JONAH FLEES FROM THE LORD

Jonah 1:1-11                                                                                                     Lesson 2

Key Verse: 1:1-2

“The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

     Jonah lived in Northern Israel at a time when the Assyrian Empire was a growing threat to Israel’s existence. God’s word came to Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and preach against the sin that was rampant there. Jonah didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to warn the people of Nineveh of God’s judgment. He didn’t want them to repent and be saved. So, in this passage he bought a one-way ticket on a ship going to Tarshish–in the opposite direction. He thought he could flee from God and from God’s mission. But God had another plan for this rebellious prophet, as we shall see. Through the study of this passage may God forgive us of our narrow minds and take away our rebellious spirits. May God help us to obey his commands and accept his mission and personally calling from our hearts.

Part 1: “Go Preach To Nineveh” (1-3)

Who was the prophet Jonah? Look at verse 1 and 9, “ The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai:” His dad’s name was Ammitai. His mother remains nameless. Jonah names means “dove” and he occupies a unique place as the first Jewish foreign missionary. His home was Gath Hepher of Zebulun, north of Nazareth in Galilee, where he lived before the Assyrian invasion and destruction of Samaria. (2 Kings 14:25)

There is more to learn about Jonah in verse 9. “ He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”  Jonah was a Hebrew. He was a follower of the Jewish faith. He was one of the people chosen by God to be his treasured possession with a special mission to be a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation (Exodus 19:6) and a Light to the Gentiles. (Isaiah 49:6) Jonah tried to do his part in fulfilling God’s vision for his people. Verse 9 says that he worshipped the Lord, “the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” That means several things. It means that he was involved in Temple worship. Remember, the year was 780 B.C. when Jonah wrote this book. The First Temple was built by King Solomon (reigned c 970-c 930) and was the center of ancient Judaism. As the sole place of Jewish sacrifice, the Temple replaced the local sanctuaries and crude altars in the hills. (This First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE when they sacked the city.)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_in_Jerusalem

      Jonah was more than just a casual worshipper of God, going to the synagogue sporadically on the Sabbath. He was a disciplined man of God. He worshipped Jehovah God every day. His mission of life was to serve God. There is reason to believe that he was a member of the company of prophets mentioned in connection with Elisha’s ministry. (2 Kings 2:3) Jonah preceded Amos and ministered in the northern kingdom under Jeroboam ll, Israel’s most powerful king. (793 – 753 B.C.) A couple of his contemporaries were the prophets Joel (853 – 796 B.C.) and Amos (760-750 B.C). He worshipped God so intensely that he even wrote this prophetic book to Israel and to God’s people everywhere, approximately 780 B.C. Many men of God, who were on fire for the Lord, wrote books that changed history, even at a young age. John Calvin, the great reformer, was only 27 years old when he wrote, “The Institutes Of The Christian Religion” in 1536. It was a large, two volume book to help explained the Christian faith to the King of France when French Catholics were persecuting Protestants. His authorship was born out of his worship of the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Indeed God is looking for worshippers who can worship their creator with all of their heart, soul and strength (Deut 6:5) and also in spirit and truth. (John 4:23-24) each and every day.

     Jonah was a man who was able to hear God’s call and have some response to it, (though at times it was a wrong response.) Look at verse 1 again. “ The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai:” This means that he had an inner spiritual life where he communicated with God and God communicated to him. There is a gospel song called, “Turn Your Radio On.” One lyric states, “Now everyone has a radio receiver…all you have to do is listen for the call… If you listen in you’ll be believ’in leaning on the truths that are never false.” It is true! We too can have an inner spiritual life, being in communicato with God. We need to tune our hearts to God through faithful Bible study and prayer until we can hear the still, small voice of God. (1 Kings 19:12)

What was God’s word to Jonah? Look at verse 2, “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” God had a very difficult mission for Jonah, a mission that even a prophet of God could not obey. God called him to go and preach to the people of Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. Nineveh was situated on the banks of the TigrisRiver near modern day Mosel in Iraq. It was a great walled city containing over 120,000 people. (4:11) Though it was the main city in a relatively weak kingdom, within 50 years of Jonah’s time, it would become the capital of the huge and wicked Assyrian Empire. The city was a threat to the national security of Israel.

It was also a very wicked city. Nahum says that Nineveh was guilty of evil plots against God. (Nahum 1:9), exploitation of the helpless (Nahum 2:12), cruelty in war (Nahum 2:12,13), idolatry, prostitution and witchcraft (Nahum 3:4). The residents were idolaters, worshipping Assyrian deities. The Assyrians performed innumerable acts of extreme violence, torturing and slaughtering anyone who opposed them. Assyria was Israel’s enemy who would eventually conquered them in 722 B.C. The Israelites had many reasons to hate and to fear the Ninevites and so God’s direction to Jonah, to go and preach to the Ninevites, was a very difficult direction to obey. When God’s word communicates to our hearts, they are not always pleasant words of encouragement, peace and prosperity. So often there are difficult words, like, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matt 3:2) And, “Then he said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) What about, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matt 5:44) Here is another hard one… “In your anger do not sin. ‘Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.’” (Eph 4:26) Indeed, many of God’s communications with us are not comfortable, nor easy to obey.

       Jonah was not strong enough to obey this direction from God. Look at verse 3a, “But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish…” Even though Jonah was a man of God, who worshipped God and served God, he could not always obey God.  He ran from the Lord. Jonah could not preach the message of salvation to a gentile people who were going to be mortal enemies of Israel. That was too much to ask. He knew that God’s word is so powerful that if it is preached people will repent and be saved. (Romans 10:14,15)  Jonah probably hoped the Ninevites would receive the full cup of God’s fury instead. Jonah was struggling so much with God’s direction. He started to have constant headaches. He couldn’t sleep at night. He avoided the subject. He came up with reasonable sounding excuses to justify why he could not obey such a direction. “I already have a calling to be a prophet. I am already in the school of prophets. I have no time for this.” His struggle grew more intense. He even paid money to get on a ship and flee to Tarshish. Tarshish could have been any number of Phoenician western ports. Jonah sought to flee by ship from Joppa on Israel’s Mediterranean coast and to go to some remote destination that lay in the opposite direction from Nineveh. Therefore Jonah was trying to get as far away from Nineveh as he could. He was willing to relocate and even pay an expensive fare to go on this cruise. For example, for my family to go on the ferry ride across Lake Michigan with our car, it would cost about $400. Indeed, he went to great lengths to avoid the call of God. Why did Jonah leave Israel? He evidently concluded that if he ran away God would select another prophet rather than tracking him down and making him go to Nineveh.

Jonah understood God’s specific job for him, but he didn’t want to do it. We can say that Jonah was disgruntled with his calling. Jonah’s attitude is representative of Israel’s reluctance to share God’s love and mercy with others, even though this was their God-given mission (Genesis 12:3). They, like Jonah, did not want non-Jews (Gentiles) to obtain God’s favor. It is also representative of ourselves who do not want to follow God’s call on our personal lives. Not everyone has the same call from God. But one thing is for sure, every calling from God involves a call to commitment with certain degrees of self denial and self sacrifice. Every calling from God calls us out our comfort zone in order engage our faith and thereby glorify God. Most people do not want this. Because of these reasons, people flee from God. In order to flee, many people do strange things. They may stop Bible study and all communication with some servants of God. They might search for a church that makes less demands on them. They may demonize and slander a group that is serving a mission field that God has called them too. All this to justify their rejection of God’s call.  Though they may not move physically, they are running from God in their hearts.

But there is one who did not run from God’s difficult mission. And we all know him. His name is Jesus. When Jesus began his messianic ministry he came to John the Baptist to be baptized by John. When John saw Jesus coming toward him he said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29) Jesus came to world in order to fulfill a very difficult mission, to lay down his life on the cross as the lamb or God. He gave up all the glory, power and majesty of the kingdom of heaven in order to become man and suffer and die on the cross as the lamb of God. (John 1:14) All this was part of God’s plan. Isaiah 53:10 reads, “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.” (Isa 54:10) All this happened according God’s set purpose and foreknowledge. (Acts 2:23) It was a work of salvation conceived of, by our Father in heaven, from the beginning.  God was going to send his One and Only Son, into this world, to live, suffer and die among God’s enemies, so that anyone who repents of their sins and believes in him will have eternal life. (Jn 3:16) It was such a difficult mission, but Jesus chose to obey. He says in John 10:17-18, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”  In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was facing his eminent crucifixion. He prayed to obey God, so much so that his sweat was like drops of blood. He prayed until he came to the conclusion, “Not my will but yours be done.” (Lk 22:42) Praise God that Jesus willingly chose to become flesh and make his dwelling among us (Jn 1:14). Praise God that Jesus offered his life so that we maybe forgiven of our sins and have eternal life. Thank Jesus who shows us how to obey the will of God in our own lives. May we all be honest with ourselves and discover the will of God in our own lives and answer, like Jesus, “Not my will but yours be done.” Through your decision of faith to obey God, you will be blessed and multitudes will be blessed through you.  

Part ll: Jonah’s Lack Of Compassion (4-6)

      Jonah had a severe lack of compassion on those who were suffering around him. Look at verse 5. “All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.” Jonah had boarded ship and was on his way Tarshish according to his plan. On the journey a terrible storm arose that caused even seasoned sailors to despair of life itself. They were in such a desperate situation that they even started to throw their precious cargo over the side. They began to cry out in prayer to their gods. Some cried, “O Poseidon, save us! O Zeus have mercy!” Everyone was working hard, all together as one, even though they were adherents to different religions.

       But there was one who was not onboard the deck. It was Jonah? Where was he? He was below the deck sleeping. How could Jonah sleep? Jesus slept in a boat in the midst of the storm. But he could do so because of his absolute faith in God and he wanted to teach his disciples an important spiritual lesson. But Jonah’s reasons for sleeping and people’s reasons for sleeping in critical moments are not so holy. Even the captain of the ship knew that it was wrong for Jonah to sleep at this moment. Let’s read verse 6. “The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” People sleep in the midst of troubles for many reasons. Some are despaired of life and so they sleep. Others have no sense of the disaster that looms before them and so they sleep out of sheer ignorance and blindness. Some simply don’t care about others who are suffering around them and so they sleep out of indifference. I believe that Jonah simply did not care about these Gentiles and their plight. People were suffering around him and yet he chose to sleep when he could have helped. It is not wrong to sleep. We need to sleep or we cannot function properly. But at the critical moment, when others are suffering, how can we sleep and ignore God’s call. Have we lost our spiritual senses? Can we not see the lostness of those around us? Are we asleep?

     Jonah could sleep because he did not know the compassion of God. Jonah 4:11 reads, “Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”  God cares and he is compassionate, even towards his enemies. Exodus 34:6 reads, “…The Lord, The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” Jonah needed to repent and begin to participate in the compassionate heart of God. Where would be if Jesus and other servants of God were not compassionate to us? What if they just ignored us as we passed by them in time of spiritual need? Jesus once said, “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’” We must come out of our indifference and practice the compassionate heart of Jesus. How? By being faithful to what God has called us to do and begin by serving one person.

       Jonah probably felt like he didn’t have to lift a finger to help either. There is a saying, “I love work. I can watch it all day.” Yes, there are people who see others work around them and never think that they should pitch in a helping hand. Jonah was one of these people. Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning. Staying together is progress. Working together is success.” He was a business man. But the principle also applies to doing the work of God.

      It is interesting to see that these idol worshipping sailors had more spiritual sense than Jonah had. Verse 5a reads, “All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god…” and verse 6, “The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” These men did not worship the Creator God and yet they knew how to pray in the midst of their calamity. They were doing more than Jonah was doing. We are quick to criticize those of other religions, but the fact is, they may have more spiritual sense than some Christians. All people are created in the image of God. All people have a sense of the divine and are endowed with a spiritual desire. God did this so that all people one day seek him and find him one day. Christians should be the most tuned into the things of God, not idol worshippers.

Part lll: God Calls Jonah Out (7-11)

God was helping Jonah to confess of his sin. Let’s read verses 7-10, “ 7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” 9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” 10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.) A lot of times we focus on the calamity around us and fail to see the sovereign Lord at work in the midst of our troubles. Jonah was running away from God’s mission. He thought he was smart and that he was going to succeed, all he had to do was lay low until the storm was over and then he would be far away in Tarshish. But our compassionate and gracious God was calling him out. God allowed the storm to come. God even used godless men to force Jonah to publically confess his sin. Never think that you can ever hide from God. God will sure find a way to call you out so that you can confess you sin and accept Jesus’ forgiveness and begin to live a new life.

Jonah’s sin was causing a lot of trouble for other people. Look at verse 8a.“ So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us?…”  Jonah may have felt that his rebellion to God was his own affair and nobody else’s business. But though he never meant for this to happen, it did. Many peoples’ lives were disrupted because of his. People think that they are their own person, that their lives do not affect others. We have a, “Leave me alone’ attitude, even when we are hurting others. We must be mindful of our influence. In one day we may interact with 50 people. We must be careful of our influence and the affect our sin has on others. Jesus once said, “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. ²It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. ³So watch yourselves.” (Luke 17:1-3a) Pray that we can be a great influence to others, leading others to faith in Jesus.

God wanted Jonah to minister to the sailors. In their desperation the sailors wanted to find some direction from a man of God, even a compromised servant of God. Let’s read verse 11,  “The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” The sailors knew that Jonah had his problems and that he was the source the calamity. But never the less he was servant of God and they turned to him for answers. This will happen to you. As soon as you identify yourself as a Christian, there will be times when people come to you for advice and words of encouragement. They will ask you for prayer support. Will you be ready to offer the words that bring life? Can you plant hope in their weary hearts? Listen to what Peter says in 1 Peter 3:15, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” May we give our hearts to sincere Bible study and grow spiritually so that we can be ready to lead anyone who comes to us for the words of life.

Through this passage we learned that we all are called to answer our own personal calling from God. This calling will involve much hardship. But we must embrace God’s call and pray like Jesus, “Lord, not my will but yours be done.” Let us be compassionate and respond to others who suffer around us. Let us be good spiritual influences that bless others’ lives and not create calamities. And when God calls us out, let us be quick to repent and begin to follow Jesus once again.

Part 1: “Go Preach To Nineveh” (1-3)

1.   What kind of person was Jonah? (1, 19, 2 Kings 14:25) Did he have a relationship with God? What did God want him to do? (2) Why? What are some difficult things that God has called you to do?

2.   How did Jonah respond to God’s call? (3a) What kind of effort did he make? What does this tell us about human nature? Think about others in the Bible who did answer God’s difficult call. (John 10:17-18; Luke 22:42)

Part ll: Jonah’s Lack Of Compassion (4-6)

3.   How did Jonah respond to the calamity? (5b) How were others responding? (5) What does this reveal about the hearts of the people on the deck? (5a) What should we do when we see others struggling around us? What does this reveal about Jonah?

4.   What did the captain urge Jonah to do? (6) What can we always do in the midst of any crisis? Why is prayer so effective? (6)

Part lll:  Jonah’s Bad Influence And God’s Mercy  (7-11)

5. How did the crew members find out who is responsible for all the trouble they were in? (7) How did Jonah identify himself? (8-9) What was God doing here? What kind of influence was Jonah? Why is it important for God’s people to be a good influence? (Matthew 5:13; Luke 17:1-3a)

6.  What had their situation cause them to do? (5) Who did the ship’s crew turn to when their situation became even more desperate and the could do nothing else? (11) How can we be ready to talk to people when they come to us? (1 Peter 3:15)