A PROPHET RE-SIGNS
#415 A PROPHET RE-SIGNS
Scripture Jonah 3:1-4:11, NIV
Orig. 9/16/1962
Rewr. 9/1977, 5/23/1989
Passage: Jonah Goes to Nineveh 3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” 3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” 10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
Jonah’s Anger at the Lord’s Compassion
4 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He 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. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” 10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
Purpose: A follow-up message dealing with the miraculous revival in Nineveh and the following days for Jonah.
Keywords: Bible Study Missions Self-Will
Timeline: Biographical
Series: Minor Prophets
Introduction
Chronologically, Jonah is the second of the minor prophets. He was of the northern kingdom, Israel; and had come on the scene shortly after Elisha, and just before Isaiah. There was no contemporary in Judah. The people of the southern kingdom were holding firmly to their faith while Amaziah and Uzziah were on the throne.
But in Jonah’s own northern kingdom, things were not going well. Materially, politically, they were surviving. Jeroboam II had come to the throne in Samaria. Israel was proud and vain and money-mad, and perceived of themselves as the apple-of-God’s-eye. The king was the worst of the lot.
Jonah is identified as the son of Amattai, the prophet, of Gath-Hepher (II Kings 14:25). Jonah’s name means “dove.” His father’s, “my truth.” Dr. Matthew Henry suggest that God’s prophets should be “sons of truth” and “harmless as doves.”
His is a prophecy of extremes. There are only forty-eight verses. It is a simply-written testimonial of Jonah’s “great refusal.” There is also found the story of a “great fish,” “a great city” (Nineveh), a “great message” (that God forgives sin), a “great jealousy” (he was jealous for the gourd, envious of Nineveh), and, finally, of the “great God” (who prepares a fish to deliver Jonah from rebellion, and a worm to deliver him from pride).
The lesson last week opened under the title, “A Prophet Resigns.” We may consider the lesson this evening as “A Prophet Re-Signs.” Although there is still an attitude problem, the needs of Nineveh outweigh Jonah’s disdain for these people.
I. Delivered from Rebelliousness. 3:1, “And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach.”
We acknowledge a God-called man: Called to preach; called to preach to Nineveh; called to preach the word; called to preach without equivocation—not opposed to being God’s prophet, not opposed to be a foreign missionary, did not cotton to offering these Ninevites a second chance.
We acknowledge a man in the throes of God’s leading. Running from Nineveh leads to Joppa where a ship is waiting. The whale takes him to a seacoast where Nineveh is waiting. Nineveh surrenders him to the wilderness where God’s truth is waiting.
We acknowledge a God-taught man. The message of God’s bidding, 3:2. It must still be so for us all. I Corinthians 15:3f, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture.”
We must also acknowledge that he was a self-willed man. Nineveh was not a candidate for repentance. Nineveh deserved judgment. The miracle here is not whale, or worm, but man detached from the will of God. The miracle is God’s will to redeem.
II. Delivered from National Self-Interest. V4, And Jonah . . . cried, and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
He has come to the great city, sixty miles in circumference; walls 100 feet high, chariots could roll three abreast; 1500 towers as much as 200’ high; 350 square miles, almost the size of Lincoln Parish.
Jonah is showing some of the marks of his upbringing. He had to preach. He did not have to hope for deliverance—Imagine a doctor performing the necessary and radical surgery and then hoping that the patient will die.
Let us be reminded that God is on the side of right, whoever is graced by it. First, the Ninevites needed reviving. Second, the people of the northern kingdom had much to gain from their revival.
Could it be that the person who could make the greatest difference for God in Bernice over the next twenty years is outside the fold? Are you willing to be the one to lead him, her to the Lord? What if it is someone we find distasteful? Could it be someone who let you down years ago? To what degree do you even pray for the ones who are lost around us?
III. Delivered to a Life of Understanding. 4:11, “Should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand?”
Understand that God is more concerned with repentance than with judgment. Jeremiah 18:8, “If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.” Ezekiel 18:23, “ Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” Repent—nacham—change of heart/shuv is normal word expressing man’s repentance.
[Understand] that God can and does use extreme measures in accomplishing His will. The rabbis taught that the Ninevites heard of Jonah’s fish story, thus they believed.
[Understand] that the Lord is God of all nations. Romans 2:28,29. V29, “He is a Jew which is one inwardly, . . . circumcision is that of the heart.”
[Understand] that God is concerned with the welfare of all mankind. Jonah is in reality a book of missionary enterprise. God’s will is for the lost to be saved.
Conclusion
George Adam Smith, “The truth which we find in the Book of Jonah is as full a revelation of God’s will as prophecy anywhere achieves. That God has granted to the Gentiles also, repentance unto life, is nowhere else in the Old Testament so vividly illustrated. This lifts the teaching of the book to equal rank with the second part of Isaiah, and the nearest of our twelve to the New Testament.”
A MISSIONARY IN HIDING
#512 A MISSIONARY IN HIDING
Scripture Jonah 1:1-3; 3:1-3, NIV
Orig. 8/11/1968
Rewr. 12/7/1990
Passage: 1:1The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2"Go to the great city of Nineveh and
preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." 3But 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.
3:1Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2"Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you." 3Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city—a visit required three days.
Purpose: To share a message with my people during a major mission emphasis of our perceived concern for our mission responsibility.
Keywords: Commitment Missions Revelation Disobedience
Timeline/Series: Mission Promotion
Introduction Pro 2-90p23
On May 20, 1987, a strange item was read in our newspapers. A West German youth had leased an American-built Cessna airplane and started the first leg of an unbelievable journey. Extra gas tanks were placed in the rear, and he flew first to Helsinki where he filed a final and fictitious flight plan. He wasn’t going where he said he was going.
In fact, he wound up a few hours later looking literally down the barrels of the armor of Soviet warplanes. With fool-hardy abandon, he flew his little craft toward the most heavily guarded city in the world.
He flew on to the city of Moscow with a bevy of these Russian fighters following his every move. He located Red Square, and literally flew around the Kremlin, the seat of government. Unbelievably, he then landed the Cessna on the cobblestone pavement of Red Square.
Surprisingly, he was not fired upon. He left the airplane, waved to the surprised crowd, and as he was arrested and taken away, he explained that he just wanted to talk to the Soviet people. I am not sure what he wanted to say. Perhaps just “Hello! How are you?”
Jonah had something he didn’t want to say. It was a message of great importance, urgency even, but he thought better of it. Instead of dangerously running into the face of the enemy, he just as dangerously went the other way. God called him to a task, and his inclination was to get by, callously hiding his missionary credentials.
I. First, There is a Clear Mandate from God. V5, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”
A mandate to a chosen messenger. God effects a sovereign choice. Jonah can be easily perceived as a mistake, a malcontent, a rebel. But then, others whom God has chosen were not that different. Moses: reared in luxury, accepted responsibility, ran from it, married a Gentile, made all those excuses. David: of huge ego, proud, became immoral, enamored of himself. Simon: bold, brazen, little patience, no culture.
He is still choosing His messengers. Either, He has saved you or in the attempt you spurned it. We’re still enamored of ourselves. We use the same stale excuses.
Not only was the messenger chosen, the message was made clear. The West German youth just wanted to be chummy, to say, “Hallo!” Jonah was to tell Nineveh that their sins stank, but, more importantly, that God loved them and wanted to forgive them.
People get caught up in the whale. Did he/didn’t he? Could he/couldn’t he? When we make our peace with God, and His love, such things as whales are neither intellectual nor emotional ___. You see, for the believer, the whale becomes an instrument for deliverance.
But if this exacting message was to get through, a committed messenger would be required. Somewhat more is required than belief. Jonah clearly believed. He believed so strongly that God would forgive that he went elsewhere. He presumed wrongly that he could keep it from happening.
With belief is the need for conciliation. God’s judgments are just. The best investment that I can make in my life is to yield to His will.
II. Next, Is a Missionary in Hiding. V3, “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”
At the outset, it is simply a refusal to comply with this mandate to serve. Jonah was the sovereign choice of God for the redemption of Nineveh. The Hebrew people lost sight of the intermediary posture of being “chosen.” Through them God had chosen the way that He would affect world-wide reconciliation.
Many are yet like Isaac, taken as he was with Abraham to Mt. Moriah: Helping to prepare the altar, he asked, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Most of us are no more willing than Isaac “to be offered up.”
Missionaries tell of methodology of the church in India. The convert being baptized is required to place his own hands on his head saying, “Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel,” I Corinthians 9:16.
There are various ways that we accommodate such seclusion in our lives:
· Refusal to give up hidden sins of the flesh—Not something that we struggle with without effect; a recognized indiscretion that we refuse to part with.
· One of the works of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin—To deny Him right of reproof is to willfully exclude God.
· To refuse opportunities for growth as Christians is to hide our witness—List the avenues in your life that are directly related to your faith; list the things that go on in your church of which you have no part. Do you want your community to perceive of you as Christian? Other?
The most obvious now is to deny stewardship opportunity. Is regular financial support an integral part of my faith? Am I doing what I can? Should?
How seriously do I take the idea of participation in Jesus’ birthday? Lottie Moon goal is $86 million. Participation at 20-25%. What could we do if our best? Do you remember who Lottie Moon was? After 40 years, perceived her Chinese friends starving, began to go without food until [she] fell seriously ill, put on a boat to USA. Died at sea.
III. The Final Note Is One of Ministry. 3:3, “So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.”
There are social responsibilities that are not to be denied. We are to feed and clothe the destitute. We are to protest injustice. We are to champion unpopular but righteous causes.
The responsibility to share the gospel creatively is just as demanding. Jesus championed social causes. He died for the sin of men and women,
Jesus left a message through John that we deliberately downplay. Religious leaders reacted negatively to His claim to be “the living bread.” Those who “ate His flesh and drank His blood” had eternal life. John 6:66, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him.”
He, of course, did not literally mean to cannibalize Him, but to be at one with Him in life and death.
Are you “at one” today with Jesus? Or, are you a believer taking the easy road to faith?
You believe the gospel, but you don’t want it to cost you anything? You didn’t place your hands on your head and say “Woe unto me if. . .”?
It’s easier being “a missionary in hiding,” or is it?
Conclusion
During WW2, workmen were building a cathedral in a city on the coast of England. The city was bombed again and again. “Why do you continue to build when the next bomb may destroy all?”
“Everytime those bombers come this way, we want them to see the spires of this cathedral, and to know that we still have faith in eternal things.”
Give us, O God, the strength to build
that city that hath stood
Too long a dream, whose laws are love,
Whose crown is servanthood.
Already in the mind of God
That city riseth fair
Yea, bids us seize the whole of life
And build that city there.1
1 https://hymnary.org/hymn/EH1982/583
1 Public domain: Bowie, WR. O Holy City, Seen of John. (1910). In HYMNS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, Harper & Row.
A PROPHET RESIGNS
#101 A PROPHET RESIGNS
Scripture Jonah 1:1-2:10, NIV
Orig. 7/1/1964
Rewr. 5/17/1989
Passage: 1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
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.
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.” 7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “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?”
9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
Purpose: Beginning a two-part series on Jonah, here telling the story of a prophet who resigns his commission.
Keywords: Bible Study Disobedience
Series: Old Testament Prophets
Introduction
The story contained here is relatively simple. God calls a man by the name of Jonah to go to a place called Nineveh to denounce her wickedness. Nineveh was a real place, Jonah was a real prophet. But instead of occupying himself with what God has called him to do, Jonah, for reasons of his own, chooses to disobey. In fact, he acts upon the call by going in the opposite direction.
His reasoning does not reflect deep spiritual insight, but it certainly does reflect the posture of man who believed in God’s power to redeem. It was potential to success that drove him to other considerations.
On board that ship, they encounter a storm. Jonah is thrown overboard as a compensation to Jehovah, and is at once swallowed by a “great fish.” Three days later he was disgorged back near where he boarded the ship. The three days had given him time to re-think his position, and when the call came to him again to go to Nineveh, he concurred. True to God’s original expectation, when Jonah preached, the Ninevites repented.
Jonah left Nineveh in a huff, found a place to observe what would happen, and angrily waited. He wanted God to give them what they deserved. A small plant grew up and shaded the prophet. Then the plant died, and Jonah again became angry. He then had to face up to the principle teaching of the book that God, unlike Jonah, was more interested in the needs of the people, than he was for the tenure of a worthless plant.
I. There are Background Questions to Consider. V1, “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying. . . .”
We need to authenticate Jonah. II Kings 14:25, “According to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spoke by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.”
Amaziah is dead, Uzziah comes to the throne. Jeroboam II in the northern kingdom. Thus, we learn he is a real person, that his home was in Galilee, and that he lived about 800 B.C. He comes from a devoted family. Jeroboam’s reign was one of material success. In fact, it seems to have been Jeroboam II who kept Assyria at bay.
We do not need to prove that Jonah wrote the book. It doesn’t contain oracles or visions. It contains life episodes told in the third person. Could have been written immediately after Jonah’s time, or 200 or more years later.
The book has a strong historical following: The book of Tobit (14th Century, BC); Josephus; Philo (1st Century Jewish philosopher). The early church accepted it. Christ quoted it (Matthew 12:38f—“no sign except”).
It is important to deal with the book as a possible allegory. Those who say it is spurious, a fake, we will ignore. There is spiritual truth given on occasion through allegory. There is no other Biblical event where a historical figure was used in allegory, telling a story figuratively or symbolically. Jonah stands for Israel/Has been commissioned to make Yahweh known to Gentiles/Refuses/Is swallowed up in exile/Repents/Given a 2nd chance.
Where the grumps have a problem, of course, is with the fish. Most refer to it as a “whale” though the text indicates “great fish” (special). Baxter calls it a “prepared” fish. Greek of Jesus refers to sea-monster which indicates Jesus’ belief. There are stories of whales taken in which were human remains. One seaman, James Bartley, disgorged stated he could have lived to starve.
We need to think through his possible reasons for refusal to go to Nineveh.
· A natural fear of another culture. Their inhumanity was well-attested.
· People, then and now, have a deep protestation against other religions.
· The prophet wanted to be among the known of Israel, not wasted in Assyria.
· Believing God to be a redeeming God, he would not be the instrument of delivery.
· To escape God, “flee from the presence of the Lord,” v3. Psalm 139:8, “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in sheol, behold, thou art there.” At home, reminders are everywhere. At Tarshish (?)
· Simply, he did not want Nineveh spared. 4:2, “I fled . . . for I knew that thou art a gracious God.”
We can piece together what Jonah’s rationale must have been.
· Prophesied during Jeroboam’s reign.
· Jeroboam II’s son Zechariah reigned six months.
· Assassinated by Shallum (1 month).
· Assassinated by Menahem (10 years).
· But early on, Assyria is mentioned.
· Later prophets will point to struggles with Assyria.
· There is an earlier struggle with Syria. See II Kings 13:5f. See Bib. Illus. Sp83p82.
· Apparently, Jonah reacted against what would be a nation of power.