Running On Empty
Text: Jonah 1:1-16
Introduction
1. Illustration: A hospital administrator was once startled to see a patient fleeing down the hall out of the operating room, his loose hospital gown flapping the breeze behind him. He stopped the fleeing patient and said, "Do you mind telling me why you ran away from the operating room?" The patient looked at him with startled eyes and said, "It was because of what the nurse said." The administrator said, "Oh, what did she say?" She said, "Be brave! An appendectomy is quite simple." The administrator looked a bit confused and said, "Well, so what? It is quite simple. I would think that would comfort you." The patient said "Are you kidding, the nurse wasn't talking to me; she was talking to the doctor."
2. What are you running from?
a. Bill collectors?
b. Old girlfriends?
c. Your past?
3. Well, if you are running from the call of God in your life let me give you some advice...stop running! Because when it comes to the Lord you can run but you cannot hide.
4. You can do three things with the call of God on your life...
a. Run from it
b. Ignore it
c. Give in to it
5. Let's stand together as we read Jonah 1:1-16.
Proposition: When God calls you to do something you had better run to Him because you cannot run from Him.
Transition: When God has a call on our life we can try and...
I. Run From It (1-3).
A. But Jonah Went In the Opposite Direction
1. The book of Jonah begins with, "The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai..."
a. Who is Jonah?
b. Jonah was a Galilean prophet to King Jeroboam II, who reigned over the Northern Tribes of Israel.
c. Jonah is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25. He prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II, the king of Israel from 793 to 753 B.C.
d. He may have been a member of the company of prophets mentioned in connection with Elisha's ministry.
2. One day the Lord came to Jonah and said, “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”
a. In keeping with the best prophetic tradition Yahweh is represented as the Lord of the nations, to whom the whole world is held morally accountable.
b. If Nineveh is great, God is greater, for he speaks from heaven above.
c. The simple way in which the reason for denouncing Nineveh is expressed recalls the divine statement in Gen. 18:20, 21 concerning Sodom and Gomorrah.
d. Nineveh is another Sodom, an unhallowed haunt of wickedness meriting destruction (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament – The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah).
e. Why would God want to save such a wicked city?
f. The phrase "great city" appears only three other times in the book of Jonah.
g. The implication is that such an important and large city is worth Yahweh's trouble to save because God cares about people, a major theme in Jonah (Bruckner, NIV Application Commentary, 46).
3. However, the text tells us that "But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD...."
a. No reason is given for the disobedience. Jonah is simply stamped as a deserter from God's army, running as hard as he can away from the enemy's direction.
b. Verse 3 is cleverly structured by means of repetition to make the narrator's point. Jonah does the exact opposite of what he is told.
c. However, a little historical background gives us some idea for Jonah's disobedience.
d. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria who were Israel's worst enemy.
e. They were a powerful and well-developed nation, known for their brutality.
f. Of course running away from Yahweh is an impossibility.
g. The phrase "to get away from the Lord," is literally "away from His presence" and is used twice in this verse as a point of emphasis.
h. This is a common mistake made by people of faith to try and run away from the Lord and ignore his word to us (Bruckner, 47-48).
4. Instead of going to Nineveh like the Lord told his to do, Jonah, "...went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the LORD by sailing to Tarshish."
a. Jonah does the exact opposite of what he is told. The narrator makes him act out a defiant "no" to Yahweh's call to Nineveh.
b. Tarshish was at the other end of the world from Nineveh. It was one of those far-off places where Yahweh had not revealed himself. As such, it is an ideal destination in the escape plan Jonah devises.
c. His rejection of the divine call is shown in concrete terms as a desire to put as much distance as possible between himself and the place where Yahweh revealed his word to him.
d. The Hebrews were landsmen with little experience of the sea.
e. That Jonah was prepared to entrust himself to an ocean-going boat rather than face up to God's call must have struck the hearers as proof positive of his determination to run away.
f. Surely no good can come of this foolhardy venture. Jonah will not be allowed to snap his fingers at Yahweh and get away with it.
g. In his hasty plans he has reckoned without the Hound of Heaven (NICOT).
B. You Cannot Run From God
1. Illustration: "Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self... Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in" (C. S. Lewis - Mere Christianity).
2. You cannot run from the will of God.
a. Psalm 139:7-8 (NLT)
I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.
b. You know you can't run from God, because whenever you run from Him you run into Him.
c. Where do you think you can run that God can't catch you?
d. Where can you go that He will not find you?
e. You can run from now until the cows come home but you cannot, and will not, out run the Holy Spirit!
f. He is the Hound of Heaven and no matter where you go or what you do He will find.
g. He is relentless and He will never leave you alone until you surrender to the will of the Lord.
3. It is useless to try and fight against the will of God.
a. Acts 9:5 (NKJV)
And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads."
b. Fighting against the will of God will always be a losing battle.
c. No matter how hard you fight or what you do God will always win.
d. You cannot fight him and you cannot resist His power.
e. If God is calling you to do something don't fight it, don't resist it, just do it!
Transition: Well, you know you cannot run from the will of God, so the next thing is to...
II. Try To Ignore It (4-12).
A. Jonah Was Sound Asleep
1. It doesn't take Jonah very long to figure out that running from God is a really bad idea.
2. The writer of Jonah indicates this by saying, "But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent story that threatened to break apart the ship. Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship."
a. Yahweh, the passive victim of Jonah's tactics, now intervenes in activity of his own.
b. Verse 4 and the first clause of v. 5 introduce the key words which the new passage is to develop: hurling, the sea, fearing.
c. The Lord throws down upon the sea a gale so furious that even these experienced sailors are frightened.
d. The Lord will not be brushed aside and ignored. He sets in motion a series of violent actions: the gale hits the sea, the resultant storm shivers the timbers of the poor old ship, and the sailors' reaction is one of panic.
e. Ungodly as they are, they resort to S.O.S. prayers. They are doomed to obtain no help from their prayers, because the cosmopolitan crew worship various gods of their own and not Yahweh.
f. Yet it is to their credit that even they can see that this is no ordinary storm, but betrays a divine reaction to some great sin.
g. Thrown back on their own resources, the seamen begin to get rid of the cargo.
h. They try to deal with the storm God had thrown upon the sea with a counter-throw. But if religion was no solution, neither is their own devices (NICOT).
3. However, while all this is going on, look at what Jonah did. The text tells us, "but all this time Jonah was sound alseep down in the hold. So the captain went down after him. 'How can you sleep at a time like this? he shouted. 'Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.'"
a. Exhausted from his struggle and attempt to escape God's calling Jonah decides sleeping it off is his best option.
b. The problem is that doing this only delays the inevitable for when you wake up the problem is still there waiting for you.
c. The ship's captain, evidently going down into the hold to fetch up the cargo, discovers the sleeping figure among the jars and bales, to his extreme annoyance.
d. This is no time for rest.
e. Jonah must have thought he was having a nightmare: these were the very words with which God had disturbed his pleasant life a few days before.
f. They have come back to haunt him and remind him of his desertion from his prophetic duty.
g. Rubbing his eyes, Jonah can see that it is not an irate God standing over him, but the captain.
h. He means something else: he is telling Jonah to pray to his God.
i. If only the captain knew how far spiritually Jonah was from God and what little claim he had upon Yahweh (NICOT)!
4. Not only does Jonah find out that you can't run from God, but you can't ignore Him either. In v. 7 we read, "Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. The they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit."
a. When lots were thrown, "the result comes wholly from Yahweh" (Prov. 16:33).
b. By this means of providential guidance the person whose guilt had unleashed destructive force upon them all could be isolated.
c. Of course, Jonah won the lottery—or lost it in this case.
d. As soon as he is singled out as the culprit, the crew want to know the whys and wherefores of the affair.
5. The sailor then confront Jonah saying, "'Why has this awful storm come down on us?' they demanded. Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?'"
a. These sailors in their terror begin to ask Jonah a series of questions.
b. They know that he was running from the Lord but they want to know what he did that was so terrible.
c. One of the more intriguing questions is "What is your line of work?"
d. What they are really asking him is 'whom do you represent?"
e. The phrase "line of work" is the feminine noun that means "messenger or representative" (Bruckner, 51).
6. Realizing that he can no longer ignore the problem, "Jonah answered, 'I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.'"
a. Jonah's reply goes to the heart of the matter. Jonah answers the last question first, explaining that he is a Hebrew, the term generally used by the people of Israel in describing themselves to foreigners.
b. Since Yahweh was "the God of the Hebrews," this means that Jonah is a worshipper of Yahweh.
c. Worship is literally "fear," but its use on Jonah's lips contrasts starkly with its meaning in vv. 5, 10.
d. The runaway prophet is shown in a bad light: crew and captain can teach him many a lesson about his own faith (NICOT).
7. This made matters worse for the sailors. They "were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. 'Oh, why did you do it?' they groaned."
a. The narrator brings out the poor nature of Jonah's fear by jumping immediately to the sailors' reaction.
b. If the storm created in them a numinous dread, identification of the God who was responsible fills them even more with holy fear.
c. The men realize their humanity in the face of such divine power.
d. As Jonah answers their questions and tells them the sorry tale of his flight from this very God, they become more and more horrified.
e. No wonder Yahweh has sent such a father and mother of a storm, for so great a sin deserves such a show of wrath (NICOT).
f. The phrase "Oh why did you do it?" really means, "why did you do this to us?"
8. Looking for a solution to their plight the sailors ask Jonah,"'What should we do to you to stop this storm?' 'Throw me into the sea,' Jonah said, 'and it will become calm again. I know this terrible storm is all my fault.'"
a. He accepts his fate and is prepared to face it at once. He replies at last to a question put to him by the sailors earlier.
b. Yes, he admits his responsibility for the storm.
c. By now he has realized how terrible is the sin that has provoked this terrible storm.
d. The only way to appease Yahweh's wrath is to abandon himself to it as just deserts for his sin.
e. His willingness to die is an indication that he realizes his guilt before God (NICOT).
B. Just Try and Ignore Me
1. Illustration: "A man can never be the same after hearing Gods truth spoken in the power of Gods Holy Spirit; he will either obey and go forward, or ignore and die a little."
2. Ignoring God's call on your life is a bad idea...a really bad idea!
a. Psalm 9:17 (NLT)
The wicked will go down to the grave. This is the fate of all the nations who ignore God.
b. The God who created the universe cannot be ignored.
c. The God who controls the wind, waves, storms, and clouds cannot be ignored.
d. The God who holds in His hands life and death cannot be ignored.
e. The God knows all and sees all cannot be ignored.
3. How can we ignore the will of God when He has been so good to us?
a. 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 (NLT)
As God’s partners, we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it. 2 For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.
b. When God has given us everything we have how can we ignore Him?
c. When God gave us His grace that we didn't deserve it, how can we ignore Him?
d. When God gave His only Son, who stood in our place, and died a criminals death so that we could live, how can we ignore Him?
Transition: We cannot run from God, and we cannot ignore God, so the best thing to do with God's call on our lives is to...
III. Give In To It (13-16).
A. Picked Up Jonah
1. There's an old saying, "If you can't beat 'em join 'em!" This is the lesson the Jonah learned when dealing with the will of God. Fighting with God is always a losing battle so you might as well surrender.
2. The sailors also needed to learn this lesson. Rather than taking Jonah's advice they still try and do it their own way. In v. 13 it says, "Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the story sea was too violent for them, and they couldn't make it."
a. The men, overawed at the power of Jonah's God, are unwilling to take the possibly fatal step of committing Jonah to a watery grave, as their prayer in v. 14 reveals.
b. But they do want to rid themselves of his presence. Jonah's diagnosis is certainly correct, but is his prescription the right one?
c. Since the storm had hindered their voyage, perhaps Yahweh wanted Jonah returned to shore. Once again they resort to their own efforts to escape the peril of the sea (NICOT).
3. Finally the sailors cry out to the Lord saying, "don't make us die for this man's sin. And don't hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons."
a. The sailors do not want to be responsible for Jonah's death but they realize that trying to fight against Yahweh is futile.
b. They have now run out of options as they have tried lightening the cargo, rowing to shore, and praying.
c. None of it seems to work. They are afraid that they will die for appeasing the Lord by being accomplices in Jonah's death (Bruckner, 54).
4. They knew there was only one thing left to do, so "the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once!"
a. Jonah, sinful victim of Yahweh's wrath, seemed doomed to die.
b. So, viewing themselves as agents of divine justice, they tossed Jonah into the raging sea below.
c. They thus achieved the intent for which Yahweh had first tossed the gale upon the sea.
d. The result was dramatic: the storm was switched off and the sea became docile.
e. Its fury, eloquent symbol of Yahweh's anger, subsides now that Yahweh's dire will is done (NICOT).
5. Now we see a great act of God in the midst of this seeming tragedy. "The sailors were awestruck by the Lord's great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him."
a. Here we see an amazing transformation that can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit.
b. At the beginning of our text they were afraid and prayed to their gods.
c. Now they dumbstruck by Yahweh's incredible power, and their response is one of worshiping Him and a commitment to serve Him (Bruckner, 55).
B. Just Give Up!
1. Illustration: "Another aspect of a fully surrendered life is trust. Abraham followed God’s leading without knowing where it would take him. Hannah waited for God’s perfect timing without knowing when. Mary expected a miracle without knowing how. Joseph trusted God’s purpose without knowing why circumstances happened the way they did" (Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life).
2. If you are running from the will of God today surrender to Him.
a. Jeremiah 4:4 (NLT)
O people of Judah and Jerusalem, surrender your pride and power. Change your hearts before the LORD...
b. Don't continue to fight a battle you cannot win.
c. Don't continue to resist a force that you cannot overcome
d. Don't continue to oppose an all-powerful God.
e. Surrender to the Hound of Heaven.
3. If you are running from the will of God today come to your senses.
a. Isaiah 1:18 (NLT)
“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.
b. God doesn't want us to end up in the raging sea.
c. God doesn't want us to drag the ship and it's crew down with us.
d. Come to your senses and give in to the will of God.
Conclusion
1. Well, if you are running from the call of God in your life let me give you some advice...stop running! Because when it comes to the Lord you can run but you cannot hide.
2. When God calls us to do something we have three choices. We can...
a. Run from it
b. Ignore it
c. Give into it
3. Are you running from God today?
4. Are you trying to ignore God?
5. Isn't it time to give in and surrender?
