Running from the God Who Is Who He Is

Study Notes

Jonah:  Running from the God Who Is Who He Is

Jonah 1:1-16

     This weekend, we anticipate that 700+ of our church family will be camping together at Green Oaks Camp. Of course, there are many others who are traveling this Memorial Day weekend.  Because of that, we have our children from 1^st grade up in our service.  We are beginning a short four-week series in the Book of Jonah that I’m subtitling, God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels.  Jonah is a much-loved and well-known story in the Bible.  Even people who don’t go to church usually know about what they call “Jonah and the Whale” – though it wasn’t a whale.  So, with our children present in the service today, I want us all to see a brief animated clip of Jonah 1.  Watch it and see if you think it’s accurate to what the Bible says:

(First 1:38 of this animated clip)

     Jonah was a prophet.  A prophet was a person who brought a message from God to people.  You see that Jonah was a prophet in the first verse:  “The word of the Lord came to Jonah.”  This was a phrase used over 100 times in the OT, almost always referring to the message that a prophet was to proclaim.   If you know the Bible well, you may know that Jonah was already a prophet before this particular message came to him one day.  You can read briefly about him in 2 Kings 14:24-25. He prophesied during the reign of a terribly evil king, Jereboam II.  Ironically, and without any explanation in the Bible, God had sent Jonah to the evil king Jereboam II to tell him that God would cause him to be successful.  In spite of his sin, God promised to expand Israel’s borders.  And it happened just as God had said – as it always does in the Bible.

     This assignment that God gave in the Book of Jonah was to be very different from that other one.  God asked Jonah to do something that he didn’t want to do. Look at v.2:

• It started with a call to action:  God said, “Arise!” (Sadly, my translation of the Bible doesn’t include that word.  But, trust me: that’s what God said.)  It seems Jonah was sleeping when God called.
• It was a clear command: “Go to Nineveh, that great city.”  It was a city of over 600,000 people – one of the largest of the world at the time.
• It was a weighty message: “Preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

     In v.3, Jonah did “arise” (though, again, my version doesn’t include that).  And, we think he’s getting up to obey God’s command. But, he doesn’t.  Instead, Jonah ran away, trying to escape from the Lord.

     Here’s a good question for you:  Why did Jonah disobey God and run away?  The little video clip I showed you said he got scared.  But, the Bible doesn’t say that.  In fact, I’m quite sure Jonah didn’t get scared.  And, it surely wasn’t because he didn’t understand what God wanted him to do, was it?  Jonah didn’t have to go and ask his priest or pastor what the words meant that God had spoken.  He didn’t have to get his Bible commentaries out or go over to the Jerusalem Branch of the Fuller School of Theology to have a professor explain it him. Any person of any age could understand it: Jonah was to go to Nineveh and deliver the message of judgment God had given him.

     So, make note of this important lesson already:  What happened to Jonah is all-too-often true of us too: It’s not the things we understand about God’s Word that trouble us.  It’s usually the things we understand very well but don’t want to obey!  Is there anything God is calling you to do – or to stop doing right now?  I want you to learn to say “yes” to him when you hear God speaking to you.  When you disobey God, you might end up in a mess that you could never have imagined – like being in the belly of a fish (or someplace worse).  Almost always, the hardest addictions we get into start with a step of disobedience like Jonah’s.

     So, let’s get back to our question:  Why did Jonah disobey God and run away?  You’re not going to find an answer to that in chapter 1 – or 2, or 3.  The narratives found in the Bible are recorded by the inspiration of God’s Spirit.  But, I am grateful for the fact that God inspired human beings who were great story tellers.  And, one thing that Hebrew story tellers did is called “gapping”.  They know there is a big question that their listeners or readers are asking – but they wait to answer it.  It forces people to listen better.  So, I’m going to do what they did – and make you wait until later in the sermon before answering that question.

     Back to the story: Notice how frantically Jonah got to work that morning.  He gathered up whatever money he had.  He hustled down to the harbor to find out whether anyone in Joppa was sailing to Tarshish that night.  He found a boat – but it seems like he had to rent out the entire boat to and crew to transport him.  If so, this was going to be a very financially costly sin, wasn’t it?  And off he went – away from the Lord (he thought).

     But, in v. 4, the Lord also went into action – and what the Lord did was much more effective than what Jonah did.  God sent a storm with so much wind that the boat was in danger of breaking up. 

     I’m going to pause in the story at this point so that we can all set our minds on the main thing you should gain when you read the Book of Jonah. Many people think that Jonah is a great big fish story – and it is!  But, the more you read it, the more you discover that, more than that, it’s a book about who God is and how he interacts with people in this world. If you’re tracking with me so far, then you’ll be able to understand what may be the most important lesson undergirding the entire book of Jonah, i.e., God will always be who he is.

     Most of you know that I’ve been following Jesus for a long time.  And this is one of the most practical and life-directing messages of my walk with God, i.e., I need to let God tell me who he is in his Word because I can count on the fact that what God does will always prove be consistent with who he is.  That’s what I want to talk to you about for the rest of my message. 

     When people like Jonah in the Old Testament asked about who God is, they went back to an episode in the life of Moses.  Then, after God had delivered his people from Egypt and given them the 10 Commandments, Moses turned to God in Exodus 33 and said, “You know my name, God.  You know everything about me.  But although I have met you in a burning bush, I really do know your name.  Please tell me who you are and what you are like.”  God said, “Moses, I am pleased with you and will do just what you have asked me to do.”

     Then, in Exodus 34, God proclaimed his name, his identity, to Moses.  This is a part of what he said:

I am the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,… and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet I do not leave the guilty unpunished… (Exodus 34:6-7).

     That same statement about the self-identify of God happens again and again throughout the OT.

• We find it in Numbers 14:18 when some people rebelled against God and wanted to go back to Egypt.  Some of those in the nation were not allowed to go to the promised Land while others were.  Moses says that this verse was the basis of God’s decision.  Some repented and were forgiven while others did not.
• We find it in Nehemiah 9:19-31when, centuries later, God’s people had rebelled again against God so God sent them into exile.  But, citing this verse from Moses, they remembered that God was ready to forgive and show mercy.  When the people confessed their sins, God did not abandon them but forgave and restored them.
• And we find it again in different settings like the Psalms when David was in distress (Ps 86:5,15).  And, we find it much later from the prophet Joel.  He was called his people to return to God and giving them the assurance that God would surely receive them and start again with them.  Why was he so sure?  God will be who he is – he will punish sin but he also will show mercy to the one who turns back to him.

     When some of you have asked me those hard questions about life – like “what will be the fate of my Mom or Dad who passed away and I’m not sure they knew the Lord?”  You’ve heard me say, “What I know is that God is just and will do what is right.  And God is loving, loving your family member more than you ever could.  Throughout eternity we will know that God is who he is.  Trust him.”  In other words, what guides us in so many difficult matters is like is the assurance that God will always be who he is.

     Let’s see how this plays out in real life in the story of Jonah.  What do we see about God in Jonah 1?

1. God is just and holy – He does not let evil go unpunished

    Jonah was to go to Nineveh because “its wickedness has come up before me (1:2).”  Assyria and its eventual capitol city, Nineveh, had a reputation for the indiscriminate use of power, for unrestrained cruelty.  And, the people of Israel had experienced it.  I imagine that no person in Israel or Judah could have conceived of any good coming from forgiving and sparing this evil and ruthless enemy.  God’s language in about Nineveh in v.3 is strong!  “Condemn it!” God said. God could no longer abide their wickedness.  Archeological digs have uncovered inscriptions that confirm their brutality.  The kings and government leaders left inscriptions bragging of their cruel acts. 

     For God to be who he is, he cannot and will not allow evil to go unpunished forever.  You need to know that today.  What you and I do matters in the eyes of God.  Jonah should have known that too.  He wanted God to punish Nineveh’s rebellion – but then he went off and rebelled himself!  Maybe he thought, “They’re so much worse than I am!  Punish them, God!”  But he seemed to have become like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable and, when in God’s house, prayed, “I’m glad I’m not a sinner like that rotten tax collector.”

     But, Jonah proved himself to be a sinner – a rebel.  I’m afraid that there was already a lot in this prophet named Jonah that was just like he hated about the people of Nineveh.  And, without God’s renewing grace and mercy, the same is true of us.

2. God is powerful and sovereign over the whole universe – He is “the God of heaven who made the sea and dry land (1:9).”

     Jonah must have known that escape from God is impossible.  His words in v. 9 surely show that he knew he couldn’t run away from God.  But, he became like Adam and Even who, when they sinned, tried to hid in some bushes.  Here, Jonah tries to find some place, somewhere to get away from the presence of God. 

     Tarshish was the opposite direction from Nineveh.  You know, of course, that even the greatest leaders in his nation had tried to hide things from God – people like King David.  But, David learned.  Do you remember what David wrote in Psalm 139:7-10:  Lord, where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me…

     And, the fact is, that God was also the God over the Ninevites.  The Hebrew people seemed often to struggle with accepting that the God who was both just and merciful to them was also just and merciful to all.  But, he is who he is.  They, like so many churchgoers in our own day, liked to apply the forgiveness parts of the Bible to us and the punishment parts of God to the world out there.  There is but one God, sovereign over all peoples.  And that brings us to the third thing about God that the Book of Jonah drives home to us.

3. God is compassionate and gracious – He is “slow to anger and abounding in love (4:2).”

     At last, I am ready to tell you why Jonah got up and ran from God.  You have to read all the way to the last chapter before you find out.  I want you to see what Jonah said about why he rebelled. After the people of Nineveh repented and received God’s pardon, Jonah was angry with God for failing to destroy them.  Jonah became angry and prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”

     So, Jonah wanted to experience God’s mercy and love – but did not want these people in Nineveh that he hated it to experience it.  So, even if God himself declares that he is ready to forgive both a rebel like Jonah and rebels like the people of Nineveh, then people like Jonah deep down didn’t think he should do it.

     In Jonah’s mind, this whole experience probably was the opposite of how he would have run the world.  Everything surely seemed to be turned upside-down.  Think about it:  God’s man Jonah wanted Gentiles like the Ninevites to be wiped out -- but the pagan Gentile sailors did all they could to rescue the Hebrew Jonah’s life (1:13).  Jonah, the prophet of God, ran from God.  The Gentiles who didn’t know God turned to him in praise (1:16).  The Gentiles call on Jonah to pray (and he wouldn’t) but they pray (1:14-15)!

     Ultimately, it is clear that what God wants all people to do is to turn toward him in “faith that leads to obedience” (Romans 1:9).  That has always been in the heart of God.  So – here’s another lesson: There is no God-forsaken place in God’s universe.  There is no place that he is not.  And there are no God-forsaken people in God’s world who are outside the reach of his mercy and grace.  God’s grace is greater than Jonah’s sin – and the Ninevites’ – and yours – and…

     Let me ask you this:  What person or group of people are there that you might view the way that Jonah viewed the Nineveh people?  Is there anyone that you only want God to punish – not to forgive and restore?

     Or, today, do you have anything you are hiding and need to turn over to God.  Let me end by addressing that.

Your Response – Turn toward him and not away – “Jonah ran away from the Lord… (1:3)”

     There is something important in the way the story is told that you may not see in our English translations.  After Jonah arose from his sleep at thecal of God, the rest of his journey is all described as being downward.  “Jonah went down to Joppa…” It was really west but the Bible says it was down.  Then, in v. 5, Jonah went down below the deck.” And, then in v. 12, he asked the sailors to throw him down into the sea. Jonah’s journey spiritually was down and away from God’s presence – eventually into depression and suicidal thoughts.  And eventually into the belly of a fish.

        I imagine there was a time in his walk with God that he could not have imagined that he would find himself in a place that he had strayed so far from God. He was sleeping in the bottom of a pagan boat – no longer wanting to hear the Word of God or even the voice of his conscience calling him back to God.  He even had to be woken up by a sailor who didn’t know God. But, even at the ship captain’s plea, Jonah still doesn’t pray.  He just wants to be thrown to the sea to die.

     As I’ve seen in church folks who have had their sins called out, Jonah gave up hope.  “Pick me up and throw me into the sea (1:12).”  He felt God had no more use for him.

     But, he should have known better.  Do you know why I say that?  Because he knew that the God who does not let evil go unpunished is the same God who is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…  and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”

   God will always be who he is – and who he is will always reveal his glory.  Amen.