Jonah 1:1-16 – Running from God – 18th April 2021

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This is a fascinating book that we’re coming to / If you’ve been raised in a Christian family you

would have been familiar with this story since childhood.

Most people are obsessed and fixated on the fish they see little else in the story. Liberals deny

its historicity / Skeptics like Voltaire took special delight in scoffing at its improbability. G.

Campbell Morgan rightly said: “Men have been looking so hard at the great fish that they have

failed to see the great God.”

Jonah for all that he is / remains fascinating prophet / All other prophets were to preach to the

Gentiles / Jonah is the only one deployed to them

It’s considered a prophetic book and yet it contains only one preaching sentence – five words

in the Hebrew

It’s full of nuggets / It’s about race and nationalism / Is it about God’s call to mission / It’s our

human struggles with obedience and trust / It’s about the measureless mercies of God

And you know Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son / Well in this little book you’ll meet the

prodigal son / and what do you know / you’ll get to meet his elder brother as well. Yes / we’ll

get to see all that here.

And in a wonderful way / the Gospel shines through brilliantly throughout this book. So no

matter what season in life you’re in / this little book will speak to you

So with that very brief intro let’s get cracking

The name Jonah means ‘dove’ / dove / albino cousin of the common pigeon

There is a touch of irony here / as this prophet turns out to be ‘flighty’

It is also ironical that he should bear that name / for the dove that flew from

the ark fulfilled the one commission it was given.

The book starts with the call of Jonah: v.1. “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son

of Amittai”

The phrase the word of the LORD came is a common expression in the prophetic books

They realise that they are recipients of a message they are to communicate. And many of them

would feel a sense of compulsion / a sense of a burden. Sinclair Ferguson says: “It was a sword

in their spirits, a burden on their shoulders, a hammer breaking their rocky hearts, a fire

raging within them. It was bitter to taste. It came. It could not be halted, and it forced itself on

them unbidden. It gripped their minds and touched their consciences. It impelled their

emotions. They could not escape the certain assurance that the voice of God was sounding in

their hearts and must now sound to others through their lips”

Now if the Word of the Lord came to prophets with such compulsion conviction

Then Jonah’s response is rather strange to put it mildly

V.3 says: “But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD”

Jonah went to the nearest sea-port Joppa / that’s the Joppa of today

that great port city of Israel / near Tel Aviv

Instead of going to Assyria / which was due east / He got a ticket to Tarshish which was due

west / That’s the ancient Taitasis of Spain stretching

right on beyond Gibraltar In ancient times / this was literally “the end of the world”.

Instead of going 500 miles east to Nineveh. Jonah started on a journey of

2500 miles to the west to Tarshish – That’s 2000 miles extra / in those days of rough sea

travel / Jonah was determined to go as far as he possibly could in the opposite direction from

where God was sending him.

Now of course there were other prophets who when called by God have been hesitant about

their calling / You think of Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel Each one has hesitated when

called But the difference is this – Their reservations have been due to a sense of unworthiness.

Isaiah – “Woe is me I am undone – I am unclean”

Moses – “I have no eloquence”. Jeremiah – “I am but a child.”

And those were right and proper responses / But Jonah moved beyond hesitation to downright

rebellion. He outrightly refused the commission. This is the only instance where a prophet

refused to obey his calling.

For this reason there are bible scholars who call Jonah an “Anti-Prophet”

He’s not just the “Reluctant Prophet” or the “Unwilling Prophet”

He is the Anti-Prophet. For two reasons:

One / because he flees from his commission / something no other prophet has done.

Two / because more than once he showed himself to be less faithful to God

than the Gentile characters of the story.

And not only is Jonah the Anti Prophet – he is the ironic Anti-Prophet

“ironic” because in spite of his failings he’s about the only successful prophet – where positive

response to the prophetic message is concerned

Other prophets were ignored, side-lined, mocked, arrested, beaten, or killed

Jonah is an ironic anti-prophet.

Jonah isn’t the first person to try to flee from the presence of God. After their sin Adam and

Eve tried to hide from the presence of God. After Cain killed his

brother Abel, the Word says: “So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the

land . . . east of Eden” (Gen. 4:16).

But virtually everyone who knew the Scriptures knew you couldn’t flee from God’s presence.

God Himself said: “Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him? . . Do not I fill

heaven and earth?” (Jer. 23:24).

So it is surprising that Jonah did not consider how impossible it was to escape God. He lived

after the Psalms have been written / and surely he would have been familiar with Psalm 139

“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to

heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the

morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and

your right hand shall hold me.”

James Montgomery Boice has said that if the ship Jonah caught, had the words Wings of the

Morning painted on its brow, Jonah chose not to see it He was hell-bent on going where he

wanted to go.

So we see Jonah running to the sea-port / and the Word of God tells us

that “he found a ship going to Tarshish”

Jonah wanted to run to Tarshish / there was a ship going to Tarshish

A good number of commentators commenting on this verse have said: “So much for your

theology of the “open doors”.

Have you never found out for yourself that when you decided to go ahead and disobey God it’s

amazing how all the doors will be flung wide open / to facilitate your disobedience

Over the years in our ministry numerous young people when they talk to us

about some great moral fall in their lives like losing their virginity / will quite often say: “You

know the thing that surprises me is that God didn’t stop me

I found it easy to walk away from him. All the doors were flung wide open.

He didn’t put one hurdle in my way”

Jonah’s experience should teach us that when you decide to disobey God, He does not

rearrange the stars of heaven so that your path will not be impeded. There will be times when

He will let you go!

Remember Vigil famous words: “Facilis decensus Averno” “The descent to hell is easy”

Let us be careful / The fundamental way God reveals His will to us is not through

circumstances, dreams or impressions. Impressions and circumstances being what they are /

they could be read in almost diverse opposite ways And you will always indulge in

confirmation bias and read your circumstances in line with your predisposed desires

God communicates His will fundamentally through His revealed Word.

V.3b “So he paid the fare and went down into it”

It is easy to gloss over the two words “went down” But it is a most instructive word for us – the

verb “to go down” – “yarad” “to descend” used 4 times here down to Joppa (1:3a); down into

the ship (1:3b); down into the cargo hold (1:5) and ultimately down into the bottom of the sea,

pictured as down to the very gates of the netherworld (2:7)

Now that’s a lot of going down down down down. I don’t think that I am allegorizing the text

when I say that when you disobey God you’ll be going on a spiral downwards. From a human

point of view / the road you take away from the will of God – may look like a promotion /

things may look bright and rosy for a while and quite often things may look bright and rosy for

a while – but in the end / it will be a downward descent.

Short from doing the will of God, there is no elevation in life.

In more than one sense – the wages of sin is death

But the God who let Jonah run / is also the God Who pursues after him

This is a paradox we will perhaps never understand

How that when we want to run / He’ll not necessarily stop us

And yet / when we’ve gone a distance / sometimes He starts pursuing us

And what is that / but grace

If God hadn’t pursued me / and just let me go – where would I be today

No surprise that Francis Thompson should refer to God as The Hound of Heaven

So the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea and v.5 tells us

that the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god.

Now these sailors were not Jews – the Jews were landlubbers

unfamiliar with the sea – No! These were Phoenicians – great sea-going people. They were

called “salts” / “old salts”; they knew the waters / they knew the waves / they knew the stars

and yet fear was written on all their faces for they knew this was no ordinary storm

You can see the stark contrast mariners and Jonah

The mariners were terrified / they each cried out to his god

But Jonah nowhere to be found / He’d gone down into the cabin / gone to sleep

No one is sure whether its a sleep of sorrow or a sleep to dull his conscience

Whatever the reason is for his sleep / in the midst of the awful storm

when everyone is praying, and crying out to their gods

the only man on board who couldn’t pray was the man of God.

He is so deadened in sleep that it should take a pagan captain

to stir him up and get him to pray

It is well-known that sin brings with it – numbness and apathy

The sailors prayed to their gods but their prayer to these gods fell on deaf ears and the tempest

was now a maelstrom directed straight at the vessel because it harboured a fugitive

The sailors came to the point when they believe that this ship is being pursued by some

higher power / and marked out for destructive judgment

So they decided to cast lots to see who had offended the gods and the lot fell on Jonah. Now

isn’t it significant – very last time lot used – in last verse of Acts chapter 1 (v.26) lot fell on

Matthias to replace Judas – last verse of Acts 1 why is this significant because chapter Acts

chapter 2 – the advent of the Holy Spirit

Though the sailors were pagans their conduct was most commendable

Even though the lot pointed Jonah out they were still afraid to do wrong

So they asked Jonah all these questions.

“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?”

They asked all those questions not because they doubted the lot

They simply didn’t want to do anything to him against his will /consent They wanted Jonah

himself to confess his guilt

Notice he answers the last question first “Of what people are you?” / “I am a Hebrew”

And he never bothered to answer the two crucial questions about his calling

He seems more interested to be identified as a patriot than he is to be

identified as a prophet

And this / in fact / is the reason why he runs away in the first placer

He despised the Ninevites / to him they were dirty depraved heathens

He didn’t want them to come to salvation

And it is ironical that he should say “I feared the God who made the sea” (1:9)

For if he truly feared the God who made the sea he never would have got into that boat in the

first place.

But that said / he made a forthright commendable testimony to the sovereign God

Because after saying: “I am a Hebrew” / He said, “and I fear the LORD,

the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

Jonah bore a beautiful piece of witness to the Living God right there and then

He’s dropping a little nugget right there. “I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the

sea and the dry land.”

Gaebelein makes the crucial point: that although Jonah has resigned his

commission – he could not change his heart – which remained that of a true prophet – so he

pointed these mariners to the only LORD God

When the sailors heard Jonah’s confessions they were thrown into a panic of fright. “What is

this that you’ve done!”

They were more alarmed by Jonah’s disobedience than Jonah himself. That should have been

a rebuke to himBut notice that Before they feared the storm. Now they fear “the God of

heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

They now recognised the Creator above the creation.

And Jonah says 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.”

Notice what Jonah said:

“it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you”

The lives of Christians and non-Christians are far more intertwined than we often realise.

Jacques Ellul: “We have to realise once again that this is how it usually is with the world;

the storm is unleashed because of the unfaithfulness of the Church and Christians.”

But we see an unbelievable measure of humanity and tenderness in these sailors.

They did not want to mete out a punishment of their own.

They asked Jonah what course of action they should take.

Notice Jonah did not throw himself into the sea

Feinberg says that there is a big difference between

an awakened conscience and a despairing conscience

and may I add a difference between repentance and remorse

Peter after his denial of Jesus / repented / He lived

Judas after his betrayal of Jesus / filled with deep remorse He hung himself

There a huge difference between an awakened conscience and a despairing conscience

An awakened conscience sees hope in Christ

A despairing conscience sees no hope whatsoever

But although Jonah acknowledged his guilt and was even willing to die

we still do not see a trace of a repentant spirit in him

He will resolutely not want the Ninevites saved

Even to this point / he will not say “Let’s turn back to Nineveh”

He’d rather die than go to Nineveh

And so if by running away he couldn’t frustrate/circumvent God’s plan

then surely by dying / he could

But the sailors again / showed themselves noble – Even though they are now

facing imminent death they’re still hesitant to throw him overboard

Instead they made one final effort to save his life

they rowed hard / lit. “to dig through”

they tried to row to shore / where he could be let off safely

It was only when their best efforts to save Jonah failed

that they granted Jonah his wish

But before throwing him overboard / the sailors prayed

“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.”

Feinberg says they had more concern for one life

than Jonah had – for hundreds of thousands in Nineveh

Did you notice in the mariners’ prayer / they prayed:

“for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” v.14

Just ten minutes or so into their conversion

and they accorded to God His absolute sovereignty

That’s an echo of Psalm 115:3 “Our God is in heaven;

he does whatever pleases him”

If ever there is proof of genuine conversion!

With that / they lifted Jonah up / and threw him overboard

And the sea ceased from its raging / v.15

And the text says: “Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly,

and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows”

“and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD” Don’t pass that by too quickly

“They offered a sacrifice” The feeling of guilt and the need for atonement

is old as history and as deep as the human heart

It is almost innate in every human heart / that standing before a holy God

Who is angry at wrongdoing / some kind of an atonement is called for

It’s as if every human heart is hard-wired to sense that unless

there is the shedding of blood / there is no remission of sin

Now / when we first meet these men they are crying to their gods (v.5).

But when we leave them they are offering a sacrifice to the Lord

and making vows to serve Him (v.16)

Whatever you say / the fact is Jonah is fruitful

Jonah – the disobedient recalcitrant prophet is fruitful

But it is right here that Ferguson warns us that we should be careful

not to confuse and equate the fruitfulness of our ministry

with the state of our obedience to God’s will

Jonah scored a huge evangelistic hit / even as he is defying God’s will

This is something we will never understand. There are times when God will bless

and give fruit not on account of our obedience but despite our disobedience

But why? Ferguson says: “to demonstrate that the grace, the fruit and the glory

are entirely His. And Ferguson adds “Here indeed / is evangelism

and the sovereignty of God.” “Beware of mistaking usefulness to God

for communion with God”

But that said / it is equally true that some of the most hardworking faithful

obedient pastors and missionaries have seen little or no fruits right through

their entire lifetime. “Evangelism and the sovereignty of God”

As we draw this to a close I want us to consider two matters:

(1) We are like Jonah (2) Jesus is unlike Jonah

First /  We are more like Jonah than we believe / Just like Jonah we too have

disobeyed the will of God

When you toss it around in your head over and over again / you will conclude

that at rock bottom the fundamental reason why you run from God’s will

is because you simply can’t get yourself to believe that God’s will

and His providence for you / will always work out for your good

Our bottom-line basic problem:

But we cannot get ourselves to trust God that he is committed to our good

Heidelberg Catechism affirms not only that the One true God

upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all actions / but that He

upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all actions for our good

God is working out everything in the world both for His glory and for our

good even in circumstances that we can see no good whatsoever in them

John Flavel: “If he satisfy God for us, he must present himself before God,

as our surety, in our stead, as well as for our good.”

What is left for us to do is trust in His providence, remember His invisible

hand, and rest in the knowledge that He orchestrates all things for our good

When you believe that / you’ll be more willing to accept His will for you

Second / Jesus is unlike Jonah

If Jesus had been like Jonah, where would you and I be tonight?

There is no where / no one you can pin your hope on

if One greater than Jonah did not come

If One who is so totally different from Jonah did not appear

Jonah at the command to Go fled from God’s will

Jesus struggling over the Cup of God’s wrath in Gethsemane said

“Not my will but yours” / Jesus perfectly obeyed the Father’s will

Jonah begrudged outsiders coming to faith

Jesus said: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost”

Jesus modeled God’s grace toward repentant sinners

Jonah wanted to die in anger when God’s grace reached toward his enemies

Jesus was compassionate enough to die because of His love for his enemies

Jesus rejoices always over the repentance of one sinner.

Jonah was thrown into the depth of the sea so he may not have to see

his enemies enjoyGod’s mercy.

Jesus on the cross / willingly allowed Himself to be thrown into the

terrifying storm ofGod’s wrath and justice / That storm wasn’t quelled

until He/was swept away wringing from out of His mouth the Cry of Dereliction

“My God My God Why have you forsaken me”. He quelled the storm

that would have sunk and drown us sinners.

And today we can take comfort in the thought that if Jesus did not abandonyou

in that storm of God’s wrath, how much more will He not abandon you

in the little storms of life you and now have to pass through.

The day will come / when He will return to still all storms for all eternity.