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Bro. Otis Fisher
Jonah, quite a character. He was a prophet of Israel and predicted the restoration of the ancient boundaries.
He exercised his ministry very early in the reign of Jeroboam II. This made him a contemporary with Hosea and Amos, or possibly he was before they were.
So, consequently, he may have been the very oldest of all of the prophets whose writings we possess.
There's three things I'd want you to search for as we study this.
First, he is a missionary to the heathen Nineveh.
That'll open up fairly quickly. But also, he is a type of the
Son of Man. And the third and last point, this is a picture of the
United States of America. We'll see that in it. As a prophet, this was perhaps his only mission.
Beginning now with verse 1. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittal, saying,
This word, the word of the Lord came to Jonah. Does the word ring a bell with anybody?
John 1 what? 1 -1. 1 -1. Can you quote it?
Alright. Tell me, Debbie, why was he labeled as the word?
I don't know the answer.
I can't break it up. So she's talking until she does. Russell, give me the description of the word, word.
Definition. No, just the word.
You've used them all your life. Something I want you all to get beyond.
And that's trying to remember what I said. I want you to remember what you remember.
Not tied to something I said. Well, that's good.
Alright. Think of the word, word, as a vehicle.
Pick up truck, if you please. The truck is used to carry things.
That's the work of a word. It carries the thoughts in my brain to the thoughts in your brain.
And the word does that. Jesus was the word. He was the communicator.
He brought the mind of God to the mind of man. I think it's very appropriate that they gave him one of his titles as that of the word.
Now, this word came to Jonah. A -M -I -T -T -A -I.
Amittai. Gath Heffer.
H -E -P -H -E -R. The Amittai is the name of the man.
Gath Heffer is where he lived. It had a well -known wine press.
And it was known all over the lower part of Galilee, about five miles from Nazareth.
And it was the birthplace of Jonah. It has been identified with the modern
El Meshed. You can probably find that on the map. A village on top of a rocky hill.
And it is here that the supposed tomb of Jonah abides.
Now, this word that came, this is it. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city.
And cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me.
Are you seeing any parallels to the United States yet? Well, Jonah wasn't looking for this.
Dennis, he didn't want to do this. He was too busy with other things.
And besides all that, he hated the Ninevites. He remembers that they raided his country.
Brought great slaughter upon all of his people. He perhaps even saw his own sister raped and killed by these heathens.
Assyria was one of the most brutal nations that has ever been. They used every cruel method of torture.
One of their procedures went like this. They would take a man out of the vast desert.
Bury him up to his neck in the sand. With just his head exposed.
Then they would put a leather thong through his tongue.
And leave him there to die. Penetrating heat, perhaps as much as 150 to 200 degrees.
Right down on the sand, of course, would get extremely hot. And he would die.
That's just one of the nice little things that they did. Now, there is no way that Jonah is going to go tell these people good news.
That's just foreign to his way of thinking. But the word of the
Lord told him to. I think we're going to find ourselves in this book.
So we find here, eventually, the first young man that went west. You remember that statement?
Should he have gone west? Who said that?
Why? All right. He knew the direction to Nineveh, and he's not about to go there.
So he goes west, the opposite direction. Which takes him down to the Mediterranean Sea.
He had been told to go east, so he ran west. Did Jonah know
God? You think he did?
What makes you think that? Who said that?
The Lord came to him, but did he recognize who he was? Do the rest of you think he knew
God? What makes you think he did? The fact that he ran west tells me he knew something.
That's right. And he knew that if he went east to Nineveh, he knew what
God would do. He'd spare that city. And he's not going to be a party to anything that would spare those people.
So he leaves. Do you suppose that this surprised
God? The town of Nineveh was first mentioned back in Genesis 10 -11.
And Nimrod is the one that established this town. And it's not again noticed until the days of Jonah.
And here we have it described as a great and populous city. It was the flourishing capital of the
Assyrian Empire. And they were a tremendous, in that day, that world, dominating influence.
This exceeding great city was on the eastern or left bank of the river
Tigris. And it stretched along for some 30 miles, having an average breadth of about 10 miles.
So it was, indeed, a pretty good -sized city. How many have ever been to Seattle?
Seattle is extremely long and not so very wide.
It stretches north and south a long, long ways. I think of that when
I think of Nineveh. This extensive space is now one immense area of ruin.
It does not exist any longer. Its end was strange, sudden, and tragic.
And it was God's doing, for he made an utter end to the place. Now he's been told to go to Nineveh.
But Jonah rose up and fled to Tarshish from the presence of the
Lord. He ran away from the presence of the Lord, Dennis. He went down to Joppa seaport, and he found a ship going to Tarshish.
So he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it to go with them unto
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He paid his fare.
What's that tell us? Well, it tells us something ahead of that.
They had passenger ships. They're not so much a passenger ship, but they would carry people from one place to another on board ship at this early time.
And if you had the money to buy a ticket, you could go, just like you do today. So there was traffic between the different countries.
Jonah bought a one -way ticket to any place. He really didn't care as long as it was west.
Where is Tarshish, Roger? I don't know.
That's a pretty safe bet. Who has an idea? Diane?
No idea. Clarence? David? David?
Well, if you went too far, you'd fall off the earth. Greg? Spain.
You remember much, much later, Paul wanted to go to Spain. But we're going to see something before we finish.
In fact, when he boarded the ship, he got as far away from a getting -in place as he could.
He went down in the hole. He found him a corner someplace in that rat -infested place and went to sleep.
Did you ever try to run away from your assigned duty? Who giggled?
Did you ever get out of work or goof off?
Strangely quiet. Did you ever get real busy when the boss come around?
Well, the next time you want to do something like that, go someplace where God can't see you.
That's what Jonah did. He thought. Now, Jonah thought he was escaping
God's will. Was he? And in his mind, he was.
But he wasn't really. But I want you to realize that even his running away was ordained of God.
Now, that may seem strange at this point, but we're going to see later how it absolutely was.
Fourth verse. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken in two.
Now, the sailors that had control of the ship, well, at least they thought they did, had been in storms before.
There must be something unusual about this one. Now, we have a great problem, and that's understandable.
But the problem's not the storm. What is it? Jonah. So the problem's not even the great fish, is it?
It's Jonah. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his
God, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them.
But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep, even in the storm.
Now, I've tried to figure out why he was asleep.
And, of course, I really don't know, but perhaps overcome with distress, just mentally, to the point that he could do nothing.
What? Oh, yes. Absolutely.
He'd rather do anything than go to Nineveh, because he knows in the back of his mind and heart that if he goes,
God's going to save him. All right. Sleep is no necessary proof of innocence now.
It might be the fruit of carnal security and a seared conscience.
Now, they prayed every man unto his God, little G. The ship's crew, it tells us in that, that they were heathen.
It's very probable that each one had their own particular God. Everybody did.
Every city did. Every country did. And I have found, and I don't know if you have or not, but adversity is in a state in which
I've become most acquainted with myself. And I dare say some of you the same way.
Well, here they are in the storm. And, Greg, they're afraid the ship's going to break in two.
They're afraid it's going to sink. They begin to sow all of the cargo overboard to lighten it.
So the shipmaster came to him, Jonah, said unto him, What meanest thou,
O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God. Now, did he know what
God Jonah would call on? Well, it's written that way, but he assumed that Jonah had a
God just like everybody else. But it's capitalized so that we know
Jonah will call upon God. If so be that God will think upon us that we perish not.
They did not know Jehovah. Isn't it strange that when men get in a position of which they cannot have any input, they seek help from their own
God, whatever it is. It's always been that way.
These heathens were no different. They supposed that Jonah had his
God just like they had their gods, and each one of them was different. And they were all equally involved in this tremendous tragedy that's coming, that is upon them.
And they said to every one to his fellow, Come, let us cast lots.
Greg, what's that mean to cast lots? All right, do you know what they used?
I can't either. Let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us.
Always we look to somebody else for a cause of our distress.
Now it so happens they were right, but they would do the same thing no matter what it was. So they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah.
Do you suppose by any stretch of the imagination that God had anything to do with that?
He got right to it, didn't he? Couldn't he have prevented
Jonah from going on board the ship? Debbie? Why didn't he?
What did he want? All right. God, something else
I see. He will not disillusion the wicked.
He lets them continue to believe in their God. Because they don't belong to him.
Yes, that's going to finally be the outcome. I just wonder whether they ever got the idea that there was a wicked man on board or an evil man on board causing all this.
He was what? He was not concerned about his life. I think they all thought, Oh, God, he doesn't care.
Why would they put the evidence on dad's top log?
And everybody thought? Everybody would want to be there, Clarence, except Jonah.
He's going as far away as he can go. That's what happened, wasn't it? Yes. I think my parents had beliefs of something like that.
So that's why I'm trying to look at things more on paper.
Because they're probably the same way. And they were, you know, somebody forgot their rabbit's foot.
Okay. The Irish guy forgot his holding over. And so somebody, because he was going to college.
He prayed before playing soccer. They said, Okay, we have devotions.
You pray. But it dies easily. But the talking about these guys is very interesting.
They were. They figured so many guys were doing soccer volunteer. And that thinking has not died out completely.
Especially on the water. There's lots of superstition still connected with sailors and marine life.
Well, I once heard of a seaman. I did not know him. But it was back in the early 1800s.
And David could have met him, but I couldn't. But he was on board a ship in a similar situation.
And the crew began to all pray to their own God. And he very quickly told them to hush.
Says be quiet. For if the gods knew that I was here, we'd all perish.
So he was thinking if the gods knew I was here. As though their gods did not know where they were.
Verse 8. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us.
What is thine occupation? And whence comest thou? What is thy country?
And of what people art thou? And Jonah says one question at a time. A child of God can run just so far.
Even his running is ordained, but he doesn't know that. It's time that we knew that.
There will come something that jars us awake. You remember the prodigal son?
When he came to himself, he said, Myself is the son of my father.
Jonah was running away because he wanted to. Now unknown to Jonah.
This was ordained of God to have one of the most effective witnesses that has ever been.
And your assignment for next week is to write a physical description of Jonah as he entered
Nineveh. You can perhaps look it up in an encyclopedia,
Bible dictionary, or a comic book someplace. Just take in your mind everything that takes place.
Our country is doing exactly what it wants to, and everybody that dislikes it always blames someone else.
Have you heard anybody blaming someone else? It's always the other power that's in office.
So we too are being conformed to that which the Lord has decreed. But I'm anxious for us to come to ourself.
And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord. Now this is the
Lord Jehovah, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
Now, do you suppose Jonah realized that his testifying started right here?
He's testifying to these men. They're headed for Spain. What he said was true.
So, Debbie, I get from this that we don't go someplace to testify.
We start right where we are. And we testify as we go. We sow the word as we go.
We don't shut everything down to go someplace else to do it. It starts right here. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him,
Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the
Lord, because he told them. It was as though the
Lord himself had asked Jonah, Why have you done this? Have you ever had anyone, a friend or a stranger, make a statement to you that answered a question just immediately that you had in your mind?
You've never had that? I bet you have. It's quite a feeling.
It was as though the Lord had told him, Why are you asking? Why are you doing this? You remember he asked
Adam, Where are you? He asked Cain, What's this that you've done?
He asked Peter, Do you love me? This was never for his benefit or his information.
What was the purpose behind it, Craig? All right.
When he asked Peter, Peter, do you love me? Did the Lord know whether Peter loved him or not?
Then why did he ask? Well, how did that make him know it?
But the most powerful thing in that is that Peter heard himself say it in front of others.
And that's a powerful tool. You remember, well, turn to First Kings 19 .9.
Joy, read that. Well, don't read it yet. Are you reading it?
It's always somebody else, isn't it?
Yes. What dost thou hear,
Elijah? And I ask you, what is?
I want each of you now to put your name in the place of Jonah. And listen as the
Lord says, What doest thou hear? What are you doing here this morning?
Are you concentrating on the scripture? Are you thinking about this afternoon?
Are you concerned about what you're going to eat or what you're going to do tomorrow morning? I want control of your mind right now.
And we listen to the Lord. Then said they unto him, What shall we do to thee?
That the sea may be calm unto us, for the sea wrought and was tempestuous.
Again, we hear our enemies asking us, What shall we do to you? In order that our life can return to normal.
Well, what they're saying is we like it just like it was. Wish you go away. Are we to fight them?
Was Jonah to fight these sailors? No. It is ourself that is in trouble.
We are believing what we should not believe. Not them.
And he said unto them, And this has always been strange to me, David. Just out of a clear stormy sky.
He says, Take me up and throw me overboard. Now, why would any?
Well, I can see why Jonah might because he was willing to do anything but go to Nineveh.
But why would anybody even have that thought? Where do you suppose,
Roger? How do you suppose that thought crept into the mind of Jonah? I don't know.
Don't preserve your character, man.
Well, that's what it seems like on the surface. He had to.
I just cannot. Well, no, I can't say that because I didn't know the
Ninevites. These men were asking him, What are we going to do with you? Maybe he thought they were going to kill him with a sword or something like that.
You never know what human thought is that. That's true. The point
I want to make is that we have our reasons. And they may seem logical to us.
Or illogical. But at the same time, God has his overriding reason.
And that's what always takes precedent. That's always what occurs. Well, take me up and cast me forth into the sea.
So shall the sea be calm unto you. For I know that for my sake, this great tempest is upon you.
Now, don't you think of that statement that it occurs and it has to go away. How do you know that?
Well, that had to come from God. I don't think that Jonah had enough experience on board ship to know that.
Well, there's probably another one across. That's right.
That's right. Well, Jonah knew more than he was there to begin with, too. Jonah knew that God was acting.
He was running away from him. And I don't think that that's where it should have come from.
He knows that he's the reason this is happening. So he wouldn't be. So you're saying we cannot run away from our conscience.
That's right. What if we could do things like that and never feel guilty?
That's right. Somebody's got to always put politics into it.
He knew what was going to happen.
He was the reason. That's true, but I don't think he knew that he was going to get swallowed.
Yes. Yes. That's right.
Well, nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to land, but they could not.
For the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them. So we see here at least a type of compassion in these seamen.
Or else they wouldn't have tried to keep from throwing Jonah overboard. But they must.
For great fish is just down there waiting on him. And he's going to finish
Jonah's preparation period. You see how man cannot rush
God. Cannot outthink him. Cannot run away from him. That that's ordained is going to occur.
Now this Lord is Jehovah. Something has occurred and we're not told what.
And said, we beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee. Let us not perish for this man's life and lay not upon us innocent blood.
For thou, our Lord, has done as it please thee. Now they're turning to the living, true
God. Now how much turning? I don't know. But it's recorded that way.
Perhaps they're turning for the wrong reason. Self -preservation. They call upon God to forgive them for what they were going to do.
Can you get forgiveness for a premeditated sin?
Can you get forgiveness for a... How can
I say it? For a sin not yet committed? Who said yes?
And you're planning to sin and you're asking him to forgive you before you do. But that's not the question, honey.
The question is you're planning to do something you know is wrong. So you're ahead of time asking
God to forgive you for it. That's true.
But the question is, can you schedule and plan a sin tomorrow and you ask
God to forgive you now for what you're going to do? No. That's what confessional booths are for.
Before you go on, Reverend Lightly, you saw
Abraham Lightly? I think
I've heard of this foxhole conversion. And it would seem as though they have turned.
And we see something else a little bit later. Joy, you want to say something? Well, I was going to say, the
Rosh Hashanah storm, and they were surprised, they were afraid.
So, at that point, would you mind looking for a true God? And if someone pointed it out, would you mind?
We'll try it, yes. When you're in trouble. Oh, I don't know.
Like the little boy out to his grandpa's farm, he climbed up on the roof of the barn.
And it was steeper than he thought it was, and he began to slide off. And he was praying, Lord save me, don't let me go over there, don't.
Oh, it's all right now, a nail caught me. Did it turn out something?
Well, we don't know. Actually, but, listen. No, no, we cannot.
But it helped a lot. It didn't, but I think
Dave pretty much answered the question. But, I would like to know.
What did? What did Dave say? All right.
So they took Jonah, cast him forth into the mouth of this fish.
Cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. This proves that it was a supernatural storm.
This proves that all of this is according to God's design. And this had to cause those old burly seamen to fear even more.
When something like this come about. Yes. I think
Jonah said that not really knowing what he was saying. Remember, this is the first time we've had any connection with Jonah whatsoever.
He's, he's been. Is he the one that gathered figs? Or is that him thinking of someone else?
All right. Sixteen. Then the mere men feared the
Lord, Jehovah exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the
Lord and made vows. Perhaps the very first offering ever made on ship since the ark.
Do you suppose that these heathen became converted? Sounds like it.
Surely sounds like it. If so, then this is the first recorded time of the news of Jehovah reaching
Spain. Perhaps if it had not been for this incident, we'd have never heard about the gospel.
For this is where they were headed was to Spain. I know they were not taking the gospel as we know it.
And our time's up. We start with the great fish next week.
We're not going to waste time trying to figure out what that fish was because we don't know. That's right.
No, he's in the air. We, we put everything on hold.
I'll take care of it. My question was, did they, did the
Lord hear their prayer? But here on this first 1636 page,
I think he did. So, because he answered the prayer of some charm, some secret, so they will think their prayers were answered if that little will of Spain is told for them.
We have to assume that they did, always giving everything, everybody a benefit of the doubt.
Because we do not know. We just don't know. This is where we leave those seamen.
And as far as I know, they never come back on stage. Anything else?
That fear that came upon them, they referenced it in places. And then 517 to 243, and that's the same fear that came upon the people.
Like with the rich men, they relied on their money to just tell the price off. And, and so, after that happened, many people followed.
You know, like there was a fear of all the commons. But they followed dear Lord was right. It was by the Lord. And the fact that they weren't this bad, we do believe that there was a change of heart.
That brings me to make another statement. I don't know what percentage would be, but a great high percentage,
I'm sure. But remember this, all of the references made are God, are man.