1. Introduction
In world war 2 there was one action that meant almost certain jail time and in some cases death by execution. It didn’t matter whether you were in the US Army, the Soviet Army, the Germany Army or the English or Australian Army. If you ran away from combat during the war you would face the penalty. Desertion meant jail or in the case of Eddie Slovick an American soldier who deserted in January 1945, it meant death, as president Eisenhower wanted to set an example to deter others from this practice. As we come to Jonah 1 today and we see a man that flees not just from a commander, but from the God of heaven and earth. We see a completely different outcome to that of Mr Slovick. Instead of God’s judgement, we see His mercy in abundance.
Jonah 1 starts with these words:
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:
2. The Prophet – Jonah son of Amittai (v1)
Jonah is mentioned very briefly in 2 Kings 14:25 when speaking of Jeroboam II King of Israel. Yet from this we know the general period of Jeroboam’s reign at least encompasses part of Jonah’s life. 782-753 BC. So we can say with confidence that Jonah was a prophet of the 8th century. Here is what 2 Kings says about Jeroboam and Jonah.
25 He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea, in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.
So we see that Jonah had spoken God’s word, as God’s prophet and the boundaries of Israel were restored. They had been won back in battle from its neighbour Syria.
We don’t know whether the word of the Lord that Jonah had given regarding Israel’s borders was prior to or proceeding what we see in the book of Jonah. But it does show that Jonah was a prophet of the Lord in a time and place.
The Instruction – God’s very instruction came to his prophet Jonah (v2)
2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
Nineveh was a great city, approximately 120,000 people plus animals. And God in his grace and mercy wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach against how they were living in evil and wickedness. God is full of mercy and wants everyone to turn to him. Now friends, when a volcano is going to erupt and destroy everyone, the loving thing to do is to warn everyone, so that they can prepare. In fact on June 7th, 1991 scientists detected increasing seismic activity and sulfur gas occurring at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. The authorities didn’t ignore these warnings and over 75,000 people were able to be evacuated safely before the volcano erupted violently on the 15th of June 1991. The people heeded the warning and were saved. And in a similar way that was what God was instructing Jonah to do. Nineveh were heading straight for destruction. What we see here is the overwhelming mercy and grace of God in action. God wanted to warn Nineveh that they needed to turn from their wickedness. So he gave his word, his instruction to Jonah. And how did Jonah react?
3. Jonah Flees (v3)
3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
So, God’s prophet let his actions do the talking. God instructed Jonah to call the Ninevites out, to preach against their wickedness and tell the Ninevites that they were doing evil in the Lord’s sight. Yet Jonah ran away. Worse than that, he headed in the opposite direction, getting on a boat to flee as far from Nineveh and the Lord as possible.
So what was going on? Well in essence Jonah hated the Ninevites and didn’t want God to save them. Jonah thought that these gentiles didn’t deserve God’s mercy and should be punished. Read chapter 4 and you will see Jonah’s lack of mercy towards Nineveh. Even though Jonah himself was a recipient of God’s mercy and promises, he didn’t believe that the Ninevites should have the same grace and mercy shown to them. Jonah hated God’s enemies and wanted them destroyed. But God wanted Jonah to preach against the way that they were living and to turn to Him for forgiveness. Jonah was so filled with pride and self righteousness that he thought he knew better than God. So he ran.
Friends, we are not Jonah. Yet, we have also been given a message from God, through his son, that we are to share with all people. Not just those that we love and know. But also those who are different to us, in fact those that we may see as enemies we are called to love. We have received God’s mercy and grace in Christ and we are called to share this message of God’s love with others. Jonah says that he fears God, in fact look at what Jonah claims in verse 9
9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
Yet here he is running away from the God that he supposedly worships. I’m not sure that this is what worship is meant to look like. In fact Micah 6:8 perhaps is a better indication of what worship of Yahweh looks like
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
I don’t think that loving mercy and walking humbly with God means disobeying him and running from him, as futile as that may be.
4. You can’t flee from God
Now friends you can’t flee from God. And I want to say that Jonah knew this. He was an Israelite, God’s prophet, he would have known his scriptures. Scriptures like Psalm 139:7-10.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
Even many of our children at CBC know this as we sing the Colin Buchanan song that comes straight from God’s word that states, “God is everywhere.”
It was a futile journey that Jonah was on. You cannot flee from God, you cannot hide from God. God’s plans will never fail. Jonah has run, but look at what God does.
5. God is in control (v4-8)
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.
God sent a storm. Now we have all seen those storms in real life and on the television where they are howling. Where ships are being tossed around and friends that’s what this was. It was such a violent storm that the ship threatened to break apart. But it didn’t. God was in complete control. God sent the storm and God controlled the storm. Everyone else on that ship was in complete panic mode. They were doing everything possible to try and get out of this situation, including praying to their pagan gods.
5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
The Sailors tried in vain to fix the problem by crying out to their gods and throwing the cargo into the sea to lighten the boat so that it wouldn’t sink. The Captain wakes Jonah up and tells him to pray to his God, which sums up the passage right there. Jonah wasn’t following God or praying to God, and had to be told by a pagan captain to pray. When the sailors’ gods were silent and there was no change in the violent storm, the sailors in one final desperate action decided they would see if they could find out why this storm was happening.
7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
They cast lots. Which would most probably have been tokens made of either wood, stone or bone and one assigned for each person. They were then put into a container, jar or folded garment and shaken. Then the first one to be drawn out would determine the answer. Now this isn’t really something that we do today for the same reason. We may draw straws or roll dice to see who goes first in a game. Yet the sailors believed that in casting lots they would have divine guidance from their gods. The fact that the lot fell to Jonah was all part of God’s plan. So the sailors believed rightly that Jonah was responsible for the severe storm that they were in, even though they didn’t yet fully realise that it wasn’t their god’s guiding them, but the one true God. But they soon would.
So at the end of all hope they question Jonah.
8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
There are 5 quickfire questions that they pose, and they are all about finding out why this storm has come upon them. Who is responsible, what is your job, where are you from, what country & what people. These were some pretty good questions. They had already seen the lots cast pointed to Jonah and now they awaited his response.
6. Jonah’s confession (v9-10)
9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
Jonah in his confession tells them and us three things:
Firstly, Jonah is a Hebrew, that means that he is an Israelite, one of God’s people.
Secondly, he claims that he worships or as the ESV translates, fears the Lord. Now while I do believe that Jonah is a child of God, what he was doing in this moment was hardly worshipping or revering the Lord.
Thirdly, Jonah in his confession speaks rightly that Yahweh is the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. That this God who he is running away from is the creator and sustainer of all. And as we know from Ephesians:
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
He says that he is a Hebrew. But how can this be? A Hebrew knows that the first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul. Yet Jonah has turned his back on God. So Jonah can say all of this, while still having run from God. Now I wonder if in being asked these questions and then responding to them whether there was a realisation within Jonah of his sin before the Lord. For what he has confessed is true. Yet the irony of this situation will shortly come to light as we see the pagan sailors truly worship God.
The big question is then asked in verse 10. What have you done? What a great question. Jonah had disobeyed God. Jonah had tried to flee from God. Jonah, God’s chosen prophet, had decided that he didn’t like God showing mercy to Nineveh so he ran. Spurgeon asks a question in relation to this verse which must cause us all to pause. He says in relation to the question of what have you done? “Coud you, dear friend submit every action of your life to this test?” It is perhaps a good opportunity then to ask ourselves if there is anything in our lives that we need to repent of. If there is any part of our life where we are running from God, trying to hide from God. Trying to keep sin a secret from God. For church, God knows everything that we do, think, and say. And if you think any differently then you are deceived. If you are holding onto sin, or fleeing from God with any part of your life, then repent and turn back to him today.
Jonah, having confessed that he was a follower of Yahweh, even though right now his words and actions weren’t in line, meant the sailors now looked to him for guidance.
7. The Sailors journey to faith (v11-13)
11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” 13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.
The crew knew for certain that Jonah was the reason behind the storm that they were trying to survive. Not only had the lot fallen on Jonah, he had now also confessed. So they ask him what they should do. Now understandably they didn’t like Jonah’s solution to the problem. They were starting to think that perhaps Jonah’s God was the one, and here was his prophet saying kill me. So what did they do, they prayed.
8. They cried out to the Lord and were saved (v14-16)
14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
Friends verses 14 to 16 are glorious. For what we see is the light going on. Faith is beginning to bud. They didn’t want to throw Jonah into the sea. He was a prophet of his God, and even though he had been running away from God, this was still God’s messenger. But in the end they had no choice, so they cried out to God. They prayed to God. And in verse 16 we see that they made a decision to follow God.
9. God in his love for humanity offers everyone mercy including Jonah (v17)
2 Peter 3:9
9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
We see that God has not changed at all. He is still faithful and full of mercy. Yet Jonah, he has decided that he doesn’t want God to be faithful and merciful, even though he is thankful that God is both of these things to him.
But what we observe today in this story from 2700 years ago is that God saves. Jonah might have run, but God used this situation to save an entire crew and bring them into His kingdom. Not only that but he saves Jonah. Look at our last verse for today.
17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah may have run from God, and disobeyed God, yet God in his mercy and compassion saved Jonah by sending a huge fish. Friends, that is where we finish the story for today. Yet just a few more words. Now I have really tried not to steal the thunder from the coming chapters of Jonah. For each one is a glorious strand in the tapestry of Jonah. Yet the one spoiler that I do want to share with you all is that in God’s patience, kindness, mercy and grace, everyone spoken about in this book is saved by God.
And friends God offers us salvation today. God sent Jesus into the world to save sinners. He offers forgiveness to all who turn to his son and truly repent. For in the end we are either running from God, or running to God.
