sign in sign up
<<
Home , Bathsheba

Joel B. Curry, D.Min. P a g e | 1

Jonah, the Angry Prophet

Introduction - Word association: and the _____. - (Whale)—Probably wrong. It was a “great ” (1:17) Perhaps a whale, but whale is a different word. - And as we know, neither this fish nor Jonah is principal character in the story— is! He’s the hero! - A little background: - The people of Israel were divided into two kingdoms, Northern (Israel) and Southern (Judah). - Jonah was from a little village near Nazareth, in Galilee; Northern Kingdom. - Around 755-758 B.C. Time of peace and prosperity, conquest and enlargement to original northern border. - Spiritually, a time of poverty, ritualistic and even idolatrous, injustice. Material prosperity was accompanied by lack of spirituality, morality, and ethics. - In those days, God raised prophets to preach His will and call His people back to spiritual commitment. - Jonah’s call was different—not to preach in Israel, but to the people of , capital city of Assyria. - Assyria was historical enemy of Israel; known for cruelty in battle and occupation. Just 35 years after Jonah was called to preach in Nineveh, the Assyrians invaded and destroyed the Northern Kingdom. The they didn’t slaughter, they took captive as slaves. Nineveh was the largest city in the world at that time. - Jonah’s call was different because God told him to go to Nineveh to preach against its wickedness (1:1-2). It is the only case in which God called a prophet to a foreign nation to deliver God’s message against them. - Why preach there and not in Israel? Obviously, (1) for the salvation of the people there, but also (2) I think God wanted to shame the people of Israel by showing them that these pagans would repent at the preaching of a stranger, whereas Israel had repeatedly refused to repent at the preaching of prophets they knew. - The story of Jonah begins with God. He is the first character in the story, and throughout this book, God is at work in powerful and wonderful ways. He has a plan, and Jonah is given the privilege of playing a central role in that plan. - Principles we can learn from Jonah:

1. When God commands us, we should obey (1:1-3)

1 Joel B. Curry, D.Min. P a g e | 2

A. There are many times when we don’t know exactly what God’s will is, but Jonah did not have that problem. God couldn’t be any clearer than we find in v. 2 (read). He is very sure what he is called to do. B. Remember—Assyrians and were long-time enemies; Assyria had attacked Israel many times, and the Assyrians were one of the cruelest people in history. Their practice, when they conquered a territory, was to slaughter the men, enslave the women, and kill all children in pagan sacrifices. C. The bottom line is that the Israelites regarded Nineveh as ripe for God’s judgment. D. Jonah did not welcome the assignment—the same reaction we might have if we were called to an Al Qaeda camp to tell them to repent. E. So Jonah ran. (Read v. 3) i. He did not just hide, he bought a ticket to the farthest place known, Tarshish, a port city on the Atlantic coast of Spain. Nineveh was 500 miles northeast; Tarshish was 1,800 miles due west. He tried to get as far away from God as he could. ii. Jonah is the only prophet in the O.T. record who outright rejected God’s call. (Contrast with Isaiah: “Here I am; send me.”) F. Have you ever felt even a little like Jonah? i. . . . don’t want to do what you know God wants ii. . . . when God’s will and your plans don’t match iii. . . . when you must choose between personal advantage and an ethical principle iv. That’s just a little bit of what Jonah must have felt, because he had the direct, literal, unmistakable command of God to go to Nineveh. G. He didn’t just resist God’s will, he told God “No way.” H. As we know, Jonah found out he could run, but he couldn’t hide! (Read v. 4) i. Following this verse there is an amazing account of how the sailors— who come off as much more noble than Jonah—finally must chuck the wayward prophet off their ship to save themselves.

2 Joel B. Curry, D.Min. P a g e | 3

2. When God corrects us, we should pay attention (1:4-17) A. If God cares enough to call you to His work and give you His gifts, then He also cares enough to correct and confront you when you’re headed in the wrong direction. B. For Jonah, that was when the storm hit. Why? To punish Jonah? No. To turn him around and get him back on the road to Nineveh. Times like this rarely feel good, and we usually do a of whining, it’s all about love. C. Look at James 4:6 for a minute. (Read) i. God resists the proud—lit., “opposes” and “sets back in order”; a military term. We could say “God battles the proud. ii. Like Jonah, our pride can pit us against God in a battle of wills. When that happens, God moves onto the battlefield, not to destroy, but to discipline and get us back on track. The weapons may be reminding us of His character, His word, and His will, or the weapons may be more temporal to stymie our plans. iii. His purpose is to bring us back to humility, a place of blessing and grace. So, in resisting our pride and will, He wants to bless us. (Read Hebrews 12:5-6) D. So when God corrects, we should pay attention. i. For Jonah, it took three days and three nights for his will to change. (Read 1:17) Probably pretty intense 72 hours! ii. Chapter 2 describes Jonah’s surrender of his will to the will of God. God has won the power struggle—for now.

3. When God gives us a second chance, we should take it (2:1-3:10) (Read 2:1- 2) A. Jonah “cried out”—not the nice, churchy-type prayer, but lit. “to utter a loud sound” or even “yell for help.” i. Vv. 5-6 tell us of Jonah’s low point (literally) and v. 7 records Jonah’s surrender (read) B. Jonah had been stubborn and defiant, but there is something in him that God cherishes and can use. ii. After all, he is a prophet—a man called to boldly speak God’s truth to often-hostile crowds; a man who has heard the voice of God. iii. He misses that intimacy with God and finds that he does not fear death so much as he fears being separated from His Lord. iv. feared the same in , his prayer of confession after the prophet had confronted him about his affair with : “Cast me not away from your presence, O Lord; take not your from me.” iv. It is sincere, deep-heart longing for God that He put into us when He saved us. He keeps using people like Jonah and like us—people who have failed Him again and again.

3 Joel B. Curry, D.Min. P a g e | 4

C. God was looking for Jonah’s prayer of surrender (v. 7), but He also was wanting one more thing—commitment to do His will. i. (Read v. 9) “I will pay what I have vowed.” Jonah’s way of saying he will do what God wants. All of God’s people have given Him this vow—to do His will. D. (Read 3:1-4) So Jonah receives his assignment for the second time, and this time he took off for Nineveh and preached the message. E. And what happened then? (Read vv. 5-10) i. The people believed God and repented. ii. A little history might help us to realize Nineveh had been prepared in advance for Jonah’s preaching, too. Jonah arrived around 755-758 B.C. - History tells us of a terrible plague in Nineveh in 765 B.C., killing perhaps thousands. Their pagan beliefs saw plagues as punishment from the . - Two years later, the region, including Nineveh, experienced a total solar eclipse. This also was regarded as an extreme sign of displeasure or judgment from their gods. - Then four years after the eclipse, another plague hit the city in 759 B.C., killing thousands more. - Jonah arrived between sometime around 755-758. So we might say God prepared them to listen. iii. God saw their repentance and spared the destruction he had threatened. F. And if the account of Jonah ended with chapter 3, we could say “and they all lived happily ever after.” i. But there’s another chapter, and it starts like this: “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.” ii. Obviously, Jonah did not agree with God when God didn’t go ahead and destroy the city.

4. When God forgives, we should forgive (4:1-11) A. God’s change of plans really upset Jonah, so he complained to the Lord about it. (Read 1-3) i. Now we find that Jonah ran away not because he was afraid of the Assyrians, but because he knew what God would do if they repented, and he did not want God to spare them. ii. To Jonah, Yahweh’s idea of justice is too liberal. He always gives people too many breaks. iii. Jonah’s idea of justice was vengeance and retribution, not repentance and forgiveness . . . and when God didn’t do what Jonah wanted, he gets angry, blames God, and bitterly complains.

4 Joel B. Curry, D.Min. P a g e | 5

iv. He’s thinking something like “How dare you! These people are evil. They don’t deserve rescuing. And you used me to tell them what they had to do to be saved! I can’t stand it. So just let me die.” v. Trouble is, we all seem to have Ninevites, at least from time to time. We’re not so depressed and angry like Jonah, but we sometimes we find satisfaction in the prospect that God’s judgment is coming. B. Look in v. 4 at God’s response. Jonah has just had a major tantrum, and God quietly asks: “Is it right for you to be angry?” i. Instead of answering, Jonah goes out to watch the city, perhaps hoping God would change His mind and he would get to see the city destroyed. Or maybe he just wanted to bask in his anger and sulk while he watched a bustling Nineveh when it should have been destroyed. He was bitter, and he wasn’t about to give it up. C. But God had other plans. Jonah utterly rejected Him, but He remained gracious to him and decided to give him a demonstration. i. He caused a plant to grow to shade Jonah, and then destroys the plant that night, and then He arranged a strong wind and hot sun. ii. Jonah was physically faint, and then uttered those familiar words: “It is better for me to die than to live.” To which God responds with the same question he asked Jonah earlier: “Is it right for you to be angry?” iii. This time, Jonah answered: “It is right for me to be angry!” D. Then God completes his demonstration and tells Jonah: (Read vv. 10-11) i. Note: “persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left”— most interpret as people who are in spiritual darkness. Some O.T. scholars identify these as the children in Nineveh (too young to know their right from left). ii. God was saying to Jonah: You cared about the death of this single plant that you didn’t create, and you don’t think I should care about these Ninevites, whom I did create?

Conclusion - There are a few things we don’t know about Jonah . . . - Did he accept God’s rebuke? - Did he embrace God’s mercy and grace for the Ninevites? - We don’t know. - But we do know God can accomplish His purpose through even the most resistant and rebellious people. Jonah was filled with hate, rebellious, stubborn, openly defiant, yet God used him.

5