10/12/11 – HS
I think most of us have relegated Jonah to being a kid’s story that you hear about in Sunday School, but the truth is, it’s a powerful story about a rebellious prophet and God’s relentless mercy that pursues him and captures him each step of the way. I have a feeling most of you will identify with Jonah on some level with your own heart and journey, but more than identify with Jonah, my hope and desire is that you would see the God of Jonah – the same God who loves you and pursues you with His mercy.
So in this first chapter we heard that Jonah got a direct message from the Lord. Jonah 1:2-3 Jonah (whose name means “dove”) has been described by many as the reluctant prophet. He often did what was right, but in this particular story, we are going to find that he did not obey God at all when asked to go preach in Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and was Israel’s worst enemy. Israel hated the Ninevites, and you’ll see why in a moment.
I believe that God may show you what He’s shown me, that we all have a little bit of Jonah in us. When each of us look in the mirror, we can see Jonah staring back at us. And like Jonah, we will all hear from God if we are followers of God. We know that God is a speaking God. Throughout history, God speaks in different ways. God has often spoken with the audible voice. God has often spoken through His prophets. God has spoken through circumstances. God has spoken through the voice of His Holy Spirit. If you’ve never, ever heard the voice of God, you can and will today, if you simply open up His Word. This is His Word. It’s described, self described, as living and active. It’s sharper than any two-edged sword. This is His Word that pierces. It is truth that is living. It will transform. His Word will be to change something, to move in a new direction, to be obedient to what He says to you, and you will have a choice. You can do what God wants you to do, and that is to be obedient to His Word, or you can do what Jonah did and say, “I don’t want to be obedient to You.”
So you can know that the Word of the Lord will come to you… and that is good news. But the challenging part is this: oftentimes when God comes to you, God will often ask you to do some things that you don’t want to do. He’ll often ask you to do some things that you don’t want to do, and the reason we don’t want to do them a lot of times is because we really like to believe that we know what is best. We like to try to convince ourselves that we really know what is better.
The Word of the Lord will come to some of you, and you will hear specifically from God, “This is what I should do,” and in your mind, you may think, “Okay, I understand that’s what You want me to do, but I don’t want to do it! I don’t want to have anything to do with it.” Perhaps, you can relate in different ways. Maybe someone has wronged you and hurt you, and God says forgive them. Or you are in a dating relationship that is not honoring to God – maybe you’re going to far physically and you know God has reserved those things for marriage and God says to you “stop”. Maybe it has to do with your future and the plans you have are different than what you know God has for you. See in these or other areas we all can say, “I know that’s what God wants me to do, but I don’t want to do it.” Don’t care what God says,” that’s the Jonah in all of us – the Jonah in the mirror.
Or maybe God is speaking to you, but you don’t want to do it now. You’ve been telling God that you will obey later. Remember this. Delayed obedience is really disobedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Erwin McManus, a pastor in California, says it this way: “You can tell the maturity of a person between the distance of the command of God and the obedience. If the distance is short, they are mature. If the distance is long, it is immaturity.” Where do you find yourself in this spectrum? How short or long is your distance to obedience?
But are you ready for an amazing truth… no matter how short or how long our distance of response to God’s revelation… God has been and is continuing to pursue us with His mercy. When we are quick to obey, God’s mercy granted you the obedience to obey quickly. When we are slow to obey… God’s mercy is nipping at our heels, relentlessly calling us back into obedience.
Jonah said, “I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to have anything to do with those people. That leads us to the next truth: Whenever God does speak, You can always find a boat sailing in the opposite direction. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about here. God says to Jonah go and preach and what does Jonah do? Find a boat that is going in the exact opposite direction. And for Jonah it wasn’t just the opposite direction, but the city of Tarshish was about 2,500 miles away from where he was supposed to go. That’s a lot of running. Some of you, right now, you can relate. You may have everyone else fooled, but you know in your heart you’ve been running, and you’re a long way from God. The Word of the Lord is come to you. “Here is what I want you to do,” and somewhere along the way, months or weeks or years back, you said, “No, no. I know that’s what You want, God, but I don’t want to obey You.” You’ve been on the run, and you think you can get away with it. You need to understand, you can run for a while, but you can’t run forever. God’s relentless mercy will catch up to you… and that is not just a good thing that is the best thing that could happen.
When we disobey the commands of God intentionally or even unintentionally, we are running away. We are separating ourselves from Him, it’s the Jonah in the mirror. The Word of the Lord will come to you. It may not be what you want to hear. When you run, you can always find a boat sailing in the opposite direction. Some of you are on the run right now. This third truth might speak to you. When you are on the run, doing the wrong thing: God may send a storm to grab your attention.
Jonah boards a boat heading the opposite direction and God sends a huge storm that sends everyone on the boat into a panic except for Jonah who was asleep. This storm was so big and so huge that even the pagans on the ship knew that a higher power must be at work. They cast a lottery to see who was at fault and everything pointed to Jonah. So he comes clean and tells them who he is and what God had told him to do and then the all realized that he was running from God.
Jonah finally realizes that his disobedience was hurting all the innocent people around him. He finally owns up to it. So he says, “Okay, guys, I’m sorry. Pick me up. Throw me into the sea, and it will become calm. This whole storm, it’s my fault,” he said. So, the sailors, they’re going to have mercy on him, because they really care about him, even though they know him. And they said, “We’re not going to do that to you. Let’s throw our cargo off the boat.” This was the thing, their livelihood. Okay? “Let’s throw it off the boat. We’re going to get rid of everything and try to save you.” That didn’t work, okay? “Let’s row back to shore.” Okay, that didn’t work, either, and finally, it’s like, “Okay, we’re all going to die. I guess we need to throw you off.” And so they said, “God, forgive us. We’re sorry. We don’t want to do this to Jonah. Jonah, we’re sorry,” and they throw him overboard, and the sea goes calm. Then, something unbelievably bad in our human mind happens to Jonah. He’s swallowed by a big fish.
It makes for a sensational story doesn’t it? Seems ridiculous, kinda out of this world and even a little mean that Jonah would get tossed and then eaten by a giant fish. But that leads us to our last truth: Jonah’s worst nightmare was exactly what he needed. They threw Jonah overboard and the raging sea grew calm. At this, the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and they made vows to Him. In Jonah’s disobedience God’s mercy was displayed in such a way that those that didn’t know Him fell down in worship.
Now this is really interesting. What seemed like a nightmare situation, was actually God’s relentless mercy. What did verse 17 say? “And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah…” God appointed or other translations say God provided the fish. And Jonah would find himself in that fish for three days and three nights. What Jonah would see is the worst possible scenario God provided. Some of you right now, you may be facing what you would consider is your nightmare. And God may say, “Okay, now do I have your attention?” Some of you may be facing a relationship that you think it just couldn’t get any worse than this, and God may say, “Okay, do I have your attention?” Now, what I am not going to say is, I am not going to tell you that everything that bad happens is God causing it in your life, because I don’t believe that is true, but I do believe with everything in me that there are times where God may cause, or God may allow, what we would consider is our worst nightmare so that He can fully get our attention. This is God’s relentless mercy to us.
What did Jonah deserve? Sin always deserves punishment. Sin ultimately and always leads to death. But God offers Jonah mercy – He gives him something He doesn’t deserve. In the midst of his disobedience and rebellious running from God – God stops his running with a whale. And that’s a picture of God’s mercy to Jonah and His mercy to us. And that’s what’s amazing about this story. What is more shocking than Jonah’s disobedience and sin is God’s amazing grace and mercy.
The Word of the Lord will come to you, and you have a choice: obey or disobey. When God speaks to you, you can always find a ship sailing the opposite direction. If you do not obey, He may send a storm to grab your attention. If that doesn’t get it, He may allow you to face your worst nightmare. When He does, understand this. It’s all because He loves you and His relentless mercy is pursuing you because He has something for you to do, and He has a city or a group of people for you to impact. You’ve got a choice. You can keep running, or you can come back to Him. I pray you come back to Him.
TO THINK ABOUT
1. Where do you see Jonah when you look in the mirror?
2. What has God asked you to do that you haven’t done? (Is there any area of disobedience in your life?)
