Jonah - Overview

Good morning, Prosper. Good morning. Most of you probably know us, but for those of you that don't, I am Colin DeKam, and this is my wife, Sarah, and we will be doing our scripture reading this morning. Our scripture this morning comes from Jonah 1: 1-3, and then Jonah 4: 5-11. Please turn there in your few Bibles with us this morning as we read.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Ametai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for the evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Jopah and found the ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down to it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

He's skipping forward to Chapter 4: 5. Jonah went out of the city and sat there on the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade until he should see what would become the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant that made it come up over Jonah, that he might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when the dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, 'It is better for me to die than to live. ' But God said to Jonah, 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant? ' And he said, 'Yes, I do well to be angry. ' angry enough to die. ' And the Lord said, 'You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.

And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right-hand from their left, and also much cattle? ' This is the word of the Lord.

Thank you, guys. After the devastation of World War One, France was determined never to be invaded by Germany again. So they poured resources and time and energy into building the Majinot Line. It was a massive line of fortifications between France and Germany right on the border. It included fortifications and underground bunkers. This was to deter another invasion. And military experts, politicians, and the people at large felt certain that this would deter another invasion. It would keep them safe. But in 1940, during World War II, Germany, knowing that these fortifications were there, simply went around this line. They went through Belgium and attacked France, and France fell in six weeks. The French weren't just unprepared. They prepared based on what they were certain would happen. They were defending against the last war, not the one that they were actually facing. The Majinot Line isn't just a military structure. It was a symbol of false certainty, and that led to disaster. Mark Twain once said, It ain't what you know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. The unknown isn't the danger. It's the false assumptions that we all have.

It makes sense that we would get in trouble when what we believe, when what we're certain about isn't true. This is dangerous for us in life at large, but it's even more so dangerous for us, our spiritual life. And that's what the Book of Jonas shows us. And before we get into that, I want to ask you this question, what can we be certain about? What happens when we're certain about the wrong things? What if we're wrong about who we believe God is or how he acts or who he should love? What if our false assumptions about God threaten our relationship with him? What if What if the God we worship isn't the God of the Bible? What if the God we worship is the one we've invented to avoid facing the true God? This is the story we see in the Book of Jonah. Jonah, God's prophet, believes that he knows who God should love and how God should operate. Jonah thought he knew God. Jonah thought he knew grace. Jonah thought he knew justice. But God showed him something better. In this series, Will we become too prideful to allow God to change us, or will we pursue God's heart?

Keep your Bibles open with me as we continue to read and we look at these two points in this sermon. How should we read Jonah and Why should we read Jonah? We're going to be starting a five-week series on the Book of Jonah, partially because the Book of Jonah is four weeks long, and an introduction to that is It's important for us to see the beauty of it. And the other part of that is we have five weeks until advent, and so we needed one more sermon to cover that time. But this is important. I think this is something that we're going to continue to do. Being able to step back from the book that we're about to study, look at it from a 10,000-foot view so that way we don't miss the forest for the trees. In the next four weeks, we're going to be going chapter by chapter through this book. And I would hate for us to see what each chapter says, but miss the overarching story. What happens in the Book of Jonah is that Jonah runs from God's heart by disobeying God's word. It begs us to ask this question, do we pursue God's heart?

So let's look at how we should read the Book of Jonah. Whenever you get to a new passage or whenever you open your Bible, you should ask yourself, you should ask questions of the text that lead to the heart of the text. It's important to distinguish those questions. There are good questions and bad questions to ask of any text, questions that lead us to understand the intent or why this book was written. Those are the questions that we need to ask, but there are bad questions that we can ask. A question that often comes up in the Book of Jonah is, what fish or was it a whale that swallowed Jonah? And the reality is answering that question might be It's an interesting thought. But whether the fish was a grouper or a goldfish, it actually doesn't lead us to understanding the passage or understand why this book was written. A question that we should be asking is, when does this happen? When does this book take place on the arc of the biblical narrative or throughout the Bible? Where does this happen? You might be thinking, why does that matter? Well, it matters a ton.

If this happens after Jesus's resurrection, this book is completely different. If this happens during the Exodus or during the time of Abraham, this book is completely different. But we know that this book is during the time of the judges. During the time of the Kings, sorry. This is when Israel has its own nation. It has a king. It's actually after the time of King David and King Solomon. But Israel is a nation, and Israel is in a spiritually dark time in its history. There is rampant idolatry, and this matters because Israel faces threats from outside forces to come in and conquer and take them away. God told them that this would happen to them. In Deuteronomy, he said, If you forget who I am, I will allow enemies to come and take you away. This is an important underlying tension throughout this entire book, something that we need to remember. Another Another question that we have to ask is, what book is this? There are different types of scriptures. There are different types of genres within scripture. All of it is scripture, and yet there are different types. There's law, there are prophecy, there is poetry, there are letters, Gospels, apocalyptic literature.

This is a historical narrative or a story that is telling an event in history. It's going to, like a story, have a a setting, a rising action, climax, except in this case, it won't have a resolution. This is a cliffhanger. This ends abruptly. And as we ask what book this is, oftentimes people talk out the Book of Jonah as if it's a parable, or they'll flat out say that it's a parable. And so let's look at that and look into that because it matters whether this is a true historical event or if this is a story told as a parable. Looking at parables in the Bible, almost every single parable doesn't mention the person's name or a person's name. So right off the bat, the Book of Jonah, since we know it's about Jonah, is a little bit different. It doesn't seem to be a parable. If you look at your Bibles at verse one, you'll see this. Now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, and it goes on, When the Bible starts talking about someone, when they mention their name, it's usually It's likely that it's not a parable.

And even more so, they mention this guy's dad. How many stories do you hear about someone who's made up, where they go into great length to tell you about their lineage? It doesn't seem like this is a parable. Not only that the Old Testament talks about Jonah as a real character because he was a real prophet. It says, According to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which spoke by his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet who is from Gathhepfer. Again, Jonah is referenced as a real person with a real dad. But not only that, Jesus talks about Jonah as if he's real. Jesus says, The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here. Jesus talks about Jonah as if he's real. The real reason why this makes a difference, why it matters that Jonah wasn't simply a parable. Have you ever had a child tell you a story that you know for certain isn't true, but they're telling it in a way that is true? That's what would happen here.

If this was a parable, this story was told in a way to make it sound true, if this is a parable, there is some deception, and we need to think about whether or not the Bible is fully true. But this story is true because Jesus says it's true because it's recorded as true. And I think even more than that, the reason why this is important, if it's a parable, it's theoretical. It teaches something theoretical about God. But if this is true history, this teaches not only something theoretical, but it teaches what God is doing, what God has done. Understanding how this should be read is important. And another important question that we need to ask is what do we need to know contextually about this passage, about Jonah? Jonah was a prophet during King Jeroboam. We see that in second Kings. This period was a period of economic expansion and prosperity, and yet spiritual decline. Also, we need to know about Nineveh. Nineveh is a city within the nation of Assyria. Later, it would become its capital. Assyria was a threat. It was a rising nation at this time in history. It was a conquering nation.

Within a few decades of Jonas time, Assyria would devastate the Northern Kingdom of Israel, culminating in the fall of Samaria in 722 BC. Assyria, not only that, Assyria had a reputation of brutal warfare, cruelty in warfare. Their inscriptions and reliefs and accounts of their battles celebrated gruesome acts, flaying captives alive, impaling bodies, deporting entire populations in piling heads at city gates. These guys weren't just a threat. They were bad people. Israel and Nineveh were logical enemies. Jonas saw Nineveh not just as a sinful city, but as a threat to his people's survival. Preaching repentance to Nineveh, to the enemy, felt like helping the oppressor. During this time in Israel's history, again, there was idolatry, oppression of the poor, and general disobedience to Yah. Look at verse 2. This is what Jonas hears from God. Verse 2 in chapter 1 says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. Jonah hears this, knowing everything that is going on with Nineveh, knowing everything that's going on with Assyria. And he hears this word from God. And he thinks, Why, God? Why wouldn't you bring this to your own people?

Why can't this prophecy, why can't this call go to Israel? They need to repent. This call for repentance needs to come to your people, the people that you've chosen. Jonah thinks he knows how God should operate and who he should prioritize. And because of that, he won't pursue God's heart. When God said, go to Nineveh, Jonah didn't just hear, Go and preach. He heard, Go to your nation's enemies, the people who celebrate skinning people alive. That's who God told him to love. Jonah thought he knew God. Jonah thought he knew grace. Jonah thought he knew justice, but God showed him something better. Another important aspect of understanding any book that we read in the Bible is who wrote it. So now we ask, who is the author of this. The author is Jonah, and that's important. If it weren't Jonah, this would be a sad story. If it was any other author, this would be a sad story about a prophet revolting against God with no resolution. But knowing that Jonah is the one telling the story shows us his intent or what we should take away from this book. And that leads us to our second point, why we should read the Book of Jonah.

Jonah shows us a lot of mistakes that he makes in this book. In fact, the way he writes it is a parody, a confession of his heart. This book shows us that whatever Jonah does, we should do the opposite. Jonah throughout this whole book shows us what not to do. Jonah is the disobedient prophet. Jonah writes this book in reflection to show how hard our hearts can become towards God. Jonah he knew God, that he knew grace, that he knew justice, but God was going to show him something better. This book is going to challenge us. It's going to ask us questions that we might not want to answer. It's going to say things that maybe we wish it wouldn't. See, I think we're familiar with the Sunday school version of the Book of Jonah. Chapter one, right? Iona is disobedient, gets tossed overboard. Chapter two, he's in the belly of the fish. He says, sorry. In chapter three, he goes and does what he's supposed to do. What a beautiful story of someone who was disobedient, repented, and did the right thing. Except that's not the Book of Jonah. The Book of Jonah shows us something different.

Chapter four shows us something different. Look at how the book ends. Jonah, defiantly in opposition to God, angry with God, angry enough to die, he says. Not only thematically, but look at how this book ends. Look Look at the punctuation of how this ends. Look at the last verse, the last punctuation in this whole book. It ends with a question mark. No chapter 5, no resolution, except We know how this ends because we know who the author is. We know that Jonah wrote this. Jonah wants us to see that he understood this, that he figured this out, that he realized his actions weren't what God wanted, that they didn't pursue God's heart. Jonah wanted to show us that we have to challenge our own assumptions of God. Because God, and what we'll see in this book is that God is infinitely greater and infinitely more beautiful than we might want to dream about. The story shows us something about God. God has every right. At the end of the book, in chapter 2, when Jonah is tossed overboard, he has every right not to save Jonah. He has every right to destroy Jonah right there and then.

When you read this book, you'll probably feel anger towards Jonah because he acts in such a foolish way. And yet, in chapter 4, look at how God approaches Jonah. He doesn't yell at him. He doesn't scold him. God is gentle with Jonah. He asks Jonah questions like a loving father. We see God loves Jonah. If Jonah made this story up, then it's fiction. But if Jonah lived it, and Jesus believed he did, then it's confession. The book is more than history. It's a personal journal of repentance. God wants Jonah to see his heart. God wants us to see his heart, not to look within, not to look within our own hearts, but to see his and to pursue it And that's what leads to our main idea. Do you pursue God's heart? Usually a main idea is a statement. It's not a question. But this book is asking us a question. God ends the book by asking a question of Jonah. That's the main thrust of this whole book. Do you pursue God's heart? Or do you pursue or do you believe that you know how God should operate? I think in culture, We see this.

It's easy to see this with people who get it blatantly wrong. It's easy to look at them out there and see how they get it wrong, how they misunderstand God, their false assumptions of God. When people say, God wouldn't send anybody to hell. Why does God care who I sleep with? Why would God care if it's a little white lie? Why would God care if it doesn't hurt anyone else? But we need to understand that we have our own false assumptions of God. We need to understand that this is true about us as well. Usually comes out in the way that we respond or the way in which we act. What sins are we overlooking? What people do we look past? What people do we believe God assumes are his enemy? This book will challenge us to look deeper at our own assumptions, look deeper at our own hearts. And that leads us into our application points. First point of application is to read this book this week. I want you to read this book as a pastor. I want you to read the passage that we're preaching on before I come. The passages that we're going to be studying aren't a secret.

If you want to see them for the next year, I've got them laid out. You guys can see them. Church cannot be a time where we come as a people just to hear one man's experience with God's word. We all need to encounter it and to come together and to relish in the beauty that it points to. The other part of this is that I am a man. I am I'm sinful, and I need your accountability. One of the definitions of a cult is that the leader will tell you that only I can understand this word. Only I can interpret this and give you the accurate understanding of what this says. And that can't be farther from the truth with me. I want you to be in God's word yourself. I want you to read what we're I want to read. If ever, if ever I deviate from this word, Prosper Church, I need you to hold me accountable to it and to bring me back to it. The other part of this that I'm calling you to is maybe you've... It's October. Maybe you've lost track of your Bible reading plan that you started in January.

Maybe in February that happened, but it's okay. It's October. I can't read your mind. It's okay. This is a call back to get into God's word. I'm not asking you to read a chapter a day. I'm just asking you to read four chapters throughout this week. See what God's word has to say. See how God stirs in you. The next point of application is, invite God to challenge your assumptions. Again, our assumptions, like the Magina Line, can be and can lead us to danger. Oftentimes this comes out in how we see the world and how that plays with how we read God's word. This is a philosophy that I call text and framework. Our framework often superimposes itself on top of God's word. We do things like read God's word and we say, Oh, that challenge is how I see the world. And so this can't be right. I have to interpret it differently. This comes out in a variety of ways. One of the ways that I've seen the most is in a passage in the New Testament where Jesus says that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man through into heaven.

As people in the top 1% of the global economy, you've probably heard this interpretation that Jesus isn't really talking about a physical eye of a needle. He's talking about a city gate in Jerusalem. And that makes it easier for us to hear that passage. And yet no biblical scholar, credible biblical scholar, really looks at that as an accurate interpretation. Another way that we see this play out is in churches who affirm homosexuality. They'll read passages that clearly say homosexuality is sinful, and they'll say, Well, I see homosexuality as a good thing, and therefore this really can't mean that. And so they jump through hoops in order to find a different interpretation. Our job is to allow God's word to transform the way that we see the world, to transform our heart. When we bump up against something that feels like it is in contrast to the way that we see the world, we need to let God's word change our heart, not the other way around. So in your time of prayer or devotion this week, pray that God would open your eyes to see God's word and to see what he's doing in your life.

God, in his sovereignty, is doing about 10,000 things in your life right now, and you're probably only aware of five of them. Not just the blessings that God is orchestrating, but also the suffering, the trials that he has to sanctify you. What happens when God allows an illness in your family or life, when he allows a diagnosis diagnosis you weren't ready for, allows you to lose the job that you love with coworkers that you love. Now you're in a job with coworkers that you don't really care for. When God allows you to have a child who rebels against you or family that leaves you isolated, how will you respond? Will we run from God's presence or will we run to it? And that leads us into our last point of application. Run toward God, not from him. It's easy to feel like Jonah. It feels like God has forsaken us. When life is harsh, it's easy to hear or to think, Man, if this is what I get for following Jesus, is it really worth it? But the point of our faith isn't to get the benefits. It's not even to be saved. The point of our faith is that we get God.

This may not feel like a practical point of application, and yet understanding this changes everything in our life. Until we get this, we won't understand Christianity. We run to God not because he has something to offer us. We don't run to God because he gets us a ticket out of hell. We run to him because God is the greatest thing in all of existence. When life is miserable, he is our rock in our fortress. When we feel weak, he is our strength. When we are confused, he is our wisdom. When we feel broken, he renews us. When we feel lost, he runs after us. All of those things aren't benefits. We find our rest in him. Being a Christian for what God can offer you would be like accepting a job because it's got great dental but forfeiting the salary. We cannot be Christians for the benefits. We are Christians because God is so glorious that nothing else in this life can compare to having him, can satisfy us. So run to him. Run to God. Don't flee from him. Run to him not for what he can offer, but for who he is. The reality is that we are sinful people, and we have no right to pursue God, to run after him.

The only reason that we can run to him is because on the cross, Jesus traded places with us. See, while we were God's enemies, while we should have been cast out of his presence, God sent his son to be cast out of his presence in our place. In this story, Jonah goes down into the belly of the sea because of his sin, and Jesus on the cross went down into the belly of death for our sin. Jonah spent three days in the fish, and Jesus spent three days in the tomb and rose so we could run to the Father. Jesus spent his whole life on earth pursuing God's heart, running after those whom God loved, the broken and the lost. We are the broken and the lost that he came to save, not just to save, but we get to live in the power of his blood. We get to live in obedience because Christ took our place. He is our only hope. This is why we can sing, To this I hold, My hope is only Jesus, for my life is wholly bound to his. Oh, how strange and divine I can sing All is mine, yet not I, but through Christ in me.

We can sing this not because we have it all together, but because Christ in us gives us what Jonah lacked, a heart that beats with God's own mercy. The question is now, will we live like this is true? Will we let his heart define ours? Prosper Church, do you pursue God's heart? Let's pray. Father God, we thank you. We thank you and we praise you that you sent your son, that we do not have to be like Jonah, we do not have to flee from your presence, but you give us your Holy spirit so we can reside in it, we can abide in it. God, help us to see your heart, to treasure it, and to run after it. God, we love you. We love to do your will, so help us do that. It's in your name we pray. Amen.