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JONAH FLEES FROM THE LORD
Jonah 1:1-17
Key Verse: 1:3
But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
We thank God for giving us time to study the Book of Jonah. Compared to other books of the Minor Prophets, the book of Jonah is well known, mostly because of its “big fish” story. But when we study it, we can learn about God’s profound grace for the wicked, his sovereignty over his servants, and the great human struggle to repent and forgive. Everyone in the book, Jonah, the people of Nineveh, sailors and even animals in Nineveh repented and turned to God and was saved. And thus it shows that what God wants most from us is to repent and be saved. It is the gospel message.
Once the Pharisees asked Jesus to prove himself as the Promised Messiah with a sign (not just any miracle). Jesus said, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah” (Mt 12:39).As we study the book of Jonah we will find that the story of Jonah indeed foreshadows Jesus and his messianic works. In order to fully understand the person of Jonah, we need to know the background of his time first. At that time, the Assyrian kingdom was a superpower nation in the region and a source of trouble for the people of Israel as it invaded their territory taking away their land, and killing many people. And being the capital Assyrian city, Nineveh became the epitome of the Assyrian dominance, and the focus of Israelites’ hatred.According to 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah was a prophet in the time of King Jeroboam II, one of many wicked kings of the northern kingdom of Israel. During the reign of Jeroboam II, however, Israel stood tall among the nations politically and militarily. Although Jeroboam and his kingdom had idolatry and rebellion against God continually, God demonstrated his grace and mercy by restoring Israel’s former boundaries from Assyria through the war according to Jonah’s prophecy. In this way God encouraged people of Israel and helped them to repent and come back to God.Although Jonah appeared peculiar and rebellious in the book of Jonah, he was renowned and revered among his people.Today let’s begin with God’s new message and new mission to Prophet Jonah.
I. Jonah ran away from the Lord (1-3).
Look at verses 1-2. “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”Nineveh (modern-day Mosul, Iraq) was such a large city that it was a three-day journey from one side to the other and 120,000 people resided there.Its wickedness had come up before God. In other words, their many and great sins reached the point of God’s imminent judgment. According to Prophet Nahum, Nineveh was a very corrupt and bloody city full of fraud, robbery, sensuousness, violence, witchcraft and idolatry. Their soldiers were notorious around the world for their brutality and cruelty. But instead of destroying this wicked city, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach the message of repentance so that they would be saved from God’s imminent judgment. As mentioned before, Jonah’s prophecy for Israel was to restore Israel’s former lands from Assyria and was fulfilled. But now God told him to go and deliver God’s message to the wicked and godless enemies of Israel. If you were Jonah, what would you do? How would a Jewish man who was told to go to the Nazi concentration camp and deliver God’s message of repentance respond? But before knowing Jonah’s response, let’s ponder on God’s hidden messages to sinners and to his servants. God really wants sinners to hear God’s message, repent of their wicked sins and be saved. The people of Nineveh repented and were saved right after hearing Jonah’s message. God also wants his servants to grow in his love and mercy and to go to people of this world and deliver God’s message, understanding God’s heart and love toward sinners.
How did Jonah respond? Look at verse 3. “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.”Jonah didn’t pray to God directly and protest against God’s command. Neither did he stay home, ignoring God’s message to him. He left his home, family, friends and most of all his ministry and took off for the unknown land.He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish, the southwest coast of Spain and got on the boat to flee from the Lord. Jonah ran away from God and headed to the complete other side of Nineveh. He thought that he had two options: either going to Nineveh or Tarshish. And he chose Tarshish. But truth has no option. It is either right or wrong. To Jonah, Tarshish was not an option. It was his wrong and rebellious choice. In the end, he could not land in Tarshish.
Why could Jonah who spoke the prophecies of God for Israel as God’s servant now flee from God? By the way, could he run away from God? Is there no God in Tarshish? Can we flee from him? Is it possible to flee from God? Impossible. Why then didn’t he go to Nineveh? We don’t know the reason. Maybe Jonah didn’t want the wicked and corrupt gentile enemies in Nineveh to repent of their sins after hearing God’s message and escape from God’s judgment. He eagerly wanted them to perish. Maybe he thought that the people of Nineveh deserved God’s severe judgment. Maybe he thought that preaching the message of repentance would be a very difficult and dangerous mission, since the people of Nineveh were extremely violent, cruel, and wicked. Or maybe he wanted to show his rebellion and anger toward God intentionally by going to Tarshish, the opposite direction from Nineveh. Or maybe hehad some other reasons. But in any case Jonah ran away from God and his commission.He fought God and led his life against God.
God’s people know that God is omnipresent and he looks upon everyone of us. So King David sang in Psalm 139:7-8, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” There is no hiding place from God. David also said in Psalm 11:4, “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes everyone on earth; his eyes examine them.” Jonah also knew that God’s eyes examine him, but he ran away from God. We see here the human contradiction. Jonah knew he could not flee from God, but he still ran away from him. Jonah knew that to obey God’s words was right, but disobeyed God and ran away. How often we are just like Jonah before God. We know that God gives us his word so that we live according to his word, but we also think that we can ignore God’s words and live according to our natural desires and ideas. We hear, study and write God’s word to know him and follow him, but we see that we walk totally contrary to his word. We know that God sees us but we act as if God does not see us. We are called to go to Nineveh, but we are heading to Tarshish like the runaway prodigal son or Jonah. By the way Tarshish literally means “hardness,” or“broken.” Metaphorically speaking, it is the land of our human dream, plan and agenda. Living by faith means making decisions not to go to Tarshish, but to live according to God’s word and go to Nineveh God-appointed land. Let us throw the ticket for Tarshish into trash and walk by faith heading to our mission field.
II. God provided a great wind and a huge fish (4-17)
The ship set sail, and it seems that everything was over. Perhaps Jonah thought if he got out of Israel and went to Tarshish faraway from Nineveh, God would simply find somebody else and send him there. Through his action, he demonstrated his refusal and unavailability for the mission before God. Did God then give up on Jonah and find another prophet such as Hosea or Amos, Jonah’s contemporary? No. God knew where Jonah was and what he was doing. He was at work in pursuit of Jonah by sending a violent storm on the sea so that the ship was in danger of being dashed to pieces. All people aboard were in danger of losing their lives. Jonah was a prophet. He should speak God’s message to others and be a blessing to them. But he became the very cause of trouble to them.
The magnitude of the storm was such that all the sailors in great fear began to cry out to their gods to help them. But they cried in vain because their gods were not really God. They threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But the storm great worse and worse. Everyone aboard was struggle hard by crying out to their gods and throwing things overboard. But what was Jonah doing? Verse 5 says, “But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.” Wow. This Jonah reminds us of Adam who hid himself from God in fear among the trees after taking the forbidden fruit. How could he sleep in the midst of the violent storm? Did Jonah take sleeping pill to fall into a deep sleep in the midst of violent storm? We don’t know. But obviously he was hiding from God below deck, and he forced himself to sleep to forget about everything. It seems that God was calling Jonah, “Where are you?” through the storm, but Jonah hid himself below deck and forced himself to sleep. He was full of fear, guilt and uncertainty as he ran away from God. So to escape from his reality, he fell into a deep sleep.
Then the captain of the ship came to him and rebuked him saying, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god!” Jonah, God’s prophet was told to pray to God by a pagan sailor. I wonder what kind of thought came across Jonah’s mind. Supposedly Jonah should have said to the sailor and the sailor should have listened to him. But God turned the tables and woke Jonah up through an unbeliever, just as God woke Prophet Balaam up through his donkey that rebuked him severely.
The sailors realized that the storm was so fierce that they perceived that it was caused by someone’s sin before God. So they cast lots to decide to find the one and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they enquired of Jonah, asking many questions, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”Jonah knew God had caught up with him. So he confessed that he was a Hebrew and that he worshipped God who created the sea and the dry land. He also explained he was fleeing from God. In great fear then the sailors said to him, “What have you done?” They meant, “Oh my God! You did a most foolish thing. And we all are doomed.”
The sea was getting rougher and rougher. The ship was tossed here and there by huge waves. By then all hope seemed to vanish. The sailors asked Jonah, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the seaand it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”What a stubborn man Jonah was. He should have told them to turn the boat around and take me to the shore close to Nineveh. But instead of repenting of his sin and going to Nineveh, Jonah would rather die.
The sailors were hesitant to throw him into the sea. They just rowed harder to bring the ship to the land, but they couldn’t do it becausethe sea raged continually. Then these gentile sailors prayed to the Lord, the God of Jonah not to hold them accountable for throwing Jonah into the sea. After prayer, they took Jonah and threw him overboard. Then the raging sea grew calm.On seeing this astonishing demonstration of God’s power, they trembled and offered sacrifice and vows to God.
Here we learn that a hidden sin is bound to be exposed one day.Nobody in the boat knew Jonah’s sin of disobedience to God and of fleeing from God. He hid himself below deck, but God exposed it through the storm and the lot. Jesus said in Luke 12:2, “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.” No doubt, it hurts us when our hidden sin is exposed. It is painful. And our whole self-image is wrecked. But God does not expose our sin to laugh at us, but to heal us and to restore us. Once Jonah was a highly respected prophet. But on the ship Jonah’s sin was exposed. God exposed it in order to bringing him back to him.
What is sin? There are many definitions about sin. But in view of God of Jonah, sin means fighting God. We have our own desire pulling us one way. And we see God’s desires pulling us another. But we are in sin when our own desire won out God’s. If you find youselffighting God by standing on the side of your own desires, God is exposing your sin and asking you to repent and come over to the side of God’s desire. Let us not fight God, but rather fight our own desires. Let’s come to him with repentance and get healed.
Jonah’s story does not end with his drowning in the Mediterranean Sea. God didn’t stop there. He provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.Some people think it is a huge whale or some others a giant shark. Anyway, a huge fish. Some people argue that it is impossible for a man to live in a big fish’s stomach for three days. But there is even a recorded account of a man by the name of James Bartley, swallowed by a sperm whale and living! God’s amazing work in Jonah’s heart began in the fish’s stomach.
Wow, our God loves his people beyond our imagination. In order to help Jonah a rebellious prophet, God pursued him with the wind, the sailors, the lots, the fish and the sea. He could have given him up when he bought the boat ticket. Or he could have destroyed him through the water or a shark. But he didn’t. Instead, he made use of all these resources in order for Jonah to see the reality of his sin and by his own initiative turn his heart back to God. God pursued Jonah patiently until Jonah himself repented of his sin and came back to God. God’s love and his patience is truly outrageous and heart-moving.
On the other hand we are just like rebellious and fleeing Jonah. When God said, “Go east,” then we go west. As Jonah hardened his heart to the point he was thrown to the sea and swallowed by fish, we harden our hearts, holding tightly our own will and desires. Sometimes I wonder how far God is letting us go on and on in our sin. But God patiently waits until we have to face the consequences of our own disobedience. St. Paul expressed it saying in Romans 1:24, “God gave them over…” But God intervenes in our lives sometimes with a storm. If we are still unrepentant, then he comes to us with a fish’s dark and stuffy stomach. We cannot run away from God. Let us stop fleeing from him. Instead let us flee from our own desires and sins and come back to God, accepting his sovereign will. Let us be little better than the fish who obeyed God. Let us obey his words and serve his life-giving mission.