by Pastor Glenn Layne

September 8, 2002
This Week's Message:

First Message in the Series
You're Drafted! Jonah and You

On the Boat

Jonah 1

I have never been able to sleep in the light. As much as I have wanted to take a nap on a beach or in the backyard, I have never been able to block out enough sun to do that. I have always been a light sleeper, so I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised.

The book of Jonah tells the story of a man whom not once but twice falls asleep in the light. The full light of the glory of God's word coming to Him was not enough to wake him up. Instead, God uses a storm, a great fish, and a vine to wake him up.

Does God give second chances? You betcha. Jonah is a story of second chances. It's an Old Testament Great Commission, telling of God's worldwide concern for getting the message of salvation to all the nations. 2700 years after its writing, it still challenges us, still speaks to us, still rattles our complacencies and still reminds us of that fact that God has a task, a challenge and a mission for each of us.

Why sleep?

But-back to the subject of sleep for a moment. I recently read that despite all the study that's been done on sleep in recent years, researchers can't yet say the exact reason why we sleep. All we can do is describe it, see its benefits, and record its effect when denied.

• Exhaustion: I've mentioned the great British preacher Charles Spurgeon before, the pastor of the world's first "mega-church," the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London in the mid-19th century. He had health problems his whole short life (he died in his 50s), and often worked himself to the point of exhaustion. One Sunday evening he asked his wife not to wake him the next morning. Just let me sleep as long as my body needs. Monday morning she did just that. He slept all morning-past breakfast and into the afternoon. She was getting worried, but he just snored on. All afternoon and past supper. Again, he just snoozed away. All evening and all Monday night (thereby missing Monday Night Rugby I guess). He finally woke Tuesday morning at 7 AM-and refused to believe that he'd really slept through a whole day!
• Grief: But exhaustion isn't the only cause of sleep. Grieving people sleep more that most others. Grief itself is tiring, and sleep provides an escape from anxiety. One study says that a person who has lost a close loved one, especially a spouse, will sleep on average two hours more per day that before in the year following the loss.
• Guilt: But sleepiness can actually be induced by yet a third source: guilt. A sense of guilt can actually cause a person to crave sleep more because sleep is an escape. It's striking to me that in this passage, Jonah goes below deck and falls into a deep sleep. Exhaustion? Maybe. But I suspect that he also wants to shut off his guilty conscience.

The "flow" of the book of Jonah

Before going on, though, let's take a moment to grasp the whole book of Jonah. The book neatly divides into four sections, which correspond to the four chapters exactly:

In chapter one of Jonah, we see the disobedience of Jonah, which lands him first in the sea and then in the belly of the "great fish", leading to his distress in chapter two. (By the way, we'll examine the historical evidence for the "whale tale" next week.) Distress gives way to declaration as Jonah then preaches God's word in Ninevah, and then his displeasure when the Ninevites had the audacity to actually repent! In chapter 1, we see him fleeing from God; in chapter 2, fearing God and going back to Him, in 3, He follows God and goes with His will, but in 4 is fuming at God's grace toward the Ninevites and tries to "go ahead" of God by wishing God would judge them.

The first two chapters are about Jonah's first commission, the last two about his second or "recommission." And if I had to sum up Jonah's attitude, chapter by chapter, it would be this:

1: "I won't go!"
2: "I will go."
3: "I'm here."
4: "I'm wish I hadn't come!"

Finally, we know that the conditions described and the chronology of the Old Testament would place the events of the book at about 785-775 BC.

1. Commission Call #1: Go to Ninevah! (1:1-2)

1The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2"Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."

Who is this guy Jonah? Despite the fact that we associate him with sea faring, he was a man from an inland village with a simple background.

• There is only one other reference to Jonah's background in the Old Testament: 2 Kings 14:25:

25He [King Amaziah] was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.

Jonah's only prior claim to fame was that he'd prophesied that King Amaziah would recapture some territory that the Northern Kingdom had lost: from what's now southern Syria down to the Dead Sea (here called the Sea of Arabah).

This is the kind of prophecy that a proud patriotic Israelite would be happy to share: we're gonna whoop our enemies and take back land they took.

• Further, even his hometown tells us something. Gath Hepher was a town in Galilee, just over ridge from Nazareth. This was in the "war zone" of ancient Israel-where there were plenty of Gentiles nearby and right on the invasion route whenever the Syrians would attack-not an infrequent event. Think of it as a kind of an ancient "west bank" region (things don't change too much do they?)
• So would be fair to say that Jonah grew up in a place where "Gentile" meant "dangerous people"? Where "Israel" means the one and only people of God-the object of His exclusive love? Seems that way.

Now God says, "Go to Ninevah. Preach against it," what Jonah hears is, "Go to the dirty Gentiles, the enemy, and preach and maybe, just maybe I might do something nice to them." Ninevah was the capital of the Assyrian Empire (not to be confused with the Syrians). They had come within a hair's breath of taking Israel about 10-15 years before. They were the Real Enemy-the big bad guys of the north. So what does Jonah do?

2. Jonah flees from his call (1:3)

3But 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.

"Heck, no, I won't go!" He went to Israel's only seaport, Joppa and found a ship (almost certainly a Phoenician ship, from modern Lebanon) headed due west-to a mining outpost in what's today Spain. Let's review: Ninevah, north. Tarshish: west. Oops. Wrong way, Jonah. Ninevah-bound is the direction of obedience. Tarshish-bound is the direction of rebellion. And he was headed to Tarshish at top speed.

• Desmond Alexander teaches in a seminary in Northern Ireland. He and his son were going through a museum and came upon the sword display. One was inscribed "sola Deo Gloria": "To God alone the glory." Another was inscribed "For God and Ulster": the cry of Protestant Northern Ireland. He calls it the "Jonah syndrome": when our national pride turns into bigotry that excludes and judges others as unworthy of the grace of God. Let's face it: Jonah was a bigot.
• So he goes off to Joppa-the very same place that God spoke to Peter about the fact that God loves Gentiles too (Acts 10-11). Funny how these things keep repeating.
• Was Jonah a real patriot? Maybe too much of a patriot-more of a nationalist. Maybe he had a bumper sticker on his donkey cart that said, "Israel: Love it or Leave It." What's clear is that he believed that those people-those Assyrians-could not possibly be loved by God.
• Jonah had a faith that had been encrusted with narrow national interests. I'm a patriot, and there is no conflict between faith in Christ and patriotism. But the gospel is trans-national-international. I'm glad that those young women who went with the gospel when it was still under the thumb of the Taliban didn't have the attitude Jonah shows here.
• God called, but Jonah's faith-encrusted under layers of narrow nationalism and bigotry-made him do something that is amazing for a man called as a prophet of God. He ran.

3. Jonah, the sailors, and the storm of God (1:4-16)

So next we read of Jonah's short-lived career in the Phoenician Navy:

4Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5All 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. 6The captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish."
7Then 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.
8So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"
9He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land."
10This 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.)
11The 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." 13Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14Then they cried to the LORD, "O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased." 15Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.

• Your sin will find you out. Your sin will find you out because it's always payday someday, and also you can be sure that God, because He loves you, will chase you down with some kind of storm and correct you.
• Your sin will find you out…and will put others in danger. Remember when Bill Nicoson was here and he asked the question, "How much will your sin cost me?" Jonah's sin put the life of every man on that ship in danger. Your sin could put your spouse-your family-your church-in danger.
• But it was love. The storm was a love storm. The "great fish", the dag gadol in Hebrew, was sent by a God whom loved Jonah so much that He wasn't willing to just let him perish in the sea.
• Remember, as Hebrews 12:6 says, "Whom the Lord loves, He disciplines."
• God had spoken once to Jonah: "Go to Ninevah." That word was a gentle voice; now He speaks through the megaphone of pain. CS Lewis said that God whispers in our pleasures, but that He shouts in our pains. So was it that stormy night on the Mediterranean.

The pagans and the preacher (esp. vs. 8-9)

It is interesting that Jonah, the proud Hebrew, who wanted nothing to do with Gentiles, gets on a Gentile boat headed for a Gentile destination, surrounded by Gentiles sailors. This storm was unlike any they'd ever seen, so they assumed that the gods must be angry with someone on board. Now usually that's a foolish idea, but in this case, it was the right course of action. And the pagans end up being the one confronting the preacher.

8So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"
9He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land."

So he ends up telling the Old Testament gospel to the pagans anyway! He is a Hebrew, who worships "Yahweh", the Lord of heaven who made everything: the sea and the land. The gods these guys were used to were local specialists: that mountain, that valley, that city, etc. If a god's only god in say, LA, go to Vegas and you're covered if he's made at you. But this everywhere God of the Hebrews means we're in a heap of trouble, boy.

• These guys become the most unlikely converts in the whole Bible. They ask Jonah, "OK, you're the God of All expert, what do we do?" "Well, I'm the problem-throw me overboard." They had more compassion on him than he'd had on them. Look again in vs. 13-16:
  
  13Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14Then they cried to the LORD, "O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased." 15Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.

Back in vs. 5 they were total pagans. "Each one cried out to his own god." Now they pray and offer sacrifices and make vows to the God of the Hebrews, the God of heaven and earth and sea.

And in two ways we see Jesus here. We see Him in the fact that the man commissioned by God must perish to rescue unworthy sinners, and in the sacrifices they made on that ship. And we will see Jesus even more in the next chapter, next week.

4. Jonah's miraculous rescue (1:17)

Maybe Jonah was planning on a little swimming on his vacation from God, but I bet he didn't plan on this much. Down he goes into the cold water, his life ebbs away, the darkness closes around him when suddenly his body is pounded and pelted and violently shaken and suddenly he finds himself alive in the hot belly of a great creature of the sea-a "great fish":

But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

What did Jonah deserve? Death. Really. Would anybody argue that if he'd drowned, that God would have been unjust? No way. Jonah's rescue was an exercise of pure grace.

Back in seminary I preached on this passage and I mentioned that the "great fish" that God sent was an act of pure grace on the part of the Lord. When we finished our time there, some folks gave Lynann and I a little ceramic whale whose name, they informed us, was Grace. So maybe this whale's name was Grace. His coming certainly was an act of grace on the part of the Lord.

The lessons begin

• Does God really love "those people" too?

You betcha. Whoever "those people" are, God loves them. We're at war, and with the September 11 anniversary just 3 days away, it's tempting just to give into hate the way Jonah did. But-dare I say it? -God loves the wicked deceived men of Al Queada…He loves Saddam Hussein…He loves the terrorists and the tyrants, all the time while hating their evil deeds.

• There is an awful price to pay when you resist God's call.

If God is tapping you on the shoulder, don't dare shrug Him off. If you have sensed that the Lord wants you to go as a missionary, as a pastor, as a youth worker-don't put Him off-unless you happen to like to look at fish from the inside out.

• My sin may cost you an awful lot

Look at this story from the sailors' point of view for a moment. Jonah's sin nearly drowned them all. Your sin may cost me an awful lot. My sin may cost you an awful lot as well. We are connected, people. We do not walk this Jesus walk alone.

• What is God calling us to? You to?

Finally, what is the mission God is calling us to as followers of Jesus Christ? What is He calling us to in our mission to make, mature, and mobilize followers of Jesus? If we will listen-if we truly want to hear the voice of God for this church in 2002 and beyond, then we must be found Ninevah-bound obedient…not Tarshish-bound rebellious.

© Copyright 2002, Pastor Glenn Layne, www.templecitybaptist.org