Book of Jonah Overview

Turn in your Bibles to Jonah. We’re going to be looking at this book tonight and for the next several weeks. What I’d like to do, I read a great verse this morning, 1 Timothy 4 in which Paul encourages Timothy to the public reading of scripture, and I think there’s nothing better than just being able to read through scripture. When you get a book this size, they’re just going to read through the whole thing. It’s about the size of a long chapter in the New Testament so we can get through it. We’re not going to cover it all by any stretch of the imagination. We’re actually going to only going to get through a few verses because I want to introduce this book properly. This is a tremendous book, and it goes way beyond just the sense of a children’s story. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to some of the Baptist bookstores and you see board books, pictures of David and Goliath and Noah, Noah’s ark. Jonah’s always up there. 

That picture of Jonah getting swallowed by the whale is something that captures it. But this story actually is about the sovereignty of God and his saving purpose for all nations. We’re going to see that as we study it. So, let’s look at Jonah. And we’re going to read through all four chapters. And we’re going to begin with some introduction. Starting at verse 1:  

The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.  

Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own God. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.”  

Then the sailors said to each other, “Come let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” 

This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.) The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”  

“Pick me up and throw me into sea,” he replied, “And it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried to the LORD, ‘O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man for you, O, LORD have done as you pleased.” Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this, the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him. But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. 

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. He said, “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD.” 

And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.  

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now, Nineveh was a very important city- a visit required three days. On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.  

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so we will not perish.”  

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.  

But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD, “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 

But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”  

Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”  

But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?”  

“I do,” he said. “I’m angry enough to die.” 

But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” 

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for the time to study your word, to look carefully at it. I thank you for the message of this book. I thank you for its demonstration of your sovereign control over the smallest details of life. I thank you also for the picture it portrays of your great saving plan for all the nations. I pray that we would not be like Jonah but would be ready to obey you as you command us to go and preach the gospel to all nations. I pray that we would be faithful and obedient. And that we would see your blessing and experience it as we follow you. And now be with me and all of us as we study your word and understand it better in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

How many of you seen that have seen the movie Inherit the Wind? Inherit the Wind? It’s the story of the Scopes Monkey trial. I don’t know if you remember this. In the early part of this century, there was a tremendous trial in which a teacher was put on trial for teaching Darwinism, evolution. And he was convicted and sentenced under the local statute for doing so. But it became a cause celebre, a very important trial in the history of our nation because of the significant issue of Darwinism and how it related to the Bible. And at the time the ACLU hired a lawyer named Clarence Darrow. And Clarence Darrow came down and defended the teacher against the charge. He lost the trial but won the war, so to speak. The local people, the local community was the, especially in the movie, the one on trial. I think it’s fascinating that Darwin has been rejected now by the scientific community. And I think we’re moving more and more toward the biblical understanding as more and more scientists are rejecting Darwinism as well. 

But at the time, science hadn’t, shall I say, evolved to that point, and Darwinism ruled the day. But Clarence Darrow had a favorite saying. He was a very cynical man, an unbeliever who rejected biblical faith. And he used to say, not just at this one trial, but at any trial he would say, “One could as easily believe that as that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.” Now, that was a very snide comment, a very cynical comment, poking fun at anyone who believed that the scripture was inspired by God. But I think we’ve seen more and more how the scripture is as one person put it, “an anvil that’s destroyed many hammers.” The scripture is inspired by God and perfect in every way, and this is an awesome story. But as I said, the themes of this book go much deeper are much larger than just the idea of a single individual being swallowed by a whale. 

And by the way, in future weeks, I’m going to tell you of some research that I did at Boston Public Library about an individual that was actually swallowed by a whale. I lived up in the whaling area up there in New Bedford, but I don’t want to tip my hand too much. That’s an exciting story, we’ll get to that in the future. So, it can be done, and if I had Clarence Darrow here, I’d talk to him about it. But at any rate, we don’t have that privilege. There have been three histories, in history, there have been three ways of interpreting this book, which we have read in its entirety tonight. The first way to look at it is that it’s an allegory. Now, an allegory is just basically an extended story. It’s not connected to reality any way, but it’s meant to teach a principle. And in an allegory, every single element of the story represents something. 

In this case, Jonah would represent something. The great fish would represent something. The Ninevites, the ocean, the boat, everything represents something, that’s an allegory. The problem with allegory is that you can use it to make the Bible say anything you want. Actually, early in the church there was a whole school of biblical interpretation which followed allegory. And basically in that way of thinking, if you weren’t spiritual enough, you couldn’t see what I’m seeing in the scripture. But if you are spiritual enough, you can see my interpretation. So, who’s going to admit they’re not spiritual enough? Oh, I can see it definitely. You see, it’s like the emperor’s new clothes. No one wants to admit they can’t see what’s plainly there in the spiritual reading. But I think this is not the proper approach to the Book of Jonah. 

The second way is to look at Jonah as a parable. Now, the difference between an allegory and a parable is that with an allegory, every single little detail needs to be pressed. You’re trying to find out what each thing means, but a parable doesn’t do that. Basically, a parable is trying to teach one main lesson, one main idea. The problem with that though is that in the scripture, a parable is presented as a parable. It’s not presented as an actual story, but this book reads like any other historical book in the Old Testament. The scripture presents the Book of Jonah as a story of history, a story of history. It’s a historical narrative. In 2 Kings, don’t have to turn there, but in 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah is introduced to us as a prophet who lived. Jonah, son of Amittai was a prophet from Gath-hepher. Gath-hepher. Now, how many of you know where Gath-hepher is? No? 

when it comes to miracles, seeing is not believing, believing is seeing. In other words, if you have a heart of faith to believe what God is doing, you’ll see what God is doing.

All right, how many of you know where Nazareth is? Okay, you’ve heard of Nazareth, at least. Gath-hepher is two miles from Nazareth. Now it just turns out that there is a prophet, there was a prophet who came from Nazareth who testified to the historical accuracy of this book. Do any of you know who that is? Its Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ took this story as historical narrative. We get that in Matthew 12:38-41. Now in Matthew 12:38, some Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.” Now, this is amazing. By this time, Jesus had done more miracles than anyone who had ever lived. There was never enough to the miracles. And I think their attitude of unbelief shows me that when it comes to miracles, seeing is not believing, believing is seeing. In other words, if you have a heart of faith to believe what God is doing, you’ll see what God is doing. But if not, you’re going to try to kill what your eyes are plainly telling you that Lazarus has been raised from the dead. Or that Jesus himself has been raised, and the tomb is empty. If you have a heart of unbelief, you can disbelieve any miracle, and the Pharisees were that way. They said, “We want to see a miraculous sign from you.” Well, Jesus said to them, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except,” what? “The sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:39-40). 

Do you see what Jesus was doing there? He was linking is own resurrection to the story of Jonah inside the whale. If this is allegory, if this is parable, the connection falls apart, but Jesus did not accept them that way. This was historical narrative. And he goes on from there, Jesus did. And he said, “The men of Nineveh will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:41). Jesus said there’s going to come a day when those same people who repent in this story will stand up. And they’ll condemn you, Israel, because all they had was Jonah coming and preaching. But you have the Son of God incarnate doing incredible miracles, and still, you will not believe. Again, if Jonah is an allegory or parable, that connection falls apart. Jesus accepted this story as literally true. 

Norm Geisler who is an apologist and a Christian thinker, said that “Liberals and critics like Clarence Darrow say that Jonah is a whale of a tale, but Jesus said it’s a tale of a whale, and it’s true.” I love that, and I’ll take Jesus’ word over theirs any day. Now, the main lessons of this book center around its hero and its anti-hero. Now the hero of the Book of Jonah is clear. It’s God Almighty, it’s the sovereign God. He’s the hero of this book, no question about it. And already we’ve seen God’s sovereign control over so many different things. God rules over superpower nations like Assyria. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. And he rules over single individuals like Jonah. God rules over huge fish like whales, and he rules over tiny little worms that come and eat up vines at the end of the story. Do you see the scope? Isn’t that beautiful? 

God rules over cold storm gales on the ocean and also the hot sirocco wind that blew in and dried up that vine at the end of the story. God controls all nature. It’s a beautiful picture of the sovereignty and the power of God. But more than that, it’s a picture of the way that God deals with people, the way that God deals with nations and with people. That God abundantly pours out mercy and forgiveness to whomever he chooses. That’s the whole thing that bothered Jonah as we’ll find out. “I know that you’re a gracious and compassionate God,” Jonah complains. “I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love.” God is the hero of the story and so is his grace and his mercy. And we see that God’s sovereign grace can reach out even to the vilest of sinners, even to the most disgusting of nations like Assyria and transform them, bring them to repentance. 

God is the hero of this book as we’ll see. Now, Jonah is the anti-hero. He’s the opposite of everything you want to see. I’m not saying everything he does is wrong. Jonah has his moments in this story just like all of us have our moments as we follow God. But Jonah is by far and away the most rebellious prophet you’re ever going to meet. What a contradiction in terms, a rebellious prophet, but that’s exactly what Jonah was. And we see from Jonah various things as well. Human beings are more ready to receive God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness than they are to give it to others. Jonah received God’s grace and forgiveness, didn’t he? We see God giving him a second chance and Jonah celebrates it and all that, but he doesn’t want to see it happen to anyone else. That’s what we learned from Jonah. Also, that humans often rebel against God’s clearly revealed will.

the Great Commission actually connects the Old Testament and the New Testament together. It’s a single strand of God’s saving purpose throughout all history.

Do you think Jonah didn’t understand what God was telling him to do? No. Jonah knew very well what God was telling him to do and chose to rebel. Just chose to say, “No, I’m not going to do that.” So human beings can be rebellious even when we know what it is that God wants us to do. And in that way, we can say human beings can be exceedingly bold in their rebellion against God. We see all of that in this story as well. Now, the beginning of this story verses 1 and 2 is really somewhat of a Great Commission, a Great Commission. Now you all know the Great Commission from the New Testament, but you know the Great Commission actually connects the Old Testament and the New Testament together. It’s a single strand of God’s saving purpose throughout all history. 

You remember it said in Genesis 12, God’s call to Abraham, that God had called Abraham to be a blessing to the nations. “I’ll make you a blessing to all nations.” And that was fulfilled in his descendant Jesus Christ. But God had intended Israel throughout their history to be a light to the nations, a demonstration of God’s ways to pagan people. And Israel did not follow out that commission. Israel rebelled against it, and Jonah in a way personifies that. But it is a commission. So, we see in verse 1 and 2, “The word of the LORD came to Jonah, son of Amittai, ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me.'” Now we get in the New Testament, the version of the Great Commission like in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel, to all nations,” right? It’s the same thing, really. Go cross-culturally and explain to them a message of a God who’s willing to forgive your sins. 

Jonah was in fact being called to be a cross-cultural missionary here, going to a different nation. Now, Nineveh, as I mentioned before, was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Now, you may not know that much about the Assyrian Empire, but when you think of the Assyrian Empire, think of the Nazis of the ancient world. They were a wicked, vile, cruel, barbarous people who only sought to dominate their enemies as we’ll discuss. The name Assyrian or the Assyrian Empire brought hatred and fear out of the people of Israel. They were terrified of Assyria. And as it turned out in history, it was Assyria that carried off the northern Kingdom of Israel finally into exile as God’s punishment for their idolatry. So, they had a reason and a right to be afraid of Assyria. The Assyrians were characterized by arrogance, pride, cruelty, brutality and warfare, idolatry, immorality, that was Nineveh. 

And their wickedness, it said, “Cries out. It’s coming up before me,” said God. I get the picture of Abel’s blood which cries out to God from the ground, or the outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah which caused God to break out against those cities. There’s a sense of the crying out of the evil and the wickedness of this place. “It’s crying out to me, Jonah, so you need to go preach.” And the mission was that Jonah should preach against it. To preach against the wickedness, to preach against the evil. Now, we tend to think of America as a Christian nation, don’t we? But I think we see the degeneration of the effect of Christianity on popular culture right before our eyes, don’t we? And it’s accelerating, isn’t it? It’s going faster and faster.  

God loves us who have chosen him, and he has chosen us. We follow him as individuals. But God has not chosen this nation the way he chose the nation of Israel. But God has blessed this nation abundantly through the Christian faith of its people. And if we go the way of Nineveh, we’ll understand the judgment of God as well. And God is calling us to cry out against the wickedness we see around us, not to be silent. I’m grieved by some of the polls I see today and the silence of the people of God. I think we need to let our voice speak out, but God is calling on us to cry out against wickedness and He called on Jonah to cry out against wickedness as well. That was the mission. 

He was to act in reference to that city the way Daniel acted with Nebuchadnezzar in which he confronted Nebuchadnezzar with his wickedness, was not afraid of the punishment, but just confronted him. God was saying, “Get up and go to Nineveh.” Jonah got up and went, all right, but he didn’t go to Nineveh. He went the opposite direction. Verse 3, “Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and headed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.” Now, if you were in the army, what would this be called? What’s that? 

AWOL. Going AWOL. Flagrant insubordination, right? Going AWOL, absent without leave. Desertion. How about that? Serious penalties in the army for that kind of thing. God was more gracious. You went the opposite way. And I guess it’s easy to condemn Jonah, but think of yourself, think of a time that God has laid something clearly before you, and you headed the opposite direction. We’re all the same. Jonah exemplifies our rebellion, but now we have to ask, why did Jonah flee? What made him run away? Perhaps it was the difficulties of the mission. Nineveh was far away. God was calling Jonah to travel over dangerous desert roads about the distance that my family and I travel by car from Louisville to Durham, about a ten-hour drive. That’s about how far God was calling Jonah to go by foot. 

So maybe it was that he just didn’t want to make that long trip. Do you think that’s what it was? No, because Tarshish was further away than that, right? So that theory falls apart. That’s not it. It wasn’t the difficulty of the mission. How about the dangers of the mission? If he went there, he might lose his life, he might die. Do you think that’s what it was? No, because he’s just about suicidal. He’s ready to throw himself into the ocean. At the end he asked God to kill him rather than that he should preach. So, I don’t think it’s that he was afraid to die. He actually wanted to die rather than do this mission. “Go ahead and throw me into the sea.” Volunteer to throw yourself in, problem was deeper than that. 

I think it really had to do with the wickedness of the city. In the book of Nahum, I’m not going to ask to turn there because it’s somewhat unfamiliar, but just listen to chapter 3:1-4. This is a description of the city that Jonah is called to go to. Listen to this: 

Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots! Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses- all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved the nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft. 

That was Nineveh. Think of the Nazis. Think of violence and cruelty when you think of that city. What was Jonah’s motive? It wasn’t fear, it wasn’t the difficulty, it was that he was afraid that God would do the very thing he did: forgive Nineveh. And he didn’t want to see that. In chapter 4:2 he says, as I read earlier, “When after Nineveh repented, Jonah was greatly displeased, he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, ‘Oh Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home?'” And here he tells us, “That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you were gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love and kindness, a God who relents in sending calamity.” That’s why I ran, because I didn’t want you to save these people. I wanted you to destroy them. I wanted you to wipe them out. 

You could picture perhaps a Jew during World War II being asked to go to Berlin and preach against Berlin or else God will destroy Berlin. What would he say? “Go ahead and do it. Destroy it.” That was Jonah’s attitude. And so, it was the character of the Assyrian Empire and the loyalty that Jonah felt to his own people, Israel. In effect, there’s a reverse First Comma ndment going on here. The first of the 10 Commandments is, “I am the LORD your God. You shall have no other gods besides me.” Well, Jonah is saying, “We are Israel, your people. You shall have no other people beside us. I don’t want to see your grace extending to that wicked nation.” That was his attitude. So, you can imagine Jonah’s feelings. Now, Jonah was going to Tarshish. We don’t really know where Tarshish is. It’s just far away. That’s all you need to know. 

Some people think it was a mining colony in Spain, which was really the other side of the world as far as the Jews were concerned. So, he was going as far as he could away from God. Now, perhaps Jonah forgot a very famous piece of scripture. Let me read it to you, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heavens, to the heavens, you are there! If I make my bed in the depths, you are there!” (Psalm 139:7). That very fact, by the way, saved Jonah’s life later. When he sank to the depths, God was there and saved him. If I sink to the depths, you are there. “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your right hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (Psalm 139:9). 

Well, that’s a beautiful promise for us, isn’t it? A beautiful promise of the omnipresence of God. You can’t go away from God, he’s everywhere. And for us, that’s a sense of protection. And for Jonah, it was too. But Jonah’s trying to rip away from that and get away from the omnipresent God, trying to find a place where God wasn’t there. Well, he’s not going to find it as we’ll see. Perhaps Jonah thought what the Arameans thought in 1 Kings 20. Remember that it’s a story maybe not so familiar to you, but the Arameans were a nation who were trying to fight against Israel. And they thought that the God of the Israelites was a God only of the hill country, not of the plains. So, if they fought Israel down on the plains, they would win. But God is tough up there in the hill country. 

Do you remember God judged the Arameans for that attitude? “Oh, I’m the God of the hill country, it’s true, but I’m also the God of the plains. And I’m the God of Tarshish. I’m the God of the bottom of the sea. I’m the God of outer space. I’m God everywhere. You can’t run away from me, Jonah.” And then it says that he paid his own fare. He found a ship at Joppa and paid the fare. That’s an interesting thought. Donald Gray Barnhouse of the Bible Study Hour, a great Bible teacher, I love what he had to say here. He was talking about how Jonah paid his own fare for the voyage, but he never got where he wanted to go. And this is what he said. And by the way, he got no refund, never got his money back. “When you run away from the Lord, you never get to where you’re going, and you always pay your own fare. But when you go the Lord’s way, you always get where you’re going, and God pays the way.” Isn’t that beautiful? 

So, as we close our introduction to this sermon series, let’s look at some preliminary lessons we can learn from Jonah. First, Jonah’s misplaced loyalties. Our first loyalty should be to God Almighty and to his work in our lives, not to some sense of what God should be doing. God does new things all the time. He’s an immensely creative being. We need to open our hearts and let God do what he wants to do here in this church. We have to look at Jonah’s lack of compassion at the end. There’s the great unanswered question. It’s a haunting question at the very end of this book: “Should I not be concerned about that great city?” God asks. He’s really plumbing the depths of Jonah’s compassion. “Jonah, aren’t you compassionate for that great city?” How about you? Are you compassionate for our great city? Are you compassionate for the people here who don’t know Jesus Christ?

God may lay at your feet something that you never imagined he would call you to do. Don’t be like Jonah. Don’t run away from it. Let God do something great.

If so, God may lay at your feet something that you never imagined he would call you to do. Don’t be like Jonah. Don’t run away from it. Let God do something great. By the way, if he wants you to do it, you’re going to do it eventually. It’s just how difficult you make it on yourself. That’s one lesson I get out of the book of Jonah. And furthermore, we see Jonah’s exclusivism. Someone once put it this way, “Us four, no more, shut the door,” right? We’re kind of comfortable here. We’re cozy. Wouldn’t you love to see this place packed out on a Sunday evening? Let’s not have that, “Us four, no more, shut the door,” attitude. But you know when God does great things, it kind of sometimes upsets apple carts, gets a little difficult, a little dangerous. 

And I think the lesson of Jonah is to say, “Let God be God. Let him do great things. Let him work in our midst and accomplish his ends.” And finally, Jonah’s small view of God. He forgot Psalm 139, “Where can I go from your Spirit?” He forgot that God’s grace and compassion can even extend to a wicked nation like Assyria and perform a great revival. His views of God were too small. Expand your views of God, expand your sense of his greatness and his majesty. Expand your sense of what he can do through this people, through us, through his people. Expand your thoughts of what God will do here at First Baptist Church. Have a sense of God’s greatness working through simple people like us. Now, next week, we’re going to look at how relentless God can be when he wants you to do something. 

God is a relentless God, and he will accomplish his ends as we look at the rest of chapter 1. Let’s close in prayer. Father, we thank you for this time that we’ve had to study your word. I thank you for your people here. I thank you for the love we feel for one another and for you. But more than that, I thank you for your love for us in Jesus Christ. I pray for us, Lord, that we would be faithful to accomplish your mission here in this community, and that you would help us to not be like Jonah, but to be faithful to carry out whatever it is you ask us to do. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.