Jonah 1
1-17 Jonah Runs from God (Subheadings from Bill's sermon on Jonah)
- God tells Jonah, Son of Amittai, that he must go to Nineveh (in Assyria), and "cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me." Instead, Jonah goes to Joppa and boards a boat going the other direction, to Tarshish.
- God responds by causing a storm on the sea, causing the mariners to call on their gods for help and then to throw all their cargo into the sea to lighten the load.They cast lots and discover that Jonah is the cause of their troubles.
- Note: While the pagans call on their false gods for help, Jonah is sound asleep in the hold of the ship, feeling safely hidden from the true God. What is this smugness that true worshipers sometimes have?
- He confesses to being a Hebrew, a worshiper of the Creator. This make the sailors even more afraid, and Jonah tells them to throw him overboard to satisfy God. They are reluctant to do that, and continue to try to row to shore, but to no avail. Asking God's forgiveness while they do it, they throw Jonah overboard.
- Immediately, the sea gets quiet, and the sailors are even more afraid. They offer sacrifices and make vows to God. So maybe Jonah's running away accomplishes a purpose here?
- Meanwhile, God has provided a fish to swallow Jonah, and he's in the belly of the fish 3 days and 3 nights.
1-10 Jonah's Prayer (BB: Jonah Runs to God)
- Jonah prays from the belly of the fish -- a prayer of thanksgiving, repentance, and commitment
- He thanks God for saving him from the sea, and expresses his shame at his disobedience.
- He promises to keep his promise: "What I have vowed I will pay."
- God speaks to the fish, and it spews Jonah onto dry land.
1-10 Conversion of Nineveh
- God repeats his commission to Jonah, but with a little different emphasis: "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you."
- Nineveh, a large city of three day's walk across, responds to Jonah's message: "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." The people of Nineveh proclaim a fast and everyone puts on sackcloth. Their response is amazing, seeing Jonah is a stranger. Was it something about his demeanor or appearance? Could it be they had heard what had happened to him?
- Even the king humbles himself and commands everyone and their animals to fast and cover themselves in sackcloth so perhaps God would relent.
- God changes his mind about bringing the calamity he had planned.
1-8 Jonah's Anger
- Jonah becomes very angry. He tells God this is why he didn't want to go to Nineveh. They are the enemy, and I knew if they repented, being the merciful, gracious God you are, that you would decide not to punish them for their wickedness. Is this not the opposite of one of the characteristics of love defined in 1 Corinthians 13, "Love does not rejoice in wrong doing"? If we were to be honest with ourselves, we would admit there are people who have wronged us so badly, or have hurt others so much, or have committed so many sins in their lives, we don't want them to hear the gospel, in case they would obey it; we want them to be punished for their wickedness.
- God to Jonah: Do you have a right to be angry? A rhetorical question, to be sure. Of course he doesn't.
- Jonah leaves the city, builds a shelter and sits there. I get the idea he's pouting.
- God provides a bush to give him shade, but at dawn the next day, a worm attacks the tree and it withers. Then God prepares a sultry east wind to beat down on Jonah's head, and he wants to die.
- God chastises him for caring more about a bush than he is about a city of 120,000 people who "do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals." Is it the bush Jonah cares about, or his own comfort? And I guess that's the point.
- This ending has always seemed so abrupt. Did Jonah humble himself and decide to rejoice in God's mercy? Maybe we're not told because that's not the point. Maybe the point is that when we obey, even when we don't feel like it, God can still do his work.
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