What comes to mind when you think about the Book of Jonah?
Summary of the book , So God tells the prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach to the people , instead he runs to Joppa found a ship to Tarshish . While on the ship God sent a terrible storm and the crew threw Him overboard until a mighty fish swallowed him up . He spent 3 days in the belly of the fish until it spit him up on the shores of Nineveh where he ended up preaching to the people.
People have been arguing over whether it was a whale or a big fish for the last 3000 years
So I want to do my best at settling this age old argument once and for all .
When we search the original manuscripts the word for Kétos is used and it translates to Sea Monster
And while people were arguing the point , Jesus was already making references to it
Matthew 12:40 for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Now this actually makes a lot more of sense because comparing hell to a flipper the dolphin doesn’t seem right , but being swallowed by a sea monster and comparing that to being swallowed up by hell.
What it also shows is that even today from His throne above God is still in charge.
He’s in charge of the blessings and He is in charge of the wicked , He controls the light and the reciprocal holds true that He is also controls the darkness
Why did Jesus announce that He would spend 3 days in hell? And then compare it to Jonah .
1Peter 3:19in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah,
The parallels are right there in front of us because as God sent Jonah to preach to the wicked people in Nineveh but he ran away, God sent Jesus to preach to the wicked in hell but He went .
So here is your gut check this morning, If God sends you to help wicked people and you don’t go, who now is really wicked.
You see that the Lord sent Jonah to preach to the wicked, and that act of running away made actually made him more wicked than the ones he was suppose to lead.
The parable of the the two Sons fits right here
Matthew21:28“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ 29“And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. 30“The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. 31“Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. 32“For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him
This parable is a gotcha moment, because everyone would correctly say the first Son who eventually go did the Fathers will .
And this proves that you understand right from wrong and that you understand the message so you have no excuse .
Jesus’ point is that these religious people are actually in the second group, clearly understanding ,clearly disobeying and clearly the most wicked because they know the Fathers, will and still didn’t do it
John The Baptist was also preaching to the wicked but in this case it wasn’t to the people of Nineveh, or even to the prisoners of hell , John preached it to the religious wicked .
If your only take away from the book Jonah is a Big fish swallowed a guy then maybe tits time for you to look long and hard at yourself.
What all these have in common is are two things what they are and what they are lacking
Jonah, the prisoners of hell and the religious is they are all the self righteous , the people who think they are better than everyone. They don’t need no Savior or God
Mark 2:17 And hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
And the thing they are both are missing is the key ingredient of any born again believer , The Fear of God
The modern church has focused so much of its energy on the Love of God to such an extreme , all awhile forgoing the wrath of God , that it has actually seemed to have air-conditioned hell.
That the Gospel isn’t as urgent as it once was and, That hell isn’t as bad as we think ,
After hearing the message that God would destroy their city of Nineveh in 40 days , it generated the Fear of God in them, it changed them .
Jonah3:5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.
Jonah3:9“Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.”
Jonah 3:10When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.
You see it’s never too late
There are people right now sitting back looking down on the down trodden,
Waiting for the calamity to hit their lives when they are so blind that they can’t see to their own wickedness .
If you think this is about a big fish , or a whale or even a sea monster , instead it’s about a worm
Jonah4: 5Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.” 9Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” 10Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.11“Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”
We get so caught up, in the things of this world, that we forget that God is in charge and at anytime He can send you a reminder of where you would be without Him.
Just something as small as a worm could take over your whole life, but God
2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance
Oh there’s some Jonah and all of us , and that sea monster that’s the world swallowing you up and spitting you out , but God is a God of His promise
Patient and not wanting any to perish , but for all to come to repentance .
