South Woods Baptist Church

Jonah was running from the presence of the Lord. He discovered that mere desire to run from God's presence would not be enough. He even saw that every effort he gave was not enough! The Sovereign Lord cannot be avoided by even our shrewdest maneuvers.

Now, in the belly of the great fish, Jonah found himself there, away from the Lord's presence. As the sailors cast him overboard, he dropped to the bottom of the sea, where the coldness of death swept over him. In the darkness of the raging sea, Jonah probably found himself thinking he had breathed his last breath. Then, suddenly, he is swallowed by a great fish! The temperature rose as he slid down into the fish's stomach. In the pitch black of that submerged tomb, Jonah felt totally abandoned. He wanted to run away from God and it appeared that he succeeded. But once he was there, he saw that 'away from the presence of the Lord' was the last place he wanted to be.

I do not believe we can fathom the depths of what Jonah experienced at that moment. But perhaps we have had those times in which we, in our own minds, have tried to evade the Lord. There is no delight away from Him. As the Psalmist expressed just the opposite, " ...in Thy presence is fullness of joy, and at Thy right hand, pleasures forevermore" (16:11). But, away from His presence is absence of joy. Away from His presence is no pleasure at all.

Just the moment we think that all hope is gone and that God has truly left us alone, He breaks into our lives. As we investigate Jonah's experience and prayer, we find that he discovered more about the Lord in the darkness of the fish's belly than he had ever known before. He thought that he knew more about the Lord than most men. But in the slimy darkness of the fish, he begins to see what he had never understood. It is in the darkest moments of life that God often gives us the greatest light on His character.

What are you learning about the character of God? Let us get some help on this by seeing the light God gave Jonah in his darkness.

I.  Sovereign Lord

One truth that rings throughout this small prophetic book is that the Lord is truly Sovereign. We can pass this designation of God along as merely a vague, academic statement. Or we can see it come to life as it does throughout Scripture, as well as in the course of history and daily life. To call God Sovereign is to declare His actual reign over His creation. It asserts divine action and the divine will accomplishing His purpose in the details of the universe.

Trying to grapple with this truth is essential to our security in life. If we view God as partially-sovereign or sovereign only-as-far-as man wills Him to be, then we have done injustice to the holy name of God and we have buried ourselves beneath the rubble of our own makings. As the 18th century pastor and hymn writer, John Newton, explained, "Upon the ground of the Divine Sovereignty we may rest satisfied and stable: for if God appoints and over-rules all, according to the purpose of his own will, we have sufficient security, both for the present and the future" [The Works of John Newton, vol. II, 364-365].

Either Jonah had a memory lapse in terms of God's sovereignty or he did not think that sovereignty implied an actual sovereignty. For why else would he have done something as foolish as attempt to run from God and His presence? It is the knowledge of God, as He has revealed Himself, that will keep the believer pressing on firmly in life. The trouble is that some things we say we believe about God we may not actually believe. It is a wonderful thing to agree with the statements of confessions and creeds as they pertain to the revelation of God. But do we believe these truths so that they affect the way we think, speak, and live?

The title which we use so often, LORD, implies sovereign ruler. Sovereignty is bound up within the nature of God. God cannot not rule. It would be contrary to His being. In the same way as the sun cannot not shine, nor can water fail to be wet, so God cannot fail to exercise His wise and providential rule over all things. Jonah saw in a new way the meaning of sovereignty.

1. Over creation

The opening words of Scripture tell us that God is Creator. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Throughout the Scripture, we see the declarations of God as Creator. "The earth is the Lords, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the rivers" (Ps. 24:1-2). "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands" (Ps. 19:1). The emphasis is that the expanse of the heavens give evidence of the wise and orderly work of God as Creator. In contemplating the wonder that God would give thought and consideration to man, David wrote, "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him?" (Ps. 8:3-4a). The creation belongs to the Lord. In beautiful, anthropomorphic language, David speaks of the vastness of the heavens as being "the work of Thy fingers." Our great Sovereign has shown the might of His power in creating the universe!

The book of Jonah illustrates this. How did the storm begin to rage upon the sea and then instantly cease when Jonah was cast overboard? How did the intensity of the storm increase when the sailors tried to evade its grip? How did a fish swallow a man sinking into the depths of the sea? Behind it all is the working of a mighty Sovereign over His creation!

The biblical text clearly points this out for us. "And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah...." This was not the call of the sailors. Nor was this the normal pattern of things, with fish swallowing men! Much speculation has gone into how this happened and precisely what kind of fish this may have been. The fish was a small player in the grand scheme of things! It was God who did the appointing. It was God, who before the worlds were founded, in great wisdom, designed creatures large enough to swallow a man. It was God who directed this giant fish to just the right spot at just the appropriate moment.

All of this illustrates for us the Sovereign rule of God. I would point out to you that nothing is more practical in the events of life than a keen understanding of God's sovereignty. If He is not actually ruling over all of life, then we are left to chance. The cruelty of fate will be our lot.

The Puritan pastor, Stephen Charnock, in a study on God's omnipresence, explains that the reality of Him being truly omnipresent demands His rule.

As the knowledge of God is not a bare contemplation of a thing, so his presence is not a bare inspection into a thing. Were it an idle careless presence, it were a presence to no purpose, which cannot be imagined of God. Infinite power, goodness, and wisdom, being everywhere present with his essence, are never without their exercise....He is not everywhere without acting everywhere....He governs by his presence what he made by his power; and is present as an agent with all his works....His presence with them engageth him in honor not to be a negligent Governor [The Existence and Attributes of God, vol. I, 393].

All of creation must bow before the omnipotent reign of our great God! The winds belong to Him to do His purpose. The fish of the sea are His to swallow a Jonah or to produce a bountiful catch for disciples in a boat or to provide the temple tax for Christ and Peter. Let us look at the works of creation and the continuing phenomena of its workings as the wise hand of God.

2. Over life

Jonah also saw that divine sovereignty was exercised over his life. The great fish was not the only one being moved by the invisible hand of the Almighty.

"And Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights....I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, but Thou hast brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God."

Getting Jonah in the fish was one thing. Protecting him for three days, changing his heart, then getting him back on mission to Nineveh was another! It was the same Sovereign Lord at work in each case. In the darkness of the fish's belly, God sustained Jonah. He came to the realization that his life was over. The sea had become a grave, with bars enclosing him. Then the Sovereign Lord "brought up my life from the pit." Though the sailors physically tossed Jonah overboard, he acknowledges the sovereign hand of God in this event: "For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me" (NKJV). Jonah saw the sovereignty of God being exercised in the fine details of his life.

Again, nothing is more practical than this truth of God's sovereignty in our daily lives. How can we walk through life without constant fear if we do not believe that our God is exercising His sovereignty over our lives? I know that at this juncture our minds are playing havoc with us, asking how God can be sovereign and we have the freedom to make decisions at the same moment. That is certainly worth some mental gymnastics. But let us see that the Bible never sweats under the threat of this being contradictory. At one and the same time, like a Jonah we are doing what we want to do; while the Sovereign Lord is carefully, powerfully working out His precise purposes. We must see, though, that while Jonah was doing what he wanted to do, there was a limit to his own sovereignty over his life. He could not thwart the sovereign will of God. He tried! He labored as hard as anyone to do this. But God alone is sovereign. We do not rule. We make our choices. We go our way. But we do so
in the finite understanding of mortal minds held wonderfully under the active rule of the Sovereign Lord.

Does this reality of God as Sovereign Lord comfort you or disturb you? It is quite disturbing to a rebellious mind. Just ask Jonah. But when the rebel begins to see the folly of his own sin, the reality of divine sovereignty offers the greatest of comfort.

II. Faithful Father

The reality of God as Father is most profoundly seen in the New Testament. However, the Old Testament develops this truth step by step. When David proposed to build God a temple, the Lord spoke to Nathan the prophet to tell David that one of his descendants would build this temple. "I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me", declared the Lord (II Sam. 7:14). We also find  illustrated through the Old Testament the depiction of God as Father. In rebuking Judah for her unfaithfulness, the Lord spoke through Jeremiah to the people, "And I said, You shall call Me, My Father, and not turn away from following Me" (Jer. 3:19). The title Father is rarely used of Yahweh in the Old Testament, but the reality of it is everywhere. We see this throughout this portion of Jonah.

Faithfulness should be the great characteristic of fathers. They are to be faithful in providing for their families, faithful in their moral practices, faithful in their business dealings, and faithful in demonstrating love to their families. I have often heard of people who have had great difficulty accepting God as Father because of their own bad experience with an earthly father miss-coloring their thinking.

Jonah saw the faithfulness of the Father in his life. I believe that it is significant at the opening of chapter two to see the words, "Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish." Though Jonah had been unfaithful, rebelling against the Lord, God remained a faithful Father. While the pagan sailors had prayed to their gods, the silent Jonah could now pray "to the Lord his God." God never left Jonah. Though Jonah was angry with God, though he tried his best to avoid the Lord, God never left. He cannot, for faithfulness is bound up in his character.

1. Shows compassionate love

After all he did, would you have given Jonah the time of day? Would we not have told him that he got what he deserved and not to ask for any hand-out? Would we have listened to Jonah's cries from the fish's belly?

All these questions are really beside the point, aren't they? For we are not God! It was not our place to decide whether or not to receive a Jonah; that prerogative belongs to God alone. As a matter of fact, we are in the same situation as Jonah. Listen to his words and see if they have not been your own at some point. "I called out of my distress to the Lord, and he answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; Thou didst hear my voice." There was no tone requiring God to do something. Here was a man that deserved nothing. He had his chance for usefulness to God; but he had forfeited it by his own foolish choice. How dare he pray to the God whom he had offended!

Fellow-Jonahs, have we not called out to God in much the same distress? And, like Jonah, have we not found the Lord to be a compassionate Father, demonstrating true love for His children? Jonah's cry was one of despair and hopelessness. He had no claim other than the wondrous reality of how God had revealed Himself as a compassionate, loving Father. He had no guarantee that God would respond, but he prayed nonetheless, trusting in the gracious character of God.

Let us take encouragement from this truth. For our Lord Jesus Christ has instructed us to pray to God as Father. We are to see ourselves as belonging to Him, as children to a father. We are to lay our burdens before Him, knowing that His compassion for us is endless, that His love knows no bounds.

When the children of Israel had fallen into idolatry, after they had only shortly before crossed the Red Sea by God's hand, we find Moses praying on their behalf. He pleads with the Lord to show compassion; and indeed He does. As they progressed, Moses grew in his understanding of God and His desire to know the Lord. He became so bold on one occasion that he asked the Lord to show him His glory. So Moses climbed the mountain of God and there God descended upon the mountain. The Scripture records the scene for us (Exodus 34:5-7).

5 And the LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD.6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. (NASB)

Listen to the words describing the Fatherly character of God: "compassionate...gracious...slow to anger...abounding in lovingkindness." Now consider, "Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish." It was "his God" who had revealed Himself as compassionate, forgiving, loving that welcomed the wayward Jonah into His presence through prayer.

Maybe there is someone among us who finds himself in the same condition. Look to the character of God! See that though He showed His righteous anger to you, He is full of compassion and ready to bring you back into His delights.

2. Exercises restorative discipline

But did not God bring great distress upon Jonah? Indeed He did. That too was an illustration of God's fatherly love for His children. For we find in the storm and even in the great fish, the reality of divine chastening for those who belong to Him. Discipline is evidence of a faithful father. The fact that we are being disciplined by the Lord is also evidence that we are sons and not illegitimate. The words of Hebrews 12:5-13 help us to see this truth.

5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,

"MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD,

NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM;

6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES,

AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES."

7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?

10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.

11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,

13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. (NASB)

The faithful Father accomplished His purpose in the chastisement too. As Jacques Ellul, the French theologian, put it, "The chastised man repents. He comes back to God and God grants pardon and delivers him" [The Judgment of Jonah, 41]. The heavy hand of discipline continued to bear down on Jonah, not in wrath, but in great compassion. Divine discipline accomplishes its purpose.

Have you known this fatherly hand of God in your life? If you can flit about in sin without the distress of chastisement on your life, then you have never known the saving power of Christ. If you are under divine discipline, then learn Jonah's lesson: cry for help from the depth of Sheol! From the place of what seems to be the departed, from the darkness of despair, cry out to God. See that He is indeed a compassionate Father, who tells us to bring all of our cares and anxieties before Him (I Peter 5:7), who tells us to ask of Him in order to receive (John 16:23-24), who declares that He knows what we need even before we ask, yet He wants us to know the joy of depending upon Him (Matthew 6:8).

III. Merciful Redeemer

If you doubt the mercy of God, then read thoroughly the book of Jonah. It is on every page. Mercy is shown to pagan sailors, not only physically but also spiritually. Mercy is shown to the wicked people of Nineveh. And mercy is shown to the rebellious prophet.

Mercy implies an action on the part of one that is undeserved by the recipient. It is in the power of one to give it but he does not have to do so out of some sort of necessity or compulsion. You might show mercy to a person on the street by giving him food. He has done nothing for you. You do not have a personal obligation for him as a member of your family. He cannot repay you. You simply act out of compassion and love toward one who does not deserve your actions.

1. Mercy to the hopeless

Our God is merciful! Throughout Scripture, we find Him acting in mercy toward the undeserving. When Adam and Even sinned, God showed mercy in acting redemptively in their lives. When God judged the world, He showed mercy to Noah and his family. When David sinned against the Lord and his nation by immorality, God showed mercy to him in restoring the joy of His salvation.

Jonah felt the bars of hopelessness forever imprisoning him. "I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, but Thou hast brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God." The poetic language tells us what was going on in his mind, as Jonah made his descent to the bottom of the Mediterranean. Where mountains are formed, he was making his grave. He felt swallowed up by the death around him. To him, bars trapped him from escaping his doom. There was no way out. All hope was gone. Then divine mercy was shown! The Lord brought the wayward child up from the bottomless pit of hopelessness.

Do you see that God is like this? He takes aim at the hopeless and out of divine pity, He comes to us with redeeming grace. O. Palmer Robertson offers this perceptive insight.

God brought Jonah back so that the prophet himself might be a sign. His life would embody the message he preached. Jonahs life testified to the fact that God judged a sinner without partiality, found him guilty, and cast him into the watery abyss. But from this abyss, the Lord lifted a guilty, condemned sinner to life and service. The sign of Jonah proclaims the gospel truth about the justice and the mercy of God [Jonah: A Study in Compassion, 37].

2. Grace to the sinner

While mercy describes God's attitude toward the undeserving and hopeless, grace implies the content of His action in accomplishing something for the undeserving and hopeless. We find Jonah praying to God in reference to His temple. "So I said, I have been expelled from Thy sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Thy holy temple." And again in verse seven, "While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer came to Thee, into Thy holy temple....Salvation is from the Lord." Why the temple?

Was Jonah simply thinking of a structure in ancient Israel? He was a northern kingdom prophet, while the temple was in the southern kingdom. It was not the stones and beams which caught Jonah's attention in that moment of being gripped by the reality of his sin. It was what took place in the temple that mattered. The temple was significant because God had chosen that place to reveal Himself to His people there. But even more so, God had established a mercy seat in the temple upon which an atoning sacrifice would be offered each year to propitiate the divine wrath. It was that act of propitiation (satisfaction) which Jonah had in mind. That was the temple's significance for a sinner. In grace, God had acted to provide a means for the sinner to be justified before Him.

We realize that all of the Old Testament atoning sacrifices had no actual power to take away sin. They were all foreshadows of the one, eternal sacrifice offered by the Son of God at the cross. The writer of Hebrews explains.

14 Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil;15 and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (NASB)

Have you found refuge in the grace of God shown to sinners at the cross of His own Son? There God satisfied His righteousness, so that He might justly forgive you and justly declare you to be His child with all the rights of heirs. But apart from what Christ has done, there is no pardon. Jonah did not look to all of the good things he had accomplished in previous years. He looked to the temple, where divine satisfaction for sinners was made. Grace abounds where the satisfaction through Christ took place. Do you know that grace experientially?

3. Forgiveness to the believing

Jonah needed forgiveness. He was not interested in his health. He had no concern for personal wealth. His position and status as a prophet was unimportant to him. He needed one thing: the forgiveness of the God whom he had offended. "Salvation is from the Lord."

His confession showed light. In the darkness of the fish's belly, the brilliance of revelation shown forth. The reality of what God had established in the temple at the mercy seat came home to him. "Nevertheless I will look again toward Thy holy temple" (italics added). He had looked before. He had found that God had satisfied His own demand for righteousness at the mercy seat. In faith, he looks again. The fountain of forgiveness was flowing for a rebel like Jonah.

You may have heard over and over about the cross of Christ. But have you looked again toward the cross? Have you seen Jesus Christ dying for you, personally? Have you realized the sufficiency of what He accomplished for eternity, foreshadowed  in the temple sacrifice?

Have you s a believer gone back to the wells of salvation and found that fountain of the cross to be constantly refreshing to your soul?

Conclusion

Maybe the Lord has brought you low by showing you your sin. In your despair, look to Jesus Christ and His all-sufficient death at the cross. There is the only refuge for sinners who will come to Him in faith. If God showed mercy to Jonah, then His mercy is big enough for you as well.