Four Things that will Change Your Life…2b…Obedience…
We began talking last week of the second thing that will change your life…obedience.
First, there was faith, and we learned that we must have faith to please God.
Second, we must be obedient to Him and His Word.
Let’s spend a little more time within this subject of obedience…
Ticket to Tarshish, Please…
Jonah 1:1 ¶ Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
Last week we discussed how God spoke to Noah, and told him to “build an ark.”
How that God gave Noah a list of things to do that to us would seem impossible to get done. But, in spite of the enormous tasks that faced Noah…
We read that Noah’s response to what God told him to do was simply… “Thus did he, and so did he”…according to all that God commanded.
Noah was obedient…well, how about our friend Jonah?
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
Unlike Noah, Jonah doesn’t obey. Not only is he disobedient…not only does he decide he is not going to do what God has told him to do…but, he goes the complete opposite direction that God wanted him to go.
Again in vs. 3…
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
Jonah runs to Joppa, which is a city by the sea. He buys a ticket for a ship headed to a place called Tarshish.
Now, Nineveh is this way (NE), and Joppa where Jonah flees to, to catch a boat to Tarshish is that way (SW).
A person couldn’t go in any more of an opposite direction as to what God wanted him to do.
Someone once said… “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words. It is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.”
[The words of Eleanor Roosevelt ring true:] Little House on the Freeway, Tim Kimmel, Page 143
Jonah would soon learn a hard lesson about his choices.
But, before we are too hard on Jonah…understand that there is probably a reason that he does not want to go to Nineveh. There is probably a reason why he disregards what God has told him.
What would that reason be?
Why wouldn’t he want to go to Nineveh?
(History of Nineveh)
Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians were a rough people who were constantly warring against other countries and people.
They were anti-God, they worshipped and practiced witchcraft, and it has been said that…
Assyria was one of the most brutal nations of the ancient world. They were feared and dreaded by all the peoples of that day.
They used very cruel methods of torture… One of the procedures was to take a man out onto the sands of the desert and bury him up to his neck—nothing but his head would stick out. Then they would put a thong through his tongue and leave him there to die as the hot, penetrating sun would beat down upon his head. It is said that a man would go mad before he died.
… it is said that they were so feared and dreaded that on some occasions an entire town would commit suicide rather than fall into the hands of the brutal Assyrians.
Jonah, obviously may have thus had a reason for why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh. He didn’t want to go, because he didn’t like the people.
They were an evil people…but, this was not any new news that God wasn’t aware of…
Didn’t God tell Jonah in the verse we read earlier… “cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”
God knew how wicked, and hated they were. Jonah may have had this reason for not wanting to go…but, that does not change the fact that God told him to go…
We always have or find a reason why we cannot do what God wants us to do? And, that reason always seem right to us. It sounds like a good decision, based upon a good reason or feeling.
But, not only do we make a wrong choice by disobeying God, we err because we base our decisions on what we know, rather than what God knows.
Our decision-making is flawed when we rely on what we know…but, when we trust in God…when we obey Him…even when it doesn’t make sense…we will always have made the right choice!
You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide…
Many times as Christians we not only disobey God…we not only run from God, but we actually think that we can get away with it…
Jonah actually thought that he could flee from the presence of the Lord.
4 ¶ But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
Jonah boards the boat. Everything is fine for a while but…
God sends a storm. The ship is tossed about in the storm and the storm is so violent that the ship is about to break apart and sink.
In the next few verses (vs.’s 5- 8) the Bible describes for us the scene on the boat. The sailors were afraid because of the storm…they begin tossing their cargo off the ship to lighten the load…they cry out to every god they have ever heard of hoping that one of them exists and can help them…and while all of this is going on…Jonah is found asleep!
The captain of the boat comes to Jonah and wakes him up! “Hey, we are all about to die…why are you asleep…pray to whatever God you serve that maybe He will spare us!”
Despite the sailors attempts at lightening the ship…of praying to their false gods that they thought could help…they decide in vs. 7 that they are going to cast lots.
(Casting Lots…use of pebbles with one of them being marked, shaken and rolled out to reveal a divine answer to their question. While God did not approve of this, He used this to give His answer. Do not distort this verse and misuse it. This does not support the use of divination…fortune telling, astrology, etc. Those things are not of God, but of satan.)
God allowed the lot to fall upon Jonah.
And in vs. 8 they ask Jonah…
8 Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
Noah responds in vs. 9…
9 And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
Amazingly, the sailors showed more fear for what Jonah had done than Jonah had himself. They were more fearful of Jonah’s disobedience than he was.
11 ¶ Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
Many times our disobedience not only effects us, but also those around us…
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
These sailors showed more care for him, then he had shown for them, or the people of Nineveh. They didn’t want to throw him overboard. They knew he would perish…they tried as hard as they could to row the boat to land…but, the more they rowed…the more God brought the storm against them.
14 Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.
There is no escaping from the presence of the Lord…and there is no escaping judgment upon your disobedience.
15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
Jonah could have said, “Okay God! I will do what you have told me to do!” But, Jonah, I really feel at this point would rather have died, then to have done what God told him.
He hated the people of Nineveh that much!
17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
God wasn’t going to let Jonah off that easy! God gave Jonah plenty of time and opportunity to do what was right. But, every step of the way…Jonah kept going farther and farther away from the direction God wanted him to go.
Jonah’s pride, his disobedience, his failure to love what God loves, the choices he made…put him in a very strange and scary place.
Disobedience to God, always takes you where you don’t want to be!
Be careful when you choose to disobey what God has told you to do!
*(1,2,3 McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 2000, c1981.)
