Jonah: Salvation Through Mercy and Judgment
Jonah: Salvation through Mercy and Judgment
Class Outline
Week 1 July 2 Overview of book and class
Week 2 July 9 The Runaway Prophet (1:1-3)
Week 3 July 16 Pandemonium Aboard the Ship (1:4-6)
Week 4 July 23 Prophet Overboard (1:7-16)
Week 5 July 30 Into the Fish’s Belly (1:17, Matt 12:38-42)
Week 6 Aug 6 Prayer from the Depths: Part 1 (2:1-6a)
Week 7 Aug 13 Prayer from the Depths: Part 2 (2:6b-9)
Week 8 Aug 20 Lessons on Repentance (2:10-3:10)
Week 9 Aug 27 The Final Debate (4:1-11)
Key for today: Jonah believes in the Sovereignty of God, but his life does not display this same belief—He is faithless and unfaithful: Dove (Silly; the meaning of Jonah). His life does not match his confession. Do ours?
- Today we have seen a pitiful display of God’s servant…
o A prophet called by God, given God’s holy Word to proclaim
o One who fears God with a true understanding of God
o Jonah confesses the greatness, power, and sovereignty of his great God—YET he refuses to speak to God; he refuses to repent of His sin
§ He is slow to admit His faults…he is taking them to the grave
- How are we like Jonah?
o We are called to salvation and given God’s holy Word to proclaim
o We fear God and know Him rightly, fully as Jesus has been revealed!
o We often confess the greatness, power, and sovereignty of our Great God—YET we refuse to speak to God when we sin; we refuse to repent!!
§ We would rather take it to the grave then confess our wrong
- How are YOU being slow to repent?
o Remember that God is not slow to fulfill His promises, but is patient with us (1 Peter 2)—Do not forget… God’s kindness is given in order to lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4)
Week 4: Prophet Overboard
Casting lots (v7)
§ Common OT practice (Lev 16:8-10; Judg 20:9; 1 Sam 10:19-21; Neh 11:1; Prov 18:18; Acts1:26)
§ Prov 16:33 “The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord.” An amazingly broad stmt of God’s sovereignty. Every roll of the dice in Vegas falls right where God wants it. (although that doesn’t legitimize gambling!)
§ And the lot fell on Jonah… (v7b)
Literary device: Irony
o Are we surprise? NO
o Was Jonah surprised? Likely NOT
o Whether or not the men were right to inquire of God this way, whether or not they were really asking the true God, the seemingly random answer was right. Continues to hammer home message: Jonah cannot escape God!
§ The “Random Events” motif comes up in different places of the OT (never because the author thinks things are ‘random’):
§ Ruth 2:3 “So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.”
§ 1 Kings 22:34—A man drew his bow at random and the arrow happened to hit the king between the chain mail and the armor plate… Ahab, king of Israel, was killed.
§ Nothing is ever random… and the author is making it comically clear.
§ Side note on Casting Lots: Remember, this is narrative and not instructive – we should not take the casting of lots as the task for us as we seek God’s guidance
o Hebrews 1 – Jesus is the truest and final revelation of God’s will
o Last time it happens in Bible is Acts 1, choosing of Matthias. Interesting that it doesn’t happen after Pentecost—now believers and church as whole has HS to give discernment in making decisions.
§ Back to story: Jonah has still not confessed any sin – He is not yet remorseful
All eyes turn to Jonah (v8): Tell us on whose account…
- They need no more convincing—Jonah has the answer…because the lot fell on him
Jonah speaks in faith though unfaithful… v. 9 “I fear YHWH”
[but his life is still in unfaithfulness—the vessel and the message both matter]
§ Beginning of a turn for Jonah; first time in the story he has responded properly. Lot falling on him probably woke him up, helped him realize his plan wasn’t working. BUT he is still not responding fully—he is still refusing to obey God. He is being stubborn…
§ Literary Point: Order of Words — Hebrew structure is typically verb, subject, object. Here we have multiple objects then verbs… he is being very explicity about his identity
o “A Hebrew, I am”
§ “I am a Hebrew” distinguishes God of Abraham from those of other nations. “Fear” more or less = worship. He’s basically saying, “Look, I’m not into all your superstitious stuff. I know who the real God is, and that’s that.”
§ “Hebrew” literally means, “one who has crossed over”—Why would they be known as people who have crossed over??
§ Names are important. People’s names, group names, land names etc. They point to something. Here their name points to the faithfulness of YHWH as He led them across the Jordan into the Promised Land through the conquests of Joshua.
§ The Hebrews would have been well-known. The stories spread throughout the land (Remember Rahab’s reaction—she and the city folk had heard of all that YHWH had done for the Israelites)
§ “YHWH, the God of heaven, I fear”
o Jonah uses YHWH and not Eloheem even when talking to pagan people (c.f. Joseph with Pharaoh in Gen 41). Possibly another step in rightly acting like a prophet of God
§ God’s description: Significant that he says “I fear YHWH, who made the sea and the dry land.” He knows YHWH sent the storm, & nothing but YHWH can rescue the ship.
o Like Egyptians describing Ra, the sun god…
o Jonah says, I fear the God of heaven, the One who created everything.
§ merism—literary device using opposites together. When he says “YHWH who made the sea and the dry land,” he doesn’t mean just those, but everything, like when we say “I’ve been reading night and day” before finals. We searched “High and Low” but haven’t found it…
o Another exposing of his own foolishness—you can’t flee from the God who made the sea and land by getting on a boat.
The Sailors’ reaction (v10) and a Chance to Repent
§ “What have you done?”—Implied rebuke. “What in the world do you think you’re doing? Mah-zote ascita (what is this you have done)
o They realize Jonah’s wrongdoing of fleeing from this God!
o This is now the 2nd rebuke Jonah, God’s prophet, is receiving from a pagan sailor---can the prophet go much further? Is this rock bottom?
§ Jonah is being called to account for his sin…
Q: Where have we heard this phrase before?? “What have you done?”
o We can almost hear God’s own words here…
o Gen. 3:13—God to Eve (and Adam as he was there too) [Mah-zote ascita]
o Gen. 4:10—Adam to Cain [Meh_asita]
§ A chance to repent…
A Growing Fear of God—v 10-16 a Last look at the Sailors
--What happens with the Sailors?? Are they converted???
§ Their response to Jonah, regardless of their religious beliefs, was absolutely right. Having offended the Creator God, what hope is there for us? They’re showing more fear of God than Jonah has until this point!!
o In any case, they are more obedient to God than Jonah has been so far. Confronted with his power they respond at least partially correctly
o Calvin, Estelle refer to limitations of the type of fear of God that’s shown here—it’s not enough to know that there is a god or that he’s all-powerful; we have to come to him through God the Son or we can’t get to him at all.
§ Efforts to Row to Land: Do the sailors not quite believe that the sea really will calm down if they get rid of Jonah (v. 13), or are they trying to keep from having to throw him over? Actually very dangerous to start rowing for shore in the middle of a bad storm. Also doesn’t make sense if the storm was sent by a god who made/controls the sea and the land!
o Another pattern in Jonah: Men’s actions fail (Jonah running away, men trying to reach shore), while God’s will always succeeds.
Fast forward: They pray for God’s mercy and throw Jonah overboard…and observe God’s great power and mercy
§ V16: The men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
o Does their belief in what Jonah tells them, their doing what he says, prayer to YHWH mean they were really converted?
§ Have to be careful not to say more or less than the text does. We do know that they believed that YHWH was the god who sent the storm, that he had the power to kill or save them. V. 16 says they “feared YHWH exceedingly”, and even made sacrifice and vows.
o Possible this was true repentance and belief in the true God, or that they just believed that YHWH, Jonah’s god, was the one particular god they had to deal with that day and in that situation.
o Think of Rahab in Joshua 2:8-14—She is showing true faith in YHWH and is converted
Whatever the case, we see God working through Jonah’s sin, faithlessness, and brokenness
- What should this say about our evangelism? Or in encouraging other believers? Even when you don’t feel close to God—Who are you to limit God’s work??
- Jonah is refusing to “Call out against” Nineveh, a great pagan city, and here God is calling out to these pagan sailors and they
Q: How big is your view of God? How does the truth about God impact the way you speak rightly about God?
DO not be mistaken--God’s work through our sin is not permission to sin…
I heard a pastor say one time… “Go to Nineveh, and take the fish…”
BUT God says, “NO… Go to Nineveh, and go when I send you.”
- How do you give permission to your disobedience?
o Do you give permission to your anger and short temper because the recipient of your anger provoked you?
o Do you give permission to your lustful heart because you have it under control?
o Do you give permission to your disobedience because you know better than God?
o Do you abuse God’s grace, claiming His forgiveness, even before you sin?
Back to Jonah J
The sailors ask what they should do…and Jonah tells them to throw him overboard.
Q: How would you describe Jonah’s reaction to the lot falling on him? What do you think his solution of throwing him overboard says about his heart?
Death wish or act of Heroism??
What’s going on with Jonah at this point? Is he despairing when he tells them to cast him into the sea? Remorseful that his actions have endangered others? So afraid of YHWH now that he’s disobeyed that he thinks it would be best for him to die?
§ Different commentators give different answers, but the narrator doesn’t make it completely clear.
§ Since he doesn’t know about the fish it is in some sense a death wish, but also an act of heroism since he knows it will likely save the lives of the sailors.
o There is truth to the fact that Jonah likely desires on some level to save the lives of the sailors, but there is also the point that he didn’t really care about them (he fled YHWH, knowing who God is, putting the sailors in danger by boarding, then he slept during the biggest storm of these sailors’ lives—never offering to help throw luggage overboard!!)
o It seems more like Jonah’s understanding of the result of disobeying YHWH—He was basically waiting for his own death, but never volunteering (the lot had to fall on him)… and finally, he decides the time has come, “I must die now.”
Jonah from 2 Angles:
Jonah the stubborn sinner—he plans to take his sin to the depths
§ Jonah is the most stubborn sinner!!! He is indeed like a silly dove!
o HE is still not acknowledging his sin against God nor is he moving toward repentance!! We must see this!
o We are just like Jonah here
§ He is unrepentant
§ He does not live like his belief in God would have
§ He does not think God’s way is best…like a child who refuses to listen
Jonah as a picture of Christ—Jesus planned to take our sin to the depths
Jonah and the NT
§ The others on the boat were saved by Jonah being thrown, as far as they or he knew, to his death. By all appearances he was a willing sacrifice, but he was not a sinless one, not a true substitute. He was punished (to an extent) for his sin and the others were spared.
§ Although imperfect, it’s hard to escape the parallel here to work of Christ. Like most of the other comparisons we’ve seen, this is a “how much more” kind of arrangement. The punishment of a guilty substitute brought physical deliverance to the sailors; the punishment of a sinless substitute, a true substitute, brought deliverance to believers in Jesus. Not just from one dangerous storm, but far more and far greater dangers that we deserve, just as the sailors deserved to perish in the storm at sea.
Application
- Today we have seen a pitiful display of God’s servant…
o A prophet called by God, given God’s holy Word to proclaim
o One who fears God with a true understanding of God
o Jonah confesses the greatness, power, and sovereignty of his great God—YET he refuses to speak to God; he refuses to repent of His sin