Jonah 1:4-15 Who was Jonah willing to put at risk to escape? Sin upon sin and their affect
Those with whom Jonah sailed suffered terribly! Yet, from Jonah, there is no care, no consideration, no courtesy, no matter, and only taking responsibility when finally confronted - when cornered… again: the testimony of the good God Jonah served??
Now, were the merchant sailors completely innocent? No. They knew Jonah was avoiding his “God” and took him anyway. In that sense, they were accomplices, or at least reticent or cavalier about Jonah and his flight from God, and their part in helping him escape. But, one must add, they did not know Jonah’s God - the Person, the Power, the sovereignty, of Jonah’s God - but they would see, experience, fear, turn, and worship Him
What principle must we learn here? Our sin does not happen in a vacuum! What we say and do matters. Our attitude and continence matters. Our being transformed in the patterns of our minds as to see, know, and do God’s will – matters (Rom 12). Our walking in stride with the Spirit in abiding, obedience, and grateful cooperation – matters.
We must also see: Compounding sins, their consequences, and who they effect – matters!
Chaos ensues as Jonah compounds sin on top of sin… the winds and the sea whip to an ever-increasing violence and storm, threatening to take all asunder!
When, until, finally Jonah at least owns up to his sin and its consequences… though a genuine remorse still seems absent…
Jonah’s sins
Against God and others
Causing others to sin - aiding and abetting; grumbling, treating God with contempt, causing the sailors to MISS-SEE God, to hold Him in contempt, remain in their idolatry, (Exodus; Phil 2; 1Cor)
And attempting to thwart the Lord God, even after hearing who He was and seeing His power, they then try and try and resist “God”, in an attempt to save themselves and Jonah from God
What happens as the sins compound? God provides even greater calamity! Now, Jonah gets tossed…, …and swallowed… … and…, and…
Right away? Let’s see 1:17. Maaaaybeeee… and then again, maybe not.
Jonah 2: No. God allows Jonah to sink. Cruel and inhumane? Or, a gift of grace born out of mercy, an act of God’s infinite wisdom and good purposes? Could this have been an actual and real expression of God’s love? An act of His kindness “hoping” to cause, even allow, Jonah to repent? (Ro 8:30; 2:1-4; Ja 1:2-5)
God provided a GREAT fish… How did we end last week? The image of our sliding into the mouth of the great fish…
But, how and when did it actually happen? Jonah 2 tells us…
Jonah 2:1-6 How? Just the right thing: God provided… Jonah 1 Now, let us go back to Jonah’s sin for a moment…
Our sin does not happen in a vacuum. We must care about how our lives affect others.
Jonah 2:7 When? He waited. Everything God does is at just the right time, in just the right way: Not until Jonah reached the bottom of the sea did God provide the fish.
Jonah 2:8-9 Why?? Why not earlier, at first, when he was tossed in? For just the right reasons, God knows.
The distress… …what did God’s seeming delay, his allowing Jonah to sink to the bottom, prolonging Jonah’s suffering and distress bring Jonah to?
We must see, that because of Jonah’s sins, God would be compelled to increase His distress: to wait to save him with the fish, to allow him to sink to (his) bottom, and allow the time and the trial to go on – knowing Jonah, oh, so will… …and so, what it is with Jonah…
Here, Jonah, it seems, is looking back and reflecting on what had happened, and describes in vivid detail, with great emotion, all that he experienced and felt. Jonah had reached the bottom of the earth. It seems that God knew that for Jonah to be changed, for him to come back around, for him to agree with God regarding his sin, disobedience, and its effects - he would have to suffer GREAT distress.
Luke 16; Eph 4:9-10; Rev 1:18; 20:13; Heb 2:14; 2Tim 1:10; Ps 8:4-5; Heb 2: This is Jesus in the grave, descending into the pit, facing and defeating death (see Psalms and Hebrews) (make clear: Hades and paradise, hell and heaven https://www.gotquestions.org/did-Jesus-go-to-hell.html ) “You rescued me from the pit”
Maybe now we can look at the prayers, together…
…it was with the prodigal: 15:The prodigal “and there was a famine… and God gave him over to/allowed/permitted/did not resist/provided… unfaithful friends… an exhaustion of his (limited) resources… a famine in the land… a unscrupulous farmer… time, time, to wallow and come to the end of himself, to come to his sense, and there - he remembered his father and prayed…
And so, it is with us - it is no different than the principle of “giving one over to…” in Romans 1 sliding down the hill of disobedience in hopes that His kindness, expressed in patience and tolerance leads us to repent, to hey the bottom, come to our senses, seeing Him for who He really is, and come to Him.
James 1:2-5 perseverance: remaining under, endurance; steadfastness, especially as God enables the believer to "remain (endure) under" the challenges He allots in life.
James 1: Two different words, beautifully intertwined in God’s hands for our good as He is good.
TRIALS: probation, testing, being tried, temptation, calamity, affliction. temptation or test – both senses can apply simultaneously; adversity, affliction, trouble (cf. our trial), sent by God and serving to test or prove one's faith, holiness, character
So the TESTING of your faith…
that your faith, what God has done, and is doing in you, is proven genuine, that that work has persevered, and will persevere – not genuine to him, but genuine to you and others who see you and God’s work in you and on you.
Rom 8:28-30; Phil 1:6; 2:12-16
God grants mercy to Jonah, much like He had and did to Israel, despite Jonah’s/Israel’s sin and rebellion… WE MUST REMEMBER: discipline and warning, correction and rebuke, are part of mercy… and often, it is not until we reach the bottom, as we see our own sin, and sense God’s “heavy hand upon us” that we finally “come to our senses” (Luke 15:17) and look up, to God… “...3 days and 3 nights…” just in time, just long enough, for God’s merciful discipline to do what it is going to do!
GREAT Distress, but Father, why? This is a world of suffering, and the child of God will suffer more GREAT-ly than those who are not of the Kingdom, or in the family of God.
Why does God “let” us suffer? Why does it seem we must hit “rock bottom”? Before we turn? What is it about the human heart that it needs to be stricken to change?
Well, how great is our pride, our self-centeredness, our carelessness, etc.?
How GREAT the sin, pride, rebellion, and obstinance, must be in our hearts - that would cause us to “run away” (and have to be retrieved)
Now, what about my heart? What times in my life that I have suffered GREAT distress? Times in my life when my sin has caused others distress? Times in my life that I have caused the Spirit of God in me, distress, or grief? We all suffer distress, but are we aware of how our distress distresses others?
Can I, will I, see God’s merciful hands in those times of distress, those times of conviction and discipline? Will I see what God is doing to me, and in me, that He might work with me and through me in righteousness and holiness? (Phil 2)
Will I see what God’s mercy is doing in and to me exactly what He knew and knows needs to be done? What He knows I needed, and know I need, at just the right time and in just the right way, for just the right duration. There is nothing wasted in God’s hand (bread and fish).
Romans 8:28-30 God DOES work ALL things for the GOOD of those who LOVE Him and have been called according to HIS purposes… therefore, there is not a single moment, happenstance, that occurs in the life of a person that God does not use to accomplish His will and purposes in us, me.
Do we believe this truth to be true? Will we receive this truth? is God, our Father good?
Jesus said in John 6:45-47 “Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.
