When I think back on my relationship with God, I can see that for years I tried running away from Him. I can see this oftentimes in the lives of friends and family members as well and I want so much to tell them that you cannot run away from God. There is no where you can go to get away from Him.
The prophet Jonah had to learn this the hard way.
Many know about Jonah as the guy that got swallowed by a whale. For many years that’s about all I got from the story as well. The book of Jonah is surprisingly short, only four chapters. It’s one of my favorite books and I’d like to do a little series on it for the next the next week or so. Don’t let the brevity of the book fool you. Like many things, great things can be found in small packages!
The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” –Jonah 1:1-2.
Many dismiss Jonah as strictly an allegory. In other words, the man didn’t exist, it’s all a fable. There are several issues you will have to deal with if you believe that:
- Jonah is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25:
- Jesus acknowledged that Jonah was a real person and He even went so far as to establish that He spent time in the belly of a great fish.
[Jeroboam II] restored the border of Israel from from the entrance of Hamath . . . 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. (Emphasis mine.)
Jeroboam II was the king in the northern kingdom of Israel and he reigned forty-one years. This has been established through historical records. Jeroboam was a real man, Israel a real people and nation, and Hamath a true historical location.
“An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” –Matthew 12:39-40.
If you have a problem with the historicity of Jonah, then you have a problem with Jesus. And if you have a problem with Jesus, then there is little hope for your destiny with eternity.
Nineveh, at the time of Jonah, was the world power. But it was also a place of great wickedness, cruelty and evil, also historical facts.
God tells Jonah to get up and go to speak to the inhabitants of Nineveh for repentance. In spite of its evil, God has a message of forgiveness for them. Jonah, however, wants no part of that.
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. –Jonah 1:3.
Ninevah was 500 miles northeast of where Jonah was located in Israel. God’s prophet so hates the Ninevites that he refuses to listen to God and instead travels southwest to the port city of Joppa to get on a boat and travel 2,500 miles due west to Tarshish, a coastal city off modern day Spain, near Gibraltar! He thinks that a boat can carry him far away from God. He has no idea the lengths to which God will go to ensure that His will is done.
The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the sailors became very afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep. –Jonah 1:4-5.
We can glean a few basic truths out of these verses. First, God is all-powerful. It is God who is in control of the situation. God commands the great storm to buffet the ship.
Second, these poor sailors are innocently unaware of the cargo they are carrying (Jonah) that is causing them so much harm. They don’t know the God of Israel, so they instead pray to their pagan gods who cannot save them. I wonder how many times we, when faced with a huge storm in life, go to our “gods”: a job, our own skills or knowledge, money, etc., which ultimately cannot save you. We need to take this as an reminder that only God is our sole source of rescue for what ails us.
So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.” –Jonah 1:6.
Imagine you are on a ship and there is a raging storm outside (especially if you aren’t an experienced sailor). Would you be able to sleep soundly? And yet we see Jonah sleeping below all the calamity on deck.
Each man said to his mate, “Come let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us.” So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” –Jonah 1:7-8.
Casting lots was a common form of divination at this time and was used by the people of Israel to determine God’s will. The lot, obviously by the hand of God, fell to Jonah. So now all the sailors are looking at him and wondering “Who the heck are you, and who have you ticked off!”
He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.” –Jonah 1:9.
This is the first honest witness Jonah has given to this point.
Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, “How could you do this?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. –Jonah 1:10.
In modern vernacular, the sailors probably told him, “You idiot! Why’d you tick Him off!”
So they said to him, “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?”–for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.” –Jonah 1:11-12.
The question was most likely asked in terms of placating an angry God. The question was something akin to what kind of sacrifice will appease the god you made so angry. Jonah, in another example of latent wisdom, tells them what they can do to get out of this mess that he got them into.
However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them. Then they called on the Lord and said, “We earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O Lord, have done as You have pleased.” –Jonah 1:13-14.
What a picture! Jonah tells the sailors how to get out of this mess, but they already can see what happens when you make God Almighty angry! They don’t want to unnecessarily anger God anymore by throwing Jonah overboard. And who can blame them? Jonah, in their estimation, doesn’t seem to have a good handle on what God wants in the first place! Why risk making Him any angrier? And yet, these pagan sailors pray to God! Has Jonah done so yet?
So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. –Jonah 1:16.
In spite of Jonah clearly being out of God’s will, these sailors became believers in the true God!
And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. –Jonah 1:17.
And here begins Jonah’s frightful lesson about refusing to do what God commands you to do. In the next post, we’ll look at Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the fish.
May He Increase!
