Sermon Tone Analysis

Background

Jonah‘s name means DOVE, and he was a servant of the Lord from Gath Hepher a town in the tribe of Zebulun.

Jonah is the son of Amittai, and he was and he remained to be the only Old Testament prophet to attempt to run from God.

One of four prophets whose ministries were specifically referred to by Christ, along with Elijah, Elisha and Isaiah.

A common recurring problem is that the book of Jonah first off is portrayed as a children’s story and second the story that is told doesnt go beyond focusing on Jonah being in the belly of a great fish, and often ending when Jonah is spit up on dry land.

This neglects the whole prophecy to Nineveh and fails to establish the truths about God that are portrayed in the second half of the book of Jonah about God being a God of second chances sovereign in grace and mercy.

In Jewish tradition the entire book of Jonah is to be read every year on Yom-Kippur - The Day of Atonement.

Traditionally the book is considered to be written by the prophet Jonah - 2 Kings 14:25.

The events of the book occurred during the reign of Jeroboam II (793-753 BC) and also before the destruction of Nineveh around 612 BC.

There is every reason to believe that Jonah wrote the book himself.

It gives an account of his divine commission to go to Nineveh, his disobedience

It records his prayer and miraculous deliverance

The second commission given to him and prompt obedience to bring the message from God to Nineveh and the resulting repentance in Nineveh

Jonah’s displeasure at God’s mercy and his resulting rebuke from God.

The content of this book describes Jonah as an intensely patriotic person.

It is precisely his misguided patriotism that caused him to rebel at the possibility of Israel’s former enemies receiving mercy and forgiveness from God.

It is an important lesson and rebuke towards Jonah’s exclusivistic attitude - and ours too if we have one.

Jonah a book of the minor prophets is unique in its focus is on Jonah the prophet as opposed to Jonah’s prophecies.

It looks at the condition of Jonah’s heart, God’s discipline of him.

It should serve to not only instruct but also to humble our hearts as we see that God’s concern and grace to all people is in view.

The purpose of the book is to teach that for one, God’s grace is not limited to the Hebrew people.

It also puts repentance and forgiveness as significant themes that point to God being a God of second chances - second chances no matter who you are.

While Jonah is in view most often do not be deceived he is not the main actor of this book - God is.

Jonah is mentioned about 18 times while God is mentioned 38 times in four chapters.

Which means if you eliminate him from the book it wouldn’t make sense at all.

Disobedience

Fleeing From the Lord’s Call

Introduction

Consider the people that you find most difficult to love.

Images perhaps conjure of faces, types, groups of people perhaps that you are most critical and judgmental of.

What types of personalities do you typically dismiss hoping to have little contact with them or even having no responsibility for.

People who for all intense and purposes have become enemies because of What they say, do or even believe.

What if these people also declared themselves to be enemies of God and their behavior is blatantly anti-God?

Do we feel more justified in our judgment of them and writing them off as beyond God’s mercy?

This is what happened with Jonah and Jonah’s response to call from the Lord to reach out and bring the message of the Lord to the Lord’s enemies - but most importantly in Jonah’s mind his own enemies, was to flee from the call of the Lord.

May we see in that fleeing from the Lord’s call to bring His message to people we dont believe deserve it - is disobedience and God will not allow us to flee in disobedience.

Let us not be faithful to God only when we agree with Him but may our hearts be faithful and obedient even when God’s call is contrary to what we want.

Attempting to Flee

Jonah’s Call

Verses 1-2 describe how the call of the Lord came to Jonah.

It came and it called him to Get up! and Go! Go to the great city of Nineveh (this city was second in size only to Babylon).

Nineveh was a city built by Nimrod as recorded in Genesis, and Jonah was called by God to go and preach against it.

The call for Jonah was to get up from where he was and from what he was doing.

Get up and stop what you are doing.

Then the word of the Lord said not only to get up and stop, but to GO! Stop what you are doing and leave where you are at to GO.

These are all commanded actions that require immediate response.

What was so urgent that it required an urgent response?

God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach against it.

In other words, God wanted Jonah to go and bring a stinging message of rebuke against Nineveh in order to correct them.

To raise the call and sound the alarm that they are in grave danger of falling into the hands of the holy God.

Their evil has come up before the Lord and they must repent!

These people are relentless and persistent in their sins.

Nineveh as a city of Assyria it is known for its brutal atrocities and blatant idolatry.

They worshipped the gods of Nabu, Assur, Adad, and Ishtar.

Nineveh as a city was located in what is presently modern day Iraq opposite of Mosul.

Jonah prophesied during the days when Assyria was threatening the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

God was sending him to preach rebuke and repentance to Nineveh the capital city of Assyria.

Assyria an extremely cruel nation especially towards the Jews.

If their inscriptions are to be believed, they flayed their enemies alive, made heaps of their skulls and did many other dreadful things.

The haughty and blasphemous words of the Rabshekeh, the Assyrian spokesman of Sennacherib are recorded in 2 Kings 18:19.

Jonah was called to bring them a message in their own land, in their own capital.

A message not well received by friends and family let alone by enemies.

Jonah’s Flight

Other prophets are recorded as responding to the word of the Lord coming upon them with a response “Here I am Lord…” Jonah however did not.

So how did Jonah respond to this call that came from the Lord?

Well verse three records his response and while Jonah responded with an immediate response to get up he did not go to Nineveh.

Jonah immediately got up to FLEE.

Where was he running?

Physically Jonah was fleeing to Tarshish, spiritually Jonah was fleeing from the LORD’s presence.

When one seeks to escape the call of the Lord one is also fleeing the presence of the Lord at the same time.

Jonah went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish.

Jonah paid the fare and went down it the ship to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence.

It is a sin to flee from the Lord.

If we are not on the Lord’s path then we are in opposition to the Lord and defiance of the Lord.

Tarshish is the exact opposite direction of Nineveh and the mode of travel is the exact opposite.

Sin always has its cost, fares or wages that we will pay

We delude ourselves into thinking we can escape the presence of the Lord.

The Psalmist writing in Psalm 139 knows this is impossible and futile

The prophet Nahum (another minor prophet also sent to preach to Nineveh) gives an insightful picture of what Ninevties were like.

Jonah refused to go to Nineveh and preach - even to preach against them.

Maybe at best Jonah would be mocked or treated as a fool and at worst killed.

What we will learn later is that Jonah knows of God’s grace, mercy and compassion and fears that Nineveh would repent and be spared!

Jonah refused to preach to them lest they repent, find grace and be saved by God.

Jonah didnt want the Assyrians to escape judgment.

Considering this we must ask ourselves who do we refuse to share the message of grace and mercy of God - in disobedience - lest they find salvation?

Is there any we have judged as being beyond salvation or not being worth saving or deserving of mercy?

The truth is mercy is never deserved by anyone.

God Prevents Escape

Through Stormy Seas

Verses 4-10

Jonah didnt want to bring God’s message to Nineveh lest they find mercy and grace through repentance.

Here we find one of the great conjunctions of the Scripture “BUT God…”.

God intervenes against Jonah’s disobedience.

God is not willing to stand by and allow Jonah to disobey to bring His desired message to Nineveh.

Neither was He satisfied to not have someone bring His message to you and I either.

God also wasnt satisfied to leave Jonah as he was in his heart.

God in a sovereign display throws a great wind onto the sea, causing a great storm.

The storm was so great that it threatened to break the ship apart.

God will send stormy seas to bring prevent wayward children from fleeing from Him. God is not about to just sit back and let Jonah continue to walk in disobedience so he sent a storm, and the storm was enough to alert the sailors around Jonah to the present peril.

The sailors filled with fear took turns each one crying out to their god.