1

Title: “The Jonah Complex”

Text: Jonah 1:12-16

Date: October 11, 2015

Place: DCOG

Theme: All the Places to Go

Have you ever been asked (or maybe commanded is a better word) to do something that you were not really interested in doing?

I hated digging dandelions. Dad wanted them out of our yard. He wasn’t spending any money on any chemicals, especially since he had a Bob and a Doug to do the work.

Every night after school, I would come home, change my clothes, get an old rusted out pan and a used butter knife, and I would head out to the front yard to dig out the ever-spreading week.

My assignment was the front and side yard. Doug was responsible for the back yard. Neither of us wanted to be there.

We had an agreement with Dad, we would get the ones with yellow flowers each night. The expectation was that over time we would eradicate the beasts.

For some reason, Doug, always got done before me. Was he really that good? No! Doug would go through the yard popping of the yellow tops and then move on to having fun.

That is until Dad found out!

Then came a “whale” of a moment.

That is the teaching moment in our lives. Over the years, I can only imagine, that there have been those things in our lives that we didn’t like or want to do, even for Christ. So we tried to rechannel our ministries to something else thinking that we could satisfy God by our own efforts instead of demonstrating real obedience.

It really doesn’t work, does it?

Jonah was chosen by God to take the message of repentance to the people of Nineveh.

Now Nineveh was one of the great cities of its day. As the capital of Assyria, they were the political, governmental, and social center of an extremely powerful nation.

Nineveh was a city built by Nimrod, the grandson of Noah. It is recognized as one of the oldest large cities of the world having its beginnings in Genesis 10:11-12.

Genesis 10:11-12

From that land he (Nimrod) went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, that is the great city.

Was it corrupt, abusive, and recognized as an evil people?

Nahum 3:1

Woe to the city of blood,

full of lies,

full of plunder,

never without victims!

And it was to this city that God called Jonah to minister. He was to proclaim the word of God and call them to repentance. He was the first prophet sent to a heathen nation.

Jonah was convinced that this was not a plum assignment. He decided that he didn’t want to go. So, he sets off in the opposite direction. He goes down to Joppa and pays for passage to Tarshish.

This is not pleasing to God, so God sends a great storm and the vessel is in danger of sinking.

Jonah 1:12-16

"Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you."

[13] Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. [14] Then they cried to the Lord, "O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased." [15] Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. [16] At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.

John Ortberg in our HOME Group study tells us that Jonah unwittingly caused this boat to become a place of worship.

The storm, Jonah’s response, and his command to the sailors set the stage for a worship request.

"O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased."

Think for a moment. What have you said or done that might cause people to cry out to God?

*Back to Jonah. He is now in the water and is swallowed by a great fish.

This is where some people doubt the reality of the event.

In “The Bible Almanac” by J. L. Packard and Merrill Tenney, they tell us that Jonah had sailed from the port of Joppa. Although whales are not prominent in the Mediterranean Sea, there are times when sperm whales have been found in the area. There are some large enough to swallow a person whole.

A 100 foot whale captured off Cape Cod in 1933 had a mouth nearly 12 feet wide. ”They write that “this was easily large enough to have engulfed a man. Interestingly, an enlargement of the whale’s nasal sinus provided a storage compartment of air.”

The Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer reported that Dr. Ransome Harvey found a little dog in the head of a whale after it had fallen from a ship 6 days earlier.”

Dr. Harry Rimmer, President of the Research Science Bureau of Los Angeles, documented reports from the 1920”s which tell of a sailor being rescued from the stomach of a shark 48 hours after he had been swallowed.

What swallowed Jonah? Was it a whale or a great fish, who knows? What we do know is that Jonah was captive there for three days till he was vomited up on shore.

Jonah’s real problem was a love problem. He loved his own concerns above those of his God. He did not love the people of Nineveh and did not want to warn them.

He even told God that he didn’t want to go because these terrible people might repent and then God would choose to spare them. (Which is exactly what did happen.)

Orberg asks us a great question, “Do you think God calls us to do the things that we love to do or does he challenge us to do things we don’t feel comfortable doing?”

Stop for a moment and think about it. That age-old question hits us again. What is life all about?

Is it all for me? Am I to make as much money as possible? Or am I to become well known so that people mention my name with awe and respect? Or maybe I am supposed to make some great contribution to science or lead people to Mars.

Are we to just do our jobs and then sit back and admire the work until we die?

What does God actually want from us? Is he opening doors that will take us into some uncomfortable situations?

Some years back someone received a vison that required that the people that worshipped on Cleveland Street were to acquire this property and build a church here. There were some that didn’t want to do it. It meant leaving the comfort of their old surroundings. It meant making sacrifices of time, talent, and their finances.

Thankfully it didn’t take a whale!

We sit here comfortably because someone was willing to be uncomfortable.

I know that we don’t like pain. I know that we don’t like to stretch our dollars too far. I know that the recliner is more inviting than the paint brush.

But what does our heavenly father require of us? Are doors being opened that we are expected to walk through? If that is true are you willing to go with God?

I want my best for God, and His best for me at any cost!

Can you say that with me?

I want my best for God, and His best for me at any cost!