Preached at St Mary the Virgin, Little Burstead on 26 February 2023 @ 10:30
Introduction
Have you ever run away from anything? There were plenty of times at school when I literally ran away from things. But these days, the running away tends to take less physical forms.
There are things that we should be running away from, and we’ll look briefly at those later. God, of course, is not one of them.
Jonah, why run away
So, when the word of the Lord came to Jonah, why would he run away? Have you ever had to go to speak to someone that you don’t like, don’t trust, and are generally quite sure that they have your worst interests at heart? How would you feel about doing that, perhaps you would prefer to go in another direction?
How about if the person you were going to see was likely to cause you physical harm? How about going in a different direction now?
And if you think it is likely that they will kill you? What then?
Nineveh
At the time of Jonah, Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. Assyria was Israel's great enemy, its competitor for territory in the region. It was not in the ascendency at the time, but was still a dangerous place to go. They had a reputation for cruelty and violence, here’s what Nahum said:
Na 3 1 Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of
plunder, never without victims!
2 The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping
horses and jolting chariots!
3 Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears!
Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people
stumbling over the corpses —
4 all because of
the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who
enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.
So, to summarise – not a nice place, and they saw Israel as an enemy.
For us, those places are Russia, North Korea, or any of the list of countries who think that Christians should be killed.
Jonah the successful prophet
Jonah is a successful prophet, here’s what we know about him from 2 Kings, where it is recording the acts of Jeroboam II:
2Ki 14:25 He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from
Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word of
the LORD, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of
Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.
Gath Hepher was in the region known as Galilee in Jesus’ time.
Another prophets
It is highly unlikely he was the only prophet, so when the word of the Lord came to him, maybe his immediate thought was that there are plenty of people God could use, why does it have to be me?
God will achieve His aims
Well, it does have to be Jonah this time, but normally it is not the case that only one person can do it. If God wants something done, and one of His servants decides not to serve, God will find someone who will do what He wants. We should never think that our failures somehow ruin God’s almighty plan for the universe – it just isn’t like that. There are multiple ways to get things done, and there are hundreds of servants willing to do things, sometimes even very dangerous things.
Jonah’s reasons
Now, I’m not intending to paint Jonah as some sort of coward, though that’s the way it’s beginning to look. Jonah’s reasons for running away are alluded to in the last chapter, so in case you’re having a series on Jonah, I’m not going to release any spoilers. - But, you can, of course, read the book for yourself. It won’t take very long.
What happened?
So let’s see how the fleeing Jonah got on, and how he served the Lord on his journey.
Tarshish
Jonah went to the port town of Joppa, and looked for a ship that would take him as far from Nineveh as possible. He found a ship headed for Tarshish, which is thought to be the city of Tartessus in southern Spain, it was a Phoenician mining colony near Gibraltar. That would take him to the western edge of the known world, exactly the opposite direction of Nineveh, in the east.
Jonah at sea - storm
This was likely Jonah’s first time at sea. So, while he might have been concerned when the storm started, he would only have become scared when he saw how the sailors were acting. He wouldn’t see that until the captain woke him, because he was in the bottom of the ship – sound asleep.
Disastrous storm
For the sailors, it was a disastrous storm. They were afraid the ship would break up, so each was praying to his own God. Phoenicia was a poly-theistic society, so each of them would have chosen a different god to serve. Now they needed the help of their god.
Cargo overboard
Throwing the cargo overboard was a last resort, it meant that they would not be paid for the journey. It was something they would only do, if they really thought that their lives were in imminent danger.
Help from Jonah’s God
They need all the help they can get. None of the gods have been able to calm the storm, so Jonah is woken and told to pray to his God. We are not told whether the disobedient servant prayed or not. The storm did not diminish.
Lots
Believing that the storm must be happening because someone had upset their god, intentionally or otherwise, the sailors draw lots to see who it is. And the lot points to Jonah.
Questions
So, immediately there are loads of questions, the sailors need to know who’s threatening their ship, and their lives:
“Tell us, who is
responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where
do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
Answers (the sea!)
Now, it's time for Jonah to be truthful and to witness to his God.
I am a Hebrew and I worship
the LORD, the God of heaven
Nothing contentious there for the sailors, there were plenty of gods of the skies and the land. But the next part of the answer frightens them even more.
“who made the sea and the
land.”
The sea was thought of as being the leftovers from the primordial chaos when the gods made the land, the sky and all the life on earth, but Jonah’s God also made the sea – the very thing that was threatening their lives.
Control of the sea
Now, if God has control of the sea, and Jonah is His servant, even if he is a bad one at the moment, the next question is the most logical they could ask:
“What should we do to you
to make the sea calm down for us?”
Throw me in
But the answer “throw me in” is more than they can take, and to ensure that they do, God intensifies the storm. Now the sailors must take the action that Jonah suggests. They are now frightened of his God, because to kill a servant of a god will just bring them more trouble – worse trouble.
Innocent man
“Do not hold us
accountable for killing an innocent man”
does not mean that they have proclaimed Jonah innocent of his crimes, it simply means that they understood that they don’t have the right to make that judgement, so Jonah must remain innocent.
Last Jonah knows
So, in he goes, and being completely unable to swim, in the stormy waters he will immediately drown. He will not know that the sea calms, and the sailors are in awe of his god.
Sacrifices
Each of them will make sacrifices to Jonah’s God when they finally return to shore as a way of giving thanks for their deliverance, but also because the power of this God has them scared, and they have just killed one of His servants.
What Jonah has done
So Jonah has been a witness to his God despite his disobedience. He is then swallowed by a big fish, and is inside the fish for about 3 days.
That’s as far as we go with this story, today.
Should you run away?
So, as a servant of God, should you run away?
From God – No, but from the world, there are times when it’s legitimate, here are a couple of examples:
2 Tim 2:3-5
People will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to
their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love,
unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of
the good,
4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of
pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of
godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken
you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let
you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will
also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
… and the quickest way is simple, to leave (run away from) the situation where the temptation is happening – there will always be an exit.
Amen.
Youtube
A link to the youtube video (sound only) from the practice read through:https://youtu.be/3MDBsqANilE
References
https://redeeminggod.com/sermons/jonah/jonah_1/
https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/jonah-1/
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