Jonah 1:1

The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai. "Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it, because their evil has come up before me." (Jonah 1:1–2)

A reluctant prophet, a relentless God, and the question of who we would cross the world to avoid.

The Message and the Messenger

The Book of Jonah was written somewhere around 786 to 746 BC. Right off the bat we meet Jonah, a prophet. How many of you are hearing VeggieTales in the background—"Jonah was a prophet"? God speaks to Jonah so that Jonah can deliver God's message to others. That is the whole job of a prophet: take the message from God and give it to others.

Who is he supposed to give it to? The city of Nineveh, a historic enemy. Nineveh takes its name from Ishtar, their fertility goddess. It was the capital of the Assyrian Empire—a massive city with walls sixty miles around and somewhere near 600,000 inhabitants, located near modern Mosul, Iraq. Nahum prophesied its destruction in 612 BC. Nineveh was famous for using inventive, horrible torture to subdue enemies and break their spirit.

Notice that God did not say, "Go tell them to repent" or "Tell them to stop." He said, "Preach against it." The message is essentially: God is coming for you. That seems like a great assignment for a Jewish prophet, because Nineveh had long threatened Israel from the east. For those of us a bit older, it's like remembering the threat of the Russians—Red Dawn, the parachutes landing in the city, the Wolverines. That was Nineveh for the Israelites, only more credible, because they'd actually been attacked and overthrown several times.

Jonah Runs

The message and the messenger both seem straightforward. How hard could it be?

Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord's presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, from the Lord's presence. (Jonah 1:3)

Jonah's response is to run—far away, in the opposite direction. Nineveh is 500 miles east; he heads 2,500 miles west. Tarshish is Spain. He buys a ticket and boards a ship to flee from the presence of the Lord, because he doesn't want to give this message.

But where do you go to escape God's presence? Newsflash: it's everywhere. At least fifteen times the Old Testament speaks of God's omnipresence. Jonah is on a fool's errand. As the psalmist said, if I go to the depths of the earth, You are there; if I go to the heights, You are there.

So why did Jonah run? Chapter one doesn't tell us, but chapter four does:

"Please, Lord, isn't this what I said when I was still in my own country? That's why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster." (Jonah 4:2)

Jonah ran because he didn't want God to spare the Ninevites. He would rather God destroy these people than have them repent. What do we call a hatred directed at a specific ethnic group? Racism. Ethnic hatred. It's just wrong.

Who Do You Hate in Practice?

Some say Jonah is a picture of Israel's reluctance to deal with the Gentiles. That's probably true, but it's short-sighted, because Jonah is really a picture of all of us. We all have people we'd rather turn our backs to than speak to the way God would have us. God places us at a point in time and gives us a mission: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19)—that's everybody—"baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Maybe you're pious and don't hate anyone by category. "I love all people—Democrats, Republicans, right-wingers, left-wingers. I am the Baskin-Robbins of love." Fine. But who do you hate in practice? Who would you rather avoid down a different grocery aisle than talk to? We just had the holidays—some of us have family members we'd rather avoid, and they're not even Ninevites. Who would you rather pretend not to be home than answer the door for?

What if God, in His divine providence, engineered a meeting with another person? Would you turn toward Tarshish, or lean into the conversation? Point one: who would I rather cross the world or the street to avoid speaking to?

God Sends the Storm

But the Lord sees Jonah's heart.

The Lord threw a great wind onto the sea, and such a great storm arose that the ship threatened to break apart. (Jonah 1:4)

Jonah is running, but God is faithful. He uses the storm to turn Jonah. God often uses storms to teach His people—we see it with Jesus and the disciples in the boat, until He says "Peace, be still." Storms bring us to the end of our own abilities and show us our need for something greater. They may not be literal—sometimes financial, sometimes emotional—but God brings us to the end of ourselves because He wants us to turn to Him. He is sovereign over the weather and will direct it to meet the ends He desires.

The sailors were afraid, and each one cried out to his own god. They threw the ship's cargo into the sea to lighten the load. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had fallen into a deep sleep. (Jonah 1:5)

This is no average storm. The sailors cry out to all their gods. A side note: when the storm rages, whatever you reach for is your god. When you reach for Discover, MasterCard, your home equity, or a confidant, that becomes your functional savior. When the storm hits, who are we reaching out to? It should be Jesus first—"Lord, help me here." Yet often we reach for other things, and God lets us, to show us where our trust really lies.

The sailors are now throwing their profits overboard. This trip is becoming a financial disaster for them—just to survive.

The Sleeping Prophet

Compare Jonah and the sailors. The sailors are afraid; Jonah's asleep. The sailors are praying; Jonah's sleeping. The sailors are working hard and making a giant financial sacrifice; Jonah's sleeping.

Why is he sleeping? Some say even in rebellion Jonah rested in the goodness of God. I don't really buy it. Is it trust? Not likely. Resignation? Seasickness? Probably—and there's nothing better when you're seasick than to sleep and forget it all. But maybe the real answer is that running from God is exhausting. Christian, if you're running from God in some area, if there's part of your life you won't surrender, you know it's exhausting. Wake up. Surrender it. Give it back to God.

The captain approached him and said, "What are you doing sound asleep? Get up! Call to your god. Maybe this god will consider us, and we won't perish." (Jonah 1:6)

Why are you sleeping while we are dying? Why are we, as Christians, sleeping while the world is dying? There is so much to be done, and yet sometimes we are completely asleep like Jonah in the hold of the boat. Point two: rebellion will blind you to the needs of the people around you.

The pagan captain is now calling on the prophet of God to call on God. Jonah isn't even aware of their need. When the ungodly are calling the godly to be more like God, there's a problem. Sometimes rebellion even looks like piety. Consider the Good Samaritan—the priest and the Levite stepped aside out of supposed righteousness. Sometimes our rebellion masquerades as hyper-piety: "I would never want to speak to such a person." But who are your neighbors? When Jesus asked who was a neighbor to the injured man, the answer—the Samaritan—bothered them because it highlighted their deficiency. Jonah is deficient in caring for the people dying around him while he sleeps.

The Lot Falls on Jonah

The sailors said to each other, "Come on, let's cast lots. Then we'll know who is to blame for this trouble." So they cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah. (Jonah 1:7)

God allows Jonah's rebellion to be brought into the light—just like Achan in Joshua 7. God is faithful and just; in His faithfulness He will let our rebellion come to light. But God is also merciful, giving us the opportunity to bring it to Him: "Lord, this is the area where I'm having a hard time."

They press Jonah about his business, his country, his people.

He answered, "I'm a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land." (Jonah 1:9)

"I worship the Lord—I just don't listen to Him." Point three: worship without obedience is worthless. If you have worship without obedience, you don't really have worship; you have something worthless. In 1 Samuel 15, Saul spared the best of the Amalekites' livestock, and Samuel answered: "Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice." All your worship is worth nothing if you won't obey. Jonah still wants to call himself a Hebrew prophet—but are you a prophet if you turn your back on the message you're called to give and run the other way?

My Rebellion Hurts Others

The men were seized by a great fear and said, "What have you done?"—for they knew he was fleeing from the Lord's presence, because he had told them. (Jonah 1:10)

They're afraid because they can see the result of Jonah's rebellion: we're all going to die because you decided to rebel.

They said, "What should we do to you so that the sea will calm down?" He answered, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea, so that it will calm down for you. For I know that I'm to blame for this great storm." (Jonah 1:11–12)

Jonah's response is essentially, "Kill me now." Rather than repent, he chooses to make the sailors deal with the consequences of his sin—throw me over, so they can carry that image forever. Point four: my rebellion will hurt the people around me. When we refuse to surrender an area to God, the people around us pay the price, and it's a heavy toll.

If a group of pagans ever asks you, "What should we do to be saved?"—give a better answer than Jonah.

The Pagans Find God

Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they couldn't, because the sea was raging against them more and more. (Jonah 1:13)

Rather than kill Jonah, the pagans do their best to save him. They row with renewed effort, fighting a storm—not realizing they're fighting against the Most High God. Jonah knows, but would rather die than deal with the situation.

"Please, Lord, don't let us perish because of this man's life. Don't charge us with innocent blood, for you, Lord, have done just as you pleased." (Jonah 1:14)

Does that remind you of anyone? There's a parallel here with Pilate—"don't charge me with the blood of this man."

They picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. And the men were seized by a great fear of the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. (Jonah 1:15–16)

The pagans are now praying to God, praising His power, offering sacrifices, making vows. The prophet ran from God, disobeyed, harmed everyone around him, forced them to throw him overboard, and generally made life worse—financial ruin, fear, probably long-term trauma. Yet God loves people so much that, in the midst of Jonah's rebellion, He is bringing revival to the crew bound for Tarshish.

God uses but does not excuse Jonah's rebellion. Picture these sailors arriving home: "We're financially wiped out, but let me tell you what happened." They have a testimony now, a commitment, a relationship with the Most High God they didn't have before. Maybe this is the beginning of God's revival in Tarshish. We don't know—but God used the rebellion for His benefit, because He loves people.

Rescue, Not Revenge

The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17)

God chooses to rescue Jonah rather than destroy him. Jonah sought destruction, but God is not seeking revenge—He's seeking repentance.

The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

At its heart, Jonah is about a person called by God and given a message to deliver, who decides to do something else. Whether it's prejudice, indifference, or any other reason, the result is the same: the message doesn't get delivered. So God intervenes to redirect the messenger.

What does this mean for us?

"All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18–20)

We are the ones called to make disciples of everyone. But what if they are—fill in the blank for whatever name or category comes to mind? Love them. "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:43–44). The people who make us insane—God calls us to love and pray for them. And if we have the truth, is it loving to let them die for a lie? Absolutely not.

A New Year, a Reboot

If we're having trouble with this, maybe it's time for a reboot. This is January 1st, 2023—an entire year laid out in front of us that we haven't messed up yet. Let's get on the right course now, not at the dock in Joppa or in the boat on the way to Tarshish. And let's try to avoid the whole getting-swallowed-by-a-fish thing.

We're going to celebrate communion, and self-examination is integral to it.

Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many are sick among you and many have fallen asleep. If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:28–32)

God calls us to examine ourselves before approaching communion. As David prayed, "Search me, O God, and know my heart." Let's do that together.

Closing Prayer

Lord, I pray that You would help to search our hearts. Help us to know where those things are that don't honor You—the prejudices, the hatreds, the indifferences we hold that keep us from doing what You've called us to do. Help us to see them, Lord, and to understand that You love us and are calling us to lay them down. Help us not to approach communion without addressing these areas. Father, where we find them, help us to repent. In my own life, I repent of those areas where I fall short—Lord, You and I both know them. Forgive me and draw me close to You. And for my brothers and sisters, guide them, show them the areas of rebellion, indifference, and hatred that prevent their growth and their reaching of others, and help us all to repent. We know You are faithful to show us these things if we are faithful to ask.

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." (1 Corinthians 11:23–24)

Lord, we remember the sacrifice You made on our behalf—that Your body was broken for us, that You willingly went to the cross, despising the shame, to bring us into a right relationship with You. Thank You for dying the death we could not die.

In the same way he also took the cup, saying, "This is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:25–26)

Thank You, Lord, for the covenant written in Your blood—that we can approach the throne of grace not in our own merits but in Yours. Thank You that we are not left to our own devices to find salvation; You paved the way with Your body and blood, and rose again to break the bonds of sin and death. Thank You for new beginnings, for the opportunity to head into a new year. Help us to be less Jonah and more Jesus. Thank You for Your grace when we fail, and Your love, which is constant. Thank You, Jesus.

Cross Connection Church, it's a brand new year. We have an opportunity to go forward and do great and mighty things—but not on our own. Cling tightly to Jesus, glorify Him in what you say and do, and help us be more Jesus and less Jonah. God bless you. Love you guys. Have a great 2023.