God's Reluctant Missionary Series

God’s Reluctant Missionary

Jonah 1-4

Rev. Brian Bill

September 20-21, 2025

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales when her teacher stated, “It’s scientifically impossible for a whale to swallow a person.” The girl replied, “But Jonah was swallowed by a whale.” Annoyed, the teacher insisted, “A whale cannot swallow a human!” The girl said calmly, “When I get to Heaven, I’ll ask Jonah.”

The teacher smirked, “And what if Jonah didn’t make it to Heaven?” Without missing a beat, the girl replied, “Then you can ask him.”

Many people cast doubts on the Book of Jonah because they don’t believe a whale can swallow a human being, but we now have evidence that this has happened. Actually, the word used in Jonah is for a large fish. It might have been a whale, but we don’t know for sure. The Book of Jonah is not about a fish story; it’s about a gracious and compassionate God and a reluctant missionary. After all, the fish only gets three verses in the narrative. The main character in the book is God, not the big fish.

One pastor asks, “Is this a tale of a whale or a whale of tale?” It’s neither because the Book of Jonah is not a fable or a parable. According to 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah was an actual prophet and Jesus Himself referred to Jonah when explaining his burial and resurrection in Matthew 12:39-41.

I want to encourage you to read this brief book of only 48 verses because we won’t have time to take a deep dive into it. I also urge you to utilize the Here Am I questions found in our Go Con booklet, either individually or in a Growth Group, because they will help you apply the sermon. These questions are also available in our resource areas in both lobbies and on our app.

Here’s what I’m hoping we learn: Because God sends us to those we’d rather avoid, we must choose compassion over comfort.

We’ll follow this outline which captures the flow of the book.

1. Jonah runs from God.

2. Jonah returns to God.

3. Jonah responds to God.

4. Jonah resents God.

Let’s hit the highlights.

1. Jonah runs from God. Listen to the first three verses: “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.’ 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.”

As a prophet of God, Jonah would have been accustomed to having the word of God come to him. He also would have experienced times he was told to “Arise, go…” He wasn’t expecting to be commissioned to go to Ninevah. He probably bristled when God called it a “great city,” because the Ninevites were known for acts of terror, idolatry, and barbarism. On top of that, the Assryians were Israel’s arch enemies. It would be like sending a Jewish person during WWII to go witness to Nazi Germany.

One person writes: “Jonah’s call to preach to Nineveh (the Assyrian capital) wasn’t just inconvenient; it was personal. He was being sent to show compassion to the very nation that would later wipe out his own people and very possibly had already harassed his hometown of Gath Hepher, located just north of Nazareth. So, when Jonah resisted God’s call, it wasn’t mere disobedience. From his perspective, it was unthinkable: ‘Why would I go warn the very enemies who will destroy us?’” This background makes God’s compassion stand out even more because His mercy extended even to Israel’s fiercest enemies.

Instead of heading east to what is now Mosul in northern Iraq, Jonah booked a boat headed west to Tarshish, a city in what we know to be Spain. This was the farthest west he could go by ship at that time, about 2,500 miles away. Jonah paid the fare out of his own pocket and “went down into it,” which is also a picture of how he went down spiritually. Notice, he is vainly trying to get “away from the presence of the Lord.” One pastor has great insight, “If you decide to run, you’ll probably find a ship going your way.”

During our Growth Group this week, we discussed Pastor Kyle’s excellent sermon and how Abraham was told to go, and he went willingly. In contrast, Jonah was told to go, but he went the other way to get as far away as possible. One of the questions we’ll discuss this week is this: “Who are the ‘Ninevites’ in our world today? Who or what might be your ‘Ninevah’ right now?” Is it secular humanists? People from a different race or nationality? Those who are pro-choice? A person from the LGBTQ community? A person with a different political affiliation than yours? A Muslim? An immigrant? Your neighbor?