Jonah 1 vs 1-17
Chapter 1 Verses 1-2
•Nineveh, that “great city.” Historians say that Nineveh was the largest city in the ancient world. In Chapter 3 verse 3 it says that Nineveh was three-day’s journey in extent. What that means is that it actually was a three day journey to go from one end of it to the other!
•A great city but the problem was it was a wicked city. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire.
•The Assyrians were historically extremely cruel people. History tells us they would cut up their enemies in war and cut off the ears and tongues of their prisoners among other cruelties. They were so feared and so cruel that history tells us entire cities at war with Assyria and doomed to lose would commit mass suicide just to avoid be taken prisoner!
•The Southern Kingdom of Israel ended up in this position once. (2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Isaiah) The Northern Kingdom was already conquered by the Assyrians and not the Assyrians had surrounded the Southern Kingdom. And Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, sent King Hezekiah threatening messages blaspheming the God of Israel and Hezekiah would go in and spread the letters out before the Lord and he’d say “look at what this guy is saying!” But all the while the Lord was speaking through His prophet Isaiah saying “trust.” But that was hard for Hezekiah as 185k Assyrian soldiers surrounded the city. But one morning the children of Israel awoke and went to the wall to see the forces encamped around them…and they were all dead (Isaiah 37). While the people rested, God fought the battle!
•Now Sennacherib ran. He returned to Nineveh and was assassinated by two of his sons and then they fled to Armenia. Another one of his sons began to reign but the back of Assyria was broken as it were.
•Now where we find ourselves “now,” as God tells Jonah to go to the Assyrians, was when Assyria was on the rise in power. Before all of this occurred with the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel.
Chapter 1 Verse 3
•Nineveh was northeast of Israel and Jonah heads due west…to Tarshish via Joppa. And it’s interesting because it says that Jonah rose up to “flee from the presence of the Lord.” What a joke! Really this is an irrational thought! But we do this too don’t we? We feel that if we simply run from what God’s has called us to do, or told us what to do, or commanded us that we should or should not do, that we are somehow escaping God! But God is omnipresent…and what we discover is exactly what Jonah will discover later…that it is us we are running from…our responsibility, our accountability to God…not God Himself, that is impossible!
•Irrational! But sin causes irrationality. You look back on times where you knew you were running from God as it were, doing something shady…acting a fool, and you say, “did I really do that? What was I thinking?” And you discover that you walked right into a trap…because lies lead to lies and sin leads to sin!
•Notice though, there will always be a ship provided by Satan ready to take you right away from what God has said. Satan has had years to study you…thousands of years to study your type…and so he makes it just oh so easy to sail for Tarshish. But notice, Jonah paid the fare. Sin is exciting initially but expensive eventually. You’ll pay the fare.
Chapter 1 Verses 4-9
•So Jonah witnesses to the ships crew. And the Bible doesn’t say here that it was God’s anger that caused the storm…rather it was simply His will. Even though Jonah was so sure that He had hidden from God, He was still to be used by God in speaking truth to these mariners.
•Now one other thing that I find relevant here is how Jonah was asleep. I want you to understand that he wasn’t sleeping peacefully…he was on the run as it were…he was sleeping because he was doped. Doped by the enemy. Fooled as it were. He thinks HA, made it onto the ship so I’m ok for now…made it into the low parts of the ship so I’m hidden for now…he’s high on the dope of a lie. Fooled and therefore he sleeps…just like the millions man out there fooled by the prince of this world that they are ok…that they need not worship God…but instead worship the dealer of their dope…whatever it is that gets dealt to them that makes it normal, ok…acceptable to run from God.
•The bad part about dope though, it ends up using you…not the other way around. You end up a junkie, dependent, weak and trapped…it just ends up ruling you and you don’t even see it happening…because you’re asleep and you’re lost and God is screaming WAKE UP! You can’t scream any louder than the cross!
•And notice also, sin will always cause others to be caught in the storm. Jonah paid the fare but so will they. And yes you will reap what you sow and great destruction and pain and loss and hollowness will come from you living for you…but they will suffer also…your children, your friends, your parents, your coworkers…they all end up paying the fare as it were.
Chapter 1 Verse 10
•And so the mariners revere the true God. All of the other gods cannot help, cannot save and cannot cause their present situation…and so I see a bit of revelation here. That God knew Jonah would flee even before He commanded that he go to the Assyrians…and so indeed it was God who had willed Jonah to come to these Mariners and tell them of the one true God! So cool!
•And its interesting to me how we sometimes plan our programs and then ask God to bless them when really we should seek God’s will…and what He wants to do…then we simply get in line. That is why I am slow to promote new programs or do new things formally because look, I don’t want to do something or plan something just because I feel or see that they are needed…I only want to do what God is going to do…then I simply get to be a part of a huge blessing, an enormous success and a church that is truly led, not just blessed, but led by the Holy Spirit.
Chapter 1 Verses 11-12
•Wrong again Jonah…or at least partly wrong. The tempest had come so that the truth would go forth to his children aboard this ship! It’s not all about you, Jonah! The storm isn’t even because of you really, it’s ultimately because of God’s love for the Ninevites! Thinking that way is going to get you into a whole heap of trouble…same goes for us.
Chapter 1 Verses 13-14
•See! Look at this as the mariners now call out “Yehovah” in the Hebrew! They, probably for the first time ever, call out in faith to the One true God! Awesome!
Chapter 1 Verses 15-16
•And so Jonah exits the boat and leaves behind him a bunch of believers!
Chapter 1 Verse 17
•So the Lord appointed a great fish. (Dag) What kind of fish? The Bible doesn’t say but rest assured that it indeed was some sort of fish. It was not another boat…maybe a passing vessel that was named “great fish,” it was indeed some sort of huge sea creature that God appointed.
•Bible expositors and logisticians attempt to dismiss the supernatural of this story and explain the great fish right away. But their problem is Jesus. Jesus made several references to Jonah being in the belly of the great fish. You’ll find them in Matthew 12 and in Matthew 16 where Jesus was being asked for a sign (like they needed one) and what did Jesus say? “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
•People are so quick to doubt God’s ability when the Bible says “is anything hard for God?” They doubt the creation account but accept the water into wine experiment. I have no problem with believing God is able to create a sea creature able to swallow a man whole. There are creatures even today that we still are discovering. In fact, just a couple of years ago, a giant squid…a colossal squid which are rarely seen and even though mythological until just a few years ago, was caught…it was 33 feet long and now they are estimated to be as long as 46 feet! So no, I don’t even think it takes faith…just quite honestly, rational thought in my opinion.
•Factual testimony of folks swallowed whole and even living. James Bartley.