Jonah’s Disobedience | Beyond the Flannelgraph

Part 1

In the book of Jonah, we see God working according to his will despite Jonah’s disobedience.

Jonah didn’t think Nineveh deserved God’s grace and compassion, so he ran from the Lord. In this episode, Brody shares some key things we can learn about God’s sovereignty and Jonah’s disobedience. 

God is the one who saves. He chooses who to show His grace and mercy to. In this story we see God orchestrating his plan to bring about salvation. 

• Jonah 1
• Jonah 4
• James Montgomery Boyce Commentaries

View part 1 Transcript

Hey, welcome to no sanity required. Today we’re gonna look beyond the flannel graph. We’re gonna be looking at the story of Jonah. We’ve recently studied the story of Joseph and this is a this is a sub series on the episode. I mean on the podcast that we like to take familiar Bible stories or passages and and just dig a little deeper dive, maybe a little beyond what most of us learned as children and and consider the story more in depth, and we’re gonna do that with the story of Jonah today. So when we, when we talk about cultural issues or issues of parenting or World view, one of the things that we’re always gonna be doing on the no sanity required podcast is they’re gonna be some episodes where we just do deep dives into the scripture, and today’s one of those. We’re gonna go beyond the flannel graph and that’s for those of you that might be newer. A lot of our episodes are our deeper dives into familiar Bible stories where we consider Some things may be from a new and fresh perspective. We’re gonna do that with Jonah today. Thank y’all for tuning in.

Well, fall is here and I am, I’m excited. I think a lot of people are excited about this time of year. For most of us, there’s just a lot of. There are a lot of things associated with fall. I love the summer and you know, aside from summer camp, everything that Just the summer so great because of the kids are out of school. We’re, you know, we’re big. We’re big on hitting the local swimming holes and where we live, that’s a big thing. I know some, some of our listeners live in Alligator infested areas or hot, slow, swampy water and and then, but some of you probably live in in places where you got some good swimming holes. Anyway, we don’t swim in pools very often swimming pools but we love to go out and hit the water and there’s several lakes and rivers and creeks and swimming holes that we like to go play in and so that’s one of the big things the summer brings here for. For my family and for a lot of the SWO families, of course, they’re summer camp and then the first few retreats back After. You know, after school year starts are Kind of mark the the transition. So everybody’s back in school now and we’re, I mean, I think pretty much across the country. People are back in school and so we’re turning our attention towards fall. I’ve been going to volleyball games For high school volleyball games, high school football games, middle school volleyball games. I love it. It’s so fun and it’s still hot, but it’s cooling off and and so we’re we’re turning our attention towards the fault. One of the things that I like to do on NSR that we like to do is, at least Every month or so, to do a beyond the flannel graph Episode. So we just recently did one on Joseph and we like to. You know, one of the things that we like to do is is deep dives into the scripture. But this school year, one of the things that I’m doing at home and maybe, maybe I’ll Will do at some point this fall will do an episode on this, because we get so much requests for parenting content. One of the things that we do is that I’m gonna do is is ride out Stories from scripture that are very familiar and my younger children, who are still at home. I want to walk through those stories with them and try to give them a Gospel appreciation for these stories, stories like Daniel and the Lions Den, David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale, Noah and the Ark. These are stories that most of us who grew up in church grew up with and a lot of people who don’t grow up in church are familiar with because they’ve sort of spilled out side of church Circles and Christian circles of Christianity. So today I want to do one of those, one of those deep dives not deep dives, I guess, but but a behind the flannel graph kind of pull the curtain back and consider some things from the story of Jonah. Jonah Will focus on chapter one most of our time, but I just want to read some things that I’ve written, read a few clips or sections from a commentary that I think are insightful, and and think about maybe some things you’ve never thought about concerning the story of Jonah and the whale. And then we’re gonna actually add some bonus Content here. We’re gonna tag on to this episode a second episode to follow up. We’re at a conversation with Rob Conte and Spencer Davis, just kind of sitting around, cups of coffee on the table and deep diving into the story of Jonah, and it’s a lengthier. It’s a lengthier session, but I think a lot of people will find it interesting. Yeah, so that today we’re going to be on the flannel graph. We’re gonna consider the story in the life of Jonah. Thank y’all for tuning in, and so let’s go ahead and get right into this. So Jonah is a story that I Think most people can remember From their childhood. If you grew up in the church, you remember this and it’s the. Jonah is the story of a man named Jonah, and A lot of people think that he wrote the story, wrote the wrote the Bible narrative that bears his name, the book of Jonah. But the book of Jonah is is in the genre, the, the biblical Genre of what we call the minor prophets. Now, the minor prophets were a group of guys that Brought messages of God’s judgment, or God’s warning, or God’s deliverance To the people, primarily the people of Israel. There were some prophets who took messages to other people. One guy Took a message to a group of people called the Edomites. They were not Israelites and there are some messages to some other people. There’s a guy named Amos that had messages for some other people, but primarily, the messages would end up then being for God’s people, the Israelites. So Jonah is a little different. Jonah is a story. It’s a narrative that tells the story of one prophet named Jonah who was given a message by God. So God comes to this guy, jonah, and we know this guy. Jonah was a prophet of the Lord who served during the time of a king called Jeroboam. Now there were two Jeroboams and so for simplicity, we called them Jeroboam one and Jeroboam two. And Jonah served at the time of a king called Jeroboam two and Jeroboam two. This is an interesting time in Israel’s history because Jeroboam two was he was an evil king. He was an Israelite king but he was not faithful to the Lord. He was Israelite in the sense that he was Jewish. He was at one of the kings that, after the kingdom of Israel had divided, there was this divided kingdom and so one kingdom sort of became two. But he was the king of one of those kingdoms and he was wicked. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, but God nonetheless blessed Israel as a principle in Jeroboam’s life, where sometimes God will bless even in the midst of disobedience or defiance. And it’s tricky, it’s hard to understand how that could happen. But I think it’s important to recognize that it can and does happen, because I’ve often had the experience where I’ve thought personally, or I’ve seen people think well, things are going good. I know God must not be upset with my behavior or my lifestyle because everything’s just going good and everything’s happy and wonderful. And we’ve got to be careful with that because sometimes we can even experience the blessing or grace of the Lord in some capacity, even in our disobedience. But we can also know the principle that Jesus talks about, that we would call the principle of the sowers, and James writes about this whatever you sow, you’re going to reap from that. So you know if a farmer sows corn, he’s going to grow corn. You don’t put corn in the ground and they get a different type of vegetable or fruit and not that corn’s a fruit, but you know what I mean. And so you reap. What you sow is a biblical principle, but it’s also an agricultural principle that Jesus would draw on, that James would draw on. So in a time of disobedience or when we’re going against what we know to be true of God’s will and God’s plan, it’s a slippery slope where there’s always going to be consequences. I remember an old preacher, when I was a kid, used to say there’s going to be a payday someday. And that’s an old church saying. But the idea there is that at some point sin always pays it always. You know, the wages of sin is death, Jesus tells us through the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans. So the wage that sin pays is destruction and death. So Jeroboam is going to learn that. The Israelites and the people of Judah will learn that in their history, where, this time, where there seems to be God’s expanding and growing this people, but they’re literally one generation away from destruction. So, at a time when everything seems prosperous, the people are about to collapse, the infrastructure of their society is about to collapse and the way it’s going to collapse is God’s going to raise up this group of people called the Assyrians. Now, you might read in the Bible and see sometimes they’re referred to as the Chaldeans or the Chaldeans. However, you say that Sometimes they’re the Assyrians. In the book of Jonah we’re going to look at a city called Nineveh, which that was an Assyrian city, a Chaldean city, and those that what we’re referring to as a global power, the Assyrians, were a global power. Who, when I say global? In that time the world was fairly small in terms of the most populated regions. Now you’ve got, you know, we’ve got people all over the planet, even in the, you know, the northernmost inhabitable regions and the southernmost inhabitable regions from Patagonia to, you know, the Northwest Territories of Canada and places like Iceland. You got being in northern Siberia. People live in crazy cold climates, but back then most people were condensed to the greater Mediterranean area, parts of Europe, asia Minor, the Middle East and North Africa. There were people beyond that, but that was the bulk of societies and the known world, and so the Assyrians were an empire that we’re going to basically take over. All of that, okay, I’m going to tell y’all. I just took a swig of sparkling water and this seems to be the trend, right now. This one is called. I just got this out of the cooler here at North Campus. This is orange plus grapefruit. Aha, it’s the name brand. And then we have this other one called bubbly, and some people drink one called St Croix or La Croix. Maybe La Croix, st Croix, la Croix. Anyway, I’m going to go and tell you that I think sparkling water is disgusting. It’s not good. How does it just have a bottle of water, but we don’t have any water. So, anyway, there, that’s my little side rant All right back to the back, to the story of Jonah. So Jonah is a prophet of God, called by God to preach and speak and deliver God’s Word at a time when Israel is prospering, it seems so Three big things happening in Israel is prospering, but they’re prospering under. The second thing, jeroboam too is an evil king. He’s a king whose heart is dark. And then, third thing, the Assyrian empire is growing in global impact and prominence, and so God would say through other prophets, that he was going to raise those people up to oppress Israel. He actually, if you read the book of Habakkuk, that that you kind of you kind of read about that. So Jonah is this guy who all were told in in second Kings is that he’s a prophet of the Lord and he’s serving at the time of Jeroboam Jeroboam too. So in the book of Jonah, God comes to Jonah and he says it says, you know, at the beginning of the book it says the Word of the Lord Appeared to Jonah, or came to Jonah, the son of Amitya that’s his dad’s name, that’s we’re able to associate him with the other place he’s mentioned, which is in second Kings. But God gives him a word. He says arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it. So he get. He says all right, I got a, I got a word for you, and the word is that I want you to go to the city of Nineveh, which was the capital city for a long period of time. It was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. Go to that great city means big, massive, powerful, influential, great in terms of size, great in terms of population, great in terms of influence, great in terms of reach and impact. I mean he says I want you to go up to that city and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. So he says many people are wicked. I need you to go to these people and I need you to preach against them. Just call out against them, preach against their wickedness, it says in verse three. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fire and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. So Jonah does something interesting A prophet of the Lord would take, god would give him a word, and a faithful prophet would then go and deliver that word, that message. He would preach and proclaim that message to the people. So if God said you know, there are some very localized prophets where God would send a prophet to a small group of people or a region of people, like we said earlier, the Edomites. I think it’s Obadi that goes to the Edomites. I think that’s right. A lot of times there’s a specific context to the message, like we have here in Jonah. The other one we mentioned was Amos, who Amos ultimately goes to. He, he, he preaches against Israel because of their oppression of the poor. And here Jonah is to preach to the Ninevites who are Assyrians, because they’re, because of the great evil. It’s a great city and they are committing great evil. Now, what is that great evil? Well, we know we actually have good historical and archaeological evidence that those people in Nineveh N, there were a few kings and I’m not going to try to say their names, but there were several kings that we have historical account and record of, who did terrible things Dismembrament, beheadings. They would cut people’s hands and limbs off, they would disembowel people, they would enslave people, and when they would enslave people, they would put hooks through their faces, their lips, they’re they’re jaw. There are, there are drawings that archaeologists have found where You’d have these people that would have these hooks run, like behind their bottom teeth and under their tongue, maybe through their tongue, I don’t know but then the hook would go down through their jaw and come out behind their chin, not hitting anything vital, but literally hook their entire lower jaw, and then these people would be led around like that. It’s very brutal. And then right outside of what’s considered to be the location of Nineveh, I read that archaeologists found this massive mound like a pile of skulls, human skulls and I’ve even read that and I don’t have proof of this, but I remember reading at some point in my study that the. There were skulls of all sizes. They killed women, children. You know, they would kill families. So they’re just very barbaric people. But not just barbaric, it was. It was a, it was very, very calculated and it was. They were to instill fear into people. If you’ve ever studied about Genghis Khan, how he would, you know, he would bring the Mongols and they would ride in. And they would not just. They would not just want to win a battle, they would want to demoralize the surrounding potential enemies so that their reputation would spread and people would go oh my gosh, don’t mess with them, they’re. They’re not just, they don’t just want to have a battle and win, they want to. They’re terrible, they’re horrible. That’s how Nineveh was. The Ninevites were like that. And so God tells Jonah hey, I want you to go up to this city. And, and Jonah, he, he goes the other way. He says no, I’m not gonna do it. And there’s three. There’s three things I want to Consider that we’re told why Jonah does this, why he runs away. But when I was growing up, I feel like I was told wrong on this, like I was told that Jonah fled because he was afraid. And I there’s man, I don’t have any doubt in my mind that he was afraid knowing what we know about these people. In fact, let me read an excerpt from James Montgomery boys. I really enjoy for those of you that are looking to get into further, deeper, more intentional Bible study, boys has. He wrote several commentaries before he died. I think he would have gotten a lot more done, but the Lord took him home and and I’m grateful for the work that he did do. He was a pastor of 10th Presbyterian in Philadelphia and and he wrote several commentaries, but he did a commentary on the minor prophets. I like to read voices commentaries. I like to read them as devotionals, almost like as part of my daily Bible study. I don’t typically use them for sermon prep. I’ll use them more for personal study because that basically they’re just the transcripts of his teaching and his sermons. But anyway, listen what he says. Why did Jonah do it? We can imagine some reasons. We can imagine, first, that Jonah was overcome by thoughts of the mission’s difficulties which are expressed very well in the commission. God told Jonah that Nineveh was a very great city, and indeed it was in addition to what the book itself tells us, that the city was so large it took three days to cross it and that I had a hundred and twenty thousand infants or small children. Chapter four, verse 11. We also know that it was the capital of the great Assyrian Empire, that it had walls a hundred feet high and so broad that three chariots could run abreast around them. Within the walls were gardens and even fields for cattle. For one man to arrive, all along with a message from an unknown God against such a city, was ludicrous in the extreme. What could one man do? Who would listen? Where were the armies that could break down such walls or storm such garrisons? The men of Nineveh would ridicule the strange Jewish prophet. Certainly, as Hugh Martin, one of the most comprehensive commentators on this book, has written, jonah could not foresee that some Reception in that great city was about the most friendly he could anticipate. To be despised and simply laughed at as a fanatic and a fool must have appeared to him inevitable, if indeed his fate Should not be worse. So that’s the interest in this guy, martin. Who? Martin, who is being quoted by boys. He’s saying Jonah at the best, the best he could hope for is to go in there and start preaching. Everybody Think he’s crazy, one of these doomsday prophets. You know, everybody just ridicule and mock him. If Jonah had been overcome with the thought of the difficulties of such a mission and, because of them, had fled to Tarshish, we could well understand him. Yet not a word in the story indicates that this was the difficulty that upset this rebellious prophet. So he says Basically, he’s saying you know, the city was big, it was a huge city. I mean, it’s a massive city. And so some people might think, well, the task was just too overwhelming. That’s why Jonah didn’t go. So you’ve got these two ideas. Was it because he was afraid of these people, which is mainly what I was told when I was growing up? I was taught that he was just. Often, I was just told that he was afraid, you know, or that he that it was fear mixed with a hatred for the Ninevites, the Assyrians, which I can appreciate, you know. Maybe maybe he had lost family members to the Assyrians. Maybe he knew people I don’t know, we’re not told, but no doubt their reputation was, was vast. You know, we, we’ve all in our lifetime seen terrorist organizations or groups read stories about the cartel in Mexico, the different cartels who have, you know, beheaded people or Dismembered people. We hear stories about the Taliban. You know killing young girls because they want to learn how to read, and you can. You can have a resentment for a people without ever having Interacted with him. I can appreciate that. Maybe Jonah had some of that. But then you know, maybe the task was, it seemed very overwhelming. How do you, how do you go from where I’m at here, you know, in Palestine, all the way up to his long journey. I don’t know how far it was, but it was a long journey up into what’s modern day Mosul, iraq. So if you look at a map and you draw a map, you know a line from down in the middle of Israel, in the middle of Palestine, up to Mosul, iraq. That’s a that’s a long journey, a spate in hot desert climate and at a time when travel was difficult. You know walking around and flip-flops or some kind of you know strapped sandals and you know robe and gosh. It just seems awful. You might have just been like now I’m not gonna do that. I you know. But that that’s not the reason. It’s not because the task was so daunting or the city was so large or the people were gonna make Fun of him. It’s not because he was afraid, because they beheaded and dismembered, and we’re told the reason Jonah wouldn’t go. We’re told that in chapter 4. In chapter 4 it tells us let me read this to you Jonah, chapter 4, verse 2. This is later in the story. Jonah prayed to the Lord and said oh lord, is this not what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why the reason I made haste to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you’re a gracious God, immersive, slow to anger and abounding, instead fast love and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, oh lord, please take my life for me, for it’s better for me to die than to live. It’s crazy. Jonah got so upset with God’s eventual salvation of the Ninevites that he said the reason I’ve fled and ran towards Tarshish was because I knew you would be Gracious and compassionate to these people, and so, ultimately, jonah didn’t want these people to receive salvation. This is crazy. This, this makes me think. Okay, I’ll tell you something that somebody said recently. Um, this is I want to be careful that I don’t incriminate anybody here. Somebody I love and care about Was talking about my daughter, who is a missionary. You know a lot of you follow Kilby and Greg and their journey and their serving in some tough places and They’ve dealt with some illnesses typhoid, malaria, you know, lack of nutrition. It’s tough, they’re, they’re, they’re in a tough place and and they divide their time. They spend half their time in a very rough area and the other half of their time in a place. It’s not nearly as bad, but it’s still nothing like where we live, or you know for them, for them, just, life is a little more difficult and and there was someone who I love very dearly, who who was upset because Kilby had been so sick, and this person made the comment there are people here in America that need Jesus. Why do they have to go over there? And I have to, I have to kind of measure my like, I have to calm my own spirit when I hear that, because that is, that is a very broken and and Terrible thing to say, it’s a terrible thing to say. You know, partly, to say that is to say these people, first off, when you say those people are the like, you’re already putting yourself in a position Better or higher than than than others because you’re like speaking down, it’s condescending those people. You know why do you go to those people? What about people here? You’re, you’re creating this mindset. We had something similar happen when we Adopted foreign children. You know, our two of our three adopted kids, or one’s local and two are from East Africa and I remember people saying why do you got to go over there and adopt kids, as if to say those kids are not Valuable or they’re they’re not in it, like what’s it matter? First off, what do you care? It’s none of your business. Go go do something destructive and critical somewhere else. You know you’re not gonna bring that. You know negativity is not gonna bring me down you know like. But? But people tend to have this sort of attitude of why go there, why save those people, why leave home and comfort and Go to save these people? And I don’t think for John it wasn’t like I don’t want to go someplace, it’s uncomfortable, but it was more about I’m not gonna go to this foreign place. I’m not gonna go to this foreign place and save these people. I mean and preach to these people because God might save them and I don’t want these people to be saved. And that’s, that’s a gut check, you know, for us, like, do we feel that way towards any people? I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t think I do. I think I want God to bring salvation, like when I think about the Taliban or Bokeh Haram, these terrorist organizations, the cartel. I do want them to know Jesus. If someone is raped and mutilated and murdered, I want them to to repent and come to Jesus. But I’ll admit like there’s a part of me that wants them to be judged for that, you know, and that’s part of what I think we have to wrestle with as humans. And so Jonah’s wrestling with this and he doesn’t want them to To receive salvation, so he leaves and he goes to Tarshish, then nobody knows exactly where this is, but we know that it’s far, far away. It’s very far, it’s. It’s Far enough that he’s and he doesn’t. Jonah knows he can’t escape God’s presence. But like to go far away is To to just, in rebellion, go the opposite direction of what God’s telling him to do. Basically, what Jonah’s doing is he’s going no, I’m not gonna do it. And so he goes to Tarshish, and a lot of people think that Tarshish was way out in the Like in Spain. So if you look at a map you’re talking about, jonah starts from one end of the Mediterranean Sea and he’s gonna flee to the far end of the Mediterranean Sea. At this point I’m not gonna lie like you’re starting to not appreciate this guy, you know. And if you study the whole book of Jonah by the end of it, you know I mean he, he goes into straight, like at points he’s passive, aggressive. At points he’s downright whiny and complaining. It’s just, it’s not. It’s hard to find something positive to say about him. I remember here’s a preacher joke for you. I remember my father-in-law, the big kahuna, used to love to tell this joke. It’s like I’m not gonna get it exactly right. It’s like there’s these two brothers and they’re just terrible people. They’re so bad, they’re just weak, they’re just bad people. They swindle people out of money and you know they corrals and you know they both have multiple wrecked relationships because of their unfaithfulness. They’re just bad people. And then, but they’re also like very intimidating and Nobody’ll stand up to my vice, kind of scared of them. And there’s a new preacher in town and the one brother dies and the other brother goes to the preacher and he says okay, here’s the deal I you need to, you need to do my brother’s funeral and you need to tell people that he was a good man. He was a good man, he was a saint, he’s a good person and you better do that or else you’re gonna be sorry. And so this preacher is the got this dilemma. You know he’s like what am I gonna say? How do I say that this is a good guy? I don’t know how to say it. You know I’m not gonna lie, I’m not gonna get up here and say something I know to not be. I didn’t know the guy very good, but I knew him good enough and I’ve heard stories and he you know he’s, he’s talked to people Nobody’s got. Nobody’s got anything good or positive to say. And so what am I gonna say? You know what am I gonna do? So he, he gets up to preach the funeral and the, and the brother is there on the front row with the family and this pastor says he says, well, ed here has passed on. We’re here today to remember the life of Ed. And he says, but I tell you, I didn’t know Ed very good, but what I did know of him is not good. You know it, ed. He swindled people out of money, he was unfaithful to all of his wives, he abused alcohol. He didn’t pay his taxes. He, he was an overall Swindler and a crook and a womanizer and a user and an abuser. But I tell you what, compared to his brother George, he’s a good man, and so Kahuna used to love to tell that joke, and it’s a good preacher joke. Because the idea is what are you comparing yourself to? You know and and For for Jonah. I’ll be honest, I have a hard time finding anything good to say about Jonah. You know I it’s. He runs from the Lord, he hates the Ninevites, he doesn’t want God’s salvation to come, he complains and wines. He’s passive, aggressive, from the belly of the fish. Even he’s passive, aggressive, it seems like, and if you go and you read what he, what he says, when, when he’s in the belly of the whale or the fish or whatever Is it swallows him, he’s like Taking shots, even then at the Assyrians and at the pagans, and so he gets in this boat and he takes off, man, he, he and he’s. You gotta think this is a. This is a boat that’s being steered and piloted by seasoned sailors. These guys know what they’re doing. They’re not gonna get afraid Because a storm comes up. You know, they know what to do. They know how to handle the sails and how to, how to navigate those waters. Read something that I wrote concerning the, the, the ship and the storm that that comes up while they’re on the ship, because we all know what happens. He gets on the boat and they get out there in the middle of the Mediterranean and it’s like massive Hurricane, gale force, crazy storm, storm unlike anything else. Listen, I wrote this this past summer. Many of us watched, along with much of the Western world, as a small group of wealthy, billionaire explorers Descended into the depths of the icy North Atlantic Ocean on a sightseeing mission to the wreckage of the Titanic. For a lot of people, the mystery and vast darkness of the depths of the sea is scarier and more intimidating than even space, outer space and the unknowns that the universe holds. Some people might have played the game, would you rather? One of the questions that often comes up is would you rather be eaten by an Alligator or a shark? But when you start talking about ways to die, I can tell you right now, at the top of my list is being thrown into the depths of the ocean, the depths of the sea, to sink into darkness and then to be eaten by a massive shark or a whale or a sea monster of some sort. And that’s exactly what’s gonna happen to Jonah. Throw in the mix Gale force, winds, 30 foot waves, I’m assuming, maybe higher, a hurricane, a bunch of mariners who are freaking out, and their and their pagans, so they’re praying to their demon gods. You imagine the storm comes up. Jonah’s on this ship and you know thinking about this like when, when, when they’re on this boat. Let me, let me, let me, let me jump over and read this the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, so God and his graciousness throws a storm onto the sea. It’s a mighty tempest, so the ship was threatened to break up. So it’s so bad that the ship’s gonna come apart. The mariners were afraid and each cried out to his God and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to Lighten it for him. So these guys, who no doubt in my mind have have encountered, you know, difficult storms before they’re freaking out y’all there, they’re losing their minds and I think you talk about a chaotic scene. They’re screaming and crying out to their demon gods. They’re worshiping these pagan gods and so they start to cry out to these gods. No doubt they had deities that were, you know, back then these societies and these people, these, these people groups and these Religions where they would worship like multiple gods. They would usually have gods associated. You know they’d have like the Sun God, the moon God, the cat God, the allocator, god. The Egyptians were the ones most notorious for this. Even when you study the ten plagues on Egypt, god was attacking a deity of the Egyptians in each one of those plagues. That’s an interest in study to do sometime. Maybe we’ll do it here sometime, but. But these guys are crying out, probably, to the gods that they worship, who they associated with the sea, the ocean. So you’ve got these guys. You’re screaming out, they’re freaking out, they’re throwing their cargo overboard. Let’s imagine that they’re carrying a commodity, a cargo that’s going from the eastern end of the Mediterranean All the way out to Spain to be sold on the market for a lot of money. This is their livelihood and they’re throwing it overboard. They’re just in a desperate save our lives kind of kind of scenario. And all of this because God has thrown this great storm onto the sea. And they are just freaking out and they’re crying out to their God, you know, or their gods. They’re throwing their cargo overboard and it says but Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and it laid down. It was fast asleep, jonah sleeping. I think there’s a principle here that you can be fast asleep, resting in the most tumultuous rebellion. You know, like sometimes, you know, you hear people say man, I still have a piece about it. Well, Jonah had a peace. Peace enough to go to sleep in the middle of the worst storm, bad enough that it’s scaring these mariners, it’s scaring them to death. You know, the Bible tells us, as Christians, there’s a peace that passes understanding. I think for us what that piece looks like is in the midst of turmoil. You may be stressed, you may feel the pressure and the tension and the difficulty, but you feel the presence of the Lord in a greater way. So you’re willing to go through difficult things or face difficult situations, and so you have a peace that steadies you in the midst of a storm. What Jonah has is different. He is numb, he’s just hardened his heart and he’s fast asleep, and then, literally, the captain of the ship comes down and starts rebuking him. He’s like man, you need to get up and you need to pray to your God. You need to ask your God to deliver us from the storm. And it seems to be an association, a knowledge of who Jonah’s God is, but not an intimate knowledge. And so it’s crazy because they’re like let’s, let’s cast lots. We got to figure out who’s somebody on this ship is responsible for this storm. So they’re recognizing that this storm is of supernatural proportions. But think about this. These pagan guys go this is not a normal storm, this is the wrath of the gods. We got to figure out who they’re mad at and so they cast lots. And then this is totally. I believe, this is totally the Lord. The Lord sends the storm. And then the Lord causes the lot to fall on Jonah. And so they asked Jonah. They’re like hey, who’s who’s account? This is your fault. What’s your occupation? What are you doing? Like, where are you from? What’s your story Basically? And he says I’m a, I’m a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea in the dry land. And then this, this freaks the men out. They become afraid and they say what have you done? They knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he told him that. So Jonah tells him he’s like, I’m a Hebrew, I fear God. And then at some point he goes on and he explains I’ve run from God’s column alive and, and we’re, you’re experiencing God’s judgment that’s coming down on me. And so they, they go oh man, what are we going to do? The sea is not going to calm down. So they keep trying it you know to, to to weather this storm. And finally Jonah says hey, y’all got to throw me in. If you’ll throw me into the water, the ocean will calm down. And they, at first they wouldn’t do it, they just kept fighting. And the, the, the, everybody’s on a aura paddle, they’re rowing, they’re fighting against it, they’re trying to get back to dry land. So now they’re trying to paddle to the land. So they’ve, they’ve folded the sails. I’m, I’m, I’m assuming. I don’t know a lot about how sailing war. I don’t know anything, to be honest, about how sailboats work, but maybe they dropped the sail because the, or maybe the storm had ripped it, because it said the boat was coming apart. I don’t know. But they start rowing. They got these big oars. They would have had these long paddles that go down into the boat and they, they go down into the water and they’re rowing. They’re trying to go against the storm, but it just gets. The storm just gets worse. So they call out to God. Now they start to pray to um Yahweh, Jonah’s God, it says. They cry out to Yahweh oh Yahweh, let us not perish for this man’s life. In other words, please don’t let us die because of this guy. But at the same time, Jonah’s like throw me into the water. They’re like, and they’re praying to God. They’re saying we don’t want to kill this guy, we’re not going to throw him into the water. These guys are in a true dilemma. They’re like praying to Yahweh and they’re saying please stop this storm. We don’t want to kill this man. He’s this, this is this feels so wrong, like she had an innocent blood. But it says they, they did it. They picked Jonah up and they threw him into the sea. And I cannot imagine, because because Jonah doesn’t fight him, he willingly goes, which that’s another, that’s another study, because we’re not going to study the whole book of Jonah here, you’re just going to really look at this main setup in chapter one and then the the ending. But they throw him and he goes willingly. Does he fold his arms and just like lay down and say, toss me, does he do that? You know, when you’re a little kid and and your parents, you know, or your your uncle and your grandpa, they get one get you under the armpits, one get you by the ankles, and one, two, three and they throw you on the bed or they throw you into the pool. Did they throw him like that and he just let them? I don’t know. But when he hits the water, the sea goes calm, it completely calms down, and this is fascinating. This is so fascinating. Verse 16, then the men feared Yahweh exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. The sea goes calm and these guys, I don’t know if they do it on the boat, if they have a sacrifice, if they, if they get to the shore and they, they kill an animal and go through the whole bit. You know, was this an animal sacrifice, where they didn’t throw everything overboard. They still had some, some livestock on the ship for their food supplies. Or was it some other sort of sacrifice, a grain offering? I don’t know. Did they go to the shore? Did they do it from the ship? I don’t know. But they, they literally go into a worship service and they begin to worship Yahweh and they made vows, they pledged themselves to Yahweh. It’s crazy. And the last verse, verse 17, really goes with chapter two. That’s where it says the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. This is the third, I’d say major, act of God’s sovereignty. God sends the storm, he, he establishes Jonah’s identity through the casting of the lots and now he appoints a great fish to swallow Jonah up. Jonah spends three days and three nights in the belly of the fish and it’s crazy. The story doesn’t really have a good ending for Jonah, like Jonah’s in the fish and then eventually it spits him up and he goes into Nineveh and he sort of preaches this mediocre sermon. He’s just kind of like goes into the city, three days journey, and yells God’s going to judge Nineveh. People are wicked. And then the people repent. The king of the city passed an edict, a decree, that everybody would worship Yahweh. So Jonah has seen God transform lives and yet he’s still bitter. And in the end of the story we see him still wrestling with his bitterness. He plays the victim role. He’s very entitled, he’s whiny, and it’s just there’s not there. There, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of redeeming qualities with this guy. You know, compared to your brother, you’re a good man, you know, it’s like man. What, what can we say? And so the story of Jonah is a story that I think a lot of us can, can look at Jonah and see ourselves you know, he’s got this this shallow faith, this lack of confidence in, in, not lack of confidence, but like lack of trust that God is going to do what’s right. I don’t know, man, I, I. I think that there’s so much to learn from from Jonah in his rebellion, and a lot of times there, you know, I think a lot of times we can learn something from somebody doing something wrong. As much as you can learn from somebody’s good example and Jonah shows us, I think, some things that we need to learn from, because we would have those same tendencies and so let’s learn from it. Let’s learn from Jonah. A lot, of a lot of people think that Jonah wrote this later, that he was repent. At some point he heard about the salvation of the, the mariners on that ship and the. You know the, the faith of the mariners that that saw the storm calm down and they must have seen the fish. I don’t know, maybe not, but I, in my imagination, they saw this fish because the storm calms down, Jonah’s thrown into these, you know this tumultuous sea, and then this ship is, is, is stabilizing and this fish swallows Jonah. Was it like where they see Jonah go in and then they see the humpback of this great wet fish come up with a whale or whatever. It was a shark, I don’t know. Fish, I don’t know. Some people think that Jonah died, was literally dead, because of the comparison that Jesus makes when he calls his own death and burial the sign of Jonah. He makes a parallel. I don’t know, but I know that God, the, the, the great piece of the story is the sovereignty of God to save people. We see the mercy and kindness of the Lord. We see the sovereignty of God in the story of Jonah. So look behind the flannel graph, go beyond the veggie tail and dig a little deeper and, and maybe, maybe, work through this book and maybe you’ll learn something and be challenged by it. I certainly have. I’ve seen in Jonah some things that I’ve seen in my own life. Because of what I’ve seen in Jonah, some things that I want to work on and, and, and and submit to the Lord. That’ll do it for this week. Now, if you want to hear a little more, what we’ve, what we’ve done is we’ve sat down and gone into a longer conversation and brought in Spencer and Rob and we just had, gosh, probably an hour worth of conversation about this story. If you want to do a, if you want to kind of come into our coffee talk conversation about the story of Jonah, um and uh, we’d, we’d love for you to thank y’all for listening and, uh, we’ll be back next week. No sanity required.

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Part 2

Jonah knows he can’t escape the presence of God, but he still runs from God. Jonah is continually disobedient throughout the rest of the story, but the Lord is patient. God will use our lives for his own glory and purpose, despite our sin and disobedience. 

In this episode, Brody sits down with Rob Conti and Spencer Davis to take a deeper look at the story of Jonah.

James Montgomery Boyce Commentaries

Jonah 1

Jonah 4

view part 2 transcript

Please excuse any grammar or capitalization errors. This is an automated transcript, provided to help you get more out of the episode and dig in deeper on any sections you want. Please listen to the audio recording and use your Bible (with prayer) to process the topic in correct biblical context.

Speaker 1: 0:00

Last week we talked about the first chapter of Jonah, talked a little bit about the story of Jonah and uh, and kind of took a little bit different approach or deeper dive into that story. And so I wanted to follow that up with a conversation with, uh, rob Conti and Spencer Davis both those guys really, really good expositors, guys that I lean on and lean into a lot when it comes to sermon preparation, um understanding how to put a sermon together. Rob teaches our exposition classes in the snowboard leadership Institute and Spencer teaches Old Testament survey, um, and then he also teaches some Old Testament classes that focus on certain aspects of the Old Testament, one of those being the minor profits. So Jonah is one of the books in the minor profits, even though it’s got a little different tone and feel, because it’s a narrative, it’s a story. The others are all sort of the message recorded that the minor profit was giving to Israel or to whatever people, group or King, um, the message was being delivered to where Jonah tells the story of this profit. And I just wanted to sit down with these guys it’s super informal, you’ve heard us do this before and we just kind of unpacked some, some further thoughts and ideas from the story of Jonah and wanted to bring you along into that conversation. It it’s it’s lengthy, um, but it, you know, it’s just designed to kind of not have a specific flow. We just kind of worked through the story of that first chapter and just just talk about it. So we we get off, you know, into some history and we, we, we just kind of go here and go there and I I like these kinds of conversations. They helped me get my head around the story a lot better and I hope that it’ll be helpful for you as a listener and maybe you’ll be in inspired to go dive back into the story of Jonah. Um, thanks for tuning in, coming along and listening and for your support. Welcome to no sanity required.Speaker 2: 2:10

Welcome to no sanity required from the ministry of snowbird wilderness outfitters. A podcast about the Bible culture and stories from around the globe.Speaker 1: 2:20

Before we get into our conversation, I wanted to follow up, um, after after we posted last week’s episode actually after we had recorded that I had an opportunity to speak on Jonah chapter one and in that preparation I went a little further, uh, and because instead of preparing to do a podcast, I was preparing to do a sermon. I take that really serious when I really drill into the main point of attack, and we’ll get into this a little bit today in our conversation. But I wanted to point out that in that Jonah chapter one episode, the main focus to me is in verse 14, where these, these mariners, these sailors, these merchant, uh, ship guys who who apparently are not only a rough lot but they’re a pagan lot, because they cry out to these pagan deities, those guys confess that Yahweh is God, that he is the Lord, that he is, that he is, um, overall, you know that there’s this really cool declaration they make there in chapter 14. And I wanted to and I think that that provides the main point of chapter one, which is the sovereignty of God, and I think there’s five. There’s five ways that we see the providence or the sovereignty of God on display in the first chapter, the first point, uh, that we see that is in the first couple of verses of Jonah, one where the Lord commissions Jonah to go to this city and preach up a message of repentance and salvation. So God is always sovereign and and we always see his providence in the affairs of men when it comes to bringing people to sa, to saving faith or to salvation. And we see it there, uh, the next thing, the next area or the next way that we see it, um, the next point in the story that I think we see it is when Jonah runs away from the Lord. It says that the Lord hurled a great storm or wind on the sea. So we see the providence of God on display in the creation of the storm, the hurling of the storm. That’s clearly the hand of God. It’s really powerful. The third act of God’s providence, or the third way or place that we see God’s providence, or the third way or place that we see God’s providence, is in, uh, the, the casting of the lots. There’s this scene in verses seven, I think, seven through 10, where these men, they cast lots. Now, this would have been. This was a way of not. Sometimes this will be used for gambling, think of like roll in dice or, um, draw in straws. You know it’s, it’s, it’s a, it’s a means of, of selection. That seems to be random chance. You know you got. You got. Remember when we were little kids and you’d play a one potato, two potato, three, potato, four. Remember that, um, and and and I remember when we would play one potato, two potato, three, potato, four, to see who goes first or who’s got to be it and freeze tagged. Yeah, you remember that. Did you do that Hide and seek, freeze tag, or sometimes we’d use it for you know some different sports things. But everybody stands in a circle, holds their hands out in a, in a double fist, and it’s uh, and you go around the circle one potato, two potato, three, potato, four, five potato, six potato, seven potato, or, and then when it got to, or if it landed on you, you’re out. You step out and you do it till it’s down to two guys one potato, two potato, three, potato, four and you go back and forth and then, and then you’re when, if it lands on you, then you’re out.Speaker 3: 5:59

Yeah, I don’t know.Speaker 1: 6:00

Maybe you don’t, maybe you didn’t do that, but we did that and then. So, so it was a way of a playground casting of lots. You know, we the other day, um little, had the. My wife had the kids draw straws to see who I think it was, to see who got to sit in the front seat or something, I don’t know the three youngest ones, and whoever drew the small straw was out, you know, and then the next straw was out. So whoever had the long, the tall, I don’t remember how it was, but it was a selection process. So, casting lots, these guys, they cast lots, there’s just random, they crowd to these pagan deities and they’re like, show us who it is, and I can’t figure it out. So they cast lots. And there’s a verse in Proverbs 16, 33 that says the lot is cast into the lap, but it’s, every decision is from Yahweh. So the providence the Lord has seen in the casting of the lots, um, I think, I think that’s that’s a pretty wild moment. And then the fourth way that we see the, the, the, the providence of God, or the hand of God, is that, um, that verse 14, declaration, that the men, you know, john, says throw me into the sea and uh, and I mean he’s willing to die, rather than we’re going to talk about that in our conversation, but he’s like, throw me in the sea. I’m basically I’m not going to Nineveh, you know. But the fourth act of providence is that the men confess the sovereignty in might of Yahweh, and verse 14, you see the salvation of these sailors. So God is provident in that he uses Jonah’s fleeing and running away to bring salvation to these, to these sailors. And then the fifth and final act of providence, the final thing we see in terms of God’s providence, is that the Lord prepares a fish to swallow Jonah. He prepares this fish to come up out of the water and swallow Jonah. So the the, the sovereign hand of God, is evident throughout the story and that’s the main idea in chapter one. So I just add that to last week’s episode and kind of use it as a segue into this week’s conversation. So let’s get into it. I think when, when we have all talked about the story of Jonah, we’ve talked about mis misconceptions that I think come from a combination of the way we were raised up and the way popular culture has portrayed it, because the the like the most prevalent, the most popular, well-known Bible stories are David and Goliath, daniel and the lion’s den. Jonah is is in that list. I think Jonah’s one of the stories you could ask. Like, if you ask, you go out on the street and you could ask a hundred people If they know the story. What do you know about David and Goliath? Oh, it’s this little dude and they’ll tell you the. They got it. What do you know about Jonah? The story, the Bible story of Jonah, they can tell you they can tell you what right.Speaker 3: 8:55

Like if you say David, people say Goliath. You say Jonah, they’re going to say whale the whale yeah. They at least know that much.Speaker 1: 9:02

They know that much and and I think that’s uh, when, when I was raised up in church and it was very traditional, and we we call these series the, the series where we take these Bible stories and we we dig deeper, like the Joseph stuff we’re doing, we call it beyond the flannel graph. And it’s because those of us that grew up before the era of veggie tales, the way we were informed and the way we had Bible stories illustrated, we say Bible stories. What they are is their narratives, their historical narratives, that we call Bible stories. And I think a lot of times when you say Bible stories, it it almost I don’t want to say not cheap in some, but it makes it more like a child like thing and like makes like a children’s story, a children’s tale. So, bible stories well, Jesus healing a blind person, that’s a Bible story. Jesus having a conversation with the woman at the well, in John 4, that’s a Bible story. Jonah and the whale are the big fish, that’s a Bible story. But what it is, it’s a historical narrative that fits into redemptive history. It’s a narrative and a greater narrative that’s telling the story of how man is being redeemed and offered rescue and salvation by a righteous and holy God. That’s the big narrative of the Bible and this is a narrative that fits into that. So, jonah, you start off. Jonah. When we look beyond the flannel graph or beyond the veggie tale or beyond the child children’s Bible story, what we have is a deeply theological, deeply historical story and work of nonfiction. It’s not allegory. It’s a story that happened and it’s, but it’s a story that is a deep study into human nature. I think we see ourselves in Jonah. One of the misconceptions that I got as a kid, that I was kind of taught, was that the reason Jonah fled was because he was afraid of the people in Nineveh or sometimes you would get that as part of it and maybe they would say he didn’t like the people in Nineveh. But he tells us why he fled in chapter 4. He tells us he ran away because he knew that God is long-suffering, god is compassionate, god is merciful and that if he preached the word of the Lord to the people in Nineveh, he knew God was going to save him and he didn’t want him to be saved. That’s a completely different picture than what most of us have. I’m not saying we were given the wrong information or I’m just saying there’s a lot more to this. When you spent your life this morning, you said when you study it for yourself. I think the challenge that I hope we put in front of people in this episode is take these familiar stories and dig deep. It’s not that you were lied to, it’s not that we were told wrong, and sometimes we were maybe led in the wrong direction, like the story of David and Goliath is not about conquering your giants, we know that. But the story of Jonah and the whale is something that probably a lot of us would have an enormous amount of growth in our lives if we would do a deep dive and study it.Speaker 3: 12:20

For sure. I remember the main takeaway being presented as if Jonah was foolish and thought he could run away from God. So you can’t run away from God, he’s everywhere, which is true Something that’s a good point. And as a kid, to learn that, yeah, he’s everywhere, you can’t run from him. But then, yeah, you read it now you’re like, okay, jonah, he knows enough to know, he knows God’s everywhere, he knows he sees everything, he knows he’s not going to escape God’s presence. But yeah, so, his motivation being I just don’t want to obey your command because I know who you are, which is the greatest news. In the Old Testament, what God says to Moses is he’s long suffering, steadfast in his love. It’s the best news ever, and he’s like I don’t want them to know it, but God’s grace trumping that, you know, is so much bigger.Speaker 1: 13:24

I was trying to study, trying to figure out where Tarshish is, because that’s where he headed, for he went to Joppa, which is so. Just going to Joppa is a journey from Nineveh.Speaker 4: 13:36

Well, he wouldn’t have been in Nineveh right?Speaker 1: 13:38

He’d have been in his hometown which I don’t think was Joppa no it was Gath Heffer. Yeah, yeah, he’d have been. Does it say he was in his hometown? Because the only other reference to Jonah is in Second Kings, where he’s in the court of the king as a prophet of the Lord. So he could have been in Gilgal or Jerusalem. You know, like he was a notable dude. Yeah, it doesn’t say, it just says go to Nineveh.Speaker 4: 14:05

So we don’t know if he’s around the king at this point, because he’s a prophet. That’s what he does, or if he’s back home, back home yeah.Speaker 1: 14:14

And he goes to Joppa, which is a port city, buys a ticket to Tarshish and most historians feel confident that it was at the far end of the Mediterranean Sea, like in Spain, in Spain, yeah, so he’s like I’m going to go. It’d be like us saying, you know, getting out Google Earth and going and, and well, going to Google and Googling farthest distance from where.Speaker 4: 14:37

I am. How far can I sail?Speaker 1: 14:39

Yeah, or farthest, longest flight and you get in, you go to Delta’s website, or you go to, you know, travelosity or kayak, and it’s like, oh, this point in New Zealand or Fiji, if I go there, I’ll be the farthest geographic point possible on the map from where I currently am. That’s kind of what he did, and so what he’s doing is you’ve got intentionality, but you’ve got also desperation, where, if y’all thought about when you are, when you’re running away from God, you you kind of get irrational. Because he does what you say, rob, he does know, he knows he can’t get away from God, but you become irrational.Speaker 4: 15:24

Yeah, I wondered if he’s kind of trying to retire as a prophet, you know, if he’s like you know what, this has been a good gig, you know. But the irony is he’s brought the same message to Jeroboam and the people of Israel that he’s supposed to bring, you know, like, because his message to Jeroboam and that second Kings thing, Jeroboam, is terrible. He’s an evil king of an evil people and God says despite your evil, I’m going to have mercy on you and larger borders. And so, Jonah’s cool, with God’s mercy, despite evil for our people, for us you know. But then when he gets the call, I’m going to do that over here too. He’s like and I just kind of I got the picture of you know instead of obviously he knows he’s not running from God’s presence, but like running from his office, running from his calling, just like I’m going to hang this up. Somebody else can bring that message, but I’m not going to do it. I know he’s going to save and I wonder if he thought if the prophet doesn’t bring the message, god’s not going to do it.Speaker 1: 16:24

You know, if he thought that I don’t know, yeah, or if he’s just desperate, irrational, I’m out, I mean, I, I I’m not doing this, I think Jeroboam, then this is the second Jeroboam. Yeah, this is Jeroboam too. Um, going in front of him required courage, you know. Whatever his we, we don’t get, we’re not told much about his message to you know, or his preaching ministry or whatever, in the court of Jeroboam too. But I mean, he had to have courage and boldness to go in front of that king. So we know he’s. It’s not like he’s a coward, you know, like as far as he’s been faithful, as far as we can tell, he just doesn’t want to go. Let’s, let’s walk through the story a little bit. So, uh, and and and we’ll just, we’ll just see how far this goes. But, um, it’s, it starts off. Um, now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitya. The word of the Lord coming to him, that’s evidence that he’s a prophet. Right, that’s one of the indicators, like, because Jonah, the, the genre of scripture, or where it fits in the Bible is, he’s one of the minor prophets, right, spinners, yeah, and, and that’s it, wouldn’t both y’all agree? The word of the Lord came to. That’s what you see when God’s speaking to prophets. Yeah, and that’s similar to in the New Testament when a writer will start off and say so Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, you know like this is telling us. This is an authoritative Interaction, god speaking to Jonah. This legitimizes that he’s a prophet of the Lord. Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come upon me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship to Tarshish. So he paid the fire and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid and each cried out to his God and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to Lock it for them. So let’s stop right there and and point out a few things. One, if you are a mariner, you’re a sailor. In the first, you know, wave of seafaring peoples, I’d say you don’t scare easy no right, you don’t scare easy, you like, and these guys are Absolutely out of their minds. And it’s interesting if I don’t know if y’all notice this, but it seems like every time a storm is recorded in scripture, it’s like this Paul shipwreck on Malta. The storms that Jesus, the one he calms, the one where Peter walks on the water Though you know they’re just the storms that are recorded are insane. And this storm is so crazy that these professional mariners are freaking out and I and I’ll be honest, the ocean freaks me out.Speaker 4: 19:37

Oh for sure. Yeah, I imagine the supernaturally churned up ocean, you know who knows what.Speaker 1: 19:42

This is what it looks like. It says the Lord hurled.Speaker 4: 19:45

Yeah, which is God’s grace. Mm-hmm, they chasing after Jonah with this storm.Speaker 1: 19:50

Mm-hmm. He hurled a mighty tempest. The ship threatened to break up, so the ship’s about to come apart. That’s how bad the storm is. Yeah, y’all remember this past summer tracking that submarine you know I don’t, I don’t love our listeners remember, but Was it like four billionaires that all paid money, these billionaire explorers, to go in a homemade submarine into the Depths of the icy North Atlantic to look at the? And it just all died? I’m not laughing. I am laughing Almost, but not laughing like it’s not comic-coids. What are you thinking? What are? you doing Like, do you lose your dude, like? But the the thought of. But I remember when we’re tracking that I remember just Literally. This literally happened to me because that that that little boat, that little submarine, went into the water on Sunday. I Remember on Tuesday, because they had like three or four days worth of oxygen. They said which we know now the thing popped and they were all dead. But I remember on Tuesday morning I couldn’t sleep, like Tuesday night I went to bed thinking about it because we had had a conversation and we had some. We had some guys at camp that were Submariners in the Navy and so they’re telling us their take on it and it was fascinating. And so then it’s, you know, I go to bed that night and it, you know, I think I went to bed at one in the morning and my, I couldn’t get my wheels to stop turning. I didn’t sleep at five o’clock. I’m up thinking, oh my gosh, those dudes. There’s something about the connectivity to knowing here’s some humans that they are right now in total darkness, possibly sitting on the bottom of the ocean Hoping that somebody comes, and they can’t see each other. Yeah, that’s what we’re thinking, but I remember being so emotionally drawn into that story and I’ve tried to look at this scene right here in verses four and five, with that same sort of intensity and and I wanted to point out the very next thing. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. That’s well, I don’t, I don’t even know what to do with that. How’s he sleeping? I remember, I Remember talking to my brother one time he’s wrestling with something. It was a big life decision and he said you know, people talk about I just don’t have a piece about it. Well, you’ll be careful when you start talking about a piece. Yeah, cuz Jonah has a piece, right here he’s, he has enough peace of heart and mind to go fast asleep in the middle of a storm that is freaked out, all these mariners when I think, a lot of times the piece that we have is a piece that passes understanding. Where you’re conflicted, you’re afflicted. He would have had a different piece if he would have been right here on his way to Nineveh right. He would have a greater peace, even though he might not be able to sleep.Speaker 4: 22:47

Yeah, right, no, and God’s commissioned me to tell this message. Nothing can stop that I’m at peace, no matter what happens. Yeah, but here it’s almost confusing. We’re like Are you assuming God’s gonna save you? Are you? What do you think’s going on?Speaker 3: 23:03

Mm-hmm.Speaker 4: 23:05

Yeah.Speaker 1: 23:06

Did he get drunk? Did you take sleeping pills?Speaker 3: 23:10

It’s how are you sleeping? You know and it’s pointed out that you know all these guys are crying out to their gods. Right, like they’re. They’re false gods, which is, yeah, they wake them up. Like what do you mean? You sleep or arise? Call out to your God, perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish, you know? And and then it’s like in a minute they’re gonna find out who he is. It’s gotta, you know, it’s crazy, cuz it’s gonna be like Okay, so you’re a prophet for this God, and you know this is why it’s happening. We’re all praying to our gods, who we know. You’re reading the story. Their deaf dumb can’t do anything and the the only person on the boat who knows the one true God is Sleep literally asleep, literally sleep.Speaker 4: 23:58

And the irony is the captain’s acting like the prophet. He’s like get up, call on your God, repent. You know he’s doing. He’s speaking like a prophet would speak to the prophet.Speaker 3: 24:08

Yeah.Speaker 1: 24:09

Yeah, that’s, that’s the irony. Keep going, cuz I think what happens next is absolutely Fascinating. I Mean, these guys basically are gonna turn to y’all.Speaker 3: 24:20

Yeah.Speaker 1: 24:22

So, after the captain comes up and says that, they said to one other come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. If you ever read that proverb that says the lot is cast, yeah, in the lap or whatever, the lot is cat. Well, I forget how it goes, but it’s like. But the Lord’s the one that determines it. So, even as they cast lots, it’s not random.Speaker 4: 24:42

Yeah, and I think a lot of people will point to Like how many coincidences or like whatever, like it. They’ll say the story is allegory, because we got the fish, we got the lots we got. How did that plant grow so big? How did the people rip hint so fast? And I think it’s miracles. Mm-hmm right, like you can’t. This isn’t a. You know there’s a lot of weird things in science, but the fish isn’t one of them. This is miracle. You know, the lot. This is miracle, this isn’t just. And what are the chances?Speaker 3: 25:12

Yeah, we believe in a God who created the universe.Speaker 4: 25:15

We’re okay with it, yeah.Speaker 1: 25:17

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so they cast a lot to know whose account, on whose account the evil has come upon us. So they, they cast lots in. The lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him tell us. So now this is an interesting moment.Speaker 4: 25:34

It is, it is Go ahead. What are your thoughts? Well, cuz they’re like, tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? I, I’m a Hebrew. I fear the Lord, y’all way. What’s your occupation? He doesn’t say.Speaker 1: 25:54

I’m a prophet.Speaker 4: 25:54

I’m supposed to bring this message over here. These folks over here, you know like, yeah, he’s, I’m a Hebrew, I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea in the dry land and Leaves out his occupation now. He did later say you know, like it says, the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Lord because he had told them. He did later say but when they first ask what’s your occupation, he just says I’m a Hebrew, I fear God. Yeah, and it seems like they freak out at this point and I don’t know if it’s like they know Yahweh’s name. They’ve heard Egypt stories, they’ve heard Canaan stories of the conquest and they’re like oh, yahweh, you know he’s the alpha, yeah, or If they’re just like you’ve offended your God I don’t know, but in any case he still seems. The supernatural role of the dice comes on Jonah, after he’s sleeping in the supernatural storm, and they’re like and what’s your occupation? You know, and he, I fear the Lord. Chance, chance to repent. Hebrew. I’m with Hebrew.Speaker 1: 26:58

What’s your occupation? American? Oh man, yeah.Speaker 3: 27:02

I’m a Hebrew.Speaker 1: 27:04

Oh man, yeah. So then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him what is this you have done?Speaker 4: 27:11

Well, and they seemed to. He says I fear God. And they seem to really fear God.Speaker 1: 27:16

Yeah, to truly fear him. For the man knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told him so. Then he explained it. And then they said to him what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us? The sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them pick me up and hurl me into the sea, then the sea will quiet down for you. For I know, for I know, it is because of me that the great tempest has come upon us or has come upon you. What, what.Speaker 4: 27:46

As well, because he knows exactly what’ll stop this tempest, you know, like yeah, you repent. I Don’t think he’s sacrificing himself for these guys. I think suicide.Speaker 3: 27:56

Oh yeah.Speaker 4: 27:57

He knows exactly how to stop this storm if you repent yeah he’s like I’m done I. How committed are you to hate for a people group that you’re like? You know, it just talks me in the sea.Speaker 3: 28:08

Which you know. That’s like you try to put yourself in. Yeah, why would you hate these people so much? And it’s not once you start reading about the Assyrians, it’s not hard to get there if you think and what if it was some of his own, not just like nation that they had done horrible things to? But you know what? If somebody in his family or you know, you start speculating like, okay, why this deep hatred? Maybe they Put somebody he knew on a stake. You know like, but but regardless, yeah, he’s, he’d rather die, he’d rather kill himself.Speaker 1: 28:44

Have you ever heard that? Read Like in a commentary or watch the documentary where they say that outside of the gates of the city you know it’s right, this is right by modern-day Mosul, iraq, and they say that they archeologists found like piles of human skulls that were arranged you know.Speaker 4: 29:02

Yeah, they’re brutal, yeah, the Syrians was a dude.Speaker 1: 29:06

Tick tick with polite plaza, please are. That guy was known to like dismember, cut off hands, cut off arms.Speaker 4: 29:13

Yeah disembowel and it’s. It may be interesting, everybody here just a couple minutes of like background on the Syrians, but like they’re kind of they, they kind of grew in shrank or whatever, but right here they’re growing into the absolute height of their power and what they’ve been doing is they’ll go up to these cities and they’ll overtake them and they build these Like earth ramps up to city walls so they can just come over the top. And there’s one still standing in, like east the city and drew in Judah. There’s one still that you know people visit. But they’d go over this. They capture the city, just brutal, they’re just blood thirsty and they’d put hooks in the people’s mouths and the way that they would control all these captives is hit. They take this people a and they’d move them across, you know nations over to the land of people be. They’d move people be to the land of people a people see to the land of people D and any time there’s a rebellion they would crush it just with brutality. But they’d also just replace the people. They deported them everywhere. So they’re outside of the normal game, they’re outside of their normal culture, you know. So when they take the Israelites out which this hasn’t happened in Jonah’s day, they move another people into Israel land. You know so. That’s why you know, even when they’re threatening Judah. You know this guy, rob Shaka, which is the best name in the Bible to me the. Rob Shaka comes to Hezekiah and he’s like hey, I’m gonna take you away, make your peace, come with me. Yeah, I’m gonna give everybody your own fig tree. I’m gonna give everybody your own land, your own vineyard. You’ll move into a to a grove of olives. You know who’s gonna deport them into another place, mm-hmm. But these people are just so and so brutal that you know and at this point, that haven’t captured Israel, which is where you know Jonah’s from. But they’re, they’re getting close. It happens within like 30 years or something like that of Jonah’s message to Nineveh. And I mean it’d be like he is literally supposed to go to their threatening enemy and say Repent, and just just wild the message. Who he’s gonna bring the message to? And you’re right, you know, at this point some of his family may have been Brutalized. You know he’s. He’s up there, way up in the north. Jonah’s home is way in the north.Speaker 1: 31:30

I’ve heard several analogies where it’s like one, one is like Um, it would be like a slave in the 1850s, you know, being commissioned by God, a A slave that has escaped on the underground railroad in the 1860s, being commissioned to go, you know, to Birmingham, if that was a city or whatever you know and proclaimed to you know, the the southern, southern leaders or whatever, like repentance over their sin and I’m like, and that I don’t think that quite gets it. Then I’ve heard people say it would be like Going to the Taliban or ISIS, being called to do that. The reality is I don’t think we have a modern-day parallel. It’s beyond it’s. You have to really go deep into your own imagination to even understand. I don’t think we have a. I think we fall short if we try to make an analogy to modern-day.Speaker 4: 32:30

Because there’s no threatening power that’s threatening to take us from our homes and boogers. I mean they deported four million people in that that one time period, and that was, I mean, most of the world right there and it’s, and they’re. They’re a calculated people. I mean Isaiah. When he talks about him, he says none of them are weary, none of them stumble, none of them sleep, not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap is broken. Like they’re calculated, they’re on it and they’re intentionally brutal. All right, we don’t have a pair of no, we don’t, we really don’t.Speaker 1: 33:05

The you know it’s the same kind of Evil is like the Nazis under Hitler. But even then you’re talking about. You’re talking about a time in history where Um One nation was literally One, not even nation. One people Was taken over the entire world and no one was stopping it, like no one was slowing them down. Nobody slowed them down once it happened.Speaker 4: 33:34

Nobody slowed them down at this point, yeah, at this point in their history, because it had up and down. But now they’re like swelling, to just and nobody slows them down.Speaker 1: 33:41

And then I mean, and then it’s, you know, 722.Speaker 4: 33:46

30 years later, this is 750s, right, 780s we know it’s during Jeroboam’s reign, which is, like you know, 780. You said to 750, so it’s somewhere in there. So it could be as as short a time span as 30 years before the assyrians take israel, or it could be 50 years, yeah the assyrians are in 722 and then, 100 years later, the babilonians overthrow the assyrians.Speaker 1: 34:10

But it’s because the assyrians, they practice this kind of it’s like a scorched earth approach where they pillage, they rape, they just consume and destroy. Where the babilonians are very technologically advanced, they’re educated, they, they take. Like, when the babilonians take over, they use a different approach. That’s that’s which, that’s another deep dive, but that it takes a stronger, smarter people, a scent like a century of growing into power, to overthrow. Like at this point, no one’s challenging them. And Jonah’s like I don’t want. And Nineveh’s a key city, at one point Nineveh was the capital of the assyrian empire and Jonah’s like I don’t, I’m not going there, I don’t want to go there.Speaker 3: 34:55

And you know, I think for me the point is not to become all of a sudden like sympathetic to Jonah. You know as much as to back up and stand in awe of how. You know how far above Our thinking and our understanding is God’s Understanding, his will, his plans and purposes are so far down. Because you’re like man. It doesn’t make sense, like why don’t you just crush them now? And I mean they’re gonna be judged. God uses the babilonians to judge them and then he uses somebody else to judge the babilonians To judge the babilonians, the Greeks to judge the person and all the to judge Israel at time, but but within all of that, that, to us, is such a like Massive confusion. You know, and we don’t see all the threads like God’s ultimately Playing out, redemption. You know and like, and that’s what comes back to the core of this story. You know, it’s like, yeah, god, god saves who he wants to and has mercy on who, on whom he will have mercy, and it’s like, okay, if I keep my eyes on that, you know, and whoever he calls me to have a gospel conversation with, he’s powerful enough to save them and and it’s his will to do it, and he’s worthy of worship. And and who he judges, he judges and he’s worthy of worship for that.Speaker 4: 36:17

Yeah, and at this point in the story Jonah is almost like he thinks God’s in the wrong for that mercy, or at least he doesn’t like it.Speaker 1: 36:28

The. It’s interesting because you know, when you think about the brokenness of humanity, like where people will say we, we’ve all had conversations, everybody that’s listening has had a conversation with somebody and maybe wrestled with it in your own mind. I, I don’t want to follow a god who allows so much evil, or why is war so prevalent and or why is there so much wickedness? And the world’s always been like that. And we get to look at stories like this and see how god is orchestrating a plan throughout history to bring salvation to people. And, you know, raising up the Assyrian people and and using them to judge Israel. But then what you just said, then raising up Another people and using them to judge Assyria, then raising up another people and punishing them for doing what they did to do Assyria and continuing there. Because when the Bible something else, when the Babylonians conquered the Assyrians 150 years later, they also then further oppressed the Israelites. But it looks different because they let some of them, they begin to let some of them go home. They deport more to Babylon, they, they move people around further. But they say how can we maximize the good out of this people group? Well, the Assyrians like virtually disappear. I mean there are remnants of those people now on the earth, but Like it, like history is written and it’s, but Israel is always preserved. Yeah, they are the people of promise. Israel survives the Assyrian invasion and oppression, the Babylonian invasion and oppression, the Babylonian Invasion and oppression. The Persian global empire, the Greek global empire, the roman world empire, the ottoman empire, like Israel, has never gone away in 1948. They become a city state again after After the Holocaust after the Holocaust they become a city state. The Holocaust like the final straw, but and but, if you like, you geek out just a minute. If you go back to the late 19th century, in the late 1800s, israel, like, like, ethnic Jews, began to go back to Palestine. From Russia, from Spain, from France, they began to go back to Palestine, to their homeland, and they began to establish a national identity. That’s 50 years before Hitler, they began to reestablish a national identity and so when Hitler goes to kill all the Jews, it’s immediately following that that they all say we got to go back and join together and establish a nation and build a military and and build an identity. Well, that hadn’t been a thing since 722 BC, so 2500, 2600 years. God is preserving a people On the, on the planet, when a whole bunch of people came and went in that time period. So when you look at what God, when you look at the story and God using the Assyrians to judge Israel, it, but he still got a plan for Israel. He’s going to use that nation to bring the Messiah into the world and then he’s going to use that nation to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. But Paul says to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, because those, the Israelite people, are all over the earth and Paul’s early missionary journeys are to go to the Jews in Spain, in Turkey, in Asia Minor, you know, in North Africa, to send or go to Establish a gospel presence among the Jews first, who then become the, the, the global missionary force. It’s fascinating.Speaker 3: 40:05

It is fascinating.Speaker 1: 40:06

I think you can. Even you can tie that to the story of Jonah, because we’re dealing with the Assyrians.Speaker 3: 40:11

The other thing that stands out to me in that you know, it’s just, you know God’s the way he views nations, and I don’t have like a developed Clean theology on it, but it’s just, it’s clear that throughout history God does judge nations. Right, we just talked about it in detail as well, as far you know, enumerating how many nations God’s clearly judging. That’s such a main point of the Minor prophets and it’s like, you know, I think, for Western mind, modern mind, like that goes against how I want to view God or how I’m conditioned to view God. That Will know it’s. You know, individual one, you know just that an individual is only responsible for himself, but then also like To downplay God’s wrath and judgment against anything, but let alone that he would hold all of us Accountableness, like we’ll know that God’s got a history and track record of holding nations accountable, showing them grace and mercy, but also Judgment, destruction. You know it stood out to me studying Joshua for our be strong conference and you know I’m just reading the story and celebrating. I know the walls are about to fall, you know, and it’s such a cool moment and seeing it, yeah, like memories of hearing it as a kid, mixed with better understanding as an adult and I’m just in the moment, and then they go over the wall and they’re killing men and I’m I’m still good with that, you know. I got cool pictures in my mind playing out. But then it says the women and the little ones. And I’m like gosh, that’s right, he’s judging them all, like he’s judging this whole nation, you know, and again just putting it in that perspective of God sovereign will. But what you know here in this story is like, yeah, he’s giving opportunity, he wants to give that nation that we just got done talking about and all the brutality and the Evil. Like he’s gonna give him opportunity to repent.Speaker 1: 42:26

Yeah, and they, and we know that they do yeah they do.Speaker 3: 42:31

Which I think both terrifies me in a sense and gives me hope. As an American, you know it’s like, yeah, can, can, will God? You know, I don’t, we don’t have a passage and no, you know detailed prophecy of what God’s gonna do to America. But you can look at, yeah, like he has every right to judge us as a nation. But there’s hope, you know.Speaker 1: 42:56

Mm-hmm. Okay, let’s, let’s finish this chapter one, and then I want to jump to chapter four for one final thought. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land, so they when, when Jonah said, throw me in the sea, it’ll stop, the men are like, no way, they have a, they have a conscience and I cannot imagine Going okay and throwing this dude into the sea.Speaker 4: 43:21

Because because you don’t know if that’s what stops them like that they’re like I don’t want that on my hand, or if they’re like I don’t have a right to judge his fate. Which is so ironic with what. Jonah’s whole mission right here with the judging the Ninevites in a sense, you know, like I’ve been on one ship in my life at sea and it was Early snubber days.Speaker 1: 43:43

A guy took us on a really short cruise and it was me and little, and I think Kilby and tuck were born. They were little, so I had, you know, couple toddlers and I was miserable as I caged right on that boat. That was awful and it was a short cruise. It was like a weekend cruise and we went down Maybe to Belize or to, I don’t know, somewhere in Mexico, I can’t remember. But I remember Going and looking over the edge of the boat and I’m not hating on cruises. I know a lot of people love going on cruises. I went on one three-day cruise. I’ll never go on a cruise again, that’s at least that’s my plan.Speaker 4: 44:19

But, and this is all you can eat. Quesadilla bar gets old after about, it gets old, it gets old and it’s not that great.Speaker 1: 44:28

But this and this is 20, 20 years ago. But I I remember walking out on the boat and and it’s, you know, 11 o’clock at night and you can’t see land in any direction, and looking down and I’m, you know, 12 stories up or whatever, looking down into that thing and it’s free it like you feel your stomach. I’m not scared of heights, like standing, you know, being in the arch it being in the arch in st Louis or being at top of that thing in Atlanta, that little restaurant that’s been, you see all the city. Like get up there and look out, that don’t freak me out. Being in an airplane Upside down, I’ve been, I’ve done that one time that didn’t freak me out. Roller coasters, heights, like I love that stuff. Standing on the top of that boat and looking down into the ocean, I got almost a queasy feeling in my stomach. And now imagine that that boat’s going upside down Practically and he’s like just hurt, just throw me in the water, it’ll stop. And they’re like no, no, no, everybody row harder. Yeah yeah, they’re trying to save him, and then they’re. Therefore, they called out to the Lord Yahweh. Yahweh, they crowd to his God. They’ve already cried out to their gods oh Yahweh, let us not perish for this man’s life and lay not on us innocent blood for you, oh Yahweh, have done as it pleased you. So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging on. To imagine that moment, like just Imagine the no, they’re screaming to hear each other. The wind is insane. Like how many times has there been a crazy Southern Appalachian way, smoking mountain storms in the summer, where we’re under an awning and you Can’t hear each other. You’re screaming at each other because the rain is beating the awning so loud and the wind is crazy. We saw that a few times this past summer. I mean, they can’t hear each other. They’re screaming, they’re soaking wet. The boats about to come up, come apart. They’ve thrown Okay, let’s not forget, they threw all their cargo overboard. How do they make a living? They this a cargo ship, I’m assuming, like that’s their livelihood, that, let’s say they’re, let’s say they’re hauling you know, rice or or tobacco or some some commodity that’s gonna bring them money and at at market when they come Not fishing, they’re heading all the way across the Mediterranean to sell something that they have in the Middle East, in Spain, where they don’t have it, and they throw it all overboard. That’s crazy. They throw it all over so they’re stripped down to nothing. They throw it over. Then they pick Jonah, I mean they throw him into the sea and then Listen. I picture see, like glass, and you’re yelling and and all sudden, oh my gosh, we can hear each other whisper. And the dudes did they see? Okay, first 17, the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah.Speaker 4: 47:28

Can we go back to verse 16 real quick?Speaker 1: 47:30

Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah because it’s going okay.Speaker 4: 47:33

So then the the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.Speaker 1: 47:39

They come to faith in the Lord. So it seems like they come to faith in the Lord and I think I think on verse 16 that. So I was gonna go 17, then come back. So let’s go ahead and walk through 16. I. Here’s what I think happens Whether Jonah writes the book or not. Exact things. Jonah wrote it. Some people do. Some people think he didn’t, doesn’t really matter. If he didn’t he would have probably dictated it or told the story. I. How did he know that happened? Did he, like he found out? Was it maybe the Lord just told him he’s a prophet, maybe in the inspiration of scripture? But did he later Reconnect with some of these guys and have conversation? I don’t know. But how did he know? But but he’s recording this. Either he’s telling it or he’s writing it. Unless the Lord just in his right inspiration, scripture, supernaturally revealed that, then that, like that’s recorded. Because if that, if there wasn’t any kind of a conversion, then they throw him into the sea and then the sea is calm and cease from its raging and you’re done and you don’t have verse 16. Verse 16 is in there. The men feared the Lord exceedingly. They offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.Speaker 4: 48:55

Which means it wasn’t that spontaneous, because they’ve thrown everything overboard. They don’t have any cows. They don’t have any anything they go all the way to the shore is taking their time. They’re offering a sacrifice there and making about seems a genuine Version yeah, it really does.Speaker 1: 49:12

And but what I was gonna say about 17? So go back to before the vows go back to 15. They picked up Jonah, hurled them into the sea the sea cease from its raging now, jumped over 17 and the Lord appointed a great fish To swallow up Jonah. Was Jonah like did he go into the water and he’s just getting tossed around? And he and he ends up. And then Hours later he’s swallowed by a fish. Because if he gets tossed into the water and the water is instantly calm, then Jonah’s out there treading water. Like is he, did they throw him in? And it’s instantly calm. And then he’s just like all right, see you guys, as the boat sailing off you know what I mean Like, yeah, it’s not like I threw him in the water and he disappeared. The water becomes calm. So was the fish waiting right there today? Did they toss him? And as the waters becoming calm, they see this, you know the the hump back of this fish come up and then Jonah’s just gone. What, what happened right there? What did that look like, you know?Speaker 3: 50:09

Yeah, yeah. In his prayer, you know he talks about going into the deep, into the heart of the ocean. At one point I’m looking for it where he says, like I had sea reed wrapped around my head yeah, weeds were wrapped about my head and the roots of the mountain. I went down to the land where the bars closed upon me forever. So, yeah, either yeah, just I mean, yeah, maybe it was A immediate, everything goes down, or maybe it’s like may heat that goes in. It’s still crazy and he Sinks like a stone.Speaker 4: 50:41

Mm-hmm.Speaker 3: 50:41

And then as he’s down there, you know, yeah.Speaker 1: 50:44

He says all your waves and your billows passed over me.Speaker 3: 50:48

If I was making the movie, those guys see it.Speaker 1: 50:51

Yeah, they see this big thing come up and eat him.Speaker 4: 50:54

Whoa, they’re just like after he’s sinking. Yes, I can sink in.Speaker 1: 50:58

Oh, it’s crazy. Okay now. So, jonah, you know from the belly of the fish he, some people think he died and was brought back to life. There’s this whole thing we’re not gonna get into here, but where Jesus points to it as a parallel to his own Going into the belly of the earth.Speaker 3: 51:17

Yeah, that’s sign of Jonah.Speaker 1: 51:19

Yeah, the sign of Jonah. But he, he gets in the belly of this thing. He prays and he repents and the fish spits him out, oh. And then he goes to. He goes to Nineveh with the message verse before we go, when he’s in the belly of the fish. Chapter two, verse seven, he says when my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple.Speaker 4: 51:48

So he’s like you know.Speaker 1: 51:49

I remember the Lord. You know, I’ve cried out to God. But then he says those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I, with the voice of Thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed. I will pay salvation Most Lord. It seems like verse eight those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. Is he talking about the Assyrians and the pagan people in Nineveh?Speaker 4: 52:15

That’s my opinion. I could be wrong on it, but I think it’s just like a subtle little dig you know just and I don’t know if he’s leaning on his nationality here, as an Israelite, you know, or if he’s just like. This is what God does. He’ll save me. You know. Salvation belongs to the Lord. I’ll I’ll what I vowed. I’ll pay, I’ll go. I’ll go with your message, but it doesn’t seem like a and I’m repending for my heart condition towards the Assyrians. I’ll go preach repentance.Speaker 1: 52:44

And the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out on the dry land, and that was what came next.Speaker 3: 52:48

And again, if I’m making the movie, there’s a crowd of people getting ready to launch their boats in the morning to go out to fish, and they, they see it, and then he stumbles up.Speaker 1: 52:59

What’s he? What’s he look like?Speaker 3: 53:00

I think he’s. He’s still got that seaweed wrapped around his head and he’s I think he’s like bleached out from the acid in the stomach. He looks gnarly, he. It’s a freaky moment. That’s how I like to picture it.Speaker 1: 53:14

Yeah, I like that. And then he goes to Nineveh and he preaches the greatest sermon all the time. He walks into Nineveh. Jonah began to go into the city going a day’s journey. He called out yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And the people of Nineveh believed God as a preacher. Tain’t y’all appreciate, like, when God works in spite of you? Because I don’t know what’s going on with that sermon. Is it half hearted? Is he just like, okay, I’ll say what I’m supposed to say and then take what’s coming? I don’t know, it just seems so anticlimactic, the message and the way he delivers it.Speaker 3: 53:55

I think it’s both as a preacher. It’s encouraging and a warning like encouraging, in that in my shortcomings, you know, in my faults, failures, all that, when I mess up and sin, god still use me. I can speak his message If I committed to saying what God has said. On the other hand, it terrifies me that, okay, I could walk in disobedience, be sinful, god still use me. That’s not. My security is not in fruitfulness and ministry. My security is in my relationship with the Lord and that’s where I need to continue to pursue and not have false security in that. Ministry seems to be going good, I’m all right.Speaker 1: 54:37

They called for the people who believe, believe God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. So there’s a like a repentance and a turn into the Lord. The King sends out an edict. This is like when Daniel, you know when the King makes an edict to worship Daniel’s God.Speaker 4: 54:56

Yeah, it’s wild because you know, obviously Jonah could have preached other things, but all the Bible gives us was the condemnation part right, and he’s prepped to preach the best sermon ever, Like he just came out of the belly of a fish he could have given you a good illustration literal like look at God’s grace on me, a sinner, so God has grace on you, sinners like but the only piece of his message that the Bible writers bring through is condemnation. Yeah, but then you know, just like the, everything in the stories obeying rather than. Jonah, the fish is obeying the sailors are obeying. Everybody’s fear the King. The King hears the city the people. He’s basically preaching the sermon that Jonah should have where he’s like. Who knows, maybe God will relent and a certain maybeSpeaker 1: 55:42

Jonah should have preached.Speaker 3: 55:44

Yeah.Speaker 1: 55:45

And at this point Jonah has seen the greatest fruit and ministry that maybe any preacher in the Old Testament saw the, because the pagan mariners have turned to faith, which he didn’t see. That but then, but then now a whole city. Imagine, I mean imagine, becoming a street preacher. I like to watch those street preachers on YouTube. You know it’s pretty. Sometimes I get sweaty armpits, watch, I get nervous. You know like I get. I feel flushed. But I was. I was in Canada. I’d crossed from a flu into Buffalo, new York, and crossed at Niagara Falls, went into Canada to preach an event and I stopped. The guy that picked me up took me to eat at a restaurant in. Niagara Falls and when we came out and it was like the, it’s basically like being in Gatlinburg or one of those beach. You know, it’s a tourist town where it’s like fudge shops and you know all the t-shirt funnel kicks. Yeah, it’s all wonderful, it’s good I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m not knocking at any of it, that’s one of my favorite things. But you come out and it’s like there’s a lot of people there and they’re all and it was. Uh, this was in. I think it was in August. It wasn’t cold. I’m at Niagara Falls but it’s not cold and I’m a street preacher and he’s got like and he’s a hip looking dude, like you know, he’s African American. He’s got a flat bill hat. He’s got another dude with him who’s white. So it’s you know, you got. You got these two guys that are both very like stylistically. They’re very much like with the times. They’re not. They don’t look like like. When I was growing up, there was a street preacher in downtown Wainesville. Every single Saturday morning and my childhood this dude would stand on a park bench and preach and he wore a suit. He’s crazy and I mean he’s probably faithful to the Lord, probably, love the Lord. He just probably needed to. Somebody needed to explain to him. That wasn’t the most effective, whatever, I’m not judging, but nobody ever stopped listening to that guy. But these dudes were. There was something about them that was appealing. They looked cool, you know like, and then they’re just and they had a cool dialect and vernacular. I’m sure they’re probably into either spoken word or hip hop, like like freestyle and something like these guys. They had some sort of street cred. But then they’re standing there preaching the gospel on the street and nobody was listening and then they would take turns. I sat and listened to him for a while. The black dude would preach for five minutes, then the white dude would preach for five minutes and three minutes worth of their sermon was all anybody heard and realized they had about a five minute sermon on a loop and I just hung out. We were just chilling and I was. I was like we weren’t in a hurry to go anywhere, so I waited till they took a break and I went over and talked to them and I told them, like man, I appreciate y’all’s boldness, I’m thankful for y’all. It didn’t feel like something that I felt critical of, like that. I felt like, if you’re going to street preacher, doing it, right, not one person even gave them a sideward, sideways glance, nobody paid attention to them. And when you do see I’ve seen some YouTube videos where street preachers are out there and then somebody comes over and pops off smarts off to them Jonah goes into the worst possible urban environment and says repent, god’s going to judge you and everybody gets saved. I just don’t have. I don’t have a context for this. That’s wild.Speaker 3: 59:23

Have you all? Uh. So, knowing that we were going to do this, I was looking at it again and I’d never seen this or heard this before. But one of the preachers I was looking at he points out that, uh, it’s possible that this is meant to be irony and that Jonah’s message, actually his prophecy, is correct. He says cause the, you know, and the ESV. Here it says yet 40 days and Nine of us shall be overthrown. Uh, and so what I first all was overthrown is the same word that was used for Sodom and Gomorrah. You know, uh, turned over, like upside down, he said. But the word can also mean let me look at it so I don’t mess it up um, to turn around or to change oneself. And so they’re saying he was saying that what Jonah means like destroyed, like Sodom and Gomorrah. But what God’s saying is 40 days and you will be different, you’ll be turned around, you’ll be changed. You know, as a cool thought, that even in this moment he’s not on board with the message, but God still, like the prophecy is, he’s a true prophet.Speaker 1: 1:00:43

That’s a very cool thought.Speaker 3: 1:00:46

It’s a very interesting thought, yeah, I’ve never seen it before.Speaker 4: 1:00:50

Verse 10, though, it seems like there was an actual disaster that was coming towards the people.Speaker 1: 1:00:55

Yeah, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do them.Speaker 4: 1:00:58

And he didn’t do it yeah.Speaker 1: 1:01:01

Chapter four, verse one. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry. So he goes in his tailspin and he prayed Lord has. This is not this what I said when I was yet in my country, so there’s some insight that we didn’t get at the beginning. He said I already said this. This is what I made. The reason I’ve made haste to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you’re a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, abounding and steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Therefore, now, oh Lord, please take my life from me. It’s better for me to die than to live. God, when I was in, before I took off for Tarshish, we had this conversation where I said I know you’re gonna change and save these people. Something’s going on there. I mean, did he? Do y’all think what he’s saying there is? He knew for a fact God had revealed to him more than just go preach. Had God said to him go preach, I’m gonna bring revival. And because he says he says he prayed to Lord and said oh Lord, is this not what I said when I was yet in my country? Yeah, that is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you’re a gracious God and merciful, so like this is why I didn’t wanna come here, because I knew you were gonna do this. Like, did he just know the nature of God? Or had God told him hey, I’m getting ready to stir the hearts of people in Nineveh. I’m gonna bring revival to Assyria.Speaker 4: 1:02:28

Yeah, I weren’t told. I mean it just in the beginning, when what it says, when he’s called, is just arise, go to the great city and call out against it. Their evil’s come up against me. So I don’t know if he’s been told more than that or if he’s just like. I know who you are, I know what’s coming.Speaker 1: 1:02:45

But it’s possible that he knew, he knew. He knew Like I don’t know, it’s just. You can overthink stuff and my brain just goes crazy, because if he knew it, then he knew somebody else if he didn’t go and preach it. If God’s already determined to save these people, he’s gonna go save them. I don’t know, but anyway he wants his life to be taken.Speaker 4: 1:03:10

Which is he’s back in the same place. He was in the storm In the storm, so I don’t think the fish situation ended in repentance because he’s in the exact same position. This is happening just like I thought it would take my life. I don’t want this. I’ve confirmed who you are. I knew this is who you are and I don’t like it.Speaker 1: 1:03:29

I told them, boys, to throw me in the ocean so I would die.Speaker 4: 1:03:35

And God’s grace just on Jonah again. Because God just keeps on pursuing him. Keeps on pursuing him despite his evil.Speaker 1: 1:03:42

He goes out of the city, sits down. He’s just like I’m just gonna sit here and die, but it’s so hot he’s miserable. Today’s the hottest day I think I have felt here. We just took a break, went outside and I don’t know what the weather is here, but it’s hot and I was all over the country. Right now we’re talking to some of the guys in the institute yesterday that lived down south and one of them he indexed was 110 at his house. The other one’s 111 at his house and like heat. I can’t imagine going out there right now and sitting down in that gravel all day and not moving. So it’s a weird scene.Speaker 4: 1:04:19

And then God lets a plant grow up over and provide some shade for him, and then but I think when he’s out there in the shade or you know, when he’s out there sitting, it says to see what would become of the city. I think he’s still holding out a little bit of hope to like maybe he’ll still burn it, maybe he’ll still punish, maybe they were penance and like he’s even popcorn, while the world burns here Just like. Let’s just see.Speaker 1: 1:04:44

Okay, and God? Of course God doesn’t do that. And then God, there’s an interaction and we’re running, we’ve gone over on our time anyway, so let’s get to the end of this thing. But basically there’s this interaction where God has to rebuke him again. Do you do you do well to be angry for the plant? Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. Jonas just, and that’s in verse nine Jonas just snappy with the Lord and the Lord said you pity the plant. So what happens is God lets this plant grow up to give him some shade, and then a worm each through the plant and it dies. So God’s dealing with Jonah, he’s working with Jonah here, and God says you pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. That’s first hand, chapter four. 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 my favorite sentence in all of the story and also much cattle?Speaker 4: 1:05:49

Think about the cow.Speaker 1: 1:05:51

Jonah, I’m sparing all these cows. Is there not 120,000,? What’s he mean, 120,000 people? I don’t know if he means all the people there that are spiritually in darkness. Does he mean children and mainly handicapped people? They don’t know, they’re left from their right, I don’t know. But he’s like we’re seeing the mercy. Should I not be a merciful God? Should I not have pity on these people? And then the story ends. And that’s where people that think Jonah wrote it they feel like, yeah, he’s, at some point he’s a believer, he’s regenerate because he’s a man of God, he’s a prophet of the Lord and he’s just in a bad place. And at some point he turned the corner and then wrote this and, if not, that at some point he shared it or whatever. But it’s just such an abrupt and strange ending, the most abrupt and strange ending to any story in the whole Bible, in my opinion.Speaker 4: 1:06:47

I love it. I think it’s the final prophetic message from Jonah. Like that he’s leaving it hanging with God’s message. I’m merciful, this is who I am. I think later on he repents and writes it intentionally with him in a bad light, or dictates it with him in a bad light to put God’s mercy on display. And this is the message for all of us at God’s merciful.Speaker 1: 1:07:10

Yeah, so he doesn’t come back to man. And then after that I was like you know what, yep? And I just started to faithfully preach and the rest of my ministry and then he goes into. Yeah.Speaker 4: 1:07:22

I went back and found the sailors and the yeah.Speaker 1: 1:07:24

None of that. It just yeah, I’m with you. I love the way it ends, I love the abrupt ending, I love the, but it is the most non-typical like atypical ending to any story in the Bible and I think because of that you’re able to kind of think through what you just said. Okay, why did it end this way? Because that’s where Jonah and or whoever would have written it if it wasn’t him. This where the story ends to highlight and display the mercy and kindness of the Lord fascinating.Speaker 4: 1:08:02

I think the point of it is, you know, kind of answering the question can God save the wicked? Can God save the most wicked, even if it’s one of God’s people like? And I think, yeah, verse verse two is that he’s a gracious God, slow to anger, relenting from disaster, abounding instead fast love, even when it happens in Jonah. Like to save the Ninevites is huge, but to save Jonah, after every piece of seaweed in the story obeyed God except for the prophet, that wickedness. Can God save the wicked, even Jonah? Yeah, I think that’s the beauty of the story no one’s past saving.Speaker 1: 1:08:45

That’s cool. Yeah, god. The miracle of salvation in this story is seen in the king of Nineveh, the mariners, the people of Nineveh and Jonah. This story is all about God saving people. He saves a group of pagan mariners who are praying to the sea gods. He saves a pagan king of a city who would have I don’t know who this king is, you know, we don’t know for sure. I read so much on that last week and there’s just, you know, speculation. But we know that he would have been in a succession of very pagan kings and in a network of very pagan city kings. And he saves him and the man makes a decree and he saves the people and in the end he saves Jonah, because God’s a saving God. All right, we’ll wrap that up there and, I don’t know, maybe we’ll come back and finish the story of Jonah at some point. Chapters two through four it’s a crazy story, you know. Chapter two is Jonah prays and cries out to God from the belly of the great fish, and then chapter three recounts when he gets spit out of the fish and he walks into the city of Nineveh. He walks into the city of Nineveh and proclaims the message that the Lord has given him and there’s this massive revival. Even the king of Nineveh turns to Yahweh and makes a decree that everybody would worship the Lord. And then the last chapter is an accounting of Jonah getting frustrated with the whole thing and I don’t know. It’s kind of a crazy spin there towards the end and we talked about it a little bit in that conversation we just listened to. But it’s even funny to me the way it’s worded. That last phrase you know, about the cattle. It’s just kind of funny. But we’ll take maybe down the road. We’ll dive in deeper. I don’t know, we’ll see, let us know what you think and if you enjoy that, that type of content. Those are those beyond the flannel graphs. I always enjoy doing them because it’s a little bit deeper. Dive deeper, look into some familiar Bible stories. Thanks again and we’ll see you next week.Speaker 2: 1:10:56

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