Text: Jonah 1:1 (CSB) – “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me. Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence.”
We have begun a study of the book of Jonah! I have entitled our study JONAH – THE PERVERSE PROPHET. This little book is only 4 chapters long, but filled with great spiritual truths!
Yesterday we saw some of the historical background around this perverse prophet. We said that today we would consider the question TO OBEY OR NOT? WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
When Jonah hears what the Lord wants him to do, he packs up and leaves his hometown in the Northern Kingdom of Israel and heads south to Joppa and buys a one-way ticket to Tarshish - which is believed to be on the southern coast of Spain! It was the last jumping-point to the West!
The only problem with that is that Nineveh was east! So, Jonah was heading as far in the other direction as he could possibly to get - away from Nineveh and away from the will of God! Verse 3 tells us that he was trying to flee "from the presence of the Lord." Not very smart for a "man of God". Not very spiritual for a man dedicated to serving the Lord! All in all, not a very mature thing to do for one wanting to do the Lord's will.
As we will discover in our studies of the book of Jonah:
· We may be able to run from "the will of God",
· But we can never run from the presence of the Lord!
Why would Jonah run? What was it about this request from the Lord that made it so difficult for Jonah to obey? Why was he willing to forfeit his relationship with the Lord rather than go to Nineveh?
It boils down to that he hated the Ninevites! When it came right down to it - he didn't care if they were saved or not! I would even go so far as to say that it is most likely that he DID NOT WANT THEM SAVED! Have you ever "hated" anyone so much that you didn't want anything good to happen in his or her life?
Jonah had good reason to hate the Ninevites. The Assyrians were a barbarous nation! One of the many things they were noted for was taking a prisoner and burying him in the desert sand up to his neck. They would then place a leather band through his tongue and stretch it out so the man could not swallow and leave him there in the desert sun to die. It is said that most would go mad before they died.
The Assyrian armies traveled with their families and were described as a "plague of locusts" as they descended upon a city. History has it that entire cities would commit mass suicide rather than fall into their sadistic hands.
Assyria had made several attacks upon Israel and it is very possible that Jonah had experienced their brutality first-hand! It was "standard operating procedure" for the Assyrians to kill all the men and children and rape and take captive all the women of a city. IF, and I say IF, Jonah had lost someone he loved - the Lord's request would be easily and understandably difficult for Jonah to obey.
Jonah was willing to let his hatred of the Ninevites get in the way of his relationship with the Lord! He deliberately chose to be the "prodigal" rather than the "prophet"! In other words, when his will ran opposite of the Lord's will - he ran in the opposite direction of the Lord.
Obedience seems so "godly" when it's easy and so "unreasonable" when it is not!
I would imagine that Jonah found a surplus of tickets for the ship bound to Tarshish! He probably found them "discounted" when he got there. Now he is aboard ship and headed for his Mediterranean cruise - everything is "smooth-sailing."
Only one problem - he is out of the will of God! We must be careful as children of the Lord to interpret "smooth-sailing" and "discount prices" as God's will. That kind of thinking could put us on a ship to nowhere. Likewise, we must be careful not to interpret difficulty or hardship as being out of the will of the Lord!
I would like to remind you of those dear saints that have gone before us: “Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented — of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.” (Hebrews 11:35b – 38)
I know this is a very difficult statement to actually live - but it is better to suffer in the Lord's will than to book a Mediterranean cruise out of His will!
As we “embark” upon this journey with Jonah – can we see ourselves in this account? We can if we look close enough. This recounting of Jonah’s story is for our benefit – tho challenge and convict us.
All Aboard! Weigh Anchor! Full Steam Ahead!
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