When Two Wills Collide | Jonah 1:1-3
Now, even though we've been working through the book of Genesis for the past few weeks, don't let the scripture reading throw you off. We're actually still on the same sermon series that we’re calling "in between”
A series aimed to help us to think about life in the in between. In between creation and consummation….between the beginning of God's story that he's writing and the very end where he brings things to a climactic conclusion.
When you look at the Bible’s story, yes, the beginning is fascinating and the end is exciting…. but that's not where we live our lives is it? And so for the next several months, we’re looking at various bible books to help us understand what life is to look like for the Christian right now.
And so, in the book of Genesis, Ryan is helping us to understand God's overarching plan for our lives in between the beginning and the end…. And in a couple of weeks, Jack will open up the book of second John to help us understand more about what it means to walk as a Christian in the in between.
And today and next week, we're beginning a close look at the book of Jonah.
Now if I were to ask people who were at least somewhat familiar with the Bible, what they thought the book of Jonah was about… what do you think the majority would say? What’s the first thing that comes to almost everyone’s mind when you mention Jonah? The great fish! And that’s what it’s about right? Wrong. The fish plays a small supporting role in this story…
Others will say it’s about Jonah…the runaway prophet… and indeed that’s a major focus of the story… and we’ll talk a lot about him throughout this series…
But ultimately the book of Jonah isn’t about a fish…or a prophet… ultimately the book of Jonah is about God… more specifically it’s about the grace of God…
…a grace that is mind-blowing and shocking… a grace that seems even scandalous…. A grace that is generously extended by a loving God to us in the in-between. And my prayer is that our journey through Jonah will encourage you as you learn about God’s grace… that you’ll be equipped to be a person of grace… and that you will ultimately better see and savor and embrace the source of all grace…the Lord Jesus Christ…
Ryan just read the first three verses of Jonah and I have just three simple points for us to reflect on as we start to get acquainted with this book
God gives Jonah a great commission
Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai…
(Jonah 1:1)
Jonah is a prophet… one who receives direct revelation from God… but to set some context this isn’t the first time in the Bible we meet Jonah… we’re first introduced to him in the book of 2 Kings…
It’s the 8th century BC… Israel has been in rebellion against God… entangled in idolatry and all kinds of immorality and in judgment God allowed their enemies to oppress them and they began to lose some of their territory… Israel’s borders were shrinking…
But God raises up Jonah… from Gath-Hepher… in Northern Israel… in the region we know as Galilee… And God gives Jonah a surprising ministry…we’re told that the King Jeroboam
…did what was evil in the sight of the LORD….he made Israel to sin. He restored the border of Israel… according to the word of the LORD…which he spoke by his servant Jonah.…
(2 Kings 14:24–25)
Isn’t that surprising? The message that Jonah brought was a positive message! A message of prosperity! Your borders will be restored Israel! And why? Because Israel is repenting? No…
For the LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter…and there was none to help Israel. But the LORD…saved them by the hand of Jeroboam…
(2 Kings 14:26–27)
The Lord is kind in spite of the evil of Israel and her king…They deserved judgment, but God gives them grace.
And so the word of hope that Jonah proclaims becomes true and the people enjoy God’s blessing…
It’s not hard to imagine how popular Jonah must have been in Israel… he had a better assignment than previous prophets. Elijah was hated and persecuted and was called a “troubler of Israel..” because he called out the sins of the people and proclaimed God’s judgment… But Jonah is not a “troubler of Israel..” He’s an encourager of Israel…
He definitely had a better gig than Amos and Hosea… Amos was calling Israel to repentance and Hosea was calling Israel a harlot…You can bet THEY weren’t popular in Israel…
Now fast forward to the book of Jonah we again find a word from God coming to him… and I can imagine Jonah anticipating what this word will be… perhaps God might send him another message of encouragement to Israel…
Or maybe God would give a word of warning to Israel…of judgment for their sins… that would not have been surprising in light of the ministries of his fellow prophets…
But the word that Jonah receives… is neither of those things… the word he receives is shocking… even horrifying…
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
(Jonah 1:2)
Now this commission is shocking for multiple reasons… first of all… when God raised up his prophets to speak God’s word… it was to Israel… to the Jewish people… to God’s special, chosen race… never before had God raised up a prophet to go to a foreign land, and preach God’s word to them!
But this word is also shocking because God is sending him to Nineveh… God calls it “that great city..” and indeed it was… it was large…teeming with people… a three day journey from one side of the city to the other… the walls of Nineveh were so thick that three chariots could ride side by side across it… it was very advanced culturally… it was great in many ways… but it was also great in evil…
In Genesis 10 we discover that from it’s very beginning, Nineveh was associated with evil and defiance towards God.
It was the chief city of Assyria…which was the main superpower in Jonah’s day… and the most feared empire in the world…known for their extreme evil and barbaric cruelty…
They were brutal and bloodthirsty…they would pillage and rape and torture… raiding villages and leaving behind pyramids of skulls… a sick calling card. They would burn enemies alive and implement other perverted means of torture….and indeed they boasted in their savagery….
The Bible gives a powerful denouncement and description of the violence of Nineveh in
Nahum 3:1–3
[1] Woe to the bloody city,
all full of lies and plunder—
no end to the prey!
[2] The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel,
galloping horse and bounding chariot!
[3] Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and glittering spear,
hosts of slain,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!
These people were as twisted and depraved as you can imagine… they were the Nazis of the ancient world…
And to make things worse…they were growing in power… and flexing their muscles in the direction of Israel…of Jonah’s people.. conducting campaigns in the region… and so Assyria was a clear and present danger to the national security of Israel…
And so it’s not hard to imagine the utter horror and revulsion swelling up in Jonah’s stomach as God gives him this commission…
Imagine if you were in the 1940’s and God told you to leave America, take your Bible, and go in preach in the streets of Berlin…calling out the wickedness of Hitler’s Germany and warning of God’s judgment on the Nazis. Imagine if you were a Jew and asked to do that??
How outrageous that would be!? And if that happened… the first thing that would be going through your minds would be… “I’m going to die…” But friends, death is NOT Jonah’s primary concern in all of this...and that leads to my second point…
God gives Jonah a great commission
Which leads to a great collision
But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
(Jonah 1:3)
Jonah is running away like a terrified man… and what he fears the most is NOT being murdered by the Assyrians…
Nineveh is wicked…Jonah knows that… God judges the wicked…Jonah knows that… but Jonah also realizes something else…. if God is set on judging Nineveh in this moment… then what’s the point in Jonah being sent to Nineveh…?
What’s the point of telling them about their sins and telling them about the coming judgment?
Why not wipe them out right now, without warning?
… if the doomsday clock has struck midnight for Nineveh… then you would think God’s message to Jonah would NOT be go there… but run for cover! And stay as far away as possible!
But God doesn’t say avoid Nineveh lest you be incinerated… he says go… and preach… and Jonah sees the writing on the wall… he puts two and two together… and, in a moment of clarity…he catches a glimpse of what the prophet Jeremiah writes where God says,
If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.
(Jeremiah 18:7–8)
Jonah knows that God judges the wicked… but Jonah also knows that God gives grace to the wicked when they turn from their wickedness in humility… He knows God is gracious and Jonah does not want these Assyrians to experience the grace of God. He does not want them saved… He wants them damned…
Don’t believe me? Wait till we get to chapter 4…
Friends Jonah was fine with God’s grace…. as long as it was being given to his own people… a persistently rebellious Israel…..But he was not fine with God’s grace given to a Nineveh that might humble themselves and turn from their rebellion because Jonah hated the Assyrians with every fiber of his being…
and he is scandalized by the idea that these foul filthy people would be recipients of God’s grace… and he wants NO part of that… Jonah could not believe it! “I mean, Lord what are you doing here?
These Assyrians deserve judgment for what they’ve done! They aren’t part of God’s people! They’re threatening God’s people and this doesn’t make any sense! They’re barbarians… they’re horrible people… Why not just save nice and respectable people God?… what are we doing getting mixed up with these kind of people?…they can’t have any share in the people of God… this is ridiculous…”
Friends, Jonah was fine serving God as a prophet of prosperity in Israel… as an agent of grace to people just like him… but now he draws the line…which tells you something very important…
Jonah will receive and obey whatever word God gives as long as that word lines up with what Jonah wants and what Jonah thinks should happen.
God says go… and Jonah says no… and we find ourselves staring at a collision between two wills… between God’s way…and Jonah’s way… text says…
But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish…
Now understand…Jonah is in Israel… Nineveh is to the east of Jonah… but most scholars identify Tarshish as the tip of southern Spain… a trip that would take months to complete… in Jonah’s geographic knowledge it’s the very edge of the world… As far from Nineveh as he could get…he wants nothing to do with being an instrument of God’s grace to the Assyrians… as far as Jonah is concerned, “to hell with them…”. Literally.
But friends…. It’s not just Nineveh that Jonah is running from…
It says he rose to flee to Tarshish…from the presence of the LORD.
Jonah is not just rejecting Assyria… he’s rejecting God… he’s fleeing from His presence… now folks it’s not that Jonah is ignorant of God’s omnipresence…that God is everywhere at all times… Jonah knows that… that was his first lesson in prophetic ministry 101….but that phrase, “away the presence of the Lord…”
….evokes Genesis 3, where Adam and Eve, in the wake of their sin, are driven away from God’s presence in Eden… or Genesis 4 where murderous Cain was driven from God's presence…
“Away from the presence of the Lord” in the Bible, is always associated with sin, rebellion, and a rift in man’s relationship with God…
But while Adam and Eve and Cain were forced from the presence of the Lord, Jonah is in willful, self-imposed exile… he’s renouncing his prophetic office, ….his identity as being one of God’s people… and he’s trying to find a new life and identity outside of God’s purposes for him… something he likes better and is more comfortable with….
And at first, things seem to be going in the right way for Jonah… text says,
He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
(Jonah 1:3)
Everything seems to be going smoothly and lining up nicely… and if Jonah was like many professing Christians walking in rebellion it’s not hard to see Jonah spiritualizing this… I mean think about it… Jonah arrives in Joppa…and low and behold…there just happens to be a ship in port…
and it’s not just any ship going anywhere… but it just happens to be going to Tarshish, as far away from Nineveh as can be….
….and oh my…look at this….that ship just happens to have room for a passenger… and it just happens to be leaving right now! And…oh my goodness…. I just happen to have just enough money in my wallet to pay for the ticket!
And if Jonah is like many people today I could see him saying, my oh my! God’s providence is on my side!! Providence being God working through and in the ordinary events of life. It would be easy for Jonah to think, “Everything is lining up so easy… you know maybe God didn’t really want me to go to Nineveh after all… maybe I misheard the message… God must be cool with this because everything is falling into place…lining up just right and smoothly… no resistance…open doors everywhere…. this is incredible!
And everything was lining up nicely for Jonah… circumstances did seem favorable…. But all the while…watch this… Jonah is in complete and utter rebellion against God….
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard professing Christians justify sin because providentially the path to rebellion seems easy and smooth….
As one preacher once said that,
If you want to run from God, there will always be a ship ready to Tarshish.
You have an enemy whose whole role is to “ready the ship” for your disobedience! If you always allow your eyes to wander, there will almost always be a girl who will return your flirtations. If you want out of your marriage, there will always be a “too good to be true” relationship that presents itself. If you tolerate greed in your life, there will always be a great deal on something to buy, or way to cheat or steal to get ahead! - JD Greear
People often neglect God’s clear word and judge reality based on circumstances around them…
Charles Spurgeon writes that we should learn from Jonah that
….providence alone is not a sufficient guide for our actions….Precepts, not providences, are to guide believers…There are devil’s providences as well as divine providences, and there are tempting providences as well as assisting providences, so learn to judge between the one and the other.
The book of Jonah opens up with God setting his gaze upon a great evil that has come up before Him…. a willful evil… a sick, twisted and perverted evil… a shocking and grotesquely defiant evil… and I am NOT talking about the Assyrians….
God gives Jonah a great commission
Which leads to a great collision
Which presents a great challenge (to us)
You know it’s interesting that we’re beginning a study in Jonah right now… because just 3 days ago Jews worldwide observed Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement… where they read from the book of Jonah… and when they’re done, some Jewish congregations reply by confessing…, “we are Jonah…”. That’s not a bad practice at all….
Because as we go through Jonah it will be easy to laugh at this man… thanking God that we’re not as idiotic as him. Thinking that “if God talked to me…if He gave ME a clear word… a direct revelation from Him… I’d sure listen and obey!”
But we better get the log out of our own eye…
God has given us a word as clear as anything God said to Jonah…. right here in the Bible in our hands or on our devices.…
Where we find clear direct words from the Lord about sexual purity…. about love and self-control…covetousness and greed….and anger….. And so much more!
And yet how often we have ignored this word and run in the opposite direction… because we are Jonah…
Don’t believe me? Need examples? Let’s start with the young people…
Kids…teenagers…God says to you…. Arise! Go! And obey your father and mother…honor them and respect them… do not curse them…. And yet how often have you said NO and went the other way… kids…you are Jonah…
God says to church members… Arise! Go! And be kind and tenderhearted to one another…. forgiving one another as God has forgiven you… And we say no! That person offended me…that person let me down again…I don’t want to reconcile…You are Jonah!
Husbands… God gives you clear prophetic, authoritative revelation…The word of the Lord says to you Arise! Go! And love your wife as Christ loved the church! Serving and laying down your life for her…. dying to your own preferences….
not being harsh but living with her in an understanding way….. and yet how many times have you said no to God and ran the other way…justifying your harsh anger or indifference….running from God to your hobbies…or to your careers… or to pornography and lustful fantasies… You are Jonah!
Brothers and sisters, God says to all of us… Arise! Go! And make disciples of all nations…. Tell people about the grace and mercy and forgiveness found in Christ…. and we run from that word…
Really God? I’m going to have to talk to those kinds of people about Jesus? Can’t I just engage with people I’m comfortable with?…..who are like me?
That person is a jerk… I don’t want to deal with her… He’s a meth addict?…no thanks! …..that person is wrapped up in an unbiblical lifestyle that repulses me….Oh and her? A conversation about Jesus with her will be too hard, too weird and too uncomfortable…
He’s an ex-convict are you serious? That person is transgender and they’ve got all the surgeries and hormones…and…and…. you fill in the blank Main Street Church. Who makes you uncomfortable? What kind of sinner are you tempted to turn up your nose at and despise… to say “let them burn God!” Nobody here would ever say that out loud…but what does the disposition of our hearts say?
And how many churches…are full of how many people…who have looked out towards a world… a town… a neighborhood… full of lost people who do not know God and are under the shadow of God’s wrath and we have unwittingly taken on the spirit of Jonah because we don’t like, don’t trust, don’t love the people around us…
And it’s easier to keep our mouths shut for Christ because to speak of Christ would bring about way more discomfort and disruption into a life that we just want to keep peaceful and safe… don’t tell me I’m the only one in this room who struggle with this!
Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters… can we all humble ourselves enough to say “We are Jonah!!”
And every time we sin it’s saying NO to God and it’s fleeing to Tarshish! More than that.. it’s idolatry…. Because when His will collides with ours… and when we choose our will… our path…our preference…over Him… we have in that moment declared ourselves to be Lord…
Friends the people of Nineveh may worship a fish god…but the tug on my heart is to worship Demer Webb! That’s my problem! And apart from God’s gracious intervention in my life I will destroy myself! And I suspect you can identify…
And so if we’re going to read and interpret the book of Jonah rightly…. If we’re going to receive and enjoy the encouragement and grace that God wants to shower upon us as we read this book….if we want maximum benefit from this book… the very first thing we need to do is humble our hearts, look in the mirror…and see the reflection of Jonah staring back at us… because we are Jonah….
That’s a hard thing to confess… but it’s also the gateway to enjoying more of the rich blessings that God has for us in this book and in our lives…
…because God opposes the proud… but gives grace to the humble…
(James 4:6)
Jonah is anything but humble… but even so the book starts out with God taking the initiative and moving towards Jonah in grace… how so?
Jonah had a dream… certain desires… a certain vision of how he thought life should be… it probably included a nice comfortable ministry in Israel…. Maybe the expansion and strengthening of Israel’s borders… it certainly included safety from Assyria… it definitely did not include a hopeful future for the wicked Ninevites…
but God comes in and totally messes up Jonah’s plans and dreams… why? Because God is mean? No… because God has a better plan… a better way….
And even in these opening verses God is giving Jonah great grace…because it’s only when God’s word threatens the desires of Jonah’s heart that his idolatrous sin was exposed…
You see the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit…and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
(Her 4:12)
God gives Jonah His Word… and it reveals Jonah’s ugly thoughts and heart.
And when God exposes our hearts by that cutting word…and by denying us what we want…and when we see ourselves responding in ugly ways… that’s actually the goodness and grace of God coming into your life to expose something…and to release you from the bondage of slavery to self and to things that will never ultimately satisfy you…
In order to drive you in desperation to the only one who can ultimately meet every need you have… God Himself… that’s kindness and that’s grace…
And so is there something that God is calling you to do… or calling you to not do….and you don’t like it…and you are running away and resisting that because you know that to go God’s way means death to those desires…
And the crucial question is…. what will you treasure more? If you go this way in following God and it means this other thing you wanted…and were chasing after will be lost… is it worth it??
That’s the most important question of the morning…the most important question of your life… Is the treasure in God and His way here, better than whatever treasure I’m eyeing over there?
And the Bible says…. Not only is it better…. It’s infinitely so…
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44)
Anything you lose in pursuit of God and His purposes does not compare to the value of what you gain in God…. But Jonah doesn’t believe it…do you?
Now the backdrop of Jonah’s unbelief…as ugly as it is…makes the grace of God shine all the more clear…
Because God could have easily just let Jonah go to Tarshish… God doesn’t need Jonah…God could have said fine….you’re done with me…I’m done with you… you will never be used again and you will rot in Tarshish…
But the Lord doesn’t just care about God’s mission…He cares about God’s man… This book is not just about the grace of God towards Assyria… the mission to Assyria is the backdrop for God to give some very tough but necessary lessons of grace…to a runaway prophet…and to us….
We all need this little book and the lessons it contains… because we all are Jonah… all of us except for one…
Centuries after the time of Jonah… God raised up another prophet from Northern Israel…from the region of Galilee… and unlike Jonah of Gath-Hepher…Jesus of Nazareth always heard and obeyed the Word of the Father…
Unlike Jonah… Jesus was perfect and holy… If anyone had a right to run away from a twisted and idolatrous people like us to face the wrath of God that we deserve…it was Him…
But Jesus doesn’t run away from us…. He runs towards us… He befriends sinners… He shows mercy to thieves… He extends grace to harlots…
Jonah flees from sinners… Jesus pursues them… to rescue them… He doesn’t run to Tarshish… He marches towards Golgotha… to a cross…
… and as Jesus feels the horror and dread of that cross… as He anticipates the foul sin of the Assyrians and Jonah and your sin and mine placed on him…
And those sins being judged in Him on the cross as the anger and judgment of God is poured out on Him in the place of His people… Jesus feels a holy turmoil and dread in his soul….
…as He considers the Father’s will… He says “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” (Luke 22:42)
If it’s possible, let me not experience this dreadful thing!”
And in that moment the question is…. Will Jesus run like Jonah in the face of something far more scandalous than what Jonah was called to do? Surely all the powers of Hell were tempting Jesus…
Perhaps the devil himself whispering Jesus’ ear “… those humans don’t deserve to be saved… they are foul and filthy and have rebelled against you…just let them burn!"
But Jesus had a clear word from the Lord… Arise! Go! And die! And in response Jesus says,
Not as my will… but yours be done!
These people are evil… they are liars and rebels… and I love them… I love the Assyrian people! I love Jonah! I love the people of Main Street Church!
… and the next day He went to the cross… and paid the price for Jonah’s rebellion… and for the brutality of the Assyrians… and for the shameful sins committed by people in this very church… and for this pastor… and for all who would trust and believe in Jesus… serving as our sacrificial substitute, so that we might be spared from the wrath and condemnation of God…and instead receive eternal life….And why?
Because Jesus is not Jonah…
Well I’d like now to invite our band now to come forward and play instrumentally and as they do let’s consider how what we have heard might apply to us… here’s just a few ideas…
In what way are you like Jonah? Is there something God has called you to do and you’re running from it?
What is that thing you desire so much that you’re willing to run from God to get it?
Are there people in your life that need to hear about Jesus and you’re withholding the Good News from them due to prejudice, bitterness, or unforgiveness?
Thank and praise God for His patience, grace, and mercy towards you!
Have you run from God’s call to repent of your sins and receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Will you stop running and trust Him today?
If you want to talk or pray with someone about any of these things… please come and talk with me after the service… talk with Pastor Ryan… any of our leaders…or a Christian friend… we’d be happy to talk more.
After a moment of quiet reflection we’ll sing together… and after that parents will have an opportunity to get their kids… but for now let’s enter into a time of prayerful response….
