When God called Jonah to a ministry to an enemy of the Israelite
people, Jonah said, "You can't get there from here,"
and he went the other way. Jonah at one time had had a successful
ministry with the nation of Israel, a ministry in which he brought
good news to a wicked king, Jeroboam the second. He told the king
that God was going to bless the wicked Israelites; that he was
going to relieve them from the affliction, the oppression and
the bitterness they were experiencing. God would allow Jeroboam
to destroy the Syrian army, take Damascus and extend the borders
of Israel back to where David and Solomon had established them
150 years earlier.
But Jonah struggled with this second call that God had given him
whereby he was asked to go to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, and
tell the Assyrians, these wicked and violent people, these idolators,
that God loved them, and if they would but repent, he would accept
them and save them. This was just too much for Jonah, so he got
on a ship at Joppa and sought to hide from God, only to discover
that God was much bigger than the hold of a ship.
A great storm arose and the crew members, after praying to their
gods, woke Jonah as their gods weren't working. Maybe Jonah's
God would save them, they thought. They then cast lots and discovered
that Jonah was the one causing the storm. So Jonah told them who
he was, that he was a Hebrew, that he was of the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, and that he was trying to hide from God. Of course,
the crew members didn't believe this. How do you hide from God?
Even they couldn't understand this.
Jonah's solution to the dilemma of the great storm was to have
himself cast into the sea, for he knew that if he were, God would
save the crew. So they cast him into the sea after crying to God
to forgive them for this innocent blood and the moment they did
so, the sea stopped its raging, and the crew members, these idolatrous
worshipers, came to know the Lord; they worshiped him and made
sacrifices and vows that they would serve him. In the midst of
this prophet's disobedience, a whole ship's crew came to know
the Lord.
So a great fish is appointed by God to swallow Jonah. As we said
last week, we are not sure what kind of fish it was. The fish
is really not the issue, but its swallowing Jonah is. He was in
the belly of this fish for three days and three nights and it
was during this time that he prayed to the Lord and praised him.
(Though his view was very bad, his thinking was quite clear!)
The miracle of the whole thing is the fact that the fish didn't
digest Jonah, but he vomited him out onto the dry land, as it
says here, and there he lay on the beach, crying, no doubt, "Which
way to Nineveh?" This is where our story opens this morning,
in chapter 3.
God's Warning 3:1-4
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you." So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. [That was a lot better than last time!] Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk; and he cried out and said, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown."
In Genesis 10 we are told that Nimrod built the city of Nineveh
and during all those years it had continued to grow bigger. (The
city proper was something like San Francisco, with three smaller
cities surrounding it, like Daly City, Pacifica and Millbrae.)
In Jonah's time Nineveh was about to become the capital of the
Assyrian Empire which, in 722 B.C., would take Israel into captivity
and become the ruler of the world until Babylon became strong.
So Jonah comes to the city and finds over six hundred thousand
people going about their business. He finds within the city all
kinds of shrines and temples; he discovers that the Ninevites
love astrology and they love the gods. He goes through the city,
which is majestic in his eyes, for about a day and a half, after
completing a 500-mile journey across high mountains and desert
plains, and he proclaims a message to the people.
Now the people are the issue in this story. God loves these wicked
Assyrians even though they are hung up on all kinds of astrology
and pagan worship. They had water gods and land gods; they had
sky gods and wind gods, but they were forever under fear, because
the gods they created in their minds were like people--they were
greedy and demanding; they loved sacrifice; they had husbands
and wives and children. Their gods controlled their destiny, so
the Ninevites were forever trying to appease them. So in a true
sense they were religious people; they were very conscious of
the other world; they were very aware of powers and beings and
destiny; they were very aware of the stars and how they moved
in the heavens.
Now Jonah walks into all of this, under the command of God, and
says, "Guess what? In forty days, if you don't repent, the
God of the universe, who is over all these other gods, is going
to destroy this city and all the people in it." How would
you feel if someone came to Palo Alto and said, "In forty
days, one month and ten days from now, on March 15, there will
be no Palo Alto unless everyone here repents of his wicked ways"?
Now it is a little more real; now it is a little more serious.
"What about my children? What about my husband? What about
my wife? What about... ? "
Then the strangest thing happens (verse 5):
The People Respond to The God Of The Universe 3:5-10
Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. And he issued a proclamation and it said, "In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let man call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent, and withdraw His burning anger so that we shall not perish?"
Now what is it about Jonah that made six hundred thousand people
and the king repent? Well, I offer you two suggestions. One, God
loves all mankind. God is not willing that any should perish but
that all should come to have a knowledge of him, and he moves
in a most mysterious way among men and women. You have seen it
in your own lives. People you never thought would come to know
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are sitting next to you in this
church. You can't believe it yourself! People in your office you
never thought would come to know Jesus Christ are sitting there
as Christians, because God loves them and worked in a mysterious
way. You see it happening around you all the time. In the news
you see all the born-again people and you say, "Wait a minute!
What's going on in our country?" The commentators can't figure
out what it means to be born again. (They tried to explain it
one night on television and it was tragic! For 15 minutes they
tried to explain what born again meant. They went around and around
in circles and came up with nothing, except that it was a nice
religious thing and people ought to do it.)
Well, the second thing that caused their repentance, I suggest,
is that I think that Jonah looked strange. Let me explain. There
is some evidence that in the late 1800's a sailor fell overboard
and was swallowed by a great fish of the shark family. Two days
later the shark was caught in a net. It was brought on board,
cut open, and the man was found alive. There was only one difference
about him, and that was that somehow the fish's digestive juices
(which hadn't got to him totally), had burned off his first layer
of skin so that every feature of the man was white, and he stayed
that way for the rest of his life.
It may be that the same thing happened to Jonah. You can imagine
this albino man, who is Jewish, coming to the great city of Nineveh
where the sun beats down constantly (and we will see how the sun
gets to him in the next chapter). You can imagine people saying,
"Who are you? How come you're so white? You look strange
to us." And Jonah says, "Funny you should mention it...Forty
days, and God is going to wipe this city out unless you repent.
To prove that there is a God, and to prove that he is alive, and
to prove that he's going to do it, let me tell you my story. I
was on a ship, running from God, and a great storm came up and
I knew it was from God. When the crew found out that the storm
was because of me, they cast me into the sea. I remember, just
before I went under, that the whole sea was calm. So I know there
is a God. Then this great fish came and swallowed me. While I
was in the belly of the fish I repented of my sin of running from
God, and I am here today to tell you that God is going to destroy
you unless you repent of your wicked ways!"
I don't know about you, but if I was a Ninevite, I would say,
"Hey, I believe!" So God, moving in the hearts of men
in his mysterious way, perhaps moved in the sign of Jonah. In
Luke 11 it says that Jonah was a sign to the people of Nineveh
as Jesus Christ was a sign to his people, and as you and I are
signs today of Christ in us, signs to our generation, as Jonah
was a sign to his generation. I hope we don't all have to go through
the fish to get the point!
When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.
Of course God is God, so he knew all that the Ninevites were
going to do, and he knew all that Jonah was going to do, and God,
in patience and love, waited for Jonah because he had already
prepared the hearts of these people. They turned from their wicked
ways, and it says, God turned from destroying them. This is a
human term. We talk about God turning, changing his mind, but
in reality he doesn't change his mind; he knew exactly what was
going to happen.
Now right in the middle of all this you would think that Jonah
would rejoice. He had been obedient (after the fish experience);
he went to Nineveh and did exactly what God had told him to do,
so you'd think his heart would be bursting with joy that the God
of the universe worked among men and he had the privilege of seeing
it all. The word had got to the king, and the king even had the
animals sit in ashes! That's how repentant the king was.
Do You Have A Good Reason To Be Angry? 4:1-4
But it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry.
Isn't that twice we've seen this? Wasn't there a "But Jonah" in chapter one?
And he prayed to the Lord and said, "Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore, in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that Thou art a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better for me than life." And the Lord said, "Do you have a good reason to be angry?"
Suddenly we get the clue to the whole book in Jonah's reason
for running away. He says, "Lord, I sought to go to Tarshish
because I really tried to stop your whole plan; I tried to forestall
it. If I got to Tarshish I could hide for a long time and maybe
by then the Ninevites would be destroyed by the Babylonians or
somebody, and then I could go back. I knew you'd forgive me and
it would be OK." Isn't that amazing? Jonah tried to forestall
the plan of God. He tried to put it aside.
In telling his reason for doing this, he lines up for us five
characteristics of God. The first one is, "You know why I
did it, Lord? Because I know you're a gracious God. I knew you'd
be gracious to those Assyrians. I knew you'd relent. I knew you
wouldn't destroy the city." To be a gracious God is to do
things out of love for people when they expect nothing and when
it isn't merited.
I remember a couple of years ago I went to a toy store to get
two toys for my sons, whom I love. I got two nice tanks (the kind
I really like, they spit out fire!) I put them in a bag and couldn't
wait to get home to share them. When my sons were small we had
this game where they would close their eyes and put their hand
in a bag and whatever they touched was theirs. So one son reached
in the bag and pulled out the tank and said, "Oh, that's
great, Dad," and gave me a kiss. He opened the box and soon
had the tank running all over the place. My other son was sitting
there with his box in front of him, but he wasn't moving. In his
characteristic way he said, "Dad, can I ask you a question?"
I said, "Sure, what is it?" He said, "Why did you
buy this for me ? You don't know whether I've been good or bad
today." Because I understand God now (to a degree) I said
to him, "Son, I didn't buy that tank for you because you
were good or bad; I bought that tank for you because I love you.
I was thinking about you all day and I wanted to do something
that would please you." He said, "Oh!" and jumped
up, opened the box, and played with the tank. That's what graciousness
is, and that is the kind of God we have, a gracious God.
The second characteristic Jonah mentions is compassion, "I
knew you were a compassionate God." That's another form of
love--mercy. It is expressing love toward those who deserve nothing.
It is pictured so well in the story of the good Samaritan. It
is pictured so well in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in
him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Mercy is
something we don't know enough about in our experience. It is
hard to extend mercy as a lifestyle, but God extends it to us
all the time.
One of the best illustrations of mercy on a human level I have
heard recently came from Patrick Cunningham, who works in our
publishing department here at PBC as an editor. He told me that
he and two other staff members, Gary Crouch and Mike Johnson,
visited Vacaville prison with three men, two ex-cons and an ex-prison
guard, who have a ministry to the prisoners there called Christian
Fellowship. Bobby, the ex-guard, while working as a guard in a
prison a few years ago was brutally beaten by a convict. He was
out of work for six months due to his injuries but he convinced
the governor of the prison to allow him to go back there as a
full-time, unpaid Christian witness. He subsequently led his attacker,
now held in solitary confinement, to the Lord, and he now has
a ministry to these prisoners in solitary. Bobby has a three-legged
milking stool that he sits on outside their cell doors and he
puts his hand through the little opening in the door where the
food is put. He tells how the men in these cells grab his hand,
their first contact with another human in months. Then he moves
to the next cell and does the same thing. His whole ministry is
touching and sharing the Gospel with men who have no other contact
with humanity. Do you think they listen to him when he
tells them about Jesus Christ? That's compassion. I thought I
knew what compassion was. I don't know anything yet, but through
men like Bobby, who allows Christ to show his compassion through
him, I'm learning what it means to be compassionate; to reach
out to those who deserve nothing.
In Psalm 103 there is a beautiful section on compassion that will
encourage your hearts. This is a Psalm of praise for God's mercy.
Verses 6-14,
The Lord performs righteous deeds,
And judgments for all who are oppressed.
He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the sons of Israel.
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
He will not always strive with us;
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.
Many times we create a picture of God that is not scriptural.
Either he is a great cop who is chasing us and blowing the whistle
on us and seeking to beat us with his nightstick, or he's an angry
father who never lets up, who's always after us. I never heard
of the God of Psalm 103 when I was growing up. Had I heard, I
wouldn't be willing to believe it, based on my experience. But
Jonah says, "God, I know why you didn't wipe out the Ninevites:
because you are a gracious God; you're a compassionate God. And
third, "You're slow to anger." That means he is long-suffering.
"You are abundant in lovingkindness," Jonah says, the
fourth characteristic. I like to picture this by telling what
happens when I do the wash. I use two cups of detergent and the
bubbles come, and the bubbles come, and the bubbles come, and
the voice comes out of the bubbles, "Help, honey, where are
you?" That is my picture of lovingkindness--love that heaps
all over you; love that keeps bubbling and bubbling and bubbling
up. That's what this means--abundant, full.
Fifth, Jonah says, God is "One who relents concerning calamity."
He is willing to accept men and women who see where they have
gone wrong and repent of their ways; he is ready to start all
over again as though it had never happened. I have learned with
my children (because God has taught me), that when they make mistakes,
never to say, "That was the second time, or that was the
fourth time you did that." Each time, because of Psalm 103
and these characteristics of God, we try to say, "This is
the first time." We don't want to keep bringing it up, because
God doesn't keep bringing it up.
Now the obvious answer to the Lord's question, "Do you have
a good reason to be angry?" is "no", but Jonah
is not about to say that.
God Appoints A Plant To Grow Over Jonah 4:5-8
Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.
This must have happened some time during those forty days. Nothing had happened to the city yet, and Jonah was hoping that maybe God would not relent, he would wipe it out, and Jonah would have a great view from there.
So the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day, and it attacked the plant and it withered.
I love that! You can see this worm just doing his own thing, minding his own business, and God comes along, looks at the plant, looks at Jonah, and says, "I've got to do something. Worm, I appoint you to go over there and destroy that plant." I can hear the worm say, "Whatever you say!" So the worm marches over, comes back and says, "I did exactly what you said." (I can hear God saying, "I wish Jonah would do that!")
And it came about when the sun came up that God appointed a scorching east wind, [He has all of nature at his command] and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life."
That's the way we react (at least I do) when God doesn't do
it our way. This is called "biblical thumbsucking."
"When God doesn't do it my way, I'd just as soon die. What
is the use? I can't go on! This is not the way I planned it, and
therefore, it is better to be home with the Lord." (I suspect
I am saying that for myself.) We all struggle with that, one way
or another. Our children don't turn out exactly the way we want
them; our marriages aren't exactly the way we want them; our jobs
are not exactly what we prayed for, so we get angry with God and
say we'd rather die. We'd rather give up, quit. What's the use?
God's Second Question 4:9-11
Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have a good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he sad, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death."
This guy is different, isn't he? I would have said, "Lord,
I've got it! When I watched that worm and the plant and the east
wind, I got it. I don't have any questions, God; do whatever you
want." No, he keeps on; he's persistent. He's got more courage
than three of me. Courage--or something else!
Now here's the key to the passage (verse 10),
Then the Lord said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work, and which you could not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. And should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons [children] who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"
"Jonah, your priorities are all mixed up. You're all caught
up in material things; you're all caught up in the temporal. The
most important thing to you is not people but a tree that gives
shade, a tree that is no longer with us. You've put all your cookies
in that basket. Meanwhile you want me to go and destroy six hundred
thousand people because you don't like them; because they've been
wicked to Israel; because they've been wicked to Syria; because
they might be a world power one of these days you want me to wipe
them out. Jonah, I can have compassion on anyone I want to, and
I have compassion on the Ninevites. I love all men, and I love
these people living in Nineveh. I love the children who don't
know the difference between their right and left hand, and I love
the animals. I don't want to destroy them either."
There are so many things this can teach us that I had trouble
pulling them all out, but I would like to come back to what I
said last week, that God has called us to be ministers of reconciliation.
We are to go and give the good news to all of those around us.
We are to understand that God is dwelling in us and that he desires
to express his love through us to everyone we meet. God loves
everyone you see as you drive home today, everyone you meet this
week, as much as he loves you. That is shocking to realize sometimes,
isn't it? There are a lot of people you and I don't like, but
God loves them, and is willing to accept them if they will turn
from their wicked ways. Can you believe that? He is ready and
willing to do that.
In conclusion, I think there are three things to remember from
this book. One, God desires for us to see the whole world as he
sees it; to see that the people who don't know the difference
between their right and left hand are the victims of the enemy,
not the enemy. The second thing is that God's desire is for us
to be available so he can express his compassion toward those
people through us. And third, God desires for us to be a sign
in our generation. We're to be men and women who have the resurrected
Jesus Christ living within us, and the resurrected Jesus Christ
is the One who brings life out of death, and he is willing to
bring life out of death to everyone around you if you are available.
Prayer:
Our heavenly Father, we have so much to learn. We pray that you would be pleased to teach us how to walk in newness of life, without fear of people. Teach us the responsibility we have to be a sign in our generation, because Jesus Christ lives within us. Thank you so much that you did love those people who lived in Nineveh; that one day we're going to meet the king and everyone else who accepted you. Thank you so much that the Assyrians are our brothers and sisters, because of your love and compassion, your grace and your abundant lovingkindness. Teach us your ways, we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen.
Catalog No. 3557
Jonah 3:1-4:11
February 5, 1978
Second Message
Ron R. Ritchie
Updated August 28, 2000
Copyright © 1978 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances, displays or other products offered for sale, without the written permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield Rd. Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.