South Woods Baptist Church

Jonah is a book of surprises. It is surprising that a prophet of Israel would be called to preach a message of judgment in the midst of his enemies. It is surprising that the prophet rejected his obligation of the divine call. It is surprising that God does not take his life, but preserves him in the most unusual way. It is equally surprising that an entire, wicked metropolis would humbly bow in repentance before the simple message of the prophet and plea for the mercy of God. Perhaps it is also surprising that the success of the prophet's message is met with unmeasured despondency.

But the book of Jonah, though full of surprises, is not a book about surprises. Nor is it a book about a great fish, nor a reluctant prophet. It is chiefly a book about God. Jonah helps us to understand the greatness of Gods mercy and the extent of His missionary heart. The messenger might run but he cannot thwart the purposes of the sovereign Lord.

Let us consider the unfolding verses of this book and see the hand of God at work.

I. The Privilege of God's Messenger

The opening phrase of the book of Jonah is not an unusual formula in the Old Testament: "The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying...." Throughout the Law, historical books and prophetic books, we find this same formula announcing prophetic oracles. We perhaps see it so often that we do not catch the magnitude of it: "The word of the Lord came." We are not considering just another message by another voice wandering the sea of humanity. But we are hearing the voice of the Almighty Lord! God has spoken! When He speaks, He does so with purpose, authority, and clarity. As the Lord told Isaiah,

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth, and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

God spoke to Jonah with the same authority He spoke to Isaiah. He gave the prophet a message and he had the responsibility to faithfully deliver it without diluting or changing the message. Jonah understood his task. He was not a Johnny-come-lately when it came to prophetic work. Though we do not have a lengthy treatment of Jonah outside the book called by his name, we do have a reference to him in II Kings which demonstrates that Jonah knew what it was to hear from God and deliver the message faithfully.

1. Past experience

At a time in which the nation of Israel continued to sink into the abyss of idolatry and sin, God spoke to Jonah to offer encouragement to the nation. Under the reign of Jereboam II, a great-grandson of Jehu, the nation expanded their borders from Damascus in the north to the Dead Sea in the south. This came about after the prophetic message of Jonah recorded in 2 Kings 14:24-27.

And he [i.e., Jereboam II) did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin. He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher. For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, which was very bitter; for there was neither bond nor free, nor was there any helper for Israel. And the LORD did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. (New American Standard Bible)

Jonah certainly played an important role in the life of the nation of Israel as he prophesied of the Lord restoring their land in spite of the continuing rebellion of the nation. Amazingly, God showed His mercy to the nation in saving them through the hand of the ungodly Jereboam. Though they prospered as a nation in material things, their spiritual lives continued to sink drastically. Jonah was likely applauded and admired because he had prophesied the blessing of the Lord upon the people of Israel. He was known around Israel as the one who had prophesied the blessing of God upon them. Yet, no prophet of God could be satisfied with only material prosperity while their spiritual lives were at an all-time low.

Though we do not have a record of what was running through Jonah's mind, I believe we are safe to assume that while he was gratified that he delivered the word of the Lord which brought material blessing to Israel, he still longed to see the nation brought back to humbly walking before God. For such desire would have been woven into the fabric of the prophet.

Many commentators suggest that Jonah may have been part of the famed school of the prophets under the tutelage of Elisha, the man of God. He would have been trained in spiritual disciplines and would have lived with the burden for seeing his own nation brought into spiritual blessing. One Jewish legend says that Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath whom Elijah raised from the dead. Afterward, he was set apart for future ministry. All of these are guesses about the man's past, but it seems, given the 8th century era in which we find him, that he would have been influenced by the prophetic leadership of an Elijah or Elisha. He was grieved over the sin of the nation and their unwillingness to seek the face of the Lord and heed His word. He was not a disinterested prophet.

2. Divine calling

Jonah would not have thought it unusual to receive another message from the Lord. This time, surely, it would be to the nation of Israel, calling for Jereboam to turn from his sin and the nation to repent before God. Instead, Jonah faced his worst nightmare! The normal pattern for prophets was to deliver oracles to their own nation. A century later Nahum the prophet would deliver an oracle to Nineveh, though we do not know if he actually went into the city or sent the written prophecy. When we think of Old Testament prophets, we normally consider them going to the covenant people of Israel. But the obligation of the prophet was to go and speak wherever God demanded. In this case, the Lord sent His messenger to Nineveh.

What was running through Jonah's mind as he received the word of the Lord to go to Nineveh and preach against their wickedness? First, the calling of God often reveals the divine intention. By this I would imply that if God was calling Jonah to go to Nineveh then He was likely preparing to show great mercy to them. We might look at that and say how wonderful! But not Jonah. To him Nineveh represented the totality of Israels enemies. They were ruthless people whom he despised. They were known for their cruelty. Nahum's prophecy describes them (Nah. 3:1-4).

1 WOE to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage;

Her prey never departs.

2 The noise of the whip,

The noise of the rattling of the wheel

Galloping horses,

And bounding chariots!

3 Horseman charging

Swords flashing, spears gleaming,

Many slain, a mass of corpses,

And countless dead bodies---

They stumble over the dead bodies!

4 All because of the many harlotries of the harlot,

The charming one, the mistress of sorceries,

Who sells nations by her harlotries

And families by her sorceries. (New American Standard Bible)

The scene of butchering the masses, showing no mercy, and living in gross immorality describes Nineveh. Jonah did not want to go there and he did not want God to show them any mercy. He wanted all the mercy to go to Israel, not to Israel's enemy. Jonah understood that if God was sending him then He intended to show forth His mighty hand to save this pagan people. The prejudice of Jonah's heart came to the surface. While he had been prophesying to Israel of their sin, Jonah had sin in his own heart. Perhaps he feared that God's blessings and attention might shift from Israel to Nineveh.

A second reason for Jonah's objection to the divine call was his fear of being in Nineveh. One writer compared it to a Jew being sent to Berlin, Germany during the midst of Hitler's reign of terror, with commands to publicly preach in the city [James Montgomery Boice, Can You Run Away from God? 17]. Jonah thought he had no chance among such radically hateful people. Yet the record of God's Word is that when the Lord sends His servant, He goes with divine protection. The removal of that protection can only come by way of the unfolding will of God.

Jonah's determination not to go to Nineveh put him on a collision course with the will of God. The evidence of this book will help us understand that God will accomplish His purposes, even in spite of our objections. Therefore, our responsibility is to bend in submission to the unfolding of the will of God in our lives. We need not fear God's will nor attempt to run from it. For it is in the center of His will that we come to know the richest sense of God's presence. Do you find yourself running from the word of the Lord? Take a lesson from Jonah. It is time to stop running and start obeying.

II. The Mercy Shown to the Wicked

God's word came to Jonah, "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me." What do we know about Nineveh? At this period of the 8th century, Nineveh was at her zenith. The city was surrounded by a wall which stood one hundred feet tall. It was wide enough for three wagons to ride abreast. Fifteen hundred towers stood 200 feet tall at intervals throughout the sixty miles of walls surrounding the circumference of this metropolis of at least a million people. It was filled with parks and gardens, with the city displaying wealth and opulence [Patrick Fairbairn, Jonah: His Life, Character, and Mission, 22-24]. God was far from Nineveh's eyes. She reveled in her immorality. No one could conquer this center of the Assyrian empire. Like the Laodiceans, she thought that she was rich, increased with goods, and had need of nothing (Rev. 3:17).

1. God's discovery

But Nineveh's wickedness drew the attention of the living God. "For their wickedness has come up before Me." Were there not more nations on the face of the earth? Indeed, there were. Was there not more wickedness in other areas of the world? Certainly there was. But God discovered the wickedness of Nineveh. I do not mean that He knew nothing about it and finally came across it, for God sees all. The discovery of Ninevehs sin evidenced divine mercy.

We know from Romans 1 that when man rejects the natural revelation of God in the conscience and in nature, the time comes when God gives them over to their sin. That is a discovery of sin without mercy. To be given over to our sin shows that we are heading at breakneck speed for divine judgment. The greatest curse that can ever be brought to a nation is for God not to discover its sin. The greatest curse of all is when He ignores sin [R. T. Kendall, Jonah: An Exposition, 24].

God's discovery of sin is its uncovering. The omniscient God knows the depth of our sin. But when a people's wickedness "has come up before [God]," then you know that He has uncovered it so that a people might understand their wretchedness before God. Is that not what happened to David when he sinned with Bathsheba? David was mollifying his guilt just fine until the prophet Nathan looked at him and said, Thou art the man! David's sin was uncovered and he found himself smitten before God. When the voice of Jesus Christ called out to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road, his sin was uncovered before him and he cried out, "Who art Thou, Lord?" Isaiah the prophet had been used mightily of God in delivering one oracle after another. But when he had the throne-room vision of chapter 6, his sin was uncovered so that Isaiah cried, "Woe is me for I am ruined!" In each case, the discovery of sin came with the greatness of divine mercy.

I would propose to you that the most merciful thing that can happen to anyone of us is for God to discover our sin. For in God discovering our sins, we discover them for what they are as an offense to Him. For if He appears to ignore it, then we are certain to face the severity of His judgment rather than His mercy. You may be complaining that the Lord has exposed your own heart to you. You fight against the guilt and conviction which follows you throughout your day. My friend, that is a display of divine mercy to show you that apart from His intervention through Christ, you cannot stand before His judgment. Would you dare to spurn His mercy?

2. God's action

As God discovered Nineveh's sin, He also sent His messenger to call them to repentance. Do we not see the greatness of God's character unveiled in this scene? What had Nineveh done for God? How often had they worshipped Him? How often had they sought His face? How many years had they been praying for revival in their midst? We do not see a people who sought God or desired Him. There were no prayers for revival within her walls. Instead we find a God who takes action to call out a people for Himself; even a people who had no interest in Him.

This is why Jonah is a story of God's action to save unworthy and uninterested sinners. In divine pity the Lord sent forth His prophet to declare the solitary message of hope. Even with the prophet's rebellion, God still worked to use His designated prophet and to turn the hearts of the Ninevites to Himself.

If you ever had a doubt or question about the missionary intentions of the Lord God, just read this book! There is no plausible explanation for sending a prophet to Nineveh except for the demonstration of divine mercy to sinners. We could join with Jonah and say that the needs at home were far too great for a prophet to be invading unwanted territory. Israel was not right with God. Though they were the people of God's favor, they were dripping with idolatry, immorality, and a smug, self-dependence. They had increased in wealth and stature, thinking they had no need of God. Would it not seem that God might give priority at this point to Israel alone? Can we accuse the Lord God of neglecting the home front to save a few savage people? Would Jonah not be wasting his time trying to preach to a people who were so filled with wickedness and had no desire for God?

If we followed that logic then the gospel would never have entered the sphere of earth! Once in Jerusalem, it would have stayed and gone no further. But the great thrust of Scripture is that God is calling forth people "from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation" (Rev. 5:9) whom He has redeemed through Jesus Christ and His substitutionary death on the cross. Do you know the mercies of God upon your life through Jesus Christ?

III. The Folly of Running from God

After receiving the call of God to go to Nineveh, we find the tragic words, "But Jonah." Instead of following faithfully after the word of the Lord, Jonah had his own mind made up of just what he would do and just how far he would go in faithfulness to the Lord.

"But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." So begins the foolish journey of Jonah in his attempt to side-step the divine will. This tells us much about Jonah. But perhaps more importantly, it tells us about ourselves. For at the root of our own lives we have some Jonah-tendencies. We struggle with attitudes like Jonah. We fight against unfeigned obedience like Jonah did. We have our own plans carefully set forth, plans which do not include God's calling, just like Jonah. And often, like Jonah, we try to run from God.

1. Character of man disclosed

Jonah was guilty of going AWOL "But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." God had sent him to Nineveh. He struck out for the farthest point he knew, Tarshish, a port somewhere on the coast of Spain. It would be like one of us trying to head to New Zealand in the thought that we could get away from God! It was so far away from Israel and the place of God's presence, that Jonah thought he could shake the heavy mantle of God's calling.

We can almost picture the scene. The word of the Lord comes to Jonah to go to Nineveh. Perhaps he agonizes for a short while over the whole matter, knowing that God does not have to speak twice to mean what He says. He grabs his savings, a change of clothes, and heads down from Gath-hepher to the seaport of Joppa. He just happens to find a ship heading to Tarshish! What a stroke of luck! But it is no luck when a sovereign Lord orchestrates the events to demonstrate His glory. Jonah immediately heads down into the hold of the ship, finds his sleeping arrangements, then tries to sleep away the burden of the Lord. The ship heads out into the Mediterranean Sea. Jonah thinks he can run away from the Lord's presence since, in his mind, the Lord was localized in Israel. Shortly he discovers that God does not dwell only in Israel, but that He is the Lord of heaven and earth!

There was probably a lot of rationalization going through Jonah's mind. He would be shamed before his whole nation if he went over to the enemy and preached to them. He could never set foot back into a pulpit in Israel. Besides, his exit plan went through without a hitch. Jonah might have considered the ease of his leaving as an open door from the Lord. He continued running through his list of reasons why it would not work for him to go to Nineveh: they were too wicked, they were not interested, they hated Jews, for that matter he hated them! All the while a God in heaven continued to unfold His will. As R. T. Kendall wrote, "The book of Jonah shows us that God's prerogative is to do what He wants to do" [22]. Jonah would soon discover this same reality!

"The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" wrote Jeremiah (17:9). Jonah did not know the blackness of his own heart. Perhaps we can identify with Jonah. God speaks through His word to us and we immediately run through a hundred excuses for why we cannot do what God has imposed upon our lives! We think it is unreasonable what God demands. So we run, just like Jonah. We may not flee to Tarshish or to New Zealand, but we run away in our minds. We may throw ourselves into all sorts of busy activities in an attempt to silence the quiet voice of God speaking in our minds. We may even give ourselves to various sins, an act of defiance, showing that we will not bend our wills to God. We may disobey God and when nothing adverse happens, we pacify ourselves by saying that it must have been okay with the Lord since He did nothing to stop us. There almost seems to be an open door to our disobedience, which we quickly call divine approval. But we cannot run from God. As Martin Luther explained, "Not only the ship, but the whole world becomes too small for Jonah....He finds no nook or corner in all of creation, not even in hell, where he might crawl in; but he must needs expose himself to the gaze of all creatures and stand before them in ignominy" [quoted by Sinclair Ferguson, Man Overboard! 32].

Before we have to be swallowed by a big fish, let us stop! "Cease striving [be still] and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" (Psa. 46:10). And this same God will be exalted in your life.

2. Character of God revealed

"But Jonah..." is not the end of the story! Instead, we see the patience of God addressing the unwillingness of Jonah and making him willing to go to Nineveh in obedience to God. God wins out, as He always does. In the process He drenches the paths of our lives with His truth and grace.

We are left to see that God will do what He wants in spite of mans objections. In our day of watered-down theology, we sometime think of God as being held hostage by our whims and desires. But this book will help us see that there is one Sovereign in the universe. As Thomas Watson explained, "If a ship should have two pilots of equal power, one would be ever crossing the other: when one would sail, the other would cast anchor: here were a confusion, and the ship must needs perish. The order and harmony in the world, the constant and uniform government of all things, is a clear argument that there is but one Omnipotent, one God that rules all" [I.D.F. Thomas, The Golden Treasury of Puritan Quotations]. And He rules in spite of mans objections. How thankful we must be today that He does as He does!

With all of Jonah's efforts to by-pass the divine will, we also see that man will not thwart God's sovereign will. Jonah was the messenger God set apart to reach Nineveh. It was divine mercy that pursued Jonah, turned his heart, and set his feet on dry ground to preach to Nineveh. God did not give up on Nineveh because of the reluctance of Jonah. We must not hide ourselves in worry over the events of our day. Man may try, but he cannot thwart the sovereign will of the Almighty. That truth ought to free our hearts to expect to see the mighty arm of God displayed.

Jonah's reluctance and rebellion was no surprise to God. For our God is omniscient, He knows all things. Still God called Jonah, because God knew what God would do! Jonah thought he could escape the felt presence of the Lord. But our God is omnipresent, so that there is no escaping Him wherever we flee. The Psalmist asked, "Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence? He thought of the farthest extremities. If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Thy hand will lead me, and Thy right hand will lay hold of me" (Psa. 139:7-10). You almost get the idea that it was Jonah praying those same words of David when he came to the realization that the God who laid His hand upon him will not let go. As Paul wrote, "He that began a good work in you will continue it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). Be confident, for God can accomplish all He purposes, for our God is omnipotent. He is all-powerful and exercises this power for His glory.

Conclusion

Do you find yourself trying to run from God? Where will you flee from His presence? Or better yet, why would you even attempt to flee the presence of God? May you know the joy and utter delight of walking in obedience to the living God through Jesus Christ the Lord.