Last week, we started into our series in Jonah. I know, most of us know the basics of the story of Jonah! God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah refused and ran the opposite direction. After a few days in the belly of a fish, he agrees to go and preach in Nineveh. The Ninevites repent and Jonah gets mad.
But as we saw last week, there are some finer details than just the ones we learned in Sunday School or from a children’s Bible.
Jonah was a prophet that God had used previously, and now God was calling him again for a new ministry assignment. We talked about the simplicity of what God told Jonah: Get up, go to Nineveh, and preach. However, Jonah hit his spiritual snooze alarm and didn’t heed God’s command. In fact, he did the exact opposite! Let’s read this first paragraph of Jonah 1.
Jonah 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose 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 on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
WOW! The clear instruction was: Jonah Get up, go to Nineveh, and preach. Then in verse three, we get to a very important word, “BUT”. Have you ever had one of those conversations with your boss, “I really appreciate how you drew up the plans for welding that part, BUT, the welders say it can’t be done.” “I know that the economy is tough right now, BUT, we have to cut your hours so we can stay open.” Or from your parents, “I know you want to go out on Friday night, BUT, we already have plansas a family.” Or, from your kids, “I know you don’t approve of my boyfriend, BUT, we’re in LOVE.” That list can go on and on can’t it!
So, when we have the clear command in verse 2: Get up, go to Nineveh, and preach, the BUT in verse 3 is a major problem! Jonah only got part of the marching orders correct, he got up, tried to go to Tarshish, and hid. What a contrast to the clear job description that the Lord gave him!
Since he didn’t have the internet to get a great deal on Priceline.com or CheapCruises.com, he went down to the coast and asked around until he found a ship going the exact opposite direction of where God was sending him.
Thanks so much for greeting my parents so nicely last week! They were with us for a couple of days and then they had a conference out in San Diego, CA. We gave them quite a bit of grief because, their flight out of Bloomington on Delta went where? ATLANTA! Even for those of you who are somewhat geographically challenged, which way is Atlanta, Georgia? Which way is San Diego, California? They are opposite directions. That’s exactly what Jonah did…without any plans of catching another ship to get to the proper destination. It is somewhat like if God told you to go to Morocco and you fly to Japan…problems! Or, if He told you to go to Joplin, Missouri to help with the tornado clean up, and you decided to take a vacation to Detroit. You get the picture…Jonah was WAY out of line!
The book of Jonah is full of things that don’t make sense if you’re not part of the story. I think that’s why it’s such a wonderful book to study in depth. The whole concept that a prophet of God Almighty would do the things that he did helps me realize how easy it is for me to stray from obeying the Lord when He gives me clear directions.
In the first part here of verse three, we’re told that Jonah was purposefully trying to hide from God’s presence! REALLY??? Jonah thought he could hide from God? Of course, in our lifetimes, how many “big name Christians” have we seen crash hard because they were sinning and thinking they could get away with it without anybody knowing. Even as I was working on this paragraph, the list in my mind rapidly grew as I thought about Christians who have had sexual, financial, other moral, spiritual, and other kinds of failures.
Our little Noah LOVES to play Peek-a-boo! He is so proud to hold his hands over his eyes and then quickly move them when you ask, “Where’s Noah”. He thinks he’s hiding, but he’s not doing a very good job of it. In the same way, it was just as ludicrous for Jonah to think he could hide from God’s presence by playing “holy peek-a-boo”.
How do we as Christians try to play peek-a-boo with what God tells us to do today?
Don’t talk to someone; pretend you don’t see them. Drive by someone and don’t do something to help them. Don’t spend time reading Scripture, listening to sermons, listening to Christian music. Our three middle teenagers went on an “AbNormal missions trip” this past week. For years, the youth group at Grace has gone and worked in inner city Memphis, Tennessee. However, this year, they instead stayed in town and did several different VBSs in urban areas of Bloomington and Normal. They learned a lot about looking around them to see what God desires for them to do and the people God wants them to minister to…close to home. It’s kind of like people being willing to give tons of money, supplies, and time to help with Hurricane Katrina relief vs. being willing to help someone roof or paint their house in Goodfield or Eureka.
Yea, if we aren’t careful, we too can be guilty of trying to hide from God’s presence.
As we are reading through the chapter, we come to verse 4, and another “BUT”. Even though Jonah is running from the Lord, God comes back with His own response. I thought of this as something like a tie baseball game in the tenth inning:…But…Cubs come back and score in the top of the inning…but then the Cards come back and score in the bottom (and they pitch to Albert who then two nights in a row hits it out of the park).
Jonah 1:4 But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.
The focus here is on GOD causing the storm. I think that this is an interesting aspect of theology. God specifically caused a storm. This is a contrast to how the disciples were petrified in the middle of a storm, and in Mark 5 we’re told how Christ stopped the storm. Obviously, God…the Creator of the Earth is quite able to either cause or stop elements of the weather in order to help people pay attention to what He wants them to hear.
Here in this passage, the storm…wasn’t to punish Jonah or the sailors; rather, it was designed to bring them back to God. I don’t know how that all works…how did God use Hurricane Katrina? Did people come to know Him in the midst of tragedy? Did the body of Christ respond like it should have to go down and help rebuild and to bring hope? How did God use the massive floods both a month or so ago and today as well? How is He using the tornado in Joplin? Again, I don’t have all of the answers, but I do know that God is completely in control of the weather and He can and does use it to wake some people up!
Evidently, this is quite a storm that blows up. The sailors threw everything they could overboard in order to try to save the ship. They thought by reducing the weight of the ship, they might float higher in the water and wouldn’t get swamped and then sink. Now, they were pretty serious if they were willing to jettison the important cargo just to hang on to their own lives! They also called out to their own gods to try and get the storm to stop.
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.
In our culture, one of the descriptions that I hear when someone swears a lot is something to the effect that they can curse like a sailor. I don’t ever remember the corollary statement that we read here that someone prays like a sailor.
I think our lost friends can function like these sailors. In the midst of an intense crisis, they all of the sudden remember that they need to pray. They may pray to Jesus, Mohammad, Mary, some other deity, or even the generic “God if you’re up there….” They are in crisis, and they don’t have a clue where to turn. Instead of being like Jonah, we have the opportunity to pray with and for them and to share our personal faith in Jesus with them!
In the second part of verse 5, we have another “BUT”.
But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.
True to his form on this assignment, Jonah was avoiding everything by sleeping in the hold. At Hammitt, I have students who sleep all day. We even have kids who will sleep for about the whole week…except maybe for lunch! Why…because they’re trying to avoid school work, looking “dumb”, they hate school, etc….
How do we as Christians hide while the world is crashing around us (How do we engage the culture? What outreach to lost people have we done in last six months? Why haven’t we reached and retained new people here? Why aren’t we having regular baptismal services?)
6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
How sad is it that the pagan captain of the ship had to go and wake Jonah up and tell him to pray?
I don’t think that verse 7 is an endorsement to go over to Par-a-Dice in Peoria…but somehow, the sailors rolled dice, drew straws, pulled a colored rock out of a jar, or something that they believed supernaturally would direct them to the person responsible for the storm…which it did!
Jonah 1:7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
Again, even as we saw in our study of Ruth, God is in control of even the little details. Whether it’s causing Ruth to show up in just the right field of just the right man at just the right time or it’s causing just the right straw to be picked by Jonah, God is in control!!!
Understandably, the sailors fire questions away at Jonah…remember, they are still in the middle of a crazy storm and they’re afraid they’re going to die and they threw all of the cargo into the sea. They’re MAD now!
8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
Jonah responds with a brief answer…we aren’t told if he gave a longer answer, but he at least gives them the basic information they demanded from him.
9 And 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.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
At this point, the sailors remember that this prophet of God had evidently come on board bragging that he was riding with them so he could get away from God. Boy, talk about not being too bright! It’s one thing to be crazy enough to think you can run away from God’s presence, but why in the world would you tell someone else that?
I work closely with the McLean County Juvenile Probation Officers. Often, we have found out information about one of the students we share because they run their mouth off in front of other students…or even put it on their Facebook or MySpace accounts so we can easily read that they planned to skip school or that they were leaving home to go beat someone up that they were mad at and so on. It’s just not very smart!
To their credit, these pagan sailors are thinking much more clearly than Jonah is! They set about trying to figure out what they need to do in order to please the Lord and to set things straight with Him.
Jonah 1:11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.
We aren’t told how Jonah came about his response in verse 12, but he has a clear response:
12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”
The commentators I read give several different opinions as to what Jonah was trying to accomplish. Some think he was still in the process of running from God and that if they threw him into the sea he would be able to die and avoid going to Nineveh. Others think that he believed God would save him once he went into the ocean.
Despite his clearly stated exit strategy, the sailors try to avoid following Jonah’s directions because they are afraid of killing an innocent man.
13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.”
When they determine that they can’t make it to shore and that their options are slim. They pray to the Lord and ask for “pre-forgiveness”. They are really stuck here…they’re going to die in the terrible storm, but throwing Jonah into the sea is obviously not a good option either!
After weighing their options, they go ahead and toss Jonah overboard, and SURPRISE the storm ended!
15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
Just as God started the storm to get their attention, he immediately stopped the storm to get their attention! Think about it from their perspective…they’re in the midst of one of the worst storms they’ve ever sailed through; Jonah accepts the blame for it being his fault for running from God; immediately upon throwing him into the sea, the storm stops. What would you do? They chose to follow the Lord…they offered a sacrifice of some kind and then made vows to obey or follow or keep worshiping Him…despite the disobedient man of God who should have been sharing about God with them, they are now the followers of God while Jonah is sinking to the bottom of the Mediterranean!
Next week, we’ll look at the next phase of Jonah’s journey.
But, what can we take home with us today?
1. God controls the weather.
a. Whether we’re concerned about enough rain for crops or avoiding flooding…God is in control
b. God can and does use the weather to get our attention
c. While we need to be good stewards of the world God has entrusted to us, we don’t need to panic or fear about weather related issues
2. God’s people can try to hide
a. We may do it by refusing to look at those around us
b. We may do it by hitting the snooze button when told to, “Get up, go to _______, and preach.”
c. God still sees us
3. God can reach people despite us
a. The sailors became God-followers even though Jonah didn’t preach to them
b. Jonah was a terrible example, but God’s power really spoke to the sailors
c. God would rather use us…think about all of the grief that could have been avoided if Jonah had functioned like a prophet of God instead of a backslidden follower of God
4. God desires our obedience
a. Really? A prophet who runs from God?
b. Really? A prophet who is sleeping while the lost are scared for their lives?
c. Really? A prophet who brags about his sin?
d. Really? A prophet who has a bigger spiritual impact on others with his apparent death than he did with his life?
e. Really! We can be just as disobedient and we need to repent and obey!
Today’s closing song is “I Refuse”. I’ve put the words in the bulletin for you to reflect on later in the week…but please watch the video. It has so much in common with the story of Jonah; except the author is choosing to refuse to disobey…he’s refusing the temptation to let the world just go its own way. He is going to engage his world for the sake of Christ.
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