Jonah 1:17-2:7

 

Well, Jonah had finally belly-flopped right into his brick wall.  No more running.  If he wanted any chance at living, he had no choice but to fling himself at the foot of  God’s throne, own up to everything, and beg for mercy.  And that’s just what he did.  Once he caught his breath, that is.  And in order to do that, he needed a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, circa the Iron Age.  Which God graciously provided.

Now, a lot has been written about just what kind of fish or aquatic mammal this was that swallowed Jonah.  There’s been speculation that it was this kind of whale or that kind of shark, or that maybe it was some kind of unknown sea creature.  There are scientists who say that the story of Jonah couldn’t possibly be true because there isn’t a whale or fish alive today that’s anatomically capable of swallowing a man whole, while plenty of others point to the fact that our knowledge of the extent of existing marine life is incomplete at best, that the species Jonah was swallowed by could now be extinct, or that it could have been a Shaquille O’Neal version of a currently existing species.  It all makes for an entertaining debate, but in the end, it really doesn’t make any difference.  It’s kind of like analyzing the paint color on the convertible JFK was riding in.

The point of this whole story is not what kind of fish swallowed Jonah.  The point is that God was willing to save Jonah.  The point is that we have a God who is willing to redeem us.  Why don’t you just sit with that a minute and give it some serious thought.

How weighty is it that the God who is bigger and more powerful than the entire universe loves each of us, individually, enough to desire to bring us back to Himself?   Since we were conceived in the womb (Psalm 51:5), we have been rebelling against God, spitting in His face, mocking Him, shaking our tiny little fists at Him, all the while walking around in the bodies He gave us, breathing the air He created, and eating the food He provided.  If that isn’t chutzpah, I don’t know what is.

Just like Jonah, we’ve said with our actions, attitudes, and maybe even our words, “I don’t like what You’re telling me to do, and I’m not going to do it.  I’m going to do things my way.”  We deserve every ounce of wrath and hell God could possibly pour out on us, and still He wants us back. 

Because of his sin, Jonah was drowning.  He wasn’t floating placidly on the surface, he was at the bottom of the sea (3, 5, 6), tangled up in the weeds (5), about to black out from oxygen deprivation (7).  He thought God was finally finished with him (4), but with his very last conscious thought, he cried out to the Lord to save him (4, 7)…

I called out of my distress to the Lord…
      …and He answered me

I cried for help…
     …Thou didst hear my voice

I remembered the Lord…
     …and my prayer came to Thee

When Jonah cried out to Him, did God say, “Forget it.  You’ve had your chance.  It’s too late now.”?  No.  He scooped Jonah up out of that water and saved him.  We have a God, who, despite having every right to destroy us, longs to set us free from the sin that binds us and lift us up out of the pit.  All we have to do is turn around and call out to Him, and He answers and saves us.

Why?  After all we’ve done to Him, why would God ever want to rescue us? 

Because anybody can throw away a piece of garbage.

But it takes Somebody really special to turn that piece of garbage into gold.
 

When God turns ashes into beauty, trash into treasure, sin into righteousness, it demonstrates His greatness, and He gets glory. 

He did it for Jonah.  He’ll do it for you, too.

 

Journal Time:

Has God taken you, a piece of garbage, and turned you into gold?  If so, write about your salvation experience.  If not, do you want Him to?  Why or why not?

Even if you’re walking closely with the Lord, there are areas of sin in your life that need to be refined into gold.  What are these areas?  How do you see God working to bring these areas of your life into submission to His desires?

Prayer Points:

Repent: If you are still drowning at the bottom of the ocean like Jonah was and have never repented and given your life to Christ, do so now.  Turn from your sin and call out to Jesus to save you.

If you are already saved, repent of any garbage you’re still clinging to in your life.  Surrender it to the Lord.

Request:  The times of refreshing that come with repentance and returning (Acts 3:19).

Seek God: For opportunities to share your “garbage into gold” testimony with others.

Jonah 1:10-17

Sometimes when we read Bible stories, we tend to forget that these were real, flesh and blood people, just like us.  They were living out all these events just like we live our own lives—in the moment—with no fore-knowledge of what was going to happen next. 

The fact that Jonah was a prophet did not mean that he could see into the future about every event in his own life.  So, it’s worth reminding ourselves here that when Jonah told the sailors to pick him up and throw him into the sea, everyone involved probably assumed he was going to die.  They had no idea it was lunch time and Moby Dick was looking for an all you can eat buffet.  All they knew was that it was a bad storm and they were out in the middle of the sea.  Not a prime survival situation.

The sailors, clearly, did not want to throw Jonah overboard.  Matthew Henry (Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, v. 4, p.1010-1011) thinks this is largely because Jonah demonstrated a great deal of remorse over both his sin and the consequences the sailors were suffering due to his sin, and the sailors felt sorry for him.  Certainly, this could indeed be the case.  We don’t know their motives for sure because the Bible doesn’t tell us what was going on in their hearts and minds in that moment.

Maybe I’m more cynical than Brother Matthew, but, in trying to put myself in the shoes of the captain and crew, I’m looking particularly at verses 10 and 14, and I’m leaning more towards thinking these guys were less concerned about Jonah’s personal fate—after all, he’s the one that got them all into this calamity in the first place—and more concerned about making sure God didn’t zap them for making His prophet walk the plank.  (Sorry, I know these guys were merchant seamen, not criminals, but I can’t help imagining them dressed as pirates and saying “Arrrgh” a lot.)  Maybe it was a mix of both motives.  It’s hard to know.  Emotions were certainly running high.

But whether it was an honorable motive or a less honorable motive that drove the sailors, the result was the same.  They—initially—disobeyed God’s command (through Jonah’s mouth) to throw Jonah into the sea.  And what happened?  The storm got worse and worse.

And not only did they disobey God’s specific instructions, they tried to fix things in their own way and in their own strength.  “They rowed desperately” (a translation note in my Bible says this could be translated as “they dug their oars into the water”—a great word picture) to try to get to dry land until they were exhausted.  And, again, what happened?  The storm seemed to take on a will of its own.  Verse 13 says the sea was becoming even stormier against them.  Even though Jonah clearly told the sailors (12) what to do and what the result of their obedience would be, they disobeyed and tried to do things their own way.

“Oh, those foolish sailors,” we say, shaking our heads.  “Why didn’t they just obey right off the bat?  They were even told what the outcome would be.”

Because these were real, flesh and blood people, just like us, remember?  They were living out all these events just like we live our own lives.  How often do we disobey God’s clear instructions to us in His word?  Sometimes he clearly tells us the consequences of our obedience (Ephesians 6:1-3) or disobedience.  Sometimes he shows us the possible consequences through the life of a Biblical character (II Samuel 12:9-14).  And yet, we still disobey.  We don’t like what God has told us to do, so we try things our own way.  And what happens?  The storm of consequences, even if it’s not immediately evident, gets worse and worse until we finally bow the knee in obedience.  Whether in this life, or the next.

Man overboard.  Cue the whale.

Journal Time:

Can you think of a time when you disobeyed, or delayed obedience to, God’s clear instructions to you?  What were the consequences?  What did God teach you about obeying Him?  How might Isaiah 55:8-9 have applied to this situation?

Ephesians 6:1-3 was cited as an example of a command with a clearly stated outcome of obeying that command.  I Corinthians 6:9-10 is an example of a clearly stated outcome of disobedience to certain commands.  Can you think of other commands or principles in Scripture, whose consequences for obedience or disobedience are clearly stated?

Prayer Points:

Repent: of any areas in your life where you are walking in disobedience to the clear instructions of God’s word.

 Request: that God will fill you with the desire and strength to obey Him immediately when you are tempted to try things your own way.

Seek God: Ask God to lead you to Scriptures that you can “hide in your heart, that you might not sin against Him.” (Psalm 119:11)  Memorize them.

Jonah 1:3-16

 

God only lets us continue in our sin for so long.  He eventually stops us either by death or by discipline.  And our boy, Jonah, was about to get disciplined in a big way.

In God’s legal system, there’s a difference between discipline and punishment.  Punishment is the pouring out of God’s wrath and retribution against sin.  People who are genuinely converted Christians never have to experience punishment because Jesus took our punishment for us at Calvary.  (Can I get a “hallelujah!” and “to God be the glory!”?)  People who choose to reject that substitutionary atonement choose to take their own punishment in an eternity in hell. 

Discipline is the mercy of God putting up a brick wall for us to run into so we’ll turn around and get out of our sin.  Once you run into that brick wall enough times, you start noticing that our kind and compassionate God puts up a lot of warning signs along the path before you get there.  He gives us His Word.  The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin in our spirits.  He may send us a “Nathan” (II Samuel 12:1-15) to come alongside us and point out our sin.  He might give us a small taste of the discipline that’s eventually to come.

God disciplines us for our own good, but sometimes He also does so for the sake of those around us.  Many times, my sin doesn’t just affect me, it affects my family, my friends, my church, or others.  It’s not fair that those people should have to suffer the consequences of my sin.

God sent the first part of Jonah’s “brick wall” in the form of a huge storm at sea.  At first, Jonah was the only one on the ship who was not affected by it.  He was below deck, snoozing obliviously, while the crew was frantically trying to save the ship.  It was due to Jonah’s sin that the crew suffered the loss of their cargo (which would have resulted in a loss of income), the struggle to save the ship, fear for their lives, and fear of God’s retribution for throwing Jonah overboard.  Once God meted out Jonah’s discipline by having him thrown into the sea, those harsh circumstances (except for the loss of the cargo—sometimes our sin can have long-reaching or even permanent consequences for others) ceased.

But in addition to discipline being for our own good and the good of those affected by our sin, discipline also brings God glory.  In Jonah’s case, this idol worshipping crew was ignorant of the one true God.  When God sent the storm, they quickly became aware of His all-encompassing power, His pre-eminence over their gods, His intolerance of sin, the consequences for sin, His sense of justice, His retribution against the enemies of His people (14), and His mercy upon them once the storm was over. 

In fact, in that moment, the crew of the ship seemed to have a better grasp of the nature of God, or at least a higher regard for it, than Jonah did.  The sailors, not Jonah, were the ones who called a prayer meeting and cried out to God (6, 14).  They, not Jonah, were the ones who sought to root out sin and make amends with God (7-8, 14-15).  They, not Jonah, were the ones who recognized God for who He was and worshipped Him (16).  Jonah’s bleary-eyed declaration, “I fear the Lord God of heaven…” may have rung a little hollow with the sailors as they clung to mast and main praying desperately to survive Jonah’s rocky relationship with this God of his. 

In the end, the storm seems to have served a multitude of God’s purposes: Jonah was disciplined, God was glorified, and the crew of the ship had their eyes opened to who God was.

Journal Time:

Compare the sailors’ experience of the consequences of Jonah’s sin with Joshua and Caleb’s experience of the consequences (Numbers 14:34) of the negative report about the Promised Land given by the other ten spies (they eventually got to enter the land, but still had to endure the 40 years of wilderness wandering) (Numbers 13-14).  How were these situations similar or different?  How might you have reacted had you been the sailors, Joshua, or Caleb?

Have you ever been oblivious to the effect your sin had on others?  Have you ever suffered as a direct result of someone else’s sin?  What did God teach you through this experience?

Prayer Points:

Repent: of any sin that has caused others to suffer.  Make amends with that person, if possible.

Request: that God will help you to forgive anyone who has caused you to suffer through his own sin.

Seek God: to open your eyes to any unknown sin in your life that may be causing hurt to others.

Jonah 1:3

Ever wonder why God didn’t stop Jonah before he ever even got to Joppa?  He could have, you know.  But instead, He allowed Jonah to make the 60-or-so mile trip from Gath-hepher to Joppa, allowed Jonah to find a ship that was willing to take him, and allowed Jonah to have the money to pay his fare.  Know why?  Because God was being merciful to Jonah.

Merciful?  Doesn’t it sound instead like God was providing Jonah more than ample rope to hang himself?  Uh uh.  From the moment Jonah got up and pointed himself at Joppa, the Holy Spirit was prodding Jonah’s conscience:

“This is wrong.”

“Don’t do this.”

“Turn back.”

…giving him chance after chance to turn from his sin and back to God.  Jonah must have heard God mercifully pleading with him with every step he took from front porch to gangplank, yet he hardened his heart, stiffened his neck, and refused to obey.  And when you do that long enough, God eventually says, “Fine.  That’s the way you want it?  Have at it.”  He lets go and gives us over to the sin we think we want to live in (Exodus 7:14, 8:15, 19, 9:12; Romans 1:18-28).  But there’s always a price to pay.  Usually, a high one, as Jonah soon found out.

How about you? Have you ever been to Joppa?  If you’ve never taken the pro-active step of turning sorrowfully away from your sin and placing your faith in Christ, then you’re on the road to Joppa, just like Jonah was.  Every day, God is mercifully calling you to stop going down that road of rebellion against Him and turn around and run to Him in repentance and faith.

You see, we’re all guilty of rebelling against God (Romans3:23, Psalm 14:2-3), whether we’re “good guys” like Jonah, who grew up in church, or “bad guys” like the Ninevites, doing every disgusting thing we can dream up.  We’ve broken His laws, and when you break the law, you suffer the penalty.  In our American legal system, that usually means jail time.  In God’s legal system those who break His laws (even the “little” ones like white lies, selfishness, gossip…) receive an eternity in Hell.  We deserve it.  We’re using the life He created for us to spit in His face with every breath He gives us.

But the great news is that God loves us anyway.  And just as He didn’t want to do what He was about to do to Jonah, and just as He didn’t want to destroy the Ninevites, He doesn’t want to send us to hell.  So, He provided us a “get out of jail free” card in the form of His son, Jesus.  Jesus stepped in and volunteered to go to the cross and take your punishment so that God could legally dismiss your case.  He got your punishment, you can get His perfection.

But it’s not automatic.  You must affirmatively turn from your life of sin, and—fully believing in Jesus’ death, burial, and bodily resurrection— place your faith in His payment for your sin by surrendering your whole heart, life and will to Him.  There is no other way to be saved from your sin and go to Heaven—not by doing enough good things to outweigh the bad, not by church membership or being baptized, not by parroting a “sinner’s prayer”, only through repentance and faith in Jesus.

If God is calling you to turn to Him, be sure to do so today (II Corinthians 6:1-2).   Don’t put it off, because, while God may be a God of second chances, He’s not a God of unlimited chances.  If you continue to tell Him no, He will eventually take “no” for an answer.  And, unfortunately, there’s something infinitely worse than a storm and a whale waiting for you if He does.

 

Journal Time:

Are you absolutely certain you are saved?  If you are, the way you think and live will show it.  The Bible says that we should examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith (II Corinthians 13:5).  The John MacArthur Study Bible has a great evaluation tool for testing yourself.  Take some time to go through it and talk with the Lord about these aspects of your faith.

The Character of Genuine Saving Faith

I. Evidences That Neither Prove Nor Disprove One’s Faith

• Visible Morality: Matthew19:16-21;23:27.
• Intellectual Knowledge: Romans 1:21; 2:17ff.
• Religious Involvement: Matthew 25:1-10
• Active Ministry: Matthew 7:21-24
• Conviction of Sin: Acts 24:25
• Assurance: Matthew 23
• Time of Decision: Luke 8:13, 14

II. The Fruit/Proofs of Authentic/True Christianity:

• Love for God: Psalm 42:1ff; 73:25; Luke10:27; Romans 8:7
• Repentance from Sin: Psalm 32:5; Proverbs 28:13; Romans 7:14ff; 2 Corinthians7:10; 1 John 1:8-10
• Genuine Humility: Psalm 51:17; Matthew 5:1-12; James 4:6, 9ff.
• Devotion to God’s Glory: Psalm 105:3; 115:1; Isaiah 43:7, 48:10ff.; Jeremiah9:23, 24; 1 Corinthians10:31
• Continual Prayer: Luke 18:1; Ephesians 6:18ff.; Philippians 4:6ff.; 1 Timothy 2:1-4; James5:16-18
• Selfless Love: 1 John 2:9ff, 3:14; 4:7ff.
• Separation from the World: 1 Corinthians 2:12; James 4:4ff.; 1 John2:15-17, 5:5
• Spiritual Growth: Luke 8:15; John 15:1-6; Ephesians 4:12-16
• Obedient Living: Matthew 7:21; John 15:14ff.; Romans16:26; 1 Peter 1:2, 22; 1 John 2:3-5

If List I is true of a person and List II is false, there is cause to question the validity of one’s profession of faith. Yet if List II is true, then the top list will be also.

 

Prayer Points:

If you’ve never placed your faith in Christ:

Repent: of your sin.

Request: that God take your old life and give you the new life that comes through faith in Christ.

Seek God: for his direction as you begin to walk as a new creature in Christ.

If you are saved, please pray for the lost who are reading this lesson today, and any other lost person in your life.  Ask God to draw them to Himself and open their eyes to the truth of the Gospel.

Jonah 1:2-3 

Well, Jonah, “got up” alright, but not to do what God told him to do.  He made up his mind he was going to Tarshish.  Now, don’t confuse “Tarshish” with “Tarsus”—that’s where Saul (Paul) was from. Tarsus is inAsia Minor, at the northeast corner of theMediterranean Sea.  Tarshish, on the other hand, is 2,000 miles away from our hero’s hometown, on the southern coast of Spain.  You have to go all the way across the Mediterranean Sea and through the Strait of Gibraltar to get to it.

In the ancient world, it was pretty much as far west as you could go before you fell off the edge of the earth.  Jonah didn’t just hop a bus for the next town, he was getting as far away from Nineveh as he possibly could.

Tarshish was a bustling seaport, a hub for exports to Israel and other points east.  During Solomon’s reign (about 200 years before Jonah), ships from Tarshish arrived about once every three years carrying “gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks.” (I Kings 10:22).  (Why on earth anyone would want to import apes is beyond me.  Were they eating them?  Keeping them as pets?  Training them to be servants?  The possibilities intrigue me, but I digress.)  Unless the “Tar-ships” had begun coming around with greater frequency by the 700’s, Jonah wasn’t planning on coming back for a while, if ever.

Why did Jonah think going to Tarshish would be the solution to his little dilemma?  There might have been a couple of reasons.  Hiding out where God couldn’t find him, however, as children’s Bible storybooks sometimes put it, was not one of them.  Jonah may have been rebellious and pig-headed (Wait—not the right term for a kosher Jew.  Let’s go with “stubborn as a mule”.) but he wasn’t stupid.  He was a prophet.  If anybody knows that God sees you wherever you go, it’s a prophet.  More likely, what was in Jonah’s mind was trying to get out from under God’s hand—the mantle of prophecy God had laid on him.

Jonah could have held to an ancient Jewish belief (later debunked in Ezekiel and Daniel) that God’s spirit of prophecy could only rest upon a person who was within the borders of Israel.  Get out of Israel equals get out of the prophet business.

He might also have simply been operating on the same “I’m in control here and God won’t intervene and make me do something,” principle the rest of us operate under.  For example, if I stand by my back door and decide that I’m not going outside, my experience tells me that God isn’t going to physically pick me up and shove me out the door (even though I know that He’s quite capable of doing so and would if He wanted to).  Maybe Jonah figured the same thing about deciding not to go to Nineveh.  Little did he know…

Now, you know what I find to be a glaring omission on Jonah’s part in this passage?  God told Jonah to do something, and Jonah didn’t talk to God about it (at least, if he did, it’s not recorded here).  Jonah didn’t ask any questions, seek an explanation, offer excuses as to why he couldn’t do it, ask God to enable him to do it, or anything else.  He just got up and went another direction without a word.

When God told Moses to go speak to Pharaoh, they had a nice long chat about it (Exodus 3:10-4:16).  When Jeremiah had questions, God had answers (Jeremiah 12).  God gets that we don’t always understand Him and His ways and that sometimes we need to talk things out with Him.  But Jonah didn’t even give God a chance.

If Jonah had sat down and had a simple conversation with the Lord before he headed down to Joppa, his story might have turned out completely differently.  Maybe he would have come around and seen things God’s way and gone straight to Nineveh.  We might not have gotten a spectacular “fish tale”, but God would have gotten from Jonah what He desires from each of us: trust and obedience.

Journal Time:

 Compare Jonah’s response to God’s calling on his life with Moses’ (Exodus 3:10-4:16) and Isaiah’s (Isaiah 6) response to God’s calling on their lives.  How does God respond to the concerns and questions of His servants?  In the end, what did each of these men decide to do?  Considering these Scriptures, how can you best respond the next time God gives you instructions you don’t like?

Have you ever flatly refused to obey God’s instructions to you?  What were the results?

Prayer Points:

Repent: of any areas in your life where you know you’re running away from obeying God.

 Request: that God will keep you immersed in the Word and in prayer daily so you will be more inclined to trust Him and be obedient to Him in the future.

 Seek God: for the wisdom to know how to approach Him in reverence and submission with your questions and concerns.