Bible Commentaries

John Brown

Jonah 1:1-3

Jonah the Sprinter

I. INTRODUCTION

A. This morning we begin the study of the book of Jonah!

1. This little book is only4chapters long, but filled with spiritual truths!

2. There has also been more controversy over this little book more than any other in the Bible.

a) The bottom line is that critics have a hard time with the miracles of the Lord.

(1) Therefore, any book that contains miracles, they try to explain away.

(2) They just can"t get their "brain" around Jonah being swallowed by a great fish and burped up on the shore of Nineveh.

(a) But the reality is that the "core" of the book of Jonah isn"t about a fish at all.

(b) It is about (1) the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

(c) It is about (2) salvation by faith not works.

(d) It is about (3) God's unstoppable grace.

(e) It is about (4) the Lord's faithfulness- even when we are unfaithful.

(f) It is about (5) the fact that the Lord is good all of the time!

(g) And it is about (6) Jehovah being the Lord of the Gentiles as well as the Jews!

(i) Is it any wonder that critics have tried to discredit it and explain the miracles away??

(a) To accept it a divinely inspired would mean that they would have to accept the spiritual truths contained within also!

b) Lest you think that there is no historical evidence for the book of Jonah or even the man 2 Kings 14:23-25 (NASB) In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel became king in Samaria, [and reigned] forty-one years.

24And he did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.

25 He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.

(a) History proves that Jeroboam was a real king and he ruled over the real nation of Israel for41years. Hamath and Arabah were real places and we see from this record- Jonah was also very real!

3. Jonah was a prophet, yet the book of Jonah does not contain prophecy in the traditional sense.

a) This book is a narrative. Jonah tells us of an event that took place in his life and how he responded to that event.

II. Jonah 1:1-2 (NASB) THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO JONAH THE SON OF AMITTAI SAYING,

2 "ARISE, GO TO NINEVEH THE GREAT CITY, AND CRY AGAINST IT, FOR THEIR WICKEDNESS HAS COME UP BEFORE ME."

A. This is the same Jonah mentioned in2Kings Chapter14 - Jonah the son of Amittai!

1. He makes it very that it was the Lord's voice that he heard and the message was equally as clear, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city."

2. Indeed it was a great city and at the time Jonah is called to go there- it is in its prime!

a) Nineveh (located on the Tigris River) was built by Nimrod and was the capital city of the great Assyrian nation.

b) You may remember that the walls around the city were almost the size of a10-story building- some100 feet high.

c) The width, at the top of these walls was close to40 feet- that would be the equivalent of a2-lane highway.

(1) It has been said that you could run to fully equipped chariots side-by-side with room to spare- on the top on these walls.

(a) Nineveh was indeed a great city!

(i) But as with many "great cities" - sin seems to grow with the wealth and opulence, and that is the real reason the Lord wants Jonah to go to Nineveh.

(ii) The Lord wanted Jonah to cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me."

B. This would seem a simple task for a man dedicated to the Lord and called as His prophet- wouldn"t you think?

1. Oh, how nave we can be concerning the things of the Lord and even serving the Lord!

a) Why is it that we assume that everything the Lord asks us to do is going to be "easy?"

b) Let's be honest, isn"t there "something" that lies within each child-of-God that believes if we are in the will of the Lord and doing what He requires of us that there will be no pain involved- only blessing?

(1) Jonah 1:3 (NASB) BUT JONAH ROSE UP TO FLEE TO TARSHISH FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD. SO HE WENT DOWN TO JOPPA, FOUND A SHIP WHICH WAS GOING TO TARSHISH, PAID THE FARE, AND WENT DOWN INTO IT TO GO WITH THEM TO TARSHISH FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD.

A. When Jonah hears what Lord wants him to do, he packs up and leaves his hometown in the Northern Kingdom of Israel and heads south to Joppa and buys a one-way ticket to Tarshish- which is on the southern coast of Spain! It was the jumping-point to the West!

1. The only problem with that is that Nineveh was east! Hebrews 11:36-38 (NASB) and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.

37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated

38 ([men] of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

(b) I know this is a very difficult statement to actually live- but it is better to suffer in the Lord's will than to book a Mediterranean cruise out of His will!

John Brown

Matthew 12:39-41 as the only sign to His generation regarding His death and resurrection.

3. There is much to be learned in the book of Jonah about how the Lord trains a disciple.

a) We don"t like to the word "discipline" much but it is impossible to be a disciple without discipline!

(1) Alan Redpath says in his study of this book, "We are only really free when we are not free, to be free of God."

(2) You see as a disciple of the Lord, we are really slaves!

(a) We use to be slaves to sin and the flesh, but we chose a different Master and willfully accepted to be servants of the Lord.

(i) And we really experience our greatest freedom when we realize that doing His will is freedom!

(a) But this takes "discipline", and we are going to find that Jonah was a bit undisciplined.

(b) And being undisciplined prevented him from doing the will of the Lord, so the Lord is going to " Jonah 1:1-17 (NASB) THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO JONAH THE SON OF AMITTAI SAYING,

2 "ARISE, GO TO NINEVEH THE GREAT CITY, AND CRY AGAINST IT, FOR THEIR WICKEDNESS HAS COME UP BEFORE ME."

3BUT JONAH ROSE UP TO FLEE TO TARSHISH FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD. SO HE WENT DOWN TO JOPPA, FOUND A SHIP WHICH WAS GOING TO TARSHISH, PAID THE FARE, AND WENT DOWN INTO IT TO GO WITH THEM TO TARSHISH FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD.

4AND THE LORD HURLED A GREAT WIND ON THE SEA AND THERE WAS A GREAT STORM ON THE SEA SO THAT THE SHIP WAS ABOUT TO BREAK UP.

5 THEN THE SAILORS BECAME AFRAID, AND EVERY MAN CRIED TO HIS GOD, AND THEY THREW THE CARGO WHICH WAS IN THE SHIP INTO THE SEA TO LIGHTEN [IT] FOR THEM. BUT JONAH HAD GONE BELOW INTO THE HOLD OF THE SHIP, LAIN DOWN, AND FALLEN SOUND ASLEEP.

6 SO THE CAPTAIN APPROACHED HIM AND SAID, "HOW IS IT THAT YOU ARE SLEEPING? GET UP, CALL ON YOUR GOD. PERHAPS [YOUR] GOD WILL BE CONCERNED ABOUT US SO THAT WE WILL NOT PERISH."

7 AND EACH MAN SAID TO HIS MATE, "COME, LET US CAST LOTS SO WE MAY LEARN ON WHOSE ACCOUNT THIS CALAMITY [HAS STRUCK] US." SO THEY CAST LOTS AND THE LOT FELL ON JONAH.

8 THEN THEY SAID TO HIM, "TELL US, NOW! ON WHOSE ACCOUNT [HAS] THIS CALAMITY [STRUCK] US? WHAT IS YOUR OCCUPATION? AND WHERE DO YOU COME FROM? WHAT IS YOUR COUNTRY? FROM WHAT PEOPLE ARE YOU?"

9 AND HE SAID TO THEM, "I AM A HEBREW, AND I FEAR THE LORD GOD OF HEAVEN WHO MADE THE SEA AND THE DRY LAND."

10 THEN THE MEN BECAME EXTREMELY FRIGHTENED AND THEY SAID TO HIM, "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?" FOR THE MEN KNEW THAT HE WAS FLEEING FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, BECAUSE HE HAD TOLD THEM.

11SO THEY SAID TO HIM, "WHAT SHOULD WE DO TO YOU THAT THE SEA MAY BECOME CALM FOR US?"-- FOR THE SEA WAS BECOMING INCREASINGLY STORMY.

12AND HE SAID TO THEM, "PICK ME UP AND THROW ME INTO THE SEA. THEN THE SEA WILL BECOME CALM FOR YOU, FOR I KNOW THAT ON ACCOUNT OF ME THIS GREAT STORM [HAS COME] UPON YOU."

13HOWEVER, THE MEN ROWED [DESPERATELY] TO RETURN TO LAND BUT THEY COULD NOT, FOR THE SEA WAS BECOMING [EVEN] STORMIER AGAINST THEM.

14THEN THEY CALLED ON THE LORD AND SAID, "WE EARNESTLY PRAY, O LORD, DO NOT LET US PERISH ON ACCOUNT OF THIS MAN's LIFE AND DO NOT PUT INNOCENT BLOOD ON US FOR THOU, O LORD, HAST DONE AS THOU HAST PLEASED."

15 SO THEY PICKED UP John 3:16 (NASB) "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Luke 6:27-31 (NASB) "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

29 "Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.

30 "Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.

31 "And just as you want people to treat you, treat them in the same way.

b) Jonah is going to learn to love the unlovely with the Lord of the Lord.

(1) Not always easy to do, but necessary if we are to do the will of the Lord!

C. And yet a3indispensable discipline of a disciple is to ALWAYS take the Lord's side- especially when it comes to sin!

1. You see we must be100% committed against it- 90 or even99% won"t cut it!

a) Anything short of100% will end in disaster.

(1) Jonah obviously didn"t see Nineveh's sin the same what the Lord did.

(a) It didn"t bother him the same way it did the Lord.

(i) Therefore his reactions were different also.

D. I am convinced that the Lord will call each and every one of His disciples to "Nineveh" at some point in their walks.

1. It may not be some far away land. It may even be some inward struggle, but I guarantee, whatever our personal "Nineveh" John 12:24-26 (NASB) "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

25 "He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.

26 "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I Jonah 1:4-5 And the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.

5 Then the sailors became afraid, and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten [it] for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down, and fallen sound asleep.

a) The storm raged, but Jonah didn"t care. He was asleep!

2. Jonah 1:15-17 So they picked up Jonah , threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.

16 Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah , and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

a) Obedience is always better than the alternatives!