Jonah 1:1-17
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose 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, away from the presence of the Lord. 4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.”
15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17 And the Lordappointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
You are familiar with the account of Jonah, but some ironic details of this chapter are often missed because of that familiarity. So, let’s walk through the text and try to catch several of those details.
God calls Jonah to go and preach. The surprising thing is that Jonah is called to preach outsiders, to the pagan sinners in Nineveh, the capitol city of Assyria, Israel’s fiercest enemy. God says to Jonah, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me.” The picture that God gives is that the evil and sin of Nineveh has piled up so high that it is surrounding God’s feet.
So, God calls Jonah to arise, and Jonah rose. But that is as far as his obedience to God’s call goes. Instead of arising to go to Nineveh, Jonah flees. Notice that Jonah is fleeing from God’s presence (v. 3a) and goes down. Down to Joppa. In Joppa, Jonah finds a ship going to Tarshish. He boards the boat and again goes down into it. And Scripture repeats itself by reminding us again that Jonah is trying to go away from the presence of the Lord (v. 3b).
Yeah. It doesn’t work. God hurls a great wind and tempest on the sea. In other words, God goes with Jonah by the means of this storm. God would have been totally just to simply send a wave to crash over this boat filled with His disobedient, fleeing prophet and these idolatrous, pagan sailors, but God is merciful.
But still, Jonah repeatedly and unrepentedly continues his downward track, but God doesn’t give up. As the storm intensifies, the sailors begin to put Jonah to shame, religiously speaking. They are fervently praying. The sailors are also hurling the cargo of the ship into the sea. Now, our translation makes it sound like they were tossing a bunch of freight overboard to make the ship lighter, but Ezk. 27:12 talks about all the precious metals that went in and out of Tarshish. It is likely the sailors are throwing gold, silver, bronze, and ivory into the sea. And the Hebrew grammar indicates that the sailors were trying to lighten something but not the boat. They were trying to lighten the wrath and anger of the sea. The text gives us a picture that the sailors are trying to appease the angry god of the sea by throwing the precious cargo overboard as an offering and sacrifice to the sea itself.
But their prayers and sacrifices aren’t heard. The storm continues to rage. And through all of this, Jonah has continued his downward spiral. There he is in the bottom of the ship and lying down. Jonah is as low as he can physically get by himself. And beyond that Jonah is sleeping, but this isn’t the normal sleep you get at night. The word for sleep there is the same “deep sleep” that God caused to fall upon Adam when God removed Adam’s rib to create the woman (Gen. 2:21). Jonah has done everything he can to flee from God’s presence.
But God still hasn’t given up.
The unbelieving captain of the ship wakes Jonah up and urges him to pray. Again, Jonah here is just getting put to shame, religiously speaking, by these pagans. The captain tells Jonah, “Arise, call out,” which are the same two commands God originally gave to Jonah regarding Nineveh. The captain says to Jonah, “Arise, call out to your god. Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.” Again, God hasn’t given up, and Jonah hasn’t successfully fled from God’s presence. God opens this unbelieving captain’s mouth to continue to call Jonah back to Himself.
The sailors cast lots to figure out who is to blame for this storm, and God causes the lot to fall to Jonah (Pro. 16:33). The crew interrogates Jonah, and he tells the sailors that he is fleeing from the presence of the Lord. We’re only ten verses into the chapter, but this is now the third time we are told that Jonah is fleeing the presence of the Lord. And we need to chew on this a bit.
Jonah isn’t just trying to get away from God’s call to preach to Nineveh. Jonah is fleeing God’s presence, which is exactly what believers desire. Believers long to be in the gracious presence of God, but that is the very thing Jonah is running from. God’s merciful, abiding presence with His people was the whole point of the Tabernacle and Temple. And the irony here is that Jonah can only run away from God because of his intimacy with God.
And here is the ironic thing that I can’t delay saying any longer. God had called Jonah to preach a message of judgment to Nineveh (Jon. 1:2). It’s obvious that Jonah doesn’t like the Ninevites, so we would expect that he would jump at the chance to go with the message that these wicked heathens are about to get God’s wrath. But when we get to the end of the story, after the whole city of Nineveh has repented and turned God (Jon. 3), Jonah tells God why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh. Jonah says, “I made haste to flee… for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jon. 4:2). Jonah fled because he knew God’s Word of judgment would cause the Ninevites to repent and believe. And Jonah doesn’t like that. He doesn’t want to be in the presence of a God who gives mercy and grace to people Jonah doesn’t like because that means the people Jonah doesn’t like will be in God’s presence with him.
All of this is to say that Jonah wouldn’t make a good pastor. Jonah doesn’t want God to be merciful to people Jonah doesn’t like. He doesn’t want the Ninevites to be forgiven. God knew this about Jonah, but God still didn’t give up on Jonah.
Ok. Back to the boat and the storm. Jonah tells the sailors to throw him overboard and the storm will cease. They do that while asking the Lord to forgive them. You have to love these sailors. Jonah hits the water, the tempest ceases, and the sailors believe in God (Jon. 1:15-16). God hadn’t given up on the sailors, even after they have prayed and sacrificed to all their pagan gods.
And God still hasn’t given up either on Jonah or the people of Nineveh. We don’t know how far from land the ship had gotten at this point, but it was likely a long way off since the sailors were so frantic in their actions. Jonah wouldn’t have had any hope of swimming to shore or having another ship find him. But God appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Some lifeboat! Jonah had gone down as far as he could physically get by himself, but God will bring him down even further. (This afternoon, read Jon. 2 where Jonah prays to God from the belly of the fish and see how low Jonah got. But even from those depths, Jonah’s prayer reaches up to heaven.) Jonah was swallowed and in the belly of the fish three days and three nights (Jon. 1:17) so he would be rescued and later preach God’s Word to the Ninevites and so they would repent.
Now, the whole book of Jonah is about God not giving up on sinners. He desires that all would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).
Dear saints, you worship the true God who never gives up, and He never gives up on you – even when your sin has piled up into heaven. That is why Jesus has come. Jesus is the greater Jonah. Christ left God’s presence to bring God’s love, salvation, forgiveness, grace, and mercy to you. Christ has come down from heaven. He came down to earth – down into your sin and mess. He humbled Himself to the point of death – even death on a cross. And Jesus went even further down, He was swallowed into the belly of the grave. And just as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the fish, Christ was three days and nights in the belly of the earth (Mt. 12:39-41).
Jonah is a type of Jesus. What Jonah did unwillingly and unwittingly, Jesus has done intentionally out of His great love for you. Jesus dived down into the depths of your sin and evil to bring you His peace and forgiveness. Dear saints, through Christ, the world is redeemed (1 Jn. 2:2). The storms of this world may rage and threaten you, but Christ brings you His love, mercy, forgiveness, salvation, peace, and joy. The sacrifice has been made. Our ship is saved. The waves have stopped their raging. The storm is passed, and the God of heaven and earth is pleased to bring you safely into His gracious presence in the heavenly harbor. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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