About 14 or so years ago I took our teens on an all-day white water rafting trip to Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania. When we arrived, we divided into four-man teams, picked a raft, grabbed our oars and life-vests, and then headed down the Youghogheny river, a challenging piece of white water with several class 3 or 4 rapids. It’s a very fun river to ride, and if you haven’t had a chance to go down it, I recommend you do so.
Now, our guide that day was very good. Before we set out, he made sure we all knew how to row and how to steer and what to do if our raft ended up pinned against a rock, or if we fell out of the raft, things like that. And, in addition to our pre-launch briefing, all day long as we went down the river, whenever we came to a series of rapids, first he would pull all of us over to the side and brief us as to exactly how to get our rafts through. He’d been down this river hundreds of times and knew each rapid like the back of his hand, so he’d share his wisdom and insights in these pre-rapid briefings before sending us through one at a time.
Now, we had about 15 rafts in our group that day, and when it came to the first series of rapids my raft ended up going through last. At first my team felt bad about that. We were eager for the excitement of that first rapid, but we patiently waited our turn as we watched the other 14 teams go through. Some made it with no problem, but several rafts ended up spilling their crews into the river. Well, we paid close attention to all this, and when it came our turn we had no problem, because we had taken note of the mistakes and successes of each of the prior teams. We learned from their experience exactly how to get through that first rapid, and this tactic worked so well we decided to do each rapid that way. For the rest of the day at every rapid we always waited to go last, so as to learn from those who went before us. And this is a good principle to remember in life. In fact, all of you teens who just graduated this week be sure to take note of this. It’s always less painful to learn from the mistakes of others than from our own. I mean, experience is a good teacher, even if it’s someone else’s experience!
Now, in essence, that’s what we are going to do today. We’re going see what we can learn from the experiences of a prophet named Jonah by reading and studying the book that bears his name. Of course, Jonah didn’t ride river rapids but he did go through white water! He encountered what must have been waves and troughs that would at least be equivalent to class 5 and above. You see, Jonah went through a severe storm at sea, sent by God to teach him some very important lessons, and today I want us to learn those lessons as well, without having to go through a storm of our own of course. Then tonight we’ll continue our study of Jonah’s experiences with the help of our children’s choirs as they present the musical Go Go Jonah. I hope to see you all at 6pm!
I imagine many of us present this morning think we know all there is to know about this little Old Testament book. You may have decided this is a sermon you can ignore and have already started to drift off. And the plain fact is, most people don’t take the book of Jonah seriously because they think this little book is not much more than a big fish story. I mean, if you walked up to someone on the Metro platform tomorrow and said, “Let’s play word association. Here’s the first word: ‘Jonah!’ They would probably respond, “Whale!” But, actually only 3 of the 48 verses in Jonah talk about this “whale of a fish.” There is a lot more to this little book than Jonah’s 3-day excursion in a giant guppy’s gullet!
G. Campbell Morgan was right when he said, “Men have been looking so hard at the great fish that they have failed to see the great God!” Now don’t get me wrong. The fish in this book would be a trophy on anyone’s wall. This particular experience of Jonah is one of the Bible’s most amazing miracles! But it’s not the central theme of this episode from the life of this prophet of Israel. There is so much more that we can learn from Jonah’s white water experiences. And to get the fullest benefit from our study, we must understand at the onset that this book is not a fable or an allegory, even though many people think it is. No, this fish story and the events surrounding it really happened. Jonah was a real person from the town of Gath Hepher, which was located about four miles north of Nazareth.
In Matthew 12:40 Jesus Himself underscored the fact that Jonah was an actual person by saying, “As Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
2 Kings 14:25 tells us that Jonah served as God’s prophet during the days of Jeroboam II. This was the time period in which Israel was divided into two kingdoms, north and south, before any of the invasions and deportations that would eventually affect both kingdoms. To refresh your memory of Old Testament history, I need to remind you that Jonah’s king, Jeroboam II, was an idolatrous and immoral king who brought nothing but evil to the land. Yet, in His mercy and grace God told Jonah to prophesy to the nation that the territorial boundaries of Israel were going to be expanded. God was going to give territory back that had been taken generations earlier by the Syrians. And God did exactly what He had Jonah tell the people He would do. Jonah preached and prophesied about an expansion and it did indeed happen just as he said it would. Because of his prophetic accuracy Jonah became very popular. He had great public success in the economic and military glory days of the northern kingdom. Everyone liked to hear him preach! Everyone wanted to hear Jonah tell what wonderful thing was going to happen next. Why, if WAVA existed back then, I imagine Jonah would have been given the time slot right next to James Dobson’s Focus on the Family or Charles Swindoll’s Insight for Living.
Okay, with that background in mind let’s go to our text. I want to read the first three verses but keep your Bibles open to Jonah as we survey the entire book this morning.
Jonah 1:1 – The 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.”
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.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Okay, what can we learn from this record of Jonah’s experiences? In answer to this question I want to point out three important lessons that we can glean from his white water adventure.
(1) And the first is this: God speaks to us.
As I said earlier, God spoke to His prophet Jonah frequently. and we have a prime example in Jonah 1:1-2 where it says, “The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.'” Think of it! These verses say that almighty God actually spoke to this guy! He gave him a specific message and a specific group of people to deliver it to. Now, we don’t know what method God used to speak to Jonah. For Moses it was a burning bush. For Elijah it came as a gentle whisper. For Obadiah and others it was through visions. We don’t know how He spoke to Jonah, but we do know that He did. And this is not an isolated incident. The Bible records the fact that, like our guide on the Youghogheny river that day, God repeatedly spoke to people guiding them in ways that allowed them to live in the center of His will.
For example: Judges 13:25 refers to Samson and says, “The Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan.”
1 Chronicles 28:12 says that David gave Solomon, “the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple.”
Luke 2:27 says that old Simeon, “moved by the spirit went into the temple courts,” where he met Mary and Joseph and the infant Messiah.
In Luke 12:12 Jesus promised the disciples, “the holy spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
In Acts 20:22 Paul said, “compelled by the spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.”
Romans 8:16 refers to Christians like you and me and says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
Today we still use these same Biblical phrases to describe God’s speaking to us, leading us, guiding us, directing us. And you know what I mean! We refer to God’s messages to us as an inner voice or prompting or just a deep knowing. Perhaps you’ve heard someone say, “I was suddenly prodded to notice,” or “This thought popped into my head,” or “This verse came to mind,” or “I have had this nagging persisting thought,” or, “I couldn’t shake the impression that,” My point is just as He did to Jonah and all those other people in the Bible, God still speaks to us, personally, specifically. Even in our day and age people still testify to the fact that they have personally experienced the truth of verses like Isaiah 58:11 where it promises, “The LORD will guide you continually,” and Psalm 32:8 where God says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go,” and Isaiah 30:21 where it says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.'”
In fact, this morning I want to bear witness once again to the fact that I have seen these scriptures fulfilled numerous times in my own life as God has told me what vocation He wanted me to pursue, which church family He wanted me to serve, who He wanted me to marry, how to be a better husband, how to parent three children, what kinds of sermons He wanted me to deliver, and even where He wanted me to live. When I face a difficult counseling session or some crisis in the life of the church and don’t know what to say or do, if I ask, God always speaks to me, giving the wisdom and words I need. Over and over and over again I have heard God communicate to me. He speaks through His written Word. He speaks to me through the wise counsel of godly people. He guides me with an inner nudge or an intense impression that lines up with what Scripture tells me of His nature. But God does speak to me. He has guided me down the river of life just as He did Jonah. You see, since I am a Christian, God has a direct line into my heart. And will tell you, it has come to the point that I yearn for His gentle voice. I hunger for His guidance. I can’t imagine having to “guess” at what I should do or say in life. I don’t think I could bear the loneliness of feeling that I could only talk to myself. Do you know what I mean?
In fact, if God has ever spoken to you, guided you, helped you to know where to go or what to do or what to say, would you give witness to that by raising your hand? Thank you. God does speak to us doesn’t He!? And, aren’t you glad He does!!!
Dr. Bottomly, one of the contributors to one of my favorite magazines, Discipleship Journal, shares an experience his daughter Bethany had while on vacation. She was speeding down a California freeway with three teenage friends. One of them, Jody, told of having dreamed the night before that they were in a serious wreck and that she had been the only one with a seat belt on and the only survivor. Hearing that, they all fastened their seat belts. A few miles up the road, their car swerved into the grass median and rolled over several times. The investigating officer looked at the car and the shaken but unhurt teens and said, “If you hadn’t had your seat belts on, the outcome of this would have been a lot different.” Where did Jody’s dream come from? I think it was God speaking to her, because if we listen, God will speak to us. He will guide us, directs us, lead us through the storms and rapids of life.
(2) A second lesson we can glean from Jonah’s experience is that God disciplines us.
Now, as I said, God spoke to Jonah, but He told him something He didn’t want to hear. God told this popular prophet to go and preach His message to the wicked people of Nineveh. Well, Jonah didn’t want to do this so he hopped a boat heading in the opposite direction. He bought a ticket on a ship bound for Tarshish, a Spanish fishing village so far away it would take him 18 months to get there. But, no sooner had his vessel gotten out of the harbor than they hit white water. I mean, God threw an enormous storm his way. Verse 4 says that, “the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.” And I want you to understand, this was no typical storm! It was more “perfect” than the perfect storm in that George Clooney movie from a few years back. In fact, the Hebrew here literally says that the storm was so bad that “,the ship itself thought it was going to break up.”
Now, the sailors on this Tarshish-bound ship were probably Phoenicians and they were some of history’s greatest sailors. They were well-acquainted with storms at sea and they saw that this was no natural storm, that in fact it was supernatural in origin, so they cried out to their pagan gods for help and threw cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. This didn’t work so they drew lots to see who it was that was causing this storm. Jonah drew the short straw and this forced him to admit to the sailors that his disobedience was the reason for this perfect storm. Then, at Jonah’s request the sailors of that ship reluctantly threw him overboard, and the storm instantly stopped. Well, as rebellious ole Jonah sank toward the bottom, just as he was about to lose consciousness and drown, he prayed, He asked God to help. I’m sure his prayer was nothing fancy, probably just two words, “Lord, help!” and God answered that prayer as He does all prayers. In His foreknowledge He apparently had a fish or a whale on standby in the vicinity and when Jonah prayed, God ordered this creature to rescue him. The fish swallowed Jonah whole and ingested him into a place where there was a pocket of air.
Now, think of it, God could have thought, “Good riddance,” let Jonah drown, and then chosen another prophet. But He didn’t. He loved Jonah too much to let him get way with this sinful rebellion. As Max Lucado puts it, “God loves us as we are, but He loves us too much to let us stay that way.” So He threw a storm at Jonah’s ship and worked things out so that Jonah would draw the short straw, be thrown into the sea, sink to the bottom, and panic so much that he would be humbled to the point that he would finally pray, and through his prayer and the time he spent in that fish, would have an opportunity to realize how wrong he had been. God disciplined Jonah. He did things to help him grow and mature.
And God still does that. As Proverbs 3:12 says, “God disciplines those He loves.” He doesn’t let us get away with our rebellion any more than He did Jonah. When we disobey Him, God often sends hard times our way because many times that is the only thing that will wake us up and help us see the folly of our ways.
That day on the Yougegheny River one of our raft crews was made up of three of my favorite teens who just happened to be three of our most mischievous young people: two P.K’s: Ryan Walker and David Meyers and a D. K. (Deacons’ kid) named Brian Burdette. By the way, take note. You always have to watch out for those P.K’s and D.K’s. Well these three fun-loving adolescents totally ignored our guide’s pre-trip and pre-rapid directions and after having to rescue them after they capsized three times in a row, he rebuked them for their fool-hardy behavior and asked me to redistribute them among the other rafts. At first they didn’t like being humbled like this, but they actually had a better time the rest of the trip and more importantly no one got hurt. I was thankful for our guide’s stern input. With this discipline he was trying to teach Ryan, David, and Brian more responsible behavior, behavior that could save their lives on this fun but still very dangerous river.
Well, we are all like that at times aren’t we? I mean, be honest, has God ever had to discipline you? Have you ever had to learn a lesson the hard way? If we were honest we’d all have to say yes because often, like Jonah we have to be humbled. We have to be disciplined and when we are, finally the time comes when we are mature enough to say, with the Psalmist, “Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey Your word. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn Your decrees.” (Psalm 119:67, 71)
And Jonah had a lot to learn! For three days in that smelly, dark fish belly he pondered his situation. He did a lot of soul-searching in those 72 hours of darkness. And he eventually saw the foolishness of his sin. He saw his need to be in the center of God’s will and then he prayed a prayer of repentance. You can read it in chapter 2 of his book.
But, understand, this time was good for Jonah. I like the way R. T. Kendall put it. He said: “The belly of the fish is not a happy place to live, but it is a good place to learn.” Up until this point Jonah had thought all he needed was public success as a prophet and the material reward and acclaim that comes with it, but in the fish he realized this was not true. He saw that his greatest need was to be right with God, to be an obedient and faithful prophet.
This disciplinary experience was a real eye-opener for Jonah. In fact, I think he saw the irony of the fact that even as a prophet of God he had slipped into idolatry. I say this because in verse 8 of chapter 2, when Jonah prayed to God about people clinging to false idols he was referring to himself. You see Jonah had put himself in God’s place. God had told him he had a job for him to perform and Jonah told God He had the wrong man. God told him he wanted him to go east to Nineveh. Jonah decided to go west to Tarshish. God told him to go by land. Jonah went by boat. Everything God said to do, Jonah did the opposite. In this way Jonah made himself his own god because he tried to superimpose his will on the will of God. Jonah was determined to direct his life, to govern it himself.
And we do the same thing today. We worship our own idols whenever we put ourselves, a loved one, our possessions, our careers, our popularity, or whatever in the place of God. But our counterfeits will always fail and leave us frustrated and defeated because you see, when we put ourselves in God’s place we run headlong into our insufficiency and inadequacy. In these times of discipline, if we are wise, we will realize how desperate we are for God, we’ll remember we are “ptokos” without Him, and when that happens we will turn back to God.
So, God disciplined Jonah. He sent a storm and a fish. God literally moved heaven and earth because He loved Him so much. This leads to a third lesson we can take from Jonah’s experience.
(3) And it is this, God loves us, all of us.
We see this in chapter 4 because in this part of the book we find out why Jonah disobeyed God and ran the other way. You see, after Jonah repented and delivered his God-given sermon to the Ninevites, they repented of their wickedness. And when they repented, God relented and decided not to destroy them. When this happened Jonah prayed and said, “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (Jonah 4:1-3)
I mean, the reason Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh in the first place was because he hated these people, and in all fairness, we need to understand that Jonah had good reason to hate them. You see, in that part of the world the Ninevites were definitely the “bad guys.” In fact, the Living Bible paraphrases the last part of verse 2 by saying that the wickedness of Niniveh was such that it “smelled to high heaven.” And that is not a bad paraphrase, because the Assyrian Empire was well known all over the ancient world for its wickedness and cruelty. One of their kings, Ashurbanipal was accustomed to tearing off the lips and hands of his victims. Another Assyrian ruler, Tiglath-Pileser, flayed victims alive and made great piles of their skulls. The soldiers in the Assyrian army were as bad as their rulers because they had no qualms about “scorched earth” military tactics. Typically after destroying an enemy’s fields and cities, they slaughtered the conquered people or hammered iron rods through their noses or lower lips and led them away as slaves.
Now, Isaiah had prophesied earlier (7:17 ff) that the Assyrians would successfully invade Israel; And, Jonah of course was familiar with this prophecy. In fact, in Jonah’s day the Assyrians were already making forays into the northern kingdom of Israel, sort of pre-invasion attacks. And when the Assyrians did this, when they penetrated into a nation they hoped to conquer, they would make a surprise attack, take captive the women, and then brutally slay the men and children.
Now, remember? I told you that Jonah lived in a northern town so perhaps he had personally witnessed some of these attacks. He may have seen his own father and mother brutally slain before his eyes or he might have seen his sisters raped by the Assyrian troops. I don’t know, but I tell you this so you can comprehend Jonah’s hatred of the Assyrians. He understandably wanted nothing to do with helping these brutally wicked people. He knew what they were like. And he also knew what God was like. Plus, he had delivered His sermons before and so he knew how sinners tended to respond to God’s messages, and how God responded to repentant sinners. I mean, Jonah understood this aspect of the character of God and he didn’t want to be a part of this inevitable “sermon, then repentance, then forgiveness cycle.” No, Jonah wanted the Ninevites scorched not spared. He wanted them nuked not nurtured by our loving and forgiving God.
I think Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse hit it right on the nose when he said that calling Jonah to go to the Ninevites was like asking a Jew from New York to go to Hitler after the holocaust, and tell him that God loved him and that everything would be forgiven if we would repent. Jonah hated those people. In fact, I don’t think he even saw them as people. So imagine how upset Jonah was when his personal prediction came true and God forgave them! In fact, we don’t’ have to imagine because chapter 4 tells us Jonah was so ticked that he stomped off up into the hills where he could have a clear view of the city of Nineveh. And, understand, this is the second time Jonah has fled his area of ministry. He fled to Tarshish in chapter one rather than do what God wanted him to do and now he headed for the hills, when he should have been helping the newly repentant Ninevites to learn more about the God Who had so lovingly spared their city.
When Jonah had stomped up high enough to see all of Nineveh proper he built himself a little lean-to using some leafy branches something to shield himself from the severe desert heat, which was pretty much a necessity because the average temperature in that region was between 110 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Well, Jonah got as comfortable as he could and then he proceeded to sit there glaring down at the Ninevites. But as the day dragged on, the leaves on the branches of his shelter dried up, and began to fall off. And because of this Jonah began to get very hot. Perhaps adding to his discomfort were the sounds of the Ninevites in the city below continuing to mourn and pray to God in repentance!
At this point verse 6 says that God caused a vine to grow up and provide shade for Jonah, “to ease his discomfort” but the Hebrew here literally says, “to deliver him from his evil”, which means that even this vine was a disciplinary tool in God’s hands to free Jonah from his sinful attitude. Verse 6 also says that, Jonah was very happy about the appearance of this vine. In fact it is the only time in the entire book that this grumpy prophet is happy about anything. Maybe his mood improved because he thought this shady vine was an indication that God was coming over to his side. But, God was not done yet. No, He interceded once more and performed another miracle. This time instead of summoning a huge sea creature, He called forth a tiny worm to eat the root of the vine, causing it to wilt and ruin Jonah’s shelter. Then He threw another storm at Jonah. This time it is a desert windstorm known a “Sirocco.”
Now, when these winds blow the temperature rises dramatically, and the humidity drops quickly. It’s like being inside the new convection oven in our kitchen. The Septuagint accurately translates this sudden wind as a “scorcher.” It is almost as if God says, “Okay, Jonah if you’re so up on being hot under the collar, here’s a little help.” Then, as Jonah’s frustration builds, God said, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” Jonah angrily retorted, “Yes, I do,even angry enough to die!”
Now at this point, from our perspective we can see that God has Jonah where He wants him. God has used this vine and worm and wind as tools to show Jonah the absurdity of his demeanor, and to help him understand his own confused heart, God did this to help Jonah realize that he was so full of self-pity that he had no pity left over for the repentant Ninevites. And, as He no doubt read Jonah’s mind God said to him ,”Jonah, you are angry about this plant that is pretty much here today and gone tomorrow, but think about it, Jonah! Nineveh has more than 120,000 children! If you can be concerned about something as trivial as a plant, should I not be allowed to be concerned about something as important as these people?” And Jonah didn’t reply. He couldn’t, because by now even he could now see how off base he had been.
Well, let me ask you, are there any “Ninevites” in your life? Is there an individual that you just can’t stand? Someone you don’t want to experience God’s gracious forgiveness? Someone you want to be exposed and punished instead of embraced and pardoned? Perhaps this person has made it their goal in life to make your life miserable. Maybe you are disgusted with them because they flaunt their rebellion against God’s loving laws and you want them dealt with. You don’t want them to turn– you want them to burn!
And, you know, I’ll be the first to confess, I have felt that way about people from time to time, and because I have, listen and learn from my Jonah-like experience. I mean, learn as I have, that God loves all people, even our enemies, even the “Ninevites” of life, God even loves His enemies because that is the essence of His character. God is love! So, when we hate and yearn to get even, we are conforming not to the character of God, but to the character of the adversary. I mean, Satan loves it when we fan the fires of hatred in our hearts because it gives him a foothold into our lives, so don’t make that mistake, don’t make the mistake I’ve made at times. Don’t let the devil in. Let me put it this way. Don’t get on that “attitudinal boat bound for Tarshish.” Don’t hate people. Obey God and love people, even hard to love people.
In 2nd Corinthians 5:16 Paul reminds us that once we experience God’s grace we should, “regard no one from a human point of view.” This means that once we give our lives to Jesus we must not look at people from our own perspectives of hostility, we should no longer evaluate them based on our own sensitivities.No, we should learn to view people, all people, the way God does, from a heart of love.
And, you never know, the “Ninevites” of your life might be ripe for repentance such that all it takes to get them there, is your obedience to God, your willingness to act in love toward them. That’s the way it was with Jonah’s Ninevites. You see, at this point in their history the people of Nineveh were having some real tough times. Historians tells us that they had recently suffered two plagues that had killed thousands and that they had gone through a total solar eclipse, a very frightening thing to people who did not understand that kind of natural phenomena. Plus, Babylon was rising in power at this time, as were other nations that bordered Assyria which meant the Ninevites faced potential war on four fronts.
Well, for these and other reasons these people were hungry for help from above. They were ripe for repentance. This is why God commanded Jonah to go to them in the first place. He wanted this reluctant prophet to take them the answers they were yearning for.
As we close our service this morning I want to affirm the fact that here at Redland we believe that God still speaks to people today, people like you and me. In fact we end our service each week by giving you an opportunity to listen and hear what God is saying to you. And, if you take advantage of this time, if you stop now and listen you may hear God use one of two words.
(1) He may be telling you to go.
Well, do you hear Him using that word? Is God commanding you to go to someone, maybe not across the ocean, but someone across the room? Is He saying, “Go to ‘you know who’ and tell them, ‘What you are doing is wrong. But God loves you and yearns to forgive you. I love you too, and I want God’s best for you so I urge you to turn to Him!” If that is the word God is saying to you right now, then I urge you not to make Jonah’s mistake. Obey God, commit right now to go to that person. Or, in this time of invitation you may hear another word from God.
(2) He may be whispering in your innermost being the word “Come,”
inviting you to come to Him in repentance and faith, professing your belief in Him, claiming Him as your Savior and Lord. Or, inviting you, if you are already a Christian, to come and join this church, to become a part of our ministry here.
As God speaks to you we invite you to share it with us. Walk forward as we stand and sing and share your decision with me.