Good morning.  Here’s an old joke for you this morning!  3 people are about to be executed.  One is a man, the other is a child, and the third is a woman.

The guard brings the man out 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 man yells out: “Earthquake!”  Everyone is startled and starts looking around, and in the confusion the man runs away and escapes.

The guard then brings the next victim along: it’s the young child.  The executioner asks if the child has any last minute request.  He answers in the negative, so the executioner gets him ready then barks his order to the firing squad: “Ready! Aim...”

Suddenly the child yells as loudly as he can: “Tornado!”  Everyone is distracted and starts to look up at the sky, and the young child quickly makes his getaway.

By now the woman that is about to be executed has got it all worked out.  The guard escorts her forward and the executioner asks if she has any last minute request.  She replies “No,” and the executioner turns sharply to the firing squad and shouts: “Ready! Aim...”

And the woman yells out: “Fire!”
Sorry ladies.  But as we think about hat joke, we’ve all been in situations when we’ve wanted to escape.  I wonder if any of you have ever shot yourself in the foot by the decisions that you have made.

Well, last week I got the opportunity to go to Michigan and spend a few days Salmon fishing.  It was a great time with my father, and father-in-law.  There were some really big fish caught in those 3 days.  Most of which were not caught by me.  So, this morning we are going to begin a series that takes a look at one of our Old Testament characters.

We are going to spend the next 4 weeks examining the 4 chapters to the book of Jonah, who had some experiences with a big fish as well.  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 measureless grace was displayed as well.

Go ahead and turn to the book of Jonah with me.  As you are doing that, I will open us with a word of prayer:

Follow along with me as I read from Jonah chapter 1.  Jonah chapter 1 tells us that, “1”

Now, as we take a look at this chapter, I believe there are 5 interesting things to take a deeper look at:

First, Jonah Disobeyed God.

God had given Jonah a task: to proclaim God’s message to the city of Nineveh.  Now Nineveh was the capital of the foreign Assyrian Empire.  But Jonah didn’t want the job.  God said “Go.”  And Jonah said “No.”  He took off, and he tried to run away from God.  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 God?  Why try and run away from God?  We can see some answers in the words of God’s command.  God told Jonah, “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preached against it because its wickedness has come up before me.”

First of all, 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, all kinds of evil was there, and they opposed to the true God.  It was Infamous for being brutal and merciless.  Jonah must have been thinking to himself, “What will happen to me, a Jew, walking into that city declaring a insulting message to them?”  So Johan was afraid.

Secondly, 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.”

Jonah possibly didn’t want to help them, because they were not the chosen group.  He was a little bias to his own people, and did not want to extend any help to the foreigners.

And finally, Jonah was scandalized by grace.  Jonah had enough knowledge of God, sufficient theological sense, to work out that God, by giving the Ninevites this warning, intended blessing for them!  God is so gracious that maybe He intends to spare the Assyrians.  Yet, these people are Israel’s great enemy, surely it’s best they’re left spiritually dead and buried.  Jonah didn’t want to extend God’s grace to these people.  They were his enemy, and he would rather see them destroyed than helped.

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?

Jonah ‘ran away from the LORD in the sense that he excluded himself from God’s favor and service.  A theological man explains it this way: “The person who chooses to flee from the presence of God…is refusing to serve God in the task he knows that the LORD has given him to do.  The matter is primarily spiritual and only secondarily geographical.  This is what we see in Jonah’s case.”

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.  Don’t go there.  It’s a hard and miserable place.  Seek the joy of the obedient son.

Focus on the words of the song: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

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’d eventually run into trouble.  “God’s way of blessing for Jonah was in the east, towards Nineveh, but Jonah went west and into trouble.”  So Jonah disobeyed God.

Secondly, We Se That God Intervened.

Verse 3 tells us, “But Jonah ran away…”  Verse 4, “Then the LORD…”  Here in these 2 words: “But” and “Then,” we see God’s grace and God’s sovereignty in action.

We learn about God’s Grace, because God could have justly dumped Jonah there and then and left him to himself and the consequences of his behavior.  But God didn’t!  He was still in business with Jonah and serious about it.  If Jonah knew just how serious God was.  As he boarded the boat, it would have scared him to death.

We also learn about God’s Sovereignty, because God is in charge of the universe and nature is at His command.  Verse 4 again, “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 tells us that “Such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.  All the sailors (these hardened, experienced seamen) were afraid, and each called out to his own god.  And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.”  So this was no ordinary storm, because all of these men that had been on boats all of their lives, were so afraid, that they thought they were going to die.

You see, disobeying God brings His discipline.  When we won’t hear His Word He will make us feel His rod.  The storm was produced because of Jonah’s presence.  Our disobedience can affect other people and make life difficult for them.  The sailors were distraught, almost beside themselves.  They were so afraid that “…each called out to his own god.”  Such ‘gods’ were of course powerless and non-existent.

The sailors’ behavior shows 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 of who and what God is.  So each sailor sought his own imagined god.

But hang on a minute.  What about Jonah?  Where was he at while all of this was taking place?  Verse 5 tells us that “Jonah had gone down below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.”

How do we explain this incredible behavior from him?  Well, people react differently in times of crisis.  Some loose sleep; worry and fret about the problem.  Others become lethargic, loose interest, disassociate themselves from the situation.  I believe Jonah was in the second category.  He had sunk into an oblivious, self-blinding delusion.  He didn’t even realize what was happening.

But Jonah had clearly been missed and the Captain hunted him down.  He was amazed to find Jonah in such a sleep.  Verse 6 tell us that the captain said, “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 been found incapable of saving them, and now the boat was running short of options.  So they wanted Jonah to try.  So God intervened and got Jonah’s attention.

Thirdly, We Find That Jonah Was Exposed.

In their superstition the sailors cast lots to see who is at fault for this event.  This storm had really spooked them, 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 fired their questions at 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.  Truth will come out!

Jonah says, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

Jonah’s God was not like the sailors imagined gods, but the true and living God who is all-wise and powerful and who was in charge of the whole earth including the sea that was now raging against them.  In a way, Jonah is saying, “Yes, it’s me: I’m the cause of this trouble.!”

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: “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.  They even asked him, “What have you done!”

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 abate following Jonah’s exposure, but no, the scripture tells us that “The sea was getting rougher and rougher…”  You see, God still had some unfinished business to take care of!

Jonah then made an incredible request.  The sailors must have done a double take: “What Jonah?  What did you say?”  Jonah told them to, “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.”  Had Jonah gone mad?  There is no way that Jonah could survive the sea and the wrath of God.  But, this wasn’t some irrational impulse or suicidal depression.  Instead, Jonah had change in his heart.

Firstly, Jonah acknowledged and accepted there and then 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 and battered ship he was entirely at God’s mercy.  He was ready to submit himself to whatever God wanted.

Thirdly, he had a care and concern for the sailors whom he had put in danger.  No longer selfish he was self-less; 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, “God I’m in your hands for you to do what you will.”  So Jonah was exposed or found out.

Next, We Learn That The Sailors Were Saved.

In the midst of all these amazing things going on, something was happening to the godless hardened sailors.  Instead of grabbing Jonah and hurling him overboard and saying to him, “Good-riddance shark-bait!,” 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: throw him overboard to what must mean certain death.  But notice this, when the storm started they had, “each cried to his own god.”  Now, in verse 14 “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!  In fact, 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 had made the sea and the land.  God was at work in their hearts.  He was imparting new life and new understanding by His Spirit.

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 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 in contact with these sailors, yet God worked it out so that these 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.  Now, in that disobedience, God had used Jonah to be able to: as far as the east is from the west, remove the sailors’ transgressions.

Now don’t get me wrong.  Don’t misinterpret the scriptures.  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.  Someone once said, “…the wonderful thing about the grace of God is that it has a way of making things appear that it was right from the start.  You see, when God makes things work together for good, He does it in such a way that it looks as though that was the way it was supposed to be.”

So, because of God being able to work all things into good, Jonah’s disobedience served as a way to save the sailors.  But guess what, the story doesn’t end there.  In fact, the most amazing part is still to come.

Finally, From This Chapter, We See That Jonah Was Surprised.
So what about old waterlogged Jonah?  Did the depths of the sea claim him?  No, God wasn’t finished with him yet.  He was only just beginning!  Disobedient believer, God is never finished with you!  He will not leave you alone.  He will chase you down and bring you back to Himself.

God supplied a rather unusual mode of transportation for Jonah.  Verse 17 tells us that “…the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.”

What was this fish?  I don’t know.  Does it exist now?  I don’t know.  Does it actually matter?  No, it doesn’t.  I guess it’d 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’re talking about Jonah.  Yes, I believe that story.”  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 said: “Men have been looking so hard at the great fish that they have failed to see the great God.”

As we close this morning, and as we continue to look at Jonah next week, may we always keep that thought in mind.  “Men have been looking so hard at the great fish that they have failed to see the great God.”  May we always focus on God, and may we remain obedient to Him.

Let’s Pray!