SERIES: “DISCOVER OBEDIENCE: Jonah – Not Just Another Big Fish Story”
TEXT: JONAH 1:1-17
TITLE: “JONAH RUNS – GOD FOLLOWS”
OPEN: A. William Sherwood Fox wrote:
We ask a simple question
And that is all we wish:
Are fishermen all liars?
Or do only liars fish?
B. What is a “big fish story”?
1. A big fish story is when we tell folks just how HUGE that one catch was
--always adding inches and pounds to the story each time its told
2. Did you hear about the one-armed man who went fishing?
--He caught one THIS BIG (hold up one hand in front with other arm behind back)
3. A big fish story is something that is made up, manufactured, containing only a partial truth if
any
C. Today we start a new series
--“DISCOVER OBEDIENCE: Jonah – Not Just Another Big Fish Story”
1. Some people treat the biblical account of Jonah as just another big fish story
--Is Jonah just a big fish story?
2. What is the Book of Jonah all about?
-- The Book of Jonah is about the will of God and how we respond to it
3. Here is the lesson of Jonah for us today:
-- The greatest assignment you have in life is to find the will of God for your life and then do it.
4. G. Campbell Morga: “Men have been looking so hard at the great fish that they have failed to
see the great God”.
5. Let’s begin our study of Jonah
a. You may know this story well but I invite you to hear it again over the next few weeks
b. Lay aside your former notions and images
c. Listen with fresh ears. Look with fresh eyes
--Prepare your hearts and minds to receive what God is teaching you through this study
6. Let’s pray….
I. GOD’S DESIRE
--Jonah 1:1-2 – “The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and
preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’”
A. Jonah – a historical figure
1. His name means “dove”
a. Doves are beautiful birds full of grace and gentleness
b. Jonah was rough, harsh, and unmerciful
2. 2 Kings 14:25 tells us:
a. He was from Gath-hepher
-– a town about 3 miles north of Nazareth in Galilee
b. As repeated in Jonah 1:1, he was the son of Ammitai
c. That he was a prophet of YHWH during the reign of Jeroboam II
B. As a prophet, God’s word came to him
1. We’re not told the exact method of revelation to Jonah
a. Was it a dream?
b. A vision?
c. An audible voice
2. All we know is that God’s message was clear
--“Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before
me.”
3. We should note that God is God over all nations
--Ninevah is “great” but God is greater
C. God has always been concerned with man’s relationship with Him
1. The promise to Abraham was that “all the world would be blessed”
2. He had called His special people, the Jews, to be a light to the Gentiles
3. God’s desire is that all would come to know Him
a. 2 Pet. 3:9 – “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is
patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
b. John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
D. An Internet company named Napster was in the news a lot several years back. Napster offered a
program that allowed its clients to obtain free music on the Internet. Business was phenomenal.
However, most recording companies and musicians didn’t like people receiving the fruits of their musical
labors for nothing. Court battles ensued for legal and financial reasons.
Napster allowed folks to download for free recordings in MP3 format that were near-CD quality,
copyrighted or not. Folks were able to receive for free music at anytime – just go online, click, and
you’ve got the songs you want. Legal issues aside, people enjoyed the free downloads.
God offers us salvation for download at anytime – He wants the connection always open and there are
no copyright restrictions. God offers eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ free to anyone who
believes.
You can’t buy salvation, anyway. It comes by grace through faith because only God’s Son could pay
the price.
II. JONAH’S DEFIANCE
--Jonah 1:3 – “But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where
he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee
from the LORD.”
A. Lots of folks have been hesitant to do what God asked them to do – Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah all come to
mind.
1. But they relented and did what God asked them to do
2. Jonah out and out defiant
a. Isaiah answers God: “Here am I; send me.”
b. Jonah answers God: “Here I go; find somebody else.”
B. Jonah had some possible excuses
1. He could have brought up the difficulties in completing the mission
a. Ninevah was a “great city”
b. It was one of the oldest cities on earth
--Founded by Nimrod sometimeer the flood.
c. Located about 225 north of present day Baghdad (in the area of Mosul)
d. Greater Ninevah was an area comprised of the city itself and its surrounding suburbs – about 60
miles in circumference
--The book of Jonah mentions that it was so large, it took three days to cross it and also that there
were at least 120,000 infants or small children present there
e. For most of the Assyrian empire’s legacy, Ninevah was its capital
f. It had walls that were a hundred feet high and wide enough that three chariots could ride side-by-
side around them.
g. Within the gates there were gardens and even fields for cattle
2. He could have pointed out the dangers in attempting the mission
a. In vs. 2, God describes it as a wicked city
--The language in this verse describing Ninevah’s wickedness is reminiscent of the language used
in describing the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah
b. Prophecy of Nahum
--Nahum 3:1-5 – “ ‘Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!
The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots! Charging
cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without
number, people stumbling over the corpses- all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring,
the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.
I am against you,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘I will lift your skirts over your face. I will
show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame.’ ”
c. These people were utterly barbaric and inhumane in their military campaigns
C. Yet, these things are never mentioned as being the problem
1. The problem is that Ninevah could find God’s blessings in the whole ordeal and he did not want them
to be blessed!
2. In Jonah’s mind, the Assyrians didn’t deserve God’s mercy or grace
a. Neither did Jonah
b. Neither do you or I
1). . For all have sinned
2). There is none righteous
3. Here’s the situation
a. Jonah is a prophet to the Northern Kingdom of Israel
--After death of Solomon, nation of Israel divided into a northern kingdom (Israel) and a southern
kingdom (Judah)
b. At this time in Israel’s history, the Assyrians were making some raids into the northern kingdom.
1). For quite some time, Syria (known then as Aram) and Israel were bitter enemies
--However, they became allies when the Assyrians became a threat to the north and to the east
2). Eventually, Assyria took both Aram and Israel into captivity
c. Jonah knew what could happen:
1). He would deliver God’s message
2). The people of Ninevah would respond with repentance
3). God would respond with mercy
4). Israel would still be wicked
--For years they had followed the ways of the pagans
5). God would use Assyria to punish Israel
D. Jonah was delighted to be a prophet of God as long as God did things Jonah’s way
1. 2 Kings 14:25, he prophesied that king Jeroboam 2 would restore “the territory of Israel from the
entrance of Hamath to the sea of Arabah.”
2. But when God’s will went contrary to Jonah’s will, he refused to do as he was told.
E. The scripture tells us: “Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish”
1. Jonah didn’t think that he would actually flee from the God’s presence
2. The term “to stand in God’s presence” was a reference to serving Him
a. The phrase was derived from the custom of servant standing in the presence of seated royalty
b. This reference means that Jonah was resigning as God’s prophet
--he no longer desired to be God’s messenger
c. He not only hated their sins, he hated these sinners.
3. Jonah could have turned God’s way and gone about 500 miles to Ninevah but he decided to turn the
other and go to Tarshish
--a town most scholars believe to have been located on the eastern coast of Spain (the complete
opposite direction from where God wanted him to go and as far away as he could get from where
God wanted him to go)
F. The results of running away from God
1. Jonah went downhill
a. vs. 3 – went down to Joppa
b. vs. 5 – went down into the ship
c. In Chapt. 2, Jonah describes going down to the bottom of the ocean
d. When you run from God, life always goes downhill
--the way of the Lord is up not down
2. Jonah paid his fare
a. Jonah had to pay his full fare to get on the boat
--but it didn’t get him where he wanted to go and he obviously didn’t get a refund on his ticket
b. Donald Gray Barnhouse: “It is always that way. When you run away from the Lord you never get
to where you are going, and you always pay your own fare. One the other hand, when you go the
Lord’s way you always get to where you are going, and He pays the fare.”
3. Understand one thing:
--When you decide you want to rebel against God, the Devil will always provide the transportation
III. GOD’S DISCIPLINE
--Jonah 1:4-16 – “Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship
threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the
cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a
deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, ‘How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe
he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.’ Then the sailors said to each other, ‘Come, let us cast
lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.’ They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they
asked him, ‘Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do
you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?’ He answered, ‘I am a Hebrew and I
worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.’ This terrified them and they
asked, ‘What have you done?’ (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had
already told them so.) The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, ‘What should we do
to you to make the sea calm down for us?’ ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea,’ he replied, ‘and it
will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.’ Instead, the men
did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then
they cried to the LORD, ‘O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us
accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased.’ Then they took
Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the LORD,
and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.”
A. When Jonah ran, he thought he was finished with God
--But God wasn’t finished with Jonah
1. Prov. 3:12 – “God disciplines those He loves.”
2. Ps. 119:67, 71 – “Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey Your word. It was good for me
to be afflicted so that I might learn Your decrees.”
B. No one can run away from God
-- Ps. 139:7-12 – “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to
the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the
dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold
me fast. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the
darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”
C. Jonah 1:4 – “the Lord sent out a great wind…”
1. “sent out” is too soft. The word in the original language is “to throw or to hurl (like a javelin)”
2. Such a scary storm, all the sailors cried out to their own pagan, false gods
a. These were seasoned sailors used to the hardships of the sea
b. But the storm was so fierce it frightened them badly
c. When on an airplane, watch the flight attendants. If they’re concerned, you should be concerned.
If they get in their little jump seats and start buckling themselves in, it’s serious.
3. They’re so frightened, they call out to any deity who will listen
a. The one true God was never mentioned because they didn’t know Him
b. The only person on board who did was asleep in the hull of the ship
c. How can you sleep through something like this?
--When you run from the Lord, it will wear you out.
4. Finally, the captain remembers the passenger and goes to find him
--He wakes him up harshly and commands him to cry out to his God so that they might be saved
5. The sailors cast lots
a. Jonah determined to be culprit responsible
b. Sailors ask a series of questions
1). Sounds like the prescribed interrogation of a ship’s court to be set down in the ship’s log book
2). They want to find out what terrible thing Jonah had done to deserve what was happening
3). What did you do? Steal something? Murder somebody
--No, I’m just running from God
4). Contemporary wording of v. 10 might be: “With a God like the one you have described, why
would you want to do that?”
D. What a great evangelism opportunity Jonah missed
1. Wonder what would have happened if he would have just repented on the spot, shared his mission,
and asked for God to save him and the crew?
2. What a sad exposure of a believer in front of pagans
--James Smith: “The greatest humiliation in the life of any believer is to experience a justly deserved
spiritual rebuke from those who have made no commitment to the Lord.”
3. It’s sad when refusal to do God’s will puts us out of commission spiritually
a. Great opportunities are missed
b. Reinforces the world’s thinking that we’re all hypocrites
E. Running from God causes suffering:
1. To ourselves
2. To others
3. To God
F. Warren Wiersbe: “To Jesus, the will of God was food that satisfied Him. To Jonah, the will of God
was medicine that choked him.”
1. In disobedience we find disgrace, disappointment, and heartache
2. In obedience we find
a. nourishment
--Jn. 4:34 – “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
b. enlightenment
--Jn. 7:17 – “If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from
God or whether I speak on my own.”
c. enablement
--Heb. 13:20-21 – “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought
back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21equip you with everything
good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to
whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
IV. JONAH’S DELIVERANCE
--Jonah 1:17 – “But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three
days and three nights.”
A. God is the God of second chances
1. He could have allowed Jonah to drown
2. He could have let the sea swallow him up and Jonah never been seen or heard from again
B. I read about a man who attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home, and he got much more than
he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home
near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline, but
instead, he stuck his siphon hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake and began siphoning by
mouth.
The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying that it was the best laugh he’d ever had.
Now, it’s obvious from this story that the owner of the RV was generous enough to give this man a
second chance.
1. God doesn’t want us drowning in sewage.
2. He wants us to experience salvation and know that His will is good and pleasing.
CLOSE: A. Lessons:
1. When we defiantly question God’s will, we claim for ourselves a wisdom that exceeds God’s
wisdom
2. The way to Ninevah may seem hard and the way to Tarshish full of promise, but God knows
best
3. We can’t pick and choose who we lead to the Lord
a. we’ll try to reach certain types of sinners but not others
b. It is not our place to judge the hearts, but to sow and water the word of God.
4. We’re wrong if we don’t have a passion to win others for Christ
--People are important to God and so they should be to us
B. Fred Craddock tells about his first church as a young preacher. It was located in upper east
Tennessee near Oak Ridge. Because of the atomic energy plant there, he says energy that little
bitty town became a booming city overnight. People came in from everywhere to pitch tents,
live in wagons, hard hats from everywhere with their families, their children paddling around in
the mud in their trailer parks, lived in everything temporarily just to work. Listen as Fred relates
what happened:
Our church wasn’t far away. We had a beautiful little church, white framed building, 112
years old. The church had an organ in the corner, which one of the young fellows had to pump
while Miss Lois played it. Boy, she could play the organ just as slow as anyone. The church had
beautifully decorated chimneys, kerosene lamps all around the walls. Every pew in this little
church was hand hewn from a giant poplar tree.
After church one Sunday I asked the leaders to stay. I said to them, we need to launch of a
calling campaign, an invitational campaign in all those trailer parks to invite those people to
church. “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think they would fit in here”, one of them said. “They are just
here temporarily, just construction people. They will be leaving pretty soon.” “Well, we ought to
invite them, make them feel at home,” I said. We argued about it, time ran out, and we said we
would vote next Sunday.
Next Sunday we all sat down after the service. “I move,” said one of them, “I move that in
order to be a member of this church you must own property in the county.” Someone else said, “I
second that.” It passed. I voted against it, but they reminded me that I was just a kid preacher and
didn’t get a vote. It passed.
When we moved back to these parts, I took my wife to see that little church. I had told her that
painful, painful story. The roads have changed.
The interstate goes through that part of the country, so I had a hard time finding it, but I
finally did. I found the state road, the county road, a little gravel road. There it was, back there
among the pines, that building shining white. It was different. The parking lot was full.
Motorcycles, trucks, cars packed in there. Out front a great big sign, BBQ, all you can eat. It’s a
restaurant.
So we went inside. The pews were up against the walls. They have electric lights now. The
organ is pushed off in the corner. There are all these aluminum and plastic tables and people
sitting around eating BBQ pork and chicken and ribs, all kinds of people, Parthians, Meades,
Edomites, dwellers of Mesopotamia, all kinds of people. I said to Nettie, “It’s a good thing this
isn’t still a church because these people wouldn’t be welcome here.”
1. Is there anyone you would refuse to reach with the Gospel?
--Would it be a homosexual, a thief, a prostitute, a murderer?
2. Would it be someone who you thought was lazy or didn’t try hard enough to make a go in
life?
3. Would it be someone you thought was beyond saving?
--Maybe they’d be homeless?
4. How about your enemies – the ones who curse you and try to harm you?
C. We, too, have a commission
1. It’s no less demanding than Jonah’s
--But we are no less determined to avoid it than Jonah
2. As Christians, we come into contact with people in three main places:
a. Where we live
b. Where we work
c. Where we play
--clubs, hobbies, sports, etc.
3. All these people need to know Christ and they all need friendship and understanding
D. Jonah’s commission basically three words: Arise,, go, cry
1. We’re asked to get up but mostly we remain seated
--we sit in church where the lost are not likely to be
2. We’re asked to go but we stay where we are
3. We’re asked to cry but our tongues remain silent
E. The Book of Jonah is read in the synagogues on Yom Kippur: Day of Atonement
--When it’s finished being read, the people respond, “We are Jonah!”
1. Leslie Allen wrote: “A Jonah lurks in every Christian heart, whimpering his insidious message
of smug prejudice, empty traditionalism, and exclusive solidarity.”
2. What do we struggle with God about?
a. What command do we find most difficult to obey?
b. What instructions from God worry us?
c. What does God ask us to do that we say, “Anything but that, Lord!”
3. Most of us have our own Ninevah and Tarshish
a. One is the city of obedience
b. The other the city of rebellion
c. Ninevah is the call of God sounding in our life to put Him and His kingdom first
