The book of Jonah starts off by telling us that the “word of the Lord came to Jonah.” Why is this significant? It is significant because what God would tell him to do was not an invention of his own mind or a decision he made on a whim. When the “word came” to Jonah, we understand this to mean that God have him a direct command to go. It’s also important to know that it “came to Jonah.” This tells us that not only was it a direct message from God, but it was given to directly to Jonah for Jonah.
The message was to “go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it.” Nineveh which lay some 500 miles to the northeast of Israel, would soon become the capital of the Assyrian nation. This same nation that Jonah preached repentance to, would take Israel captive within about 60 years. Once the generation that had repented and turned to the Lord died off, a new generation arose that returned to the old way of life. This “great city” was guilty of many things in the eyes of God. The book of Nahum gives a more complete account, but just a few things the city was guilty of included evil plots against God, exploiting the helpless, cruelty, idolatry, prostitution, and witchcraft. God speaks of the sinfulness of the nation and said their sin “has come up before me.” In other words, the sin of the people was so great that God had now taken notice and was about to do something about it. It reminds me of two time periods in history. First, it reminds me of the day of Noah. The sin of the people then was so great that God only spared Noah and his family. Some “home-schooled” Bible scholars would have us believe that in the OT we see only the justice and judgment of God, while in the NT we see his grace and mercy. I think the very fact that God did not wipe Nineveh off the map was to demonstrate his grace and mercy not just his justice and judgment. The offering of forgiveness and the chance at repentance for this group of people, demonstrate one of the best examples of unmerited favor found anywhere in the Bible. The second time period this reminds me of is that of 21st century America. Sin is so rampant in our society that it has surely “come up before God.” Again, I pray that God offers grace and mercy for our nation instead of justice and judgment like we surely deserve.
In just the first couple of sentences, God gives Jonah a task that would require a total abandonment of self and total reliance on God. When this opportunity presented itself, the Bible says “Jonah ran away from the Lord.” This phrase makes me wonder where is it he plans to run to get away from the Lord? God is omnipresent, there really isn’t anywhere to run! His running eventually led him to get on a ship where “after paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.” This brings up a good point that whenever we run from the Lord there is always a price to pay. In Jonah’s case, it almost cost him his life.
As is often the case, when we go against the will of God there will often times be storms that arise in our life to get our attention. The Bible says, “such a violent storm arose.” This storm threatened everyone on board the ship. We cannot go through life thinking our sin only hurts us, for that is just not the case. This sin that so easily entangles us, if left untreated, could cause us to “break up.” As the storm rages around Jonah and the crew of the ship, the ship itself is likely to be torn to pieces. This would endanger everyone on board. When sin reigns in our life, we also may be torn to pieces. Just as everyone on the boat was in danger, so is everyone in our life when the storms rage around us.
The Scriptures say that, “each sailor cried out to his own god.” When we feel lost and without hope, it seems as though we cry out to and for everything and everyone but the one, true God. We cry out for our family to help us. We cry out for our friends to help us. We cry out for our job to help us. We cry out for our money to help us. Why do we always cry out for things that cannot help us, when we have God on speed dial through Jesus Christ? Jesus is our advocate, the one that pleads our case to the Father. In our times of distress, may we always call on the name of the Lord. When we don’t cry out to God, we usually do things that don’t make a whole lot of sense. As the crew “threw the cargo into the sea,” it surely became obvious this would not work. If God sent the storm, surely he is the only one that can remove it. For these mariners to react to this storm the way they did, it must have been a storm unlike any they had ever seen. When we are in a situation unlike anything we have ever faced, we are likely to abandon all reason and do things that are contrary to our nature. In the midst of all this chaos, Jonah lay fast asleep in the bottom of the boat. He didn’t seem to mind his disobedience if he was able to go to sleep, especially in the weather that was going on above. Jonah started on a high from God when he was asked to go and preach the Word to the people of Nineveh. However, his disobedience caused him to sink lower and lower to the very bottom of a boat. He would sink even further, to the very depths of the ocean, when the big fish swallowed him whole.
As the storm raged, the captain went to him and spoke the most telling statement in probably the whole book of Jonah. He said, “Get up and call on your God! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” Romans 10:13 says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” This verse originally taken from Joel 2:32 and spoken again in Acts 2:21, was precisely what this captain wanted Jonah to do. Call out to your God so we won’t die. Their pagan religion and idol worship would not allow the sailors to call out themselves to the one, true God. We must call out to God for rescue; no one can do it for us. When Jonah finally called out to God, he saved him from the belly of the fish. If you call out to God for salvation, we are promised that God will come to our rescue. Amen!!!!
