Jonah

[00:00:01] Our dear heavenly Father, you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. [00:00:11] I pray that as we look at the life of Jonah tonight, that we could see how you share that part of your character with us. [00:00:21] I pray that we would also see how in your character her you desire that to go out to your lost kids as well. [00:00:29] I pray that Christ would receive the glory for it. It's in his name that we pray. Amen. [00:00:38] About 800 years before Christ was born, about 2600 years before our current time, the northern kingdom of Israel was in a dire situation. [00:00:53] Year upon year, they had been experiencing crushing defeat. After crushing defeat, once boasting 800,000 warriors at its inception, scriptures tell us that they were reduced to an army of less than 10,000 in times past. Their territory extended across the most desirable land in the area. [00:01:20] At this point in history, they were reduced to a shell of their former selves. [00:01:30] Scripture tells us that this condition in Israel came as a result of their failure to live as God's people. [00:01:37] The kingdom was designed to be a light that pointed the way back to God. [00:01:45] It was supposed to be a place where people of all kinds of backgrounds, where people who were rich, poor, foreigner, native, would be able to enjoy security in the land. [00:02:01] As it turns out, people would find ways to exploit each other. They would find ways to oppress each other, and didn't matter where you were, it wasn't a safe place to be all the time. [00:02:18] Even more dire than that was their status. How was their relationship with God? [00:02:25] Right after the kingdom had separated from the southern part of the kingdom, the northern kingdom began going after idols, and this led to more and more corruption in their moral lives, which led to social downfall. [00:02:46] That kind of living would only bring problems, not the blessing of God. [00:02:51] And yet, at this point, something started to improve. There was a major world power at that time called Assyria, and they were in a little bit of a decline. When you read the histories, there were people from the north, the west, and the south who were engaging them at their borders. They didn't have the capacity to go further out beyond their own hometown, so they had to bring everyone back, refortify, and get things taken care of there. [00:03:22] Additionally, and I found this to be very interesting, they were also facing pressures from the inside. [00:03:29] The king who was reigning at this time was facing rebellion from his own son, trying to take the kingdom from him. [00:03:37] There were also famines, earthquakes, and other natural phenomena that struck fear into the hearts of these superstitious people. [00:03:55] With that happening, the northern kingdom also began to experience a little bit of outward growth. [00:04:03] When Assyria had gone back to its own people, there were weaker people left behind. And so they started expanding their territory back to the north, the south, the east and the west. And as they grew, they almost rivaled their original state. [00:04:25] And at that time, these messages of victory would come through the mouths of prophets. [00:04:35] There was a prophet who would go about and say, God's going to give you victory over these people. God's going to give you great victory over here. The king believed him, went out into battle, came away victorious, and morale was starting to go up. They said, maybe this is the time we come back. [00:05:00] As the prophet continued to give these messages, he felt that it was going to be unstoppable. He enjoyed his ministry. He enjoyed where he was, because when people like what you're saying, things get a lot easier. There were a lot of prophets who had the unpleasant business of going to this northern kingdom saying, you know, you done did goofed. You need to change. [00:05:22] Odly enough, those prophets were not well received. [00:05:28] We don't know a whole lot about this specific prophet. We know that he was from a city named Gaff Heifer in the tribe of Zebulun. I'm not going to say that three times fast. [00:05:40] Zebulun is not exactly the most well known tribe of the twelve pales in comparison to Benjamin Judah. A little bit more bigger names. All right. [00:05:53] We also know, though, that during his ministry, he received a word that was extremely different from what he had heard before. [00:06:03] He had been accustomed to hearing message after message of victory and victory and victory, and yet this message was different, and he didn't exactly like it. [00:06:17] We get a little book in the Bible that tells us about his response. [00:06:22] His prophet's name was Jonah. [00:06:28] We're going to look over his response. I don't want us to use this as a critique of a character, but I want this to be a mirror that we hold up to ourselves to say, okay, I recognize very clearly in somebody else when they make a mistake, but am I able to transfer that over to myself? [00:06:49] Am I able to see myself in this story in the kind of way that I can see changes I need to make as well? [00:07:03] This message went something along the lines of this. [00:07:07] God told Jonah, buddy, I want you to get up, want you to go to the city of Nineveh. [00:07:17] I'm going to give you a message that lets them know they've reached the capacity of how far I will let a culture go before I have to start over with it. [00:07:31] Nineveh was a royal city in the assyrian empire and would shortly become its capital, probably less than 50 or 60 years later. [00:07:41] The Assyrians were not known to be nice to people. Very similarly, on the inside of their kingdom and the internals of their kingdom, there was rampant oppression. People did not treat each other with dignity or with respect, but if they were rude towards each other on the inside, they were brutal towards each other on the outside. [00:08:04] If you lost in battle to them, it was better for you to perish and battle than to be taken captive. I'm not going to read to you what the histories tell us they would do. [00:08:16] You can look that up on your own time, but you'll need a glass of wine to go with it. [00:08:20] And that's coming from somebody who doesn't drink. [00:08:27] These people were acted in absolutely evil ways. [00:08:35] After Jonah heard this message, scripture tells us he got up and went to tarshish again. I'm not saying that three times fast, either. [00:08:45] Tarshish is in the exact opposite direction of Nineveh. Nineveh was to the northeast, and from what we understand, although we don't know its exact location, we know it's in the Mediterranean Sea somewhere, which is exactly west of where Jonah was stationed currently. [00:09:09] The author doesn't tell us explicitly why Jonah did this, only that he wanted to flee from the presence of the Lord, which he says twice. [00:09:19] So Jonah goes to a port city on the west coast called Joppa, finds a ship heading for tarshish, gets into the boat and sets sail. [00:09:31] Jonah proved in this moment, you can disobey God, but he's about to learn, and we can look at this as well. You cannot outrun God. [00:09:41] Not long after the ship hit a good stride in the middle of the ocean, a storm came out of nowhere. [00:09:49] If you've seen any sailing shows, like deadliest catch or anything of that sort, you know that small waves are not going to frighten veteran sailors. For these men to be fearing for their lives meant this storm was not something to be trifled with. This was something that came up, and it was not ordinary, and they could not control anything in this situation. [00:10:15] As the sailors were a little bit more than superstitious, they began to believe that the storm was probably divinely appointed because of somebody's misconduct. They began crying out to every deity that they had worshipped and even some that they had not, but they found no safety. [00:10:36] The captain noticed at that point in time that Jonah was missing, and so he went down below deck to find where Jonah was and found him fast asleep. I'm a light sleeper, and I would not be able to sleep through a storm like that. You'd probably find me next to a trash can. If I had to guess, Jonah was completely out of it. [00:11:03] The captain more or less yelled at Jonah, what do you think you're doing by taking a nap at a time like this? Get up and cry out to your God. [00:11:15] It may be that he will give a thought concerning us. [00:11:22] A little bit of a contrast that we're going to look at in a moment. [00:11:26] The pagan sailor was telling the prophet of God to talk to God. [00:11:41] Apparently, though, Jonah was not on speaking terms with God at the moment, and he obeyed. The captain went up on deck but said nothing. And so the sailors said, okay, we're going to figure out how to assign blame for this. So they figured out a method and said, okay, let's go through this process. [00:11:58] After the process, it came to be that Jonah was picked as the culprit. So they began peppering him with questions, saying, what is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And what people are you from? [00:12:16] Jonah's response can be seen in one of two ways. Can either be seen as a little bit arrogant and rude, or it can be seen as humble. I want to read it in both ways to give us a little bit of a picture of what it might look like. And this is reading it exactly as it is in the Hebrew. It's a little bit different in the English. Jonah said, hebrew, am I and the Lord God of heaven? Him, I fear. He who created the sea and the dry land. [00:12:51] If we take that as a little bit arrogant and rude, he's saying, I'm a better people than you are. I serve a better God than you do, because he's in heaven, and he's not just over the domain of the sea. Like your petty little deities. He created the dry land as well. [00:13:06] That's way number one. We can look at this. The second way is a little bit more humility emitting fault. [00:13:15] Hebrew am I in the Lord, the God of heaven? Him, I fear, who made both the dry sea, the dry land, and the sea. [00:13:35] It would make sense for him to have a little bit of remorse in this moment, the fact that he endangered the lives of the sailors for no good reason. The reason he went to Joppa is because it was outside the territory of Israel. If you're a prophet with a lot of renown, it's a lot harder to hide in the faces of people you know and who know you, if you go to complete outsiders, it's a lot easier to hide. And so he endangered them without warning. [00:14:10] However, if we read it as he was being a little bit snarky, it fits a little bit with the story. [00:14:18] Regardless, the sailors couldn't believe what they heard. They literally asked, what did you do? Why did you think you could outrun the God of heaven who made the earth and the land? [00:14:37] Jonah told them plainly, I'm running from God. They said, okay, what do we need to do in order for the sea to calm down? [00:14:47] Jonah said, throw me overboard. [00:14:55] This brings up another contrast, and I want us to look at it in the moment. So far, the sailors had prayed. They had encouraged Jonah to pray. They problem solved by throwing cargo overboard to try and lighten the ship so it wouldn't sink. [00:15:17] They tried to figure out who was responsible for the storm. [00:15:22] And now Jonah says, I'm your problem. Throw me overboard, and we'll be good. [00:15:28] One more time. They try to find a different solution. They said, you want us to throw you? No, no, we want to try and save you as well. So they literally, scriptures say they literally dug their oars into the waves to try and get back to dry land, but to no avail. [00:15:57] And so they prayed to God, saying, your servant told us to do this. We really don't want to, but this is what we were told to do. And so they throw Jonah overboard. [00:16:10] And to their amazement, the sea became calm. And at that moment, the men feared the Lord exceedingly. And they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. All right, this is not the main point of where we're stopping, but we do want to take a break here to ask ourselves a question. What is going on here? [00:16:32] Jonah receives a call from God to go to Nineveh. People outside of his own nation, people outside of the realm of even morality. They were doing evil and wicked things, brutal people. And he goes the opposite direction. [00:16:50] Jonah endangers non Israelites in order to hide his own identity. [00:16:59] But God uses even this moment to reach the hearts of these sailors. [00:17:05] Is it possible that what we're understanding here is that the mission God had for Jonah was to care and to reach his lost kids? [00:17:19] There is a drive where Jonah doesn't care for the people in the same way that they care for him. This is a contrast for us to look at ourselves and say, okay, if anyone should have been caring for anyone, Jonah should have had the understanding, the compassion, the knowledge to say, because I recognize the character of God, I want to give what is best for these people. [00:17:49] And yet what we find is the exact opposite. [00:17:53] And so I do want to ask ourselves this question for a moment. Do we have a heart to live on mission with God in finding his lost kids? [00:18:10] The sea was not the end of Jonah's story, as it turns out. Scriptures tell us God appointed a fish to mate him and swallow him. [00:18:23] This is a question we can ask ourselves. Is this punishment, or is this an act of God's grace? [00:18:35] Although we don't necessarily think of being confined in a fish's gut, a blessing in disguise, it saved his life, see? And in this process, if you look at a map of Israel, you'll see where Jonah was, was a mountainous area, and his life went downhill to Joppa, which was in a coastline by the sea. [00:19:04] Then it says, he went down into a ship, and now he's going further down into the sea. [00:19:11] His life hit ocean bottom before he could see a way forward. [00:19:20] In fact, I want to read you what this poem said, what he prayed in the fish. By the way, this was after day three. It took him a little while to get there. [00:19:29] I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me. [00:19:35] Out of the belly of Sheol, I cried, and you heard my voice. Sheol was the deepest parts of the earth that you could conceive of, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas. And the flood surrounded me. All your waves and your billows, they passed over me. Then I said, I am driven away from your sight. All right. All this is an imagery to say, as far down as my life could go, that's how far I sank, quite literally and figuratively. [00:20:08] Yet I shall look again upon your holy temple. [00:20:17] It's an odd thing to say there, but he repeats, the waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought my life up from the pit, o Lord, my God, when my life was fainting away, I remember the Lord and my prayer came to you in your holy temple. [00:20:46] We don't have temples today, but this is what the temple symbolized in that time where the presence of God dwelt. [00:20:56] He's saying, I recognize that in the lowest parts of my life, when I've hit rock bottom or ocean bottom, what I need most desperately is your presence. [00:21:14] Even though he disobeyed, even though it looked like he was getting what he deserved, this turned out to be grace, and he started to connect with the idea that he needed grace. [00:21:30] He said, those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. He said, I recognize if I trust anything else in this moment, I have no hope of steadfast love. [00:21:43] I recognize that if there's anything else taking the center of what my focus is, what my hope is, where my help comes from, I will forsake steadfast love. And we're going to come back to that in a little bit. [00:22:01] But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed. I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. [00:22:11] In no other name is their salvation in no other idol. Anything we can convince ourselves that we need, anything that takes the form of savior. Nothing has the power to save except for God. [00:22:28] But I also want to say that this is an admission of something he denied earlier. [00:22:37] If salvation belongs to the Lord, who is he entitled to bring it to? [00:22:49] Do we recognize the grace of God in our own lives? [00:22:53] I doubt we're going to be swallowed by a fish. I doubt we're going to be caught in a storm that makes us fear for our lives. [00:23:01] But do we recognize where God has sent moments for us that says, I am meeting you in this moment to help you see there is nothing else that you can rely on. There is nothing else that will bear the weight of what you need in life. [00:23:22] The other question we can ask ourselves is, what would it take for God to get our attention? [00:23:30] When we walk in the christian life, it is easy to drift. [00:23:39] What would it take for God to reach out to us, get our attention and bring us back? [00:23:54] God spoke to the fish and it spat Jonah upon the dry land. [00:24:00] Not exactly a class traveling and not exactly the best smell either. [00:24:05] But you make do with what you get. [00:24:10] Jonah talks. God talks to Jonah a second time and says, mission hasn't changed. I want you to go to Nineveh and I want you to preach this message to them. [00:24:20] So Jonah gets up and he goes this time to Nineveh because he learned you cannot outrun God. [00:24:31] I did a little bit of math, and if you walk about 3 miles an hour, and if you walk about 8 hours a day, takes about 20 days to get to Nineveh from where Jonah was, it's not a short walk. And along the entire way he had time to think about what he needed to say. If he had 20 days to craft a message, it would probably be very extraordinary. He managed to do something that I'm sorry, I have not learned how to do. He gave a five word sermon. [00:25:06] Yet 40 days, Nineveh overthrown. [00:25:11] Hopefully I give you a little bit more comfort than that. [00:25:16] But that was his entire message. Yet 40 days, and this place is gone. [00:25:24] And then he left the city. [00:25:30] Something about that message, though, struck in the hearts of the people. [00:25:36] They said, maybe we do need to change. [00:25:40] Maybe there is something that we need to do differently. And scripture tells us that from the greatest of the least, they began to repent. Repent means to turn around, to turn to a different way, to change your mind and to change your course. [00:26:01] The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he even proclaimed a fast and said, neither man nor beast is going to eat or drink. [00:26:12] But let everyone call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way. [00:26:19] Who knows? [00:26:22] God might turn from his wrath. [00:26:27] The unclear message of Jonah left an unclarity with the people of Nineveh. But even so, they knew just enough to trust in the character of God. What if he is more gracious than we think? What if he is more merciful than we imagine? What if his steadfast love even applies to me? [00:26:57] This is our point of reflection. [00:27:02] God is able to show mercy to anyone. [00:27:09] No matter how far you think you've strayed, God is able to show mercy to you, and he's able to show mercy to me. [00:27:19] What we see in Jonah so far is that people have been hitting rock bottom. They have been hitting their absolute last desperate measure. [00:27:30] The sailors were at their wits end in the storm. Jonah was at his wits end in the belly of a fish. The Ninevites were at their wits end with 40 days before their entire civilization would be gone. [00:27:44] And yet they still knew enough to say, who knows whether God might be merciful? [00:27:56] Scripture says, when God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. [00:28:10] I want to read a quote to us from a theologian who helps us understand this. This isn't God changing his mind. [00:28:19] God didn't need a prophet to go to Nineveh to say, hey, you're about to be judged. He could have very well let them go. [00:28:29] What if God had a different end in mind from the very beginning? [00:28:33] Listen to this. [00:28:35] The fact is that God did not want them to perish, but rather to mend their ways so that they would not die. [00:28:44] Hence Jonah's prophecy that Nineveh would be destroyed after 40 days was made so that it would not happen. [00:28:55] Who now does not see that God sought by such a message to move to repentance those whom he warned that they might escape the judgment which their sins merited. [00:29:10] This theologian is saying by sending Jonah, he was giving them the opportunity they needed to change. And God had already decided he wanted to show mercy. In this moment, is it possible that God wants to show mercy to you and to me? [00:29:32] Unfortunately, though, this story does not end here, because we have to go one step further. [00:29:41] This is the first time the word anger is used in the book of Jonah. [00:29:46] The sailors were not angry, were not depicted as angry with Jonah. God was not depicted as angry with Jonah. The Ninevites were not depicted as angry with Jonah. Jonah was depicted as angry with God. [00:30:02] In fact, when you read the Hebrew, it's literally angry. He was angry with God. [00:30:08] He was extremely livid with God, and here's why he was mad. [00:30:17] This is what scripture says, o Lord. Is this not what I said when I was yet in my own country? [00:30:29] Is this not what I said? That is why I made haste to flee to tarshish. For I knew that you are a gracious God who is merciful, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and relenting from disaster. This is what Jonah was saying. I'm mad because you showed them grace. [00:30:49] I'm mad because you showed this people mercy. [00:31:02] Do let me remind you, the Assyrians were not, quote unquote, good people. [00:31:11] They were enemies. [00:31:13] They were violent. They were cruel. [00:31:20] And in our minds, it might make sense when we see Jonah being mad. [00:31:30] If you had to think about somebody who's hurt you in your own life, and you had to say to God, I want you to show this person mercy, what would your emotion be? [00:31:44] Would that come naturally, or would that be difficult? [00:31:49] If you saw them in a good state, if you saw them in a way that they had received mercy, would you rejoice? Would I rejoice, or would we be furious with God because of it? [00:32:04] I don't remember who I heard this from, but it was a while ago. Bitterness is the poison we drink, hoping the other person dies. [00:32:14] When we remain angry with somebody, and when we try to withhold the good things of God from them, the good character of God from them, it becomes a selfish act. [00:32:31] God looks at Jonah and he says, do you do well to be angry? [00:32:39] And that would be a good question for us to ask in that moment as well. [00:32:44] Jonah sat outside on a hilltop to see what would happen to Nineveh. He said, maybe God was just pulling a joke, and he would actually wipe away the city. And as he sat, he made for himself a little makeshift shelter. And at that time, middle of the desert was kind of hot. [00:33:04] God showed one more act of grace with Jonah. [00:33:08] He appointed a little bush to sprout up, miraculously covered Jonah's head, and it shaded him from his discomfort. [00:33:19] Very interestingly, the Hebrew says, verbatim, it delivered him from his evil. Delivered Jonah from his evil, his discomfort. [00:33:32] Jonah was exceedingly glad when this plant delivered him from the harsh sun. [00:33:41] And so he slept a little bit. [00:33:44] The next morning, though, God appointed a worm. It attacked the plant. The plant died and withered. [00:33:51] Scorching east wind came beat upon Jonah. The sun beat down on Jonah, and Jonah's like, okay, God, I'm done. Just end it. [00:34:00] God said, one more time, do you do well to be angry? And Jonah's like, yeah, I do. [00:34:10] God used this as a teaching moment. [00:34:15] God said, you pitied this plant that shaded you from the sun. [00:34:22] It grew up in a night, and it died in a night, and yet you rejoiced exceedingly in its shade. [00:34:29] If you pity a little plant, can't I pity a great city with people in it? A massive city with 120,000 people in it? [00:34:46] Are your values so messed up that you value a plant over the lives of individuals? [00:34:52] Will you let your ego and your pride get in the way so that way you can't rejoice when people experience the mercy of God? [00:35:14] This is probably the hardest part in the book of Jonah. [00:35:19] The entire time, Jonah spent his life saying, these are the people who are in, and these are the people who are out. [00:35:28] He created boundaries and said, these are the good people and these are the bad people. [00:35:34] I believe that the book of Jonah is trying to say this one thing. The steadfast love of God goes beyond the boundaries we create. [00:35:42] We don't get to dictate who God shows mercy to. [00:35:48] It's probably a good thing. [00:35:53] But I also want us to realize this. If we have difficulty extending that same kind of grace to people, we can use the model Jonah has. [00:36:09] God got Jonah to see his own weakness, his own problems, his own messiness, and he got Jonah to see how good it was when he experienced the grace of God, when he was in the belly of the whale. He said, I need the grace of God. I need the presence of God in our own lives. I believe Jesus put it this way. He who is forgiven little loves little, but he who is forgiven much loves much. The more we recognize our own need for God's mercy when we recognize our own need for God's grace. When we recognize our own need for the steadfast love of God, it becomes easier to say, these people have hurt me. [00:36:56] These people have hurt people I love. [00:37:01] But what they need is the grace of God in their own lives. [00:37:05] What they need is the steadfast love of God in their lives. [00:37:12] The more we recognize our own need for God's mercy, the more we will see that his mercy isn't just for us, but for those around us. [00:37:27] The book of Jonah ends with that question. [00:37:30] It's abrupt, and it makes us reflect on our own selves. [00:37:36] But I also want to say something about this. [00:37:42] There was another prophet who came along later by the name of Nahum, and he also prophesied against Nineveh. I think Jonah would have preferred to have his message in time. This happens about, let's say, 767 8780 years before Christ. 760 years before Christ. [00:38:04] Assyria regains a lot of power and they take out the northern kingdom in 722. [00:38:11] But Assyria doesn't last forever either. [00:38:16] Their time came to an end about 100 years later. And now I have to spend five to ten minutes telling you who Assyria was and what they do. Their culture, gone, their influence gone. [00:38:29] The hurt that they would cause gone. [00:38:34] Is it possible as well, for us to entrust justice into the hands of God so that we could be a little bit more willing to show his grace? [00:38:46] God is capable of handling every single piece of evil in life. [00:38:55] But how? [00:38:58] What we desire for people matters. [00:39:02] Jesus said, how you judge, it will be measured back to you. If we always want judgment on the person next to us because they hurt us, which don't deny the reality that might be the case. [00:39:15] But if all we want is to get back at them, we rob ourselves of peace. We rob ourselves of being able to sit in the presence of God. Well, God's steadfast love goes beyond the boundaries we create. And the mission stays the same for you and I for tonight. [00:39:42] Do we have a heart that goes out for God's lost kids? [00:39:47] Yes. Even those people. [00:39:50] The people you would rather not. [00:39:52] Is it possible that God might want to do something good in their lives as well? [00:40:01] This is not an easy book. This is not an easy challenge. [00:40:09] But we will be a light in a dark place when we're able to show grace to people who treat us with disrespect, we will lead the way in our culture when division is the norm. [00:40:26] If we were to let the steadfast love of Christ go beyond our own boundaries, our dear heavenly Father, how great is your steadfast love. [00:40:38] How beautiful is your grace and your mercy toward us. [00:40:43] Dear God, I do pray that we would have hearts that are for your lost kids. [00:40:49] I pray that we would recognize that you want to show grace to them as well as to us. [00:40:54] I pray for our own lives, where we need grace and mercy that you would allow us to see that. Pray that we could connect with you and that we could sense your mercy in that moment. [00:41:09] I also pray that we would be willing to share that with the people around us, that people who are far from you might come to know you because of the work you do in our hearts and in our lives. Dear God, I pray that in the end, Christ would be glorified. We love you, and it's in his name that we pray. Amen.