You can
watch the video of this sermon here.
Introduction
Last week we
asked this question: How bad is it really? How bad is our society, morally,
politically, economically, health-wise and more? And we concluded pretty bad. When
you ask a politician what is a woman, and he responds, “whoever wants to be”, you
know you are in a dire straits as a nation. When you hear the entire state
parliament cheer with celebration when abortion is decriminalized, you know
your society has some serious issues. I will never forget hearing that on the
radio. I know one politician who was in the room said that the presence of evil
was palpable at that moment. There are some really serious issues in our own
nation, as there was in Micah’s.
But we did
not, and we will not, let this discourage us, because we saw in the book of
Micah how bad a state his nation was in and the impact this had on the prophet
and his people, and we saw how this did not cause him to give up, at all, and
we saw how he looked forward and saw better days, because our God is so faithful.
As it says in Micah, 7:20 – “You will show faithfulness to Jacob and
steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of
old.” If your hope is in God you cannot lose, because no matter what
the world looks like, our God is at work and he is doing something good. We
just might not be able to see what it is in the moment, but he is at work.
We also saw
something else very important and that is this,
“The Bible does not preach judgement because God wants to
condemn people. The Bible preaches judgement so people can be warned, repent
and be saved by God. God does not desire that anyone should perish, but that
all should repent and be saved.”[i]
This is a
major theme of the prophets, and is stated directly by them in various
different ways, for example, Ezekiel says, “Have I any pleasure in the
death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn
from his way and live?” (Ez. 18:23). God wants people to repent. Look
up the word “turn” a synonym with repent in the Bible and you will see God
saying in various different ways, “why won’t you turn?” or “turn from your
ways”, or “turn and be saved!” This is a big theme in the Bible. God wants
sinners to be saved.
We all know
this is a big theme in the New Testament, but not as many people are as aware
that it is found again and again in the messages of the prophets including the
book of Jonah. But the mercy and grace of God are central themes in this book and
we are going to be emphasizing this a lot in this series.
Something
Jonah shows us powerfully, is that God meets us human beings where we are at,
and works with us to make us into the kind of people he can work through in
this world. He is a redeeming God, and we who have been saved for some time can
forget this. We can often fall into the trap of thinking it is us verse the
world, but really it should be us verse evil, and part of how we oppose evil is
by seeking to save others from it. In fact, some of the best warriors for good
were once evil themselves. Let’s see how this theme is developed in the book of
Jonah today, and how God fixes and works through broken instruments, but first
let’s look at a little bit of the context.
Context. I want to spend a bit of time on the
context of when Jonah lived and preached, because I want you to see how real
and relatable in some ways his situation was. So, when did Jonah live and
preach? Jonah 1:1-2 says, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son
of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out
against it, for their evil has come up before me.” We see here that the book itself
does not tell us exactly when it was written. We know that God tells Jonah to
go to the capital of Nineveh, and that this was therefore written before 612
B.C., because that is when Assyria was defeated by the Babylonians and Nineveh
was wiped from the face of the earth. So, is there anything which can help us
be more specific? Yes, there is.
2 Kings 14:23-25
says,
“23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash,
king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in
Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did what was evil in the
sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of
Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. 25 He restored the border of Israel from
Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord,
the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the
prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.”
This passage
implies that Jonah lived in or before the reign of Jeroboam II. Jeroboam was
wicked king, but one who restored much power and prestige to the nation of
Israel.
Israel’s
Silver age - In
fact, in Jeroboam II’s day both Israel and Judah were restored to similar glory
as they had been under David and Solomon in their power and presence in the
land. It was sort of a silver age of glory for Israel. They were rich, powerful
and even a mini-empire of sorts in their own right. Dominating some of their
closest neighbours.
A
decadent nation - According
to Amos, who lived just after Jonah, this led Israel to become proud and
arrogant. Here is an example of how Amos describes the wickedness of Israel, Amos
4:1 “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of
Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands,
‘Bring, that we may drink!’” It was a nation ruled by weak men and
dominant women who made their husbands run around for them. They were corrupted
and weakened by decadence.
Much of what
modern society calls progress, history tells us is evidence of decadence and
decline. Funny that.
The men were
so weak that they had given themselves over to sexual immorality, they couldn’t
master themselves. Amos 2:7-8,
“7 those who trample the head of the poor into the
dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father
go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; 8 they lay themselves
down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their
God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.”
There is
often a direct correlation between men being sexually immoral and not being
able to lead effectively. Which is why the enemy, Satan, focuses so much energy
on targeting this. A man who cannot control himself properly, will not be able
to lead his family, and if his wife is of low character she will sense this and
take control.
So, yes, Israel
was a rich nation at its peak of prosperity. But it was a false prosperity.
People forget that wealth and privilege are as much a test as a gift from God.
And often a nation is at its peak right before he judges it. Jonah lived not
too long before Micah, who saw the end of Israel because of its decadence.
Jonah, was
living in the midst of this decadent people.
Assyria
resurgent – Assyria,
the ancient power of the area was also rising again. The two most consistently
powerful empires in this time were Assyria and Babylon. For well over a
thousand years they had competed for dominance, at times defeating each other,
at other times losing.
Israel, and
Judah were sitting pretty and richer than they had even been before. Their
major trading partners were Egypt and Assyria.
Egypt was a
declining power, and Assyria was sitting on the borders of Israel, strong and
powerful. Not yet powerful enough to conquer it, but it was growing, and
because of this it was a growing threat to Israel.
And Assyria
was a cruel ruler to those it conquered. If you opposed it, they would destroy
your city in the most barbaric and inhuman ways. The kings of Assyria would also
commission artisans to paint the walls of their palace with pictures of these
cruel tortures, so that as ambassadors of other nations came in, they would see
what would happen to them if they opposed Assyria.
So here we
see that in Jonah’s day, or thereabouts, Israel was a powerful and wealthy
kingdom, richer than it had ever been. But this was leading to arrogance and
pride. And meanwhile, this powerful and genuinely evil empire, Assyria, was
starting to boil over on the borders of Israel.
I can’t help
but see some parallels with our rich and arrogant nation, and the rising tide
of China, and India, and other nations. The situation in Jonah’s day is highly
relatable in many ways.
Is it a
real account? So, we
have established the context of the book of Jonah. But some people think that
maybe the book is not a real story, but simply a parable, like the type Jesus
tells in the gospels. They wonder if maybe Jonah is real, but this story is not
recounting a real event that happened, just a moral lesson, about God’s love
and forgiveness.
The Fish –
One reason people
think this, is because we read in Jonah 1:15-17,
“15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the
sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord
exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17 And the
Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of
the fish three days and three nights.”
People think
it is impossible that a man could survive in the belly of a fish or whale for
three days.
Such events
are not unheard of though, such as this
man who recounts having been caught in the mouth by a humpback whale and
then let go[ii].
I have read of a couple of these kinds of accounts. Though it was a far shorter
amount of time.
But I think
trying to prove a miracle can happen misses the point, it says here, “And
the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah…” Arguing that it
was a whale, and whales breath air, and therefore a man could theoretically
last in a whale misses the point of the text. God is doing something here for
Jonah and for us. It is supposed to be interpreted as an impossible event that
only God can pull off. We are supposed to recognize that it is a miracle, and a
miracle God was using to teach Jonah a lesson.
Jesus’
reference – Another
reason some people think it is a parable is because it is so different to other
books. But note, Jesus considered the book of Jonah to be recounting a real
event,
“38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered
him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered
them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be
given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just 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. 41 The men of
Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for
they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than
Jonah is here”
(Matt. 12:38-41).
As far as
Jesus is concerned, Jonah was really in that fish’s belly, and this points to
what will happen to Jesus himself. And the people of Nineveh were real people,
who really lived and really did repent and they will also be vindicated on the
day of final judgement. In fact, they will condemn the majority of Israelites
of Jesus from Jesus’ day.
If Jesus
says it happened, it happened. That is our best standard of truth. And what
Jesus says here also points to the fact that God was doing something pretty
incredible.
God was
doing something for Jonah, for the fishermen, for the Assyrians and for the
Israelites, and for us in this passage and this book. So let’s read the whole of chapter one and see what we can learn about
what God was doing,
“1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of
Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against
it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord. 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, away from the presence of the Lord. 4 But the Lord hurled a great
wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship
threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to
his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten
it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had
lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do
you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a
thought to us, that we may not perish.” 7 And they said to one another, “Come,
let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon
us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him,
“Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation?
And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven,
who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and
said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was
fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 Then they
said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For
the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and
hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is
because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the
men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew
more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the
Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us
innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they
picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its
raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a
sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up
Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
Classic,
let’s examine what happened here.
Jonah
rejected his calling - The first thing we see here, is
that Jonah did not want to do what God had asked of him, Jonah 1:1-3, 10 –
“1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of
Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against
it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord. 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, away from the presence of the Lord…10 Then the men were exceedingly
afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew
that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.”
Jonah ran
from the command and presence of the Lord? This is a strange occurrence. This
does not seem very prophet-like does it. But it is actually very normal in the
scriptures for prophets to act like this.
We tend to a
have a very wooden, cookie cutter idea of what a man of God is, or a prophet of
the Lord is. We tend to see all of the prophets and people of God in the Bible as
paragons of virtue. We also tend to have the idea that God speaks and the man
of God just jumps instantly to go and do his will. Sometimes this does happen. A
good example of this would be Isaiah. We read in Isaiah 6:8-9, “8 And I
heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for
us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this
people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not
perceive.’”
But often
this does not happen. In fact, more often than not, when God tells a prophet
that he wants them to do something or he is going to do something himself, we
get some prophetic resistance from the men of God.
Prophetic
Resistance – There
are heaps of examples of this in the Bible. Some good examples are Abraham,
Moses and Gideon.
Abraham – Think about Abraham’s response to
God, when God told him that he was going to judge Sodom and Gommorah? Did
Abraham just say to God, “Let me go get some popcorn and watch the fireworks!”
No, he said this, Genesis 18:22-25,
“22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom,
but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham drew near and said,
“Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are
fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not
spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do
such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the
righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all
the earth do what is just?”
Abraham
stood before God and challenged him on the issue. And what did God do? He
allowed Abraham to bargain with him, knowing full well that there were not even
5 decent people in the city.
Moses – Did something similar, only he did
not bargain for the lives of a city, but for himself. We read in Exodus
3:10-11, when God told Moses that he was about to go to Egypt, this happened, “10
Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of
Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to
Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Moses resisted
the call of God, just as Jonah did. Only he did not run across the land and sea
to avoid God’s call on his life.
Gideon – Gideon, also resisted the call of
God, and was not even sure that God was the one really calling him. His account
of the fleece is famous in Christian circles, and this was his response, when
God called him to save Israel, Judges 6:14-15,
“14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this
might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15
And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is
the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.”
It is common
in the Bible for prophets to kick against the goads. It happens again, and
again, and it happens for different reasons. Abraham was not convinced that God
was being just enough, and merciful enough. Moses thought he was broken beyond
usefulness. Gideon struggled to see how God could use someone as low on the
totem poll as he.
But as Paul Washer
says, God always chooses the runt of the litter, to demonstrate it is not about
the magnificence of any of the men or women chosen, but because of the glory of
God, that his purpose in and through his people is achieved.
Jonah
exemplifies this pattern, he ran away from the presence of God, because he did
not agree with God, Jonah 4:2,
“2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not
this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee
to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger
and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”
God told Jonah
to go in one direction towards Nineveh, and Jonah ran to the other end of the
known world. Some scholars actually believe that Tarshish was in the South of Briton,
for various reasons. Either way, God told him to go East, and he went as far
West as possible. He disobeyed the direct command of God. There is only one way
to describe this, and it is sin.
But the fact
that this is a consistent theme with many of the prophets highlights something
for us. God is not looking just for robots, who don’t have mind of their own.
He is looking to use real people, fallen people, because that is what he has to
work with. The kind of people we still have all through the church and society
today.
The nation
of Israel was imperfect, and the nation of Nineveh was even worse, and even the
prophet God chose from Israel was imperfect. But through his mercy and grace
God used an imperfect man, from an imperfect nation, to fulfil his purpose for
Israel, for it to be a blessing to the nations. This shows us that even at its
worst God was still working through Israel. And also Jonah.
At
Jonah’s Worst
(vv.1:7-16) – What is incredible about this principle is that God is working
through Jonah, even at his worst in this passage. Such is the call of God on
the believer’s life. Look what he says here,
“7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast
lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they
cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on
whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do
you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said
to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the
sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him,
“What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from
the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 Then they said to him,
“What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew
more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the
sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that
this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to
get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more
tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord,
let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for
you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and
hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men
feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made
vows.”
To prove
that God specializes in using broken instruments to save other broken
instruments, God does something incredible through Jonah in this passage, he
saves the pagan mariners through Jonah while he was in the midst of running
from his call.
After
finding out it is because of the rebellious Hebrew in their midst that their
lives are in danger, this is what the mariners do,
“14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord,
let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for
you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and
hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men
feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made
vows.”
The mariners
repent and turn to the Lord. God saved these pagan mariners from certain destruction,
through Jonah.
I cannot be
100% certain about this, but it is likely these men were Phoenician sailors.
The reason this may be is because the Phoenicians, especially the Sidonians and
Carthaginians, controlled the trade in the Mediterranean sea in this era. They
basically monopolized it.
Phoenicians
were Canaanites. Their gods were the Baals and Asherah’s. So, it is entirely
likely that in the process of trying to get away from being used by God to save
wicked pagans who opposed God and his people, that God used Jonah to redeem some
pagans who opposed God and his people. That’s why they knew who the Lord was
when Jonah said who he was. This freaked them out.
But even if
they were different pagans, a possibility, they might have been Greeks or
Cretans or others, either way, God used Jonah at his worst, to be the vehicle
of redemption for these lost worshippers of false gods. God was determined to
save some pagans through Jonah and Jonah was not going to get in the way of
this happening.
The book of
Jonah shows us that God is not looking for robots who don’t think and reason
and question for themselves. God is looking to work in and through real people,
like Jonah and Abraham, like you and me. Imperfect, broken instruments, that
God can still work beauty through.
We can
sometimes look at people like these prophets through a lens like they are
almost superhuman. But that is the wrong way to think about them. The bible is
the most brutally honest history book every written, God wants us to know that
he works with his people, and through his people, flaws and all. And he does
not use superhumans to do incredible things. That is the devil’s tactic through
the Nephilim and stuff like that. God specializes in using ordinary people
empowered by his supernatural spirit, to work in this world.
Even rebels
like Jonah, who have to be humbled first, before they can fulfil their proper call.
When we look
at broken people we tend to see a person who is broken, like a pottery vase
that has been broken down, and we looked at the lost glory. You know what God
sees? God sees what that vase could look like when repaired, God sees what that person could be if
they called out to God for him to put them back together.
God
specializes in repairing broken instruments, because when it comes to human
beings, that is all he has. A whole world of instruments broken in various and
different ways.
Application
– So how do we apply
this sermon?
- Remember it is the one who is forgiven much, who loves much. None of us should ever forget how much we have been forgiven.
- Recognize that you are never down for the count. No matter what brokenness there has been in your life. God can put you back together and work through you still.
- Know that God wants us to wrestle with him and his calling on our lives. The thing he hates is the lukewarm. But the person who will passionately wrestle with God, he blesses. Remember what Israel means? Struggles with God. God blessed Jacob for wrestling with him. Bring your issues and disagreements to him, see what he does.
- Don’t over-spiritualize the heroes of the Bible. G.K. Chesterton put it like this, “Alone of all superiors, the saint does not depress the human dignity of others. He is not conscious of his superiority to them; but only more conscious of his inferiority than they are.”[iii] If God wanted us to over-spiritualize the saints of the Bible, he would not have recorded all their flaws, showing us they are as human as we are. They were not inherently special, they were special because God anointed them.
- Ask God, what is he calling you to?
Conclusion
– Jonah is such a
powerful and famous little book, that in the minds of some people he has
probably been mythologized a little. But I hope this morning you can see, that
he was a real man, in a real situation, in a really broken nation, and that
despite all of this God worked through him anyway. Let’s take hope from that,
because we now live in a day and age not to different to his. Let’s pray that
God would work through us in a mighty way too. Let’s pray.
List of
References
[i] My
previous sermon before this one.
[iii] A
Short History of England (p. 10). Kindle Edition.
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