Sermon # 13 - Why Have You Done This? Series

We read in Jonah 1:10, Then the men were terrified. They knew that he was running away from the LORD, because he had told them. They asked Jonah, "Why have you done this?" (GW)

The prophet Jonah who received the word of God to go to Nineveh, disobeyed God, and undertook a voyage on a ship in the exact opposite direction towards Tarshish. God sent a furious storm over the sea, and the ship that Jonah travelled in, was caught in this unmanageable tempest. Somehow the people on board that ship understood that this tempest they faced was sent by God, and that there was someone on that ship who was also responsible for their calamity. They cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah, following which they made enquiries about Jonah’s identity.

Here’s Jonah’s reply in Jonah 1:9, Jonah said to them, "I am a Hebrew. I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the land and the sea." (ERV)

Jonah revealed to the men on the ship that he was a Hebrew, and one who worshipped the true and living God who made the land and the sea. I am sure when Jonah told them he was a Hebrew, the men might have recalled that Jonah belonged to the God who delivered His people from the cruel powers of Pharaoh in Egypt, and also parted the Red Sea to rescue His own.

The next thing that Jonah revealed to them about himself in found in Jonah 1:10, Then the men were terrified. They knew that he was running away from the LORD, because he had told them. They asked Jonah, "Why have you done this?" (GW)

Jonah had to confess to the people on that ship that he was indeed running away in disobedience from the presence of this Almighty God. This filled the men with dread as they realized that the God whom Jonah believed in was the true and living God. They also realized that this God is the creator of everything, and there was no place that one could run and hide from His awesome presence. They might have asked Jonah, why he had taken such a decision, and had chosen to sail in their ship, thereby placing all of their lives in jeopardy.

They then asked Jonah a very pertinent question, ‘Why have you done this?’ which is what we will meditate on in this study.

There are many like Jonah who after having known the Lord, are still choosing to walk away in rebellion and disobedience to Him. Let me highlight a couple of reason to you in this study.

1. Satan’s deception

• In the Garden of Eden

God too asked this question for the first time as found in Genesis 3:13, The LORD God asked the woman, "Why did you do this?" She replied, "The snake tricked me into eating it."(GNB)

This was the heart-rending question that God posed to Eve, after she chose to disobey God and ate the forbidden fruit. God had created man and woman in His own image, endowed them with every blessing, and He could not comprehend how they chose the path of disobedience. Eve passed on the blame to the Serpent whom she said tricked her into disobeying God.

There are those who when they make mistakes will pass the buck on to others for their sinful actions. There are only a minority who are willing to accept that they are responsible for the wrong choices that led them into sin.

Eve used the word deceived or tricked by the Serpent. The word ‘deception’ means to make one believe a lie as though it were the truth. Similar words to deception are cheating or fraud. Even today many believers are being deceived by Satan in various ways. If one has to run this race of faith, we must do so giving no room for any sort of deception from the enemy.

There are many things in this world that are alluring and deceptive. For instance, there are many who are addicted to alcohol, and enslaved by it. Most of them probably started off with the thought that alcohol would give them some temporary relief to the problems they encountered. Satan actually used this temporary pleasure to deceive them, and ultimately makes many of them slaves to this habit. Satan is a liar and he masters the art of hiding most of the truth, and deceives people with his lying schemes. As children of God we should be aware of these deceptive ploys of the enemy, and be cautious to escape from the traps set by him.

David’s experience

The Psalmist described his experience this way in Psalm 41:6, And when these “friends” come to visit me with their pious sympathy and their hollow words and with hypocrisy hidden in their hearts, I can see right through it all. For they come merely to gather gossip about me, using all they find to mock me with malicious hearts of slander.(TPT)