As Jonah, the Prodigal Prophet, flees from God, we see the awful consequences of rebellion.

The Prodigal Prophet

“The Awful Consequences Of Rebellion”

Jonah 1:1-16

Turn in your Bibles this morning to the Book of Jonah. It’s a small little book of 4 chapters, but it packs a whale of a message! If we all sat down to play Taboo, and one of you pulled a card that said “Whale” at the top, what word would you call out to get your partner to say that word? Of course, you would say “Jonah.”  Whenever we think of the book of Jonah, instinctively the first thing we think about is the great fish in the story. However, the Book of Jonah is not primarily about the great fish. Neither is it primarily about the Ninevites, the storm, the sailors, the plant or the worm. If you think about the Book of Jonah as a play, all of those things would be props in the play. They are not the star of the play, or even the co-star. God is the star of the Book of Jonah. The fish occurs 4 times and the Ninevites appear 9 times in the book. However, Jonah occurs 18 times, and God appears 38 times! Clearly, this is a story about God and Jonah.  So God is the star of the play, and Jonah is the co-star. We have been looking so hard at the Great Fish that we have failed to see the Great God in this book.

This play has 2 acts:  Act 1 is chapters 1 & 2. Act 2 is chapters 3 & 4. The setting for Act 1 is The Great Sea.  The setting for Act 2 is The Great City.  The first Act is about Jonah Forsaking His Mission. The second Act is about Jonah Fulfilling His Mission.  What is fascinating about this little book is how the 2^nd half of the book mirrors the first half.  Consider this little outline:

Jonah’s commissioning and flight (1:1-3)                          Jonah’s recommissioning and compliance (3:1-3)

What will happen to Jonah?                                               What will happen to the Ninevites?

Jonah and the pagan sailors (1:4-16)                                 Jonah and the pagan Ninevites (3:3-10)

How responsive are the pagan sailors?                            How responsive are the pagan Ninevites?

Jonah’s grateful prayer (1:17 – 2:10)                                 Jonah’s angry prayer (4:1-4)

How does Jonah respond to God’s grace toward him?  How does Jonah respond to God’s grace toward others?

Jonah’s Lesson about compassion (4:5-11)

Should not I pity Nineveh?

                What makes the Book of Jonah so unique among all the prophetic books is that it alone is the only Prophecy which does not consist of the prophet’s message, but rather the prophet’s story. It’s a drama.

                So, what is the Purpose of this book?  The real purpose of this book is to reveal to us the heart of God for all the peoples of the world. That’s why the last point (Jonah’s Lesson about Compassion) stands alone. It is the climax and reason God gave us this book. As we work our way through this book, we will learn a lot of different things, but above all, I hope that we all catch something of God’s heart for the lost, wherever they may be.

Of course the question that always arises when we read the Book of Jonah is how are we to interpret it. Some say we should interpret it mythologically – sort of treat it like we would Moby Dick, or The Illiad.  In other words, they see the story as fiction, fable, folklore, or legend. Others, say we should interpret the book allegorically. In other words, they see everything in the story as symbolic of something else. Jonah is really Israel. The Great Storm are the gentile nations. The Great Fish is Babylon which conquered and swallowed Israel for 70 years. The vomiting up of Jonah on dry ground is seen as Israel being released and coming back into the promised land after 70 years.  The problem with both of these views is that there is absolutely nothing in the book itself except for the miracles which would lead someone to view the book as myth or allegory. The book is a historical narrative. It tells a story with the names of real people (Jonah, sailors, Ninevites), with real places (Nineveh, Joppa).

Furthermore, the only other place in our Bible in which Jonah’s name appears, 2 Kings 14:25, tell us that Jonah ministered during the reign of Jereboam II, who we know was a real person who lived and reigned from 793 to 753 B.C. Further, we are told in that same Scripture that Jonah was from Gath-hepher, a village we know to be about 4 miles from Nazareth. So, Jonah was a real person, from a real town, who lived during the reign of a real historical king.

And the real clincher for me, is that Jesus Christ Himself believed that the Book of Jonah was a real, historical, story. Look at Mt. 10:38-41. Notice, that Jesus says that Jonah was in the belly of the sea monster 3 days and 3 nights. He also says that the men of Nineveh repented at his preaching. In other words, Jesus took the book of Jonah literally. If it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me! I know modern day professors love to attack and make fun of the book of Jonah, but I’ll take Jesus as my Professor any day of the week!

Nor, for this morning’s sermon, we are going to focus only on Chapter 1, and see Jonah as The Prodigal Prophet. In chapter 1 we see the awful Consequences of Rebellion. We are going to look first of all at what Jonah’s Rebellion Caused Him To Do. Then we are going to look at what Jonah’s Rebellion Provoked the Lord to do.  Now, please note that I’m talking about rebellion this morning. I’m not talking about sins that we commit when we are blindsided by temptation and fall in a moment of weakness. This is deliberate and defiant sin against the clear command of God.

Someone said that Jonah chapter 1 can be summed up like this:

“Jehovah Pleas – Jonah Flees.  Ship Sought – Ticket Bought.  Down Deep – Fast Asleep. 

Captain Awoke – Prayer Invoked.  Lots Cast – Jonah Last.  Questions Popped – Jonah Copped.  Stormy Sea – All About Me.  To Calm The Tide – Over the Side!  Row & Row – Still Too Slow.  1,2,3 – Into the Sea; Storm Cleared – Sailors Feared.  Jonah Despaired – Fish Prepared.  Sumptuous Dish – Belly of a Fish.”

So, now that you know the story of chapter 1, let’s get into it.  Let’s look first of all at Jonah’s Disobedience.

1.  What Jonah’s Rebellion Caused Him To Do:

A.    He Ran From God – Jonah is Fleeing When He Should Be Obeying.  Notice first, the call of God. God commanded Jonah to “arise and go to Nineveh the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me” (1:1-2).

• The Great City:  Now, it’s important to know something about Nineveh and its inhabitants in order to really understand this call of God. Nineveh was likely the largest city of its day. It was the capital city of the Assyrians. There were likely more than 600,000 people within the city limits. The city was 60 miles in circumference. It has 1,200 towers each 200 feet high. It also had a wall around the city 100′ high of such a breadth that 3 chariots could run abreast on top of it. The city was so big that it would take a man 3 days just to walk the entire city (3:3).
• The Ninevites:  The Ninevites were known and feared far and wide for their fiendish brutality and cruelty. They seem to know no pity towards those they conquered. Those they captured in war were skinned alive, or had tongues, ears or noses cut off. Others were impaled through the mid-section with a sharp pole, and then the pole was raised aloft with the writhing victim to die a slow agonizing death. Others were buried alive. All of this was done to terrify their enemies, and it worked! Many of their enemies when they heard that the Assyrians were approaching would just surrender without a fight. Well, this is the people God is calling Jonah to go and preach to! The Assyrians were Israel’s enemies and were becoming a greater and greater threat to them. Actually, within 50 years they would conquer Israel and carry them away into captivity. You can well imagine why a Jewish  prophet might not want to go and preach to the Ninevites! That would be like God commanding a Jew to go to Berlin during World War II and call the Nazis to repentance!
• The Real Reason Jonah Fled:  However, Jonah did not run from God because he was afraid of the Ninevites. Actually, I’m sure that Jonah was ecstatic when he first heard God’s call. God was going to destroy those wicked people! That means that Israel would be saved! However, the longer Jonah thought about this commission God had given him, the more nervous he became. You see, Jonah knew God’s character. He knew from Exodus 34:6-7 that God was gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and one who relents concerning calamity (4:2). He just knew that if he went and called these people to repentance, they just might do it, and then God would not destroy them and Israel would perish. There was only 1 way he could be sure that Assyria would be destroyed and Israel saved. He could flee and refuse to go and preach to them. At this point Jonah must make the most difficult decision of his life – either preach to the Ninevites and risk seeing God have mercy on them which could mean Israel’s ruin, or refuse to go and suffer God’s heavy displeasure for his defiance, with the hope that Israel would be saved.
• Flee from the Presence of the Lord:  Jonah knew that God was omnipresent. He knew he couldn’t actually go someplace where God was not. What this means is that God was saying, “I quit! I’m resigning as Your prophet.”
• Tarshish and Nineveh:  Nineveh was about 500 miles east. What does Jonah do? He turns around and boards a ship that is going to Tarshish, which was 2,000 miles west, on the southern tip of Spain! In other words, he’s going as far as he possibly can from where God wants him to go.
• Jonah is the only one in this book who disobeys God! The wind (1:4), the storm (1:4), the dice (1:7), the sailors (1:16), the great fish (1:17; 2:10), the Ninevites (3:1-10), the plant (4:6), the worm (4:7), and the east wind (4:8). Everything obeys the Lord except for Jonah! Jonah is the picture of a backslidden or disobedient Christian. He willfully and deliberately disobeys the Lord. Is that you this morning?

B.   He Hurt Others – Jonah Is Hurting Others When He Should Be Helping Them.  Notice what effect Jonah’s disobedience had on the sailors. There is a great wind and a great storm so that the ship was about to break up (4). The sailors are afraid (you know this is a big storm when the sailors are afraid!). They are all crying out to their gods to save them, throwing the cargo overboard, trying desperately to save themselves. Later after they had cast lots and figured out that Jonah was the cause of the storm, they had to throw him overboard. They didn’t want to do it, and tried desperately to row to shore to just let him off at the harbor, but God wouldn’t let that happen (13). Finally, they called on the Lord and pled with Him not to hold them guilty for Jonah’s death, and then tossed him overboard. Do you see how much trouble, and misery and pain Jonah caused for everyone on that ship?  Never get the idea that your sin only affects yourself! It affects everyone around you. Your sin not only makes you miserable, it makes others miserable. Not only does the backslider in heart disobey the Lord, but he hurts everyone else around him. Is that you?

C.   He Stopped Praying – Jonah Is Sleeping When He Should Be Praying.  1:5-6.  The sailors had given up hope of being able to save the ship, and were now just crying out to their gods for help. Up on deck, there’s a big prayer meeting taking place. All the while, Jonah is down in the hold of the ship fast sleep. Now, why was Jonah sleeping? My guess is because he has already gone through many sleepless nights wrestling with the Lord over the call to go to Nineveh. Do you see how backwards it is for a heathen captain to have to beg a Jewish prophet to pray?! The truth is, that though all these pagans pray, we never find Jonah praying! Jonah had no desire to pray. That’s what he was running from. He didn’t want to pray. He didn’t want to seek God. He had already heard from God – that was the problem! If you were Jonah, and had stubbornly refused to repent, what would you say to God? He’s stuck! The believer who is in sin is a prayerless Christian. He may keep up the forms of prayer at meal times, or in church meetings, but his private prayer life comes to a screeching halt. He knows that if He honestly and humbly goes before the Lord in prayer, that the Lord’s going to tell him to repent. Since he loves his sin, and doesn’t want to forsake it, he avoids prayer. If your prayer life has become shallow or non-existent, search your heart to see if it’s because of some secret sin that you are refusing to repent of.

D.   He Stopped Speaking – Jonah Is Silent When He Should Be Speaking.  1:8.  Notice all these rapid-fire questions. These sailors don’t know anything about Jonah. He hasn’t opened his mouth since he came on board this ship to preach about the True and Living God at all! The Captain didn’t know who his god was (1:6). If Jonah had functioned as a prophet and provided a witness on board the ship, they would’ve known who he was, where he came from, what his occupation was, and who his god was. No, Jonah is just slinking along in that ship as quietly as he can. You know, a believer who is out of fellowship with God will lose his witness. If he was in the habit of speaking freely about Jesus to others, he now closes his mouth and just stays silent. Oh, that is the evil of disobeying the Lord. It harms those around us, it makes us prayerless, and makes us silent when we should be speaking of Christ!

E.   He Lost His Witness – Jonah Is Shamed When He Should Be Shining.  Notice their question, “How could you do this?” What a rebuke? Here we have pagan sailors rebuking Jonah for running from God! You know the believer is at a real low point when unbelievers rebuke him. These pagans must have also thought Jonah was crazy. He had just told them that he was running from the God who made the sea and the dry land. So, what in the world was he  doing in a boat on the sea, running from the God of the sea? Well, for that matter, what would was he doing on the land running from the God of the land? Through this whole passage, the sailors look much better than Jonah.  The sailors  become the heroes and Jonah is the villain.

Sailors                                                             Jonah

       Prayed                                                             did not pray

Worked to save ship and crew                        Deep in sleep

Tried to save Jonah                                         No concern to save the sailors

Wanted to live                                                 Wanted to die

Wanted to find sin                                          Wanted to persist in sin

Obedient to what they knew                          Disobedient though he knew much

Worshipped God                                             Did not worship God

Shuddered at Jonah’s sin                                Untouched by his sin

Feared God                                                     No evidence of fear of God

It is a sad, sad day, when the Christian lives worse than the world! Instead of that, the Christian should be shining his light before them that they would see his good works and glorify God in heaven (Mt.5:16). What about you? Do unbelievers live a more holy life than you do? Do their moral and upright lives rebuke yours?

F.    He Hardened His Heart – Jonah Was Asking To Die When He Should Be Asking For Forgiveness.  1:11-12. Notice Jonah’s answer. He could have said, “Hold on guys, I’ve got something I’ve got to take care of.” Then he could find a quiet place on the ship to repent. He could have confessed his sins, asked for forgiveness, asked God to stop the storm, and promised he would go back to Nineveh. But he didn’t. There was no way he was going to pray that prayer. Jonah is determined to disobey the Lord. Jonah would rather die than obey God!  When the believer is out of the will of God, he would rather do anything than repent. Are you at that point this morning? Is there something in your life that God has commanded you to do, or something you are doing He has commanded you not to do? Are you avoiding Him, because you know you’ll have to repent and ask for forgiveness? If so, that is the worst possible thing you can do!

Now, having seen Jonah’s Disobedience, let’s take a look at God’s Discipline.

2.  What Jonah’s Rebellion Provoked the Lord to Do:

A.    He Relentlessly Pursued Jonah: 1:4. Notice that when Jonah disobeyed, God didn’t just let it slide. No, God acted, and He acted strongly. He sent such a violent storm that it almost cost the lives of everyone on that ship. Do you think God was trying to get Jonah’s attention? God will not let you get away with sin. If Jonah won’t listen to God whisper in His word, He’ll get his attention by the shouting of a storm!  C.S. Lewis once said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” I don’t know about you, but I’m glad that God doesn’t let me get away with sin. Hebrews 12:6-8 says, “For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”  Basically what that passage is saying, is that if you can sin and get away with it, and the Lord doesn’t come after you and take you behind the woodshed, you’re not His son or daughter. If God doesn’t discipline you, your not a Christian! The next time the Lord spanks you, give thanks! That means He loves you and you are His child. God will relentlessly pursue His children who run from Him. That is not a sign that He hates you. It’s a sign that He loves you! Those permissive parents that let their kids do whatever they want aren’t showing them that they love them at all. God is the Hound of Heaven. If His child runs from Him, He will track you down and sniff you out until He brings you to repentance again.

B.    He Revealed The Sin of Jonah:  1:7.  God in His sovereign providence caused Jonah to be found out as the sailors cast lots to determine who was to blame for the great storm. “Be sure that your sin will find you out!”  When God is pursuing a wayward child, don’t be surprised if He causes his/her sin to be exposed. Maybe you’ve been trying to keep your sin a secret. So far,  no one in the church knows about it. Well, if you won’t repent, don’t be surprised if God brings that sin to light. Pretty soon the church knows about it, and your neighbors as well. If you won’t bring your sin to the light, confess it, and repent of it, God will. God loves you so much, He’ll go to whatever lengths He needs to in order to make you holy!

C.    He Refused To Spare Jonah:  1:13. The sailors tried to spare Jonah by rowing furiously toward shore, but all to no avail. They wanted to save him, but God wouldn’t allow it. As long as Jonah persists in his disobedience, God refuses to spare him. Are you living in sin today? If so, don’t expect God to let you have your way. Don’t expect everything to go great. God has a way of turning up the heat when you won’t repent. Why? Because He loves you, and it’s for your own good.  Ps. 32:3-4 says, “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.”

D.   He Redeemed the Sailors in Spite of Jonah:  1:16.  When Jonah was thrown overboard, and instantly, unnaturally the sea became calm, they knew that they were now dealing with the True God – the God of the land and the sea. So, what do they do? They feared the Lord – that’s worship. They offered a sacrifice – that’s making atonement for sin. Jonah must have told them before he was tossed overboard that if you have sin in your life, the way to deal with it is through sacrifice. They made vows – they pledged obedience to the Lord. I believe we are seeing genuine conversion taking place in the lives of these pagan sailors! It’s almost as if God is saying, “Take that Jonah! I’ll use you to accomplish my purposes even if you don’t want to!” And in Jonah being tossed overboard a whole boatload of people were converted.  This just teaches us that man in his sin can never frustrate God’s purposes. Not only did God have compassion on the Ninevites, but he had compassion on these sailors, and He saved them, in spite of Jonah. Don’t ever think that your disobedience is going to somehow limit God. God will do what He has determined to do, with or without you! If God does something wonderful when you are in rebellion it wasn’t because of you, it was in spite of you!

So, what does all of this have to do with you practically?  Let me speak first of all to those who are saved here this morning.

1.  Believers – Go and Do the Will of God:  The message for you is to see yourself in Jonah. If God has called you to something and you have disobeyed, repent!  Jonah had a choice – he could do what God had commanded him to do the easy way or the hard way. He couldn’t decide to just ignore God. The same is true with you. Oh, choose the easy way for your own sake! Some of you are running from God. He has told you to do something, and you are running. Maybe you know He wants you to witness to your neighbors, but instead you put up a for sale sign and decide to move. Maybe He is calling you to a daily time of quiet fellowship with Him and you fill up your days with other things.  Maybe He is calling you to forgive and be reconciled with  someone, and you avoid them at all casts and keep your grudge. Maybe He is calling you to be a committed member here at The Bridge, but you run by sleeping in on Sundays. Maybe He is calling you to stop having sex with that guy your not married to, but you run by making excuses and justifying it. Are you Jonah? Has God called you to something that you are running from? Repent!

2.  Unbelievers – Come to Christ and Be Saved:  The message for you is to see yourself in the sailors. They were in danger of perishing at sea. They surely would have perished if Jonah had not been cast into the sea. You see, one man must perish so that all will not perish. A greater than Jonah is here. Jonah disobeyed God, but Jesus obeyed His Father. Jonah ran from God, but Jesus ran to God. Jonah was cast overboard by the sailors, but Jesus voluntarily laid down His life. Jonah was cast into the sea, and Jesus was cast into the sea of God’s wrath, that we might not perish. Once Jonah was cast overboard and the sea became calm, and they were saved, they feared the Lord (worship), offered a sacrifice (conscious of guilt & God’s appointed means of forgiveness), and made vows (pledged faithful obedience). What is this? Conversion! That’s what God wants this study in Jonah to produce in you! He wants you to worship Him, trust in His sacrifice, and pledge your commitment to Him in baptism!  Be saved from the wrath of God that is coming against you for your sin! Trust in Jesus – Commit your life to Him today!

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