Good morning. When it is time to be fishing, you can call my sister’s house and hear a message from by brother in law that says something to the effect, “It’s Shannon, I’m gone fishin’ leave name and number and I will get back with you when I return. (Beeeep)”
A standard message that most of you have on your answering machines at work or at home. The whole point of having a message bank or an answering machine is to make sure you don’t miss your calls. BUT - there are some people who use it to screen their calls, to avoid certain callers, to sift out who they want to talk to, to work out which calls to return and which calls to ignore. Have you ever done that? Maybe you know someone who does that?
Well, the story that we will look at today, the person in it is just like that when it comes to God. The message on his answering machine goes something like this: “Hello, this is so and so, I am unable to take your call right now, please do not leave your name, number, or message, because I won’t be getting back to you, (Beeeep)”
Today we are going to continue with our series Gone Fishin’. This morning we come to a passage in Matthew that refers to Jonah. In Matthew 12:40 it says, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish.” So this morning, I want to take a look at the story of Jonah. Now I have never come in contact with a huge whale. In fact the closest that I have ever been to a whale or the belly of a whale can be seen in these couple of pictures of me at Sea World as a kid.
Before we begin, let’s open with a word of prayer
Three basketball coaches are about to be executed. One is the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, one is the coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers, and the third is the coach of the Kentucky Wildcats.
The guard brings the Ohio State coach forward and the executioner asks if he has any last minute request. He replies ‘No’ so the executioner sets him up and then turns and shouts to the firing squad: “Ready! Aim…”
Suddenly the coach thinks to himself and yells out: “Earthquake!” Everyone is startled and starts looking around, and in the confusion the hockey player runs away and escapes.
The guard then brings the next victim along. It was the coach for West Virginia. The executioner asks if he has any last minute request. He answers “No,” so the executioner gets him ready then barks his order to the firing squad: “Ready! Aim...”
Suddenly the coach remembers what the other man said and so he yells as loud as he can: “Tornado!” Everyone is distracted and starts to look up at the sky, and the coach quickly makes his getaway.
By now Tubby Smith for UK has got it all worked out. The guard escorts him forward and the executioner asks if he has any last minute request. He replies ‘No’ and the executioner turns sharply to the firing squad and shouts: “Ready! Aim...”
And Tubby yells out: “Fire!”
We’ve all been in situations from which we’ve wanted to escape. I wonder if you have ever shot yourself in the foot by the decisions you made in those times?
In God’s prophet Jonah we see a man who tried to make a getaway because he wanted his own way and not God’s way. As a result he suffered for it, but at the same time God’s grace was displayed. Let’s go ahead and take a look at the text, it will be, Jonah 1:1-17. Here is the story of Jonah and the whale. Here in Jonah 1:1-17 it says, “1”
First, we see that Jonah Disobeyed God
God had given Jonah a task – to proclaim God’s message to the city of Nineveh. But Jonah didn’t want the job. God said ‘Go’, and Jonah said ‘No’. He took off. Instead of heading for Nineveh some 500 miles east of Jerusalem, he went sailing west towards Tarshish in Spain some 2000 miles away.
The question is: why? Why disobey? We can see some answers in the words of God’s command. He tells Jonah: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preached against it because its wickedness has come up before me.”
Jonah Was Afraid. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, a great enemy of Israel. It was great in size and status. It was also a wicked place. It was Infamous for being brutal and merciless. So Jonah was afraid.
Jonah Was Prejudiced. His thoughts probably went something like this: “These people belong to a foreign and godless nation; they have rejected the true God. They don’t deserve for God to have anything to do with them, why should they benefit? It’s the Jews who are God’s chosen people; the Assyrians have no place with Him.” So Jonah was probably a little prejudice.
So Jonah decided he’d run away from the LORD and make tracks for Tarshish. But was he that spiritually naïve to think that he could get away from God? Surely he knew that God was everywhere and had knowledge of everyone and everything?
Now if as Christian believers we disobey God and refuse His will, we put ourselves out of God’s presence and the blessings of obedience. “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
So Jonah went to the seaport of Joppa, found a ship heading for his chosen destination and paid his fare. Everything seemed to fall into place for Jonah but it didn’t change the fact that he had disobeyed God and that meant he would eventually run into trouble.
Then we see how God Intervenes
Verse 4 goes on to say, “Then the LORD sent a great storm on the sea.”
Now this was no ordinary storm, or even a bigger than normal storm. It was the mother of all storms. It said, “Such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. The sailors were afraid, each called out to his own god, and they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.”
The sailors’ behavior shows us that there is in everyone a sense of God that lurks beneath the surface. It sometimes surfaces when we are in deep trouble, but even then it comes out all wrong. Our spiritually dark minds and hearts form a distorted and flawed vision. So each sailor sought his own image of god.
But Hang on a second. What about Jonah? Where was he? Verse 5 says, “But Jonah had gone down below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.”
But Jonah had clearly been missed and the Captain hunted him down. He was amazed to find Jonah in such a sleep. Verse 6 tells us that the captain said to Jonah, “Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us and we will not perish.” It seems as though the other gods had failed them, now the sailors on this ship were running out of options.
And then we see that Jonah Is Exposed
In their superstition the sailors cast lots. This storm had really spooked them because it was so unusual. The lot was purely a chance operation but God wanted Jonah to be exposed. So He overruled the lot and caused it to point out Jonah as the culprit. The sailors started questioning him. “What have you done to bring this trouble on us? Who are you? Where are you from, and so on.
Jonah finally opened his reluctant mouth. He was a disobedient prophet of the true God. You see, by his actions he had hidden his real identity, but he couldn’t deny who he was in the end.
In verse 9 he tells them, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
It was an extraordinary testimony – despite all he had done to deny who he was, when his back was against the wall he couldn’t hide it. So it is for the Christian: we have to confess. We have to say, “Yes, I belong to God. I am a citizen of His heavenly kingdom, I bear His name.”
This confession was a real turning point in Jonah’s experience as events to come demonstrated. The sailors were horrified. They realized that Jonah was responsible for what was happening, that His God had sent the storm because of his disobedience.
Now that Jonah had been found out the next question on the sailors’ minds was: “What do we do now?” They maybe had hoped the storm would die down following Jonah’s exposure, but no, “The sea was getting rougher and rougher….” God had some unfinished business to take care of!
Jonah then made an incredible request. The sailors must have done a double take. Jonah said, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea…and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
Firstly, Jonah acknowledged and accepted then and there that he had been in the wrong. He had sinned against God. He therefore didn’t deserve any favor at all.
Secondly, Jonah recognized that right now on this beaten ship he was entirely at God’s mercy. He was ready to submit himself to whatever God wanted.
And Thirdly, he had a care and concern for the sailors whom he had put in danger. No longer selfish he was selfless. He was prepared to sacrifice himself for their safety if that was God’s will.
In other words Jonah had repented. He was no longer hardhearted but meek and humble. That is the spirit every true believer should carry with them. We should all be able to say, “God I’m in your hands for you to do what you want.”
So, The Sailors Are Saved
In the midst of all the amazing things that are going on something was happening to these godless sailors. Instead of grabbing Jonah and hurling him overboard they tried to save him instead!
Verse 13 tells us that “The men did their best to row back to land.” It was back breaking, lung busting work, made all the harder by the fact that the sea, “grew even wilder than before.” They finally realized that they had no alternative but to do what Jonah had asked. They had to throw him overboard to what would mean certain death. But notice this, when the storm started they had, “each cried to his own god” but now verse 14 tells us that they cried out to the LORD. “LORD please do not let us die for taking this man’s life.”
Immediately after Jonah disappeared over the side of the ship the “raging sea grew calm.” What an amazing impact this had on those sailors! Verse 16 tells us that, “At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to Him.” They realized that they had been saved by Jonah’s sacrifice. No longer terrified and fearful of the storm, they were now awestruck and humbled by the actions of the true God, “the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” God was at work in their hearts.
Their response was to offer a sacrifice showing their understanding that they too needed forgiveness; they too needed God’s mercy. And by it they gave thanks and devoted themselves to the true God who is full of grace.
In the sailors salvation we can see the outworking of that great promise of God. Romans 8:28 in the New American Standard Version says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Think about it. It was through his disobedience that Jonah came into contact with the sailors, yet God worked so that the sailors were saved through Jonah’s testimony. Jonah was running away as far as he could to the west to escape his God given duty in the east. And now God had set it in place so that Jonah would witness to these sailors.
This didn’t excuse Jonah’s sin or make his disobedience right, but it did demonstrated God’s amazing mercy and overruling power in bringing good out of what was bad.
As we conclude, we see Jonah’s Surprise
So what about waterlogged Jonah? Did the depths of the sea claim him? No, God wasn’t finished with him yet. He was only just beginning!
God supplied a rather unusual mode of transport for Jonah. Verse17 says, “But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.”
What was the fish? I don’t know. Does it exist now? I don’t know. Does it actually matter? No, it doesn’t. I guess it would be nice to know, but it would add nothing to what God intended by recording this event. I think the Christian woman who encountered a skeptic on a plane shows us what it’s all about.
A Christian woman was on an air flight reading her Bible. When a passenger sitting next to her saw her Bible he asked, “You really don’t believe all that stuff in there do you?” The woman responded, “Of course I do, it is the Bible.” The man said, “Well what about that guy that was swallowed by the whale?” She replied, “Oh, you are talking about Jonah. Yes, I believe that. It is in the Bible.” He asked, “How do you suppose he survived all that time in the whale?” The woman said, “Well, I don’t really know. I guess when I get to heaven, I will ask him.” The man responded, “What if he isn’t in heaven?” The woman replied, “THEN YOU CAN ASK HIM.”
As G. Campbell Morgan once said, “Men have been looking so hard at the great fish that they have failed to see the great God.”
One tribe of native Americans had a unique practice for training young braves. On the night of a boy’s 13th birthday, he was placed in a dense forest to spend the entire night alone. Until then he had never been away from the security of his family and tribe. But on this night he was blindfolded and taken miles away. When he took off the blindfold, he was in the middle of thick woods, by himself.
Every time a twig snapped, he probably visualized a wild animal ready to pounce. Every time an animal howled, he imagined a wolf leaping out of the darkness. Every time the wind blew, he wondered what more sinister sound it masked. No doubt it was a terrifying night for many.
After what seemed like an eternity, the first rays of sunlight entered the interior of the forest. Looking around, the boy saw flowers, trees, and the outline of the path. Then, to his utter astonishment, he would see the figure of a man standing just a few feet away, armed with a bow and arrow. It would be the boy’s father. He would stay there all night long as well.
You see, God is always present with us. God’s presence is unseen, but it is more real than life itself. In the same way we cannot escape God.
So, How about you? Are you running from God? Do you have a Nineveh? Is there a place God is sending you, but you are not going? Is there something God has for you and you are refusing it?
In the same way, Do you have a Tarshish? Do you have a place that you know is in the exact opposite way that God wants you to go? Eventually, you know, it is going to be found out. For example…
A drunken husband snuck up the stairs quietly. He looked in the bathroom mirror and bandaged the bumps and bruises he’d received in a fight earlier that night. He then proceeded to climb into bed, smiling at the thought that he’d pulled one over on his wife. When morning came, he opened his eyes and there stood his wife. “You were drunk last night weren’t you!” “No, honey.” “Well, if you weren’t, then who put all the band-aids on the bathroom mirror?”
You see, Running is useless. Pretending that everything is okay is pointless. One does not escape God’s notice.
No matter where you are, God is calling you to something. You can do it the easy way and go on your own, or you can do it the hard way and have God make you go. The choice is up to you. Do you want to be stuck in the belly of a whale?
Let’s Pray |
