Jonah 1
Into the Sea
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Sermon Text
Jonah’s Disobedience
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
The Storm at Sea
4 But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.
5 Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.
6 So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
9 So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
Jonah Thrown into the Sea
10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous.
12 And 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 this great tempest is because of me.”
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows.
Jonah’s Prayer and Deliverance
17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Sermon Summary
Key Themes:
God’s Sovereignty: God’s plans are unchangeable and His purposes are relentless, even when humans resist.
God’s Grace: God's grace extends beyond Israel to the Gentiles, demonstrating His mercy and compassion.
Main Points:
Introduction to Jonah:
Jonah is the first prophet in the historical line of minor prophets.
Jonah's story emphasizes God's sovereignty and grace.
God's Command and Jonah’s Flight:
God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh and call out against their wickedness.
Jonah flees in the opposite direction to Tarshish, attempting to escape God’s presence.
God’s Sovereignty in the Storm:
God sends a great storm, endangering the ship Jonah is on.
The sailors cry out to their gods and throw cargo overboard to lighten the ship.
The Sailors’ Fear and Jonah’s Confession:
The captain wakes Jonah, urging him to pray to his God.
The sailors cast lots to find the cause of the storm, and the lot falls on Jonah.
Jonah confesses his identity as a Hebrew who fears the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and dry land.
The Sailors’ Response:
Terrified, the sailors ask Jonah what they should do.
Jonah tells them to throw him into the sea to calm the storm.
The sailors initially try to row to land but fail and ultimately throw Jonah overboard, praying to the Lord for mercy.
God's Grace to the Sailors:
After throwing Jonah into the sea, the storm calms immediately.
The sailors fear the Lord exceedingly, offering a sacrifice and making vows to Him.
Application Points:
God Uses Imperfect People: God can use anyone to fulfill His purposes, even those who are imperfect and reluctant like Jonah.
Universal Need for Repentance: All people, regardless of their background, need to hear the message of repentance and God’s grace.
Trust in God's Sovereignty: Believers should trust in God’s sovereignty and His ability to accomplish His purposes, even when situations seem dire.
Sample Bible Study
Overview:
This study focuses on understanding God's sovereignty, human frailty, and the extension of God’s grace to all nations.
1. God’s Command to Jonah (Jonah 1:1-2)
Discussion: Why does God send Jonah to Nineveh? What does this reveal about God's concern for all nations?
Scripture Reference: Genesis 12:3 – God’s promise to bless all nations through Abraham’s descendants.
2. Jonah’s Flight (Jonah 1:3)
Discussion: What reasons might Jonah have had for fleeing? How do we sometimes try to escape God’s calling?
Scripture Reference: Psalm 139:7-10 – The impossibility of fleeing from God’s presence.
3. The Storm and the Sailors’ Fear (Jonah 1:4-6)
Discussion: How does God demonstrate His power over creation in this passage? What is the significance of the sailors’ actions?
Scripture Reference: Mark 4:35-41 – Jesus calming the storm.
4. Jonah’s Confession and the Sailors’ Response (Jonah 1:7-10)
Discussion: How does Jonah’s confession impact the sailors? What can we learn from their reaction?
Scripture Reference: Acts 27:21-25 – Paul’s confession during the storm.
5. Jonah Thrown into the Sea (Jonah 1:11-16)
Discussion: What does Jonah’s willingness to be thrown overboard teach us about sacrifice? How do the sailors’ actions reflect true repentance and faith?
Scripture Reference: John 3:16 – The ultimate sacrifice of Jesus for our salvation.
References to the Westminster Confession and Catechisms:
Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) Chapter 5 – Of Providence: God's sovereignty and control over all events.
Westminster Larger Catechism (WLC) Q&A 15: God's works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions.
Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC) Q&A 11: God's works of providence include His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions.
Practical Applications:
Embrace God’s Calling: Reflect on areas where you might be resisting God’s call and seek His strength to obey.
Extend Grace: Consider how you can show God’s love and grace to those who are different from you.
Trust in God’s Sovereignty: In challenging situations, remember that God is in control and His purposes will prevail.
Prayer Focus:
Pray for a heart willing to follow God’s leading, even to difficult places or people.
Ask for courage to share the gospel with those who seem unlikely to receive it.
Thank God for His relentless grace and sovereignty in your life.
Weekday Devotionals
Monday: God’s Command to Jonah
Scripture Reading: Jonah 1:1-2, Genesis 12:3
Discussion: Why does God send Jonah to Nineveh? What does this reveal about God's concern for all nations?
God's command to Jonah to go to Nineveh reveals His profound concern for all nations. Despite Nineveh’s reputation for wickedness, God’s directive signifies His desire to extend grace and call even the most unlikely to repentance. This aligns with His promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, where God declared His intention to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham’s descendants. This promise is fulfilled through the sovereign and inclusive nature of God’s grace, emphasizing that no nation or people are beyond His reach.
Prayer Prompt: Pray for a heart that understands and embraces God's concern for all nations. Ask God to help you see others through His eyes, with compassion and a willingness to share His grace with everyone, regardless of their background.
Tuesday: Jonah’s Flight
Scripture Reading: Jonah 1:3, Psalm 139:7-10
Discussion: What reasons might Jonah have had for fleeing? How do we sometimes try to escape God’s calling?
Jonah fled from God’s command due to fear, prejudice, and possibly disbelief in God’s mercy towards Nineveh. His actions remind us of our own tendencies to resist God’s calling, especially when it challenges our comfort zones or biases. Yet, Psalm 139:7-10 reassures us that escaping God’s presence is impossible. No matter how far we run, God’s sovereign presence remains with us, calling us back to His purpose.
Prayer Prompt: Pray for the strength to face God’s calling with courage and trust. Ask for forgiveness for the times you have tried to flee from His plans and seek His guidance to follow His will faithfully.
Wednesday: The Storm and the Sailors’ Fear
Scripture Reading: Jonah 1:4-6, Mark 4:35-41
Discussion: How does God demonstrate His power over creation in this passage? What is the significance of the sailors’ actions?
In Jonah 1:4-6, God’s power is evident as He hurls a great storm upon the sea, showcasing His sovereignty over creation. The sailors’ fear and their subsequent actions—crying out to their gods and throwing cargo overboard—highlight their desperation and the severity of the storm. This parallels the story of Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4:35-41, reinforcing that God’s authority over nature is absolute and His intervention can bring peace in the midst of chaos.
Prayer Prompt: Thank God for His control over all creation and His ability to calm the storms in your life. Pray for trust in His sovereignty and the peace that comes from knowing He holds all things in His hands.
Thursday: Jonah’s Confession and the Sailors’ Response
Scripture Reading: Jonah 1:7-10, Acts 27:21-25
Discussion: How does Jonah’s confession impact the sailors? What can we learn from their reaction?
Jonah’s confession that he is fleeing from the God of heaven impacts the sailors deeply, filling them with fear of the Lord. Their reaction—questioning Jonah and expressing their dread—reflects a recognition of God’s power and sovereignty. Similarly, in Acts 27:21-25, Paul’s confession during the storm brings assurance and guidance. Both passages teach us the importance of acknowledging God’s hand in our circumstances and how our confessions of faith can influence others.
Prayer Prompt: Pray for the courage to confess your faith openly and truthfully, even in difficult situations. Ask God to use your testimony to impact those around you, leading them to a greater understanding of His power and grace.
Friday: Jonah Thrown into the Sea
Scripture Reading: Jonah 1:11-16, John 3:16
Discussion: What does Jonah’s willingness to be thrown overboard teach us about sacrifice? How do the sailors’ actions reflect true repentance and faith?
Jonah’s willingness to be thrown into the sea exemplifies a sacrificial acceptance of responsibility. This act prefigures the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, who willingly gave His life for the salvation of humanity (John 3:16). The sailors’ actions, in response, reflect true repentance and faith as they cry out to the Lord, make vows, and offer sacrifices. This transformation underscores the profound impact of witnessing sacrificial love and the power of genuine repentance.
Prayer Prompt: Thank God for the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ and reflect on areas in your life where you can demonstrate sacrificial love. Pray for a heart of true repentance and faith, seeking to honor God in all your actions.
Reflective Article
Imperfect Vessels: God’s Glorious Plan to Use Us All
You don't need to be perfect for God to use you
Have you ever felt inadequate when sharing your faith?
I was talking with a man a few years ago over coffee. The shop wasn't very busy. The air was filled with the aroma of freshly roasted beans. As we sat talking about the Scriptures and evangelism he started to look concerned. The brother very sincerely and humbly told me, "Bryan, I don't have all the Bible knowledge you have. I can't answer all of their questions. And, my life certainly isn't perfect." I could sense his fear, anxiety, and hesitation.
This man wanted to be perfect and have all of the perfect answers before sharing the gospel. But, that's not how God likes to work.
God uses imperfect people
God has an amazing track record of using imperfect people to spread His glory.. Actually, I think it is one of the ways God shows himself glorious.
God established His covenant with Abraham. The same Abraham given over to half truths.
God made sure the covenant blessing went with scheming Jacob.
God used murderous Moses to lead His people.
God raised up David, the adulterer, to inherit the messianic promise.
God called disobedient Jonah to preach repentance to Nineveh.
God sent Paul, the one who had tried to destroy the church, to be the apostle to the gentiles.
It's the message not the messenger
By the Spirit the Apostle Paul knew this. There were various groups of preachers who were going around trying to one up him. Paul could have been offended or competitive. Paul could have waved around his educational credentials. Paul could have been filled with pride. But instead he wrote:
15 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: 16 The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; 17 but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
Paul rejoiced that Christ was preached. It wasn't about the preacher it was about gospel. It wasn't about the messenger it was about the message.
You do not need to be perfect for God to use you. We are striving to be holy as He is holy. But, no one will be perfectly sanctified until glorification.
If someone had to be perfect before they were to go and evangelize then Jesus would not have given the great commission to the disciples in the first place.
See, God is glorified in using weak people. Why? Because He receives the glory.
The people of the world do not need you to be perfect. They need you to tell them of the perfect Jesus. The one who was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.
The glory of the gospel is that Jesus gets the glory.
You might feel like you lack knowledge or eloquence, but remember that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.
You do not need to have all the answers to share the gospel.
You do not need to be perfect to share the gospel.
Know the good news of Jesus Christ.
Tell others the good news of Jesus Christ.
Tell others of the God of grace who still loves sinners like you and me. The God who demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still sinner Jesus died for us.
Don't wait until your perfect. You'll be waiting forever.
God gets glory when redeemed sinners tell others of the grace they have found in Jesus.
Automated Transcript
Will you turn in your Bibles
with me to the book of Jonah? The book of Jonah. I'm giving
you your first scavenger hunt through the minor prophets. Have
fun trying to find the book of Jonah. Jonah is after the book
of Amos. If you get to a book like Malachi,
you're too far. Get to Ezekiel, you're not far
enough. Get to the New Testament, you're too far again. So, if
you're using the Pew Bible, you'll find it on page 816. That's your
shortcut. Well, as you're looking, I want
to say thank you so much for your prayers as we've been gone.
It is a joy to be back home in Iowa. We are so thankful. This week has been filled with
just thankfulness and praising God for putting us in such a
beautiful place and reminding us how much we missed you all,
specifically. So let's go ahead and read the book of Jonah. Not
the whole book, sorry. Jonah, chapter one. Jonah, chapter
one. And we're just gonna read the
first 16 verses together. Interestingly, in the Hebrew,
that's where chapter one stops. So, Jonah chapter one, verses
one through 16. Now the words of the Lord came
to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh,
that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness
has come up before me. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found
a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went
down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord. But the Lord sent a great wind
on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea. So the ship
was about to be broken up, Then the mariners were afraid, and
every man cried out to his God and threw the cargo that was
in the ship into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone
down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and
was fast asleep. So the captain came to him and
said, what do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God. Perhaps
your God will consider us so that we may not perish. And they
said to one another, come, let us cast lots that we may know
for whose cause this trouble has come upon us. So they cast
lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, Please
tell us, for whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your
occupation, and where are you come from? What is your country,
and of what people are you? So he said to them, I am a Hebrew,
and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and
the dry land. Then the men were exceedingly
afraid, and said to him, Why have you done this? For the men
knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord because
he had told them. Then they said to him, what shall
we do to you that the sea may grow calm for us? For the sea
was growing more tempest. And 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 this great tempest is because of me.
Nevertheless, the men rode hard to return to land, but they could
not, for the sea continued to grow more temptuous against them. Therefore, they cried to the
Lord and said, We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for
this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood, for you,
O Lord, have done as it pleased you. So they picked up Jonah
and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice
to the Lord and took vows. Thus ends this portion of the
reading of God's word. Brothers and sisters, the grass
withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures
forever. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. And Father, we pray now that
as we think about your word, as we go through it, Lord, we
pray that your spirit would be working in our hearts. Lord,
we pray that the things we ought to learn, you would soften our
hearts that we would receive. Lord, we pray that when there
are things that may be difficult for us to receive, we pray that
you would give us willing hearts to be molded and sanctified.
Lord, I pray that you would help me Lord, a sinful man, just as sinful
as Jonah, to preach your word. Lord, please let it not return
void. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, I'm just going to start
off giving you a couple caveats. One, I'm sorry for my voice.
I can't do anything about that. So you're just going to have
to deal with it. Congratulations. Number two is there's a lot of
historical details, fun stuff that we're going to just have
to punt to the afternoon time to chalk and talk. So there's
lots of pictures and maps and graphs and all sorts of fun,
nerdy stuff we're going to nerd out in the afternoon during chalk
and talk. So I invite you to stay for that. But when we come
to the book of Jonah, We come to the very beginning of all
the minor prophets. It doesn't seem that way because
of its placement in the minor prophets, right? It's like smack
dab in the middle. But Jonah is the first, historically, like
in the line of time. It's Elijah, Elisha, Jonah. And then the rest of it. And
so this is kind of the opening of God's prophetic word through
a bunch of smaller prophets. And as we come to Jonah chapter
one specifically, we find ourselves smacked in the face right away
with two themes that hit us. One is that God is absolutely
sovereign. and that God's grace is for the
whole world. One, God is absolutely sovereign,
but he's also gracious. The Lord, we find in Jonah chapter
one, is relentless in pursuing his purpose and his grace despite
human frailties. God is relentless in pursuing
his purposes. and showing grace despite human
frailty. And so as we pick up that theme
this morning, I want you to first look with me at who's kind of
the main character of this whole story. Let's read verses one
and two together. Now the word of Notice here,
if you're looking at your Bibles, how is the word Lord spelled?
Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. This is the divine
name that God revealed himself to Moses. Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, Jehovah
or Yahweh. And this is the Lord who himself
comes to Jonah. God is the one who initiates
This interaction, and this story in Jonah chapter one, yeah, the
book is named for Jonah, but this is a story about God. And
we know that because as we keep looking through the book of Jonah,
just kind of scan down this first part of chapter one with me.
Chapter one, and the word of the Lord came to Jonah. And then
we look at verse three, yeah, verse three. But Jonah arose
to flee to Tarshish from the presence of who? The Lord. And then again in chapter 3,
to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. And
then in verse 9, So he said to them, I am a Hebrew, for I fear
the Lord. And then in verse 10, For the
men knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord, because
he had told them. Verse 14, again, Therefore they
cried out to, who? The Lord, and said, who? We pray,
O Lord. And then it goes on. For you,
O Lord, have done as it pleased you. And then finally verse 16. The men feared the Lord, exceedingly
and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows. When a name
is mentioned in Hebrew again and again and again and again
in this short 16 verses, Eight times. When the Lord does that
in Hebrew literature, whenever anybody's name is mentioned that
repeatedly, it's cluing you in that this is the main character
of the story. This is the person we're thinking
about. And so this story is really about the Lord, the covenant
God, who had chosen the prophet Jonah. And this is one of the
things that's really cool to me. It's really fun that God
has a purpose, God has a plan. He's going to go and He needs
somebody to go preach to Nineveh for their sin, but He doesn't
wait for a perfect person to show up. God's purposes and God's
preaching isn't dependent on the preacher being perfect. Right? But God chooses Jonah knowing
his frailty, knowing what he's going to do, because he's going
to receive even more glory. Because God is relentless in
pursuing his purposes. So he's got a plan, and he's
not going to wait for a perfect human to show up. But no, what
does Jonah 1 and 2 say? Now the Lord came to Jonah, the
son of Amittai, saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, the great
city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come
before me. How good is it to know that the
Lord doesn't need you to be perfect in your life right now to use
you? You don't need to have all of your theology perfectly straight.
You don't need to memorize the entire larger catechism before
God's able to use you to share the gospel with people around
you. The Lord knows that you're struggling with your own sins
and your own failures. The Lord knows you don't have
all the answers. The Lord may know that at times
you may even run away from the calling He's given you, but He
is relentless in His purpose. And we believe in a sovereign
God. And there are people who are perishing who need to know
that their sin has gone before God, and the only way for them
to be saved is to repent. And He may be calling you as
part of His plan, even though you are fallible, even though
you fail, even though you may fumble, you're not perfect. That
does not stop Him from using you. It doesn't stop Him from
calling Jonah. It doesn't stop Him from calling
us, praise God. But secondly, I want you to notice both the
human weakness in this story and God's holiness. Jonah has
a certain amount of prejudice and a certain amount of fear.
If we look back again at verses 2 through 3, we find that Jonah
has a real reluctance to go to Nineveh. God tells him, Arise,
go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their
wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah, he arose to flee
to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. By the way, that
word there, the presence of the Lord, the phrase is from the
face of God. He wants to get away from God's
face. He doesn't want God to see him. He doesn't want God
to talk to him. He just wants to get away from God entirely. He went down
to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. Where's Tarshish?
Timbuktu. We don't know. It's like south
of Spain or something. Way on the other side of the Mediterranean.
He's supposed to go east. He goes as far west as he possibly
can. He really wants to get out of there. So he paid the fare.
He went down into the ship to go with them to Tarshish to flee
from the face of the Lord. In Jonah's mind, to go to Nineveh
is to go to Thelm. It's to go to other people out
there. They're not Israelites. They're not people of the covenant.
They didn't receive the law or the promises or anything like
this. Why should he go to Nineveh? There are enemies. Nineveh is
part of the kingdom of Assyria. Israel's been fighting with Assyria.
It's a time of somewhat uneasy peace between these two nations
right now. But it's going to be the Assyrians in just about
a hundred years who are going to come, destroy the northern
kingdom, and take the people away captive. He doesn't want
to go to them. God's grace is for Him. God's
grace is for the Israelites. God's grace is meant for Him
and for us, not for them. I got to tell you, I think we
fall into that trap sometimes. There are times we fall into
that. I'm really tempted when I go on YouTube or Facebook or
something and there's all these reels and they're really funny,
right? And I was watching one that kind of really made me chuckle
about how the whole LGBTQ stuff has just kind of ballooned and
ballooned and ballooned and demands from just wanting acceptance
and stuff to like, no, you must do these things and the tyranny
of that. And I sat there and I was like,
yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right, that's right. But then I realized,
hold on. Hold on, while those things may be true, those are
the people who need the gospel. It's easy to put people in the
bad guy pocket, right? They're just bad people. We're
not going to talk to them. We're not going to pray for them. We're
definitely not going to go share the gospel with them because
they might be mean. Right? They might attack us. Jonah doesn't want to go to Nineveh.
He also knows who the Ninevites were. Now notice what God had
said. God called Jonah to preach an unpopular message. He doesn't
tell him to go and, hey guys, God's love is perfect. You can
just keep doing everything you want to do and life is going
to be great. That's not what God tells him to do. Look at verse
2. God himself says to Jonah, arise
and go to Nineveh, that great city. And here's his preaching. Here's
his commission. and cry out against it, for their
wickedness has come up before me." God is holy. And even though the people of
Nineveh were Assyrians, not Israelites, God takes note even of pagan
nations, pagan people, when they are going their own way and doing
their own evil things. God takes notice of all of that
and God is offended by it and God is going to hold them to
account for it. And he tells Jonah to go and
to preach a very politically incorrect message. Y'all are
sinners, you need to repent, turn from your wicked ways. You can imagine, in most scenarios,
without the working of the Holy Spirit, that's going to go over
like a lead balloon. But what were the Assyrians like? They
had been a major power. They had been a major international
power during the time. We're talking about a nation
that Nineveh is a little bit north of Babylon, along the Tigris
River. Again, I'll show you a picture
of this later. They were powerful and they were
masters of economic exploitation. They loved when they would conquer
other people. They weren't the type of people who would come
in and conquer them, but like, okay, you can still have your
temples, you can still have your religion, you can still have
your own government. No, no, all that was gone. When
the Assyrians came in, What they did is they wiped out the society.
They wiped out all the temples, all the priestly class, all the
royalty, everyone. It's just gone. And by gone,
I mean either killed or deported. Right? Think chains around your
necks, rings in your noses, drag you to a foreign land so that
the land is decimated. And anybody who is still living
there, You want to talk about high tax rates, 80-90% tax rates
on the people. Anybody who stays in the land,
you know who your master is because he takes all your money. Your
harvest isn't yours. Your animals aren't yours. Everything
is the Assyrians. Everything belongs to those who
live in Nineveh. There is a hierarchy in the society
of Assyria. that the nobles, the priests,
the merchants, and the farmers, everybody knew exactly where
they lined up. It was a very stratified type
of environment. They were agricultural experts.
They knew how to take the water from the Euphrates and from the
Tigris and make these long canals and to flood into their fields
during the rainy season and to give them ample harvest. The
Assyrians weren't these backward dummies. They were literate people. Highly literate. Some of the
main writings we have from the Ancient Near East are the cuneiform
tablets because there's tons of them from the Assyrian Empire. We find these clay tablets and
they have writing on them about the administration of the kingdom
and about their various literature and scientific knowledge. Even
one of the most famous libraries of the ancient world that has
ever been found by archaeologists is in the city of Nineveh. It's
the library of Ashburnipal. And in this library, they have
found collections of cuneiform tablets talking about astronomy
and medicine and mythology. These were illiterate people.
They had extensive trade. They would go all throughout
the Middle East and Asia and throughout Turkey and Africa. They dealt in textiles and luxury
items. Right, they were skilled artisans.
Even today, some of the most amazing reliefs we have from
the ancient world are in places like Nineveh, where there's,
if you look on the walls in Nineveh, there's entire walls, I mean,
way longer than this, that are just filled with carvings. And
I mean, intricate type carvings. It would put the Egyptian hieroglyphs
to shame. And it showed that they loved
hunting, warfare, and their religion. They were a polytheistic people.
They built massive temples and ziggurats to their god. They
worshipped Ashtar, the goddess of love and war, the queen of
heaven. And I believe these are the types of things that the
Lord found detestable in his sight, as they worshipped this
fertility goddess. As they worshipped Asher, the
god of the main city in Assyria, Asher. He was the Lord of the
gods and they claim that he was the creator of the universe.
Could you imagine the Lord himself who made the heavens and the
seas? What a stench that would be to the Lord's nose to know
that these people are worshipping someone else who they believe
is the ultimate creator. This god of Asher is commonly
depicted on their reliefs as an archer, and he's drawing an
arrow, and the sun is beaming behind him, and he's got a crown
on his head. It really symbolizes what these
people were like, because what they were like, what they were
known for in the ancient world was their high society and their
war, violence and war. Their brutal military campaigns
and harsh treatments of conquered people were known far and wide. They were experts in terrorizing
their enemies. When they decided to go and conquer
a people, they're the ones who invented siege warfare. What is siege warfare? You have
a city, you want to conquer that city, you put your troops all
around it, and you starve the people out. You just camp around
them for three years. You don't let food get in, you
don't let water get in, and eventually people get so starved and so
dehydrated that they'll eat their own children and drink their
own urine. That's what the Assyrians were known for inventing. And
if you survived the siege, it was only going to get worse for
you because you're going to either be killed in a mass slaughter or
you're going to be taken away captive. But if you were one
of those who had led the people, it was going to even be worse
for you. Besides mass executions, and I'm going to try to keep
some of the graphicness out of this, but I need you to get a
sense of why Jonah didn't want to go to these people. If you
were one of those leaders that they wanted to make a show out
of you to show, to tell everybody, hey, if you're like this person
and stand up against us and our gods, you're going to end up
like this. They would literally skin people alive in front of
entire crowds until they died. The Assyrians, if that wasn't
enough, If flaying wasn't the right, then what they would do
is they would impale people, put you on a pole alive, and
let the animals and the weather beat you to death. This is where the Persians and
later the Romans got their idea for crucifixion from, the Assyrians. Would you want to go preach there?
You think you're gonna have a warm welcome into that type of city? No. No, it's totally understandable
that Jonah doesn't wanna go there, but you see, God is sovereign
and he has a relentless plan. And he is going to show his grace. He is going to show that he is
holy and that he is God and that he will show grace to those who
repent. And he's going to do this even
despite Jonah's and those Assyrians' human frailty. But what Jonah is known for is
not just his being in the belly of the fish, but also his fleeing
from God himself. Jonah tries to run from God's
presence. Look with me at verse 3. But
Jonah arose of leave to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
He went down to Joppa. I'll show you Joppa on a map
later. And he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare
and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord. This takes a lot of determination. If you're trying to just skip
town and you don't want people to know who you are, If you're
from Morningside, you're not just going to go to Mediapolis.
People might know you there. You don't even necessarily go
down to Burlington or Mount Pleasant, right? Because you may run into
people you know there. You've got to go far away. You've
got to go to Des Moines. But if you're really serious, if
you're trying to get away from the presence, what would you
do? You go to Seattle or Los Angeles
or Newark or somewhere. If you were really serious, you
might go all the way to something like remote India. That's the
type of journey that he decides to do. How far is this away? Well, when Solomon sends ships
to Tarshish, it takes three years for them to get back. We don't know if Jonah has a
family. We don't know if Jonah has an estate, if he's got a
farm. He's so determined to get away from the Lord's presence,
so determined to not do what God's called him to do, that
he's willing to forsake everything and everyone. And it costs him
dearly. Most commentators believe that
when Jonah did this, he didn't just buy his cruise ship ticket. No, when Jonah did this, he hired
the whole boat. He paid for the whole thing, just get me as far
away from here as you can. He was serious about this. But
I think you know it in your own bones and you know this in your
own experience, trying to run away from the presence of God
is a futile attempt. Trying to run away from God isn't
going to go well. Even the psalmist tells us this.
God is omnipresent. Psalm 139, 7-10. Where can I
go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your
presence? If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make
my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take to the wings
of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, you
are there. Even there you shall lead me. and your right hand shall hold
me. It doesn't matter, you can't run from the presence of God.
I don't care if you try to go to the top of Mount Everest,
you will find God displaying all of his glory there. You could
try to escape the presence of God by getting in a little sub
and going down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and if
you somehow survive that pressure, God will still be there. You
can't run from God's presence. And just like we can't run from
God's presence, I'm sorry, we can't run from God's plans. We
can't run from God's plans. Why? We believe in the sovereign
Lord that is presented here for us. The Lord is relentless in
His purposes. And He is relentless in pursuing
His grace, despite even human frailty. As we go on, we see that things
kind of take a change, starting at verse 4. Look with me at God's
providence, and then human surrender. And we see as we start reading
through verse 4 that it is very, very clear the Lord Himself is
in charge of what's going on. The storm and the sea describe
or show us that God himself is the one who is coordinating these
events. In verse four, the Lord tells
us, but the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and there was
a mighty tempest on the sea, so the ship was about to be broken
up. By the way, in the next few verses
here, in the next, I think it's like 12 verses, the sea is mentioned
10 times. Why? Now, I don't know how many
of you have been on water. And I mean not by on water, I
mean like the Mississippi River. I mean like go up to Lake Superior
or go to the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean. If you get
to a place in the sea, when you look at the horizon, and no matter
where you look 360 degrees, there's no sight of land. If things go haywire, if things
go sideways, you know it's just you. And it's a dangerous place
to be. I mean, this is so serious that
when I was in the Navy and we were on ships, if you were going
to work on the flight deck, you had to wear these kind of vests. And the vests had multiple ways
to try to save your life because the sea will just kill you. You
can only tread water for a certain amount of time before you just
get tired and die. If you fell off, life would automatically
inflate. That's great. You can live for
a little bit of time in a ship that's been torn apart, but you're
not going to last too long. You've got to have somebody to
find you. All right, and so we would have on these vests, you
would have a whistle that you could blow into, hoping that
maybe somebody could hear you. You would have a strobe light
that, if it hit the water, would automatically flash to try to
let planes know, hey, somebody's here. And even dye packets in
it that would dye the water around you orange or green to tell people,
whoa, look, that's not normal. There must be somebody there.
Why? Why? Because people who are seafarers,
people who are in the water regularly know you never control the sea. You just navigate it. You cannot
control the sea. And this is one of the things
that people in the ancient world, especially, well, it's not just
ancient world, even today, there's all sorts of pagan kind of myths
or kind of ways people treat the sea. Right. They're kind
of like, oh, well, there must be even these things don't even
existed when I was in the Navy. Right. You cross the equator.
And when you cross the equator on a U.S. ship, you get a shellback
ceremony. And the height of the shellback
ceremony, after you do all these things, is you come up to the
biggest, nastiest, ugliest master chief on the ship, and he's got
a trident in his hand, and he's playing King Neptune. We're talking
about 2006 here, right? This is a recent past. This stuff
still goes on in the Navy, right? Because people who live by the
sea and are in the sea still hold to a whole bunch of these
traditions. And the ship's about to be broken up, but notice,
it's the Lord who sent the wind on the sea. And the sailors recognized
that this is something out of their control, verses 5 and 6.
Then the mariners were afraid. That's an understatement. And
they cried out to his God, And they threw the cargo that was
on the ship into the sea to lighten the load. They throw the cows
off. They throw the money off. They
throw the food off. They throw the oil off. They
throw the wine off. They throw everything off, just
trying to get the draft up so that the ship might float a little
bit better. And it's to no avail. And finally,
the captain realizes, hey, we got this bomb in the bottom of
the ship. He's sleeping. He's in a deep
sleep down there. And he hasn't prayed to his God.
I'm going to wake him up. So he goes down there and he
tells Jonah, what are you doing, man? Why are you sleeping? Arise,
call on your God. Perhaps your God will consider
us so that we may not perish. They've all been crying out to
the various different gods. And he's saying, look, it ain't
working. We need you too. Maybe your God will listen, because
our gods ain't listening. And so we find in verse 7 that
Jonah comes up. And they said to one another,
they start reasoning, okay, we've got to figure this out. What's
going on? Why are we about to die? Come, let us cast lots that we
may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us. So
they cast lots. What does it look like to cast
lots? I don't know, maybe they had dice. that was one way in ancient
Assyria they cast, but this is most likely seafaring Phoenician
people. So maybe they had like, you know,
have you ever seen this? Maybe you've watched like Dude
Perfect or something, right? People put their names on a piece of
paper and they put them in the hat and you just draw out the
paper and who it's ever named, right? That would be a form of
casting lots, right? And so this is this idea that
somehow they realize God is in control of the lot, right? Now at this point, I don't think
they think it's God, Jehovah himself, But it's just, the gods
will figure this out for us. Whose fault is this? And lo and
behold, we know for certain that it's the Lord himself who knows
a lot, and it falls on Jonah. And so 21 questions starts flying,
right, in verse 8. Who are you? Where'd you come
from? What's your job? What are you doing? Why are you here? What's
your country? And Jonah just, this is the point. He's got a choice here. What
does he do? Does Jonah just lie, zip his lips, let everybody die? No, he says to him in verse 9,
I am a Hebrew. He's giving him his ethnic identity
there. And I fear Jehovah, the God of
heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. He makes a confession
to these sailors that he doesn't just serve some little sea god
he's made mad. He doesn't make mad just the
god who brought the storm and the wind. No, he is a Hebrew,
a monotheist who serves the one true living God, the maker of
heaven and earth and everything that it contains. This don't go over so well with
the sailors. Then the men were exceedingly
afraid. Right now they're scared out of their pants. Why? Because, whoa, whoa, whoa, you
served that God and you ran away from him? Are you nuts? What
have you done to us? Why have you done this? Verse
10, for the men knew that he had fled from the presence of
the Lord because he had told them. I mean, you can imagine
what it was like before when they left the sea of Joppa and they
were just kind of talking and, hey, why did you hire the boat,
Johnny? He's like, well, I'm just trying to run away from
God. That's so funny, right? Water's placid, nice calm breeze,
everything's going great. Now they're like, what have we
done? We're gonna die. And so they ask him. He's the one who knows the Lord.
They know now that God has shown he's the one that's there, that
they're in trouble for. And so he says, they ask him,
what shall we do that the sea may be calm for us? And the storm's
just getting worse and worse and worse. I mean, you can imagine
the waves, they have white caps on them, and the spray is hitting
them in the face, and they've had to pull down the sails, and
the wood is creaking and screaming because it's straining. And he
says to them, now notice how radical this is. Well, that's
the only answer. You've got to kill me. You've got to sacrifice me to
the sea. You gotta throw me overboard. Then the sea will become calm
for you. Jonah knows it's his fault. He was perfectly fine
beforehand, sleeping in the boat and letting everybody die if
nobody knew what's going on. But now that everybody knows
what's going on, he's still the problem. But the men, they're not ready
to do this yet. Verses 13 through 16. They can't see land, but
it's just out there and they know it, so they just try to
row and row and row as hard as they can. Their biceps are sore,
their shoulders are tired, their heads are just dripping with
sweat and they can't do it. They're trying to row the land,
they can't make it. The sea just gets worse and worse and worse
and worse. The more they try, the worse it gets. The more they
try, the worse it gets. It just seems like this is never going
to work. Finally, notice what happens in verse 14. It's very
important what happens. Notice they stopped crying out
to their pagan gods. They stopped crying out to their
kind of minor gods, right? And they take the name of Jehovah
themselves on their lips. We pray, O Lord, please do not
let us perish for this man's life. And do not charge us with
innocent blood. For you, O Lord, have done as
it pleased you. Man, it's amazing. These pagans
become Calvinists really fast. They know God is sovereign here.
The Lord's chosen to do this. The Lord is the one in control.
They tried not to throw him overboard because they were worried that
they were going to become guilty of murder. And so they cry out
to the Lord himself. And even though they don't normally
serve this God, they submit themselves to him. So they do the radical thing.
Verse 16, they picked up Jonah. Imagine their hands actually
grabbing him. I wonder if Jonah was still or if he was squirming.
They picked him up. Is he screaming in the air? I
don't know. And immediately, the waves are calm. The wind
is gone. just lapping against the boards. And notice in verse 16, the sailor's
response. The men feared the Lord exceedingly
and offered a sacrifice to Jehovah and they took vows. They realize
he really is who Jonah said he is. Jonah tried to run away from
the presence of God because he didn't want to tell some ugly,
pagan, you know, no-nothing, out-of-covenant people about
God. And yet in the sea, God is relentless
in pursuing His purposes. He even saves these sailors,
showing them that God is the one who is powerful, Jonah had
a plan to run from the Gentiles and yet others are saved because
of his actions. God had a plan for these sailors
to come to this point where they would confess that the Lord is in charge and to fear Him. By the way, that word fear there
is the same word in the Hebrew that we would use for worship. God is relentless in pursuing
His purposes. and His grace despite even Jonah's human frailty. And so our last point, we see
so often in Jonah foreshadowing of Christ and of the mission
to the Gentiles. There was another time in the
Bible when a bunch of people realized who God was. We looked at it in Mark chapter
4. when Jesus was sleeping in a boat and it was being torn
apart by the wind. The disciples were scared and
they come to Jesus and they said, don't you care that we're about
to die? Jesus gets up and he rebukes the wind and the waves.
Mark tells us immediately it became quiet. And what was the
disciples response to that? Notice the words. And they feared
exceedingly and said to one another, who can this be that even the
wind and the seas obey him? The disciples were sea-faring
people also on the Sea of Galilee. And they knew that Jesus was
the one who controlled the wind and the waves. The sailors in
Jonah had that same fear when they realized it too. But we also see in Jonah this
willingness at the very end of this episode for him to submit
himself to the Lord, knowing that the only way for other people
to be saved was for him to die. The only way for those sailors
to be saved was for Jonah to die. Make no doubt about it,
getting thrown overboard off a ship, is a death sentence. There's a reason why you watch
the movies, and it's really funny, right? Walk the plank. No, walking
the plank was a death sentence. Jonah knows walking off that,
getting thrown off that ship is going to cause him to die,
but it's going to save the sailors, and so he does it. How much better
is Jesus' sacrifice for us? Jonah is a fickle and sinful
man. full of prejudice and trying
to run from the face of God. He doesn't want to do God's will.
And yet Jesus Christ is willing to lay down his life for us,
knowing that by his dying, a death he didn't deserve, he would save
us and give us eternal life. This is why Jesus will use Jonah
in Matthew 12, verse 40. When he says, for as Jonah was
three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish,
so the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth. Jesus ties himself to the story of Jonah for a reason. So my question for you this morning,
as we walk away from here, is do you submit yourself to God's
purposes? Who are you in the story? I don't
think any of us are necessarily perfectly Jonas, right? But if
you caught yourself at times running away from what you know
God has called you to do, talking to that person, entering into
this evangelistic conversation, going and dealing with such people,
because you just don't like them. Maybe they're not the same ethnicity
as you. Maybe they don't smell like you. Maybe they don't eat
the same food as you. Maybe they don't have the same morals as
you do. But God's purpose for us is that
we go and make disciples of all nations. So I wonder how many of us even
shy away. I'm not talking about just like
global missions. I'm talking about even here. Who are the people you're avoiding? Because I gotta tell you, you
try to run away from it for too long, the Lord's gonna end up
bringing it right back in your lap. Because you can't run away
from God's purposes. He is relentless in pursuing
His purposes. And He will show mercy to whom
He shows mercy. So the question is, do you submit
yourself, or do you fight against the Lord? When you point people
to Jesus, or will you try to run from the face of God? Let's
pray. Lord, we confess to you that
we are people who are often afraid. Lord, we're afraid of where your
purposes would lead us. Lord, we pray your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven, but Father, we know that sometimes
that scares us to death. Father, we pray that your spirit
might give us strength to accomplish the good works that you have
prepared beforehand for us to accomplish in Christ Jesus. Lord,
we pray that even as we've worked through this passage in your
word, Lord, if there's sinful things I've said, I pray that
it would just be blown away like chaff in the wind. But Lord,
where there is gold, where there is honey, for your people's hearts
to savor, Lord, I pray that you would please. Let us love you. Let us know
who you are as our sovereign Lord and our gracious God. Lord, we thank you that you pursued
us even when we were like the Ninevites and like these sailors
who pray these things in Jesus' name.