Opening illustration: Being shocked by electricity can be very dangerous. Just ask professional golf legend Lee Trevino. He was struck by lightning while sitting under a tree during a tournament several years ago. He said, “It bolted my arms and legs out stiff, jerked me off the ground”. He went on to explain that he was sure that the lightning had killed him, at least for a moment. Lee Trevino would be the first to tell you that contact with electricity can be deadly.
However, if you were to ask my dad’s roommate at St. Mary’s hospital last year when he was in for heart tests, he would tell you that contact with electricity can be lifesaving. My dad’s roommate’s heart stopped beating in the middle of a procedure and the doctors were forced to make use of a device called a “defribulator”. They are also known as “paddles”. They send a heavy electric shock into the body of the patient in an effort to restart the heart. In this man’s case, contact with this electricity saved his life.
It’s important to keep this in mind when we look at our circumstances. Some circumstances that we think are deadly, may very well be the case because God wants to wake us up and rescue us. That is exactly what happens to Jonah. Normally, being in the belly of a great fish would be a deadly circumstance, but in this case it is that circumstance that provides Jonah’s wake-up call. [Mike Leiter, ODB]
Let us check out from God’s Word the times Jonah was swallowed up and how God intervened by turning to Jonah chapter 1.
Introduction: The book of Jonah has the makings of a great movie plot. It contains a runaway prophet, a terrible storm at sea; the prophet swallowed by a great fish, God sparing the prophet’s life, and the repentance of a pagan city. I love the story of Jonah! It’s full of drama and important life lessons. After stubbornly refusing to do God’s will, Jonah finally preached a revival service in Nineveh that would have made him one of the most successful missionaries of his time. When the people repented and turned from their wicked ways—and when God relented and turned from His anger against them—you would have expected Jonah to rejoice. Instead, he was angry that God was merciful. Why? Although he was finally obeying God by doing the right thing in the right place, he was deeply flawed on the inside.
We see in the story of Jonah that with every new generation comes the necessity of an individual response to God. No one’s spiritual life can be handed off to another; we must each choose to serve the Lord from our own heart. God’s message is as fresh today as it was hundreds of years ago: judgment for the unrepentant but mercy for the repentant. When God calls us out for a purpose, do we run away or just submit under His will? How will you respond if God calls you out of your comfort zone for a mission that is more than important to Him?
How was Jonah swallowed up?
You’ve probably heard the story of Jonah and the great fish. But did you know that the disobedient prophet was “swallowed up” not once but three times? Let me explain.
1. By Prejudice
What qualifies as Nineveh today?
• Nineveh is whatever pulls you out of your comfort zone.
• Nineveh is the place God calls where you don’t want to go.
• Nineveh is the people who have hurt you deeply and God says, “Go and give them my message.”
• Nineveh is the place God calls where you don’t want to go.
• Nineveh is danger.
• Nineveh is discomfort.
• Nineveh is whatever you hate that God loves deeply.
What do you do when God says, “Go to Nineveh,” and you hate those people? You need to think about that because sooner or later, that’s what he’s going to say.
Why did the reluctant prophet run from God?
• He didn’t want to go to Nineveh.
• He didn’t care about Nineveh.
• He didn’t think God should care about Nineveh.
• He didn’t want them to repent.
• He didn’t want a God who loved people like that.
It was perfectly fine with him if God sent them straight to hell. In fact, that was his preference. Jonah’s problem was never ultimately about Nineveh. Jonah’s problem was always with God. Nineveh is the place God calls where you don’t want to go.
In thinking about this, I pondered the excuses Jonah might have given for running from the Lord. Here are a few things he might have said:
• “God is calling me to Tarshish.”
• “They need the Lord in Tarshish too.”
• “I’ve prayed about it.”
• "I have peace in my heart about this decision.”
• “Look at the circumstances. I had the money. The ship just happened to be there. It must be God’s will.”
• “I don’t like the Ninevites anyway, and I’m not the right person to reach those people.”
• "I just feel like going to Tarshish is the right thing to do.”
Whenever we decide to disobey, we can always find an excuse. It’s easy to justify wrong-doing by cloaking it in religious language. When we decide to disobey God, there is always a boat going to Tarshish. Jonah was at a place where he would rather die than change. Are you at that place in life?
God is probably giving you another chance to return and get on track with Him. What are you going to do about it and how are you going to respond?
2. By the Sea
The story the Jews tell of his being let down into the sea to his knees, upon which the sea was calm, but became raging again upon his being taken up; and so, at the second time, to his navel; and the third time to his neck; is all fabulous; but he being wholly thrown in, it raged no more. When men run into sin, they run into ruin here and hereafter. The storm at sea was to get Jonah’s attention while he was on the run to escape from God. Unfortunately his rejection and neglect to this call would allow the sea to swallow him up. That is exactly what happens when we are on running away from God who is continually trying to get our attention and finally we are swallowed up by our own pride and neglect of our Creator.
How far will God let us go in sin? I don’t think anyone knows the full answer. It is the kindness of God that sends the great fish. How far will God let us go? Why doesn’t he stop us sooner? My answer is that part of His judgment is not to stop us.
• He could have arranged things so the ship went to a different port.
• He could have arranged things so the ship had no room for Jonah.
• He could have arranged things so a thief robbed Jonah of his money.
Sometimes the judgment of God is simply that God lets us go on and on in our sin so that we have to face the consequences of our own disobedience. This is the “severe mercy” of the Lord. That’s what Romans 1 means when it repeatedly says that “God gave them over” (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). When a society decides that it doesn’t need God, his response is not always to bring out the lightning and thunder. More often than not, God says, “If you want to jump off the cliff, I have warned you time and again, but if that’s what you want to do, I will not stop you.”
Jonah’s sin had brought disaster to these sailors, causing them to teeter between life and death. His rebellion against God affected the events in his life, and the people around him to their harm, even if he didn’t intend it to happen. Remarkably, God who loved him didn’t abandon him and didn’t let him go his own way. Rather he followed him and caused the storm at sea in order to discipline him and to bring him back to his senses. Jonah didn’t repent yet of his disobedience. But his willingness to confess his sin brought about a change in the events, as well as caused a whole crew of godless people to turn their hearts to God in faith. They feared God and made sacrifices to him— no longer fearing the wrath of the false gods they once sacrificed to and served. They also made vows to the Lord God— vows to love, honor, worship and to serve only him. They had become believers. Jonah had inadvertently fulfilled his purpose in serving God. We must know that God’s purpose in our lives cannot be thwarted. We must also know that when we are endowed with special grace, we have a responsibility to follow and obey his will.
But God is not through yet. He’s just getting started. Write over this story the words of Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Jonah had to go in the water and under it before being resurrected again through the help of a God sent fish. To be really born again with a new heart, he had to be swallowed by the sea. Before being revived into a new man he had to undergo the sea of turmoil which did bring a change in his life. He had to die to his sin before God to really work in and through him. He thought his death would do the job but God was not willing for him to die till He got the job done. When God has chosen to get the job done by you and you decide to disobey, He will wait for you patiently even though you delay the process and will get around with you at some point, not on your terms but His. How many of you are in the sea today? God is already preparing the fish to get you.
3. By a Large Fish that God had prepared to rescue him (1:17) – kindness of God
Who sent the great fish? Answer: The same person who arranged the boat, the same person who arranged for the lot to fall on Jonah, and the same person who sent the great storm. God did all of it.
The fish obeys God better than Jonah does. Why did he send the fish? First, to rescue Jonah from the sea. If he hadn’t sent the fish, Jonah would have died in the ocean. Second, to bring him to repentance.
Meanwhile Jonah’s disobedience looks pretty good so far. “Happy sailing, Jonah. Watch out for that big fish.” Finally his disobedience landed him in the belly of this great fish. The fish obeys God better than Jonah does. Amazing isn’t it? This is how life really works. Sin looks good for a while. Jonah experienced the “pleasures of sin for a season.” If sin always brought immediate misery, it would be a lot less attractive to us. Stolen water may be sweet, but it leads you to the gates of hell.
• The bitterness comes later.
• The sadness comes later.
The fish is still God’s SOS. The fish Shows us Our Savior. Jesus told his enemies that all the sign they needed was in Jonah’s fish. God saves us from our stubborn sin. We’d rather commit suicide. We’d rather die than give up our sin. And that’s what happens. It is no accident that the ancient church used the fish for a sign of Jesus. It is the sign of Jonah. The fish takes Jonah to his death … deep into the water. For three days Jonah is good as dead in the stomach of the fish, in the deep, deep darkness of the sea but he is safe. Saved by the fish. Saved from his stubborn sin. And spit up on the shore again.
The Greek word for fish is IXTHUS. It is an anagram for Jesus. In Greek the first letter of each of the words Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior spells IXTHUS, fish. Our Jesus, our fish saves us from our sin. Saint Paul says.
Sin is fun for a while. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Jonah is about to find that out the hard way. Inside the fish 3 days, he confessed his sin and promised to obey God (2:1-9). After he was delivered, he followed God’s directive and preached judgment to Nineveh, and all the people repented (3:1-5). Jonah tried his best to thwart God’s plan but failed miserably. Don’t wait for the great fish for when God sends it, you will surely land in its belly before you even know it. Believe me it is far better to be on dry land than in the mushy, smelly and slimy belly of the fish. Better to get right with God and not be swallowed up like Jonah.
Application: R T Kendall has said: “God is not obligated to any man and, in so far as Jonah is concerned, God did not even have to send wind! But He did. He did not have to prepare the fish. But He did. He did not have to eject Jonah from the fish. But He did. And He certainly did not have to come to Jonah the second time. But He did!”
Any time you run from God, you never go “up"; you always go “down.” God sometimes allows us to face frightening circumstances so that we will learn to trust and obey Him. It’s always best to obey the Lord right away - then we won’t be “swallowed up.” The way of obedience is the way of blessing.
