A man and his wife were figuring how much money they could save by putting in a garden. The wife said, “With this garden we’ll be able to save over $300.00 by not purchasing canned vegetables.” The husband said, “Yes, and after buying this new tiller, these garden tools and all these expensive fertilizers, it only cost us $1500.00 to do it!” That seems to be a pretty non–profit way to save money!
A boy had a paper route. He got up at 4:00 every morning to deliver his papers before school. Finally the first month came to an end and he glumly discovered that he was $64.00 in the hole. Excessive draws, failure to watch his paper count and people not paying him put him in arrears. That’s a pretty non-profit way to run a business.
How frustrated that husband was; how disappointed that paper boy was. God must have some frustrations and disappointments, too, because of some who resist or reject His commission as did Jonah. Jonah – commissioned by God to preach to Nineveh wanted no part of it. He fled to Joppa, making himself, for the moment at least, a non-profit prophet. God had a job for him to do, but he didn’t obey.
We are not going to get negative here, just realistic. We are not going to beat up on Jonah, but we will seek to learn from him. Jonah failed to heed God’s command, but in Chapter 1 we are in the first stage of Jonah’s development.
Most of us, myself at the head of the list, have heard God call and failed to heed.
As you read this chapter notice that everything in it obeys God: the storm, the sailors, the fish. Everyone and everything – except Jonah. Look back at the text with me:
I. FIRST, NOTE THE SINFUL SIGHT: V2:
A. “The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.’" Jonah 1:1-2 (NASB).
1. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. This gentile, pagan nation was wicked to the max.
2. They were violent, cruel, oppressive and were, significantly, an arch enemy of Israel.
3. Little wonder Jonah didn’t want to go there!
B. God, however, though He saw the grossness of the sin and immorality and violence of that great city, wanted them to repent. "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me." He saw it and responded with grace.
1. It didn’t escape His notice. The sight rose up before Him like an ugly gray cloud.
2. Every sin of every nation and person still rises up before Him. The sins of earth are an awful sight in heaven.
3. Psalms 139:1-4 (NIV) “O LORD, You have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O LORD.”
4. Proverbs 15:3 (NIV) “The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.”
5. Hebrews 4:13 (NIV) “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account.”
C. You can’t hide things from God! We may deceive others, we may fool ourselves, but there is no hiding things from God: When a person peels an onion, the odor is obvious; when you run over a skunk the smell is obvious; when you forget to use your Dial soap, something becomes obvious
D. And when we indulge in sin, it is as obvious to Him as a huge zit on our nose. Unbeknownst to them, He sees the sins of our world and sends us to that world with the Gospel.
E. Talk about being observed without knowing it. A man parked his Mercedes and a thug came along, and thinking nobody saw him, decided to steal it. A girl, looking out a second story window, saw what was happening and called out, “God is watching you!” The thug stopped, looked around and slunk away, looking skyward. God is watching the immorality, the corruption, the infidelity, the vices of this world – and He’s sending His workers with His word – let’s not be like Jonah and prove unprofitable.
II. NEXT, NOTE THE FOOLISH FLIGHT: V3:
A. “Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” Jonah 1:3 (NASB).
1. God called, Jonah reacted promptly and decisively: “No way! I don’t think so! I want no part of it!” Then he ran.
a. He may have feared for his life.
b. He was certainly vindictive and didn’t want to offer hope of repentance. His own words after Nineveh’s repentance, are, “in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.” Jonah 4:2 (NASB).
2. He went down to Joppa. Running from God is always a downhill proposition. It is always degrading to disobey.
3. He paid his fare. There is always a price attached to fleeing God’s will. And guess who pays it!
4. Thinking of running away, Linus and Charlie Brown are walking along and chatting with one another. Linus says, "I don't like to face problems head on. I think the best way to solve problems is to avoid them. In fact, this is a distinct philosophy of mine. No problem is so big or so complicated that it can't be run away from!"
B. But there is a lesson we ought to learn – and we will learn, perhaps the hard way: You cannot run from God! David learned that and wrote, Psalms 139:7-10 (NIV) “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.”
C. God may be laying His hand on you for some particular service. He might be calling you to go to a neighbor or friend or family member. Don’t be like Jonah and be non-profit. Don’t try the absurdity of running from God.
D. Your greatest abilities are your availability, reliability, responsibility and usability.
1. Ready, faithful, obedient.
2. Unlike Moses who, when God told him to go to Egypt to free his people, in essence, said, “Here I am. Send Aaron.”
3. But like Isaiah who responded to God’s question. “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" saying "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8 (NASB).
4. When God calls let us hasten to Nineveh not flee to Tarshish.
E. Trying to run from God is like a man I heard about from a friend who witnessed it. The guy was camping in a national park when he was awakened by a bear trying to break into his ice chest. The man yelled at the bear, and pounded on a kettle with a hammer, scaring it away and waking up all the other campers. The man muttered and fumed while he tore down his campsite.
Another camper asked, grouchily, “What are you doing? It’s 4:00 in the morning!” He replied, “I’m getting away from these bears!” He moved about 300 yards away and pitched his tent again. Guess he thought that short move put him out of the way of bears. Jonah must have thought fleeing to Joppa would put him out of God’s way, too. But there were consequences.
III. FINALLY, NOTE THE PITIFUL PLIGHT: VV4-12:
A. “The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep. So the captain approached him and said, ‘How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.’ Each man said to his mate, ‘Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us.’ So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, ‘Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?’ He said to them, ‘I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.’ Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, ‘How could you do this?’ For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. So they said to him, ‘What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?’—for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. He said to them, ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.’” Jonah 1:4-12 (NASB).
1. God sent a storm to thwart Jonah’s flight, to waken him, to frighten him, to get him out of the boat, into the fish, back onto dry land and into His will, headed for Nineveh.
2. He would never have been in storm or the belly of that fish if he’d been in the center of God’s will. But Jonah suffered the consequences of disobedience.
B. There are always consequences to our choices and actions. And we don’t get to determine what those consequences are!
C. Consequences to sin are always unpleasant ones. There may be pain, or shame or deep regret.
1. When we wantonly disobey, God will send trials. He is not as interested in our comfort as He is in our character;
2. So, when we sin, consequences come
a. To humble us
b. To make us realize our need of Him
c. To mature and develop us
d. To test and prove us
e. To chasten and correct us
D. God called and Jonah ran. But is there no comfort here? Is there no hope for Jonah? Is it “One strike and you’re out!”? Is it “You had your chance and blew it!”?
1. Jonah has disobeyed; he has run away; he has been cast into the sea.
a. But look at verse 17: “But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.”
b. In the midst of what would be certain doom, God delivered him from drowning – and put him inside a fish!
2. True, it was an unexpected and unrequested and unpleasant stay in the Halibut Hilton – but it was rescue! There is hope for the Jonahs of this world.
E. Sometimes we have to endure and struggle with consequence before we are fitted for God’s call. Let me illustrate. A man saw a cocoon. He watched the butterfly begin its struggle to emerge from the cocoon, but it seemed to make almost no progress. Finally, the man took a pair of scissors and snipped the opening larger. The butterfly crawled out, but that's all it ever did—crawl. The pressure of the struggle was intended to push colorful, life-giving juices back into the wings, but the man in his supposed mercy prevented this.
God knows what He is doing and He knew that Jonah needed to be inside that fish for three days and nights. To prematurely set him free without a struggle would weaken him, not help him.
Well, God still calls us to go where sin is rampant. God’s call may be resisted, His voice unheeded. Consequences come. Storms upset us. But – God is not finished with us. God has invested in your rescue. God still has a plan for your life. God still calls you to “go to Nineveh!”
What matters today is that you let God have the rest of your life. What matters is that today you hear and heed His summons to go where He sends. Before you can go, you must first come. Come to Jesus today; come for salvation; come for forgiveness; come for eternal life. And then commit yourself to go – freely, willingly, and unconditionally wherever He may send. .
