is most likely that Jonah, may have rented the entire ship so he could leave as fast as possible.
The narrator uses the word down several times. He went down to Joppa and then he went down into the boat. This indicates how much Jonah is getting farther from God. If God is up, Jonah wants to go down.
What motivated Jonah to flee from the Lord? Was it fear of the Assyrians? Or was it fear of God. The narrator does not give us an answer.
But the more relevant question is what makes you Run from God? Is it because you think you are not good enough to work for God. Do you think you are not sinless enough to come to church.
Do you think you don’t know enough to talk to someone about the Gospel?
Biblically, we should fear God. The Israelites were so afraid of God that they had Moses go up to talk to God so they didn’t have to be in His presence in .
We don’t have to be scared but we should be reverent and understand who we are going to stand in front of one day. This is not to scare you but it is to sober us up about who we are dealing with.
Application: says “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling”.
This is the application that we take away from Jonah’s example. Sometimes you learn more from the people who do something wrong than we do following someone who does it right.
You can serve God with awe, wonder and fear, but you can do it joyfully. When you read the encounters with when Paul, or Peter, or Moses interact with God, they are rightfully and properly afraid. Because here is the One who created the universe. There was nothing in question about this. And you when you read james’, Paul’s and Peter’s letters, they are overjoyed that they are in the service of the King.
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” (v. 2).
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In Pauls Letters he is joyful for being able to suffer for God to procliam the Good News of Jesus to the Gentiles.
says Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.[d] 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
But Jonah does not get to rejoice because he chooses not to serve the Lord. He is just trying to run away. God did not put Jonah in prison, but Jonah seems to think that obeying God and carrying out his mission was worse than jail or worse than dying and so he ran from it to avoid his self imposed sentence.
Jonah ran from His mission but Christ walked toward it with confidence. Every step he took while on this earth was part of the plan to get him to the Cross and then to the grave so he could act as a sacrifice and then be raised again through the Father’s power.
Conclusion
As Jonah sets sail for Tarshish, we are left with a little bit of a cliff hanger if you have never heard the story.
Jonah is a story of God’s grace. His grace extends to the people who already follow him and those who have not heard the Gospel yet. As believers we are God’s instruments to proclaim the good news to those who do not know of God just yet.
The message of salvation through God the Son is too important and too exciting to keep it under your hat.
The Questions for this week are:
Are you running from God? And if so why?
What would happen if you turned toward him and listen to Him?
Closing Prayer
17 He [Jesus] came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.