Not Just Another Fish Story:

Lessons from the Life of Jonah

A message by Jeffrey Westbrook

Crossroads International Fellowship

15 February, 2004

Text: Book of Jonah (Jonah 1:1-2)

Intro: - Wanted to preach on an OT person, from a book I haven’t preached on before

- Talk briefly about Veggie Tales Jonah movie

- Recap story of Jonah

- Stories of Bible characters like Jonah – have entertainment value, human interest value, relate-ability; but most important, they teach us valuable lessons

Thesis: There are many lessons we can learn from the life of Jonah.

I. God is sovereign

A. He is in control

1. We see His hand behind the events in the story – the storm, the fish, Jonah’s return to the right place

2. Like in the book of Esther – God’s providence is working in the events of life

3. Today in our lives, we can see God’s hand of providence

4. Implication: Trust Him; He’s in control

B. He has the power to work miracles

1. Skeptics on the book of Jonah

a. Mock the story, or disbelieve, allegorize, mythologize, or fable-ize it

b. “Unbelievers may laugh as much as they please at one of the incidents related in this book, but the book itself condemns them. Here it stands in the majesty of its moral teaching, part of the Jewish Scriptures, quoted by the prophet Joel, referred to by Josephus and in the Apocrypha, and most solemnly endorsed by our blessed Saviour. And while it is easy to make light of the incident of Jonah and the whale [sic.], it is impossible to find any reasonable explanation of how the book came to be written if the incidents recorded never took place.” – F.S. Webster[i]

2. On miracles

a. C.S. Lewis – most people dismiss miracles because they believe ahead of time that miracles do not happen. They use circular reasoning, or begging the question. It’s not a question of the historicity of miracles, but of the philosophical belief of the person making such a judgment[ii]

b. What kind of God do we believe in? One who is subject to the Creation? or one to Whom the Creation is subject? If God Created the earth, the universe, and all in it, He is outside the system of Nature; so He is not “violating the laws of nature by performing a miracle (the “laws of nature” only tell us what happens provided there is no outside interference)

c. If you don’t believe that God could do such a thing as the miracle in this story, then “your god is too small”

3. The historicity of the story

a. The book is presented by the Bible as historical

i. Jonah as a real person testified in other books (II Kings 14:23-27 – Jonah a prophet in Israel during reign of Jeroboam II; Jonah’s book is quoted in book of Joel)

ii. His father (Amittai) named in Jon. 1:1 & II Kings; also his hometown mentioned in II Kings (Gath-hepher, the modern-day Meshed)

iii. Nineveh was an ancient & powerful—and thoroughly wicked—capital

iv. Treated as a historical book, not allegorical

v. Just because it is from pre-scientific era doesn’t mean that the people didn’t appreciate the miracle (they knew the difference between the miraculous and the everyday)

b. Jesus referred to the book as actual historical events and Jonah as an actual person who experienced these events (Matt. 12)

c. Not a whale; “a great fish” (1:17; 2:1); Hebrew word dag – “a huge fish, a monster of the deep;” sometimes called a sea monster

d. Sperm whales and whale sharks could—and have—swallowed people whole (there is documented historical evidence of it[iii]

e. It’s interesting that skeptics reject the incident because no sea creature could do this and because it is outside the realm of human experience, but that’s not true; skeptics are willing to believe the historical incidents of this kind of event, but not this one; why? Because it’s in the Bible

f. Fits in the category of “The truth is stranger than fiction”

4. Implications for today

à Don’t expect something like this to happen to you, but know that God is in control; He is omnipotent

C. There is no hiding from God

1. Jonah tries to run

a. Heads to a place 2,000 miles to the west instead of 500 miles to the east

b. Was going to the opposite end of the world (the known world)

2. Psalm 139:7-12 (read)

3. He recognizes that “the hound of heaven has overtaken him;” no cowardice in him when he ‘fesses up and tells the sailors to throw him overboard

4. Implication: we can’t hide from God – which can be very good news or very bad news, depending on the choices we make

II. We are responsible for the choices we make

A. There are consequences for disobedience

1. God allowed Jonah to run away—but there were consequences, like becoming fish food

2. Yes, we’re free to choose what we do, but we must be prepared to accept the consequences

3. That’s not a very popular truth in today’s society, which deifies the false concept of freedom without responsibility (many societal ills – divorce, drug abuse, STDs and AIDS, homosexuality, etc. come from the concept that I can do what I want)

4. But it’s reality, whether we like it or not; denying it doesn’t make it go away

5. Story of the Prodigal son 10 years later (from an old booklet); God doesn’t just zap it and make everything better, even though He does sometimes save us from our own folly (but we can’t just be sloppy and careless, expecting Him to fix it)

B. Our disobedience may have an adverse effect on others

1. Jonah caused the sailors suffering (not to mention left the Ninevites hanging)

2. Do we consider the harm that comes to others because of our disobedience? (C.S. Lewis’ analogy of ships that say, as long as I’m not harming the other ships in the fleet, it doesn’t matter what I do with myself—it really ends up wreaking havoc on the whole fleet)[iv]

C. There is hope; God is eager for us to repent

1. That’s what He wanted the Ninevites to do

2. That’s what He wanted Jonah to do

3. That’s what He wants all of us to do – He desires that none should perish (2 Pet. 3:9 – “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

4. That’s what we’ve been saying about salvation and spiritual growth – God wants us to repent; He wants us to grow. Jesus stands at the door and knocks

III. God is concerned for others

A. God was concerned with more than just His people

1. He was concerned for more than just Israel; He was concerned about Nineveh, too (4:11)

2. Jonah wasn’t concerned about them; he wanted to keep God’s blessing just for Israel (4:1-3)

3. This gradually became the national attitude—that only Israel “deserved God’s favor & blessing” (forgetting that God didn’t choose them on their own merit)

4. The same thing frequently happens in the Church

5. Remember that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He could not and would not help the self-righteous Pharisees who thought that they didn’t need help[v]

6. God Bless America; God bless Korea à God blesses more than our own land; do our hearts follow God’s heart? Or are we caught up in narrow nationalism, racism, or some other ~ism?

B. God can work out good side effects from even bad things

1. The sailors heard about and turned to the true God (1:8-10, 14-16)

2. God says that He can work all things together for good (Rom. 8:28)

3. That doesn’t mean we should feel free to blow it because He’ll fix everything for us (remember, there are still consequences)

4. Have you ever experienced a good thing happening even though you screwed up? (I think most of us have)

C. When a whole city turns to God

1. Nineveh as a city-state turned collectively to God in repentance (3:5-9)

2. Example of WWCOG (Worldwide Church of God) turning from a cult to Evangelical Christianity

3. God wants people—even your enemies to turn to Him. Do you share His heart, or do you follow Jonah’s lead?

4. St. Patrick—knew fighting the Irish would never conquer them and keep them from raiding England; the only way to be safe from them and their raiding was to win them to Christ

IV. Jonah is a type of Christ

1. “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:40)

2. Jonah was the type, Jesus the Antitype. (A type is when one thing represents, resembles, or foreshadows something future)

3. The lesson for us? Jesus said the people of Nineveh would rise against the people of Jesus’ day at the last judgment because the former repented & the latter didn’t, even though someone greater than Jonah was there. We have the Bible & 2000 years of church history from which we can profit; we have it even better than the people of Jesus’ day.

Conclusion: - the book of Jonah as a confession

à He is very frank; “Jonah does not spare himself, and he tones down nothing. He exposes his guilt, his insularity, his cowardice, and his lack of love for races other than his own.”[vi]

à The experience humbled him so much he didn’t tell us the outcome; it evidently changed him

- “The question is not what did Jonah learn, but what did you learn?”[vii]

- preview: next week à compassion & mercy