CSSA 1-3-13 - JONAH THE PROPHET

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63. JONAH THE PROPHET

"The people of Nineveh believed God."

Aim

To show how God's mercy was shown even to a Gentile nation.

The prophet Jonah prophesied in Israel after Elisha had died. In his days God delivered Israel from her enemies in the north, but Jonah knew that unless the people repented of their wicked ways and turned back to God, He would not spare them forever. He would punish them by-sending other stronger nations against them who would drive them out of their land (see Deu teronomy 28:15, 25). Jonah himself had a lesson to learn about God's mercy.

Jonah 1-3

JONAH DISOBEYS GOD: Jonah 1:1-3

The word of God came to Jonah with a strange command: "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me" (v2). God would give the people of Nineveh 40 days in which to repent or they would be destroyed (vv 3-4).

Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, that mighty and cruel na tion whom Israel feared most of all.

Jonah loved his own people dearly and spent all his efforts in teaching them how to worship their God, so that He might bless them. He could not understand why God was giving Israel's bitterest enemy the opportu nity to be saved from the punishment they so rightly deserved. He was afraid that they would repent and God would use them to punish Israel.

So Jonah decided to take matters into his own hands. If only he could get far away from Nineveh, they would not hear God's message calling on them to repent and so they would be destroyed. He knew very well how wrong it was to disobey God, but he was prepared to give his life to spare his people.

He went straight to the port of Joppa and found to his relief, a ship which was sailing for Tarshish, a land far off to the west. He paid his fare and went on board.

GOD SENDS A STORM: Jonah 1:4-7

The ship set sail and the long journey began. For a moment it seemed that Jonah had escaped the task of preaching to the Ninevites. God, how ever, is true to His word and able to see all that is done. Nothing is hid den from His eyes. The word that He speaks will be done and no man can change that (Isaiah 55:10-11).

Before long God sent a great wind upon the sea. A furious storm arose which threatened to break up the ship. The sailors were terrified and cried to their gods to save them. (These gods were only idols and of course could give them no help). They threw the tackling out of the ship to lighten it, but the storm still raged around them.

Down below, Jonah was fast asleep. The captain of the ship found him there and roused him. "What meanest thou, O sleeper?" he cried, "Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not" (v 6). Everyone on board was convinced that this terrifying storm was a punishment sent from God. So they cast lots to see who was to blame, "and the lot fell upon Jonah " (v 7). They all began to question him: "What is thy occupation? and whence contest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? " (v 8).

Jonah was wide awake now. The storm did not frighten him, for as he told them, "I fear Yahweh, the God of Heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land (v 9). He confessed that he had been trying to flee from the presence of Yahweh and they were filled with fear when they realized the power of the God whom Jonah worshipped. Something had to be done, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous. "What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? " they said (v 11). "Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea, " Jonah replied. "So shall the sea be calm, unto you: for 1 know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you" (v 12).

Though the men were anxious and feared for their own safety, the thought of deliberately throwing Jonah overboard into the raging sea hor rified them. They tried to row harder to bring the ship to land, but they could not. So they cried unto Yahweh. It seemed that they must do as Jonah said, but prayed that God would not hold them guilty, for they believed Jonah, that God had sent the storm because of him.

Then they took Jonah up and threw him into the sea and the sea became calm. Jonah had spoken the truth € his God was indeed the Lord of all the earth and sea. They immediately offered a sacrifice to Him to show their thanks and vowed that they would serve Yahweh. So the men were saved by sending Jonah to his death.

Yet Jonah did not die. God in His wonderful love and mercy, had prepared a great fish to swallow him up. There he remained in the belly of that great fish for three days and three nights.

JONAH OBEYS GOD'S WORD: Jonah 2 and 3

While Jonah was kept miraculously alive in the belly of the great fish, he remembered his God and his own foolishness in trying to run away from doing God's command. He prayed that God would save him, deciding that he would do as God had said. So Jonah humbled himself and repented of his disobedience. "And Yahweh spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land" (2:10).

The word of God now came to Jonah the second time, command ing him to preach His words to Nineveh. It was a huge city, about 80 kilometres in circumference. As Jonah began to enter into the city he cried out for all to hear, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be over thrown" (Jonah 3:4).

The people of Nineveh were shocked at the judgment Jonah was proclaiming and they "believed God". When the king heard his urgent message, he took off his royal robes and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes, as a sign of sorrow and repentance. All the people, from the least to the greatest, did likewise. The king proclaimed a fast and ordered everyone to "cry mightily unto God" and to turn from their evil ways. "Who can tell, " the king of Nineveh said, "if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not? (v 9). When God saw how they repented and turned from their evil ways, He did indeed show mercy and did not destroy them.

LESSON FOR US

This story speaks a lot about repentance. God wanted Nineveh to repent of their evil ways or He would destroy them. To "repent" means to be sorry for our past sins and change our ways. Jonah disobeyed God but he humbled himself and was saved from drowning. When the men of Nineveh heard Jonah's preaching they repented € they had a change of heart and prayed to God to forgive them. Each one of us must consider our ways every day. If our parents or teachers point out to us where we have displeased them we must humble ourselves and change our ways. The words of the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost are important for each and every one of us. "Repent", Peter said, "and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38).

ADDITIONAL NOTES

JONAH LEARNS OF GOD'S MERCY: Jonah 4

Jonah was not happy. The very thing that he dreaded had happened. He felt very angry. "/ knew that thou an a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness", he prayed. Jonah thought God should only show such kindness to Israel, certainly not to their enemies. He prayed to God to take away his life. God, however, preserved Jonah as he had to learn that God is ''not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance'' (2 Peter 3:9). God would only destroy those who refused to listen to His word € whether they were Jews or Gentiles.

The apostle Peter had to learn the same lesson many years later. He learned that "in every nation he that feareth God, and worketh right eousness, is accepted with Him " (Acts 10:35). How grateful we can be that God is like that, for we are Gentiles to whom God has shown His truth and given us a hope of salvation.

THE SIGN OF THE PROPHET JONAH: Matthew 12:38-41

The Lord Jesus Christ used the story of Jonah as a sign to the Jews of his day. The Scribes and Pharisees doubted that he was the Messiah, the "anointed" of God. So he used this sign to point forward to his death and resurrection. It was his resurrection from the dead that made many believe in him.

"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale s belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth " (v 40).

God brought Jonah out of the belly of the fish after three days, in which he was as good as dead. Then he went straight to Nineveh, where he preached God's message to the people, calling upon them to repent.

Jesus was in the grave for three days and nights after which he rose from the dead (Luke 24:5-7; Acts 2:31). After that, he taught his disci ples for forty days, before he was taken up into heaven (Acts 1:3,9).

The Lord Jesus Christ is the first to be raised from the dead and given immortal life, but God has graciously offered this same hope of immortality to all who believe and obey Him (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

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