The Book of Jonah, Part 1: A Prophet on the Run // Samer Massad

The Book of Jonah, a brand new series that we're launching today, and the Book of Jonah is a prophetic book, and it is one of 17 prophetic books in the Old Testament. And the prophetic books, the book of the prophets, they're broken up with two categories, major and minor, there's five major ones, and there's 12 minor ones, and major minor is not a matter of significance or importance. It's just about length. And so a major prophet like Isaiah is major because it was longer. But Jonah is a minor prophet, the book is shorter, and the role of the prophets throughout the Old Testament, they were authorized spokesmen of God. They had divine messages for Israel and for its rulers, and even at times for the neighboring nations. They had messages of warnings, judgments. They held the kings and Israel and the people of Israel accountable to God, calling them to repent from their sin, repent from their idolatry, repent from their social injustice, and many of the prophets would foretell of the coming Messiah. And usually all of the books of the prophets except one are basically the contents of those prophecies, but Jonah is different. The book of Jonah is one of the prophets, one of the books of the prophets, but it isn't a book full of the contents of Jonah's prophecies, but rather it is a story of Jonah in what God wanted him to do and him wrestling with it. Now, if you grew up in church or you've ever heard anything about Jonah, you probably immediately think about this one moment that we're told during the story of Jonah, where he was swallowed up by a great fish, and he was in the belly of the fish for three nights and three days. Some of you were still traumatized from that Bible story growing up. For those of you that are not people of faith, or maybe new to faith, or maybe first time in the back of church for a long time, and you just heard me say that and you're like, "That's why I knew Christians were weird. I knew it. I knew I shouldn't go." Here's what I want to real quick from the outset. We're going to talk about the fish next week, so don't miss next week. It's going to be a good one. But the story of Jonah is not about the fish. We're going to talk about the fish, but the point is not the fish. It's just one part in the larger story of what God is trying to show Jonah, and ultimately centuries later, what that means for you and for me. Because the story of Jonah is not about a fish. The story of Jonah is about a prophet that was on the run. The story of Jonah is about a prophet running from what God had called him to do. And if I can even break it down to meet us where you and I are, because we're not prophets, I'm not prophets. If you tell me you're a prophet, we're not talking much. The story of Jonah is about surrendering, trusting, and being obedient to God. The story of Jonah, as you'll see, is about God's inconceivable compassion for all people. The story of Jonah is about our own comfort level with God's inconceivable compassion for all people. The story of Jonah is about God accomplishing his purposes, whether we are, whether we desire them or not, whether we cooperate or not. The story of Jonah is about God's gracious second chances that he gives. The story of Jonah is about trusting God even when you can't find good reason to. The story of Jonah is about the uncomfortable nature of surrendering and giving up control of your life. The story of Jonah is about the scandalous nature of God's mercy towards rebellious insiders and His mercy towards unbelieving and even wicked outsiders. So the point, not the fish. It's just a part of a way, larger story. And in that sense, no matter where you are in the spectrum of faith, following Jesus, not following Jesus, exploring faith, curious about faith, been coming to church since you've been in the womb, you're going to see that the story of Jonah in some way intersects with where all of us are today. And my hope by the end of this series is you might find far more in common with an Old Testament prophet than you ever thought possible. So the book of Jonah, it is a beautiful literary work. There is so much irony. It's an incredible story. So we're going to jump on in Jonah, chapter 1, starting in verse 1. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amitai. And the word of the Lord was, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me. Now, in these first two verses, it is chock full of historical and biblical context that we need that sets up the rest of the story. And so if you will just indulge me for a minute and allow me to geek out on some biblical and historical stuff, it will set up the whole next three weeks, okay? Because in these first two verses, there are two questions that require immediate attention. And the first is who is Jonah, son of Amitai? And second, what do we know about the great city of Nineveh? Jonah, first, what are you know about him? We actually don't learn much about Jonah in the actual book of Jonah, ironically enough. We have to go back to an Old Testament book called Second Kings in the Old Testament. First and second kings in your Old Testament, it's basically just a history of Israel. That's what their historical book says, chronically, the history of Israel. And in Second Kings chapter 14, we learn that Jonah, son of Amitai, prophesied during the rule and the reign of King Jeroboam II, late 8th century, right somewhere around 786 to 746 BC. And during the reign of King Jeroboam II, things on the outside, he's ruling the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And what we learn is that things look pretty good on the outside for King Jeroboam. Nationally, politically, and even economically, Israel looked really good. It was some of their most prosperous years during the reign of King Jeroboam II from the outside. But on the inside, what we learn is that there was spiritual decay and corruption. Second Kings 14 verse 24 were told that King Jeroboam II did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam's son of Nabat, which he had caused Israel to commit. We're learning, again, this is just historical documentation, Jeroboam II perpetuated the sin of the King before him. He perpetuated a religious system that was full of idolatry, that was full of social injustice for the vulnerable, that caused the poor to be exploited for the benefit of the rich and those that were in power. We know this because there were two other prophets, contemporaries of Jonah, known as Amos and Hosea, who also have their own books in the Old Testament minor prophets. In both Hosea and Amos, they actually criticized King Jeroboam's exploits and leadership. Very times in their books, you can go read about it. They called out Israel's sin. They indicted the national leadership and the king and his royal administration. Despite their success politically, despite what was happening with the nation of Israel from a standpoint of the neighboring nations, Amos and Hosea were calling out the sin of the king. Now, in the very next verse, we learn about this political success. King Jeroboam was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebohamaaf to the Dead Sea. In accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant, there's our boy, Jonah, son of Amatai. The prophet from Gath, heifer. Now, first thing, again, this is historical, historical documents, historical book. First thing, Jonah is not just some part of a made up story. And not only does Jesus mention him in the Gospels, but here, Jonah was a historical figure. We can place him historically. Number two, he prophesied that God would restore Israel's boundaries back to their original lines before neighboring nations came in and kind of took some of their land. And despite the king's corruption, despite King Jeroboam's sin, God was faithful and allowed for their borders to be fully restored just as Jonah had prophesied. Here's an important note about Jonah. Unlike his contemporaries that prophesied around long the same time, Amatai, like a co-worker. Unlike Jose and Amos, Jonah was silent about the moral corruption and spiritual king, a spiritual sin of King Jeroboam the second. Jonah was the good news prophet. He was a good news prophet. He never called out the king. He never called out the idolatry. He never called out the social injustice. He was the good news prophet. Likely as a result was favored by King Jeroboam the second and certainly benefited from that favor. And his silence, Jonah's silence against the king is loud. He was comfortable overlooking Israel's spiritual sin because politically and nationally, their causes were prospering. It's why Tim Keller, the late Tim Keller, a pastor and thinker and theologian that I admire greatly and many other biblical scholars, described Jonah as a prophet who favored his nationalist ties to Israel and the king over God. purposes for anyone beyond Israel's borders. Anybody else was an enemy. Anybody else deserve whatever they had coming to them. Now hold on to that because it's really important to understand the rest of the story. Question number two, what do we know about the great city of Nineveh? It was a major city of a major superpower at the time known as the Assyrians. This city, they believe was second largest in the known world only second to Babylon. They were Israel's worst enemy hated by the ancient world. They were powerful, they were well developed, they were organized, they were a well-oiled machine, and they were infamous for their brutal torture and treatment of their enemies. This is what they were like seen as the bullies. You did not want to run into the Assyrians. They were unusually violent and cruel even for ancient times. They were known for impaling their enemies skinning their enemies alive, burning them alive, and I could give you more detail, but at this point it would be more distracting than helpful. Some of you psychos are going to go Google it later. Okay? Just kidding. I Googled. So putting all of this together, Jonah, a prophet of the God of Israel, the one true God, whose priorities are off, is being called by God to go and be sent and preach to the most feared, the most violent, and the most cruel empire in the known world. Because God's posture towards them is not yet judgment, but mercy. So verse one, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitai, go, go. Literally the Hebrew word there is "Arise and go." Get up. Arise and go to the great city of Nineveh. But you can begin to understand why Jonah might actually have a problem with this word of the Lord. And so we learn in the very next verse, verse three, but Jonah did not arise and go. He ran away. This Hebrew word literally means "Arise and ram." He didn't arise and go. He arose and ran from the Lord and headed for Tarsish. Or Tarsish, I don't know which one it is, it's one of those two. He went down to Japa where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarsish to flee from the Lord. The verbs, all of the detail, he went down to Japa, he paid the fare, he boarded ship. It's meant to almost show you a scene and bring you into the action of Jonah doing everything he possibly could to free from the Lord. Now how far did he flee and to what degree did Jonah flee? Well, we're told that he went down to Japa, not too far from where he was. And where God was calling him to go was the great city of Nineveh. It would have been about 550 miles north east of where Japa was. Not that close, but not that far. Where is Tarsish? Jonah boarded a ship to Tarsish. 2500 miles away and that's in a straight line. And get just to add to it. At the time Tarsish was known as the westernmost place in the world. Like as far as the ancient world was concerned, this was the edge of the known world. God said, go east. Jonah was like, no, bro, I'm going as far west as possible. That the trip to Nineveh would have been on dry land only. Jonah was like, I'm going to get on a boat and we're going to get on the water. I mean, you can hardly miss the irony. Jonah was uninterested in what God was calling him to do. And not only uninterested, refused and ran in the complete opposite direction. Now at this point, if you don't know anything else about the story of Jonah, we're left to speculate why. The most generous explanation was that, I don't know, Jonah was maybe a pragmatic kind of guy. A guy needs to think of dude, Nineveh, they're crazy. The chances of success are low. I'm probably going to die. Why would I do this? So we ran. That's the most generous explanation. But Jonah actually tells us why later in chapter four. And I'm going to dig into that. We're going to let him tell us in his own words. But it's worth setting up now that Jonah's real issue was not with the job that God had given him to do. His real issue was with the one who gave him the job. God. Remember, Jonah's nationalistic priority, that any other country is an enemy. And how we, what's happening here is more important than anything God wants for us. And anybody else need to be destroyed and be shown no mercy. But for Jonah, he had allowed his political allegiance to King Jeroboam the second to cloud his judgment and supersede his allegiance to the God of Israel, to the degree that he's refusing to do what God is calling him to do. And again, I'll come back this in week three. But Jonah, Jonah didn't flee because he feared the Nineveits. I mean, I'm sure he did, but that's not the evidence we have in the text. He feared that God might actually have mercy on them. And he wasn't down for that. The irony is that Jonah fled because he knew how compassionate and forgiving his God was. And there was no room for the Nineveits in that equation. None of this made sense to Jonah. So he ran. I love Tim Keller's commentary on Jonah running. Tim Keller, the late Tim Keller wrote that Jonah concluded that because he could not see any good reasons for God's command, there couldn't be any. Jonah doubted the goodness, the wisdom, and the justice of God. He doubted the goodness. Like a good God would not ask him to do something so uncomfortable and so costly. He doubted the wisdom. Again, just it made no sense strategically. In his mind, it made no sense theologically. Nineveh was the enemy. Why would I probably not even get to make it? Like for Jonah, the math was not mathing. And then the justice. For Jonah, not only was it unwise to go to Nineveh, it was unfair that God might even consider extending them mercy. They've done too much. I mean, they're evil. They're wicked. Why would this happen? In fact, just some little while later in 722 BC, under different leadership, the Assyrians would come in and conquer the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They were not good guys by any stretch of the imagination. They deserve nothing but the judgment of God. So Jonah was like, why would I do this? It made no sense. So if I could for a moment just ask a question that I think is glaring from the text. What about you? How do you respond? What is your response to God when you can't see any good reason for what God is doing or calling you to do? God can't be good as adfertized because if he really loved me, then he wouldn't ask this of me. Maybe you find yourself in a season. Nothing makes sense. Closed opportunity, closed doors, unanswered prayer, unforeseen circumstances. And you're left wondering, and again, I get it. You're wondering, can I trust God in this? Because I don't really know how I can trust a God. None of this is working. None of this makes sense. I can't find a good reason to trust him. So how can I? And if we're just being honest, I'm not asking to raise your hand. Just be honest with yourself. Maybe that justice piece. Man, I think that it's really close to home for many of us. Maybe, again, just asking to be honest with you, I don't have to tell anybody, I just be honest with yourself. Maybe you've privately decided that someone is just beyond the grace of God, that you've just written them off. The grace of God towards that person or those people whoever they are, it's far too generous. In fact, if you're honest, maybe for some of you, I get this, that if you were called by God to go share the gospel with that person or those people, your first reaction might be, I don't know about that. Because what if they believed it? What if they would if they turned? I'm not saying that's a healthy side of all of us that maybe experienced that. Torjona is. And so he fled. So then we pick up in verse 4, then the Lord, he's on the ship headed towards Tarshish, all-inclusive crews. Then the Lord's in a great wind of the sea, in such a violent storm arose at the ship threatened to break up. And all the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own God. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. And we're told that God, the Lord, sent a great wind, a great storm. Literally, he hurled a great storm at this ship. And it's described as a great wind, the irony. there. God called Jonah to go preach to the great city of Nineveh. He was like, "Nope." God was like, "All right, I'm going to send a great storm, same, same adjective there in the Hebrew." And the sailors, the Finnish sailors who were pagans, nonbelievers, they're experienced and they're freaking out at this point. They're so experienced, they know that the storm that they're experiencing is not normal. They actually are convinced that a divine being has to be a part of it. So they then start praying to their pagan gods to try to get relief from what is happening. Throwing off cargo to do everything that they can to stay afloat. Where is our friend Jonah? Verse 5. "Petona had gone below deck." Shout out if you watch that show. You didn't know the Bible was so culturally relevant, didn't you? Where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. He's out. He is out. He's sleeping now. I'm going to give him a little bit of credit. I bet you the emotional, the mental, and the physical tired, you know, tired, how tired he was from all that, from the running and the processing and all that. He's probably just, he cannot wait to have a moment of sleep. But meanwhile, this raging storm is happening and everybody on board is freaking out. So the captain comes up to him, the captain of the ship, and he's like, "How can you sleep? How can you sleep? Get up." This is the same word that God said to him when he said, "Arise and go. Get up and call on your God. Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish." Hey man, I don't even know that your God that you believe in. Again, there's just assumption that everybody believed in a God back in ancient times. So would you just pray to yours? Because ours aren't working. Can you help us? Can you do something? So the sailors, they said to each other, "Come. That's cast lots to find out who's responsible for this calamity." So they cast lots and a lot fell on Jonah. But casting a lot, we see this a lot in the ancient times as a way to try to discern the divine will. You know, very likely maybe they had some stones and they put a different markings on each stone that symbolizes each person or some kind of stick. And then the one that was pulled was the one that was responsible. And in this case, rightfully so, the stone or the stick that they pulled, how Jonah's name on it? So they ask him, "Hey, would you tell us who was responsible for making all this trouble for us?" And they're asking from a divine say, "What God is responsible for this?" So they want to know a little bit about Jonah. What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you? All of these questions are meant to help them figure out, "Hey, who was your God? And why is he doing this to us?" And could you ask him to stop? To answer, I'm a Hebrew. And I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. I am the God of creation. I am the God of all gods. I am the God that created the heavens and the earth. And you begin to understand how weighty of a title that was for Jonah's God in comparison to their little pagan gods because of what happens next. This terrified them. This terrified them. And they said, "What have you done?" They knew he was running away from the Lord because he had already told them so. They're saying, "Wang, I was like, 'That's your God and you're running from him and you brought us into this mess. Will you tell him that we're good?' Notice the pagans. They understand. This is amazing. You see this throughout the whole first chapter. The pagans keep getting in right and Jonah keeps getting in wrong. They understood it's never in your best interest to run for whoever your God is. What are you thinking? And they're not even mad at Jonah's God. They're bewildered that Jonah would have the audacity to defy him and to run from him. And now they're caught in the middle. Jonah, what are you thinking? That's your God. That big, that powerful, and you're running. And we're told that God hurled. He sent, he threw this storm at the ship. A quick point about storms. Sometimes we experience storms in life because life is hard, full stop. It's the result of the broken world that we live in. God did not send it. There's nothing you could have done to just stop it. We live in a broken world and we will all experience storms and seasons that just hurt. I believe God can redeem it, but he doesn't mean that he caused it. We'll all experience those storms. Sometimes we experience storms of our own making. And I've said this many times and I'll say it's I'm blue in the face. The reason why God hates sin so much is because it will do nothing but wreak havoc in your life. Sin will break things in your life. Disobedience to God will break things in your life because the way of Jesus is the best way to live. It doesn't mean a perfect life. It doesn't mean all will go well, but no matter what you face, you're going to be on a way and on a path that will lead you to life here and forever. And sin will just bring death and cost to your life. It's way too costly. And oftentimes those closest to us are the ones that also caught up in the storm of our disobedience and the wreckage that sin caused. In some ways we see this here with the sailors, but sometimes, and I want to be so careful here, sometimes, please don't mishear me that God causes every storm in your life. Sometimes God will send a storm to wake you up and to bring you back. Sometimes, sometimes, the storm, though it's hard to see, is extension of God's mercy. Because Jonah had given up. Jonah was done. Jonah ran, but God wasn't done with Jonah yet. So we sent the storm to literally wake him up, to spiritually wake him up. And as we're going to see throughout this series, to bring him back. Going on verse 11, the sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?" Like, can you give us anything? Like at this point, they're probably like, "Bro, just help us help you." Like, just whatever you need. So Jonah, pick me up and throw me into the sea. That's it. That'll fix it. If you just do that, it will become calm for you. Just so matter of fact, he's just kind of over it. I know that it is my fault. This great storm has come upon you. Now, more on this next week, but this is the beginning of Jonah's repentance. This is huge for him. He is confessing his fault and his sin. He is admitting, "I didn't trust God. I ran from what God wanted me to do. This is all my fault." He's able to see in this moment. He's able to see, "This is my doing. God sent this storm because I ran. I was not interested in God's call on my life. You want this sea to calm down? I'm the reason this storm is here. Just throw me into the water and it's going to calm down immediately." But not only is this a moment where Jonah begins the process of repentance. This is also a moment. Jonah is in a dark place. He's just given up. He's down. He's discouraged. He's defeated. And he feels done. And he's like, "I don't even care what happens to me. It's over anyway." If I could be so bold for a moment, for somebody in the room or watching online, if that's you in that dark place, you're down and you think you're done and you think it would just be better if you were to. Can I just tell you a promise? God doesn't want that for you. And he's not done with you yet. And if there's anything we're going to learn from the story of Jonah, it doesn't matter how far down you've gone. God is still faithful and wants to pull you back up. And it might start by turning to him first. But instead, again, the sailors keep doing the right thing. They're like, "No, no, no. Let's just Jonah. Okay, just chill. We kind of like you." So they did their best to just roll back to land. They're like, "Let's just be reasonable here, Jonah. Let's just try to get back to land." But they could not for the Siege or even wilder than before. God's not going to let this storm calm down. So then they kind of elastere's or they've done everything they can. The storm is getting rougher and rougher. They know their life is in jeopardy. So then we're told they cried out to the Lord. And this Lord is not their pagan God. This is the God of Israel. This is to Jonah's God. Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man. For you, Lord, have done as you please. In other words, hey, you clearly don't want want this to stop. You're probably This is how this needs to stop. This clearly must be in some way in your plan for some reason we can't understand. So God, we're confessing to you. We're calling out to you for the first time. Just don't hold us accountable for what we're about to do. So then they took Jonah and one, two. They threw him overboard. And the raging sea grew calm. And at this, the men greatly feared the Lord, the God of Israel, the God of Jonah, the one true God, my God, your God. And they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and they made vows. Damn. The irony, Jonah was running from God because he didn't want pagans to experience the grace of God. And it happens anyway. Not yet in Nineveh, but on the boat where he was running from that very call. And there's a whole other sermon in there that God's invited you to be a part of his story and he's going to accomplish it, whether you or I want to be a part of it or not. But there's multiple points of application that we've seen throughout chapter one and I hope you've been taking notes. But I think there's one question that just kind of meets all of us, no matter where we are in the spectrum of faith, whether we do or don't believe, this question just kind of meets all of us, kind of this overarching question of all of chapter one. And it's simply this. What are you running from that you should be running to? And if I could real quick, real quick, just for the Jesus follow, if I could just kind of step on your toes for a moment, if you're not a person of faith, you can tune out for the next four seconds. For the Jesus follower, Jonah reminds us that rebellion can often wear religious clothes. So this is a question for all of us. Is it a difficult conversation? Is it a breakup because that relationship that you're in is toxic and you know it's not good or healthy for you or your future? Is it a career or a career change? Is it a difficult decision that you just keep putting off? Is it reconciling that relationship that it's been that has been estranged for far too long? Unless you make the first move, it's never going to happen. Extending forgiveness? Is it a ministry opportunity? Putting off serving somewhere around here for the longest time? And you feel God pulling and tugging? And you keep every reason to say no? Is it a financial decision? If I could be so bold, it doesn't have to be here. Don't mishear me. But is it you make an decision to finally start giving to your church? Is it letting go of trying to control something or someone? Is it being vulnerable enough to step into counseling? Because your marriage is on its last leg. Is it professional support for that addiction? That you just cannot kick and that sin that keeps you here in its ugly head? Maybe it's a step towards community and finally taking a step towards allowing yourself to begin the process of being fully and completely known. Maybe, maybe it's running to the opportunity to share and show the love of Jesus with the person or the people that are last on that list for you. Or maybe for some of you. It is Jesus Himself. And maybe you're running out of good reasons to keep on running away. And maybe it's time to run to for the first time or back to for the first time in the last or in a long time, His way. Run it into His grace. Run towards His teaching and His Lordship over your life. We can try and run. And all of us, myself, included at a different season, will try. And if I could just be real for a moment, man, if I heard your reasons for running from God, I'm not an act like I wouldn't either. I get it. But for just a moment, what if we challenged our own assumptions about God that's causing us to run? What if we interrogated our reasons for not trusting God's goodness, His wisdom, and His justice? What if we questioned our necessity to be able to make sense of it all in order to trust God? And what if we stopped running? Because Jonah shows us that it's actually more costly to run than to run towards what God has for you and what He's calling you to. And what if we courageously made ourselves available to the purposes of God and the will of God for our lives? Because just like Jonah, He's not going to stop pursuing you. He's not done with you. The question is, are we going to stop running from and courageously begin to take a step towards whatever that thing is for you? And for me. And then Jonah, chapter 1, ends with verse 17. Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And just like your favorite cliffhanger, we're going to pick up right there next week for part two of the book of Jonah. Let me pray for you. Heavenly Father. What a vulnerable thing to ask. What is it that we might be running from that we should be running to? And I just pray, Lord, whether it be big or small, would you just reveal to us in our hearts what that might be for us today? And would you begin to instill and inspire in us the courage to do something about it? Would you remind us, God, that though we can't understand, would you show us in some way? Your goodness. God, would you give us, would you give a belief where there isn't any? Would you help our unbelief? Would you bring us to a place where though we can't understand it all, we might begin to be able to trust you a little bit better. And God, as we make ourselves vulnerably available to you, may you do a work in us that grows our faith and accomplishes your purpose in this world. We love you. Thank you for not giving up on us. Thank you for pursuing us. Thank you that your grace and your mercy meets us right where we are. It's in the matchless name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.