Jonah’s Journey to a Conversation with God:

How our Emotions Blind Us to the Will of God

Jonah 4

Introduction

Children’s musical instruments – getting in sync.

Prayer –

 A Gracious God Acknowledged (vv. 1-4)

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

The book of Jonah now turns from the people of Nineveh to Jonah – 120,000 people repented and were saved (almost immediately after hearing the five-word message). Jonah’s mission was complete, he did what God asked him to do.[1]

Jonah 3:10 “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.”

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.” Jonah was not just angry, he was exceedingly angry, with God and His decision to not destroy the city of Nineveh (a city of 120,000 people).

God’s displeasure and anger had been calmed because of Nineveh’s repentance and humbly positioning themselves before God, but Jonah’s displeasure and anger is exceedingly, it’s all amped up. Jonah is angry at what God was doing in the lives of the Nineveh.

Jonah is missing out on the joy that he was apart of 120,000 people placing their faith in God because of his own self-centeredness. Today, believers miss the joy of being involved in God’s work because of their own self-centeredness.

“And he prayed to the LORD” – This is the second time that Jonah prays on the book. The first time was from inside the giant fish in chapter 2, where he cries out to God for his salvation.

“I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster”— This is the Hesed love mentioned in chapter two. It is a love connected to a promised commitment. “I promise to always love you – no matter what you do”, the circumstances, etc. My love it based on my commitment, not your actions.[2]

Jonah is fine to receive the grace of God from the inside of a giant fish, but not too much later he feels the right to determine who should and should not be given God’s grace. By denying grace to others, there must be a part of yourself where you feel you deserved the grace you received.

Our view of the world, and specifically having a distorted one (one that does not line up with Scripture) can be depressing and lead to despair.[3] It’s like musical notes that don’t match up – they are not in sync.

Elijah the prophet defeated the prophets of Baal. Fire came down from heaven and burned up his offering, proving the Israelite God was the one true God. But when the evil king’s wife Jezebel heard what had happened she threatened his life. . . , 1 Kings 19:3-7 “Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.”

Elijah was exhausted from running away, he was emotionally drained from the fight with the prophets of Baal, and he’s hungry. When he finds himself in this state, he just wants the pain to stop. Jonah was exhausted and emotionally drained from his rebellion from running from the Lord, and being inside a giant fish for three days. Who knows what kind of tole that takes on a person? Elijah ran away and finally collapsed under a broom tree. Jonah settles in somewhere east of the city.

Jonah’s reality distortion was his view of his right to determine who should receive grace and who should not. In Elijah’s reality distortion, he forgot that God wins everything in the end, and it was Elijah’s job to just keep going.

“4 And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?” – Dr. Phil, “How’s that working for you?” God instead of blasting Jonah, for his “I told you!” comments, God asks Jonah a question. “Is it doing you any good to be angry with God?” As long as you and God are not in sync your life will be miserable.

 

A Gracious God Admonishes (vv. 5-9)

5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.3 So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?”

And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”

In Jonah’s mind, he had gone in to Nineveh and planted a prophetic bomb. Then he went to hillside to watch it explode. Jonah knew they would revert back to their evil ways. He wanted fire and brimstone to reign down from heaven, for the earth to open up and swallow the Ninevites. He wanted their complete destruction, and he wanted to have a front row seat to watch it all happen right in front of him.[4]

“Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there” A booth is a crude structure made of branches, grass, or whatever was around. The Israelite people celebrated the Festival of Booths. Few of the feasts that were a part of old covenant worship were as joyful as the Feast of Booths. Also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or by its Hebrew name, Sukkot, this celebration was the last of the fall festivals and was held at the end of the agricultural year when the grapes and olives were harvested in Israel. This was a time to thank God for all of the preceding year’s provision and to pray for a good rainy season, which lasted from October through March.[5]

“till he should see what would become of the city” – Jonah is placing himself in the same place as God. Jonah 3:10 “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way . . .” to see if he agrees with it or not. We should never place ourselves in judgement over others.

Then we see that God appoints a series of things to happen around Jonah. Just as the giant fish was appointed, these miraculous “set aside” things happen in short order:

“God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.3 So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.”[6] The plant was God’s plan to show Jonah something; it’s purpose was to “save him from his discomfort” or literally “deliver him from his evil.” We think God was doing this by giving Jonah shade, but that’s not all that is going on here. God is going to do to Jonah, what Jonah wants God to do to Nineveh.

And when Jonah discovers that there is this leafy vine, that is blocking the sun and cooling him off, he is “exceedingly glad.” For the first time in the whole book, Jonah is happy. The miraculous growth would seem that God was supportive of Jonah and his claim that the city should be destroyed.

God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. The storm was prepared to get Jonah into the sea. The great fish was prepared to save Jonah from the ocean depths. The vine was prepared to give Jonah exceeding joy. And now the worm was prepared to rip that joy away. As the vine withered the large leafy green shade began to go away, and the bright rays of the sun started to stream through the booth.

“8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint.” Most scholars identify this as a sirocco – when this occurs in the Near East, the temperature rises quickly and the humidity drops quickly. It is a constant, extremely hot dry wind with fine particles of dust.[7]

Normally molecules of oxygen, nitrogen and other elements in the air carry their full complement of electrons and are therefore electrically neutral. In various ways, however, an electron may be knocked off such a molecule, leaving it with a positive charge. It is then a ”positive ion.”[8]

The hot air is so full of positive ions that it affects the levels of serotonin and other brain neurotransmitters, causing exhaustion, depression, feelings of unreality, and occasionally, bizarre behavior.[9] The sun beat down on him, the wind was brutal, the more he breathed the worse he felt, he grew faint to the point that he thought he was going to die. Jonah is saying, my life is miserable, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

Who told Jonah to go to Tarshish instead of Nineveh, to run in the opposite direction of God? Who told Jonah to set up the ridiculous hut outside the city and waste away in the heat and sun? Jonah. Jonah’s rebellious heart, keeps putting him in places of torment.

“9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”

Jonah’s priorities are all mixed up. God is teaching Jonah that there are things to consider beyond himself. He is angry because he feels he should be comfortable, while 120,000 lives hang in the balance.

This question that God asks Jonah is the central question of the entire book, it is rephrased from v. 4 – What right do we have to demand that God favor us and not others?[10] Jonah feels there is there is something about him that makes him better than other people because he was shown God’s grace. What God is trying to teach him, is that it is only by God’s grace he is anything.

 Jonah also seems to like things that are of value to him. The vine brought him comfort, so he loved it and focused on it. If we are not careful, in our command to go into the world and share the gospel, we may be tempted to only go where we can perceive that it will bring value to us.

A Gracious God Asks (vv. 10-11)

10 And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

The book of Jonah ends with God asking Jonah a question. Jonah values a plant that he didn’t plant, or tend to, and is gone overnight. So he is angry and depressed. While God has compassion on 120,000 people. God values His creation, people.

So we are left to ask “what is it that we obsess about?” What captures our attention, and drives our lives? Is it the same as God’s?

Illustration – Ronnie and the School Bus

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[1] J. Vernon McGee, Jonah and Micah (Thru the Bible Books, Pasadena, California, 1984) 67.

[2] Jonah 2:8

[3] Billy K. Smith & Frank S. Page, The New American Commentary, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, vol. 19B (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman, 1995) 274.

[4] L.C. Allen, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micha, NICOT (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdsamn, 1976), 227.

[5] https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/feast-booths/

[6] “When Jerome changed the traditional rendering of this word from gourd to identify it with castor oil plant, a riot broke out in Oea, a city east of Carthage.” NAC, .278.

[7] NAC, 279.

[8] https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/06/science/ions-created-by-winds-may-prompt-changes-in-emotional-states.html

[9] NAC, 280.

[10] IBID, 281.

 

Jonah’s Journey to Nineveh:

 Making the Most of A Second Chance

Jonah 3 

 Introduction

Jonah stands on the shore, covered with fish vomit, thankful to be alive. He has a second opportunity, a second chance at life – to be the prophet he is called to be. When we are presented with a second chance in life we all know it. We know when life goes sideways, and when we find ourselves back on track. Second chances often come with a new set of eyes – you see the world differently.  Jonah was glad to have air to breath, food to eat, clean clothes, warmth of a fire.

There are some things that keep us from seizing the opportunity when it presents itself:

• Not Doing Anything with the New Opportunity: Fear of what happened before. Fear of making the same mistakes.
• Not Seeing the Value of the New Opportunity: Presupposing There is a Third Chance, I can do whatever got me off the rails last time, because God will just give me another chance.
• Not Willing to Grow as a Person, being Fixed in our Understanding of the World: The new chance is an opportunity for you to grow as a person, but you just don’t see it that way. Jonah falls into this category, he is a prophet, but even after being swallowed by a giant fish, living inside it for three days, and being thrown up on dry land, his heart is hardened.

Prayer – Lord as we emerge from a global pandemic, help us to see this as a new day, a new opportunity to be the person you have called us be. To be the church that turns Bellevue and Nashville upside down with the gospel. Lord help us to see ourselves in the story of Jonah, and to see what you desire to change or cheer on in our lives.

Jonah’s Second Chance (v. 1-4)

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.

Cancel culture and our society is not a culture of second chances. Our culture today is constantly looking for opportunities to take people down. If you say or tweet something, that society, or even small fragments of society disagrees with then you can lose your job. There are instances where someone boards a plane, tweets out a careless of not thought through tweet and by the time they plane land they have been fired.

Our society has no room for thoughts and ideas that may run differently than them. Even if those ideas were said decades before. There is no dialogue or thoughtful discussion, only you are wrong and have to be punished because of your ideas and feelings.

This time when Jonah has a second chance to do what God told him to do, he seized the opportunity, obeyed the Lord, and “arose” to go to Nineveh.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

Nineveh is described again as an “exceedingly great city” – We see the description of Nineveh several times, and all these descriptions points out that there would have been thousands upon thousands of people in the city who were not following the Lord.

We see “forty days” used throughout the Bible. It designates the length of the flood (Gen. 7:4, 12, 17), the time Moses was on Mount Sinai (Ex. 24:18; 34:28; Duet. 9:9, 11, 18, 25), the time for the mission of the spies (Num. 13:25; cf. 14:34), the duration of Goliath’s taunting (1 Sam. 17:16), the time of Elijah’s journey to Horeb/Sinai (1Kings 19:8) as well as the time of Jesus’ fasting (Matt. 4:2, Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2).[1]

But why give a forty-day heads ups that they were going to be destroyed? Couldn’t people just leave the city on day 39? If God’s ultimate plan was to destroy the city, why even send a prophet – just fire and brimstone from the sky and be done with it.

“Nineveh shall be overthrown”— The word “overthrown” is the same word used in connection with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:21,25, 29) because of their depravity, the cities would be destroyed by an act of God and left as a pile of smoking rubble (Genesis 19:28).[2] This word overthrow is used several times in relation to cities being destroyed (Duet. 29:23; Isa. 13:19; Jer. 20:16; 49:18; 50:40; Lam. 4:6; Amos 4:11).

Jonah’s sermon is five words long in Hebrew. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” He is to tell the Ninevite people the message that the Lord was to give him.

Nineveh’s Second Chance (vv. 5-9)

5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

There are no other stories in Scripture where an entire city of non-believing pagans because of God’s Word repent and believe God – this was an unprecedented response to an unprecedented command. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

Remember one of the reasons I suggested for Jonah running in the opposite direction to begin with is no other prophet had been commanded to preach to foreign kings in person. That was unprecedented.

When the sailors and the caption encountered the storm, they believed in the one true God. When Jonah was disciplined by God and swallowed for three days, he repented to the one true God. And now the great city of Nineveh believes in God, – from five words.

We should never underestimate the power of God’s Word and his calling upon our lives.

“And the people of Nineveh believed God” – There are many people who pronounce a belief in God. Do you believe that God exists? They may say, yes I believe in God. The people of Nineveh believed God – meaning they believe God would do what he said He would do according to His Word (destroy them).

When the prophet Jeremiah preached a similar message to God’s own people in Jeremiah 26:8,11 they want to kill him, “And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die! . . . 11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.” The fact that everyone in an entire city of 120,000 people in Nineveh believed God’s Word is a miracle.

How do we know they believed? They called for a fast, put on sack cloth, sat around praying in ashes, issue proclamations, and everyone called out to God. Their belief led to action. The Ninevites believed inwardly, and their belief expressed itself outwardly.[3]

There are those followers of God who say they believe but do nothing for the Lord, and their lives have no outward expression of that faith. The Bible refers to these actions that result from a genuine belief in God as “fruit.”

Galatians 5:22-23 “. . . the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control;”

This is perhaps the largest revival in the history of mankind up to this point – and it was not even God’s people.

We typically describe a revival as a gathering of believers, we bring in a preacher, meeting more than we usually do (Sunday-Thursday), food is mixed in there, with the goal of church people’s heart to be refocused or recommitted toward Christ.

But biblical revival is where God’s people, obey and do what God commands them to do (even if it seems different or unprecedented), and lost people come to believe in Christ in great numbers.

 Bellevue, our country needs revival, our community needs revival, our church needs revival. It begins (in His mercy) when we cry out to God, seeking His face, and follow Him in obedience.

Who Knows What the God of Second Chances Will Do? (v. 10)

The king of Nineveh says, “who knows?” We see this same phrase, when David and Bathsheba were praying for their sick child (2 Samuel 12:22). Eventually the child died, but while it was alive, David didn’t eat or drink, and spent his time fasting and praying for the child.[4]

2 Samuel 12:22 “He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knowswhether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ 23 But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”[5]

 There is another instance of this phrase “who knows,” in Joel 2:12-12, “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God?”[6]

The God of the Bible (Old and New Testaments) is a God of mercy and grace and wrath and judgement. But even if we humble ourselves before the Lord, fast, pray, put on sackcloth, sit around in ashes, God is not obligated or forced into any action. We should never presuppose or try to force God to do anything.

James 4:13 “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

If we pray, it is God who determines to answer in such a way as He desires (or not at all).

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

An entire city of lost people, repented of their sin, cried out to God, and sought His mercy and grace. In Jonah 4:11 “there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left.” They need a teacher, a preacher, someone to explain the ways of God, to show them the way.

Romans 10:13-15 “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”

The people of Nineveh are saved, but they don’t have the entirety of God’s Word, they are described as not knowing their left hand from their right – they need someone to show them God’s ways. What if the place you least want to go, is the place where you are needed the most?

 The problem of the church praying, is that the church is blown away when God actually answers the prayer. Are we ready when God’s answers the prayer?

 The revival did not last very long, I wonder if it was because the man who could have taught them, still hated them, his heart toward the Assyrians was unchanged, even after being in the giant fish.

 If God can use a hateful rebellious prophet to save 120,000 people – what is God will use Bellevue Baptist Church to reach 1.2 million with the gospel? If Jonah did it with five words –

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[1] James Limburg, The Old Testament Library, Jonah (Westminter/John Knox Press; Louisville, Kentucky, 1993) 79.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Billy Smith & Frank Page, The New American Commentary, Jonah (Broadman & Holmes Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1995) 261.

[4] Limburg, 83.

[5] This passage is used to explain the Baptist theology of “age of accountability”

[6] Another example, Jeremiah 18.

Journey to Dry Land:

How Repentance Gets You Back on Track

Jonah 1:17-Jonah 2

There are four journeys that Jonah goes on in the book of Jonah. Over the next several few weeks we are going to go on these journeys with Jonah. As a prophet he has to learn to understand, or at least love the world as God does. The first week we looked at Jonah’s Journey to the Inside of a Giant Fish. Today we will look at Jonah’s Journey to Dry Land.

At the end of Jonah 1, the sailors did not want to harm Jonah so they tried to row to shore, but the storm on the sea was too great. The sailors, these lost men, are doing all they can to save Jonah. Jonah does nothing. The sailors prayed for a second time, “they called out to the LORD.” Jonah, still has shown no remorse or repentance for his actions that has put the sailor’s lives in jeopardy.

The sailors made vows, had a sacrifice – they are doing all that they can think of to be right with God, while Jonah won’t even throw himself into the sea, he tries to pull them into trouble with him. Jonah won’t go where is supposed to go, he won’t act when he needs to act, instead he sleeps. He won’t pray when asked to pray, and he won’t even jump into the sea to save the ships and it’s crew – Jonah’s rebellion is one of inaction.

So today we find Jonah, having been thrown overboard, floating on the water and the ship headed to Tarshish disappearing into the horizon.

Prayer –

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The Sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:39-41)

Jesus says in Matthew 12:39-41 “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

What is the sign of Jonah? This comparison is not meant to be exact. Jesus never sinned, whereas Jonah is far from the presence of the Lord until he repents. Jesus died and was buried, Jonah never died, but was thrown up after three days and nights. Jonah was a prophet, Jesus was the Son of God.

Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection was the only sign that will be given for people to place their trust in Him as their Savior. Jonah would be a picture of what to come in Christ. As we will see, when Jonah marches into Nineveh, the people respond to his message from the Lord with repentance. The sign of Jonah is him miraculous emerging from a giant fish, after three days, with a message for the people of Nineveh.

Imagine you are on the seashore picking up seashells, and a giant fish appears in the water. Then throws up a man, who then says, “I have a message from the Lord for you.” Would you listen to his message? What does God have to do to get your attention?

“the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign . . .”

 Is it wrong to want proof that Jesus is who he says he is, or that if you were Nineveh to want proof that Jonah’s message was from the Lord? Why does Jesus call the generation “evil” and “adulterous” for wanting a sign?

There are many miracles surrounding Jesus’ birth, and fulfilled prophecies. The star that led the wise men, God the Father audibly speaking at Jesus’ baptism, miraculous healings, the calming of the storm, casting out of demons, raising of the dead, healing the blind, . . .

Jesus had already given them sign after sign, but here they want more. They simply are choosing not to believe, in light of many given proofs. But, there would be one ultimate sign that would be given for all generations that Jesus was God, the resurrection from the dead.

Luke 16:27 “And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” If you choose not to believe God’s message, then it’s not because there is not enough evidence.

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The Appointed Fish (Jonah 1:17)

1:17 And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Another word for “appointed” is “ordained”, “called” or set aside.” God prepared a giant fish. It was able to house Jonah, and provide him with enough air to survive for three days. It’s really not important for us to identify the species of animal, or know it’s anatomy to see if this is a true story or not. But think about two things:

1) “Scientists were startled in 1980 by the discovery of a tremendous diversity of insects in tropical forests. In one study of just 19 trees in Panama, 80% of the 1,200 beetle species discovered were previously unknown to science… Surprisingly, scientists have a better understanding of how many stars there are in the galaxy than how many species there are on Earth.” –  World Resources Institute (WRI). We are constantly discovering new animals on our planet that we had no idea even existed.

2) “These experts calculate that between 0.01 and 0.1% of all species will become extinct each year. If the low estimate of the number of species out there is true – i.e. that there are around 2 million different species on our planet** –  then that means between 200 and 2,000 extinctions occur every year.”[1] There are many animals going extinct every year.

 The Prayer of Jonah (vv. 2-6)

“2 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,

 Jonah’s Distress vv. 2-6

On two other occasions Jonah was asked to pray, so that perhaps the ship and its’ crew would be saved. Jonah wouldn’t do it, so facing the choice of total destruction of the ship and death of the entire crew or throwing Jonah over board – over Jonah went.

“Then Jonah prayed . . .” from the belly of the giant fish. God did what was needed to guide Jonah to repentance and to get Nineveh’s attention. We don’t know how far along into the three days that he prayed. Was it immediately? Was it day two, day three? But at some point, Jonah, cried out to the Lord. T. Kendall has said, “The belly of the fish is not a happy place to live, but it is a good place to learn.”[2]

“I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me;” From the following verses we see what kind of distress that Jonah would have endured. It would have been disorienting darkness, water would have surrounded him, seaweed wrapped itself around his body, pressure caused by the digestive process and the depths of the ocean.

There is a good possibility there would be acid from the stomach of the giant fish that would have corroded his skin. The constant taking in of water, sea animals, and air would have been exhausting because you don’t know when you will run out of air, and the giant fish will take its next bite from the ocean.

“I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; you of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ 5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. 7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

Jonah’s Relationship With God (vv. 7-9)

Why not just get another prophet to do this? I think the answer to this question is found in the description of Jonah’s prayer. Jonah prayed “to the LORD his God” In this distress he called out to the Lord, and his God hears him. Jonah says in verse 8, that if you place your trust in “vain idols” then you forsake a hope of steadfast love.

Those that call the Lord their God, have a hope of steadfast love. The Bible uses the word Hesed to describe this type of love – this is a word that combines love with commitment. This is where one person in the relationship has determined or committed to love the other person (regardless of the other person’s actions or choices).

 God loves us with a hesed love because He has chosen to do so. Committed, promised to love us (regardless of our sinful actions). Hebrews 13:5 “. . . I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

When we as Christians choose hesed love toward the world – to love them regardless of how they show love toward us, if at all, then we grow in our relationship toward God. Jonah should have a hesed love toward Nineveh as a prophet – but he hates them. How many churches have an us-verse-them toward the world?

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

The book of John discusses how we a followers must remain in Christ, stay close to Him in our relationship. Jesus is talking about his followers, and those that do not bear fruit. A better translation for those that do not bear fruit, instead of “takes away” is to “lift up.”

There is a tendency for new vines to grow toward and along the ground. Down there they get covered in dirt, dust, mildew, and don’t produce much fruit if any at all. But the vinedresser will take some water and a rag, and wash those vines and move them up higher with the other vines, and then tie them off.

Then they begin to produce much fruit. When the vine falls into the dirt, the vinedresser doesn’t throw it away (it’s much too valuable), he lifts it up.[3] God doesn’t want to throw Jonah away because of his rebellion of hardheartedness – He is taking an action that will “lift him up” and get him back where he can begin producing fruit for the Lord.

The belly of the giant fish was a place of discipline not judgement. If you are not producing any spiritual fruit in your life, God will step in a discipline you.

Deuteronomy 8:5 “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.”

God set aside a giant fish for Jonah. If we run away from God and His presence, isn’t it scary to imagine a God who we know loves us, and is the Creator of the universe and can do whatever and make what He wishes has prepared and set aside for you in your time of rebellion?

Many would see their time of discipline as being awful – it must have been horrible inside the belly of the giant fish. But Jonah sees it as wonderful. He understands that the belly of the whale, being swallowed, and held there for days was the means of him being saved from the depths of the ocean – an ocean grave. The giant fish is not seen as an act of judgment, but how God saved him from himself. He says” But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD.”

“Salvation belongs to the LORD” – being saved is found all throughout the book of Jonah. The sailors and captain are saved in chapter one, Jonah is saved in chapter 2, Nineveh is saved in chapter 3, and chapter 4 focuses on Jonah and God discussing salvation.[4] And in every situation that salvation comes from the Lord alone.

10 And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.” The word “vomit” was intentionally used to induce revulsion – it was supposed to gross us out. It is a graphic image of Jonah emerging, along with other undigested sea animals, seaweed, and land upon the sand upon the shore, “dry land.”

 Some scholars believe that because the sailors tried to row back to shore when they were fighting the store, and that Jonah was later thrown up on dry land that it probably is Joppa – the place where he started. He has a chance to reset, a do over, a second chance.

God of second chances – When you come clean with God, you open up and seek forgiveness from your Creator, he is ready, with arms wide open to forgive you. Don’t let discouragement wrap around you like that seaweed around Jonah, and take you down. God is with you, and wants you to get back on track

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Thomas A. Edison was working on a crazy contraption called a “light bulb” and it took a whole team of men 24 straight hours to put just one together. The story goes that when Edison was finished with one light bulb, he gave it to a young boy helper, who nervously carried it up the stairs. Step by step he cautiously watched his hands, obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work. You’ve probably guessed what happened by now; the poor young fellow dropped the bulb at the top of the stairs. It took the entire team of men twenty-four more hours to make another bulb. Finally, tired and ready for a break, Edison was ready to have his bulb carried up the stairs. He gave it to the same young boy who dropped the first one. That’s true forgiveness.

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[1]https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/biodiversity/biodiversity/#:~:text=These%20experts%20calculate%20that%20between,2%2C000%20extinctions%20occur%20every%20year.

[2] Billy K. Smith, The New American Commentary; Amos, Obadiah, Jonah  (Broadman and Holman; Nashville, Tennessee, 1995) 241.

[3] Bruce Wilkerson, Secrets of the Vine (Multnomah Publishers; Sisters, Oregon, 2001) 34.

[4] New American Commentary, 252.