Text: Jonah 1
Title: You Can’t Ignore God For Long
Jonah 1:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me." 3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. 4 The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. 5 Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep. 6 So the captain approached him and said, "How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish." 7 Each man said to his mate, "Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us." So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, "Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?" 9 He said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land." 10 Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, "How could you do this?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. 11 So they said to him, "What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?"-- for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. 12 He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you." 13 However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them. 14 Then they called on the LORD and said, "We earnestly pray, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O LORD, have done as You have pleased." 15 So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. 17 And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.
1) You Can’t Ignore God For Long
I. Background on Jonah
i. The Prophet
ii. The Setting
iii. The City
II. God Calls
i. Why did God call?
1. Love for all people
2. Desire for Israel to Evangelize
3. Remind Israel of His sovereignty
III. Jonah Runs
i. Why did Jonah run?
1. He knew God’s Mercy
2. He was afraid
IV. God Catches Up
i. How does God get Jonah’s attention?
1. The Storm
2. The Short Stick
3. The Sacrifice
Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Jonah. Jonah is in the OT, right after Obadiah and right before Micah. It’s tiny so it’s easy to skip past it. Just find Daniel and turn right. Secretary
While you are turning there, let me read for you a report that has been documented in a number of different Almanacs and commentaries…
In February, 1891, the ship “Star of the East” was off the Falkland Islands when the crew spotted an 80’ sperm whale. Two rowboats filled with crewmen were launched to capture the monster. Closing in, one harpooner let go his weapon and shafted the whale, which lashed out, almost overturning the boats. Returning to the ship with their dead whale, the crewmen realized one sailor, James Bartley, was missing. It was decided he had been tossed overboard in the fight and had drowned.
Six hours later the crewmen began removing the blubber from the dead beast. By midnight the task was still unfinished, and the sailors went to bed. In the morning, they resumed their job. Then the unexpected happened. According to M. de Parville, editor of the Journal des Debats, writing in Paris in 1914, "Suddenly the sailors were startled by something in the stomach which gave spasmodic signs of life. Inside was found the missing sailor, James Bartley, doubled up and unconscious. He was placed on deck and treated to a bath of sea-water which soon revived him, but his mind was not clear and he was placed in the captain’s quarters." Recovering, Bartley recalled being hit by the whale’s tail and that he had been "encompassed by great darkness, and he felt he was slipping along a smooth passage that seemed to move and carry him forward. His hands came in contact with a yielding, slimy substance, which seemed to shrink from his touch. He could easily breathe, but the heat was terrible. It seemed to open the pores of his skin and draw out his vitality. The next he remembered he was in the captain’s cabin."
Except for the fact that his face, neck, and hands had been bleached white, Bartley--like Jonah--survived the belly of the monster.
The story of Jonah and the whale is probably one of the most famous OT stories. I can just about guarantee that every children’s Bible ever printed has this story in it. It’s popular because it’s just so bizarre. The idea of a guy being swallowed alive by a huge fish is very science fictiony.
I’ve always been fascinated by the uniqueness of the tale, but I’ve also been moved by the human drama that this book describes. There are only a few main characters, Jonah, the guys on the boat, the King of Nineveh, but they all are confronted with a terrifying picture of God’s power. And they all get to experience the blessing of God’s grace.
Follow along as I read chapter 1…
Of all the different lessons we could glean from this passage, the one that just seems to smack you right in the face is the fact that you can’t ignore God for very long. You might be able to ignore Him for a few days, or even a few years, but sooner or later, He will find a way to get your attention.
If God is calling you to faith in Him. If you are being drawn by the Holy Spirit, you might be able to ignore it for a little while, but you can’t ignore God for long.
If you are a believer who has fallen back into an old lifestyle of sin and rebellion, God is calling you out of that way of living. You might be able to ignore Him for a little while, but you won’t be able to ignore Him for long.
If God has a particular task that He wants you to do, whether it’s a job, or a conversation with someone, or a ministry, you might be able to ignore Him for a while, but you can’t ignore Him for long.
This fact is just as true for us as it was for Jonah. Now we might not end up inside a whale, but when we try to run from God, we are bound to end up in an equally bad place.
(I have a buddy of mine who learned about ignoring God the hard way. He is a solid Christian, someone who attended a Christian school. But he went through a period in college where he got involved in drugs, drinking, and other destructive activities. During that time I did my best to encourage him and he knew that what he was doing was wrong. But he just didn’t seem to care. He was trying hard to tune God out and do his own thing.
But the more he ignored God, the more miserable he became, and the more he miserable he was the more likely he was to do stupid things.
During his summer vacation He worked as a roofer with his father. One summer, as he was up on a roof, his feet came out from under him and he fell about 15-20 feet down to the ground. His wrist took most of the impact and it shattered. He ended up with a lot of bumps and burses and some nasty looking pins sticking out of his arm.
That event in his life was a clear turning point. It was a wake up call. Now I don’t think God pushed him off the roof, in fact I think God really protected him from what could have been a fatal fall, but God definitely used that event to get his attention.
Since he couldn’t work, he spent the rest of the summer reading his Bible again, writing things out, praying, and making some necessary changes. That was really a key turning point for him. Even though he should have made those changes a lot earlier, he tried to ignore God, but the God who created us knows the most effective way to get our attention.)
Before we move further I want to give you some background information on Jonah. I’m not going to bore you with a lot of historical details, but it is always helpful to understand the context of the story we are reading. That’s especially true in this case. Jonah’s response to God was dramatic, what would have caused him to so blatantly disobey God?
First of all Jonah was a prophet of God. The prophets why men who were appointed by God to pass on important information to the people of God. When the Israelites began to slip into idolatry and ignore God, the prophets would remind them of their promises and warn them of God’s coming punishment. A prophet was someone who spoke for God. It was a very important responsibility, especially during a time prior to the completion of the written word of God.
The book of Jonah is set during a period of time of relative peace in Israel. During this time the nation experienced prosperity, there was probably a lot of pride and nationalism in Israel. As often happens in good times, the nation of Israel had begun to ignore God. They were falling into that trap of thinking that they didn’t really need God. Israel was becoming hardened.
The dominant world power of the time was a country called Assyria. Assyria was infamous for its cruelty, its torture of captives, and its evil, pagan practices. Assyria had been an enemy of Israel for years. I’m sure that many people in Israel, including Jonah, hated Assyria and prayed daily for God to wipe them out.
The city of Nineveh was the largest city in the Assyrian empire, and possible the largest city in the world at the time. It was about eight miles long and had a population of around 600,000 people. It was the pagan empire of the world.
So God calls Jonah to go and preach hellfire and brimstone in the capital city of Israel’s greatest enemy. This part of the story is pretty simple. God’s calling was clear. Jonah knew exactly what God wanted Him to do. God had seen the wickedness of Nineveh and commissioned Jonah to go and tell them about it.
This was certainly an unusual request. Usually the prophets would direct their warnings to the people of God, not to pagan nations. Why did God send one of His prophets to this horrible place?
Why did God call Jonah? I think God called Jonah to Nineveh for a couple of different reasons.
First, God is demonstrating His love for all people, even gentiles. The Israelites had developed this elitist idea of their relationship with God. They were His chosen people and everyone else was not. But all throughout the course of OT history God demonstrates that he is the God of all men, not jus the Jews. But the Israelites had a tough time seeing this truth.
Second, God sends Jonah to Nineveh to remind Israel of their calling to be an evangelistic nation. They were supposed to be reaching out with the truth of God’s love, instead of hogging it for themselves. They had become ingrown and ineffective. That is a danger that we as the church can fall into as well.
Third, God wanted to use Jonah to remind the Israelites of God’s sovereignty. The fact that God is all powerful and totally in control is evident in this story. They had begun to forget about God. They had started to worship idols and break their vows to God. This story serves as a strong reminder to Jonah and to all of Israel of God’s plan over creation.
God called Jonah for the same reasons that God calls each one of us. He has a plan. God has something that he wants to teach us or something He wants to teach others through us. God calls us because he loves us. Because he wants us to be a part of the plan. God calls us because it gives Him an opportunity to demonstrate His grace and His mercy. God calls all of us, how will we respond?
Jonah responded by running for it. So God calls Jonah, but instead of obeying and answering the call, Jonah gets on a boat headed in the other direction. Jonah runs from God.
Map
Here is a map of the region that shows Jonahs path. He starts out here in the middle of the circle in Israel. Then he hops on a boat down in Joppa that’s headed for Tarshish. There is some questions about exactly where Tarshish was, but most people think it is probably referring to a town that is in southern Spain- about 2,500 miles west of Israel. It was about as far away from Nineveh as Jonah could get.
It’s like God asking you to go preach to the heathens in Montana and instead you hop a boat in San Francisco and head for Japan.
Jonah didn’t just ignore God, he ran from Him. At this point in the story you can’t help but wonder what Jonah was thinking. He must have known that you can’t run away from God. Here was a dude that had heard the voice of God, had a full understanding of who God was, and who still thought he could make a break for it. My first question is always, Why? Why on earth would you run?
I mean how foolish could you be. That’s like me trying to out-swim Michael Phelps. Not only am I going to loose, but I’ll probably end up dead in the process. So why did Jonah run from God?
First, I think he ran because he knew God. He knew what God was like. He knows that God is holy, but he also knows that God is loving and compassionate and that God would have mercy on Nineveh if they were to repent. Jonah didn’t want them to be saved. He didn’t want them to be warned of the coming wrath. He just wanted them to bake. He ran because of his hatred for Assyria and because of his desire to see them destroyed.
Second, he ran because he was afraid. He had probably heard all the stories about what the Assyrians would do to their enemies. They would torture them in brutal and horrifying ways. As a nation, they didn’t respond well to criticism. They simply crushed anyone who opposed them.
And God had asked Jonah to walk down the streets in the heart of this evil and torturous empire and cry out against it. That doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. It’s like if I were to try and start a fist fight with a grizzly bear. I might get a couple shots in, but I’ll end up mauled. That probably sounded to Jonah like a sure death sentence.
Sometimes, God calls us to do crazy things. Sometimes God expects us to go beyond our own personal limitations so that we have no choice but to rely on Him. Sometimes God asks us to take a leap of faith.
There are times in our lives where things just seem hopeless. There doesn’t look like any way out. We can either trust God during those times, or run the other way and try to hide. But running from God never works out well for us. It only creates new problems.
Jonah ran away from God because he was selfish. Even though God’s command was clear and simple, Jonah ran because he wanted things his way. So God had to remind him who was in charge.
So God called, Jonah ran, and then God catches up with him. Obviously there is nowhere in the world that Jonah could have gone to hide from God. God created the world and everything in it. God is omni-present. God could have stopped Jonah at any point along the way.
God caused a big storm in the sea. He used normal natural events to get Jonah’s attention. God works in this world in many different ways. He is in control of the weather and the seasons and every aspect of nature. This particular storm was specifically for the purpose of getting Jonah back on track.
All the other men on that boat became terrified and started to call out to their gods. But that wasn’t working. Where was Jonah this whole time? Below deck taking a nap! Wow! Maybe he thought that he had succeeded in escaping God’s call and was so relieved that he crashed. How could you possibly fall asleep in the middle of a huge storm?
The other sailors woke him up and asked him to pray to his God so that the storm would stop. Look at verse 7…
7 Each man said to his mate, "Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us." So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
Jonah drew the short stick. Even this seemingly chance event of drawing straws was controlled by God. God’s sovereignty and grace and highlighted all over this book. God caused the storm, He caused the lot to fall on Jonah, He was forcing Jonah to make a choice.
So when the lot falls on Jonah all the sailors start pelting him with questions. Who are you, what’s you occupation, where do you come from, why is this happening to us?
Verse 9…
9 He said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land."
Oh great! This guy worships the God who made the sea. He doesn’t worship some beetle or fertility god, or golden calf. He worships the God of the sea. If you are a sailor that’s one god you don’t want mad at you.
So the men ask Jonah, what do we need to do to make your god happy? Jonah tells them they have to throw him overboard. At this point in the story Jonah is willing to sacrifice himself for the men on the boat. But I don’t really think this is a noble gesture. I think Jonah knew he couldn’t run from God and just didn’t care anymore. He would rather die than see the people of Nineveh saved. He would rather drown in that sea than be tortured by the Assyrians.
The sailors don’t want to kill him so they try to row back to land, but its no use. Finally they pray to God and say, don’t hold us accountable for killing this man, we didn’t want this.
At this point it is interesting to note the stark contrast between the faith of Jonah and the faith of these pagan sailors. Jonah was an Israelite, a prophet, a man chosen to speak for God. These guys were worshipers of false gods.
When God asked Jonah to obey he refused and ran. He had no faith in God’s ability to do what is right. He had no faith in God’s ability to protect him. He just ran.
On the other hand, these sailors readily admitted that God had done what He pleased. They were willing to do something that seemed crazy. They might have been acting out of selfish motive in an attempt to save their own lives, but they ultimately were trusting God.
Verses 15-16…
15 So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
Those sailors saw God. They recognized that they had just come into contact with the true God of the universe. They immediately worshiped Him. God extended His grace to them by stopping the storm and saving their lives and allowing them to see His glory.
God showed His grace to Jonah as well….
17 And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah probably thought that he was off the hook (no pun intended) but God wasn’t finished with him yet. God provided some kind of big fish as a miraculous time-out for Jonah. He had time to stop and think about some of his choices.
We can’t ignore God for long. We can sear our conscience, we can block out the Spirit’s tugging out our heart. We can try to deny what we know is right. But sooner or later God will get our attention. One way or another God will tap us on the shoulder and remind us of His power and glory. My thinking is it would be far better to just listen and obey the first time, rather than having to go through the pain and frustration of a time-out.
We will pick up the story next week in chapter 2 where Jonah is praying from inside the fish. It is a picture of God’s salvation. This whole book is a picture of God’s grace in saving people who don’t deserve to be saved.
Starting in November Pastor Henry and I will be tag teaming a sermon series on the topic of grace. Jonah is a great lead in to that study because it is such a clear picture of God’s grace. As we continue our study through Jonah you will see how God showers his grace on everyone, even you and me.
