Jonah 1:1-17

Jonah is one of the best know narratives of God’s Word.  This chapter is all about Jonah’s refusal to obey God and the consequences of his disobedience.  Jonah refuses to preach to the people of Nineveh and decides to run from the presence of God.  This proves to be harder than Jonah might have thought and has consequences far beyond what Jonah might have imagined.  God demonstrates His compassion for a sinful nation and His determination to use a sinful prophet.  It is clearly a dangerous thing to live in rebellion against a sovereign God.  God continues to show His compassion for sinful nations by calling His children to go and preach in these places.  Unfortunately the story of Jonah repeats itself far too often in the lives of the men and women God has called to warn the nations for who Christ died.   

GOD CALLS JONAH BUT HE IS UNWILLING: God’s instructions to Jonah are very clear.  He is to go to Nineveh and proclaim God’s judgment on the city because of their sin.  Nineveh was truly a sinful city and had been a cruel enemy of the nation of Israel.  Jonah’s hatred of this nation made him unwilling to obey God.  Instead, he purchases a ticket to run away from the presence of God in the complete opposite direction.  I find it interesting the Jonah decided to run instead of just staying put where he was.  It is hard to know what is going through Jonah’s mind.  He may have been pretending to obey God by getting on a ship.  He seems to have a very limited view of God and knowledge of His attributes.  Like many people, he thought it was possible to escape from the presence of God.  He knew that God had found him at his current location but seems to think that if he moved away God would somehow be unable to discover his new location or that God would simply give up and call someone else.  God calls us to share His compassion for sinful nations and proclaim to them the truth of God’s coming judgment.  Unfortunately, we often try to run from God’s call.

GOD JUDGES JONAH BUT HE IS UNAWARE: Once Jonah is on the boat and going in the opposite direction; he goes down to the bottom of the boat to fall asleep.  From the time that Jonah is called he goes on a downward spiral.  He goes down to Joppa to get on a ship to go down to Tarshish.  He went down to the basement of the ship.  He went down to the depths of the sea.  He went down to the belly of a whale.  Sin will always take us further down than we ever imagine when we first start to disobey.  Once Jonah is on the ship, God sends a great storm to pound the ship out at sea.  All of the crew and passengers are working desperately to save themselves.  God is judging Jonah but he is asleep in the bottom of the boat.  Jonah does not seem to have any fear of the Lord or any pain in his conscience.  He is running from God but is able to sleep in the midst of the storm he had caused.  When we disobey God we will often become completely unaware of the pain we are causing to others and our own conscience can become completely hardened.  Too many believers are sleeping while sinners all around them are perishing under the judgment of God.

GOD REVEALS JONAH BUT HE IS UNREPENTANT: When Jonah is discovered and God reveals Him as the culprit for the storm the crew pleads with him to pray and ask God for forgiveness and to spare their lives.  Jonah seems unwilling to do this.  He clearly understands that He is to blame for the storm and is fully aware that he and all of the crew are facing death but he would rather die than repent of his sin and obey the Lord.  When the crew pleads with him for a solution he simply tells them the throw him off the ship in the storm in order to save themselves.  The crew has greater fear of God than Jonah.  They try in vain to get back to shore and finally throw Jonah into the sea.  The storm goes away and the crew assumes that Jonah has died and they go on their way having had a revelation of the power of God.  But, God is not done with Jonah yet and sends a great fish to swallow him.  God will go to great lengths to call us to repent.  When we refuse, it brings great problems on ourselves and others.