The Book of Jonah
“On The Wings Of A Dove”
Jonah 1:1-3 “The Prodigal Prophet”
Vs. 1 The Call of Jonah
Vs. 2 The Commissioning of Jonah
Vs. 3 The Cowardice of Jonah
Intro
How many people are familiar with this book, and the first thing they think of is the story of Jonah and the whale! May I just say that the Bible doesn’t say that it was a whale; instead, it says that it was a great fish. Furthermore, it is mentioned only 4 times. Another thing people will remember is that it is a book about the preaching in a great city (Nineveh, which was founded by Noah’s great-grandson Nimrod Gen. 10:8-10), but it is only mentioned 9 times. Some of you will say it’s about a disobedient prophet, yet he is only mentioned 18 times. You know what? The most important character in this book is not the fish, a wicked city, or even Jonah. It is God! He is mentioned some 38 times in 4 short chapters. In this book we will look at God working a wonder through us when He would rather work a wonder in us!
Folks, remember, God is more concerned about His workers than He is about their work, for if the workers are what they ought to be, the work will be what it ought to be. Throughout Jonah’s time of rebellion, God was displeased with His servant, but He never once deserted him. We get all caught up in what we do for the Lord. We often use how busy we are and how successful we are as an indication of how spiritually healthy we are. This is one of only 14 books that starts with the word “and.” Which tells us that this is a continuing story of God’s grace and mercy. Furthermore, it is one of only two books in all the Bible that ends in a question; the other also deals with Nineveh (Nahum). The last paragraph of this book ends with God questioning Jonah’s heart. So the point is that God is not done speaking to us concerning His grace and mercy even if we are sinners or disobedient servants!
Looking back to the book of Matthew, which of course concludes with the “Great Commission.” Jesus gathers His disciples and tells them to go to the world that rejected Him with the message of grace. I can imagine how difficult this would have sounded to those disciples. God’s method of reaching the gentiles was one of strategic location. God had so placed Israel geographically at the “crossroads” of the world between the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa. The nations that traveled on that day would sooner or later have to pass through Israel on the way to where they were going. And when they did, they would come upon people who were monotheistic. In Israel, everything centered around the worship of God in Jerusalem. Simply put, there was no Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore make disciples of all nations…” Instead they were to be a witness as the nations came to them. Can you imagine the puzzled look on the disciples faces as Jesus said these words? “Go make disciples” of the Nations never appeared in the same sentence. You say, “Well, how do you know that was the case with the early church?” Well, you will remember that the disciples hung around Jerusalem the first few years, it was not until persecution arose that they went to Samaria, even still they were half-breeds! So what’s the point? Well, look here at verse 2 God’s word to Jonah, “Arise, go to Nineveh…” Right there I think Jonah would have said, “What did you say?” but that was just the beginning of the struggles Jonah had with his own heart.
The Call of Jonah
Vs. 1 What we have here establishes these facts:
- First, we are told that Jonah was a real person. Jesus considered Jonah this story a historical fact as He referred to it as a typology of His own death (Matt. 12:41, Luke 11:32).
- Second, we are told that he was a prophet of the Lord. But what do we know about him as a prophet?
- Even though we read here that “…the word of the Lord came to Jonah,” the book of Jonah is not so much a prophecy as it is Jonah’s story. In fact, we are told only two times that the Lord instructs Jonah to say anything, here in verse 2 again in chapter 3:1-2. Other than this, everything God has to say deals with Jonah himself!
- It is in 2 Kings 14:25 where we are given some great insight into this prophet.
- First, we are told that his message from the Lord was about restoring, “…the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah…”
- Second, in 2 Kings we find out that Jonah was a prophet during the time of the reigns of Jehoash and Jeroboam II. So what do you ask? Well, it is important to the degree that it sets the stage as to the makeup of the time the man. You see, during the reign of Jeroboam II, the nation was in a time of great prosperity and national pride. They had regained the land that they had lost from wars raids of the Assyrians. In fact, they had even expanded their boundaries. Yet with that said, it was a time of moral spiritual decay. So? Well, since Jonah was not speaking out against the nation like his contemporaries, Amos Hosea, I’m sure he was quite popular with the people.
- Third, we are also told that Jonah was the son of Amittai, who, according to 2 Kings, was from Gath Hepher, which was a city about 15 miles west of the Sea of Galilee in the territory given to the sons of Zebulun. So? Well, did you catch that I said that Israel, “had regained the land that they had lost from wars raids of the Assyrians?” Guess whose land was regained from wars raids? Jonah’s! And guess what the capital city of the Assyrians was? You got it, Nineveh! You see, when they came invading, they would come right through Jonah’s backyard first!
- Lastly, Jonah’s name means “Dove.” An appropriate name considering what he was asked by God to do. The dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and old Jonah was the instrument chosen by God for the greatest three-day crusade the world has ever seen; over 600,000 Ninevehites repent. You would have to be full of the Holy Spirit to go do this!
The Commissioning of Jonah
Vs. 2 Here you have the destination of the call: “Nineveh.” This was perhaps the greatest city in antiquity. It had over 1,000 200-foot towers and a 100-foot-high wall so wide that 3 chariots could ride on the top side by side. The city was 60 miles in circumference, a glorious city with temples, palaces, hanging gardens.
Yet with that said, it was a wicked city. The Assyrian stood for the essence of human self-exaltation anti-god power. They were known as the most sadistic people the world has ever seen. Israel hated the Assyrians; in fact, some 30 years from this time, these 10 tribes that made up the Northern Kingdom would be conquered by these Assyrians taken away captive. The prophet Nahum would write (3:19), concerning the downfall of Nineveh, “O king of Assyria; … All who hear news of you will clap their hands over you, for upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?”
Having Jonah go to Nineveh to preach to these folks would be about like him going as a Jew to Hitler’s Berlin in the 40s. Perhaps Jonah had seen his family tortured by these Assyrians. Simply put, Jonah hated these Ninevites perhaps for what we would call good reasons. When they captured a region, they would take the women captive and kill the men and the children. They would impale people on poles or bury them alive up to their heads, pull their tongues out, and stake them to the ground until they died. Then after they died, they would take the skulls of their enemies and pile them up into huge pyramids.
Look at the message old Jonah was to give to this city; he was to “cry out against it”, because their wickedness had come before the Lord. Well, no wonder he ran away from the call; it was a suicide mission. Now jump ahead with me to the fourth chapter, the second verse, where we read, “Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish, for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.” You see that? Jonah was not afraid of the Ninevites; no, he was afraid of God’s mercy towards them. The last thing Jonah wanted was for these guys to repent. Jonah was putting patriotism above obedience. It was not what the world would do to Jonah that caused him to be disobedient; it was what God would do if He was obedient. Hey folks, Jonah needed Nineveh as much as they needed him!
Hey, how about you? Are you not surrendering to God in areas of your life because if you do, you know God is going to do a wonder, and you’re not so sure you want that old part of your life changed? The fact is most of us don’t surrender all of our lives to the Lord because of our own personal prejudices! Folk, right here now you need to see that God wants to work in some areas of your lives, so don’t try to run away because of your desire for whatever.
You see, Jonah thought that he could take or leave the “Word of the Lord,” but he could not! Jonah had had a great privilege to preach the word to a needy country, but he did not want to go because of his own prejudice against them. How about you? Is there this neighbor who you hate? Or a co-worker? You see, God is interested in you as much as He is in using you!
The Cowardice of Jonah
Vs. 3 Jonah arose all right, but it was in the opposite direction. Tarsus is all the way across the Mediterranean Sea on the eastern side of Spain. There is an interesting reference to Tarshish in the book of Isa. 66:19, where the prophet says, “Tarshish…afar off who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory.” Is that not interesting? Jonah wants to go as far away from the voice of the Lord as possible, so he gets on a boat heading to a place where they have never heard of Him!
Folks, that is what we all do when we choose disobedience: we try to get to a place where we don’t have to be reminded of the Word of the Lord. Furthermore, it is always a downward slide.
Flee…the presence of the Lord…”: No matter how you try to cut it, when we don’t allow God into areas of our lives, we are fleeing His presence. Folks, it does not matter the circumstances that led Jonah to that boat; I’m sure he could justify every step he took in the wrong direction, but the attitude of his heart was still fleeing the presence of the Lord.
Now the good news is that it is a fruitless effort, for as David would say in Ps. 139: 7-8, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.”
Jonah is going to find out that God is still going to work with him; in fact, God is going to use his running as a blessing to others. Oh, if we just realize that we are robbing ourselves of the benefits of God’s presence.
“..down to Joppa..”: This is the first of Jonah’s many downward steps. It is interesting to note that the city of Joppa was located in the area that was given to the tribe of Dan. Now some of you will remember that it was this tribe that first turned away from God to idolatry. It seems that the first downward step we make away from the Lord is to get to an area that is more sympathetic with rebellion. Folks, how about it?
Are you starting to spend more time with your buddies at work than your brothers at church? Are you fleeing from the Lord by “…found a ship going to Tarshish…”: Isn’t it amazing how easy it always is to find a ship going in a direction away from the presence of the Lord? Folk, if you look on a map of the area, you would find that Nineveh is in the northeast and Joppa Tarshish are in the southwest. A lot of times we give reasons for the actions we take as, “Hey man, everything just came together!” “I mean, there I was in Joppa, man, and bang, a boat was there just at the right time heading to Tarshish.”
- Be careful and ask yourselves, is this thing I’m heading towards drawing me closer to the presence of the Lord or towards something else? Folk’s the right direction is always obedience closeness to God!
- “…he paid the fare…”: Make no mistake about it, men, Jonah paid for his disobedience. The ship may be there waiting, but you still are going to have to pay. Interesting though, old Jonah was not a stowaway; I mean, he was honestly disobedient.
- “…went down into it…”: Not only did he go down to Joppa, but here he goes down even further into the boat. Notice it says “with them”; who is them? Well, it’s a bunch of idolaters.
Mark this: Jonah did not want to obey for fear that the Lord would use him with a bunch of sinners that he hated, so where does he go? On a boat with a bunch of sinners that he hates. Isn’t God good? I mean the Lord is already dealing with Jonah and his prejudices.
Now look at verse 5. It says here that Jonah not only went to the boat, but he got a good night’s sleep as well! Folks, it is possible to be out of the will of God and still get a good night’s sleep! It is possible to be out of the will of God and still get the circumstances to line up the way you want them to. As we go through this book, it is my prayer that you will realize that God is interested in you, so much that He will never let you get away with disobedience!
Jonah 1:4-16
“The Cursed Cruse”
Vs. 4-7 Wake Up Jonah!
Vs. 8-10 Who Are You?
Vs. 11-16 This Storm Is For Me!
Intro
As we have started our new study in the book of Jonah, I’ve been freshly reminded of God’s patience, or “forbearance.” Unger’s Bible Dictionary describes forbearance as “a holding back or delaying.” Furthermore, it says that, “It describes the disposition of God by which He indulgently tolerates sins and delays their punishment.” I’ve studied with interest as this prophet of God willfully disobeys God’s call upon his life. Yet in all of these chapters, God deals patiently with old Jonah.
Two things have struck me:
- This is the way I would want to be treated by the Lord if I were Jonah.
- This is not the way I often treat others who are disobedient!
Now I’m not saying that we should wink at another’s sin, but rather when we address it, we ought to do so in the most tender of ways. In 1 Peter 4:8 we read, “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” That is what the Lord does here for Jonah. He covers Jonah’s nakedness with His love. Yet the same patience that God exhibits towards him, He also exhibits towards Nineveh, whom Jonah hates.
How about it? Do you seek to cover the faults of those in the body with God’s love? Or do you point out the flaws you see? As I read through Jonah, I’m reminded of a child’s prayer I read the other day. It seems that little Johnny had been a real stinker, so he was sent to his room by his parents. After a long while he emerged from his room to inform his parents that he had thought over his behavior and had prayed about it. Johnny’s mother was quite pleased with the response, so to encourage his behavior, she replied, “You know, Johnny, when you ask the Lord to help you not misbehave, He will be there for you!” Johnny quickly replied, “Oh mom, I did not ask God to help me not misbehave. I asked God to help you put up with me!”
Wake up, Jonah!
Vs. 4-7 Last week we saw Jonah’s response to God’s call, “RUN.” Here we see God’s response to Jonah’s disobedience, “A STORM.” I love this! Now I don’t love going through it, but I sure do love the fact that God loves us too much to ever let us leave His presence! Folks, if you think back over your life, you will find many times that God has sent a storm upon your life to get you to turn back to Him!
Now you will remember that Jonah went down to Joppa to hang around those that would be sympathetic to his rebellion. He boards a ship to go to a place where they had never heard of the name of the Lord. Twice in the first three verses we are told that Jonah was “fleeing the presence of the Lord.” Yet the Lord was not about to leave Jonah! If you stop to think about it, why didn’t God just tell Jonah to turn around or not get on the boat? I mean, after all, he was a prophet of the Lord. Now pay attention here because you will see a digression in the spiritual life of Jonah. When we are disobedient to the Lord, there are consequences to our actions:
Vs. 4 We are no longer able to hear the voice of the Lord: Do you see that here? In verse 1 we read that the “Word of the Lord came to Jonah,” but here in the 4th verse we read that “the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea…so that the ship was about to be broken up.” Simply put, fellowship was broken when Jonah had left his first love.
Now I’m certain that before this ever got this far, God was trying to communicate to Jonah, but Jonah was not listening. I’ve found this to be true in my life. God will always use the least means possible to get my attention. He will start out just whispering, then his tone will grow stronger, then will come situations that he will use to get my attention, and lastly a circumstance. God was still trying to speak to the wayward prophet, but he was not listening. Folks, if you have gotten to a place where you will no longer listen to the Word of God, then God will try talking to you through the Works of God! May I just say that I’ve been there, and it’s far more pleasant of an experience to have Him speak to you through the “Word of God!”?
Just a side note here: The very thing that Jonah was using as an instrument for rebellion was quite literally falling apart. Jonah slipped into a ship to flee the presence of the Lord, but now it’s all about to sink! Don’t be surprised if you are running from the presence of the Lord in your work, play, or relationships with others that it all starts to sink! Folks, there is only one thing that is designed to sail the waters of life: a relationship totally dependent upon God. You will find security in no other place. I thank God for His wind that has destroyed my foolish boat rides. The storm has not come up to destroy you; it has come to blow you back to Him!
Vs. 5a, 6 Loss of the power that is found in prayer: The first thing that Jonah lost was the ability to hear from the Lord, and when you can no longer hear from the Lord, you will no longer depend upon Him! Folks, our power is not from us; it comes from the Lord our communing with Him. Do you see that? These non-believers are afraid, and every one of them has a prayer meeting, and the one man on the boat who has access to the true God is sleeping through the prayer meeting! Folks, when fellowship is broken, then there is always a loss of power because we are not praying to Him!
It is interesting to see that these non-believers were tossing overboard their treasures. The rough seas of life always cause us to reevaluate what we treasure, don’t they? What good are the things you treasure when your life’s on the line? Here are these Phoenician sailors, tough guys, who are in real danger, so they turn back to trying to find something larger than life to cling to, so they call out to “their gods.” Yet according to verse 6, that was not helping; religion never does! Religion is really nothing more than superstition! You can rub the rabbit’s foot or the rosary all you want; it is the same thing. It’s only upon total dependence upon the living God that will calm the seas!
Let me point out two other things:
- Do you hear that the world is interested in what we have? I mean, when the boat starts to sink, the world prays to its gods, tosses out its treasures, comes to find answers from believers to make sense of it all! And what does it find? A church, like Jonah “asleep.”.
- Did you ever wonder why the captain has to go looking for old Jonah? Why could Jonah fall asleep in the middle of a storm? It seems to me that Jonah was looking to hide both from people and from the Lord. I think, far from being at peace, Jonah was depressed. Have you ever been depressed and bummed out to the point that all you want to do is sleep? You are secretly hoping that when you awake, everything will be better when you get up. Instead, like Jonah, you awake to the same problem that you then went to sleep with. Worse yet, someone wakes you, rebuking you for falling asleep! Folks, you can hide from areas of your life that God is trying to deal with. You will just awake to the same character flaw!
Vs. 5b Lost his love for others: Jonah left his first love, which caused him to lose his power, which led to a loss of love for others. Do you see that? These sailors were terrified; they had thrown their treasure over, tried worthless religion, and now were seeking truth. And where is Jonah? “Asleep!” Jonah appears to be totally unconcerned for others even though, according to verse 12, he admits that he is the source of the trial!
I bet it was a little surprising to Jonah that the captain in verse 6 demands that Jonah call upon the Lord for help when the very reason he was on the boat was to escape the presence of the Lord! May I just say that if you find yourself indifferent towards the souls of others, it is because you have left your first love. John said in 1 John 4:20-21
“If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”
Vs. 7 He lost his testimony: So there you have it! The spiritual digression of a person who leaves their first love. Jonah’s testimony was not a blessing but instead it was a curse! Jonah’s name was Dove, a symbol of peace; his father’s name, Amittai, meant faithful truth, all of which Jonah was not. How about it? Is your testimony a blessing or a curse? Jonah was a spokesperson for the Lord, yet he had no word for them. Look carefully at verse 7 here. The captain asks Jonah to pray, but instead of being broken by his own rebellion, he does not say a word, so they cast lots to see why this curse had come upon them, and still he says nothing!
Folks, if you want to know why the church has lost its witness in America, it’s right here. They have lost their love for the lost, and they have lost their power in prayer, and all of this is because they have left their first love!
Who Are You?
Vs. 8 Jonah had moved so far away from the Lord here that he is unrecognizable as being a believer. He has become a walking contradiction. All too often, people, we proclaim the truths of God without living them!
Now notice what they ask Jonah:
“For whose cause is this trouble upon us?” In verse 10 they ask the same question, only more specifically, “Why have you done this?” It is the same question. You see, Jonah has not told them anything, and they want to know what he has done to deserve this.
“What’s your occupation?” Jonah was a well-known prophet in Israel, but he had not told them who he was.
In fact, Jonah had not told them anything about himself. Here is a prophet of God, and he is going on a boat for months with these sailors, and not a word of who he is. Why does he not tell them anything? Because in his heart he knows that he is wrong! Have you ever found yourself out of the will of God, and you know it, so you decide that you just want to reveal anything about yourself? Guess what happens? Well, the Lord won’t let you off the hook!
Vs. 9-10 Now here we have unbelievers rebuking a man of God. That ought not to surprise us because if a child of God won’t listen to the “Word of God,” then He will bring about the “Works of God,” and if he still is asleep, then He will use the “World.” Oh, how embarrassing this is to be rebuked by those who worship idols, but is it not great to see the lengths that the Lord will go through to bring one of his children back into His presence”?
Often I see unbelievers look at us Christians and ask us, “Why have you done this?” If you believe what you say you believe, why do you live as if you don’t? Now don’t dismiss this. It’s time to wake up and face the sailors, folks! Is your life a contradiction? Do you talk the talk or (like Jonah, not talk it) but not walk the walk?
This Storm Is For Me!
Vs. 11 These sailors want answers, and so do those who are in the boat of life; are you ready with the answers? All these sailors are looking for is a way to calm the sea around them, and they equate that with the way in which they treat Jonah. I believe that the world is looking for the same thing.
Also note that the sea was growing worse; when we are of the will of God, “running from His presence,” things will always grow worse.
Vs. 12 Look here at Jonah’s response: “Pick me up, throw me in the sea.” Now Jonah probably would rather die than obey the will of God. He would rather give up his life than be used to save others! With that said, though, it does give us the antidote to a life that is out of fellowship:
Die to yourself! Folks, that is the key to a spiritual renewal. When Jonah does, he will have to be completely dependent again on the Lord. The answer is not more of this, and more of that. No! The answer is none of me! When Jonah was cast overboard, it was a total surrender. Again, may I just say this another way? “If you want to calm the sea of circumstances, die to yourself!” There is never a safer place than when we cast ourselves totally upon God!
Vs. 13-16 Here we see the first souls saved, and Jonah has not even preached a word yet. And it happened when Jonah surrendered and died to himself. These non-believers had better theology than did Jonah and did not want to harm Jonah for fear of the God he professed! The immediate end of the storm when they tossed Jonah in the sea proved that Jonah’s god was the true living God.
Folks, many people don’t believe in our profession not because our God is not real, but rather the way we live in accordance with Him is not real! So what is the result? The unbelieving sailors move from fear of the storm to fear of the Lord.
There you have it, both the results of running from the presence of the Lord as well as what to do if you find that you have left your first love: die to yourself! In the Westminster Catechism we read that the, “Chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” How about your chief aim? I love the fact that God will not stop driving me back to Him!