Who’s in Charge?
Dr. James Smith
Jonah 1
3 October 2004
Have there been times in your life when you knew that God, without a shadow of a doubt, was speaking to you? Maybe it was in the course of reading the Bible or in prayer or in church.
Maybe it came over the course of the days events or was one of those “voila” experiences when in an instant, everything finally made sense.
As Christians we often talk about how we wish that God would make His will and purpose known for our life. Should we take that job, should we study there, should we pursue a relationship etc, etc. etc.
If we only knew exactly what God wanted from us, life would be so much easier . . . or would it?
How many times in your life, have you known that God clearly wanted you do something, only to find yourself trying to block out His voice.
After all, many Christians will wisely warn us to be careful of what we pray for . . . because we just might get it . . . and not like it at all.
The Book of Jonah is a literary gem and absolutely unique in the entire Bible. We don’t know much of anything about the prophet Jonah outside of this book that bears his name.
All we have in the rest of the Bible is from 2 Kings 14:25 which tells us that in the reign of King Jeroboam II, the borders of Israel were restored as prophesied by Jonah, son of Amittai, from Gath-Hepher.
That’s it, that’s all we have concerning this strange and enigmatic prophet who we like to use as an example of how not to act before God . . . though if we are really honest, we have to admit, that each of us have played the part of this unwilling prophet far too many times in our own lives.
The book of Jonah is filled with irony and it begins with the very first verse itself. We are told that God’s word clearly came to Jonah, son of Amittai. Jonah, whose name means “dove” and who was the son of “truth or faithfulness,” clearly doesn’t live up to his name.
His actions are not pure or innocent as a dove, nor do they represent truthfulness or faithfulness on his part.
Here is an example where God’s will for His life was clearly set forth with 3 imperatives. Arise Jonah, go Jonah and speak Jonah.
And we can be sure that Jonah did do these 3 things, but not in the way or manner in which God clearly spoken to him.
In fact, we are told in verse 3 that Jonah arose and went in the exact opposite direction and he spoke to the wrong people.
Tarshish, which is thought by many to have been a Phoencian mining colony in modern day Spain, represented the end of the world (at least in the West) in that day. Ninevah, which was the capital of the hated Assyrians, lay directly east and lays in modern day Iraq.
So Jonah was not only disobedient to God in his heart, but his transgression against God’s clear word to Him, included external geographic disobedience.
Jonah was not content, plugging His ears to the voice of God, but he added the movement of his feet to his sin.
I would like you to notice a fascinating literary feature found in chapter 1.
It is called a chiasm and this is found in our discussion on verse 3. Chiasms are found in different parts of the Bible and take common terms or ideas from the first line and reverse them in a parallel line, giving rise to an ABC//CBA type pattern.
Take a look at a look at the handout.
I suppose that we could say that at least Jonah is being even and consistent in his willful disobedience to God.
But just as Jonah didn’t counter God directly in words, but rather actions, so it will be God’s actions, not words, that will ultimately give His unwilling prophet a second chance.
Verse 4 tells us that God cast or hurled a great wind on the sea and without words and in an instant, Jonah knew that God was coming after him. And the poor pagan sailors soon found themselves caught in a power struggle between the God of Israel and Jonah.
In fact, you will notice that as the activity and anxiety of the sailors increases, so the activity of Jonah decreases.
The sailors who were both practical as well as religious men, sought to lighten the ship by throwing its precious cargo overboard to keep the ship from sinking beneath the stormy waves.
This also was probably a religious act to appease their god of the sea by offering important gifts to it. But all of this was to no avail and in verse 6, the pagan ship captain ironically repeats the initial and clear words of God that began the book.
“Arise Jonah, go Jonah and speak Jonah . . . to your God, maybe He will spare us.”
In the chaos of the scene, the frightened sailors begin to cast lots to see who was to blame and we get the picture that Jonah somehow laid down and ignored the captain as well as God.
And when Jonah’s name comes up, the sailors subject him to a staccato like barrage of questions, to which Jonah smoothly replies, “I am a Hebrew and my God is the master of not only the land, but the sea as well.”
Poor pagans - not only had Jonah endangered the Ninevites by trying to run away from God, but now he was endangering his shipmates.
Jonah had attempted physical flight from God, psychological flight by sleeping in the ship’s hold and even absolute flight through death.
Ironically, death by drowning would secure for Jonah what he really wanted, flight from God. And while he acted as though he was concerned for his shipmates; that was merely a cover for his own selfishness.
What an amazing story! And yet if we are really honest, how many times have you and I sought to run away from God and do things our own way. And the repercussions and “fall out” are always more serious then we ever could imagine.
By way of more specific application, consider the descent imagery of chapter 1. Jonah is told to “arise and go.” But in his disobedience, his descent spirals out of control.
Jonah goes “down” to Joppa. Jonah goes “down” into the “belly” of the ship, which is an image of the grave. And Jonah lays “down” and falls asleep, which is an image of death.
And when we sin, we too inevitably take the downward path like Jonah. When God clearly speaks to us and we disobey, we are well on that slippery path to spiritual insensitivity and even death.
As we enter into this fall season, are there things in your life that God has called you to, but you are ignoring or even trying to run away from?
Remember, your sin and disobedience does not simply concern yourself, but it concerns others as well.
Our failure to listen to the voice of God is almost always more serious then we would like to believe and it almost always does more damage then we would care to admit.
We can see this in the example of Jonah, but the good as well as frightening news for us today, is that you can run from God, but you can never hide from God and this will become more clear to us in the weeks ahead as we continue to study the life and example of God’s most unwilling prophet.
Let’s Pray
