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70. Jonah 1: “Avoiding
Your Mission”
Golden Nursing
Center in Mannington, NJ –Evening
Service on 1/19/2017
(edited March 2021)
Verse 1: “Now the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,”
Jonah was a Prophet in the Northern Kingdom of
Ancient Israel after the nation had split into a Northern Kingdom (called Israel)
and a Southern Kingdom (called Judah). This division was the result of a civil
war that followed the reign of King Solomon. Following the time of Jonah, the
Northern Kingdom of Israel would eventually fall to their enemies and be
destroyed. Meanwhile in the Kingdom of Judah in the South, God’s People were
ruled over by a few good kings and a lot of bad kings. But in the Kingdom of
Israel, in the north where Jonah lived, the Bible says that ALL the kings there
were bad! During this time, God would call and equip Prophets, like Jonah, to
reveal His will and message to His People.
Here’s what the Lord told Jonah:
Verse 2: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great
city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”
This would have gotten Jonah’s attention all
right. Nineveh was the capitol of Assyria. They were a TOTALLY HEATHEN nation
and well known at that time for not believing in Jehovah and for being a big
threat to Israel and their right to live in the land God had promised them. Actually,
when the corrupt Northern Kingdom of Ancient Israel final did fall, you guessed
it, it would be the Assyrians that conquered them!
Well, Jonah was a good man, I think. And he would
have been willing to do a lot for the Lord. Maybe almost anything. But to go and
warn their sworn, heathen, enemies to repent before God and escape His
judgement. That just rubbed Jonah the wrong way.
Verse 3: “ But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the
presence of the Lord,
and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the
fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the
presence of the Lord.”
Was he afraid to go there
and preach? I would have been! Or maybe he just looked down on them as
heathens. Or maybe it was both. Had God asked him to go to Nineveh to curse them
or call down destruction from Heaven, I think he might well have gone happily.
But to warn them and maybe even see them avoid the righteous judgment they
deserved? He wasn’t interested. So instead of heading east, he sets off to the
west for Tarshish which was at that time a whole world away from Nineveh, over
near Gibraltar in modern day Spain. You may know the story. He never gets to
Spain:
Verses 4-5: “ But the Lord sent out a great wind into
the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like
to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god,
and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of
them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was
fast asleep.”
With knowledge of God AND
faith in God come many blessings, but also responsibilities. Jonah was trying
to duck his responsibility toward God. He was actually sound asleep in that
boat! He must have assumed, as I have done to ne honest, that simply ignoring
God’s will for your life will somehow make it all go away. And I can tell you,
it doesn’t.
Please notice something as
we go through this next section of Jonah’s story. The mariners, even though
they believe in other gods, still seem to know that Jonah is in big trouble! And
when we, as believers today, ignore God’s will not only do we not fool the Him,
but even unbelievers somehow seem to know that we are failing the Lord!
Verses 6-7: “So the shipmaster came to
him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God,
if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots,
that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and
the lot fell upon Jonah.”
Obedience is part of
believing. It’s not all of it, of course, there’s also comfort, and blessings,
and help from the Lord. But out of His Love for us, I think, God will not allow
any of us who believe to turn our backs on the mission and ministries He calls
us, and created us, to pursue on the earth. And, uh, convincing other people
that you are more holy or knowledgeable than they are does not exempt you from being
willfully disobedient to what is clearly God’s will for you. I haven’t always obeyed
Him in this area, but I KNOW I should! And so should you, if you love Him:
Verses 8-9: “ Then said they unto
him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine
occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art
thou? And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear
the Lord, the God of heaven,
which hath made the sea and the dry land.”
What I need to do is less complaining about the storms
in my life and begin asking, “Why must God allow a storm to enter my life to
get me to trust and obey Him?” You see, that’s on me, not the Lord. Jonah was
not the victim of that storm. But everybody on the boat, including Jonah
himself, were starting to realize that he was the cause of it:
Verses 10-12: “ Then were the men
exceedingly afraid, and said unto him. Why hast thou done this? For the men
knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then said
they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us?
for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me up,
and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that
for my sake this great tempest is upon you.”
It amazes me how kind these unbelievers were being to
Jonah. They were trying to save him. It’s a shame that he, as a believer, did
not have that kind of attitude toward the heathens of Nineveh. Look at what
these sailors did for Jonah’s sake:
Verse 13: “ Nevertheless
the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea
wrought, and was tempestuous against them.”
It’s a shame today when we in the Church allow unbelievers
to be ahead of us in love, compassion, mercy. But it can happen if we aren’t
careful. Well, finally these sailors just can’t take it anymore. So even if Jonah won’t or can’t pray, they
themselves start praying to God:
Verses 14-15: “ Wherefore they cried
unto the Lord, and said, We
beseech thee, O Lord, we
beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us
innocent blood: for thou, O Lord,
hast done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into
the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.”
And thus, they were all delivered from the danger of a
bad storm. And look at what happened next:
Verse 16: “ Then
the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto
the Lord,
and made vows.”
Now the heathen sailors BELIEVE in the True God, and
worship Him! I think, in our day, the unsaved are watching you and me, beloved.
And, miraculously, they may come to believe in the Lord by watching us obey God
or maybe even by watching us stumble! But I know it’s far better to witness to
them by our obedience. It’s far better for them and for us.
As we close this chapter, Jonah is about to enter into
a very personal storm. One that will afflict only him. And God will be using a terrible
thing, and some other things, to cure not only Jonah’s disobedience, but also
the distrust that was the root cause of his disobedience.
Verse 17: “Now the Lord had
prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the
fish three days and three nights.”
Let’s pray.
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