[THE FOLLOWING IS A SERMON STEVE PREPARED AND
DELIVERED FOR OUR HOME CHURCH]
Jonah
Lessons in Disobedience, Repentance, and
Grace.
Setting
Jonah was a prophet from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. We know from 2nd Kings (14:23-27) that Jonah prophesied during the reigns of Amaziah and Jeroboam II – 793-758BC. He was the son of Amittai – from Gath Hepher. Unverifiable Jewish tradition says that Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath whom Elijah raised from the dead.
The Pharasees in the NT were wrong when they said “no
prophet has arisen out of
Here are two questions to ponder of as we explore this book.
1. Why did Jonah disobey God’s command?
2. What was Jonah’s primary character flaw (or flaws) that led him to this disobedience?
A Prophet Flees from
God
Jonah prophesied in the Northern Kingdom (
The text begins with God’s instruction for Jonah to travel
to Ninevah and pronounce destruction upon it.
A bit of background: Ninevah was
the capital of
It was founded by Nimrod, the great grandson of Noah.
Starting in chapter 1, verse 1…
Now the word of the LORD came to
Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to
The text gives the implication that God just gave him the
word and he quietly responded by immediately heading in the completely opposite
direction. Ninevah was 500 miles to the
east, but Jonah headed towards Tarshish – most commentaries that I read placed
this is modern day
What exactly was he trying to escape? What was so terrible that he ran in flat out rebellion against God? Was he being asked to put his life on the line?
Possibly - but as we find later, that was not his reason for running. Was he being asked to do something terribly difficult? It was 500 miles, but again, that was apparently not his reason.
What he was running from was the possibility that God would
bring repentance and revival to the
Ninevites, to the Assyrians. And the
Assyrians were truly the enemies of
While God’s prophets frequently had prophesies of judgement against Heathen nations, this was the only recorded case of a prophet being sent to a gentile nation to prophesy against it. Jonah apparently understood the implication – that God was giving them an opportunity to repent. Jonah was afraid that God would show the same grace and forgiveness to the Assyrians that Jonah was about to be depending upon God for.
We recently closed off our loft to make a bedroom for Luke and Niko. When I was doing the work I worked ever so carefully to fill in every screw head, every seam, every defect with joint compound. I did multiple layers and sanded between them. It looked perfect. But, when I painted it, some defects began to show.
The real moment of truth, though, came when I hooked up the lights. I was horrified – every scratch, every bump, every imperfection was highlighted by deep shadows as the light shone on it from an oblique angle. I spent several weeks experimenting with different lights and different placements of the lights to minimize the visibility of the imperfections. Eventually I changed the light source which helped out a great deal, and things looked good again.
God’s word is his light. We can fool ourselves into thinking that we have no imperfections, but when God’s perfect light shines on us we see ourselves for what we truly are. As Isaiah said “woe is me for I am ruined”. We are utterly dependent upon God’s grace.
Jonah looked to be the perfect picture of a Godly man – a prophet. Until God’s command went against what his human nature wanted. Then the ugliness that was within him shone through.
Unlike the light in my loft, there was no hiding from God. God had chosen Jonah and He wasn’t going to give up on him. As we will find later, Jonah was utterly dependent upon God’s grace too. But he wanted to keep the light all to himself.
Do we feel the same towards “God’s enemies”? When we look at those who thumb their nose at God. Do we pray for them and seek their salvation? Or do we eagerly look forward to their coming judgment?
Jesus said in Matthew 5:44:
“Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
Do we practice this command? We look down on Jonah: “How could he expect to run from God?” Don’t we do the same things? Aren’t there things in our lives that God wants us to do, but we run from them. Aren’t there things that God wants us to stay away from, but we run to them.
Continuing in verse 3…
“He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.”
Jonah was sent to preach God’s message to the gentiles and he refused. Peter in Acts 10 was sent to preach God’s message to the gentiles and he obeyed. What was the common thread between the two? Both of them were in Joppa. Same place, but headed in different directions.
God Pursues Jonah
And in verse 4 we read…
“But the LORD sent” [the literal word is ‘hurled’] “out a great wind on the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.”
The sailors were experienced with the sea, but they had never seen anything like this before. The storm was so sudden (“hurled”) and severe that they knew something out of the ordinary was going on. In verse 7 it says that the sailors cast lots to figure out who was the cause of this storm. The sailors were superstitious, but in this case they were right, and God pointed their attention to Jonah.
As it says in Proverbs 16:33:
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD”
Jonah had hoped that by running from
When Jonah told them that he was a prophet of the one true God, who made the sea and the land, and that he was running from him. The sailors knew he was telling the truth.
And they were afraid! It was the only thing that could explain their predicament! No amount of cargo being thrown overboard was going to save that ship – the Lord was after Jonah.
The heathen sailors showed more concern for Jonah’s life than Jonah did for the hundreds of thousands of people living in Ninevah.
I have to say I always find it convicting when I find myself falling short of showing someone the courtesy shown by unbelievers. Whether it is something as simple as letting someone in front of me in traffic, or stopping to help someone in need, or taking time to get to know someone at work.
When the sailors finally threw Jonah into the water the storm immediately stopped – confirming all that Jonah had said.
Then the text says (v16):
“The men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and took vows”.
As in Psalm 19 –
“The heavens declare the glory of God”
God was showing himself and bringing salvation to people even through a disobedient prophet.
“Now the LORD had prepared [literally: appointed] a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” (Jonah 2:17)
Jonah as a “Type” of
Christ
There is a great deal of correlation between the story of Jonah and Jesus’ earthly ministry.
Jonah functioned in many ways as a type, or rather an anti-type, of Jesus.
One example is that Jesus and Jonah are the only two people in the bible that it mentions sleeping in a ship during a storm. Both stories end with the waters being calmed as well.
There is a big difference though. While Jesus was sleeping because He was exhausted from ministry and was trusting God to take care of him while He slept, Jonah was exhausted from running away from God and was trying to get as far away from God as possible.
We often hear that we shouldn’t trust our negative feelings such as fear or doubt –
that we should rather lean on what God has said in his word - and that is true. But, this also shows that we should not always trust our POSITIVE feelings either. Jonah did not appear to be racked with guilty feelings – although he was certainly guilty in God’s eyes. As a wise man once told me: “feeling are to be experienced, not believed”.
Another example of how Jonah presents a type of Christ is given by Jesus Himself,
when He stated, as recorded in Mathew 12:39-40:
“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
I believe this is a picture of suffering, disappearing, then reappearing for the salvation of many. Both Christ and Jonah suffered so that many would be saved. However it is more of an antitype, in that Christ suffered willingly so that many would be saved, whereas Jonah suffered because he was trying to withhold salvation from many.
Whereas Jesus was a positive example to all by the life that he led, Jonah’s life was a negative example to all showing how God expects obedience, kindness, and mercy in his servants. Both men’s lives are pictures of both God’s judgement and God’s mercy and lovingkindness.
Jesus was the perfect picture of a relationship with the father. He had been with him since the beginning, and sought him in prayer constantly.
As the Lord’s prophet, Jonah was supposed to be the one leading people to the Lord. But sadly it was the heathen sea captain who had to wake Jonah up and ask him to pray to his God.
Jonah Repents
“the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah.” (Jonah 2:17a)
There is, of course, a great deal of uncertainty about whether this was a whale or a fish. The Hebrew word for fish was used – they have a different word for whale. I don’t know if the Hebrews considered a whale a fish. We don’t since it is a mammal – but that doesn’t seem like a mandatory classification distinction to me. The Greek word used to record Jesus’ words regarding Jonah in the New Testament can mean whale, huge fish, or sea monster.
In any case a special creature was appointed to swallow Jonah. God wasn’t going to let him off the hook just yet. He also wasn’t giving up on Jonah yet. He was giving Jonah a final chance to repent himself. He was giving Jonah the same opportunity that Jonah did not want to give the Ninevites.
READ NOTES FROM LARRY
ABOUT MAN TRAPPED IN WHALE
Inside the fish, Jonah prays (2:2-2:9):
“I cried out to the LORD become of my affliction, and He answered me.
Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice.
For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me;
All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight;’
In affect Jonah had gotten what he wanted – he felt that he was now out of God’s sight. But at this point he begins to show a glimmer of hope. Continuing in verse 4…
‘Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me; weeds were wrapped around my head.
I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God.
When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD;
And my prayer went up to You, into your holy temple.
Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy.
But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.”
Inside the fish, Jonah admits his dependence upon God and the futility of trying to hide or run from God. Some people say that the text indicates that he died – called to God from hell - and was resurrected. Others say that it means that he sunk to a great depth before the fish swallow him. I don’t know which is true, but it is certain that Jonah considered himself a goner.
Rather than providing any direct response to Jonah – God “speaks” to the fish. The fish – in contrast to Jonah – immediately obeys by vomiting Jonah onto the dry land. Note that the picture eliminates the idea that Jonah was just hanging out in the fish’s mouth. We can only imagine how miserable that experience was, and what Jonah must have looked like when he came out.
Jonah’s 2nd
Chance
When God speaks again He says essentially the same thing as
He did the first time. He is patient and
He does not change. It is Jonah that is
changed here – and he is now willing to bring the message to Ninevah.
Was Jonah truly repentant when the fish spit him out? Not completely – as evidenced in Chapter 4. Did he ever truly repent? We can only guess that he did. Especially since it is probable that Jonah wrote the book himself.
There may be some irony here. The people of Ninevah worshiped the fish god
Dagon and fish goddess Nanshe. This is
apparently the same Dagon fish god that the Philistines worshiped. You probably remember the amusing story in
1st Samuel, Chapter 5 of when the Philistines had captured the Arc of the
Covenants and placed it in the
But when they came in the next morning Dagon had been
knocked off his pedestal and appeared to be bowing down to the arc. Well God had previously proven his
superiority over this fish god, and God was doing it again. People can make an idol, but only God is the
creator of life, including fish. God
brought the people of Ninevah a true prophet of repentance… in a fish.
Ninevah Repents
And Ninevah does repent. The sight of a partially digested Jonah may have actually lent credibility to his message. If so, that is yet another way of showing how God can turn someone’s sin or disobedience into something good. Other examples from scripture would include
- Joseph brothers selling him into slavery – which lead to the physical salvation and setting apart of the Hebrews;
- Pharaoh’s hardheartedness – which lead to God being given the glory over earthly kings;
- and ultimately – Jesus on the cross – a heinous and despicable act which opened up the only path to Heaven for us all.
As Joseph said:
“You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” (Gen 50:20)
Their repentance was obviously ordained by God, but even so there is the human side of it – two sides of the same coin. And I think we can learn from it.
As David says in Psalm 51 (v16-17):
“For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise”
The Ninevites repented from the least to the greatest. Even the king humbled himself and ordered that all others do so as well. The people humbled themselves, and were ordered by their king to turn from their evil ways and the violence that was in their hands.
Do we practice evil that we need to repent of? Do we glorify violence more than peace and love? If so, then we should repent of that just as the Ninevites did.
When God saw their response he was pleased. v10 says:
“Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon then, and He did not do it.”
In fact it was about 150 years later before Ninevah was overthrown by Nebuchadnezzar (612 BC).
This was in perfect harmony with what God had said in Jeremiah 18:7-8:
“The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.”
God spoke this through Jeremiah to try to make the point
that the Jews needed to repent to avert disaster – but of course they did not
and they were hauled off to
The same was true in Jesus’ time with the Pharisees. Jesus mentioned the repentance of the Ninevites in contrast to the Pharisees (Matt 12:38-41):
“Then some of the scribes and
Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He
answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a
sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For
as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so
will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth. The men of
A Heathen city repented at the message from a disobedient prophet, but the self-righteous Pharisees wouldn’t repent with God himself bringing the message. The Pharisees knew God’s word better than anyone, but what pleases the Lord is NOT our knowledge of His word, but rather our obedience to what we do know of it.
Jonah Sulks
In chapter 4 we find that Jonah’s heart is still not right. Starting in verse 1:
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the LORD , and said “Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!”
So here we see the real reason why Jonah fled. He didn’t want to be used as an agent of blessing for the Ninevites.
Wow… this is a picture of a grown man – a prophet, even – throwing a temper tantrum! After telling God “I told you so”, he announces he would rather die than see the Ninevites turn towards God.
What is God’s response?
(v4) “Then the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
God does as God pleases. He is the potter and we are the clay. Jonah should have been happy to see the people repent and turn towards God because it glorifies Him when sinners repent. Jonah should have been happy that God was slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness - he personally was the beneficiary of that fact.
Besides his hatred for Ninevah he may have also been personally embarrassed that it would appear that his prophesy had failed. He may also have been worried about the reaction of his fellowing Israelites when they heard that he had been an agent of salvation for their enemies. If either were the case then he was more concerned about his own reputation and glory than God’s. Because in fact his prophesying had accomplished exactly what the Lord had intended – Ninevah’s repentance and therefore glorifying of God.
Mathew Henry had a quote that I particularly liked: “What a strange sort of man was Jonah, to dread the success of his ministry!”
God Teaches Jonah
God then teaches Jonah through an object lesson. He still was hoping that God might change his mind and destroy the city, so he determined to sit outside the city and watch.
God sent him a plant for shade, and then the next day God killed the plant, sent a great wind, and a scorching sun. Jonah whines and again asks to die.
Again the Lord asks if it is right for Jonah to be angry. What is Jonah’s response?
(v9) he said, “It IS right for me to be angry, even to death!”
That’s when the Lord pointed out to Jonah that he cared more for a plant that had only lived for one day than he did for an entire city full of people – each one made in the image of God.
In particular God points out that there were:
“more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left” (4:11)
This is generally taken to refer to young children. The Lord showed special concern for the young children in the city. These ones were not to be blamed for the sins of their parents – as Jonah evidently was ready to do.
Application
How about us? What lessons can we take from this? Do we care about things more than people? Are we more concerned with judgment than mercy?
I must say that I find Jonah to be a very convicting book. Jonah was an ungrateful and disobedient prophet. But before we pass judgment on Jonah (for who are we to judge another man’s servant) we should look at the logs in our own eyes. Are we any different?
We are told to bring God’s message of repentance unto salvation to the people
– do we?
We are told to love our enemies
– do we?
We are told to be pure
– are we?
We are told to hate that which is evil
– do we?
We are told to be holy
– are we?
Jonah is a picture of the Lord’s compassion and grace.
Jonah referred to God’s own revelation of himself in Exodus 34 (6-7):
“the LORD God, merciful and gracious , longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin”
The Lord poured out his grace on pretty much everyone in the
book: Jonah, the sailors, and the city
of
As Paul says in Romans 6:1-2:
“Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? May it never be!”
So to return to our original question – what were Jonah’s primary character faults? I think bitterness, pride, and unforgiveness would be among the list. Let them not even be named among us.