Jonah chapter 1

Francis Dewar in a book called “Called or Collared” about ministers has this quote that is really for all of us.

“There is an old Christian tradition that God sends each person into this world with a special message to deliver, with a song to sing for others, with a special act of love to bestow. No one else can speak my message, or sing my song, or offer my act of love. These are only entrusted to me.”

But what if you don’t like the special message or song to sing for others or a special act of love to bestow? What if you just want to do a spiritual runner because you can’t face it and maybe don’t agree with the message or the song lyrics given you or the people you’ve been asked to do an act of love for.  

“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.’ 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.”

What is our story today? Are we .. like Jonah .. running in the wrong direction? Now for Jonah .. it was Nineveh. What’s our Nineveh today? Rather than headed toward Nineveh in obedience to God’s word and will .. we’re headed to Tarshish in disobedience to God’s word and will! Which direction are we headed? Nineveh or Tarshish? Obedience or disobedience?

That’s what chapter 1 is all about!

We find this prophet … like some of us sometimes running in the wrong direction. Let’s see what Jonah’s story meant then and what it means today and what it means for us personally.

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 “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah ..” Now the word that Jonah received is a personal word.

God calls him to a task. God has a personal word to say to his servant. Now we’re not told how the word of the Lord came to Jonah. Perhaps God spoke audibly as He did with Abraham. Perhaps God gave him a vision as He did with Peter.

Or perhaps God spoke to him in a dream like he did with Joseph. Or perhaps God simply made an impression on his heart.

It is a personal word. But notice in verse 2 that not only is it a personal word … -it is a pointed word.

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city …” Do you sense the urgency in those words? “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city ..” And great it was! Nineveh was located just off of the Tigris River in modern day Iraq! It was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Historians tells us that the city was surrounded by walls that were 100 feet high.

And inside those walls were a people of great wickedness and the Israelites knew all about it. They were known for being cruel and heartless. They would often times bury their enemies alive .. sometimes they would skin them alive and leave them for dead! Jonah knew right from the onset what he was to do. It was very clear as to what the Lord wanted him to do. The Assyrians waged war and committed atrocities against the nation of Israel. This naturally evoked hatred and animosity in the hearts of the people against them. The Israelites saw the Assyrians as their enemies. Among the children of Israel, it was viewed as a mark of patriotism to be seen as having nothing to do with the people that your own people regard as their enemy.

This thinking largely informed Jonah's recalcitrant attitude, his refusal to preach to the inhabitants of Nineveh and his attempt to flee to Tarshish.

Just the mention of their name brought out the passions of the Israelites. And how they longed to see God wipe them off the map!

And yet God instructs His prophet to go THERE .. to the wicked and godless city of Nineveh to preach the gospel! It was the last place on earth Jonah wanted to go! Verse 2, “cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” What an assignment!  God has selected His man to go and preach the Gospel.

The call of God comes and shapes us as people, when we are called by God, that call remains with us and we can’t have a day off from it really. I was in a café yesterday afternoon on the sea front while Mrs Wife was having her colours done in the hairdressers, and I kept myself to myself on a table in the corner. I had this shirt on without the collar bit in it. I was off duty. The girl said to me, “you having a break. You look very smart. Can we guess what you do for a living?” So off we went. First guess: van driver. Second guess: security guard. I then said I usually wear something round my neck. They shouted thinking it was wrong, vicar. Then said “What, really?” and laughed uncontrollably. I can’t turn the vicar bit off. When you are called you are called. And you can’t turn it off. And most of the time that’s okay. People are still shocked in the secular world I can talk about ordinary things and do ordinary things outside church! 

We all though want the call to be to nice places and comfortable places. I’ve got a Geordie Bible on my shelves I can’t find where God is the Superintendent Minister and Jonah is a local preacher and receives the Circuit plan and finds himself planned at Nineveh Street, full of horrid people and he has a wobble because they aren’t worth preaching to. Imagine Nineveh in the Stationing Process for ministers.

We’re bigging up St Leonards, Battle and Trinity at the moment to get a minister next year. Imagine being sent to Nineveh.    Jonah doesn’t want to go. That’s an understatement.

He is a faithful servant of God, and yet here he is absolutely bewildered by what God wants to do. He doesn’t want to go to Nineveh, he doesn’t want to offer them repentance. God’s love doesn’t stretch as far as them. Who is a pardoning God like thee and who has grace so rich and free, ah yes, but that doesn’t mean to THEM!   

Don’t think that Jonah is simply running from the will of God .. he is  running from the presence of God. But can you really do that? Remember Psalm 139:

Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;  if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,  if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me,  your right hand will hold me fast.

As he ran from the presence of God .. I want you to notice with me a few things.

-the destination of his ship.

“But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.”

Why Tarshish? I’ll can tell you why! Because Tarshish was as far away as any place on earth in that day! Most believe that Tarshish was in Spain .. over 2000 miles from Joppa!

Tarshish was as far West as you could go and Nineveh was in his backyard just North East of Joppa or modern day Tel Aviv. When you run from God … you always go as far as you can go! When you set sail for Tarshish .. you go without God’s blessing!

Not only note the direction of his steps and the destination of his ship … note -the desperation of his soul.

“ So he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” His soul was so desperate to run from God .. he was willing to pay the fare .. that is .. the price for a ticket to get on board!

At first his escape seems to be going well. “Made it safely to Joppa? Check. Got the tickets for the ship? Check. Packed suitable clothes? Check. Boarded the ship and off to my Spanish resort? Check.”

Jonah is free of this troublesome God. free. He has escaped the presence of the Lord by going somewhere that the Lord wouldn’t notice or think of looking. What could possibly go wrong? He thought there wouldn’t be any consequences to his actions.  The key word in this passage is ‘down’. Jonah goes ‘down’ to Joppa. He goes ‘down’ into the ship to leave there. He is going down alright in this running from God and soon he will be going down into the sea before going down into the belly of the great fish. Don’t underestimate the consequences of sin and rebellion for they only lead in one direction. And that is ‘down’.

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 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.

At this point in the story Jonah is starting to learn that it isn’t as easy to run away from God as he may think! A terrible storm breaks out.

Notice also that every sailor became afraid and cried out to his own god. They all cried out and were willing to throw everything aside to keep their life.

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." 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?"

He said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.

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.

The captain asks Jonah a very good question – “How is it that you are sleeping?” Now, they are in a ‘lives on the line’, ‘every hand on deck’ type of storm... The boat is lurching left and right, up and down, creaking and groaning under the pressure about to break up... and Jonah is blissfully asleep dreaming of the coming white sands down in Tarshish! How was he able to sleep? Now Jesus was able to sleep in a storm, which makes sense for he had control over the storm. But what about Jonah? Was Jonah able to sleep for the same reason? Hardly...for he was the cause of the storm! Jesus slept for He had complete assurance and authority over the storm but Jonah, on the other hand… There was danger all around and yet he slept. What a rebuke it is for the heathen captain to have to wake Jonah up, and tell him to get up and pray!

It is also interesting that the sailors have no idea who Jonah is. They certainly don’t know that he is a representative, a spokesperson and prophet, of the only true God! With Jonah running from God and outside of His will, there is little to distinguish Jonah from any other seaman or traveller. He is a prophet without a message; a light that will not shine.

Like the question from the captain, so the questions from the sailors should have gone deep into the heart of Jonah. “Tell us, who actually are you Jonah?”

This, I believe, was a question from the Lord for Jonah. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” He didn’t want to be a prophet anymore.

He is on the run with no identity. 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."

However, the men row desperately to return to land but they cannot, for the sea becomes even stormier against them. Then they say, "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. So, they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging."

Aware of their dire situation, the sailors desperately ask what they have to do to calm the sea. “Throw me in” Jonah replies, “and you will be saved.” But in a display of kindness that stands out in this desperate situation, the sailor’s row even harder to reach the shore and save Jonah’s life. Finally, though, when there is no other way and knowing what they have to do, the sailors ask the Lord not to hold this innocent blood against them and Jonah is cast into the deep.

I feel desperately sorry for Jonah you know.

Called to be God’s prophet. Totally against God’s task for him. He just cannot do it. He runs away to get away from anything to do with God, on a ship going in the opposite direction, giving up everything, remember the Jews were scared witless of the sea but risking your life was better than going to Nineveh.

He causes trouble on the ship, he offers to be hurled overboard, he faces the storm and surely thinks his life is over, at least he won’t have to go to Nineveh and he’ll get peace.

But then we get the last bit of action before if this was Eastenders or Coronation Street the credits would roll and we’d come back next week for the next episode.

Cast into the sea, Jonah is swallowed alive by a great fish, is whose belly he remains unharmed three days and three nights. This God, who has been utterly rejected hasn’t finished with his prophet yet. What was the great fish?  The white shark of the Mediterranean which sometimes measures twenty-five feet in length, has been known to swallow a man whole, and even a horse. This may have been the "great fish" in the text. Pretty frightening.

We will see what happens as Jonah is in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights next week.

The cost of running away I guess this first chapter shows us is the lengths God will go to bring us back. We cannot run in the opposite direction to his call. We would probably have shrugged Jonah off in disgust and found someone else more willing to take the message to Nineveh, but not so God. If God calls, he calls, the special message, the special song, the special act of love could be needed by us today.

Will we run, will a storm be better, or even drowning to get away or will we try to understand God’s plan and go with him. Perhaps if we’re honest there’s a little bit of Jonah in us.