“Jonah’s Flight” – Jonah 1

I have a scenario for you.  The year is 1942.  You are a Christian with a Jewish background living in New York.  Your parents were Jewish.  Your grandparents were Jewish and who knows how far back your Jewish ancestry goes?  You are very concerned about what is happening to the Jewish people all over Europe under the tyranny of Adolph Hitler.  So you pray and pray and finally God obviously speaks to you.

No, He doesn’t speak audibly.  It’s not a lightning bolt from Heaven.  No angel comes to you in a vision and yet you know without a doubt that what you have heard is from the Lord.  And He has told you to go to Germany to tell the people there that God is going to judge them for their part in this atrocity.  What do you do?

Here’s another scenario for you.  This one may be a little easier to visualize.  The year is 2014 and you live in Wise County as a Christian.  Maybe you have been a Christian for a week or 50 years but you can’t help but hear what God is calling you to do.  In your prayer time, your Bible study, your interaction with other believers, you understand that God is calling you to do something different; something you may have never done before.  What do you do?

Maybe He is telling you to do something with your time, your money or your talents.  Maybe He is telling you to stop doing something or to go somewhere or just to say something to somebody.  And I could probably stop right there because most of you, if you are halfway trying to be sensitive to God’s call already know the issue in your own life that God is working on with you.  The question before you now is:   what are you going to do?

Many years ago, I had a job working in a shop customizing trucks.  I worked with lots of guys who were not Christians but I had had a real burden for Rick.  Rick was an ex-drug addict who had been in and out of prison many times and I knew He needed Jesus in his life and so I prayed often for a good opportunity to speak to him about it.

I got that opportunity one day when I saw that he and I were going to be working underneath a truck together for a while and so I prayed that God would really give me the right words to say.  But as I gathered up my tools and started to get underneath there, nothing really came to me except to say something about church.  I “explained” to God the necessity of His giving me the right words and now was the time.  But all I got seemed to be, “Say something about church.”

Finally, out of sheer frustration with God’s lack of creativity in this area, I finally just said, “Well, Rick, we had a good day at church yesterday.”  And do you know what he said?  “Really?  Tell me all about it” And from there we talked about church which led to Heaven and Hell and sin and forgiveness and Jesus and how He died for us.  God used me even with a bad attitude to say what He wanted said to Rick.

Now, fast-forward just a few weeks later and I had gone to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels with some of my family for vacation.  We were waiting in line to ride some water rides and it seemed like we kept getting in line with a group of young men who were gay and wanted everyone to know.  They were loud and proud and it was very uncomfortable for me with my family.

And God might as well have said it audibly or with a lightning bolt or an angel that He wanted me to just go say hello to those guys.  That’s all I got.  Just say hello.  But I knew that’s what He wanted me to do.  And I had just recently seen what God could do with that kind of opportunity with Rick and knew that God would give me whatever He wanted said.  All I had to do was walk over there to where they were standing and say hello.

And do you know what I did?  I practically sprinted for the concession stand.  I wasn’t hungry or thirsty.  I just wanted to get away.  And do you know what happened next?  Nothing.  Nothing happened.  Unfortunately, that is the end of that story and all I can do now is pray that God would send somebody else to talk to those guys; somebody who was obedient to do that small thing that He was asking.

The book of Jonah is an absolutely fascinating story.  It is about a man who ran from God’s call.  It would go great with the sermon series “Story Time” we just left last week.  It’s another of those great old stories we grew up hearing as kids but that we probably haven’t looked at much lately.  For most people, they hear “Jonah” and picture a whale swallowing him.  But there is so much more to this story.  In fact, I want to spend the next few weeks looking at this story closer.

So, turn, if you would, to the Old Testament book of Jonah.  It is between Obadiah and Micah if that helps you any, in a part of the Old Testament not studied much with other prophets like himself.  Jonah lived about 7-800 years before Jesus but Jesus referenced Jonah and obviously believed the story to be absolutely true so I’m going with Jesus on this one, no matter what naysayers might put out.

Let’s read the first chapter of Jonah.  It’s not terribly long, only 17 verses.  So let’s look at Jonah’s flight; his running away from God.  Jonah 1.  “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ² “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”  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.  ⁴ Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 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.”  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. 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?”  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.) 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. 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.  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. “

I have to admit that the most incredible, most fascinating part of this story, at least at first glance, is the very last sentence.  Jonah was swallowed by a fish.  I also believe it is the part that we need to focus on the least.  Sorry little kids but I’m not here to debate whether it was a whale or a fish or if he was really swallowed or it just felt like it to him.  I think a focus on the whale is misplaced.

We can learn a lot more about Jonah and similarly about ourselves and more importantly about God if we focus on 3 things.  Here we see Jonah’s negative response, his neglectful result and his notable revelation.  And I didn’t start out to try to make all of those start with the same letters but it did wind up that way and I think it’s important to see those specific things.  When I read a passage like this, I want to know what God wants us to know by putting a chapter like this in the Bible.  Is it to learn about the biology of fish?  I’m pretty sure that’s not it.

Let’s start by looking at Jonah’s negative response in the first 3 verses.  In the original Hebrew, God actually tells Jonah to “get up” and go to Nineveh.  “Get up” insinuates that Jonah was sitting or lying, not doing anything but now God has a job for him.  It’s not the first thing God has asked Jonah to do.  He is used to preaching to his home country of Israel and that seems to have worked out pretty well for him but now God changes his job description.

He is no longer to have home field advantage.  Now God tells him to go *gasp* to Nineveh.  Cue the evil-sounding music.  Boo!  Hiss! Nineveh!  This is like God asking you to go to Iraq or Iran and preach to Al Queda that if they would just repent that God will forgive them.  God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and he goes the opposite direction.  God says go east.  Jonah goes west, way west.  God says go to Dallas.  Jonah went to California.  You get the picture.

It’s also interesting to note that God says to “get up” and Jonah just goes down.  He goes down to Joppa.  He goes down to the boat.  He goes down below deck.  Then he goes down into the water and down further in the fish!  We will have to wait until next week before Jonah starts to see a pattern forming.

It says at the end of verse 3 that Jonah sailed to Tarshish to flee from the Lord.  In Psalm 139 David writes, “You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain. ⁷ 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.”

For David it was great comfort knowing that God was always with him.  We comfort each with those words often in difficult times.  It’s great to know that God is always with us…unless we are trying to outrun Him.  And we would read this about Jonah and think how ridiculous it was for him to try to run away from God.  He was a man of God.  He knew better.

So why did he do it?  Why did Jonah run away?  He had a lack of fear of God.  He had a lack of faith in God.  And he had a lack of forgiveness for the people.  And again, I didn’t try to make those all start with the same letter.  Sometimes it just works out.  He had no fear, no faith and no forgiveness.  Remind me later to preach on those 3 points!  But what that boils down to is that while he was a man of God, in that he was a prophet, he was not a friend of God or a child of God.  I’m not judging whether he went to Heaven or not.  I’m saying he didn’t really know God.  He only knew about God.

Because when we really start to know Who God is and how He works, fear, faith and forgiveness come on us and change our lives.  When you have a relationship with the Almighty God through His Son Jesus, then you start to see His sovereignty, His power, His grace, love, mercy and forgiveness to you and that changes how you live.  If it doesn’t; if your life has not been changed for the better and continues to grow in fear, faith and forgiveness then today needs to be the day of your salvation!

Jonah had a negative response to God’s call.  Learn from his mistake and fear God and His wrath and have faith that He will protect and provide for you, and remember His forgiveness of you.  Because when you have a negative response to God’s call like Jonah did, you may well wind up with a neglectful result like he did.  Let’s see his neglectful result in verses 4 and 5.  Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 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.

There is a lot to be gleaned from these 2 verses.  It says the Lord sent a great wind on the sea.  Have you ever noticed that when the weather causes a problem insurance companies call that an act of God?  A nice, refreshing rain is never an act of God.  Beautiful weather and a cool breeze is never an act of God.  Only hurricanes and tornadoes and the like.  Well, this weather problem is definitely an act of God.  God takes full credit for it. 

The NIV says He “sent” a great wind.  Other translations may say He “ordained” or “appointed” the wind.  This is a word you will see several more times in this book.  It speaks to God’s sovereignty and His power.  In fact, if you see nothing else in the whole book, I hope you see that God’s ultimate will is going to be done.  I heard the great, powerful preacher Dr. Joel Gregory say that God is so great that He can take what you do, that He didn’t want you to do and get done what He wanted to get done.

Jonah neglected to do what he was supposed to do and so God sent a great storm.  Now, one of the problems with neglecting to do what you are supposed to do is that you rarely ever do it by yourself.  And the result is that the people around you naturally have to suffer as well.  It’s not fair to your spouse when you are disobedient to what God tells you to do.  It’s not fair to your kids.  It’s not fair to your friends or even your enemies.

Even if God is calling you to Iraq to preach to Al Queda, ultimately your family and friends and everyone around you will be glad you did because your disobedience will spill over into their lives.  Jonah probably thought his disobedience wouldn’t hurt anybody else.  It was a victimless sin, he thought.  But I guarantee you the sailors on that ship knew differently.  There is no victimless sin.

Because our lives share connections, the way we live our lives will share consequences.  And when you are going through a storm because of your disobedience to God, that storm affects all of us as well.  Having grown up in the church I have seen many times the storm that comes with the sin of unforgiveness.  Jonah struggled with it.  Maybe you do too.  Well, it’s time to repent and get over that.

I have heard people tell me that they just can’t forgive someone and so they are leaving the church.  I hate that.  I hate that they can’t get over that and they willingly continue to live in sin.  And I will not chase them down the road trying to get them to come back.  I’ll let them take their sin-storm on down the road because we don’t need that here.  I’m not saying that you have to be perfect to go to church.  Not at all! I’m saying that continuing to live in sin of any kind will sooner or later bring a storm in your life because while God loves you enough to accept you as you are when you come to Him, He also loves you too much to allow you to stay that way.

Jonah neglected to do what was right and he and all those around him suffered as a result.  His negative response led to a neglectful result but in verse 9 Jonah finally talks and gives a notable revelation.  He says, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”  Isn’t that fascinating?  When asked who he was and where he came from, all he could do was tell the truth, even if he wasn’t living the truth.

I heard the story recently of a man who knew God was calling him to preach but he didn’t want to be a preacher and so he ran away from God and his call.  He did other things and tried to keep busy but he couldn’t shake the fact that God was calling him.  But he didn’t want to do it and he put it off so long it started to cause problems for him and his family.  Remember what I said about the storm affecting others?

He finally got so bad that he went to see a secular psychiatrist.  He talked with this woman who was not a Christian for a while and finally the woman asked him, “Sir, do you think God may be calling you to preach?”  She knew it.  He knew it.  All he had to do was admit it and be obedient.

Jonah finally admits who he is and in that revelation he tells them a lot more than just his name and profession.  His revelation was that he knew Who was causing the storm.  He had heard from Him.  He was just trying to run away.  His revelation was so notable that the sailors understood immediately and believed him that God was in control of the storm.

We see in later verses that they believed and repented and even prayed to Jehovah God to save them.  They asked for His forgiveness for throwing him overboard.  They evidently became converts to the very God that Jonah was running from.  What Jonah was trying to avoid, the Pagans receiving God’s forgiveness, was happening right there on the boat!

There is power in the name of the Lord.  Just His name is able to save.  Just His name brings forgiveness, mercy and peace.  God wanted Jonah to go and witness to the lost.  Jonah said no.  God used him to do it anyway.  But counter that with the ministry of Jesus.  God told Him to go and He went.  He left the perfect glory of Heaven to come to earth to save the lost.

God said go.  Jonah said no.  God said go.  Jesus just said yes.  Jonah said, “Not your will but mine.”  Jesus said, “Not my will but thine.”

We are all called to do something.  What is God calling you to do?