We're going to Jonah today. We finished up our
sermon series through 1 Thessalonians. Now we
go into the Old Testament book of Jonah. You
can find Jonah amongst the minor prophets. And
when I say minor prophets, I don't mean minor
in importance, but usually people talk about
the minor prophets in terms of the length of
the book. Most of these books are rather short,
at least compared to the major prophets. You
know those ones being Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel
and Daniel. You can find Jonah though in the
minor prophets right kind of in the middle of
them. If you see Amos and Obadiah, you're on
the right track. If you get to Micah, you've
gone a little bit too far. This being somewhat
of an introduction to Jonah. We're just going
to look right now at the first three verses.
And so would you turn your attention to the reading
of God's holy word, Jonah chapter one, verses
one through three. This is God's word. Let's
pray. Father, we do thank you for this word.
We thank you for the gift that is the book of
Jonah. We thank you for the mercy that we see
in here, Father. I pray that as we study this
text, you would more and more show us your incredible
mercy in Christ Jesus. Open our hearts and our
minds to hear from you now. We pray in Jesus'
name, amen. When I was young, I had a children's
Bible that had a lot of pictures in it. Perhaps
you still have yours. Maybe your children have
these Bibles, have pictures in them. But I was
always fascinated by the picture that went with
the story of Jonah. It's a picture of a man sinking
deep down into the water. And he's kind of flailing
about trying to grab for something. There's seaweed
around him. There's schools of fish around him.
And in the background, there's a picture of a
ginormous fish. Some might even call it a whale.
A whale of a tail, it's been said. But it's not
a tail. It's not a tail. And the book of Jonah
is about so much more than a great fish. It's
really not even about Jonah. At its core, the
book of Jonah is about God. It's about God. And
it's about God's mercy. Now when it comes to
Jonah, we may know a thing or two about him,
even though the text doesn't tell us all that
much at the get -go. But in 2 Kings chapter 14
verse 25, we see a man, a prophet, who is called
Jonah. And so many think that this is the one
and the same Jonah. And if so, and I think it
probably is, then we recognize that Jonah was
a prophet. This was his job. Jonah's job was
to prophesy. Now, by way of illustration, if
you went onto a seminary campus today and you
were around the Master of Divinity students and
you asked the students there, hey, how would
you like to come and preach at our church sometime?
Probably most of those students would nod their
heads and say, yes, I would love to do that.
Why is that? Well, because that's what they're
training to do. That is, in some cases, what
they are already doing. Preachers preach. But
then we get to the book of Jonah, and we have
a prophet who doesn't want to prophesy. You can
see he receives the command to go, to go call
out against that evil city. Jonah has been doing
this work as a prophet before, but this we might
consider this is his call to the big leagues.
This would be what Jonah was known for. You're
telling me, God, to go to Nineveh, this evil,
wicked city? What does Jonah say? Not a word,
does he? Jonah doesn't say anything here. He
just runs the other way. Perhaps it would be
helpful to know what was going on at this time.
The history in Israel and Jonah was a prophet
in Israel. This would have been the time of King
Jeroboam the second. You might remember that
at this time Israel has been separated into a
northern kingdom. Israel's up here with the capital
city of Samaria. Down here this is southern kingdom
with its capital of Jerusalem. So two different
kingdoms here. This would have been around the
eighth century. And from the outside, looking
in, other countries looking at Israel, they would
have thought, wow, things are actually going
really well in Israel. In the eighth century,
the nation of Israel was expanding. It was growing.
But inside of Israel, things were not looking
so good. If you read these other minor prophets
like Hosea or Amos, you see that within Israel,
There were social and moral and religious problems.
And so what do you expect a prophet to do in
Israel? You expect a prophet to reach out, to
call out within its own country, to call out
within Israel or to call out within Judah and
urge repentance or announce judgment. This is
what we see the prophets do all the time. We
also see prophets Speaking about the atrocities
in the other countries, right? Do you know what
we do not see very often within the scriptures?
What we don't expect? A prophet being given the
message and being told to go to another country
with that message. And especially, especially
not a place like Nineveh, not a country like
Assyria. We can understand Jonah's position,
can't we? We wouldn't want to go there. My first
mission trip I ever went on was to the Bahamas.
It was really difficult. This is no resort that
Jonah is being called to go to. Friends, this
is Nineveh. And Nineveh was one of Assyria, or
Assyria was one of... Israel's greatest enemies
for so long. And so this is very unique that
he would be told to go there. But let's think
about this for a second. If you know your minor
prophets well, you know that there is another
book after Jonah that almost acts as a sequel.
It's the book of Nahum. What happens in the book
of Nahum? This is the judgment upon Nineveh.
But in the meantime, and this is a spoiler alert
that the people of Nineveh will repent of sin.
But what happens in the meantime? What happens
between the time of them repenting and the book
of Nahum? We know that the nation of Assyria
comes and destroys and captures the Israelites.
And we know this from other texts that prophecy
of that truth. And so what Jonah is being told
to do is to go to Nineveh, tell them to repent,
and then Nineveh, a city of Assyria, is going
to come and capture Israel. Friends, this is
remarkable. And we can perhaps understand why
Jonah doesn't want to do that. And at the same
time as this is a book about God's mercy, we
also recognize this is a book about God's sovereignty.
Because He is in charge of every one of those
episodes, every episode we see in the scriptures.
Every time that someone came to wage war against
Israel or every time that he let those nations
win against Israel, this was all for Israel's
good. And so even as Jonah doesn't want to go,
we must understand that God has a perfect plan.
even when we don't understand it. This morning,
I want to look at the command of God and the
response of Jonah. Look in verse two. There's
urgency there. Arise, it says. The Hebrew word
is just simply up. Get up and go to Nineveh,
that great city. He's saying, get there, not
tomorrow, not when the weather changes, get there.
Now Nineveh was quite some distance away. It
was hundreds of miles to the northeast of Samaria.
It's in modern day Iraq. And so Jonah is supposed
to leave home for this great, wicked city. But
when the word in our English, when it says great
there, what does that mean? It could mean two
different things. It could be referring to the
size of Nineveh. We read in chapter three that
Jonah spends like three days getting across it,
preaching repentance. Some have called Nineveh
a metropolis. It's as if Jonah's being sent to
Atlanta or something. But it could also be referring
to the importance of Nineveh as a historical
city. You can read about Nineveh all the way
back in Genesis chapter 10. Jonah is called to
go there, to this great city, but we're not exactly
given right here why. We're not told exactly
how evil Nineveh really is, but we do know that
he is supposed to announce doom if there's no
repentance. And we know from the book of Nahum
that the people of Nineveh, they were violent.
That nation of Assyria is called bloodthirsty.
The people there were deceitful. They were lustful.
They committed atrocities. They committed idolatry
all over the place. Again, Jonah is not being
sent to a resort. But if Israel had all of these
problems at home, why is Jonah being sent to
a foreign nation like this with all these problems
in Israel? It's very much like people who say,
Why do we send missionaries abroad when there's
so much to be done right here? And the reason
for this that we're going to see is that God
doesn't restrict repentance just to Israel. Actually,
what's happening within this text, we are seeing
God's greater plan of bringing more into his
family. We are being shown the incredible mercy
and grace. God, we are seeing God's bigger plan,
but even as we see it here, it's not as though
this has been a secret. If you will, let me read
to you from Genesis chapter 12. This is the call
of Abraham. Listen for how this shows God's worldwide
mission. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from
your country and your kindred your father's house
to the land that I will show you and I will make
of you a great nation and I will bless you and
make your name great so that you will be a blessing
I will bless those who bless you and him who
dishonors you I will curse and in you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed again
God is showing incredible mercy that is to go
everywhere and friends if you are a believer
in Jesus Christ, you have received the very mercy
of God, and you are a child of Abraham. Listen
to this from Galatians chapter three, seven through
nine. Know then that it is those of faith who
are the sons of Abraham, and the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying
in you shall all the nations be blessed so then
those who are of faith are blessed along with
Abraham the man of faith you Christian have been
brought into the family of God you've been adopted
into his family God has reached out to you Not
the other way around perhaps, you know this passage
from first John 3 See what kind of love the father
has given to us that we should be called children
of God And so we are it is his love. It is his
mercy that saves us and Friends, I believe that
Jonah knew about the mercy of God He knew about
the mercy of God. I don't mean to give away the
entirety of the book but flip ahead to Jonah
4, verse 2. Jonah 4, 2, there it reads, And he
prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, is not this
what I said when I was yet in my country? That
is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for
I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful.
Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
and relenting from disaster. Jonah knew this
about God, didn't he? Jonah just does not. He
cannot see himself going to this place of Nineveh.
And I don't believe that Jonah had a problem
with all Gentiles, because where does he want
to go? He wants to go to Tarshish. But he has
a problem with the cruelty of Nineveh. But ultimately,
he has a real problem with the mercy of God.
Friends, when I lived in Bulgaria, when I got
there, the mission team that I was a part of
said, we have a lot of needs here in Bulgaria.
You can essentially choose what you want to do.
Who do you want to minister to? Who do you believe
needs to hear the gospel. I spent a lot of time
in prayer and talking with others and thinking
and I thought you know who needs the gospel in
Eastern Europe and in Bulgaria. I thought it
was the Roma population, the gypsy population.
And so I told some friends this. I said I believe
the Lord needs to reach the people within these
gypsy communities and I want to be a part of
that. And this friend said to me, That's fine.
That's good. If you feel called to do that, great.
Take the gospel to the gypsies, but I'm not doing
it. I'm not doing that. I'm not going there.
Why? Well, quite honestly, the Roma population
are known for being thieves. They're known for
being drunkards. They're known for being lazy,
all of these things. And so you can understand
people don't want to go there. And there are
examples like this all over the world. People
that were like, I'd rather not. People that we
shun. People that we believe in our heart of
hearts don't. They shouldn't have the mercy of
God. I don't know who it is for you. I don't
know who it is that you're uncomfortable around.
Maybe it's the inmate who finishes up his prison
sentence. somebody who is looking for a church
home, looking for hope, looking for help, but
a lot of people would say that's for somebody
else. Maybe it's people who are just unlike you
in every single conceivable way, and you think,
I can't do that, Lord. I can't tell them the
gospel. Friends, if we keep looking for the person
who is exactly like us, with whom to share the
gospel, We will never share it. We will never
share it if we're looking for the person that
is just like us. And quite frankly, friends,
we were like that, weren't we? Before coming
to Christ, we were dead in our trespasses, right?
We were what some people might call a lost cause.
But friends, our God is the God of lost causes.
He takes people who are dead in their trespasses
and He brings them to life. This is our story.
God takes lost causes and sanctifies them. He
shows them mercy. And so to whom are you to take
God's message of repentance and salvation? We
are to be conduits of mercy, not with holders
of mercy. The church where we used to worship
at in Texas had a name. I've shared it with some
of you. Mercy Presbyterian Church. And our slogan
was this, mercy to us, mercy through us. And
this is who we should be as Christians, showing
the mercy of God. And so think today, who is
it that you know that needs the mercy of God?
Jonah as a prophet didn't want to go because
he knew that God would be merciful. And so what
does Jonah do? He goes in the complete opposite
direction. Look in verse 3. It's not just that
he's running from Nineveh, is it? The text says
he's running from the presence of the Lord. Now,
as a prophet, Jonah would have surely understood
God's omnipresence. And so I don't think that
this is a denial of that. He is thinking, if
I'm nowhere near Nineveh, I cannot possibly preach
to them. I cannot possibly fulfill God's command.
He wants to leave it all behind. Do you remember
that old Southwest Airlines commercial from years
ago? Want to get away? That's Jonah here. He
wants to get away, not just from his home. He
wants to get away from the calling that God is
placing on his life. It's like Jonah is handing
in his prophet card and saying, you are not the
God of the Tarshishites, if that's even a word.
So that's where I'm going. Additionally, If we
look in Isaiah 66, we see that Tarshish at that
time was a place that had not seen God's fame,
had not seen God's glory. And so Jonah is in
effect saying, you haven't called me there. You
apparently haven't called anyone there. And so
that's where I'm going. But first you see he
has to go to the place of Joppa. This is a place
where he could board a ship. He boards a ship
then. And he's going to go to Tarshish. But our
question then is, where is Tarshish? A couple
of possibilities. It could be a point on the
Mediterranean, like Carthage, which would be
quite far away. But it could also be southern
Spain. And that's probably the most common location
that scholars point at, southern Spain. That
is really, really far away. And so if it's southern
Spain, God is not. or Jonah's not messing around
here. If it's Spain, it's as if Jonah is saying,
I'm going as far away as I possibly can from
Nineveh. I like how James Montgomery Boyce puts
it. Listen to this quote. He says, we can understand
the geography and Jonah's motives if we can imagine
the word of the Lord coming to a Jew who lived
in New York during World War II. and telling
him to go to Berlin to preach to Nazi Germany.
And instead of this, he goes to San Francisco
and then boards a boat for Hong Kong. He is getting
as far away as he possibly can. Tarshish might
be the furthest place that he has ever heard
of. And that's where he's trying to go. But I
also want us to see something else. This is not
just geographics here. If you see within the
text that first word there of arise, there is
kind of a picture going on with these words of
going up and then going down for just as it says
arise, then we also see twice that it says that
he goes down. He goes down to Joppa. He's going
down into the ship. Jonah is on a downward spiritual
spiral. He's running from the presence of God,
as if to say, God is not the God of Tarshish.
I'm going there. And he's running so much so
that when he buys fare for the trip, scholars
like to point out, this seems like he doesn't
buy a seat on a boat. It's not like he went on
Travelocity and got a window seat. No, in Jewish
tradition, Jonah rents the entire boat. and pays
for the crew to get in there. Jonah, if these
scholars are correct, charters the whole boat
and has them attempt to get him all the way to
southern Spain. Can you imagine how much it would
cost to charter a cargo ship, which is probably
what it was, charter a cargo ship with a crew
and get you all the way to southern Spain, friends?
This is costly disobedience, isn't it? He's not
simply saying, I don't want to do this. This
is disobedience at all costs. One commentator
says, everything about Jonah's action is diametrically
opposed to Yahweh's commission. Yahweh says up,
Jonah goes down. Yahweh says go to Nineveh, Jonah
leaves in the opposite direction. The Lord tells
Jonah what to say, and we get no words from Jonah.
Friends, this is costly disobedience. But wouldn't
we also say that all disobedience is costly?
Disobedience is what led Christ to the cross.
The story of Scripture is Christ making right
what people get wrong. You remember the story
of Adam and Eve. There's a whole garden there.
God's provided for them. He says, don't eat of
that one tree. And what do we see in the next
moment? They're chomping away on the fruit. Disobedience
and costly disobedience. But friends, there's
good news in that story. In that same exact chapter
of Genesis three, we see the promise of the Redeemer,
don't we? God promises Christ. And there's example
after example in scripture to see that. All sin
is disobedience. No one is immune. We all have
original sin, and we all commit our own sins.
And the prophet Jonah is probably more acquainted
than most with the glory of God and His mercy,
and yet Jonah wants nothing to do with obedience
and sharing that mercy. Friends, you may know
this about yourself. We're all like Jonah a little
bit, aren't we? We are all a little bit like
Jonah. But friends, there is good news. Christ
gets right what we get wrong. Why was Christ
incarnate? To make things right. And it's not
just that Jesus died for you, which he absolutely
did. And that's a critical point. But we also
must recognize that Christ lived the life for
us. That he lived... Without sin, he was in perfect
submission to the Father, and so Jesus does not
flee from the command of the Father. He signs
up for it. Jonah fled from announcing salvation,
but this was Jesus' message, and he embodied
it. Jesus was tempted to sin as we are, but he
never did. And ultimately, Jesus, when he came,
he knew what was ahead for him, didn't he? you
read in the book of Matthew you see that three
different times Jesus talks about the cross before
the cross is ever in the picture and Jesus knew
that Isaiah 53 was written about him that says
the chastisement that brought us peace was upon
him and by his wounds we are healed why why do
we receive that mercy because that's who God
is God is slow to anger and he's abounding in
steadfast love. Friends, I want you to know the
reason that Jonah is so upset is the reason that
Christ came. The reason Jonah is so upset is
the reason Christ came. Christ gets right what
we get wrong.