Jonah (Part 2)
Throughout the years the story of Jonah has been a favorite Bible story among both children and adults. In our last lesson we saw that Jonah was not a bad guy, rather he was a man of God, a famous prophet that served God in the northern kingdom of Israel. His fame became known when with God’s help he prophesied that Israel would win captured territory back from their enemies and then did. But God had another assignment for Jonah, and we find that he did not like it one bit. He was to go and warn the Ninevites that God was going punish and destroy them if they did not humble themselves and repent of their evil ways.
Jonah did not want to do this. They were not only an evil and blood thirsty people, they were also an enemy of the Jews, the very ones that would eventually wage war against Israel and carry the few survivors off into captivity. I read this past week where someone said sending Jonah to the Ninevites would have been like God sending a Jew to Berlin during WW 2 to tell Hitler to repent and humble himself before the Lord or he and his people would be destroyed.
Jonah knew God well enough to know that if by some chance Nineveh did repent, God was gracious enough to forgive them and save them from the pending doom that He had waiting for them.
Because of Jonah’s prejudice and hate for these people, he refused to go; he chose to rebel and disobey God, possibly hoping that God would forget about him or maybe send someone else.
Last week we left off in Chapter 1, verse 3 where Jonah had went down to the Mediterranean Sea to catch a boat to Tarshish which was in the complete opposite direction; 1500 miles away on the SW coast of Spain. It was a Phoenician port on the Atlantic Ocean.
Read Jonah 1:3-6 “3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.””
Do you get the scene here? Jonah pays his fare gets on this ship which is about to leave to flee from the Lord. He gets on the boat, the boat sets out, Jonah heads down into the bowls of the ship, quiet and hidden away, finds a comfy spot and falls to sleep. In the mean time, while out to sea, we read that God sends a great wind and such a violent storm that the ship was in danger of breaking apart. It was probably being tossed around like cork and smashed by waves like never before. But Jonah was down in the hole snoring away.
It got so bad that even these seasoned sailor were afraid for their lives and cried out to their own God for help. If they were Phoenicians, they were probably worshippers of Baal. And then they decided to do the unthinkable; they began to throw their cargo off the ship. Why? They did this to lighten it so that it would not ride so low in the water. But this was their livelihood; transporting this stuff. I guess they figured the cargo would be no good anyway if the ship went down and they all drown trying to save it.
But through all this, Jonah kept snoring away. That is until the captain went down, found him and woke him up crying out, ‘Man how can you sleep. Get up and call on your God and maybe He’ll take notice and save us.’
A few thoughts for us here today:
First of all; I want you to see how our disobedience can affect others. He was not only denying the Nineveh a chance for salvation, he was putting these men in danger, and he was being a horrible role model as a believer in YAHWEH.
Have you even had that happen, your family, or your friends suffer because of your disobedience; of course you have. It happens to us all. Like it or not, your sin will always have an effect on others. It like a stone being thrown into a peaceful calm pond sending ripples out in every directions.
The greatest gift we can give to one another is for us to be close and faithful to God. Our sin and disobedience can hut others emotionally, spiritually, and even physically. Be sure of this, it will have an effect on others.
And #2, Sometimes God sends a storm into our life to wake us up and break us from our own self-reliance. He may have to send you a storm to get your attention. There are two things that can truly humble us; our theology or what we know and believe about God, and 2nd, affliction.
Our theology should humble us , but most of us are hard headed. We are like Jonah and have to get tossed around a bit and thrown over the side of the boat and get completely swallowed by our trouble before we wake up.
God does not send storms just to be mean, or seek revenge on us for sinning, rather He loves us and wants us to do what is right. Do you feel like you are in a storm right now? Take a good look at yourself and your life; maybe God is trying to get you to open up your eyes and open up your heart to Him.
#3, Did you ever notice that there always seems to be a downward progression when we sin? Just like after Jonah rebelled he quite literally sank lower and lower. First to the bottom of the ship, then he sank deeper in the sea water after being thrown over and eventually wound up down in the belly of that great fish at the bottom of the sea before he came to his senses.
It’s like that with sin all too often.
●You steal a little and before you know it your morality goes down and you take more and more each time another occasion arises.
●Or a simple white lie may eventually progress downward to a habit of lying and deception.
●Drug addicts and dealers don’t start out trapped in that life style. No, some simply start out experimenting with less addictive drugs like marijuana with friends, or just want to make a few extra dollars.
●Vicious hostile murders don’t start out blood thirsty, rather somewhere along the way they may not have learned to forgive or extinguish their anger.
●And before you know it many of these people may not find themselves imprisoned in the belly of a whale surround by ribs for bars at the bottom of the sea, but rather they may find themselves down in a prison behind bars of steel, if not dead and buried.
It’s like that with most sin. If you are not careful you may find yourself on the way down a slippery tube to depravity.
If we sin and rebel against God the smartest and best thing we can do is make it right and get back on track right away (ASAP) before we find our self digressing even further.
#4, I also find it interesting that the normal reaction to danger and extreme fear among these pagan men is to seek divine intervention or help from God. Even today when people are in trouble, or extremely stressful situations, or in danger of losing their life, those who never go to church all of a sudden become religious. They turn to God in prayer, pleading that He would come and help or comfort them, but this is precisely what Jonah wanted to avoid. Jonah wanted to get away from God.
Well in their case, things don’t improve So they come up with a new plan; to cast lots to see if any one person is responsible for the calamity… maybe someone was under God’s curse. Read 1:7-10 “7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)”
I guess it was a common practice back then to “cast lots” to determine who was responsible for some catastrophe (cf. John 19:24, 1 Sam. 14:36-42).
Casting lots was a divinely prescribed method of learning God’s will in Israel (e.g., Lev. 16:8-10; Num. 26:55-56; 33:54; 34:13; 36:2-3; Josh. 14:2; 15:1; 16:1). However, as practiced by pagans, it was a more of a superstitious practice.
It would be the same as drawing straws or flipping a coin today. In ancient times, they used varying means to cast lots, depending on the place and local customs, flipping coins, polished sticks, cards, dice, and so on. In this case, God gave the sailors the correct answer to their request.
The lot falls to Jonah so they interrogate him asking the who, what, where, when and whys… Who are you? Who are your people? They asked him, ‘What he did there.’ And he let them know that He was a Hebrew who worships the Lord of heaven, the one who made the land and then sea.
And it goes on to say that this actually frightened the men (as if they weren’t scared all ready.) And so they asked him, “What have you done?” It says that they already knew that he was running from the Lord because for some reason he told them that all ready.
The Phoenicians thought of Baal as a sky god (cf. 1 Kings 18:24). It was the fact that Jonah’s God made “the sea” on which they traveled, as well as “the dry land,” that convinced the sailors that Jonah had done something very serious which frightened them. It was obvious to them that Jonah’s God was after him, and had sent the storm because He was displeased. When God selects someone for special service, that person cannot run and hide from Him.
So they ask Jonah what they should do to remedy the situation.
And rather than say ‘turn the boat around’, or tell them and God that he was sorry and would do what He had asked, he simple says, ‘Throw me overboard.’ In other words ‘ Just get rid of me and let me die’ Read 1:11-12 “11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
How many times have you heard that from someone? “I rather die that do that.”
● “I rather die than forgive so and so.”
● “I rather Die on my feet than die on my knees.”
● “I rather die give that person anything.”
●I read someplace on line where Lady Gaga said, “I rather die than have my fans see me without a pair of heels on.” Or really?
“I rather die than go there.” Some people say these things hypothetically or just to make a point, but Jonah took it literally and would rather die that turn around and go preach to those Ninevites. So he said, “Throw me over the side of the boat.”
Next we see some real conversions take place. Read 1:13-16 “13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.”
The sailors were sincerely bothered by the idea of throwing this servant of God over the side of the boat just to let him drown. If the God Jonah spoke of was truly real they did not want to be guilty of killing him.
- At first they did their best to row back to land, but that was a futile effort because the sea became even wilder than before.
- Then they begin to pray to our Lord God and plead with Him and ask Him not to hold them accountable for killing an innocent man. If the Lord was really God they did not want to get Him angry at them.
- So then, and only then do they take Jonah and throw him into the sea. And what happens next? As Jonah went down so to do the waves. The raging sea goes flat and calm. I’m sure none of them ever saw anything like that before. And then in VS 16 it says that they greatly feared the Lord… at that point they really knew Jonah was not lying, The Lord truly was real and awesome and powerful and in control, holding their very lives in His hands.
- And so they decide to offer up a sacrifice right away and make vows to Him. I don’t know what they offered or what vows they made but I bet they promised to pay Him homage from that point on, thanking Him for sparing their lives. I would also imaging the next time that they were in a Jewish port they probably asked some serious questions about our Lord and God. Maybe they even became proselyte Jews themselves. I would also imaging they told that amazing story where ever they travel until the end of their days.
Lessons for today:
#1) Always remember,,, your obedience or disobedience will have some kind of positive or negative effect on others. Be careful!
#2) If you are in the midst of a storm or trial, it may be wise to look at your life and make sure you are not out of God’s will. We also need to remember that all storms or trials may not be the result of our own sin or disobedience; that’s what the whole story of Job was all about. He did not do anything wrong. Neither did Joseph or even Jesus, yet they had to endure trials that none of us want to experience. Sometimes the hardship or storm has a different purpose, or like in Joseph and Jesus’ case, it may be for the benefit of others. Only God truly know. But it is still wise to examine our self.
#3) We also need to remember that even what may seem like a small sin can lead us down a path we’d never though we go. If we do sin and recognize that it displeases God, we need to nip it in the bud, repent and get back on the right track before we finding our self doing something even worst. If this book teaches us anything, it’s that as long as we are still breathing, it’s never too late to repent, for our God is a forgiving God when it done in true humility.
For more lessons click on the following link: http://granvillenychurchofchrist.org/?page_id=566
All comments can be emailed to: bfronzek@gmail.com
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