Jonah’s Great Commission

Jonah 1:1-6

1.  Introduction

I stand today to say that the account of Jonah is true and accurate.  It really happened.  Jonah is documented in Scripture.  Jesus believed Jonah was a real person.

To introduce Jonah we should first go to the Book of 2 Kings which we only find one verse that mentions anything about this prophet specifically.

(2 Kings 14:23-27).

Even though Jeroboam the son of Joash refused to repent of his sin, God still blessed the nation of Israel because God loved the people and there was no one left to help them. In an unprecedented way God shows grace to His unrepentant people. God gave King Jeroboam military strength even though he was a wicked king. God did this because He is a covenant keeping God. 

2.  Jonah’s Great Commission (Jonah 1:1-3)

1:1- Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 

A truth from Jonah is that God loves all people groups.  The nations are God’s. 

Doctrine- Jehovah, the God of Israel is the God of all the earth (Rev. 7:9-10).

Some of these are from Nineveh and were converted at the preaching of Jonah.

1:2-"Arise, go to Nineveh , that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me."  I want you to go straight to where the king of Assyria lives and tell the Ninevites that I’m about to poor out My wrath on this city.

This is what Paul called a mystery. The mystery is that God was for the Gentiles (Col. 1:26-27).

Jonah began to put the scenario together in his mind. Suppose he should leave his beloved land of Israel ? Suppose he should preach that judgment was coming to Nineveh ? Suppose they would listen and turn from their wickedness? What if God showed mercy to them? This would make them God’s people as well as the Israelites. What if God embraced them and showed grace and mercy to them? What if they repented when Israel refused to repent? (Ezekiel 33:11)

God would take no pleasure in dealing out judgment to Nineveh , that great city.

It was the fact that within Nineveh were people, people made in the image of God, people who were not living for the glory of God.  There were souls that did not know Yahweh. There were some of God’s people in Nineveh .

1:3- 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 fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

As you read the OT this statement is everywhere or something like it.  And the Word of the Lord came to __________ saying.  Then the prophet would do what God asked him to do.  Can you imagine how out of place Jonah’s response is to the Words of God?

Jonah thought that God was the God of the Israelites and the God of Palestine.  He thought that he could remove himself from the presence of God.  He thought that somehow God was limited to the boundaries of the Promised Land. 

3. The Lord’s Great Commotion (1:4-6)

1:4- 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. 

God created this storm with one purpose, to teach Jonah that God is in charge.  People cannot run from God.  God created it to also show Jonah that the Lord is the Lord regardless where he may be. 

1:5- 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 lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.

These sailors are in this situation because Jonah is rebelling against the will of God.  They are pagans.  They are calling out to their gods.  Man has a God instinct that is within his being. He knows there is a God by the testimony of his conscience and the testimony of creation but he doesn’t know anything specific about God until God reveals it to him.

1:6- So the captain came and said to him, "What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish."

When people are left to themselves they will invent false gods to their own liking. 

These Sailors were very religious.  Lost people today are very religious.  They need to be introduced to the real God (Acts 17:22 -25).

God is sovereignly at work in the lives of all people groups.

God had a two-fold purpose in sending Jonah to the heathen people of Nineveh .

1- To declare coming judgment to excite within the Ninevites repentance.

2- Is for another sermon…