Jonah Talk 1

‘Get Up Jonah!’

Context, Setting and characters
The book of Jonah is an enigmatic story, where everything is up side down. It is a story where irony is at the fore. It is also a rhythmic book that at times is explicitly poetic, and other times plays upon itself with these great parallel scenes that repeat, and in turn help us to interpret the message of each scene in light of the other.

Jonah itself is part of what is called the book of the twelve, or the minor prophets in the Old Testament. The book of Jonah is unique amongst these twelve, as it is the only one presented as a narrative, rather than a written account of a prophetic announcement or a set of oracles.

And It has been said that Jonah is a book, where people have a tendency; to mislay a Big God because of a Big Fish!

Now in terms of historical context, How does Jonah fit into the OT?
Creation, Fall, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon and the two kingdoms.

And now we join the story and find ourselves with Jonah in 770bc which is of course prior to the northern kingdom of Israel being invaded by Assyria in 710bc, and prior to the southern kingdom of Judah being invaded by Babylon in 586bc

The story of Jonah is composed of four distinct scenes:

The first scene is set on the sea 1:1 to 1:16
The second scene is set in the belly of a fish 1:17 to 2:10
The third scene is set in the great city of Nineveh from 3:1 through to 4:4.
And the final scene takes place just outside the city of Nineveh and goes from 4:5 to 4:11.
And today we are looking at the first scene that is set upon the sea.

So who are the characters we will meet in this first scene of Jonah’s story?


The Lord
The Lord of Israel, God who is termed by His personal name YHWH which is of course translated LORD. The Lord who made the heavens and the earth and all the people upon that earth. The Lord who made the promises to Abraham and then called Israel to be THE LIGHT to the nations, because of his concern for all of His creation.

The Lord is the one who speaks to his world through his mouthpieces the Prophets. And on this occasion he chooses a most unlikely candidate - Jonah

Jonah the Prophet
Jonah is nothing short of an enigma in my opinion, he is nothing like the magisterial Isaiah or the eccentric Ezekiel. But you do have to give it to him, when it comes to brevity he is without peer. His message of prophecy will consist of only eight words, and in contrast to Isaiah, the people will hear the message and respond. But like both those prophets, Jonah’s experience will form an important part of the message he is to bring!

And who is the message Jonah is given to speak be delivered to?
Well Nineveh! And we’ll get to them next.

It worth noting that Jonah’s only other appearance in the OT outside of the book that bears his name is 2 Kings 14:25

Jeroboam the son of Nebat.. restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.

So we know that Jonah was understood by all to be a prophet, and in addition he had more to say to the people than was recorded in the book that bears his name. A message that was very pro Israel!

The Great City of Nineveh
Capital of Assyria which was the dominant nation, or the superpower, in the Ancient Near East at this time. Nineveh was something of the centre of Power and life in their day, a New York City of its time.

The Gentile Sailors
Robust kind of People, because the sea in ancient times was a thing to be feared, to say you worked on a sea going vessel, was up there with equivalent today, of saying I’m an ultra-light pilot, and I made it myself – it’s a little crazy and for a sane person, a little disturbing. In this profession you really are at the whim of the gods.

But we note these sailors are Gentile sailors, ones who have no understanding of the living God, the God of Israel.

Telling the Story
NIV Jonah 1:1
The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai:
2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and
preach against it,
because its wickedness has come up before me."


Well the Story of Jonah begins in V1 with a prophetic announcement of the Lord, to his chosen prophet and mouthpiece Jonah. And in V2 God gives His prophet Jonah these three direct commands, commands that will be repeated to Jonah throughout this episode.

Jonah is told by God to Get up, Go and Call to them – call to Nineveh of the judgment that is to come because of their wickedness before God. And we see from his message to Jonah that the Lord knows and cares about the action of all nations, Jew and Gentile alike, they are all His creation.

So in V3 as the story continues,
3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD
and headed for Tarshish.
He went down to Joppa,
where he found a ship bound for that port.
After paying the fare,
he went aboard
and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.


Jonah gets up just as he was told to, and then promptly, does the Harold Holt. Which is ironic on a number of levels I realize, but Jonah could not have done more opposite to the command if he had of tried. [MAP]. This is Israel, this is Nineveh and this is Tarshish.

I’m sure Jonah knew you cant really run away from the Lord, but it is worth knowing that in his time most nations were henotheistic. This meant that the people of Jonah’s time believed in national and hence geographic gods. Each national god had a territory of influence that finished at the boundaries of the nation. But I’m sure despite his attempts at fleeing Jonah knew better, and in fact we will learn that for sure a little later in verse 9.

And so as V3 continues Jonah boards a ship that will get him away from Nineveh and the service of the Lord. But in V4 The Lord sent a great a storm. Literally God flung a storm at the boat, and it’s big one!

4 Then the LORD sent a great [flung] wind on the sea,
and such a violent storm arose
that the ship threatened to break up.
5 All the sailors were afraid [feared]
and each cried out to his own god [elohim].
And they threw [flung] the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck,
where he lay down and
fell into a deep sleep.

And the men feared this storm. And to be quite frank that’s fair enough too!
I mean just imagine being in a small ship made of timber in a large storm.
This is a life a death situation for these guys.

If that image doesn’t work for you, well imagine you are flying with air new guinea, on a small single engine plane, with gaffa tape on the windows, flying through a sever electrical storm, in mist, amongst the highland peaks of new Guinea. It would be nothing short of petrifying wouldn’t it?
I guarantee even the most hardened atheist, would be inclined to pray under those circumstances.

And that is what the sailors did, they prayed to their ‘own gods’. The text at this point uses the general name for a god of ‘elohim’. And their prayers, notwithstanding, they continue try to outflank the storm, and presumably the gods, by throwing cargo overboard to make it lighter.

In fact the sailors don’t ‘throw it’ as much as it is ‘flung’ overboard. And this word has a great thread of connection throughout this scene, just as God has ‘flung’ a storm at the sailors upon the sea, the sailors ‘flung’ off cargo in response.

But God isn’t bought off from his intent with some ‘flung’ goods, like some sought of cheap sacrifice or offering to appease his fearsome onslaught. The debt to be paid will be much higher for the people upon the boat, much higher than a couple of boxes of fake Rolex watches and some ‘hokey’ imitation Luis Vitton bags. Admittedly, it was probably grain or something, but you get the point.

And where is Jonah when all this is happening?
Well he has gone below deck to get some sleep, like some overgrown teenager who is always sleeping! That is quite a staggering reaction isn’t it?
I don’ think I could fall asleep on a water bed, much less fall asleep in the middle of this. But when you think about it, Jonah isn’t alone in his ability to do this is he? (But we’ll get back to that in a minute).

6 The captain went to him and said,

"How can you sleep?
Get up and
call on your god [elohim]!
Maybe he will take notice of us,
and we will not perish."
7
Then the sailors said to each other,

"Come,
let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity [upon us]."

They cast lots
and the lot fell on Jonah.

And now the captain reacts in V6 is much the same as any frustrated parent of a teenager, and he commands Jonah to do two things, to Get up and to call. (Which is of course two out the three things God has just told Jonah to do only five verses ago!)
And this scene is suspended in the tension of the characters being upon the water in this treacherous storm, and it is desperate stakes, all hands on deck. It seems to all involved that only divine intervention will be enough to solve this situation.

The sailors are able to see beyond the physical difficulties they are enduring and realize they are the subject of a divine incident. So they seek to find out who is responsible of all these problems by casting lots in V7.
And the lot falls upon Jonah, which is unsurprising to both us and no doubt Jonah.
So the sailors demand of Jonah that he answers 4 questions!

8 So they asked him,

"Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us?
What do you do?
Where do you come from?
What is your country?
From what people are you?"

And Finally, after being told 8 verses ago to call to the gentiles, Jonah speaks to the Gentiles and says:
9
"I am a Hebrew
and I worship [fear] the LORD [YHWH], the God of heaven,
who made the sea and the land."

Jonah serves no regional deity, no underling god, but he is a Hebrew, and he worships (fears) the Lord YHWH, the God of Heaven the one who made and controls the sea.

These previously ignorant Gentiles now know the truth about their situation, but also the truth about their whole lives, The LORD is the God over all, and they fear God as a response.

In addition though, these gentiles also realize that this disobedience of God’s prophet will cost a life. The disobedient man must be ‘flung’ into the sea! The creator will not be dictated to by the creation.

And you have to wonder at this point, just how badly does Jonah not want Nineveh to be saved?
He would rather be ‘flung’ into the sea, than turn around and do the right thing.

But in contrast these Gentiles fear the living God, and will try everything they can to do the right thing and protect the Life of this Israelite in V13. Which is of course a wonderfully Ironic state of affairs when you consider that this Israelite has tried everything he can to avoid saving the lives of gentiles of Nineveh!!

But despite their best efforts the Sailors realize, that Jonah’s words are true, and that the true God has spoken. So the sailors call again to the gods in V14, only this time they call to the true God of Heaven and earth, the God of Israel, and this time they use Israel’s God’s personal name ‘YHWH’. No longer do the sailors fear the generic national gods the ‘elohim’, they fear Israel’s God the Lord, ‘YHWH’.

And they call on the Lord to NOT hold them accountable for the life of this one man. And in V15 So they ‘flung’ Jonah into the sea!

And the sea stopped, immediately… And in response these gentile men feared and Sacrificed to the Lord to YHWH the God of the land and sea, the heavens and hades, the God of Israel.

And the first scene of Jonah’s story finishes in V16 with this disobedient prophet drifting to the bottom of the sea, under the strong hand of the Lord who has ‘flung’ him into the deep!

Interpreting the Story
So what do we make of the man Jonah, and in particular in this first scene of the book of Jonah?

Well firstly, it seems as we look at Jonah the prophet, we see a man who is truly representative of the attitude of the nation of Israel at this time. Israel is supposed to be a light to the nations, to represent God to the nations. But instead he is self serving, and nationalistic in a way that the God of all creation is not!

Jonah needed to understand God’s passionate desire, that all people would experience his grace.

And secondly, Jonah’s story highlights for us the theme of the true sovereignty of God.
Jonah’s plight highlights the wonderful irony of the situation and the undisputed Sovereignty of God. We see that despite Jonah’s best intentions to run away from what he is meant to be doing, (which is of course saving gentiles), and despite these best efforts not to, he does in fact wind up saving gentiles when he opens his mouth, because of the sovereign purposes and action of God.

In his sovereignty, Our God can even use broken and stubborn people to achieve his purposes. Jonah is told to call, and instead it takes him to verse 9 to say anything!
And even then he only offers to answer the direct question he has been asked. But still God saves the intended object of his affection, these Gentile sailors.

Interpreting the Story in light of NT
Well as we look at the story of Jonah, there are a number of New Testament passages that illuminate our understanding of the meaning of the story, in particular a number of parallels, but also a number of contrasts.

Primarily in terms of parallels and contrasts, we have Jonah and Jesus himself. Quite an odd couple if ever there was one. Why would Jesus chose Jonah (of all the prophets available to him from the Old Testament), why would he choose to illustrate his ministry so directly by this most recalcitrant of prophets, (to use a keatingism).

Well it seems primarily, Jesus chose Jonah because of the strong parallel of the ‘sign of Jonah’ from Matt 12 which we will talk about next week, but also because of the stark contrast between the two of them.

And so from the first scene of Jonah’s story we have looked at today, we see a deliberate comparison with Jesus in Mark 4.

mark4:35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side."
36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.
37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.
38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
41 They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
NIV Mark 5:1 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.

So you see in this scene a direct parallel of Jonah, with the storm raising up, Jesus sleeping in the boat, and the men in the boat being afraid. But of course it is the contrasts to Jonah’s story that bring out the great riches of Jesus story. Jesus is going toward the gentiles to save and heal them, Jonah was running away.

But of course the greatest contrast is that Jesus did not call to his God to calm the storm, he just commanded it directly. Jonah may have been a prophet of God, but Jesus is God!

And the disciples no longer fear the storm, but they fear Jesus!

But the comparisons could be even deeper I suspect, Jonah on the one hand would have to give his life, literally the text says ‘his blood’, to save the boat load of people. Jesus on the other hand would give his blood to be a ransom for the whole world.

In addition another comparison is the gentile sailors as a great contrast to Israel, and in particular Israel in Jesus day. The Gentile sailors would say to God, please don’t make us kill your prophet, Jerusalem when later they were given the chance, they would say kill the Son, and instead give us Barabbas.

By a comparison of parallel and contrast to Jonah, the NT points out the supremeness of Jesus in every way.

The Theological implications of the Story
It seems there are four main theological implications from the first Scene of Jonah’s story, and they are themes that will be developed throughout the book.

The first and outstanding theological theme of Jonah is the Sovereignty of God.
NO matter how sovereign you think God is, the book of Jonah will challenge you to have a higher regard and insight into the sovereignty of God. But we’ll have time to think a little more about this type of Sovereignty, next week.

The second great theological theme of this scene is understanding mercy of God, and understanding it particularly in light of the surpassing greatness of the Sovereignty of God.

In Jonah’s story we see the profound Mercy of God, his irrefutable determination to display his mercy to all his creation, even the wicked of Nineveh. God’s desire is for all people to turn to him and be saved and he will use even a stubborn prophet to do it.

The third theological truth Jonah’s story helps us to see, It that is no small thing to be addressed directly by the ‘Word of Lord’. The same God that spoke to Jonah is the same God who speaks to us today.

Jonah’s command or ‘word from the Lord’ as his mouthpiece to the world was to preach the truth about the coming judgment of God. SO the question is do we have a command or ‘word from the Lord’?

It Seems to me that Matthew 28:19:20 would be a pretty good reference point,

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

And then again maybe you could add to that, Matt 9:37-38..

37 Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

So the tough question Jonah begs of us all is:
Would you say as a group, or as individuals, we are currently heading for Tarshish or Nineveh with our ‘Word from the Lord’?

Are we really concerned to head out to the lost and those under impending judgment, with the word of the Lord?

Or do we have the attitude like Jonah, (which is a little like what my mates dad used to say about him as a lazy teenager who was always sleeping), ‘I’m right Jack, pull up the drawbridge!’?

The fourth theological idea here, is the clear fact of the hard and real discipline of God upon his children, when they are disobedient. Jonah is no story of cheap grace but of the genuine concern of God (for the lost certainly), but also his concern for the obedience of his own people!

Jonah brings before us a warning of the real danger, that the conscious disobedience of God’s direct command, resulted in a hard discipline in this life.
We need to hear the clear warning about the dangers of the real and difficult discipline of God. God is making for himself a Holy people, not a comfortable people!

God has promised from his word, and shown in his dealings with Jonah that he will discipline his disobedient children……..

Jonah’s story is the story of his God who is the sovereign and merciful God, but not a God to be toyed with, for what he has spoken will happen………….

‘Get up Jonah, Go and Call to them, that judgment is coming, because their wickedness has come before me!’