Book: Jonah

The Reason Why You Struggle with Evangelism

In this sermon, Greg Ho explains how the short book of Jonah is a mirror to show you how and whether your life is drawing people to God. More specifically, Greg Ho examines three characteristics that hindered Jonah’s evangelistic mission and that will greatly hinder yours as well:

1. Being unafraid to disobey God’s direct command
2. Having a manner of life indistinguishable from an unbeliever’s
3. Having no compassion for the lost

Full Transcript:

Father, we are so grateful that You are our salvation, that there’s nothing that we have done in our own lives, no work that we could do to save ourselves. It’s not Christ plus works, it’s Christ alone. And how grateful we are that it is Christ alone because we look at our lives and we see that we have broken Your command. We have broken Your law, and You have said that anyone who has broken Your law even at one point has broken the whole law. We were hopeless by ourselves, yet You rescued us. And so we live our lives in service to You, joyful service. You are our Lord. And so we follow You and we honor You with our lives. I pray, Lord, this morning as we open Your word that You would give us clarity of mind here in the congregation. You would empower my speech as well, that we would leave this place today transformed by the power of Your word. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Well, you may have noticed that both of our full-time pastors are away this morning. Pastor Babij is visiting his family in Minnesota. They just had a baby, a new grandchild, and pray for him that he would have a time of refreshment. Pastor Dave, of course, if you’ve been getting his emails, is in Israel. And man, he’s been sending some amazing pictures, hasn’t he? Those pictures have been amazing. Makes me want to go. And just the places he’s been, hopefully he’ll come back and tell us all about it.

Today I’d like to start off with a quick show of hands. How many of us here today would say that we want to be more evangelistic, but we find ourselves struggling with evangelism? How many of us? How many of us say we want to be more evangelistic, but we struggle? I think all of us have been there to some extent or another. And I hope that you know that as a Christian, it is your responsibility to share the gospel. After all, Jesus calls us to share the gospel in Matthew 28, 19. Our Lord clearly commands His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. And make no mistake, that’s not a command that’s aimed only at the super spiritual. It’s not a command aimed only at the 12 apostles, but it’s a command for all of us. It is our job as Christians, as Paul would say, to be ambassadors for Christ.

So if it is the responsibility, as we all would agree, of all Christians to be active in evangelism, then why do we find it such a struggle? Well, you know, one possible answer is you may say, I don’t know how to do it. I’m not very good at it. But you know, the honest truth is we can all get better at it. But if you know enough to be saved yourself, then you know enough to give the gospel to somebody else. So for most of us, it’s not a knowledge problem. Not really. So what is the problem? Well, instead of hearing it from me, let’s see it from God’s word, shall we?

I’d like you to turn now with me in your Bibles to the Old Testament book of Jonah. Now, as we turn to the Old Testament book of Jonah, you might be trying to figure out where it is in the Bible. It’s in all of these minor prophets. And if you’re using a pew Bible, it’s on page 922. Go ahead and turn there. And I would like you to turn there because today we’re going to try to make it through this whole book. I get one week to do this, and we’re going to do the whole thing. The reason that I want to take this as a whole book is really because Jonah is the type of story that I think needs to be told in one sitting. It’s a type of story where the end is what makes sense of the beginning. And you can’t really understand the book unless we get to the end. Let’s dive into it.

Just a few words as we do that about the book itself. The story of Jonah is one of the most iconic stories in the whole Bible, is it not? Everybody, even popular culture, knows about the story of the man swallowed by the fish. It’s in the culture. And because of some of these cultural depictions, many people view the book of Jonah as just a fairy tale, a fictitious book. After all, how could anybody believe that somebody could be swallowed by a fish, survive three days in the fish’s belly where there’s no oxygen, stomach acid eating you up, and still survive to tell about it? So the first question we always have to answer when we come to this book is whether the book of Jonah is historical fact or fiction. Well, let’s see if we can find out from the Bible what it says.

So in Jonah 1:1, if you look at the Bible in front of you, it says that Jonah’s father is a man named Amittai. So it seems right away like Jonah is a person who has a real father. And if we go to 2 Kings 14, which we won’t do because of the interest of time, 2 Kings 14:23, the book of 2 Kings mentions the prophet Jonah, the son of Amittai. It tells us that Jonah served under a specific king, Jeroboam, the son of Joash. And it even tells us Jonah’s hometown. So this is the town of Gath-Hephir, which is really in the region of Galilee, the same region that Jesus Himself came from. So here it is, the Bible tells us Jonah’s name, his father, his hometown, and even the prophecy that Jonah made for Israel, which is separate from the book of Jonah. So it seems like from there Jonah is a real person.

And what about the city of Nineveh, which he’s sent to? Well, that, in fact, is known to be a real city. It has real walls. Okay, it’s a picture of Nineveh, if you go there today. It’s real walls, visible as ruins today. Famously, the walls are 10 feet high, difficult to penetrate. So we know exactly where Nineveh is. It’s actually in modern-day Mosul, Iraq, and Nineveh is a real city, historically. And if that’s not enough for you, Jesus Himself validates the story in Matthew 12:38-42. So we won’t look at that, but Jesus Himself tells us that Jonah is real. So with all that said, we have no choice then to treat the book of Jonah as a real historical account, despite what we’ll see as the many incredible, miraculous, even surreal things that happen in this book that we’ll see. It’s an incredible book.

And with that out of the way, let’s dive into Jonah and read starting from verse 1 of chapter 1. Jonah 1:1,

The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”

Stop right there. So God says, here’s your orders, Jonah. I want you to go to Nineveh. Now this is a highly unusual request from God to a prophet because Nineveh is a pagan city, and prophets aren’t sent to pagan cities. Prophets are sent to Israel. And Nineveh, in fact, is not just any Gentile city. It is the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, which is a sworn enemy of Israel. We go into a lot of biblical prophecy, which is about Assyria, really as an instrument of judgment that God is using against Israel. So Assyria, everybody knows, is the enemy. They’re the enemy.

Now, Why would God send Jonah to the enemy? Look, you’re the prophet of God, right? The bottom line is if God of the universe tells you to do something, what do you do? You do it. It’s not your job to ask questions. So let’s see if that’s what Jonah does. And we look in verse 3, and the first word we see in verse 3 is, but. So right off the bat, we’re in trouble, aren’t we? Now, if you haven’t guessed already, Jonah is not exactly going to be the sort of shining example of virtue for us. This is not how Jonah is portrayed in this book. And actually, that’s the whole point of this book.

In fact, I believe that God gave us the book of Jonah as a mirror. It’s a mirror by which we can evaluate our own faithfulness, all right? So as we go through this book, I want you to, with me, instead of simply looking down and laughing at Jonah for his many failures, I want you to ask the question, how much of Jonah do we find in our own lives? That’s the question for us, okay?

So just to give you a quick outline, you know, what we’re going to see today is three characteristics of Jonah that hindered his evangelistic mission. Three characteristics of Jonah that hindered his evangelistic mission. And they might be the same characteristics that hinder your mission. So we’ve already uncovered here, just in verse 3, the first characteristic, and that is that Jonah was unafraid to disobey God’s direct command. Jonah, the prophet of God, is unafraid to disobey God’s direct command. Verse 3,

But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

So just hold on for one second here, and let’s develop a mental map of what’s going on. I found this map on the internet. So here is Jonah around Joppa, which is sort of in the middle of that map, around where Israel is. In fact, that’s the modern city of Tel Aviv, very close to that. And there’s where God wants him to go, over there in Nineveh, Mosul, Iraq, 500 miles away. And instead of doing that, you’ll notice that Jonah charters a boat to what country that we would know of today? Spain. Decided to take a Mediterranean cruise and go to Spain in the exact opposite direction that God wants him to go. So not only is he not going to obey God’s command to go to Nineveh, Jonah decides to desert his entire nation, desert his station, abandon his people, and go to a faraway foreign land, presumably to live out the rest of his life among heathen. Jonah doesn’t do things halfway, does he? And in fact, the Hebrew legend is that Jonah actually sold his house to be able to afford this cruise, the fare. It was a very expensive fare. And it’s a multi-month journey. So this is bye-bye to God. This was bye-bye to Israel. He wasn’t planning on coming back.

Now at this point, we have to ask ourselves the question is, does Jonah really think he can run from God? Does Jonah really think that? And, you know, as the prophet of God, or even just as a citizen of Israel, he would have known Psalm 139:9,

If I take the wings of the dawn,

If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,

Even there Your hand will lead me,

And Your right hand will lay hold of me.

Jonah doesn’t have an information problem. He knows that he can’t run away from God. And sure enough, God is going to come after him. And so we’ll see that in verse 4. What does God do? Verse 4,

The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.

See, what the text says is that God throws, He actively throws, hurls a great storm after Jonah. This is a supernatural storm. This isn’t just any storm that would happen in this time. It’s a supernatural storm that’s so terrible that these seasoned professional sailors are convinced that it’s gonna break up the ship. They’ve been doing this their whole lives. They spent their entire lives on the high seas and they are spooked. Never seen a storm like this before.

What do they do? They become afraid and that fear causes them to cry out to their gods. And these gods are false gods because of course these are pagan heathen sailors. And they’re so convinced they’re gonna die that they’re literally throwing all of their cargo overboard. Now think about that. This cargo, this trade route that they’re on, the whole purpose of this route from Tarshish to Joppa is a trade route. And in fact, the Bible tells us about this trade route in 2 Chronicles 21. It tells us exactly what cargo this trade route is carrying. In 2 Chronicles 9:21, it describes this route as running once every three years. So it’s a very seldomly run trade route. So everything is rare. And it’s carrying these things, carrying gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. So exotic things for rich people, right? This is cargo that if you dump this overboard, this is a catastrophic loss for your shipping company. Millions of dollars in today’s terms just dumped into the sea, but that doesn’t matter to the sailors because you can’t spend money when you’re dead. So they’re dumping this stuff overboard. And what do we find our prophet Jonah doing? Napping, taking a nap, unconcerned.

So at this point, I think we should ask ourselves, again, and let the mirror of Jonah point to ourselves and ask you, are you Christian disobeying any of God’s command in your life? Are you like Jonah in disobedience and oblivious to the consequences of God? What about God’s command to make disciples? Are you obeying that command? Or do you, like Jonah, somehow think that your disobedience as a Christian to that command will escape the notice and discipline of God? See, we don’t think about evangelism that way, do we? We tend to view the command to make disciples as something that’s an optional thing, that’s a bonus that we do in our lives, but not the primary purpose. But you know what? It’s a command of God. And if it is not the primary focus of your life to obey these commands, then you may be staring straight down the barrel of the discipline of God. And you might not even know it.

Now you say, Greg, you know what? I’ve been a Christian for many years, and I’ve gone this far without evangelizing. And I’m doing just fine. God hasn’t disciplined me. I’m not sure what you’re talking about. And I would turn around and say this. Are you really sure that that’s good news, that you haven’t experienced the discipline of God? What does it say in Hebrews 12:6? The Lord, what? Disciplines the one He loves. It’s a promise. God will discipline the children that disobey. And you, as a Christian of many years, if you have disobeyed God in this area and have not experienced His discipline, what might that mean? I think the inescapable conclusion is you need to consider maybe you are not a child of God. And I think that needs to chill you to your bones.

Let’s pick up our story again in verse 6 of chapter 1. See, we’re really being a little generous here because it seems like Jonah is actually worse. Oh, let me go back a little bit. The storm is a supernatural storm, okay? And it’s clear to all the sailors that they’ve never seen anything like this storm. So the captain, in verse 6, it says this,

So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

Now, I don’t want you to miss the irony in this book here, that this heathen captain is the one praying and calling on his false god. The sailors are calling on their false gods. And Jonah, the only person on the boat who actually knows the true God, is not praying to his God. It takes this heathen captain to urge him to pray.

And here we make note of the second characteristic of Jonah that is hindering his evangelism, and that’s this. Jonah’s manner of life is indistinguishable from an unbeliever’s. Jonah’s manner of life is indistinguishable from an unbeliever’s. In fact, this is an understatement, really, because it looks like Jonah is actually worse than the unbelievers if you look further on. At least the heathen captain is praying to something. Jonah’s not doing anything. And you’ll see, as we go into the next verse, that Jonah knows full well what this storm is all about, but he keeps his mouth shut. So the sailors do something remarkable in this act of desperation to figure out what’s going on with this supernatural storm. Verse 7,

Each man said to his mate, “Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us.” So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, “How could you do this?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

You see, Jonah stays silent for as long as he could until God forces him to speak up. And when he finally does, he says this, Yeah, I’m running from the Lord. By the way, this is the Lord that actually made the sea that is about to kill us. And the sailors go, you idiot! You don’t disobey God and think that you can get away with that. These heathen unbelievers have better spiritual common sense than Jonah. And it gets worse in verse 11,

So they said to him, “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?”—for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. 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 on account of me this great storm has come upon you.”

Now, that’s a bit extreme, isn’t it? You just told me that you’re a follower of God and now you want me to chuck the prophet of God into the ocean to drown to death. That seems wrong to do that. To throw anyone in the ocean, much less God’s chosen prophet. Now ask yourselves, is this the only thing that Jonah could have done? Is that really his only option? I mean, what did Jonah not try? He did not try praying. He did not try repenting. He did not try, Hey guys, let’s just turn back. Maybe God will relent. No, Jonah straits for, goes for, why don’t you just kill me? See, I don’t think that any of this is some type of grand act of sacrifice on Jonah’s part. Jonah is just saying to God, he’s continuing his tantrum. He’s saying, fine God, it seems you’re not going to take no for an answer on this Nineveh thing, so just kill me instead, okay? If I’m dead, at least I won’t be in Nineveh. And then I still win. So Jonah’s just acting ridiculous and stubborn. And the sailors say to Jonah, you are a crazy dude. You know, how about we don’t murder the prophet of God and we don’t want your blood on our hands. They’re trying to do the right thing. So verse 13,

However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them.

And these heathens, the text says, the next thing they do is they pray to Yahweh. Remember, Jonah has not yet done that, right? So verse 14,

Then they called on the Lord and said, “We earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O Lord, have done as You have pleased.”

Finally, left with no other option, verse 15. It makes no difference at this point because they’re all going to die anyways in a few seconds. Jonah might as well go first.

So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.

So they threw him overboard, and the supernatural storm goes from this to this abruptly. It just stops. And that must have been something. You know, one minute there’s a raging storm, the next minute the sun is out, the sea is calm, and that’s not normal. If there was any doubt before this was a supernatural storm, there is no longer any doubt in their minds. God did this. And these sailors, now having witnessed in their faith the control, utter control of God on the elements of nature, on the sea, verse 16,

Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

See, I think these pagan, unbelieving sailors that day became worshipers of the true God having encountered the power of God. No thanks, of course, to the testimony of Jonah, who throughout all this acted worse than an unbeliever, never prayed at all, never lifted a hand except to shake his fist at God. So much for being a living testimony. So these pagan sailors really demonstrated in this account more spiritual awareness, more sensitivity than Jonah himself.

The question now as we use the mirror of Jonah is to ask yourself, what about you? In your life, do unbelievers around you look more spiritual than you do? Maybe at work or maybe in your friend group, your unbelieving friends are openly discussing and showing their religion by what they say and what they wear while you stay silent. And I think we all have to ask ourselves, as Dr. Mayhue asked once, if they one day put you on trial for the crime of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? And if not, maybe there’s a little bit more Jonah in you than you think.

So God is not going to be thwarted. And Jonah thinks he can maybe escape God in death, but God has other ideas. Verse 17,

And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

This is, as you see on the slide here, the picture of what it looks like in the fish’s belly. But you see, God rescues Jonah with this fish. And as Jonah was sinking down in the sea, he starts to think to himself, maybe as you and I would, you know, maybe this little drowning thing wasn’t such a good idea after all. And finally, long last, Jonah begins to pray. And his prayer, which is a magnificent prayer, is recorded in Jonah 2, which we read this morning in our scripture reading. So we won’t go through it again, but suffice it to say that This wonderful prayer is extolling God’s mercy in Jonah’s distress. How God heard him in his time of trouble and showed mercy from him. And salvation is from the Lord, right? And you know, if you examine this passage closely, you’ll find about 10 quotes from the Psalms of David. Psalm 3, 5, 15, 120, which proves that Jonah knows his Psalms. It’s a very theologically rich prayer. And so Jonah says, you know what? You win, Lord. I’ll do what you ask.

In verse 10 of chapter 2, God, I love this, he commands the fish to vomit him up onto dry land. Maybe that’s what Jonah deserves. That’s just gross. A while ago I had some bad food poisoning and I ended up vomiting in my car in the hot summer. And there’s nothing worse than that. Man, I’ll tell you. In fact, Kylee was in the car with me and she was grossed out and she almost vomited. And then there would be a chain reaction and, you know, this is bad. But Jonah is just covered head to toe with fish vomit. You know, maybe what he deserves. Most likely the fish dropped him back off right at Joppa, right back where he started. See, crime doesn’t pay, right? And now he’s just back at square one except now covered in fish vomit.

So chapter 3, moving a little quickly now. Chapter 3, verse 1,

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time,

I love that, right? The second time. God gives a second chance.

saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

Jonah gets up and walks the 550 miles, I guess, unless he made some other way of transportation to Nineveh. Probably would have taken a month. And, you know, this is consistent. The time he takes to walk through is consistent with archaeology. Nineveh is about 60 miles in circumference and about 20 miles through for one day. And God’s message that he gives them is a message of what? Judgment. Now remember in chapter 1, God said, Their wickedness had come up before him. Nineveh’s sin was so great that God determined the judgment could no longer wait. So God gave them a message of judgment, but within that message of judgment is built in a window of what? Mercy. Isn’t that the same as our gospel? All of us have broken God’s law and are headed imminently to eternal damnation. But look, there is still time to repent. There is a window of mercy. Repent now, trust in Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins, and you will be saved. That is our message. It’s a similar message here, but look at how Nineveh responds in verse 5,

Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

See, there’s a miraculous mass conversion. Everyone from the least to the greatest repented. This is a bigger miracle than the three days in the fish, I’ll tell you. Unheard of. Verse 6,

When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.”

There’s probably around 600,000 people in the city. That’s what people estimate. And not only do all these people repent, not only do they turn from their wicked ways, which is apparently violence, as we’ll see later, they beg God for mercy. And look at this. They fast. Not only do they fast, but they make their animals fast. Do you know of any other time in the Bible where not only humans, but animals fast? That’s not a thing. And not only are they not eating, they’re not even drinking water. Can you fast without water? This is an extreme over-the-top fast. Israel didn’t fast like this. And Mike is about to tell me that they do sometime, right? But this is a true desperate repentance. And does God honor this repentance? Let’s look at verse 10,

When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

Amazing. Amazing. I think we’ll see many of these Ninevites in heaven. I think God saved their souls as well as their city. And now, if the book of Jonah had just ended there, we would say, wow, this is a wonderful story of redemption for Jonah, who obeyed God and his obedience was honored. What a great story. But, of course, we know there’s a chapter 4. And here comes the plot twist. Are you ready? Let’s get into it. Chapter 4, verse 1,

But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.

Wait, what? There’s a mass conversion? Your mission was successful, Jonah. There’s never before any time in history where an entire city repented like this, from the greatest to the least. And, man, you’ve sent potentially 600,000 souls to heaven. And if anyone is keeping score, that’s got to be vaulting him to the top of the evangelistic leaderboard, right? I don’t know how you do better than that. So what’s the problem, Jonah? Verse 2. He tells you the problem,

He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”

Wow, this is the real reason Jonah fled. It wasn’t fear that he fled. It was hatred. Why? Because he knew. God describes Himself as gracious, merciful, compassionate, and loving. That’s supposed to be a blessing to us. But Jonah takes that and throws it into God’s face and says, I knew you were this person. I knew it. You always do this, God. And frankly, I would rather die than see any of these people saved. So just kill me now so I don’t have to witness your mercy. This is some prophet. Mercy for me, but not for thee. Remember just two chapters ago, Jonah 2, this wonderful poetic prayer of God’s mercy. God, you’re so merciful to me. Salvation is from the Lord. What happened to that guy? Same guy.

Before we judge Jonah too harshly, I want to tell you a little bit about the Ninevites, all right? Just a few things. We can’t go into too much detail. Some of this is not actually something you can put in a sermon. I’ll try to put in the stuff that I think is not too bad. But history is full of accounts, of specific accounts of Ninevite violence and their brutality. And in fact, not only are they famous for their violence, but they boast of it even in their art. You know, if you ever get a chance to go to London into the British Museum, you should do so. And you can see these art pieces from the horse’s mouth. And here are some of the reliefs that they have made. This is from their own art. So here you see Assyrian soldiers impaling people on stakes. What they would do, they would puncture the abdomen with stakes, which is a slow and painful death. It’s a gut wound. You would wiggle there for hours or days as you died. And they would watch them and mock them. They were proud of this. Here’s another picture of Assyrian soldiers forcing the defeated to grind up the bones of their own family members. That’s what they would do. And the next one is truly disturbing. Here they would skin people alive as they screamed. They would do it one piece at a time starting from the buttocks and they would peel off layers of skin and then they would put it back together like some sort of thick paper mache art and then they would hang that from their walls as a demonstration of their brutality. I’m not going to put that up there much longer. By the way, there are other accounts. They’ve burned children alive as their parents watched, entombed people in darkness and hollow walls until they starved to death. And by the way, the Assyrians are the people who invented crucifixion. Crucifixion.

See, these were the Assyrians. These were the Ninevites. And this is what they are threatening or maybe even doing to Israel. Jonah’s country, his family and his friends. It’s not like Jonah just randomly hates people. These are literally evil people, experts in torture from the king down to the rank and file soldier and they were proud of it. You see now maybe why Jonah hated these people so much. And you see now in verse 4 when the Lord says, do you have good reason to be angry? Jonah’s answer would be yes. Yes, of course I have good reason to be angry. Look at what the Assyrians have done.

But as the Bible teaches us over and over, there’s no such thing as good people and bad people, right? There’s only what? There’s only bad people. No one is righteous, no not one. Jonah would have known that, Psalm 14. And it’s not that the Ninevites are profoundly sinful, it’s that Jonah himself is also profoundly sinful, but he just doesn’t know it. He has an extra dash of self-righteousness to go with that. And you know what? If God’s mercy is good enough for one of those two groups, then it’s also good enough for both. And that’s good news to us, right?

So God decides to teach Jonah this lesson. Verse 5,

Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.

Here we see, Jonah has set up camp outside the city. He’s not in the city, he’s not discipling people by the way. That’s not what he’s doing. He’s outside the city, and why? Well, because he’s thinking maybe God will change his mind again, you know? Maybe God will judge them after all, and he wants a front row seat. Absolutely amazing. So he makes a little shelter for himself, but you know what? It’s the desert. This is Mosul, Iraq. It’s not really a lot to work with, so his shelter doesn’t work. So God helps him out a bit. Verse 6,

So the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant.

You see, there’s another miracle here. Just as God appointed a whale to swallow Jonah, God appointed a plant to grow at a supernatural speed. Plants don’t grow this way, right, Nadia? Especially not in the desert. There’s no water there. But God delivers this supernatural giant plant with Jonah. Great big leaf out of place. He’s relieved and he’s comfortable, and now God has Jonah right where He wants him, because in verse 7, God appointed, there it is again, He’s sovereign over nature, a worm.

But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered.

And so much for the nice shade. Verse 8,

When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.”

Jonah really wants to die. Third time, actually, he’s begged for that in this book. And he says, look, Lord, you’ve already saved my mortal enemies and now you’ve killed my plant too. It’s a really nice plant, God. I love that plant. And now you’ve turned up the wind and the sun. Like, what is that? I’m just done. Just kill me now. In verse 9,

Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?”

And Jonah, man, he has some guts. He says,

“I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”

That’s a way to talk back to God. So I want you to think with me. Why does Jonah love this plant so much? Is he a horticulturist? Does he just love plants? No, he loves this plant because it benefited him. And so God is, with this account, revealing Jonah’s true values. This is Jonah’s value system. Jonah loves those who benefit him. And those who don’t, he’s indifferent to. Or he hates. Jonah views the world and people through the lens of his own selfishness. And now the last two verses of Jonah. We’re there, we got it, okay? These are the two most important verses. So if you’ve been zoning out, come back for these two verses because this is the whole point of the book. It’s the whole point of the book, right? Verse 10,

Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

So of course, the people who don’t know the right and left hand is talking about children. And God says, you have no compassion on any of these people. There’s people in this city, Jonah. And not only you don’t care about the people, there’s children in this city that don’t even know the difference between the right and their left. You know, we all know what happened last week. A bunch of innocent children died and that was outrageous to the world, right? And God is saying, look at all of these children. You really wanted them to die? You’re okay with that. And even animals, okay? So you don’t care about people, you don’t care about children, maybe you care about the animals because all of these people, all of these three groups, they’re all more valuable than what? Plants. They’re all more valuable than plants. So where, Jonah, where is your head at? And that’s where the book ends.

So we’re left then, at the end of Jonah, with this question. What are we to make of this book? And now we are finally able to identify the third characteristic of Jonah that hinders his evangelism. And this is the main one, okay? This is the main one that I think is the big one. And it’s this. Jonah had no compassion for the lost. He had no compassion for the lost. Jonah, like many of us, viewed people around us through the lens of our own selfish gain. Be honest. Is that who you are? He didn’t care about the sailors. He didn’t care about the Ninevites. He didn’t care about the children. What does he care about? Well, his own comfort. His selfishness is off the charts, and that is the point of this book.

The question for us today is, are we like that as well? So I want to go back to the title of our sermon today, and really the main question we’re going to answer. What is the reason you struggle with evangelism? Why? Why is evangelism such a struggle for us? And the answer is that we don’t care enough about people. We don’t care enough about the lost. We don’t have the compassion of God. And I want to ask you, when you go about your life and you see an unbeliever, and God puts that unbeliever in your path, whether it be a neighbor or a stranger or a cashier at the coffee shop, why is your first thought when you look at that person? Is it, oh man, that’s just another sinner. So glad I’m not like that guy. Is it, oh, that person’s the enemy. They’re probably for all the wrong political causes. Or is it, how can I use this person to get me my promotion, to get me what I want? Or do you see with the eyes of God? What does God see? He sees a sinner speeding towards the gates of hell with no brakes. And boy, somebody, please, please, somebody give him the gospel. Please. That’s the main message of the sermon today. We need to change how we see people in our lives. And if we don’t change the eyes with which we see people, then evangelism, no wonder it’s a struggle. No wonder it’s a struggle.

So I’m going to end the sermon with some homework for you. This is homework. We had an evangelism boot camp a while ago, and if you guys missed it, we had homework after every week. So if you weren’t there, then here’s homework for you. Here we go. In fact, if you have a piece of paper and a pen handy, I’d like you to get a piece of paper and write it down. This is the first thing I would like you to do. See. I want you to think about the people that are unbelievers, and I want you to see their faces in your minds. Look at them. You can see their faces in your minds. Even the people you don’t like. Now try to see them as God sees them. As sinners speeding towards an eternal punishment who desperately need the gospel. And now I want you to realize when you see them with God’s mind that those people are your Nineveh. That’s your mission field. And you need to remember that the next time you see these people. I want you to, if you see them in your minds, write down their names in front of you. Right there. Write down their names.

The second thing is I want you to pray. I want you to begin to pray for these people daily. Pray for them daily that God would open their eyes. God is the One who opens his eyes, right? He opened the eyes of the sailors, no thanks to Jonah. He opened the eyes of the Ninevites. Again, no thanks to Jonah. He is the one who opens eyes.

And third, I want you to begin to strategize. You have the names in front of you. You need to strategize how you can have a gospel opportunity with them. Some of the time, maybe God will providentially grant you one, but most of the time, you’re going to have to create it. Sorry guys, that’s just the way it works. You have to work for this. Find a way to invite them to coffee, to your house, to a walk, so that you can give them the gospel. So you need to write down for each person on your list a plan. What is your plan? How are you going to find an opportunity with this person?

And finally, the last thing to do, if you could just advance the slide for me, number four is to share. That is to share. We want everybody in this church to do this, okay? See, pray, strategize, and the last slide, the last bullet is to share. Can we do that as a church? Can all of us who call ourselves Christian make this a part of our daily lives? We ought to be doing this. We ought to be doing this. Amen.

Let’s end it with a word of prayer. Father, thank You for this wonderful but yet tragic book of Jonah. What a book it is. And what a lesson that You’ve given us when you’ve given Jonah to us as a mirror by which we can evaluate our own faithfulness to preach Your gospel. And we pray that You would use this book to inspire us to greater compassion for the lost and make us effective workers for Your kingdom. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

May 29, 2022
God Sends Jonah

Answers Bible Curriculum Year 2 Quarter 2 Lesson 10

In this lesson, David Capoccia discusses the account of the prophet Jonah. Some questions covered in this lesson include: Why did Jonah run away from God’s mission? How did God preserve Jonah in the big fish? Why was the repentance of Nineveh a bigger miracle than Jonah’s experience in the fish? What was God teaching Jonah with the plant? And what are Christians today supposed to learn from this book?

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Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.

all right it’s 9 30. I’d like to wait till it’s right 9 30. but we’re gonna get started with Sunday School thank you for being here welcome we’re in the next phase of Israel’s history as we move through our Chronological Study Through the Bible we’re in the divided Kingdom Period ten and a half tribes have seceded from the monarchy that is led by David seed and only Judah and the half Tribe of Benjamin have remained loyal but rather than studying about each King going forward in the two kingdoms we’re only going to focus on certain Kings and certain prophets that appear during this period and that’s going to finish um that’s what we’re going to see over the next quarter or so the first prophet we’re going to learn about first important Prophet is Jonah but before we get to Jonah let’s review a little bit last week we saw what brought about the divided Kingdom and that was Solomon’s foolishness and one way is that Solomon first compromise it wasn’t really bad at first but he did some things that were against God’s law what were they yeah Rob he multiplied wives for himself and they were foreign wives what else he amassed gold and silver for himself that was prohibited according to Deuteronomy what else well we’re gonna get to that that that’s where these small compromises lead to leads to idolatry but there are two other things that he did right he went to Egypt and specifically what was he trying to get from Egypt horses that was specifically prohibited don’t multiply horses for yourself and don’t go to Egypt to get those horses because God has said You shall not return that way he did these things he he acted contrary to God’s law these were perhaps what seemed to be small compromises but these especially the multiplication of lie wives they led to an even greater compromise and Joe’s already mentioned it they caused Solomon to turn away from God and to inaugurate idolatry in Israel for his wives and for his people he worshiped and led the worship of false gods Solomon the great king of peace and wisdom he chose to Forfeit both God’s peace and God’s wisdom for the sake of the feelings of the Flesh and for the Treasures of the world the great teacher would not listen to his own teaching God brought chastening to Solomon he rebuked Solomon he raised up Rebels against Solomon he prophesied the loss of the Kingdom to Solomon because of Solomon’s sin but God didn’t bring the loss of the Kingdom in Solomon’s Lifetime and nor did he take away the whole thing and why not it was because of God’s mercy but God cites something in his actions yeah Craig for David’s sake and then he also says for Jerusalem’s sake we didn’t have time to go through the scriptures but God says a number of things about Jerusalem after the temple is constructed he says I’m not I’m going to show Mercy to this city I’m going to set my compassion on this city because I’ve chosen to put my name here so for the sake of Jerusalem and for the sake of David God’s covenant with David he says I will not do it in your lifetime you don’t deserve this kindness but for the sake of David and Jerusalem I will not do it in your lifetime and I won’t take away the whole thing I will preserve David’s line just as I promised to him God was determined to show faithful kindness to David and by extension to Israel and to even us to all mankind by preserving the throne and line of David which one day brought about the Messiah so we see in his dealings with Solomon that God is Holy but he’s also full of Covenant kindness and he shows that questions about last week’s lesson okay well let’s learn about Jonah we’re going to read and discuss the whole book today it’s only four short chapters so we can do it it’s a famous account but what is it really about what does God want to communicate to us through Jonah well let’s find out here’s our outline for today’s class get a little bit of background to the Book of Jonah and the historical circumstances of Jonah will then examine God’s call to Jonah and Jonas Jonah’s resistance famous resistance to that call and then we’ll finish by discussing Jonas fulfillment of God’s calling and Jonah’s reaction to the mercy that he sees from God after he fulfills his calling let’s pray father your word is great please help me to explain it now and to to really get the sense of it and communicate it to your people I pray father that you would work in the hearts of of your people that we would all grow we would all mature in our thinking that we would put aside unprofitable and sinful ways and we would Revel in your wisdom and in your heart in Jesus name amen okay we’re jumping forward in time as I mentioned earlier let’s get a little bit of background here’s a map let’s situate ourselves historically a little bit uh hard to see on this screen maybe you can see it better on the the monitors but we see the divided Kingdom and we see some of Israel’s neighbors Kingdom divides around 975 BC according to Answers in Genesis dating system 931 according to the MacArthur Study Bible so mid 10th Century BC we have the northern kingdom which is called Israel I know that’s confusing because the whole Kingdom is called Israel before but the northern kingdom is called Israel and it breaks away under jeroboam and under jeroboam it immediately plunges into idolatry jeroboam is a very Wicked King though God gave the ten tribes to jeroboam to rule jeroboam quickly turns his back on God and he relies on his own understanding in order to prevent the people from going to Jerusalem remember God prescribed all the heads of households to go to Jerusalem for the different religious Feasts jeroboam in order to prevent the Loyalty of the people switching back to the southern Kingdom people he crafts two golden calves he proclaims them to be Israel’s gods and he puts one in Dan which is at the top of the tribe’s visual you can see it I think on the map and one in Bethel which is at the bottom of the Northern Kingdom of Israel he puts these calves there and he says these are your Gods come here to worship and offer sacrifice don’t go down to Jerusalem now this is Wicked This is idolatry this is exactly contrary to God’s law and God judges jeroboam and his house for inaugurating this kind of idolatry however every Northern king after jeroboam follows in his footsteps even when they’re not of the same Dynasty northern kingdom is full of dynastic overthrows and cues but every King almost without exception acts like jeroboam the northern kings are extremely Wicked idolatry also of one form or another pervades the northern kingdom throughout its almost or throughout its history various prophets are sent by God to the northern kingdom calling the people to repentance and we’ll examine some of these prophets but as a whole the northern kingdom never follows after God it’s always compromising God eventually allows the northern kingdom to be conquered and its people led into Exile by the Assyrians they are not featured on the map they would be further to the Northeast Beyond Aram beyond the kingdom of Syria Assyria for the Northeast they conquer and take an exile the Northern Kingdom of Israel around 722 BC so from about the mid 900s to 722 we have the Northern Kingdom of Israel the southern Kingdom you see the southern Kingdom and the yellow here Judah it’s called Judah after the tribe the main tribe of the Southern Kingdom and it is a mixed track record of Devotion to the Lord sometimes the people and the king of Judah do follow the lord and sometimes they don’t there are a number of reformations that take place in the southern Kingdom throughout its history under good Kings and because of these reformations and because these good Kings sometimes the southern Kingdom enjoys Prosperity blessing as the people are obedient to God the southern Kingdom also gets prophets and godly leaders but even Judah does not stay devoted to God after a series of extremely Wicked Kings and widespread evil among the people God allows Judah also to be subdued this time not by Assyria but by Babylon the Empire that takes over after Syria first wave of Exiles from the southern kingdom are taken by Nebuchadnezzar in 605 BC but the southern Kingdom Rebels a couple times after that and the third time that Nebuchadnezzar conquers the southern Kingdom he devastates the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC and is in this third Conquest that Nebuchadnezzar destroys Solomon’s Temple remember the temple is the symbol of God’s presence the prosperity and the peace that they enjoy because of him that is wiped away so that’s a broad outline of what we see these two kingdoms The Divided Kingdom but where does Jonah fit into this history well pretty much in the middle he appears in the middle of the of the divided Kingdom Period we hear a little bit about Jonah and the one other place he’s mentioned in the book of Kings so actually take your Bibles and turn to Second Kings 14 for a second we’re going to be in the Book of Jonah but turn to Second Kings Second Kings 14.

and we’ll look at verses 23 to 25.

it’s the only other place that Jonah is mentioned outside of the Book of Jonah Second Kings 14 23-25 all right starting in verse 23.

look at those verses in the 15th year of amaziah the son of joash King of Judah jeroboam the son of joash king of Israel became king and Samaria and he reigned 41 years he did evil in the sight of the Lord he did not depart from all the sins of jeroboam the son of nibat that’s the first jeremon which he made Israel’s sin He restored the borders the border of Israel from the entrance of hamath as far as the sea of the arabah according to the word of the Lord the god of Israel which he spoke through his servant Jonah the son of amiti the Prophet who was of gath heifer okay we learned a couple things about Jonah here what do we learn what’s one thing what’s one thing we can observe about Jonah well there’s some basic things he’s a prophet he’s the son of amitai what else yeah where is he from gath heifer yeah we don’t really know where that is or you might not know where that is that’s actually near Nazareth in Galilee so it’s actually um one of the statements in the New Testament it is found to be an error when the Pharisees say look and see for yourself no Prophet ever arises From Galilee they were dismissing Jesus but actually Jonah is From Galilee though his ministry was unique so perhaps they weren’t thinking of Jonah where is Jonah ministering or where does he appear to be ministering say that it is an Israel but which kingdom oh I’m sorry yeah Israel is the name of the northern kingdom it says that he makes a prophecy which is fulfilled by the king of the northern kingdom it says jeroboam restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamas as far as the sea of arabah according to Jonah’s prophecy so it appears to be a prophet to the northern kingdom remember northern kingdom always Wicked very idolatrous but Jonah is a prophecy there a Prophet to that Kingdom and he makes a prophecy which comes to pass by the acts of jeroboam the second does that mean that he lived during the time of jeroboam II could be or maybe slightly before if we try and put jeroboam II and amaziah king of Judah into the into some kind of date we’re talking the beginning of or maybe Midway through the 8th Century BC so Jonah probably lived in the early 8th Century BC so that’d be the early um that’d be like 800 to 775 or so or maybe slightly before okay it’s possible he lived a little bit earlier because his prophecy comes to pass doesn’t say he prophesied this during the reign of jeroboam rather his prophecy came to pass during the reign of jeroboam II all right quick information about the Book of Jonah himself or itself who wrote the Book of Jonah we don’t know probably was Jonah a lot of this information would make sense coming straight from Jonah and it’s not it’s not strange that he writes in the third person if Jonah really did indeed write this book that’s uh it has precedent when was it written well probably whenever Jonah was living which looks like it was the early 8th Century Answers in Genesis States the events of Jonah to about 800 BC okay so we’ve got some background we’ve got the historical context we’ve got a little bit about the book Let’s now take a look at the Texas drone itself so take your Bibles and turn to Jonah surprisingly hard to find book it’s after Daniel it’s after Ezekiel right after Obadiah but it’s such a short book that it can be easy to pass it when you’re looking in your Bibles I’ll give you the page number if you’re using the Bibles that we provide it’s 9 22.

let’s look at the first two chapters of Jonah like I said we’re going to read the whole thing starting with the first two chapters follow along with me chapter one verse one the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of amitai saying arise go to Nineveh the great City and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me but Jonah rose up to flee to tarshish from the presence of the Lord so he went down to Joppa found a ship which was going to tarshish paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to tarshish from the presence of the Lord the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his God and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them but Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship laying down and Fallen sound asleep so the captain approached him and said how was it that you were sleeping get up call on your God perhaps your God will be concerned about us so that we will not perish each man said to his mate come let us cast lots that we may learn on whose account This calamity has struck us so they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah then they said to him tell us now on whose account has This calamity struck us what is your occupation and where do you come from what is your country from what people are you he said to them I am a Hebrew and I fear the lord god of Heaven who made the Sea and the dry land then the Man became extremely frightened and they said to him how could you do this for the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them so they said to him what should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us but the sea was becoming increasingly stormy 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 on account of me this great storm has come upon you however the men rode desperately to return to land but they could not but the sea was becoming even stormier against them and they called on the Lord and said we earnestly pray oh Lord do not let us perish on account of this man’s life and do not put innocent blood on us for You O Lord have done as you have pleased so they picked up Jonah threw him into the sea and the Sea stopped it’s raging then the men feared the Lord greatly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows and the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the stomach of the fruit the fish three days and three nights then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish and he said I called out of my distress to the Lord and he answered me I cried for help from the depth of Shield you heard my voice for you would cast me into the deep into the heart of the Seas and the current engulfed me all your Breakers and Billows passed over me so I said I have been expelled from your sight nevertheless I will look again towards your Holy Temple water encompassed me to the point of death the great deep engulfed me weeds were wrapped around my head I descended to the roots of the mountains the Earth with its bars was around me forever but you have brought up my you have brought up my life from the pit O Lord my God while I was fainting away I remember the Lord and my prayer came to you into your Holy Temple those who regard vain Idols forsake their faithfulness but I will sacrifice to you with a voice of Thanksgiving that which I avowed I will pay salvation is from the Lord then the Lord commanded the fish and that vomited Jonah up onto the dry land okay let’s start our analysis of the Book of Jonah with some observations on these two chapters what does God command Jonah to do go and preach to Nineveh where is Nineveh it’s in Assyria the same as Syria that later conquers the northern tribes so that would be to the I’ll show you a map in just a second the northeast of where Israel is situated I know Nineveh is called a great City indeed it was one of the greatest cities if not the greatest City at the time from around 9 11 to 612 BC the the Assyrian Empire was hegemon of the Middle East they were dominating all their neighbors through successful Warfare and brutal subjugations the Assyrians gain control over many regions and they secured great wealth for themselves the city of Nineveh as the capital of the Assyrian Empire was no doubt much enriched by these conquests whoever the Assyrians ninevites included were idolatrous people the same Wicked practices which God forbid from Israel and rebuked Israel for pursuing they were going on in Nineveh and in Assyria they were pagan people they were Wicked people probably even more wicked than than Israel whenever Israel compromised this was what the ninevites knew now normally oh and and I’ll say one more thing Jonah is told by God to cry out against Nineveh because of its wickedness he says its wickedness is great by the way that sounds like what other city that got called out for its wickedness Sodom Sodom and Gomorrah remember he says I’m going to go down see I’ve heard the report the wickedness is piled to heaven I’m gonna go find out for myself a little different with Jonah he says it’s wickedness is great go tell them go cry out against it now normally when a prophet receives a mission from God like this the prophet obeys right away but not Jonah verse 3 says Joan but Jonah contrast word but Jonah rose up to flee to tarshish from the presence of the Lord what’s this God’s Prophet fleeing from the mission fleeing from God’s presence what’s going on well we’ll learn later but in the beginning in these first two chapters we don’t understand this is a head-scratching move from God’s prophet now Jonah flees to tarshish where is tarshish it’s possible that it was in southern Spain the truth is we don’t know that city has actually mentioned a number of times in Scripture it was certainly an important coastal city famed for its Mercantile activity if you look at the reign of Solomon he’s often interacting with tarshish is apparently an important trading center but if Jonas fleeing to it it probably is far from Israel the only reason we think it’s in Spain is because of what a 5th Century Greek historian Herodotus he identifies the city of tarshish as the city of teresis in what is today southern Spain so you can see on the map here if that is indeed the case this would be quite far from where God told Jonah to go Nineveh in the Northwest Northeast Jaffa is the port in Israel that Jonah is seeking to sail from tarshish in southern Spain uh by the way don’t confuse tarshish with tarsis Tarsus is another city and that’s in southern Asia Minor that would be at the bottom of turkey kind of round where the bend of turkey goes into Syria that’s where the Apostle Paul was born that’s a different city okay so Jonah flees from God to tarshish by getting on a boat or at least attemptively but what does God bring on the boat a storm and an increasingly violent storm Sailors do their best but the boat is about to break up so what final out oh uh What alternative do the sailors turn to pray pray to the gods maybe one of them will have mercy on us but Jonah is not doing this he’s asleep they wake Jonah up they say you pray to your God too but then the sailors decide to decide to cast lots remember lots of something like dice or sticks that when you cast them they they communicate some kind of information they cast lots to indicate which Pastor which passenger has caused the storm to come upon them what do you know the lot falls on Jonah that’s not an accident they demand to know of Jonah about him and what he did and he tells them I’m a Hebrew I follow Yahweh and I’m running from his presence they they asked him why he would do this thing and they also asked him what they should do to play Kate Yahweh and what does Jonah say they should do throw them overboard now that’s kind of an odd response Jordan doesn’t say I’m running from the Lord so we’ve got to turn around and go to Joppa I mean that would make sense right I have to go back Jonah doesn’t say well Yahweh has control over the sea so let me pray to God for you let me pray to God for the ship let me repent and I’m sure the storm will disappear no he says throw me overboard if Jonas tossed overboard in the middle of the ocean in a storm no less what’s gonna happen to Jonah he’s gonna die he’s gonna drown he basically says you have to kill me by throwing me overboard the sailors realize this and they try to not go to this alternative they rode to get to land but it’s no use they can’t escape the storm and they finally pray to God and ask God not to hold him accountable for taking Jonah’s life and as soon as Jonah is in the sea becomes calm what do the sailors then do they offer sacrifice to God they fear God says they feared God they make sacrifices and they make vows to God that’s kind of an interesting response these Godless people they have the right response when they see that when they see God obviously acting by calming the storm well it looks like it’s all over for Jonah but it’s not because God commands a great fish to swallow Jonah Jonah is in the fish’s stomach the term can also be translated belly or abdomen three days and three nights and then Jonah prays for what does Jonah ask something basic because of the Poetry it may be a little bit difficult to find what he’s asking for directly but what is he asking for yeah he’s asking for rescue he’s asking for help he says verse two I called out my distress I cried for help from the depth of Shield you heard my voice help me God save me and what does Jonah reaffirm in verse 9 of chapter two yeah he says salvation is from the Lord but what about what is he going to do in response to God helping him yeah he’s going to fulfill his vow he says I’m going to sacrifice you with the voice of Thanksgiving this is these are the words of someone committed to honoring following and obeying the Lord he’s turned around his behavior he says God help me I’ll do what you want me to do I’ll follow after you he affirms he will worship and serve the Lord and right afterwards Jonah is vomited onto dry land vomited gross but he’s alive and on dry land now let’s ask a couple of interpretive questions why does Jonah ask the sailors to throw him overboard instead of instead of telling them to just turn around or to wait for him to pray what do you think uh Judy I think that is the answer yeah I’ll repeat what you said Judy he does not appear ready to repent and he’s actually still trying to run away from the Lord but this time by dying I’d rather be dead than fulfill the Lord’s mission so that’s why he says just throw me overboard and we know he’s not yet repented because it’s only it’s three days he spends inside the fish and then we hear his prayer asking for help talking about his help and it’s right after that that he’s on dry land so he did not appear to be repented yet when he told the sailors to throw him in the sea furthermore we’ll see later in chapter 4 Jonah there asks God to end his life so already escaping life circumstances through death is already or is is certainly an idea in Jonah’s mind so I think some some might not agree but I think we’re led to understand that Jonah is still trying to escape from God when he tells the sailors to throw him in the seat but God can’t be exploded that way God won’t let Jonah die what looked like certain death in the rolling storm waves in the middle of nowhere are in what looked like that God provides a means of miraculous preservation albeit uncomfortable miraculous preservation Jonah will be held in a fish until Jonah is ready to obey the Lord now what kind of fish swallowed Jonah a big one can we be more specific not really we don’t know what kind of fish it was the the term isn’t isn’t that descriptive some think it may have been a whale certainly whales are big and they could kind of be qualified as fishes they’re technically anatomically not really it’s possible it’s a whale though the Hebrews do have a term for whale and it’s not used here could have been a whale a blue whale big whale giant shark some other aquatic creature that no longer exists or maybe that we’ve never discovered or one that was specially created for the task whatever it was it was a big fish it swallows Jonah hole and holds Jonah in its belly now how did Jonah survive for three days and three nights inside this fish by the grace of God does this naturally happen or is this Supernatural his survival is Supernatural first of all being swallowed by the fish that set of circumstances is miraculous enough but his survival is miraculous because he would not have survived otherwise either God caused the creature that swallowed him to behave unnaturally in some way that allowed Jonah to survive or God prevented the conditions that normally would kill Jonah to not do so because normally being swallowed by a fish even if Jonah did not die by whatever digestive processes are inside this fish he would have had no air to breathe if Jonah were swallowed by a whale for instance whales have a separate respiratory and digestive system they’re not like us where we breathe and eat through the same Avenue through the mouth whales don’t do that whales breathe to the top of their heads and they only eat through their mouths there’s no way for air to actually get into their stomachs so if he were swallowed by a whale there would be no way he could survive or presumably no way he could survive but maybe the fish did something special maybe the fish had Jonah only in its mouth or regurgitated him periodically and the fish came to surface and opened its mouth to give Jonah Heir or something but that would be completely unnatural that’s not normal for our fish to do but even that perhaps would not have been enough to spare Jonah from what would have killed him it’s also possible that God simply supernaturally provided for Jonah inside that fish that just like when God provided for Daniel’s three friends when they went to the fiery furnace it didn’t harm them in the same way God may have done something for Jonah so that he was not killed by digestive processes and he had air to breathe God provided something whatever he did it was miraculous for Jonah on normal conditions Jonah would have died now perhaps some of you have heard stories about certain modern people who have survived being swallowed by whales or by fishes these are unfortunately just stories they’re not true or at least there’s there’s no reason to believe that they’re true they’re not verifiable there are plenty of things that contradict these stories and as we’ve just mentioned physically it’s impossible to survive being inside a whale There’s No Air there’s no air for one to breathe and but keeping Jonah alive no problem for God the all-powerful God if you can miraculously bring a storm on Jonah’s ship caused a lot to fall on Jonah calm the sea is Jonas as soon as Jonah’s in the water God can certainly keep Jonah alive in the great fish’s belly now someone suggest that Jonah actually does die and God brings him back to life that’s the way that God supernaturally provides I suppose that might be possible it does fit with a parallel that Jesus makes to Jonah which we’ll see a little bit later as he Compares his own death to Jonah’s experience but I don’t think this is the case because Jonah’s prayer as we’ve looked at it paints a picture of nearly dying not of actually dying one of the words I thought was particularly helpful verse 7 in Chapter 2 while I was fainting away I remember the Lord so he was I was in the process of distress things were looking bad for me and I remember the Lord and you provided salvation for me moreover if Jonah died how could he offer a prayer asking for God to help him he’d be dead he couldn’t offer any prayers so I don’t think that’s what happened but whatever God did it was miraculous and it was merciful to Jonah questions so far yeah Rob OT okay I want to save him yeah nothing yeah yeah that’s a great point we’ll come back to that point a little bit later on no one can presume to experience what Joan is experiencing the mercy The Sovereign mercy of God but when God chooses to show compassion and mercy on someone there’s nothing that can stop him Jonah tries to kill himself God says I’m not gonna let that happen I’m determined to be compassionate to you and to cause you to repent that is a very great thing from God other questions yeah really that’s a great Point boy we’ll come back to that one as well but it’s really interesting Jonah is a really successful Prophet even though he really doesn’t want to be like he doesn’t want to be a witness to these Sailors but they end up repenting and turning to the Lord and he doesn’t want to go to Nineveh but as we’re going to see it’s a really successful Ministry in Nineveh as well he’s an extremely reluctant Prophet but we see God his Sovereign power and his kindness he said nonetheless I’m going to make you really successful other questions or comments all right let’s keep moving so Jonah vomited up on the shores back to square one probably perhaps looking a little different from after his experience inside the fish but let’s see what happens next let’s read chapters three and four verse 1 chapter 3.

now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying arise go to Nineveh the great City and Proclaim it to which the proclamation which I’m going to tell you so Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord now Nineveh was an exceedingly great City a three days walk then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk and he cried out and said yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown and the people of Nineveh believed in God and they called a fast and put on sackcloth and the greatest of the least of them when the word reached the king of Nineveh he arose from his throne laid aside his robe from him covered himself with sackcloth and sat on ashes sat on the ashes he issued a proclamation and it said in Nineveh by the decree of the king and his Nobles do not let man Beast heard or flock taste a thing do not let them eat or drink water but both man and Beast must be covered with sagloth and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his Wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands who knows God may turn and relent and withdraw his Burning Anger so that we will not perish when God saw their deeds that they turned from their wicked way then God relented concerning the Calamity which he had declared he would bring upon them and he did not do it but it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry he prayed to the Lord and said please Lord was not this what I said while I was still in my own country therefore in order to forestall this I fled to tarshish for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God slow to anger and abundant and loving kindness and one who relents concerning Calamity therefore now oh Lord please take my life from me for death is better to me than life the Lord said do you have good reason to be angry then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it there he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city so the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort and Jonah was extremely happy about that plant or about the plant but God appointed a worm when Dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered when the sun came up God appointed a scorching East Wind and the Sun Beat Down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die saying death is better to me than life then God said to Jonah a good reason to be angry about the plant and he said I have good reason to be angry even to death then the Lord said you had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow which came of overnight and perished overnight should I not have compassion on Nineveh the great City in which there are more than 120 000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand as well as many animals and that’s where it ends let’s make some observations again how does Jonah respond to God’s command the second time he obeys and he goes to Nineveh good job Jonah what is Jonah’s message from God too Nineveh in 40 days what’s going to happen it’s going to be overthrown it’s going to be judged it’s going to have Devastation brought to it probably going to be destroyed how did the people respond they repent they believe and repent and they demonstrate this repentance and praying fasting and wearing sackcloth the least of the greatest of them even the king takes off his robes in Dawn sackcloth this is incredible the capital of Assyria Nineveh the greatest City in the Middle East hears the message of God and repents immediately all of them even the king who might have chosen instead to be stubbornly proud they acknowledge their sin and throw themselves upon the mercy of God this is completely unexpected I would say it’s an even bigger Miracle than what happened to Jonah and the fish the whole city of Nineveh repents and how does God respond that’s right he relents of the Judgment when he saw what they did he saw the repentance how they turned from the evil way he did not send the judgment but what does Jonah think of God’s response he was angry about it now we hear from jono why he fled from God in the first place what was the reason hermana yeah he knew God’s character and he feared that God might relent to the judgment on Nineveh and he would he would show kindness then he feared that if the ninevites repented God’s kindness would cause God to relent to the judgment and it’s seeing it how things have developed Jonah as I alluded before asked God to kill Jonah because death seems better than life to Jonah the fact that you’ve spared this people makes me want to die Jonas says then God creates an object lesson for Jonah God causes a plant to grow miraculously overnight lovely plan to provide shade to Jonah while Jonah watches the city but then causes a worm to destroy the plant the next night and Jonah again becomes angry why does Jonah become angry about the plant well partly we know it’s because he was he no longer had the shade just as you said Shea he’s being distressed by the hot wind and the sun on him this plant had provided extra shade for him and it’s gone and that’s annoying but there’s another reason yeah Danielle yeah he had compassion on the plan God says you have compassion on the plant he liked the plant he cared about the plant and this becomes the basis of a rebuke from God to Jonah God tells Jonah you’re angry about the destruction of this plant even though you didn’t work hard for it and you only enjoyed it for a day you had compassion about the plant you cared about it and you felt pain when you saw this plant this inanimate transient plant destroyed that pained you not simply because you lost your shade but because you like the plants how then can you find fault with me when I have compassion on Nineveh a city so large that there are 120 000 people who do not know the difference between a right and left hand by the way which people are those they’ve got to be small children children don’t know the difference between right and left they’re probably 120 000 children in the city and if there are that many children then we’re probably talking at least a half a million people in this city it’s a huge amount of people and then they’re the animals God even mentions there are many animals in there too God says you have a compassion for a plant that you didn’t even work for don’t you understand why I have compassion on this city these are my Creations they’re made in my image they’re more than a half a million of them many of them are children many of my specially made animals are there too and these people have repented they’ve turned from their sin don’t you see why I have compassion on them how can you join a censure me and not have compassion on them yourself and then that’s where the account ends with this question with this rebuke from God to Jonah let’s ask a couple of interpretive questions now based on what we saw how does Jonah feel about the people of Nineveh yeah he doesn’t like them that’s a very nice way to put it he hates them he despises them and as you said he does not want to see them repent why does he hate them we don’t know maybe it’s their idolatrous ways that are just so disgusting to him maybe it’s interactions that he or other Israelites have had with the ninevites and the people of Assyria in the past maybe it’s the sins they’ve committed as part of their conquest and hegemony of the other nations but for whatever reason Jonah hates the ninevites and in a very strange but theological twist you might expect that Jonah would have relished the opportunity to pronounced judgment on these people yes God’s gonna get him I can’t wait to tell him but Jonah knew God’s heart too well Jonah feared that if the people repented I know God he’s gonna show them kindness and I don’t want to see that I don’t want to see that at all costs so I’m willing to flee and even die before I see that happen Jonah hates Nineveh but besides what God shows Jonah through the plant how does Jonah show himself to be a hypocrite he doesn’t want to see God’s compassion on the nunavites why is this hypocritical to whom is God very vividly already shown compassion Jonah Jonah was disobedient and God didn’t destroy Jonah he was merciful to Jonah he gave Jonah the ability to repent and yet Jonah will not give the same opportunity to the ninevites he doesn’t want to see The Compassion of God that he received also given to the ninevites God did not do to Jonah as Jonah deserved but Jonah was not willing to desire or show God’s compassion to others who didn’t deserve it now why does this book end the way it does it’s kind of abrupt why do you think it ends that way yeah Donna yeah so you bring up some good points Donna there’s certainly other exhortations in the Bible and the New Testament about showing compassion especially to one’s enemies that we are to imitate God and showing kindness to the undeserving but to get back to my question why does the book end this way Danielle yeah it’s poignant right to end with a question without an answer without Jonah’s response it provokes a response from the reader it provokes the reader to think about that question shouldn’t God show compassion why would I resent if God did show compassion do I show compassion this is very thought-provoking and instructive to the reader it’s a challenge almost not just a Jonah but also to the reader and it causes the reader to examine his own attitude now thinking about the four chapters as a whole why does the author write this book what does he want to show okay everything happens for God’s glory true what is he emphasize throughout this book yes George yeah this is about the compassion of God right we’ll say more about that in just a second what else is this really meant to show the reader not just God’s compassion but what also what other aspect of God to me okay we’ll talk about that too yes this compassion extends Beyond Israel and the fact that this is all happening to the ninevites is actually quite profound to the Assyrians not the Jews but what other aspect besides God kindness is clearly emphasized in this book yeah Andrew I mean kindness right to other gods yeah I think that’s that’s good too to fill out this idea of kindness that has to do also with God’s response to when people repent that God is merciful and he relents of judgment what are we going to say Danny yeah his sovereignty his sovereignty combined with his kindness but his sovereignty nonetheless I’ll just talk about a couple of those ideas this book is clearly meant to communicate to us and cause us to appreciate God’s sovereignty he has total control he controls profits he controls storms he controls the casting of lots it controls fish he controls life and death and the hearts of men no one’s Disobedience or weakness can thwart him God will accomplish whatever he’s determined whether it’s to turn a profit around or to save a whole city but this book is also meant to show us God’s heart God’s kind heart God’s incredible kindness God’s sovereignty leads him to Glorious and compassionate action God didn’t have to send a prophet to Nineveh God didn’t have to spare Jonah when Jonah disobeyed but God chose to be merciful he worked out the whole situation so that he might pour kindness on the undeserving why because this pleases God this is his heart and who’s more undeserving than the ninevites wicked pagans brutal conquerors enjoying the pleasures obtained from others suffering they’re a wicked City and as Dwayne mentioned they’re not Jews they’re outside of God’s special Covenant they’re gentiles but God sends them a prophet and this generation of ninevites and their King repent it doesn’t stay this way the ninevites and the people of Assyria they apparently go back to their old ways a later generation does not follow after the Lord we see other prophecies against Nineveh and Assyria and other Old Testament books after Jonah but this generation in God’s sovereignty experienced unmerited kindness from God this generation of Gentiles outside of Israel far away from Israel we don’t have the map anymore but it’s not even close by to Israel God chose in his kindness to spare them from temporal judgment and also to I think for many of them give them Eternal salvation we’re going to see the ninevites from Jonah’s preaching in heaven but there’s one more aspect of this account that has to do with God showing mercies to the Gentiles and that is what it says about Israel this book is a rebuke to the hard hearts of the Israelites because think about it not only through Jonah do we see Israel have a lack of compassion for others for their neighbors for gentiles they also persist in their idolatry and God is showing Israel through this account I send you profit after profit you’re my special people you have my Feast you have my temple you have my special blessings yet you will not repent you keep on going after other gods you keep on holding to your sin and your worldly ways I send one Prophet one reluctant Prejudice profit to the greatest and most Godless City in Assyria and they all from the least to the greatest instantly repent don’t you see the contrast Israel are you not utterly ungrateful and wicked you have multiple prophets you’re my people you won’t repent they have one Prophet it doesn’t even like them and they all repent Jesus makes the same point during his ministry in the New Testament Matthew 12 38-42 it says and some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him that’s Jesus teacher we want to see a sign from you validate yourself but he answered and said to them an evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold someone behold something greater than Jonah is here and then there’s another mention the queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because she came from the ends of the Earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something greater than Solomon is here what’s Jesus’s point namely this wicked Gentiles instantly responded to the half-hearted preaching of Jonah but when the Messiah God’s son comes to Israel with the message of Salvation they will not believe and they constantly ask for more signs furthermore a gentile Queen was willing to travel across the world just to hear Solomon’s wisdom and yet Jesus says to his audience why are you so unwilling to listen to my wisdom the wisdom of the Messiah the wisdom of God himself is your heart not utterly dark so this book is not only an intimate look at the sovereignty of God and his kindness his incredible kindness It’s also a look at the hardness of Israel and of mankind those who claim to follow after God and yet persist in Wicked Ways by the way Jesus’s words are significant in another way some claim that this book and what happened to Jonah are not to be taken literally this is all appointed allegory or it’s a myth you can’t actually believe that someone survived inside a fish for three days well Jesus treats Jonah and the events of this book as actual happenings and Jesus Is God and cannot lie cannot say that Jesus was merely accommodating the false understanding of the people of his own day Jesus States plainly that Jonah was in the fish three days and three nights and that the people of Nineveh repented at Jonah’s preaching if that’s not true Jesus is lying and if Jesus is lying he’s not God moreover Jesus uses these historical happenings as the basis of his own statements if Jonah didn’t actually spend three days and three nights in the fish then will the son of man actually spend three days and three nights in the earth if one didn’t happen how do we know the other’s gonna happen it only works one really did happen or if Jonah never preached and if Nineveh never repented how can Jesus rebuke the Jews for not believing his greater word there would be no basis for his rebuke for his comparison no this is history Jonah’s history it’s miraculous God involves history but it was written down as history to benefit Israel to benefit us so how can we apply the Book of Jonah we see God’s heart we see God’s sovereignty we see the hard-heartedness of Israel how can we apply it today a number of ways but let me just pose to you a series of questions to get us thinking about application God’s word in the real world ask yourself these things as you consider the Book of Jonah first do you love God for who he is do you love God for his heart we see his great patience and his compassion in this account do you love God for this heart that he has that he’s actually also shown towards you you’re like Nineveh you’re like Jonah you’re disobedient and yet God had mercy on you he gave you his word he sent you his revelation he saved you if you’ve come to know him have you or do you love the Lord for his kindness for his heart have you encountered God’s heart do you love God another question are you indeed more like Nineveh or are you like Israel even though you’re here in church is your heart far away from God are those that come out of obviously sinful backgrounds putting you to shame because you have not yet set aside your hypocrisy another question do you have compassion on people even those that seem Unworthy of it or are insignificant or are there certain people because of what they’ve done to you how they spoke to you because of what culture they come from or what ethnic background they have because of their past sinful Behavior or life these people you want nothing to do with you don’t want to show them compassion they don’t deserve it you don’t even want to see it happen to them you may even secretly desire that evil fall upon them you want to see things you want to see um hurt come to them is that true do you have compassion for other people or do you feel like some are not worthy of it and then On a related note are you apathetic to the plight of your fellow men for God are you more sympathetic to mistreated planets and animals than humans who need God’s rescue are you unwilling to be God’s Messenger to the world are you on your own ship to tarshish away from man’s great need away from your mission that’s God given are you trying to flee from God’s presence please consider these questions we are to be like Nineveh not Israel we’ve got to repent let us learn the lesson of Jonah let us behold love and imitate the Compassionate Heart of God let’s repentance of the wrong attitudes that we’ve had and live differently quick questions or comments before we close got maybe two minutes all right well that’s it for Jonah next week we turn to another prophet Elijah look at how God uses Elijah let’s close in prayer father this is a very poignant book and it is a it is a serious rebuke to be considered God because we can be very much like Jonah we can think about our relationship with you consider ourselves one of your people and yet walk so hypocritically and unlovingly towards our fellow man we cannot care about them we can refuse to share the gospel with them we can be so apathetic we can get so caught up in our own Pursuits would I pray that you would do the soul surgery that is necessary Lord we want to repent of these things we don’t want to live this way anymore we want to follow after you as you have meant us to be because if we’re not obedient God to you God we don’t belong to you despite what we say despite whatever Christian Heritage we might have we show whether we belong to you when we repent of our sin so God I pray that you would work repentance where it’s necessary that you would encourage your people where they are already doing right and that we would uh we would learn the lesson of Jonah in Jesus name amen

June 12, 2016

Book: Jonah

The Reason Why You Struggle with Evangelism

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God Sends Jonah

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