MPC, 13th July 2003.Jonah 2 - "The Inside Story"
Maurie Cropper MPC, 13th July 2003.
I'm going to begin with a question. In what ways do you run away from God?
When things aren't going your way, do you turn to God, or more often do you find yourself running away, maybe in self-pity? Or do you attempt to blame others by becoming angry?
Or do you withdraw into the old silent treatment and sulk?
Or do you manipulate the feelings of others by suggesting your worthless and you may as well give up on life?
I know a bloke that every time in his life when the 'going got tough'... he would literally run away! Like the time he's brother was killed at only twenty two. His way of coping was to run away from facing anyone with his hurt. He simply gathered up his savings and took off to India and then travelled overland to Europe.
And another time when his fiancée dumped him a couple of weeks before the wedding. What did he do with his hurt, his disappointment, his emotions? Well, he decided to run away again. Run away to obscurity. He had a good look at the map of the world. Figured out that South America would be a good place to hide. And that Bolivia was an isolated place. No one would know him there. No one would ever know the real him.
So he stuffed his emotions and few essentials into his rucksack and took a boat from Sydney to Rio de Janeiro and then headed off to Bolivia. This guy always dealt with hurt in relationships by running away. Security and comfort for him was found in avoiding getting too close to people. Ano-nym-ity was the name of the game he was playing!
He was suspicious of other's motives. He found it hard to trust many people, or to confide in them. And if he did, it was because the relationship was only a temporary one.
In a sense this guy had a bit in common with Jonah.
As Matt said from chapter one last week, when Jonah was confronted by a tough ask from God, he simply ran away. No apology for being absent. No beg your pardons. No excuse me because I'm busy. Not even a "Catch-ya-later." Just... I'm out-a here! Down to the nearest port. And off to the most obscure place he knew of! The author even tells us that the very first word that is spoken by God, and the New International Version of the Bible leaves it out... is "Arise".
Arise Jonah did. In fact at that point it was the only obedient thing Jonah did do. Up he got and off he went. In the opposite direction to Nineveh!
No way was Jonah going to preach to his own nation's arch-enemy... Assyria.
And as Matt said last week, we aren't told at this point the reasons for Jonah's rebellion. That comes in chapter four. But he doesn't seem to be particularly afraid of death.
Jonah's problems were primarily with God. He immediately defied God's command to go to Nineveh. He didn't enter into any debate with God. He just simply and swiftly ignored God's command and took off in the other direction.
Jonah's only thought was to run away from God. Or as the King James version puts it in verse 3 of chapter one: "...Jonah rose up to flee... from the presence of the Lord."
He had to get away from God. He was only concerned for himself.
And after being thrown overboard, where does he end up? In the belly of a whale.
He might be safe. He sure isn't dead! But he certainly isn't going anywhere now!
He might have thought he was in control when he was down on the dock at Joppa buying his boat ticket. But God causing that dirty big storm to happen soon dispelled that myth.
And with he's rebellion curtailed and nowhere to go, Jonah finally comes to his senses and acknowledges that it's God who's in control of his life.
It's from the belly of the whale that Jonah for the first time begins to talk to God. And what he has to say is quiet revealing. It's at this point that Jonah acknowledges that while he might have initially wished he were dead... he's now thankful that God saved him.
I want to go out on a bit of a limb here and say, that what he first of all confesses, is his desire to die rather than carry out God's commands.
In Jonah's conversation with God he not only admits that he wanted to die, but he asked God to finish him off. He wanted to be removed from God's presence. In other words, if Jonah couldn't escape from God, he at least believed that God could be rid of him. I want to suggest that when Jonah says in verse 2: "In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry."
I think that Jonah here is referring to the time on the boat when he said to the sailors, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea." (1:12)
It's no editorial interference or writer's cramp or slip of the pen that put the words of verse three onto the page. "You [God] hurled me into the deep, into the very heart or centre of the seas [that you God created], and the currents swirled about me; [and God those were] all your waves and breakers that swept over me."
Jonah was so wanting to die that he uses words like "From the depths of the grave I called for help"... for help to die.
Jonah is saying that while I was on that boat with those sailors, I cried out to you God to throw me overboard. And you answered my wish. You tossed me overboard!
Jonah believed that God was the only one who could annihilate him. Remove him from God's presence. After all, God was the Creator of the universe. He could do anything!
Jonah wanted to die. And he asked God to set him on that course.
And I don't think this story is about either Jonah or God calling each other's bluff.
But if at first Jonah never feared death... once he was dropping like a rock to the depths of a watery grave, he certainly then realised he wasn't the master of his own destiny. And especially a death and departure from this life in the context of rebellion against God.
It was at that point that Jonah knew he would never ever again be in the presence of God. He knew that if he continued to rebel against God, then he was going to be barred from ever seeing God again! Verse 6 "To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever!"
Jonah is aware that in his present condition death wasn't the end. It simply meant that he was going to get his first wish, his death wish, to escape from the presence of God, forever! But it's one wish he now wanted to turn from.
Jonah says to God that it was only when I thought to myself that 'God's really going to give me my wish that I realised how rebellious and stupid I was'. Verse 4: "I said [to myself], 'I have been banished from your sight; yet will I look again toward your holy temple.'"
At that moment when he's life was flashing past him, the mind of Jonah the devout Hebrew, went straight to the one thing that signified the presence of God - the Temple.
This was his moment of truth. I am about to die in a state of rebellion against my God. This was the turning point for Jonah. He again longed to be in the presence of God.
It's at this moment, when his life is ebbing away from him... that Jonah cries out to God. The very one he's running away from is the only one who can save him!
So... what Jonah thought about in verse four, he now puts into action.
(v.7) "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple." Which isn't the literal temple, but the presence of God.
Jonah's saying, 'God... you caused the storm. They were your waves and breakers that swirled and swept over and around me. You could have allowed me to die. And while my life was rushing towards its end, with my life ebbing away, you O Lord, you were still present because you listened to my cry.'
And it's an incredibly dramatic way that God saved Jonah. Straight into the belly of a whale. Sort of, Jonah preserved. Instead of the pickle he had got himself into. Puts a new slant on having a whale of a time.
Anyway. Having experienced his own life being preserved by God, Jonah's thoughts now turn to others. Which is a bit of a turn-around. Because getting out of the whale doesn't seem to concern Jonah. After all, he's just been saved by the God who made the universe.
Instead, he now turns his concern to those who continue to rebel against God by clinging to worthless idols which they believe can help them.
His thoughts are of a rebellious Israel. He's thinking of those back on dry land in Israel who are living in false hope that worshipping idols will give them peace and security.
They are God's people, but they are being unfaithful to him. Just like he had been. What Jonah now realises is that instead of running away, he should have seen it as a great privilege as a prophet of God to have been invited to take the word of God to the people of Nineveh. Jonah had declined that privilege, but was now repentant of his rebellion, and couldn't contain his thankfulness to God. Verses 8 & 9: "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord."
Clear and simple. Salvation comes from the Lord. If Jonah wasn't convinced before, he certainly is now. His deliverance was undeserving. In fact he deserved to drown. He'd turned his back on God. He'd turned his back on his role as a Prophet to bring God's message of salvation to people. His actions had been reprehensible. Deserving only of God's judgement!
I guess there are times when we could be accused of doing a Jonah. Ashamedly running away from God. Only concerned for ourselves. And while there are things that we can learn from Jonah, he's not the one we should model our lives on. And the obvious comparison to Jonah is that of Jesus. A valid comparison because Jesus compares and contrasts himself with Jonah.
Turn with me to Matthew 12:38ff. Jesus is teaching to the crowds around him, including Pharisees and teachers of the law. "Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, 'Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.' He answered, 'A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign!' But none will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgement with this generation [meaning them] and condemn it [meaning them]; for they [the Ninevites] repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here."
Jonah is the prophet that Jesus likened himself to. But while Jonah was a servant and prophet who embodied the word of God... Jesus is the servant; the prophet & the word of God!
Jonah suffered death figuratively, swallowed up by a huge fish. Lost from man's sight for 3 days. Jesus suffered death literally, swallowed up by the heart of the earth. Lost from God's sight for 3 days.
Jonah was resurrected figuratively. Jesus was resurrected literally. For as it says in Acts 2, "...it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him."
And in their suffering there's a telling contrast between Jonah and Jesus.
Jonah was disobedient and suffered for his own disobedience. Jesus was obedient and suffered for the disobedience of others. "He who had no sin became sin."
Because I don't assume that everyone here today is a believer in, or a follower of Jesus Christ, if what I've just said hasn't resonated in your mind to the point of changing your heart towards the God who created you... the God of the Universe; the God of Grace... then you ought to ask God to convict you of this truth... to change and re-shape your whole being... to be like Jesus. "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved!" [Acts 4:12]
You should at all costs avoid leaving this place today... unchanged and unconverted! Because like Jonah and everyone of us here today... we simply don't know when our time on this earth will come to an end.
I want to finish with three brief points.
Firstly, God didn't have to bring Jonah back from heading off to Tarshish, a place that we know was a godless, relationally numbing place. God could have raised up any number of people, even another prophet to go to Nineveh. But in his mercy and compassion, God not only saved Jonah, but saved him from a life of eternal regret and sorrow.
Secondly, the trouble-free life is not some sort of blessing. The false belief we are fed that a trouble-free life is what we ought to seek after... is simply that! A false belief. A lie! As Jonah showed, it's a lie that fuels both our desire to avoid what's really going on in each one of us... and the pretence that all is okay in our life and in our relationships... and we can do without God. In the meantime our lives are a mess; our relationships are a mess... and even our hope and confidence in God gets caught up in the mess. Too often we find ourselves drowning in an out-of-control messy life, when in fact we could be bathing in thankfulness of God's mercy... grace and peace.
Lastly... like Jonah and the guy at the beginning of my talk, we seek refuge in anything and everything except God. And as in Jonah's case, God ultimately stopped that guy dead in his tracks. Turned him around.
I still hanker to travel to far away places. But my hope in the future is now grounded in Jesus as my Saviour and King.
What about you? Is your hope in the future grounded in Jesus? In his literal, physical resurrection from the dead?
It is the death of Christ for our rebellion against God... and the hope of His resurrection from the dead... that fills Christian hearts with confidence for the present, and hope for the future.
If you haven't come to grips with that yet, than please, please don't hesitate in responding to God's grace for a moment longer.