St. Paul's United Methodist Church

“Jonah, the AWOL Prophet, Part 2”

Rev. Richard W. Gray

Jonah 3:1-5

May 1, 2005

God had called Jonah to go to Ninevah, the capital of Assyria, and tell them that if they did not repent, God would destroy the city of more than 600,000 people.

Jonah refused to go. He did not want the city to be spared. He wanted it destroyed. The Assyrians were a cruel and brutal people. They were enemies of Israel. It is no wonder Jonah wanted them dead. But God did not.

Jonah was afraid the people would repent and that God would not destroy the city. Not only did Jonah refuse to go to Ninevah, he tried to run away to the coast of Spain, as far away as anyone could go at that time. He learned you cannot run away from God.

Jonah booked passage on a ship and was asleep below deck when a ferocious storm arose. It looked as if the ship would sink. The members of the crew all prayed to their pagan gods to save them. It did not work. The captain of the ship went to Jonah to have him pray to his God. The captain had to wake him up, but Jonah was not interested in praying.

The members of the crew decided to cast lots to see if someone on board the ship had done something so terrible that the storm came as punishment. The lot fell on Jonah. The crew asked him who he was and what he had done. They knew he was running away from the Lord because he had told them so.

Then the sailors asked him what they could do to calm the sea. Jonah told them to throw him overboard. Out of fear that God might do something to them if they threw Jonah into the sea

sea, they continued to try to save themselves, but the situation became even worse.

They prayed to God, not to their pagan gods, threw Jonah overboard, and worshiped the one true God. Even in the midst of Jonah's disobedience, they became believers.

God prepared a great fish that swallowed Jonah. This is where we left Jonah last week, in the belly of the fish.

God could have allowed Jonah to drown, but He did not. He was in the belly of this fish three days and three nights. We were all raised to believe it was a whale. The Hebrew means great fish.

There are some fish that are capable of swallowing a person whole. I mentioned last week that James Bartley was swallowed by a whale and a day and a half later the whaling ship brought the whale aboard and cut it open. Bartley was alive inside. It was not difficult for God to spare Jonah's life.

Although Bartley was alive, the gastric juices of the whale had eaten away the top layer of his skin and he remained this way for the rest of his life.

There is no reason not to believe that the God who does miracles could create a fish to swallow Jonah.

What do you do in the belly of a fish? You pray. That is what Jonah did. Now he feels like praying. He prays a prayer of praise to God. When we are in the belly of a crisis on our lives, we ought to pray to God and praise Him.

Jonah is now ready to obey God, so God has the fish vomit Jonah onto the beach. God commissioned Jonah a second time to go to Ninevah. Jonah obeyed God and went to Ninevah to preach to the people there.

He declared that in forty days the city would be destroyed if they did not repent and turn to God. The city did repent, even the king. The king

king decreed that there would be a fast and that the people must call on God and give up their evil ways so that God would not destroy the city.

Why would they repent and call on God? They had many, many different gods. Why would they now believe Jonah and call on the one true God?

Why? Jonah had quite a story to tell. He was called by God to go to their city, he disobeyed, a storm arose, he was swallowed by a fish and was spit out onto land. I imagine he had the smell of the fish all over him. I imagine he probably had lost the top layer of his skin. He probably was not a very pretty sight to look at. He was probably very white, like an albino. People in that region of the world were dark skinned, so Jonah must have stood out.

The people must have recognized that Jonah's God was not one to disobey. Since God could control the sea and the fish in it, He certainly could destroy their city. Fish smelling, skin damaged Jonah was living proof. So they repented and called on God.

Jonah was unhappy again. He obeyed God, the people repented, the city was spared God's judgment, Jonah is unhappy, and now he is also angry. He still wanted the people destroyed. He probably also felt that he would fall into disfavor by the Israelites for being the instrument that led to the cancellation of the enemy city's destruction. He was more concerned about what people think of him than of what God thinks of him, which is also a common ailment of our own time. That is a lesson for us to learn.

In chapter four he told God why he is unhappy and angry. God did just what He said He would do if the people repented. Jonah said to God, “I knew that you are a compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God

God who relents from sending calamity.” Then Jonah said it would be better for him to die than to live. Sparing the enemy was just too much for him. God replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

Jonah went off to wait to see what would happen to the city and made a shelter for himself. God caused a vine to grow up over Jonah to give him shelter from the hot sun. Jonah was glad for the vine, but he was not grateful. Then God had a worm chew the vine so that it withered and died. The scorching sun was too much for Jonah, so he again wished to die.

God asked Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” Jonah replied he was angry enough to die.

God said Jonah was more concerned over the loss of the vine than he was over the loss of many lives in Ninevah had it been destroyed. Jonah was pretty selfish and self-absorbed. He was more concerned with things than with people. His priorities were all wrong. Another lesson for us to learn from Jonah.

There are some other lessons to be learned here. As we saw last week, God is a God of second chances. We can make mistakes and turn back to Him and He will take us back and give us something to do for Him, making us useful and productive.

In chapter 4, verse 2, Jonah said he knew God is gracious. This means God does things out of love, even for people who do not deserve it.

Jonah also said God has compassion. That is another form of love. God expresses His love toward those who deserve nothing. Psalm 103 describes God's compassion, His mercy. He is slow to anger. He is patient with us. Why didn't God wipe out the Ninevites? Because He loves them, even if they did not love Him. He is patient

patient with them and wants them to come to Him. That is why He sent Jonah to them.

Jonah said God spared Ninevah because God is abounding in love. God has so much love it overflows.

Then Jonah said God relents from sending calamity. God is willing to accept people who have seen where they have gone wrong and who truly repent, turning away from the wrong way and going God's way. God allows them to start over again. And God will not keep bringing up our mistakes and throw them in our faces. We are forgiven, and God is not keeping count.

So, when people make mistakes, repent, and turn back to God and His way, we should not keep bringing up their past. God doesn't.

Jonah did not think God should have compassion on the Ninevites. God says He will have compassion on anyone He wishes. He loves all people, even Israel's enemy.

God still loves all people today, even our enemies. I watched a program on the History Channel a couple of weeks ago. It told of an American soldier held captive by the Japanese during World War 2. He was brutally treated. When the war ended, he went to Japan as a missionary to tell the people of God's love. That is hard to do. Jonah struggled over this.

Elizabeth Elliot spoke at a church I pastored back in the 1970s. It was on the anniversary of the day her husband, Jim Elliot, was killed by members of the Auca tribe in South America. He and three other men had gone to tell the tribe about Jesus and God's love for them.

Following his death at the hands of the tribe, Elizabeth Elliot went to this same tribe to tell them about Jesus and God's love for them. She did not hate them. She loved them with the love of Jesus. She even lived among them and saw them converted to Christ.

Think about this. God wants to express His love

love for everyone through us. Every person we see today and this week is loved by God. He loves them as much as He loves us. If there are people we do not like, God loves them just as much as He loves us. He is willing to accept them if they will turn to Him through Jesus.

God wants us to see people as He sees them. God wants us to show His love to them by our words and by our deeds. Wherever we go we are to faithfully proclaim God's message. He does not want us to disobey as Jonah did. God shows mercy to us that we might show mercy to others.

St. Paul's United Methodist Church

335 Smyth Road

Manchester, NH 03104

Sunday School: 9:00 a.m.

Sunday Worship: 8:00 a.m. and 10:15 a.m.

603-647-7322