“Adrift”
‘Ready to Soar’ series
Jonah
January 17, 2021
Bad decisions: , construction fails…
Have you ever made bad decisions? I think we all have. Parable of prodigal son
What happens when a prophet of God WON’T speak God’s word? That’s what we are going to look at today in the book of Jonah.
READ Jonah 1. The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.
4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)
11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the LORD, “Please, LORD, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, LORD, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him. 17 Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
What in the world is happening here? Here’s the context: Assyrians have been brutal to Israel and Judah. Israel’s capitol Samaria was under siege for 3 years until it fell. In Judah alone, 46 towns and cities were ransacked or destroyed by the Assyrians. They were brutal: raping, pillaging and kidnapping the best and brightest to other places in the Assyrian empire to better keep people under control. When they would conquer a city, they would pile the corpses near the city gates and walls, and flay the skins of the important city officials over the pile of bodies. Grisly, murderous, evil.
With that context, God’s message comes to Jonah to warn Assyria’s capitol city Nineveh of the coming judgment of God. Jonah decides NOT to go, because frankly, he doesn’t want them to be warned. He doesn’t want them to repent. He believes in the mercy of God, and that if they do repent, God will relent from his punishment. He wants to see them smashed. He wants them to get their just desserts. He wants to see the vengeance of God smite them. They don’t deserve mercy God, and I will not be the one to prompt them to repentance. Not going to do it. I won’t go.
So if you want to outline the book of Jonah, it might look like this:
Call / Commission ?Disobedience ? Storm ? Fish ? Repentance . Now there is a final movement within the book that we might call Disillusionment in Chapter 4, but that is not our focus today. Our focus today is this: What happens when we make bad choices? What happens when we sin by running from God and his commands?
That’s a really interesting question because frankly, even as God begins to work out his plan in Jonah’s life, he is gracious. Watch the progression.
1. He tells the crew he’s running from God (misconception about God: God is local—near eastern belief that gods are tied to land) 2. Storm comes, they cast lots to see who’s responsible. Ok weird, but anyway the lot falls to Jonah. He says this is all my fault. I would not do what God is asking me to do, so …storm. Ships crew serve many gods. They ask, how do we please YOUR god, Jonah?
Jonah responds, throw me over the side. What? What in the world? Jonah knows that God is merciful. That’s why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh in the first place. He knows that if they kill Jonah by tossing him in the sea, that God will relent from the storm, and He will be gracious to these innocent sailors, even if he dies. Of course he’s right, they do, and the storm stops. But notice this: Jonah does not cling to his life. If I die, I guess that’s God’s to work out. He’s depressed. He has given up. He does not want to see the sailors lose their lives because He didn’t obey God’s call.
Jonah has to deal with some misconceptions he has about God. We already mentioned that he and the sailors believed that all gods were local—tied to the land. If you could get away, the reach of those gods was diminished. He also believed that his disobedience had disqualified him. God is done with me. I deserve to drown. I guess his anger is just and here comes my punishment. Jonah also believed that God is not just. He is too merciful. These Assyrians were murderous sinners. They don’t deserve a warning, God! It’s not fair! Well, God has a way of dealing with our misconceptions about him in big ways.
And in God’s mercy, the word tells us that he sent a great fish. We don’t know what kind, but whatever kind of fish, Jonah survived inside the fish. We have stories from history where others have been swallowed and survived, so while many discount the story of Jonah, science proves out God’s miracle here.
In one instance, the person swallowed was in an air pocket of the fishes stomach. Those stomach acids bleached the guys skin, making it super white. Now I don’t know if that’s what happened with Jonah, but just imagine Jonah coming to Nineveh with bleached white skin, prophesying the doom of the city because of it’s sins. God uses every part of our journey for his glory.
Well, back to the story. I want to focus, as I said, on Jonah’s repentance; his fishbelly prayer. Look with me please at ch.2:1,
“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 2 He said: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. 3 You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. 4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’ 5 The engulfing waters threatened me,[b]the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, LORD my God, brought my life up from the pit. 7 “When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
8 “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. 9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD.’” 10 And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Can’t you just imagine the scene? He’s thrashing about in the water, sputtering, thinking this is the end. This is what happens to disobedient prophets. I guess God has had enough of Jonah. When lo and behold he’s swallowed, and somehow he can keep breathing.
Stinking seaweed around his head, dark inside a great fish under the waters. When he comes to, he realizes that God has spared him. He should have died, yet here he is living. Inside a fish no less. He writes this prayer, obviously after being vomited on shore, but notice, that even inside the fish, he decides that obedience is the only course of action. “What I have vowed, I will make good”.
When Jonah agreed to be one of God’s prophets, he agreed to be the mouthpiece of God. Until his commission included warning the Ninevites. But Jonah realizes that his mercy and justice are God’s alone. That He will dispense as he pleases. And Jonah realizes that God’s mercy is even bigger than he thought.
This series is called ‘Ready to Soar’. We’ve looked at Joseph and the things he had to leave behind so that he could embrace God’s best for him, and for his entire family. Last week we looked at Noah. We saw all that Noah faced in a world drowning in sin. We saw that Noah installed NO anchor on the ark. Fully trusting God to take him where he needed to go.
I would submit to you, this morning, that Jonah had to leave some things behind too. He had to address his inadequate views of God: he is not local; his arm stretches around the world. His mercy is not too much. Isn’t it funny we can think God is too merciful, until we need his mercy and grace. Then, well, we’re glad its there.
Jonah also had to leave behind his sense of Justice. Sometimes we’d like to tell God how to do his job. And when he doesn’t come through like we’d like, we have a temper tantrum. We sulk. In Jonah’s case, he gave up. He lost his way—just wanted to escape his problems and run away. Jonah had to give up his rebellion, and HIS life plan.
Don’t you just hate it when God messes up your life plan. You have it all planned out, you know what your going to do that day, that week, that month, whatever, and then whammo. God reminds you, He is God, and you are not. The old adage: man plans, God laughs. Jonah had to face the fact that God’s wisdom and purposes are bigger than Jonah can imagine. He was merciful to save him miraculously, and so, he thought, I will finish my commission. I will obey. I will go to Nineveh and do what God has asked me to do.
And notice too, that Jonah reflects on God’s mercy. His life was ebbing away when God rescued him. Jonah reached out in prayer and God saved him. He said, you brought my life up from the pit. He thought he was irredeemable. In 2:4 he said I have been banished from your sight, yet (because of the mercy of God) I will worship again in your holy temple.
So, let’s bring this fish story home. You might feel defeated, but your story is not done. Some of the worst people in the Bible made the most impact. Why? Because their story did not end with their failure; their mistake; their sin or disobedience. It finished with their comeback.
Jonah had to let so many things go, so that he could see God’s best. He learned to hope again. He learned what redemption looks like. He learned gratitude, thankfulness and the fuel for obedience. He learned that you don’t give up on following God, you don’t give up on serving Him just because the going gets rough. I think Jonah learned that there are severe consequences for unbelief and disobedience, but God’s mercy is even greater.
Are you Jonah this morning? God has asked you to shoulder a burden you never asked for. Maybe you are thinking, if God were really good, he wouldn’t ask me to bear this.
And you didn’t board a ship for Tarshish, but you did check out. You put down the word of God. You stopped praying because frankly, if this is what God is doing—I’m out. Jesus said to expect hardships and persecutions, but you said, not me! Not like this! You sat and sulked—not in full rebellion necessarily, but not in full obedience either.
Now is the right time to make things right with God. Enough sulking. Enough stomping and slamming doors. Enough trying to fit God into our life plan, and begin asking God what our life plan should actually be.
Are you Jonah? Because God has ministry for you to do: in your family, in your neighborhood, in this church, in our community and world. He’s asking you to face yourself today. Face your disappointments, your hurts, your misconceptions about him. And he’s calling you to repentance. Enough spinning your wheels. It’s time for fishbelly prayers. It’s time.
As the worship team comes, we are not in a hurry here. We are going to spend some time in prayer. Is it time for your fishbelly prayer? These altars are open. You are carrying a burden today that you were not meant to carry. Bring it to the Lord.
God is wanting to make some things right in us today. He’s asking us to lay some of our expectations down. Some of our misconceptions down this morning. He’s asking us to repent of our hard hearts, of our sulking. He’s calling us to repentance. Whether you are here in the worship center or watching at home, we cannot escape God’s presence. He’s stirring in your heart’s there too.
It’s time for fishbelly prayers. Come to these altars as the worship team leads us to prayer.
