Don't be like Jonah, don't run away, follow your calling.
We are continuing in our series Discovering Your Destiny and this week we are considering how ‘God Prepares and Positions us’
Ephesians 2:10 reminds us, God has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10)
God has a plan for each of our lives, we often quote Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
God has plans for you and I. God also has a calling for each and every one of us to fulfil in our lives so that we can bring honour and glory to Him.
Have you discovered the calling that God has for your life?
Do you know what it is that He wants you to do for Him?
If you do know what He has called you to do are you doing it or avoiding it?
In the Bible there are examples of people who had a calling placed on their lives and chose to accept that call.
There are also examples of those who chose to ignore what God had called them to do. Perhaps one of the best examples of this is the prophet Jonah.
Jonah is often described as a wayward prophet, he wanted nothing to do with God’s mercy for the people of Nineveh.
The life of Jonah illustrates for us how important it is to respond to God’s call on our lives.
In The Old Testament, the book of Jonah tells us how the “word of the LORD” came to Jonah.
Jonah was a Hebrew prophet who lived during the reign of King Jeroboam II around 793 to 753 BC. God told Jonah to go to the foreign city of Nineveh and proclaim to the people their need to repent from their sins and turn to God.
Nineveh stood on the eastern bank of the Tigris River in what is modern-day Mosul, Iraq. Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian empire, and the Assyrians threatened the existence of Jonah’s nation.
Jonah was more inclined to see the people of Nineveh destroyed because of their sin and wickedness than tell them how they could be saved.
Rather than do what God had called Jonah to do, he heads to Joppa to find a boat to take him in the opposite direction, away from Nineveh. He boards a boat to Tarshish, somewhere in modern day Spain. Jonah tried hard to avoid what God wanted him to do, so hard that he is willing to head to the end of the known world.
The truth is we can’t run away or hide from God.
God sent a storm to intercept Jonah. A storm so violent it threatened to break the boat apart.
Fearing for their lives, the sailors panicked and began throwing their cargo into the sea.
Jonah knew exactly what had caused the storm to come into his life.
Jonah knew it was his actions which were causing a major problem for the other people around him.
He was forced to admit to everyone on the boat, “It is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
There is a lesson for us here: If we choose our own way instead of God’s way, then we need to understand that our actions or inactions can have consequences for us and those around us.
Jonah had chosen disobedience instead of willingly following the path and the plan God had called him to follow.
Jonah had been unwilling to give God first place in his life, Jonah had been unwilling to surrender to God’s will for his life.
Instead of following God’s calling on his life, Jonah had tried to turn his back on God and run in the opposite direction.
Are you running from God’s call on your own life?
All of us have probably chosen to run from something in our own lives. It could have been a good choice or a bad choice at the time, we could have turned away from something that would have been good for us or we could have chosen to turn away from something that would have been harmful to us.
Have you turned your back on God and said “I am going to do this my way not yours.”?
Even though you know what it is God wants you to do, are you doing what Jonah tried to do?
Have you chosen to run in the opposite direction of where God actually wants you to be?
Somewhere deep in his heart, Jonah knew that others should not suffer because of his choice to disobey God’s call on his life. So Jonah told the sailors to throw him into the sea, reluctantly they do as Jonah requests and the storm stops. The Bible tells us that when the sailors saw this miracle, they worshiped the true God. Good for the sailors, not so good for Jonah.
Thrown overboard into the sea. There is only so long a person can tread water before tiredness sets in.
Can you imagine what was going through Jonah’s mind right then?
God asked me to go where I did not want to go...
God told me to do what I did not want to do...
I said no way and I tried to run away...
I thought I’d done it...
On the boat, heading in the opposite direction,
Then that storm...
It was my fault. The storm was my fault...
How could I let the others perish...
I told them to throw me in...
Part of me hoped they wouldn’t do it...
But they did...
The storm stopped...
They sailed off in the boat...
That dot on the horizon - that’s them that is...
Will another boat pass by soon?
I’m cold...
I’m getting tired...
How long can I tread water?
It’s my fault and I don’t want to be here!
You know what happens next.
The Bible says God sent a big fish to swallow Jonah.
It’s gone dark...
Where am I?...
“Hello? Is someone there?”...
What is that smell?...
Wait...
I’m inside something...
I’m inside a fish!
Thank God, I’m not gonna drown.
When Jonah realised he was inside the fish he thanked God, but it’s unclear if Jonah’s heart had really changed.
Swallowed by a huge fish, kept alive for three days in its stomach, and then vomited out onto dry land is the most well-known part of Jonah’s life.
Just thinking about this amazing miracle probably brings us more questions than answers.
What kind of fish was it? Honestly, we don’t know.
Most people say “whale” because of how the King James Version translates Matthew 14:20, For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The Hebrew word used in the book of Jonah means a large fish or sea monster. Job 3:8, Job 41:1, Psalm 74:14, Psalm 104:26 and Isaiah 27:1 all speak of the Leviathan, a large mysterious sea creature.
Could the Mediterranean have been home to such a large fish or sea monster?
The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of 965,300 square miles - that is about 2.5 million kilometers.
It’s average depth is 4,900 ft or 1,500m. It’s deepest point, the Calypso Deep, is 17,280 feet or 5,267 meters.
It’s been estimated that the Med is large enough to contain over 185 million double decker buses so it’s big enough and deep enough to contain a fish big enough for a person to live in for three days.
How did Jonah survive for three days in the digestive system of a large fish?
G.W. Kellogg, in his book The Bible Today, wrote this: “There are at least 2 known monsters of the deep that could easily have swallowed Jonah. They are the sulfur-bottom whale, and the whale shark.” Neither has any teeth. They open their enormous jaws and take in water at an incredible speed, then strain out the water and swallow what ever is left. In 1933 a sulfur-bottom whale was captured off Cape Cod. It was 100 ft long with a mouth 10 or 12 ft wide.
These whales have 4 to 6 compartments in their stomachs, in any one of which a colony of men could find free lodging. They might even have a choice of rooms, for in the head of this whale is a wonderful air storage chamber, an enlargement of the nasal sinus, often measuring 7 feet wide, by 14 feet long. If the whale has an unwelcome guest on board who gives him a headache, the whale swims to the nearest land and gets rid of the offender as he did Jonah.”
Could this have really happened? Yes!
If we accept God was able to control the wind and the waves, send a violent storm and dispel the storm in an instant, then it is not hard to believe that God was able to deliver Jonah from drowning.
Even in the smelly, slimy insides of a fish somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean Jonah couldn’t escape God’s grace and mercy.
Jonah’s choices and actions and had led him away from where God had called him to be, yet God was still caring for him. Has there been a storm in your life that has taken you to a place where you did not want to be?
Right now, are you, figuratively speaking, stuck inside a fish?
Three days in the belly of a fish, probably not the best three days of Jonah’s life. There inside the fish Jonah prayed.
Listen to Jonah 2:1-10, Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. He said, “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and He answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me! You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves. Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’ “I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death! As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple. Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies. But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.” Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.
Jonah prays a prayer inside the fish based on his knowledge of God’s mercy and kindness.
Trapped inside the fish, in the damp, in the dark, Jonah says he will look towards the temple of God.
Jonah looks towards where mercy and forgiveness can be found.
Jonah looks towards where his transgressions will be covered.
He is a real man, trapped by real circumstances. He only has two choices: prayer or despair. Jonah can either give up or he can look up. Too many people are trapped in their despair because they reject the help God offers.
God is the only real hope there is. Friends, in God alone we have our hope!
He’s trapped inside the fish and Jonah knows his salvation can only come from God.
Jonah repents. Repentance literally means a change of direction, a change of mind.
From a biblical perspective it is a change of mind about sin, seeing sin for what it is, an act of rebellion against God.
Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change in behaviour, turning from sin and submitting to God.
Jonah knew in going his own way, by doing his own thing, he had turned away from the only one who could save him.
Jonah’s repentance involves three things:
1. He turns back to the right path, the one he had been trying so hard to avoid. Jonah turns back to God.
2. Jonah acknowledges the foolishness of his ways.Then Jonah puts God back at the centre of his life.
3. Jonah vows to put God’s plan and purpose above his own because he knows his salvation comes from the Lord.
Three things, a physical move, a psychological choice and spiritual commitment.
After three days, the fish vomited Jonah onto dry land. Jonah had tried to run from God’s calling on his life, but Jonah could not run away from God. God gave Jonah a second chance. Jonah did not deserve it, Jonah had not earned it, yet God in His mercy gave Jonah another opportunity to do what God had called him to do.
The “word of the LORD” came to Jonah a second time, and this time Jonah responded to God’s call and goes to Nineveh. He proclaims to the people that God is about to overthrow the city and the people turn to God.
As I draw to a close, I want us to consider the call God has placed on everyone of us - Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus came and told His disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Jesus has given a commandment, placed a call on each and every one of us, to go and make disciples.
Are you following the commandment Jesus has given to you as His disciple?
God is calling you to be an influence in another persons life. Is it a family member, a friend, a co-worker or a neighbour who needs to know Jesus for themselves?
Have you done it, have you told them, or are you ignoring the call to proclaim the truth that Jesus is Lord and Saviour?
God has called you to tell other people about Jesus, to tell them that their sins can be forgiven, to tell them that they can be assured of a place in Heaven when they repent and accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour of their lives.
In the same way God called Jonah to be a part of Nineveh’s salvation, God calls each of us to be part of His rescue plan for this world.
God has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10)
Let me encourage you to answer this call on your life, share the message of God’s grace and forgiveness, share the truth of the Gospel with someone this week.
Don't be like Jonah, don't run away, follow your calling.
Discover your destiny.
Don’t run from the responsibility God has given you.
Pursue every opportunity to experience and help others experience, God’s love, mercy and grace.
Amen.
