Sermon: Jonah 1: 1-17 Running from God

It’s a whale of a tale, and one we’ve heard from Sunday School days. If we’d asked you on the way in tonight, tell me what you know about the story of Jonah, we would have pieced together a good bit of it, I’m sure. But front and centre of all that you would have said was the whale, or the big fish. It’s probably what Jonah is best known for - and it’s where he ends up at the end of chapter 1.

Now, there’s no doubt that the big fish is a big character in the story of Jonah. But no matter how big the big fish was, there’s someone else who is at the centre of Jonah’s story. And it’s not Jonah, either! At the centre of Jonah’s story, just as at the centre of the whole Bible’s story, is the Lord. So while we’ll hear something about the big fish; and we’ll learn something about Jonah; the whole story is teaching us lots about the Lord.

In the very first words of the story, we see that God speaks and sends. ‘The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”’ (1-2)

God is not silent. He spoke creation into being, and he continues to speak, revealing himself, revealing his will, calling us to himself. We have his word written down for us, through which he speaks to us. But more than that, God speaks and sends.

God sends Jonah to Nineveh. Now, that name might not mean much to us, but Nineveh was one of the cities of the nation of Assyria, one of the superpowers of the day, an enemy and a threat, who would eventually come and destroy the northern kingdom of Israel. Today, it doesn’t go by Nineveh, but you’ve probably heard of it - the city of Mosul in Iraq. And that’s where God sends Jonah to go and preach against it.

So God says ‘Go’ and Jonah says ‘No’. Instead of going east to Nineveh, Jonah heads west, for Tarshish (modern-day Spain). To get there, he has to go by boat, and so he heads to the port at Joppa, he finds a boat going west, pays his fare, and sets sail. And, just to be sure, we’re told in both verse 3 and 4 that he ‘ran away from the LORD... to flee from the LORD.’

Now, quick question for you. Do you think that it’s possible to run away from the Lord? The answer is no! Jonah would have known Psalm 139 which includes these lines: ‘Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand hold me fast.’ (Ps 139:7-10)

Jonah knows this, and yet he persists in trying to run from the Lord. And we know it too, but it doesn’t stop us from trying to run. We know what God wants us to do, and we say no. We try to go the opposite way. Does it work? Did it work for Jonah? Well, let’s see.

It turns out, in verse 4, that the LORD is present on the sea as well. ‘Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.’ (4) The Lord who sent Jonah, also sent the great wind.

It’s such a bad storm that the seasoned sailors are afraid, and they’re crying out to their small-g gods. In fact, it’s so bad, that they even throw the cargo overboard in an attempt to lighten the ship. By doing that, they wouldn’t be paid if they ever made it back to shore - no cargo, no pay. But this was life or death. Better to live and lose out on a payday than to lose their lives at sea.

All this is going on above deck. You can imagine it as a movie - it’s hard to see, the wind howls, the waves lash over the side of the ship, it’s all very dangerous and dramatic. And then the scene changes. It’s all peaceful and calm below deck. Apart from the sound of a snore, coming from Jonah’s mouth. In all that’s happening, Jonah is asleep, blissfully unaware of the danger.

He’s woken by the captain: ‘How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.’ (6) How ironic! The prophet is called to pray by the pagan captain.

Meanwhile, the sailors want to find the scapegoat. They cast lots to find out who to blame. And the lot falls on Jonah. So they want to know who he is and why this is all happening. And his response terrifies them: ‘I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.’ (9)

You see, these pagan sailors would have thought that there were lots of small-g gods. Each of those gods had some sort of speciality, or some sort of local influence. So they believed in gods of war, and love, and travel, and each village or nation would have had its own deity. But Jonah says that he is part of the one true God’s people - the God over all, who made everything, including the sea which troubles them!

You’ve heard the phrase, ‘out of the mouths of babes’ - well here, it’s ‘out of the mouths of pagans’ as they ask him: ‘What have you done?’ How could you try to run away from the God who made everything? He had already told them that he was running away from the Lord. It takes these pagan sailors to point out Jonah’s stupidity!

While they’ve been talking, the sea has been getting rougher. It’s getting worse, rather than better. And so they ask what they can do to make the sea calm again. Jonah says to throw him overboard. But they can’t even think of doing that. It would be certain death. And so they try even harder to row back to land, but the sea gets worse again. And so, eventually, they agree to Jonah’s idea.

And as they prepare to throw him overboard, as they sacrifice him to the sea, they cry out to the LORD. ‘O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased.’ (14)

Remember back in verse 6 when the captain told Jonah to call on his god? Now the whole crew are calling on Jonah’s God, wondering if he will take notice of them, so that they don’t perish.

Then they threw him overboard, splash, and the raging sea grew calm. Just like that. In an instant. The roaring wind and the raging waves are stilled. And in an instant, they know that their pagan gods are worthless. They know that Jonah’s God is the one true God. Do you see how they respond? ‘At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.’ (16)

Jonah, the world’s worst prophet, and most reluctant missionary, was the means by which a group of pagan sailors encountered the one true God. But it isn’t just that God was entirely at the mercy of Jonah, and God sits around wondering what we’re going to do, and maybe has to frantically change his plans based on what we decide to do or not do. God wasn’t sitting on heaven’s throne getting updates from an angel, saying things like, what? He’s not going to Nineveh? What? He’s getting on a boat? Ok, plan B everyone, let’s try to turn this thing around.

No, as the whole Bible shows us, and as Jonah’s story shows us, God is sovereign over everything. He is so sovereign that even our rebellion can be used by him to bring glory to his name. God knew what Jonah would do, and had purposed to bring those sailors to himself through Jonah’s running away.

And we see God’s sovereignty in the last thing he sends in this first chapter. It’s the thing that Jonah is best known for, and yet we’re not quite sure exactly what it was. A whale? A big fish? Whatever it was, it was provided by the Lord, as Jonah’s submarine accommodation for three days and three nights.

As big as the big fish is, though, we see that God is bigger, and is front and centre in this whale of a tale. We see how God speaks, and sends, and is sovereign as he calls people to call on his name.

You see, we all have run away from the Lord. All of us know what the Lord requires of us, and we go our own way. And we think we can get away with it. Yet God, in his grace, sends his own Son to save us.

It was Jesus who came to give himself to appease God’s wrath. Jesus was thrown into the stormy sea to bring us peace. He took our sins, the wrong things we have done, and our sinfulness, and he paid the penalty for them.

And Jonah points us towards the Lord Jesus. You see, just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the fish, so Jesus was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matt 12:40) Jesus died, and was buried, but on the third day rose again, as God’s sovereign saving purpose had always planned.

So if you’re running from the Lord, stop running. You can’t outrun God. You can’t outfox God’s sovereign purpose. He calls you to call on his name and give him the glory.

This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday evening 19th January 2020.