Sermon Tone Analysis

·         *SLIDE 1: Jonah*

·         “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh.

Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”

·         The message was clear, it was from God, and it was to be obeyed.

·         But there were issues:

o   Jonah was a prophet of God’s people and he just wasn’t clicking wit the idea of being used by God to warn people who were enemies of God’s people.

o   Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria (located in what is now Northern Iraq) and Assyria had a reputation.

o   They were not a friendly bunch and were noted for:

§  Burning their enemies alive

§  Skinning them alive

§  Impaling them on poles

§  The book of Nahum tells of:

·         Scheming against God

·         Exploitation of the helpless

·         Cruelty in war

·         Idolatry

·         Prostitution

·         Witchcraft

o   They were also noted for:

§  Being an advanced society

§  They worshipped at the temple of Nabu, the god of writing, arts and science

§  Massive libraries have been found in the ruins of Nineveh including the Gilgamesh Epic which contains a version of the flood account.

o   It was a big assignment :

§  Massive size of the city itself  (three days to walk through)

§  The brutal reputation

§  Maybe even the scholarly atmosphere

o   Jonah had even deeper issues with the assignment

·         Jonah knew God’s call.

He now had to choose which way to run!

·         “But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord.

He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish.

He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.”

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o   Let’s put this move in perspective:

§  *SLIDE 2:* *Normal route to Nineveh*

§  *SLIDE 3:* *Where Jonah wanted to go*

§  See the difference?

§  His goal was to get as far away from God on earth as he probably thought he could.

(would have been about 2,500 miles)

·         *SLIDE 4: Jonah*

·         So Jonah ends up on a ship bound for Tarshish.

o   Not long after they leave Joppa God sends a storm

§  A way of providing some major course correction for Jonah

o   The storm was a huge storm and the ship began to break apart

o   The sailors became very desperate, very quickly, and began calling out to their gods for some help while throwing cargo overboard

§  The great irony is that while all this was going on, Jonah was sleeping soundly in the hold of the ship.

§  The Capitan must have noticed the missing Jonah and went looking for him

§  He found him sawing logs (sleeping) and asked him the same question we’re wondering:  “How can you sleep at a time like this?”

§  I think Jonah really believed he was escaping God’s call.

·         The pressure was off.

·         “It’s going to be hard to preach in Nineveh when I’m in Tarshish.”

§  The Captain had a good idea for Jonah:  “Pray to your god and maybe he’ll hear us an save our lives!”

·         It’s interesting to see how pro-active these sailors were in the area of divine assistance.

·         If the gods weren’t answering then they figured someone on board had probably tick one off.

§  They cast lots (when needed God can work through anything) and the lots pointed to Jonah as the offender.

o   The questioning began:

§  Who are you?

§  What’s your line of work?

§  What country are you from?

§  What’s your nationality?

o   Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of Heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

o   The picture was clear for the sailors now.

§  They had a guy on their ship who not only served the Creator of the land and sea (it takes a little bit of power to be able to do that) he was arrogant and~/or foolish enough to believe he could actually run away from Him!

o   Meanwhile, the storm was getting worse.

§  They asked Jonah what he thought they should do.

§  “Throw me overboard and the storm will stop.”

§  But the sailors started rowing even harder to get the ship to land, but the storm was just to violent.

§  Finally they gave up, calling out to Jonah’s God, “O Lord, don’t make us die for this man’s sin.

And don’t hold us responsible for his death.

O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”

§  Then they picked up Jonah, threw him overboard and the storm stopped at once!

§  The sailors knew a powerful God in action when they saw it, so they offered a sacrifice and vowed to serve Him.

·         We could stop right here and we’d have a powerful story.

o   Here we have the man of God thinking he could mess with God and get away with it.

o   Then we have the pagan sailors recognizing the power of God and vowing to serve Him.

o   Religious arrogance is dangerous.

·         Well, you know the next part of the story.

o   God arranged for a “great fish” to swallow Jonah.

(it doesn’t say that it was a whale)

o   And that is where he stayed for three days and three nights.

§  Now if you’re thinking that’s got to be pure allegory, something from a fairy tale or an epic myth, let me reassure you that there are documented cases of people being swallowed by whales and coming out alive; a bit bleached, but alive

§  This happened in the late 1800’s on the ship Star of the East.

·         In February 1891, this whaling ship spotted a large sperm whale in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands.

·         Two boats were launched, & shortly a harpooner speared the whale.

·         The second boat attempted to get in another harpoon, but the boat was overturned in the process and one man drowned.

·         Another man, James Bartley, disappeared & was assumed drowned.

·         In time the whale was killed and drawn to the side of the ship where it was tied fast & the blubber removed.

·         The following day the stomach was hoisted onto the deck.

·         That’s where James Bartley was.

·         He was in the whale’s stomach, unconscious, but alive.

He recovered & did his job again.

§  Need a spiritual retreat?

Try three days and nights in a fish gut.

·         It will change you.

§  While Jonah was in the fish gut, he became very repentant.

He wanted to change his ways.

·         He began praying scripture.

·         God heard him.

·         And God ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.

·         Then God told Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”

o   And Jonah did just that.