Jonah 1:10-17
Rebellion, Jonah goes
down
(You can run but you
can’t hide ~ part 2)
Open your Bible to…
Jonah 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Jonah 1:2 “Arise,
go to
Jonah 1:3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
Pray
Intro
√ Rebellion, Jonah goes down
We closed our last study with Jonah in a bad place, remember that…
God sent a prophet ~ but he went the other way
God sent a storm ~ but he slept through it
God sent a sign ~ to wake his prophet from spiritual slumber
This evening we pick up the story and find out how God got His prophet back on track.
√ The message of Jonah
Keep your focus on the purpose for which God inspired Jonah to record his failure.
To demonstrate God’s concern for all people ~ Jews and
Gentiles! The book is a reminder that
To demonstrate the sovereignty of God ~ that despite Israel’s failure to be a light to the Gentiles that God would still get His message of Love to the World.
To serve as a rebuke to the people of
To use Jonah as an example (symbol) ~ of
God’s desire was that the people of
Ap. A warning to Christians and the Church
Individual Christians and the Church are called to be a “light to the world”!
God still wants to reach the lost and has called us to reach them!
He’s given us a message to preach, He’s given us a command to go, and His Spirit to help us.
However, some times we allow our own prejudice, like Jonah’s, to keep us from reaching those we don’t like, or don’t get along with, or are afraid of.
Ex. Who are your Ninevites?
Let’s be faithful to take God’s warning of coming Judgment to our generation…
…and the Good News of how a person can escape that Doom!
God sent a tempest (vs. 10-13)
Jonah 1:10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
Jonah 1:11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous.
Jonah 1:12 And 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 this great tempest is because of me.”
Jonah 1:13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them.
√ God sent a tempest
In this section we see another example of…
Contrast between
God’s sovereignty vs. Man’s free will
Notice first that the solution to their problem, the growing storm that will send them all to their deaths…
…is to throw Jonah out of the boat.
Yet, the Gentile (pagan) unbelieving sailors won’t do it because they don’t want to be responsible for his death.
Contrast that to
Jonah who has no concern at all for the innocent living in
√ Resisting God’s will
Check out the sailors!
They are so concerned for the life of Jonah that they make a run for safety by trying to row the ship to shore.
But they can’t because God is the power behind the wind and the waves.
Another picture of how God’s sovereignty and Man’s free will are exercised.
Reminds us that people simply cannot thwart the will of God no matter how hard they try!
So, God sent a tempest to get Jonah out of the boat.
God sent a calm (vs. 14-16)
Jonah 1:14 Therefore they cried out to the LORD and said, “We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You.”
Jonah 1:15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
Jonah 1:16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and took vows.
√ God sent a calm
Once the sailors recognized the futility of their efforts and that they simply couldn’t fight against God…
…they did as Jonah suggested and tossed him out of the boat.
But note that before they did they begged God for His mercy!
Vs. 14…
“Therefore they cried out to the LORD and said, “We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You.”
Once again we see a contrast between Jonah (
Jonah and the people of
…demonstrating that they did not truly fear the Lord.
The sailors on the other hand demonstrate that even though they didn’t know God…
…none the less His law was written on their hearts as evidenced by their reluctance to take a human life.
It is the quiet voice of the conscience that God has placed in every person.
Rom. 2:14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves,
Rom. 2:15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)
The point is that Jonah’s experience shamed him because these pagan sailors were behaving more godly then he was…
…a prophet of God!
Ex. Abraham & Abimelech – Good Samaritan & Priest
God sent a fish (vs. 17)
Jonah 1:17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
√ God sent a fish
As Jonah heads down to Davy Jones Locker he is saved by a great fish that God had prepared for him.
While the story may seem too fantastic to believe, if it worked for Pinocchio then it would certainly work for Jonah!
Actually a number of leading Christians, including the late C.S. Lewis, believed that the book of Jonah was allegorical…
…not fact.
However, I think there is good evidence to accept the story as fact because…
God can do anything ~ doesn’t have to fit with our experience to be true.
The text doesn’t hint that we’re supposed to read in any other way than literally.
Jesus acknowledged it as fact!
Matt. 12:39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Matt. 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Just as Jesus was literally buried in the earth, so Jonah was literally buried in the belly of a great fish.
Ap. Beware of the James Bartley account
In an attempt to provide support for a literal interpretation of Jonah’s experience a number of Bible commentators and pastors (including myself!) have offered as proof the account of James Bartley.
A British sailor who was supposedly thrown over board and
swallowed by a whale off the
Story quoted by a number of my favorite commentators including Bernard Ramm and Henry Morris.
However, Dr. Edward Davis of
No James Bartley listed on the ships roster, no account of a man being lost overboard, etc.
On the contrary the evidence uncovered proved that the story was a fabrication that was picked up by newspapers of the day and published as “fact”.
The most damaging evidence to the story is a letter written by the wife of the captain of the 'Star of the East,' Mrs. John Killam.
The contents of her letter were published in 1907 in 'The Expository Times' by a reader who had corresponded with Mrs. Killam about the whale story.
She wrote,
"There is not one word of truth to the whale story. I was with my husband all the years he was in the Star of the East. There was never a man lost overboard while my husband was with her. The sailor has told a great sea yarn."
The lesson, while I have no doubt that Jonah was literally swallowed by a great fish…
…we don’t want to offer as “evidence” of it’s plausibility stories that have no merit.
Commentators and pastors make mistakes too when they (we) don’t do our homework!
So, be a Berean, receiving the Word of God with gladness and joy…
…but checking to see if these things are true!
Close
√ Jonah
So, in chapter 1 we read of Jonah’s Rebellion, Jonah goes down.
Read ahead and next week we’ll look at chapter 2 ~ Repentance, Jonah goes up.
The lesson of Jonah reminds us that God must first break our will…
…before He can use us to do His will.