The Prodigal Prophet: “Running to . . .?”
Jonah 1:1-3
July 19, 2009
1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and cry out against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." 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.
Have you ever been asked to do something you really didn’t want to do? The simple things like cleaning, exercising, dieting, homework, even being nice. And it moves to the bigger things in life . . . things like reconciling with someone we’re at odds with, forgiving or asking for forgiveness, sacrificial love, giving our time, respecting someone else’s point of view. We also do it with God. We would agree we should read the Bible, pray, give our time, money and resources to help others, yet, that’s easier said than done.
Nobody’s exempt. You agree to do something, but you regret saying yes, so you end up working through the process with a lot less enthusiasm, passion and desire.
Often times when we’re asked or even told to do something we don’t want to do, we rebel and do everything but what we’re supposed to do.
Well, today and for the next 4 weeks we’re going to look at someone who was told to do something he didn’t want to do. We can identify with Jonah. He was given an assignment by God, and he refused. If you’ve ever been told to do something you didn’t want to do, ran in the other direction, then you know what Jonah was going through.
Jonah is the story of God’s plan to reach the world, and one man’s resistance to be part of that plan. God doesn’t want one person to die without proclaiming Jesus is Lord. If it were up to God, we would all be heaven bound, however, that’s a choice we make.
Let me say one thing up front, I believe Jonah is a true story. It isn’t a fable or an allegory. Jonah was a real person from the town of Gath Hepher which was about 4 miles north of Nazareth. In Matthew 12, Jesus stressed the fact that Jonah was an actual person, as He spoke about Jonah as a fact, not in a parable. In 2 Kings 14:25 we learn that Jonah was a prophet during the days of Jeroboam II.
So, what was God’s request to Jonah? God told him, 2Go to the great city of Nineveh and cry out against it, because their wickedness has come up before me.
Jonah’s assignment was to travel approximately 500 miles to the NE to Nineveh. You can see on the map on the screen, Joppa is Jonah’s home town and he had to travel to the Tigris River where Nineveh was located.
Jonah’s purpose was to cry out against the people because of their wickedness. You see, God didn’t want to destroy Nineveh, God wanted the people to turn from their wickedness, to repent, to have the opportunity to find true life in God. Remember, God’s goal is never to condemn people, this is why He sent Jesus into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
So, why was Jonah reluctant in following God’s assignment? Maybe he didn’t want to travel to Nineveh. He was not excited about a 500 mile excursion through the desert. But I don’t think it was about being inconvenienced, it was about offering people an opportunity to find redemption through the love and grace of God.
You see, the people of Nineveh were wicked people. They were brutal in the ways they treated other people. And for some reason, a reason we don’t know, and one that Jonah couldn’t fathom, God wanted to save these people.
Did you catch the phrase that Nineveh was a great city. It was a huge city, with strong fortified walls to protect the city. There was a great deal of wealth and along with the wealth came a lot of wickedness. Besides all of the wickedness and immorality and false gods, we also need to understand that the Assyrians were moving towards Israel, ready to invade the nation.
In fact, in 40 more years, the Assyrians would invade Israel, and take thousands of people prisoner to Assyria. The Assyrians were crafty people, as they took Israelites as prisoners, they had their people populate Israel. That way the former religious customs and practices would be changed. The Assyrians would also lead prisoners by putting rings in their noses. They would physically beat them in ways which were cruel and inhumane; and humiliate them.
So, with that in mind, Joanh’s thinking, “no way God, I’m not going to travel 500 miles to save these rotten people. They’re mean, they’re cruel, and they have no Jewish roots, so who am I to even care about their salvation.” Do you get a feel for where Jonah’s at with his feelings. Have you ever felt that way?
Jonah is a reluctant prophet, yet, I don’t think we’d be too different than Jonah. He was willing to serve God, but he would only go so far. He would do the will of God as long as God’s will fit his plans, his goals and his cultural agenda. There were a lot of things Jonah was willing to do for God, but leaving Israel to preach to the Assyrians wasn’t one of them.
Jonah’s hatred for these people consumed him so much that he abandoned his call. Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse said calling Jonah to go to the Ninevites was like asking a Jew to go to Hitler after the holocaust and tell him God loved him and that everything would be forgiven if he would repent.
It would be like one of us going to meet with Osama Bin Laden and telling him the same thing. God loves you, ask for forgiveness and we’ll go to heaven together. It wouldn’t be so easy. . . would it?
Jonah couldn’t stand the thought of these people being forgiven and coming into a relationship with His God, so he reacted with an unforgiving heart, and disobeyed.
And we can relate to Jonah, even though we really wouldn’t want to admit it. Jonah was more committed to his own comfort than he was to the will of God.
We can be pretty quick to judge Jonah for his actions. We do that with lots of people. Yet, Jesus reminds us before we judge others, we need to take a good look at ourselves, to get our hearts in the right place. So let me ask you ~
● Are you running from God’s call?
● Are you running because you don’t like what God called you to do?
● Are you running from God because it’s hard work?
● Are you running from God, because you are unwilling to give up your selfish desires?
● Are you running because God called you . . . and you said yes?
If we were to be honest with ourselves, we probably could agree one of the biggest issues in the universal church is that we’re selfish. We want what we want, we want things our way, and our main concern is with our comfort, not transformation of those outside the Kingdom.
Have you ever been angry with God because He loves someone you don’t? Because God is willing to forgive, but you’re not. Have you ever heard people say, “if so and so is in heaven, then I don’t want to be there.” Yet, God is a God of grace, mercy and love. Yet God is also a God of justice. Only God can put these together in a manner which demonstrates the most absolute love we will ever know and experience, because when we get down to the root issue, we don’t deserve God’s love, because we’re all sinners in need of His grace, love and mercy.
Yet, in His love, God sent Jesus for you and I to give us the greatest gift ever . . . the hope of living, living life today and life tomorrow.
So, what’s your Nineveh? What has God asked you to do that you’re trying to run away from? Whatever the reason for Jonah’s disobedience – his prejudice, his hatred for his enemies, his fear that the Ninevites would treat him cruelly – the fact is he was rebelling from God. Maybe you have your own reasons for disobeying God; maybe you’ve rationalized your behavior and come up with some great excuses. But you’re being just like Jonah – running away from God.
And let me tell you something folks, we can run all we want, but we can never, never, never hide from God, no matter how hard we try.
So, let me go back a moment and ask you to think about a time in your life, or maybe right now is the time in your life when you’ve been running from God.
You know God’s calling you, but for whatever reason, you run in the other direction. The call on your life might not be to a place like Nineveh, but it is a call from God, all the same —
★ A call to change your behavior – but you’re okay, everyone else is messed up.
★ A call to be more public with your faith – but when God gives you the opportunity, you keep quiet.
★ A call to forgive – but instead of forgiveness, you hold onto your anger.
★ A call to draw closer to God – but instead you run the other way.
★ A call to a ministry which would fulfill your life – but it means time away from what you want.
★ A call into relationship with God through Jesus – but you want to live life your way.
★ A call to give God your best effort – but you know people will accept mediocrity.
Do you get the point? We aren’t so different from Jonah. And what we forget about is the joy and wonder, yet the frightening aspect that we can’t run or hide from God! Jonah knows it in his head – but his heart screams for him to run!
Think about Psalm 139, David wrote,
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
Jonah runs but he can’t hide, because God won’t let him go – we’ll see that next week. And this is a good thing – because the worst place to be is outside the will of God! Running from God doesn’t solve our problems, they simply add to the problems we think we’re escaping from.
There are times in our lives when we’re able to keep up appearances – we say the right things, and do the right things, but inside we’re running from the call of God. In fact, we’ve learned to live this contradictory life very well. Jonah is able, in one breath, to say that he’s running from God, and in the other breath say that he worships God. On Sunday mornings we can lift up our hands and our voices in praise to God, but Sunday afternoon we begin the run again.
So, what can we learn from Jonah . . .
God is calling each one of us to follow Him and to give ourselves to Him. To do this we must submit ourselves to Him. Accept His call in your life.
Just as God told Jonah to GO, what’s God calling you to do?
Is there a ministry you need to become involved in? Then do it.
Is there a relationship which needs healing? Do it.
Is God calling you to follow Him? Yes, learn what it is, ask Him, He’ll be thrilled you asked, and He will tell you the answer. Then, do it.
We need to follow God’s plan, because God’s plan is always the best plan, even if it takes you out of your comfort zone. Remember, God promises never to abandon you, never to forsake you, but that He will always, always be with you. That’s a great promise we all can hold onto.
