The Bible from 30,000 feet,
soaring through the scripture from Genesis to Revelation. [MUSIC PLAYING] Our flight tonight goes
from Joppa to Nineveh. If it was in modern
terminology, we would say the flight takes
off in Tel Aviv-- that's where the airport is in
Israel right by Joppa. We're going from
Tel Aviv to Mosul. You've heard of that word. It's in the news. It's where ISIS had
its headquarters, the caliphate for a long
time, and they're still around that area. So it's interesting to me
that the story of Jonah is not an outdated story. If you were to tell a
Jewish person, go to Mosul, he would have second thoughts,
and this Jewish prophet, Jonah, is told to go to Mosul
to go to Nineveh. Now, some of the
prophets we have noticed are called major prophets. We have noted that. Some are called minor prophets. Jonah could be called
the missing prophet. He's missing in action. He's gone AWOL. Some prophets are
even designated as pre-exilic prophets,
that is prophet who writes before the exile, pre-exilic. Some are called
post-exilic prophets. So you have pre-exilic
and post-exilic. I would put Jonah in just
the pathetic category. What kind of a prophet is
a guy who says no to God when God gives him a mission? Another way to look at it
is some of the prophets were called by God to go down
south, the southern kingdom and preach, Judah. Others were sent up north to the
northern kingdom called Israel. God called Jonah to go east,
but he decided to go west. I mean, we have every
direction represented here. Some people will do just about
anything to get out of a task, to evade their responsibility
or to avoid their calling. It's always good to ask
what God has gifted you for and called you to and where
your wheelhouse is, where your sweet spot in life
operates by the grace of God, and say yes to that. Say yes to the
opportunities before you. But for Jonah, the call
of God, he hears it, but it's like I'll do
anything except go to Nineveh. It reminds me of a couple guys. There were two guys who-- this is a couple of days
before Christmas Eve-- decided to go sailing while
their wives went shopping. They got out on the boat. Wives are shopping. They're sailing. They're out in the ocean. Storm comes up. It gets windy. It gets nasty. The wind is beating
against them, the waves beating against them. Then they get
stuck on a sandbar, and so they're
lodged in the mud. They hop out of the boat. They're sweating. They're trying to
push the boat out. And it's just grueling
and hard, and one turns to the other with a big smile,
says, this sure beats Christmas shopping, doesn't it? And actually, it
does, in my opinion. The book of Jonah is short. If you have read
it, you know that. Hopefully you read
it before tonight. The book of Jonah has four
chapters, but altogether 48 verses. 48 verses is the whole book,
1,328 words in the entire book. But it's significant enough
to take it as one unit. So we're flying simply
from Joppa to Nineveh. We're going to just cover
in the book of Jonah and no other minor prophets. The question comes, what kind
of story are we dealing with? Is it to be taken
literally, or is it, as some say, an
ancient myth on the level of a Greek mythological
rendering of something? Or even a Jewish
fable, a Jewish tale? Something that you
would tell your kids, it didn't really happen. In fact, perhaps
some would say, it's a story of a man who was
on a boat and had a dream, and this is the
rendering of the dream that this guy named Jonah had. None of it really happened. Others will call it an allegory,
not literal, not mythological, but simply an allegory. That is, one thing is
emblematic of something else. So Jonah is a
symbol of the Jews. The whale is a symbol
of Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, who
swept Israel away in a storm and swallowed them
up, a military storm, and brought them into captivity. And the reason people have
problems with the book of Jonah is, well, have you
read the book of Jonah? I mean, it's like really? You're saying this
really happened? This literally happened? I mean, I don't know if
I can swallow this story. It's just-- it's
just too deep for me. So you need to hear this. Without giving you a
whole bunch of evidence of why it could be-- and I
want to give you a little bit. But let's just cut
to the chase here. This is what Jesus said in
the New Testament book-- I'm reading out of
Matthew chapter 12. He said, "For as Jonah was
three days and three nights in the belly of the great
fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise in
judgment with this generation and condemn it,
because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and,
indeed, a greater than Jonah is here." If the story of Jonah is
mythological or allegorical, if it is not literal, then
Jesus Christ is a liar. The veracity of
the words of Jesus are at stake when we are
dealing with the story of Jonah and Nineveh. According to Jesus' words, he
correlated an historical figure named Jonah, a real place in
antiquity named in Nineveh, acknowledged a massive revival-- by the way, we're dealing
with the biggest revival known to man in history. Jesus acknowledged that and
state the veracity of Jonah and the fish story with his own
death and bodily resurrection. If Jonah didn't happen, then
we shouldn't believe the death and resurrection
happened, because he correlated both of them. So that just sort of
cuts to the chase. That's why I believe
it's literal. Also, it is written in
simple narrative form like many other historical
documents, without sensation. Just statements are made. So again, we've said
this quite often. But if you think about it,
it will really help you. The big roadblock is not
Jonah chapter 1 or chapter 2 or chapter 3 with the revival. The big roadblock
is Genesis 1:1. If you can get over
that, the rest is easy. If we're dealing with a
God who can speak worlds into existence,
universe into existence, galaxies into existence,
if God, in the beginning, created the heavens and
the earth, my goodness, this is a walk in
the park, right? This is chump change. This is easy. So you get past that,
and the rest of the Bible can fall into place for you. So it's written in just
normal historic narrative. Number two, there
was an historian in antiquity named Josephus,
Flavius Josephus, very detailed. He wrote several volumes, the
wars of the Jews, the history of the Jewish people, telling
about battles and about movements in great
detail, and he wrote about the book of
Jonah as an historical story that happened. So that is one source,
other Hebrew sources, the fact that it's written
in plain, straightforward narrative form,
but also the fact that Jesus said it happened,
and he correlated that to his death and resurrection. So there's four chapters. I've outlined the book,
according to each chapter and with the analogy
of running, OK? So chapter one is
called Running from God. Chapter two, you could
call it running to God. Chapter three, you could name
Running with God and chapter four, A Run-In with God. So you're running
to, from, with, and then you're fighting
what God is doing. You're having a run-in with God. So we begin with running
from God, chapter 1 verse 1. "Now, the word of the Lord came
to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying--" Now, we don't
know much about Jonah, but we do know what
town he's from. Doesn't say so here. But Second Kings chapter 14
mentions Jonah, a prophet, Jonah the prophet being from
a town called Gafheffer. Gafheffer was a town
in the Galilee region. It is a town today identified
by the Arabic term el Meshed. And el Meshed or
Gafheffer, his hometown, is just four miles northeast
of the town of Nazareth. So next time you're in
Israel, go check out el Meshed, Gafheffer. That's where he is from. That's where Jonah was from. I'm am pointing this
out because there is an occasion in
the Gospel of John when Jesus is having a
run-in with the Pharisees, the Pharisees dispatch some
officers to arrest Jesus. They don't do it. They come back empty handed. The Pharisees and the
chief priest, say, well, why didn't you bring him? And all they could do is say
nobody spoke like that guy. That guy can give sermons, man. He's good. Wow, it was awesome. They came up empty handed. They just were amazed
at what they heard. And even Nicodemus spoke
up and said, you know, you can't condemn a man
unless you've tried him, and they rebuke him. They rebuked Nicodemus,
and they say, are you taken in by this guy? And then they said
this, "Search and look, for no prophet has
arisen out of Galilee." Do you remember that? No prophet has arisen-- they said that oh
so emphatically. I guess they need-- none of
them had quiet time that morning in Second Kings 14. If they had or if they knew
the existence of that text, they wouldn't have
said what they said, for indeed a prophet did arise
out of Galilee before Jesus of Nazareth, and that
was Jonah, of Gafheffer, and by the way,
Elijah the Tishbite. That's also up in the Galilee
region, but to the east. Anyway, the name Jonah means
dove, which is emblematic-- typically, a dove is
emblematic of somebody who's very peaceful, pacifistic,
docile, even obedient. Does not fit Jonah at all. This guy had a good name, but
he didn't live up to his name. He lived the
opposite of his name. You know, there's some people
that they don't fit their name. Imagine a legalistic church
lady by the name of Grace. All right, it's like, boy
I wish you could get some. You need some. You've got a great name. But you don't live up to it. But then there are people
who do live up to their name. I had a dentist who
was just hard, harsh, seemed mean, didn't
believe in much anesthesia, didn't believe in
much Novocaine, kind of said, buck
up, get over it, kid, I remember one occasion. And he was appropriately named
Dr. Steele, as in nerves of. Jonah, dove, doesn't quite
fit, because verse 2, the Lord said to him, "Arise,
go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for
their wickedness has come up before me." Nineveh was the capital of
the ancient Assyrian empire. Nineveh began when
it was built by a guy by the name in
Genesis of Nimrod, the great grandson of Noah. He built the city. It became an ancient superpower,
and the capital of it was Nineveh, one of the most
powerful cities in the Middle East on the Tigris
River, and it was located 220 miles
north, northwest of the ancient city of Babylon. So it is in Iraq, like Babylon. Jonah had a mission,
a preaching mission. Go out and cry against it. Their wickedness has
come up before me. Now, the message God will tell
him to preach is a message he, you would think, as
a Jewish prophet, who was an enemy of
the Assyrians, it was a message he
should have loved. The message that he gives, the
message God gave him to preach in chapter 3 verse 4 is this. In 40 days, Nineveh is
going to be destroyed. It's going to be
overturned, it's going to be overrun he
should have liked that. He should have loved that. But verse 3, but Jonah,
but Jonah, but mister dove man "arose
to flee to Tarshis from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa," found
a ship going to Tarshis. Tarshis is out in Gibraltar,
Spain, 2,500 miles west. Nineveh's 500 miles east. God says, go east. He goes, I'm going to
go west like times four. So he paid the fare,
went down into it to go with them
to Tarshis to flee from the presence of the Lord. To me, it's mind boggling that
any prophet, let alone-- just any follower of God,
but especially a prophet could imagine that
you could escape the presence of the Lord. Like, is that possible? Can you go anywhere? When Jonah was doing
his thing, there was already the book of Psalms. We know that because in
chapter 2, he quotes from them. One of the great
psalms as Psalm 139, where the psalmist says, "Where
can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee
from your presence? If I ascend into
heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in hell,
behold you are there. If I take the wings
of the morning and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the sea--" you know, I've always wondered
what the name of the boat was called that Jonah got on. I don't know what it was called. It doesn't say. But wouldn't it be fine
if the name of the boat was Wings of the Morning? Just a fun thought. "If I take wings of
the morning and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the sea, even there your
hand shall lead me and your right hand
shall lay hold of me." And that is exactly what
happens to Jonah in this story. When it says he left to
the presence of the Lord, it means he's resigning. He's fleeing pleasing the Lord. He's leaving standing
in God's presence as a servant of the Lord. That's the idea behind it. He is handing in his
resignation, saying, I quit the ministry. I don't want to be a prophet. I want to be a
non-prophet organization. I quit. I'm turning it in. Now, this is markedly
different from other people that we know about in the
Bible who tried to quit, but they eventually did it. Moses tried to quit. Moses said, I can't speak. I'm not going to
stand before Pharaoh. I quit. But he went anyway, eventually. Jeremiah was so fed up. He said, I'm not going
to preach anymore. I'm not going to make mention
of the name of the Lord. I quit. But he ended up speaking. He said, the word of the
Lord was in me like a fire. I couldn't contain it. It was so powerful within
me, I couldn't hold it back any longer. But Jonah actually got
on a boat and left. Why? Why would a prophet whose
whole job description is to A, hear from God, B, do what
God says, C, follow through-- if you're a prophet, you're
waiting for a mission. When God gives you a mission,
you're going wow, finally. I get it. So it's like this. You're an astronaut. You train for outer space. But very few people get
sent on the astronaut teams to go into outer space, let
alone to go like to the moon. So you've trained,
you've worked hard. You've been conditioned
for outer space. And then your supervisor
comes to you one day and says, you have been selected for
the next manned mission to the moon. What would your response be? Yeah, you say, oh yeah. Oh yeah, I'm good. You wouldn't say
nah, you know, if I went I'd miss the next episode
of Dancing with the Stars. I'm really into that show. Are you kidding? But Jonah does that. He says, I don't want to go. Verse 4, "But the Lord sent
out a great wind on the sea. And there was a mighty
tempest on the sea so that the ship was
about to be broken up." Now notice a contrast verse 3. "But Jonah," it begins, verse
4 begins, "but the Lord." But Jonah, but the Lord,
but Jonah, but the Lord. So it's like God's saying,
I see your but Jonah, and I raise you one but the
Lord, which is higher stakes. You know, there are some people
that simply hear God's voice and comply. They're the best kind. They read the scripture, and
they go, I'm going to do that. They heard God giving
them a commission, and they go, yes, sir. Right away, sir. Little young Samuel, the
prophet "Speak, Lord. Your servant hears." They're the best kind. But then there are people
that have harder heads. Saul of Tarsus was one. Saul of Tarsus
persecuted the church. Saul of Tarsus tried to
stamp out Christianity. So what got his
attention is getting knocked off his high horse,
literally, hitting the ground, seeing a light from heaven,
being blinded, until he finally goes uncle, I give up. I'll do it your way. Some people need greater means
for God to get their attention. So Proverbs 15:10
says, "Harsh correction is for him who for
snakes the way." Mark that verse, my friend,
if you're hardening your heart against God. "Harsh correction is for
him who forsakes the way." If God's still, small voice
is not enough for you, if God's word in the scripture
is not enough for you, you may want to buy
storm insurance, because something
might be coming. God, just like in the
song, will pursue you because he loves you. He knows what's best for you. And you running to Tarshis
is not best for you, Jonah. Verse 5. "Then the mariners were
afraid, and every man cried out to his God, threw the
cargo that was in the ship into the sea to
lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into
the lowest parts of the ship and laid down and
was fast asleep." What a contrast. You've got praying pagans
versus a pouting prophet who's sleeping it off. So the captain came
to him and said, "What do you mean, sleeper?" I love it when unbelievers
rebuke believers. "What do you mean, sleeper? Arise. Call on your God. Perhaps your God will consider
us so that we may not perish." And they said to
one another, "Come, let us cast lots,
that we may know for whose cause this
trouble has come upon us." So they cast lots. Now that's just superstition. But God was behind the
lot, like the proverb says. "The lot is cast into the
lap, but every decision is from the Lord." They cast lots, and
the lot fell on Jonah. The issue here was between two
persons and two persons only, God and Jonah. Those were the two
individuals at odds, just between God and Jonah. But once Jonah
got on their boat, it's now their problem, too. Once you get around other
people and attach yourself to other people when
you're disobedient, you will affect other people,
just between God and Jonah until they got on their boat. Once he got on their boat,
it became part their problem. Your disobedience
affects other people. Remember Joshua
chapter 7, a guy named Achan, who saw a Babylonian
garment, 200 shekels of silver, a wedge of gold, stole
it, hid it in his tent, buried it in the ground. The children of
Israel were defeated at the town of Ai,
A-I, it's called. Some pronounce it
A-I. It's really Ai. Doesn't matter what
it's pronounced. I don't know why I'm
going on about this. They were defeated
because he did that. His disobedience caused
the death of several people in the camp of Israel. Or David, who at the end
of one of the New Testament books, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel,
2 Samuel, the last chapter, 2 Samuel, the last
couple of chapters, decided to count the
people in the army to see how many fighting men
were a part of his nation. He numbered the people. It caused the life of 70,000
people from the top of Israel down to the bottom
of Israel, Beersheba. 70 died because of one
man's disobedience. When you drag others into your
disobedience, it's problematic. Then they said, verse
8, "Please tell us for whose cause is this
trouble upon us, what is your occupation?" Ooh. He's getting nailed. It reminds me of this true
story when I was pulled over for speeding in my youth. I was in my 20s, maybe
around, maybe 30s, maybe 30s. It was in another state. Pulled over, and the
policeman was so angry. I was on a motorcycle. The wind was-- it was beautiful. But I get pulled
over for speeding. And so the police officer
was very, very insistent, and he said to me, what
do you do for a living? And I said, I'm a teacher. Which is true. Sort of. And he said, oh really,
where do you teach? Now I had to say, at a church. I'm a pastor of a church. You are? So sleeping prophet,
what is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you? So they said to him-- he said to them, "I am a
Hebrew, and I fear the Lord." Yeah, right. I fear Yahweh. That's the covenant name. It's capitalized. See it. That's the covenant
name, Yahweh. "I fear Yahweh,
the God of heaven, who made the sea
and the dry land." So he's sort of witnessing
to them very poorly. Verse 10, "Then the men
were exceedingly afraid, and they said to him,
'Why have you done this?' For the men knew that he fled
from the presence of Yahweh because he had told them." Notice something in verse 5. It says, the Mariners
were afraid, in verse 5. They're afraid of
the circumstances. In verse 10, the men
were exceedingly afraid. Now they're afraid not
of the circumstances, but they're afraid
of the consequences. They're saying, in effect, you
ticked off that God, Yahweh? We've heard about Yahweh. We've heard about the Red Sea. We've heard about Jericho. We heard about Canaan. He has a reputation. That's why they became
exceedingly afraid. In other words,
you bummed him out. And now you're on our boat. That's the implication. I remember when I
was on an airplane, I was finding my seat. I sat down. And a couple of
ladies walked by me. This was years ago as well. And they said, they said,
oh Pastor Skip, so glad to see you aboard this plane. This one lady said,
she demured, she goes, I'm just so afraid of flying. I don't like it. I get unnerved by it. But then I saw you on the plane. And now I know everything's
going to be OK. And I didn't tell her
what I was thinking. I said, oh thank you. But I was thinking,
boy, you know, if I was like
rebelling against God, this is the last plane
you want to be on. Right? Think of this scenario. Think of somebody saying, oh
Jonah, I'm afraid of sailing, but when I saw
you on his boat, I knew everything
was going to be OK. No, get off the boat. Then verse 11. "They said to him, 'What shall
we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?' For now the sea was
growing more tempestuous. And he said to them. 'Pick me
up and throw me into the sea. And then the sea will become
calm for you for I know that this great tempest
is because of me.' Nevertheless, the men
rode hard to return to land but they could not,
for the sea continue to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to
Yahweh and said, 'We pray, oh, Yahweh.'" Now they're
praying to God. Jonah should have
been doing that. "'Please do not let us perish
for this man's life and do not charge us with his innocent
blood for you, oh, Yahweh,"" you, oh, Lord, "'have
done as it pleased you.' So they picked up Jonah,
threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased
from its raging. Notice this. Then the men feared
the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice
to Yahweh and took vows." It's the third time it
mentions they're afraid, but this is for a
very different reason. This is a fear of the Lord. This is a healthy reverential
awe and respect for the Lord to whom they now
offer a sacrifice. And you could even say,
were maybe converted, because of the circumstances
and knowing what Jonah had done. So again, notice the contrast. They're praying. He's sleeping. They rebuke him. He maintains his disobedience. They soften their hearts. He hardens his heart. You know, they say dude,
what should we do to you? He should have said, you
don't need to do anything. I need to repent right now. God, Yahweh, forgive me. He goes, throw me overboard. Really? Really, you don't want to
do what God wants you to do so badly, you'd rather drown. Exactly. I'd rather die than go preach. You're going to find out
why, because that's really-- that's the heart of the story. Why is the prophet doing this? Why doesn't he want to preach a
message of judgment to Nineveh? Verse 17. "Now the Lord prepared a
great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly
of the fish three days and three nights,"
like Jesus affirmed. When it says prepared
a great fish, the Hebrew word
could be translated appointed a great fish. And what's amazing is that
the sailors are compliant. The great fish is compliant. Jonah is the one
guy not compliant. So the reason God
prepare to fish is to save Jonah from drowning. It's to preserve his life. That's one of the sub
things I want you to notice. He throws him overboard
not for a freak show. He would die in the sea. Throw me overboard. He's thinking, this is
it, I'm going to die. God prepared or appointed
a fish to keep Jonah alive because God wants to
use that knucklehead. When a man catches a
fish, not a big deal. But when a fish catches
a man, that's newsworthy. And you say, this is outlandish,
this is preposterous, this sounds fishy. I can't swallow
this whole story. On a scale of 1 to 10,
this is off the charts. Sorry, sorry, sorry. No, I'm not. I'm really not. Now, let me wax
quickly scientific. Some have sought explanations
for what kind of species this could be that
could pull this off. Several suggestions have made
your guess is as good as mine. One of the
suggestions is this is a white shark, a species
known as a white shark, the scientific name
rhinodon typicus. It is up to 70 feet long. It has been shown and noted
to have swallowed men who have lived through the ordeal. That's one. The other guess is
called the finoclon shark that has swallowed
those giant sea cows that can weigh 1,000 pounds
without breaking a single bone. Others have said it could be
a whale that is following-- they follow the ships
often for garbage, and it says back
in verse 5, they were throwing cargo
over the ship. That would include food stuffs. So that could be a possibility. To me the only
candidate that fits the story is what is
called a mysticete, and that category, the mysticete
whale, or the sperm whale, called the catodon
macrocephalus. Their teeth are not for
chewing, but for securing prey, and they have swallowed
creatures alive, like seals alive,
penguins alive. They swallow them whole. They don't chew them up. And they been known to swallow
unusually large objects, like even 15 foot sharks. But putting that aside-- I'll get back to
that in a second. Chapter 2 verse 1,
"Then Jonah prayed." It's a whole sermon right there. They're praying to Yahweh. He's not praying. Throw me over board,
throw me over board. I'm not going to
talk to God at all. Then Jonah prayed. Finally. Thank you, Jonah. When? In a fish gut. I ain't praying. OK, I'll pray. "Then Jonah prayed to the Lord
his God from the fish's belly." After three days of whale
time, now he's ready. The prayer is noteworthy. I've done studies on
it before in depth, but there are nuances
in this prayer of nine different psalms, one quote
from the book of Lamentations and one quote from
the book of Job, all which were extant or readily
available at the time of Jonah. These are not exact quotations. They are free renderings. But of course, he's not pulling
out something and reading it. He's just free
wheeling it right. He's in a fish gut. Verse 2. And he said-- here's his prayer. "I cried out to the Lord
because of my affliction, and he answered me out
of the belly of Sheol, I cried, and you
heard my voice." There's a nuance
here of Psalm 120 and Lamentations chapter three,
out of the belly of Sheol. And I'm in hell here, you
know, down in this fish belly. "For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas. The floods surrounded me. All your billows and
waves passed over me." If you're familiar with
Psalm 42, that rings a bell. It's almost a direct quote. What he's saying in this poetic
prayer language is I messed up, and now I'm paying for it. Verse 4, "Then I said, I have
been cast out of your sight. Yet I will look again
toward your holy temple." Now, some people in hearing
this, they get very suspicious. And they say, oh, come on, this
sounds like a prepared prayer. This is almost too
good of a prayer. When you're in a crisis,
and you pray spontaneously, you don't pray like that. Yes and no. Only if you know-- if you have this is your
background, if you have this in your heart, you know how
they say your life flashes before you? The recall that you
have in a crisis is what you really do know. This is what makes the
prayer all that noteworthy. It shows that Jonah,
the prophet's mind was saturated with truth,
saturated with the word of God, filled with scripture, which is
why Jonah's life is a warning. Here's the warning. Exposure to scriptural truth
doesn't guarantee a godly life. Bible students, those
of us who are exposed to the word of God a lot. Exposure to biblical truth
doesn't guarantee a godly life. He continues. "The water surrounded
me, even to my soul. The deep closed around me. Weeds were wrapped
around my head." That's seaweed. Now, I don't know what a
whale or a fish is like or a mysticete, or a
catodon macrocephalus. I've never been in one. But I have been caught in
seaweed beds, where you're on your surfboard, and
you're kind of stuck, and you can't move in, and
you feel wrapped up by it, and it's a daunting
kind of a feeling. You can only cry, kelp, kelp! I walked you right
into that one. It's an old surf joke
that I couldn't resist. "I went down," verse 6, "into
the moorings of the mountains." But you're having fun, right? OK. OK, very funny. Thank you. Thank you. "I went down into the
moorings of the mountains, the earth with its bars
closed behind me forever. Yet you have brought me
my life up from the pit, oh Lord my God. When my soul fainted within
me, I remembered Yahweh. My prayer went up to you
and your holy temple. Those who regard worthless
idols forsake their own mercy." You need to underline that verse
if you're so inclined to doing so, or mark it in your Bible. This becomes the
lesson of the book. This is what Jonah learned. "Those who regard worthless
idols forsake their own mercy." Loosely translated,
those who run from God tie their own noose and
end up as whale puke. That's a little
PS on the lesson. You know what an idol is? Anything's an idol. Anything that you let
take the place of God as being supreme in
your life is an idol. Jonah had an idol. His name was Jonah. Jonah wanted his will
above God's will. Jonah worshipped Jonah. It was all about Jonah. "Those who regard worthless
idols forsake their own mercy." Verse 9. "But I will sacrifice to you
with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." What kind of a sacrifice
do you make in a fish gut? Here's what he's saying. If I ever get out, I give up. I sacrifice me, the
rest of my life. If I ever get out, I give up. "So the Lord spoke to
the fish, and the fish vomited Jonah onto dry land." Again, the fish
complied when God spoke. You see the contrast
all through the book. God spoke to Jonah. No way. God spoke to the fish. OK. So the whale worked, man. Whales work. That's a bumper sticker. Whales work. That's what Jonah had on
his chariot after that. True story, I read
it in a newspaper. A man in Seattle decided
to go to a camper, a motorhome and
siphon gas out of it. Don't you hate
when that happens? And what he didn't
know is the owner of the motor home happened to be
in the motor home at the time. So he heard the noise. He ran outside to
catch the thief. The thief was on the
ground vomiting, puking. And he discovered
what the problem was. The problem was instead
of siphoning gas putting it into the gas
spout, the gas hole, he put it into the wrong hole
in the motor home, the sewage tank, and so when
the police came, the owner decided no
need to press charges. The natural
consequences are enough. So he didn't get charged. No need. He learned his lesson. He learned his lesson
after the whale. He's done. Now comes the biggest
miracle in the book. Everybody's so concerned about
what's going on in the fish. We should be concerned about
what's going on in Jonah. Because what went on
and Jonah, chapter 2, is what comes out
of Jonah in chapter 3 in the term of obedience. Now we come to the greatest
miracle in the book, a revival of a city, an
ancient city of Nineveh, greater than the
Great Reformation, greater than the
Great Awakening. Even Billy Graham, whenever
he would preach large scale Crusades-- and the
biggest one he ever preached in history was in South
Korea, where at one sitting, he had over a million
people sitting and standing, in and around this arena,
one million people. At best, Graham saw about a 5%
yield, that is, of the crowd, 5% came and made
decisions for Christ. A really great crusade is 10%. Jonah broke the record, 100%. Jesus also affirmed that. Chapter 3 verse 1. "The word of the Lord came
to Jonah the second time saying those were
gracious words." In other words, dude, I'm
giving you a second chance. "Arise. Go to Nineveh, that great city,
and preach to it the message that I tell you." I love the God of second
chances, don't you? You know, Peter knew about that. Peter denied Jesus,
and Jesus came to him after the Resurrection and
said, Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. He commissioned him. He loved him. He let him be used again. So "Jonah arose,
went to Nineveh, according to the
word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an
exceedingly great city, a three day journey in extent." Actually, it was a complex
of four cities that had been independent, that
emerged into one on the Tigris River. It calls it an
exceedingly great city. The walls of Nineveh
were hundreds feet tall. There were 15 gates on the
walls of ingress and egress. There were watchtowers
that jutted up, some of them 100 feet above the
wall, these massive ziggurat towers. So some of them were
200 feet tall, massive. Great, great city. The population of
Nineveh, if we base it on the number given to us in
chapter 4 of Jonah, verse 11, where we numbered
120,000 people living-- 120,000 children
living in the city, we can conservatively
estimate that Nineveh had about 600,000
people, big, big town. Verse 4, "Jonah began
to enter the city on the first day's walk." So he's just walking through. Here come Jonah. "Then he cried out and said,"
here's this message of love, here's this gospel message. Here's this sweet words of
comfort and consolation. "Yet 40 days, and Nineveh
will be overthrown." That's it. That's his whole sermon. He doesn't have three
points and a poem. He didn't have an introduction,
no stories to tell. Just a sentence. That's easy. That's an easy job, you'd think. "Yet 40 days, and Nineveh
shall be overthrown." Remember chapter 1 verse 2? "Its wickedness has
come up before me." I don't have the time, but it
was a very, very wicked city known for piling up skulls,
limbs of its captives, and letting them rot in
the sun, and it was just-- they were very brutal. I won't get into it. I don't have the time. I think enough is enough. So he began to enter the city. And then so verse 5, in a
very understated fashion. So you think the people
of none of Nineveh looked at this nincompoop
and said, go away? "The people of
Nineveh believed God." This is the miracle. "The people of
Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast,
put on sackcloth from the greatest to
the least of them. Then the word came to
the king of Nineveh." The king of Nineveh was
probably Shalmaneser III. He can be identified as
the king from that time, either that or a guy
named Asharnurari. I don't know which. Have fun. Take your pick. Word of the Lord
came to one of those two dudes, king of Nineveh. "He arose from his throne,
laid aside his robe, covered himself with burlap,
sack cloth, and sat in ashes." Now again, some of you
are going, come on. Come on. You mean the whole
metro Nineveh repented? How is that possible? Well, let me just
offer you a suggestion. And I have done in-depth
studies on this, and I refer those
to you to give you more of an explanation,
a scientific explanation. But Jesus did use
the terminology, the sign of the prophet Jonah. In other words, Jonah
himself was a sign. The sign of the prophet Jonah. It could be that Jonah walking
into the city of Nineveh was such a dramatic
sign to them. Let me explain. In 1891, a guy by the
name of James Bartley was aboard a ship. He was an unbeliever. He discounted the book of Jonah. He became a believer
through the ordeal. He became saved. He was on a whaling ship
called the Star of the East. They were whaling off of the
coast of the Falkland Islands. One of the tales of one of
those whales they were chasing, hit the boat, knocked men off,
one man drowned, was killed. Bartley was missing,
assumed dead. They caught a whale,
and if you know anything about whaling how
they would kill them, and then they would haul them up
on these huge whaling vessels, and they would
strip the creature for its oily flesh,
used for oil for lamps, et cetera, for a
number of things. And as they opened
up the whale's belly, they found James Bartley. They found him doubled up in
a fetal position, in a coma, still alive. It took him two
weeks to recover. They took him to
the captain's cabin. He was attended to by
the captain's physician. The acid of the gastric
juices of the creature bleached his face, his
neck, and his hands, those that were exposed, like as
white as wool, white as paper. In fact, it was so curled
up, it had the look and feel of old parchment. The gastric juices had
done that to his skin. And this was written up in the
Princeton Theological Review, I think issue number
25, after it happened, as a documented
piece of evidence. So imagine a guy looking
like that, right, like recycled Michael Jackson. Comes walking through
Nineveh, parchment, you know. Hey. And there is some
evidence that they could have heard about this
ordeal of what happened out at sea and Jonah before
he came into the city. But again, don't have
time to get into that. You can check out other studies. Nonetheless, verse 10. "God saw their works, that they
turned from their evil way, saw the fruit of repentance. And God relented
from the disaster that he said he would
bring upon them. He did not do it." Now chapter 4. We've seen the three
sections, running from God, running to God, and
running with God. Now we get to an interesting
kind of an appendix, and that is a run-in with God. Verse 4. It's interesting that
it begins with the word but instead of and. It says, "But it displeased
Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry." Now it just said that
God relented and turned from the evil he said
he was going to do and he was going
to destroy them. That was the message. Wasn't a happy message, you're
going down, you're all dying. They turn around, and you think
that Jonah would walk away going, and it pleased Jonah
very much that they repented, because he didn't
like him anyway, and now they believe in his God. That's what a prophet would do. "But it displeased
Jonah exceedingly, and he became very angry." Wow. Contrast the God who is slow
to anger with the prophet who is quick to anger. The God who is pleased
that they repent and the prophet who's
displeased that they repent. He is such a bigot. He is so prejudiced. He doesn't want God to
show a favored event. He doesn't want God
to not judge them. He wants a God to wipe them out. But he knows that
God likes mercy. He was merciful to him. And he knew it. He felt it. He experienced it. He knows that God probably
would do it to them. It's the people group he hates. So the prophet of God,
the representative is mad at God's mercy. God's merciful. He's mafioso. I've been told that
the healthiest place-- if you're looking for
the healthiest place to live in the world,
it's not Albuquerque. It's the South Pole. The South Pole's
the healthiest place because germs can't live there. Microbes don't have a chance. It's 100 below zero. That's the point. It's so cold, germs
don't live there, there's really no
dust and toxins, but people aren't
like booking a flight to go to the South
Pole for vacation. It's not like building
up a huge clientele, even as a summer home. There's not people
live in there. Why? Because it's so stinking cold. It's clean, but it's cold. There are some people
that are so antiseptic, they're so clean,
they're so legalistic, they're so truth-oriented,
but no grace, they're cold hearted,
hard to be around them, hard to live with them. Enter Jonah. So he prayed. OK, so he's mad. And so he prays. He's praying again now. But he's mad. He prayed to the Lord. He said, "Oh Lord, was
not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore--" Now you want
to know why he ran from God. He tells. "I fled previously
to Tarshis for I know that you are a gracious
and merciful God, slow to anger, abundant and loving
kindness, one who relents from doing harm. Therefore, now oh Lord,
please take my life from me. For its better for me
to die than to live." If I'd been there, I'd have
said amen, I agree with that. Kill him. If we're still
wondering, though, how this guy could
be such a bigot, maybe this will help you
frame it a little bit. Imagine it's World War II. Every Jew in New York City
hears about Adolf Hitler and the concentration camps
at Auschwitz and Dachau and Birkenau and all
those other ones. They hear about six
million of their brethren being burned to death. And the word of the
Lord comes to a New York Jewish businessman,
arise go to Germany and speak to Adolf Hitler. And if he repents, I'm
going to forgive him. You would read, he went down
to the docks at Manhattan, got aboard a ship
to flee to Hawaii from the presence of the Lord. When we understand the
brutality and the hatred toward the Jewish
people at the time, it helps us understand
a little bit. But, verse 4, the Lord
asks him a question. "Is it right for
you to be angry?" There's going to be a few
questions God is asking to stimulate Jonah's mind. In other words,
here I am pleased. You're displeased. Which one of us, Jonah,
has the right perspective? You're mad that I blessed them. You know, there's some
people that they resent God blessing somebody else. Why isn't God blessing me? Somebody says, hey, Lord
just blessed me this week. I got a brand new car. Oh hallelujah. Or you've been
single, and you've been trying to find a mate
and one of your friends goes, I just got engaged. Hallelujah. The Bible says, "Weep with those
who weep and rejoice with those that rejoice." Easy to weep with
people who are weeping. Hard to rejoice with
those who are rejoicing. "So Jonah went out
of the city sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a
shelter and sat in its shade--" so pathetic, "that he might see
what would become of the city." He's thinking maybe
God is just going to just torch them anyway. "And the Lord God
prepared a plant and made it come up
over Jonah that it might be shade for his head to
deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very
grateful for the plant." Oh great, first
time we ever hear of Jonah happy about anything,
it's a stupid little plant. In chapter 1, was he
happy about his commission to go to Nineveh? No. When God sent him a fish
to protect his life, was he happy about that? No. When he was recommissioned
to go to Nineveh, was he happy about that? No. When the city
repents, was he happy? No. A stupid little plant comes
up, probably a fast growing-- it's called a castor
plant with broad leaves, grows very, very rapidly. Jonah's happy because of a weed. OK, I want you to understand. That gets him happy. So God has a few more
questions to help him understand his own bad heart. "But as morning
dawned the next day, God prepared a worm so
it damaged the plant that it whithered, and it
happened when the sun rose, God prepared a
vehement east wind. The sun beat on Jonah's
head, so he grew faint. Then he wished
death for himself." Gosh, this guy's dramatic. And he said, "It's better
for me to die than to live." Again, amen. "Then God said to Jonah, 'Is it
right for you to be angry about the plant?' And he said, 'It is right for me
to be angry even to death.'" So pathetic. "But the Lord said to him,
'You've had pity on a plan for which you have not
labored nor made it grow, which came up in the night
and perished in the night, and should I not pity Nineveh
that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons
who can't discern between their right hand and their
left,'" that is children, "'and much livestock?'"
Notice the book ends hanging on a question mark. Jonah, you're more worried
about a soul-less plant, and you're not concerned about
souls, human souls, in a city. You know, this is conflicted
value system, right? Ain't much different than
conflicted value systems now. People are-- animal
rights, my pet, but killing babies in a womb. More concerned about
the embryo of an eagle, protect that little egg,
than protecting human life. That is a warped value system. And Jonah displays that here. I guess the question
to ask ourselves as we close is, is your own
little plant and shelter are more important to you
than souls around you? Are we more concerned
about personal comfort than eternal comfort? And think of it this way. Around you are thousands
of conversations waiting to happen. You can engage with living
souls who might hear the gospel. Well, we're done with the book. We finished the book of Jonah. Easy, easy to do, 48 verse. Congratulations for doing it,
coming with me on this trip. We took off from Tel
Aviv, landed in Mosul. By the way, a couple
of years ago, I had an opportunity
to be in Iraq, speak at a church
in Erbil, where all of the displaced people from
Nineveh, the plains of Nineveh, city of Mosul, Christians
had been displaced by ISIS, and they came and
gathered in the church on a Wednesday night. It was packed. People were standing
around the periphery. And I spoke to them out
of the book of Jonah. I just thought it was
only fitting to sort of frame their plight, their
circumstances, hopefully to bring comfort, but
also to challenge them by the grace of God. God could even change
the hearts of ISIS, and that's what we
should pray for, that God would change
them and save them. Father, we want to thank
you for the book of Jonah. We're dealing with an ancient
Assyrian community that in the New Testament time were
among the very first recipients of the Christian gospel. The ancient Assyrian Christian
church dates and predates most churches around the
world, except perhaps in Antioch and Jerusalem. And so we do feel
that we need to pray for brothers and sisters
who are from that region, from that area, from that
city, who have been displaced and are suffering
even to this day because of what has
happened in recent history. We do pray, Father,
for a turn of heart for those who are their
persecutors, those who are meaning evil against them. And we pray, Lord, that in our
generation, in our country, in our culture,
we would not ever see an opportunity as a
difficulty or an inconvenience, but we would say yes, when
you give us a directive. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand, and
let's sing together. We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. For more resources,
visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from the Bible from 30,000 Feet.
