The Blessing Of The Storm

Jonah’s Disobedience and God’s Storm

Well, go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word to the Old Testament book of Jonah. We're still in chapter 1. We're going to be starting in verse 4 this morning. And as you're turning there, I just wanted to give you a brief recap of last week that led up to these verses.

In the first three verses, we saw where God comes to His prophet, Jonah, and what does He do? He gives him a command of His will. He tells him exactly what He wants him to do. He tells him what to do.

He says, hey Jonah, arise. He says, go to Nineveh. And then He tells him what he's supposed to do once he gets there. He tells him, call out against them. Call them out on their sin. And then He tells them why He's doing it.

He tells them because their iniquity has come up before Him. And so God tells Jonah exactly, in great detail, what He wants from him. And what does Jonah do? He gets up. He arises. But then He, instead of going 600 miles northeast to Nineveh, where God's will is, He goes down to Joppa, finds a boat deliberately so that He can cross the Mediterranean Sea and go 2200 miles the opposite direction to Tartus.

So Jonah disobeys God. And this is what leads us up into verse 4 this morning. So let's read our passage. It says, But the Lord... Let's stop there for a moment. I gotta say it. If any of you watched a video I put out this week, I've been overwhelmed as I sat here in this passage because praise God for all the but the Lord in our life, right?

How many times have you been like Jonah, seeking to get on a ship and go 2200 miles the opposite direction of God's will, but the Lord? Those are beautiful words in Scripture.

It says,.

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 thought to us that we may not perish. This is the reading of God's word. Let's go to Him in prayer again before we continue in this, that God would illuminate our minds and hearts.

Lord, we come to you and we ask that you would prepare our hearts and minds for this truth even now. Your word is perfect. Your word is precise. It's intentional. And we are frail and there are times where we just do not comprehend, we do not hear.

But God, if we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit this morning, we have the ability to understand your truth. So we pray that you would illuminate our minds and hearts to that truth this morning. In Christ's name, Amen.

The Blessing of Trials and Suffering

Well, today's sermon is entitled, The Blessing of the Storm. The Blessing of the Storm. You know, every single one of us in here at some point has gone through a storm in our lives, haven't we? Difficulty.

Trials. Some more than others, of course. We see some people have gone through more trials than others, but all of us have gone through some kind of storm. And if you've been alive for any amount of time, you know the nature of this life is one that if you're not coming out of a storm, then you're either in a storm or you're getting ready to go into a storm.

That's the nature of this life. We live in a broken world. We live amongst sin. And so there are always storms and troubles that are coming our way. And you know that experientially, right? We've all gone through these types of things.

And as I meet with many of you for counseling and other things, just hearing about your lives and maybe some struggles going on, I know that there are those of you in here that are going through storms right now.

You're in the midst of a storm. You're in the midst of a raging sea that you're not sure you're going to survive. You're just not sure you're going to survive. Because as you're on that ship during that storm, you look up and the thunderclouds are blocking the sun, aren't they?

It seems as though the sun doesn't want to shine through those thunderclouds. I can't see it. I know it's there, but I can't see it. You're looking. You're trying to find hope. You're looking out across that sea and you're trying to find the shore and you can't see the shore.

It's too dark. Things are crashing in. And what you do see and what you do experience is wave after wave crashing against this fragile boat that you call a life. I know that many of you understand what I'm saying when I'm giving you this visual because you've gone through this in your lives and maybe you're going through it right now.

Maybe you've lost a loved one. Maybe someone that is dear to you, that you care for, has gone on, has passed. And the reality that death is so unnatural sets in on you and you begin to feel like you can't breathe, right?

It's overwhelming. These storms come our ways and it's overwhelming and we don't know how to deal with it. Some of us are dealing with wayward children. Children that are going a different direction than we know is good for them and we just want God to stop for a moment and set his affection upon them and draw them back to himself or draw them to himself in the first place.

And we kind of feel like the Apostle Paul back in Romans when he says, hey, for my own kinsmen, for the people of Israel that I love so much, I wish that I could be accursed and cut off from Christ for their sake.

That's how your heart pours out to them and you long for your child to return. You long for this wayward child to know Christ, to know God and be changed. That's a storm, isn't it?

That's difficulty.

Maybe your life didn't go as you'd planned. Maybe you planned your ways and now God's directed your steps in a totally different direction. You wake up and you go, I'm married to that guy. And storms hit you in your life and you're in financial ruin.

You've lost your retirement. Those are storms, aren't they? These are the facts of life. This is what happens. And it's not even just the outward storms that we know of. Some of you are struggling right now because your life on the outside looks perfect, right?

Everything looks great. Have you ever had those times where everything looks fine and you look at it and you go down the line and you're like, everything in my life is exactly the way it should be, yet internally there's a storm and I can't find hope.

I'm depressed, I'm discouraged, I'm anxious. Or I mean, I'm indifferent. These are all storms in our lives and these are things that we must experience in this life. We all go through it and we all can sympathize with it.

We all understand it.

So why?

Why must we go through these storms? Why must we go through these difficulties? And how in the world could we call them a blessing? Because they don't feel like a blessing, do they? You may be looking at me going, Nathan, I really hate your title, The Blessing of the Storm.

I know where you're going, but how dare you? How dare you say that my heartbreak is a blessing? How dare you say to count it all joy when you fall into various trials? How dare you? I get that. These are all questions that I've asked God at different times in my life.

I understand this, but it doesn't change the fact that when we look at Scripture, we see that storms are a blessing. And that's what I want us to see today in this passage. And we're going to be jumping around in Scripture a little bit today, so be prepared to flip in your Bibles, but hold your place there in Jonah.

But the first thing I think we must acknowledge in order to understand that a storm, every single storm, every single difficulty in our lives is a blessing. The only way we can see that is the fact that it is from God.

God is the one that brings the storm. He is the God of the storm, right? And we know that. Look at our passage. Look at verse 4. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea. I love the language that's used there.

It's almost like God really kind of cranked it up and just launched it on purpose. He throws this storm and says, It hurled a great wind upon the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship threatened to break up.

This wasn't just enough storm to scare Jonah. This wasn't just enough storm to scare the sailors. This was a great wind, wasn't it? It was a mighty tempest. This was a monstrous storm. This was a storm that was threatening to rip the very ship that they're on into pieces.

That's a storm, right? And we know that God is the one that sent it. God sent this storm. But we don't like to think of God like that, do we? We don't want to think of God as sending such a disastrous storm our way or in anybody's way.

We think of God as, yeah, He's sovereign. He's in control.

He's powerful.

And He may send some small storms, right? You know, Nathan's being disobedient over here, so I'm going to send a little storm and kind of wrangle him up and get him to move back over here. I'm going to send a little storm over here.

And that fact is true. God does that in our lives, right? We see little storms, little things that drive us back into submission to Him. But we think, well, that's the only way God's going to do it. He's not going to bring a big storm.

Because God is going to be much gentler than that. We want to see God as only gentle in that fashion. But that's not the God we see in Scripture. That's not the God we see in Scripture. Before we move on in this text, I think we need to clarify the work and nature of God.

Because I'm sure that you're saying, well, that God's going to bring a big storm to Jonah because Jonah rebelled so greatly, right? So that's the only reason. It's almost like Jonah forced God's hand.

God's going to be gentle with us with a small storm, but Jonah forced his hand, right? That's what it seems like. He had to bring this big storm because of how rebellious Jonah was being. But that's not God's nature.

Well, let's see if that's the case. Let's see if that's the God of the Bible. Turn with me back to the book of Job. A lot of you are familiar with this book. If you don't know where it's at, right near the dead center of your Bible, if you open it up, you get to Psalms and Proverbs, that area.

Job is right before Psalm. And I want you to turn to Job chapter 1. And we're going to be flipping through this book as we go through, but I want us to see God here in the book of Job. Job chapter 1, starting in verse 1, it says, There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

Now, if there's any man that God's going to just throw a small storm to wrangle him up, right? That God's just going to send a gentle little storm to him. If there's any man in all of Scripture that God's going to avoid the big storm with, it's going to be this man, right?

Someone that's upright. Someone that's blameless and has turned away from evil. Well, in the next few verses here at the beginning, we see that this man Job was a very wealthy man. We see he has great wealth, lots of livestock, lots of land.

We see that he has multiple children. And then look down at verse 6 with me. It says, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

So here we have all of God's created... I would assume this is the angels. I believe this is the angels that are coming before into the throne room. They're coming before the Lord. And here's Satan kind of lurking around, right?

He's kind of hanging out. He's coming in there before the Lord. And Satan is there. Look down at verse 8 and it says, And the Lord said... If you write in your Bibles, highlight or underline that.

The Lord said.

This is key.

He said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? That there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. God here is affirming what was said in verse 1.

This man is upright. This man has necessarily not done anything wrong to deserve this type of storm that's getting ready to come to his life. But God points him out to Satan as Satan is lurking before him.

Notice Job isn't even on the mind of Satan. And God points him out. God says, Hey Satan, have you considered this? Have you considered him? And then in the next few verses we see that Satan begins to make excuses as to why Job is so faithful to God.

Why he's so upright. He says, Well you give him everything. You know?

You've blessed him. You've blessed him with wealth.

You've blessed him with what the world has to offer. Of course he's upright. Of course he worships you. I'm going to look down at the first part of verse 12 now. It says, And the Lord said. There it is again.

The Lord said. He's the initiator. He's the one that is initiating this act. He said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Now at this point God tells him, You can do as you please. You can wreak havoc on him.

You can bring the storm. You can't touch him. You can't harm him bodily. And so Satan does.

What does he do?

He goes, And here's Job going about his life.

He's blameless.

He's upright.

He loves the Lord. He serves the Lord.

And a wind, a storm comes and blows the house that his children are all in as they gather for a meal and kills every last one of them. And his servants come running to him and tell him of this news. Your children are all dead.

And in that same moment more servants come in and say,. The neighboring villages, the neighbors have come and they have ravaged our lands. They've taken our livestock. They've taken everything. You're destitute.

You've lost everything. That's a storm, isn't it? That's a storm, and God initiated it on a man who was blameless and upright. Look down to verse 20. It says,. Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.

Is that what you would do? Is that what I would do? I hope I would, but I don't know that I could. That's who this man was. This is who Job was. He falls on the ground and worships. It's not that he's not mourning.

He's ripped his clothing, he's shaved his head, and he's sat on the ground,.

But he worshiped God.

And it goes on, and he says,. Naked I come from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave. All that wealth, all those children, all of the livestock, all of the land, all of the things that I've ever had, God gave it to me.

I didn't earn it, I didn't gain it, I didn't achieve it. God gave it. It was given to me as a good gift. And then he goes on, and he says,. And the Lord has taken away. Not Satan. He didn't say Satan took it away.

He said the Lord took it away. And then he says,. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Is that how you respond in a storm? I don't know about you, but I've never experienced a storm like that. I've experienced much smaller storms, and I don't know that I've always acted like that.

Why did he act like that? It's because he knew who God was. He knew God. He knew where his provision came from. And he knew who was sovereign over all, including Satan himself. But then the storm doesn't end there.

That's not the end of the story. Job still hasn't sinned against God, which is what Satan wanted him to do.

But he hasn't.

Remember, he's worshiping God. And so God allowed Satan to wreak more havoc on him. Satan comes before the Lord, and he's like, Well, of course he's still worshiping you. He's got his health. He can regain his wealth.

And he knows that. He's got his health. Of course he's worshiping you.

Well, go ahead.

And he allows him to go and inflict wounds and sores all over Job's body. So no longer is Job just suffering from the loss of his family, from the loss of his wealth, and he's sitting there. But now he's in tremendous pain physically.

Look at chapter 2 of Job, verse 9.

It says,.

Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die. You know, I've heard a lot of sermons and read a lot of writings on this, and everyone likes to react to this wife and point to the fact that notice Satan took everything but the wife.

He left her there on purpose. And there may be something to that, of course. But I look at this woman, and I think maybe she gets a bit of a bad rap. This mother just lost all of her children. Her babies have all died in a moment.

She's lost all of her security and her wealth. She's lost everything in this one day, and now she's having to sit and watch her husband, who she probably honestly loves, suffer laying there with boils all over his body.

And I have to think to myself, it would be awfully arrogant of me to think that I wouldn't have said the same thing. Because if I'm being honest with you, I've felt that same thing in lesser storms. And if you're being honest, there's probably been times where you've done the same,.

Where you feel like,.

I know intellectually that God is sovereign and that He has allowed this in my life. Angry that He did. And I know that I love Him, but I don't feel like I love Him for this right now, because it doesn't feel loving.

This hurts, and I'm angry. And I think this is where Job's wife was. So don't be so arrogant in the midst of the storm to think that, well, I wouldn't act like her, I'd be like Job. Well, I pray and hope that I could be like Job, but you never know until you're in the thick of it, right?

So you have to lay the groundwork in preparation to be able to be like Job and not be like the woman. The verse goes on, it says, after she says, curse God and die, look at it. He says, but He said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women would speak.

What's Job saying to her? He's saying that you're thinking like the world. You know better. You know who God is. And instead of knowing who God is and acknowledging who God is, you're thinking like the world thinks, selfishly, internally.

You're thinking about self, you're not thinking about God. And he goes on there and he says, shall we receive good from God? All the blessings that we've had in our lives, shall we not receive them and bless Him and praise Him for them?

And shall we not receive evil? And then it says, in all this Job did not sin with his lips. Job held to his integrity, didn't he? Why is that? Because he knew who God was. Yet if we read on through the story, we begin to see his friends' interactions with him.

We begin to see his interactions and we see that this knowledge alone of who God was was not enough to sustain him through this storm. It wasn't enough to sustain him there. His initial reaction was truth about God.

But what's sustaining him through it? What's keeping his focus and mind on that truth about God? Job ended up having to experience God in that storm. It wasn't just enough to have a mental assertion of who God is.

He had to experience the power of that God. Because we see in chapter 3, Job, what does he do? He begins to wish that he had never been born. You can see the cracks in the concrete now. Job's not a perfect man.

He begins to crumble. He begins to think, Why? Why? Why was I ever born? I wish I would have never been born. And God allows him to wallow in this for a while, doesn't He? As you go through the book. But flip back near the end of the book to chapter 38.

Chapter 38, starting in verse 1. This is one of my favorite parts of Scripture. Anytime I begin to lose sight of who God is, I flip to these verses and I look at who God is and it reminds me. So God allows Job to wallow in his sorrows for a season.

He allows him in chapter 3 to wish that he had never been born. He allows his friends to communicate about him all the way up here to chapter 38. And it says there in verse 1, it says,. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Out of the whirlwind.

God comes in a whirlwind. He comes in a storm. Not only did He bring the storm, but now He presents Himself as a storm. And He says, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? He says, Dress for action like a man.

I will question you and you will make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me. If you have understanding, Job, if you understand so well who I am, you tell me where you were when I created you out of dust.

Who determined its measurements? Surely you know, Job. Surely you know. You seem to know all. Who has the right to say to the potter, Why have you made me this way? He does as he pleases, doesn't he? All of Job's knowledge of the facts about God are affirmed and confirmed by an encounter with God.

I'm going to say that again. I want you to hear me. All of the knowledge and facts about God that Job had in here now are affirmed and confirmed by an encounter with that great God. That's what sustained him through.

Because now, flip back to 42, the last chapter in the book. Now we see Job. He's still standing firm, isn't he? Chapter 42, the first two verses, it says,. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Job goes through the storm. He hits the bottom. He finds that it's dark down there. And what happens? God meets him there, doesn't he? God meets him there with an encounter. There's a song written by a Christian artist by the name of Stephen Curtis Chapman.

He writes an album after his 6-year-old daughter gets backed over in the driveway by his 16-year-old son and killed. And he writes this entire grouping of songs, and there's one section of lyrics that I wanted to share with you because it sums up possibly what Job felt in this moment.

It says, When you think that you've hit bottom and the bottom gives way, have you ever felt that? You think you've hit the bottom, and now the storm just comes even stronger, and the bottom gives way, and you fall into a darkness no words can explain, and you don't know how you'll make it out alive.

Have you ever felt that?

Have you ever felt that darkness? Have you ever felt the storm? It says, Jesus will meet you there. A knowledge of our Savior, a knowledge of our great and good, kind and merciful God is not enough to sustain you in that storm.

It's not enough. Just theological practices and understandings are not enough. They're essential, but they're not enough. But our God meets us there at the bottom, and we encounter Him when we're there.

So if God can bring about a devastating, life-wrecking storm upon a man like Job who's blameless and upright, and on the flip side of that, God can bring about a shipwrecking storm upon a man like Jonah who is blatantly disobedient.

You see the two extremes? If God can do both of those, then God can bring about any storm at any time to anyone any way that He desires. And God does all things well. And when we hold this view of God, of His sovereign, mighty hand that does everything that He sees fit and desires, and we hold on to that truth in light of passages like Romans 8, 28.

Many of you know that one by memory. It says, and we know that for those who love God, those that are called according to His purpose, right? Us believers that are called that love God. All things work together for good.

All, even the storm. Even Job's situation. Jonah's situation.

Your storm. Everything you're going through. That if you are a child of God,.

If you are an elect child of the most holy God, then all things work together for your good. All of them. You can't just pick and choose some. So turn back with me to Jonah, to our passage in Jonah. Now that we understand, we see a view of who God is.

Human Reactions to God’s Storms

The God of the storm. The God that brings the storm. Now that we see that God for who He is, we're able to see some practical human reactions to God's storms. And I pray and hope that you can see maybe times in your lives when you have reacted in these ways.

Look at verse 5 there in our passage of Jonah 1.

It says,.

Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his God. Have you ever noticed how when storms come, when difficulty hits your neighbors, the people around you, family members, that even the most hardened reprobate becomes religious?

I mean, think about these mariners here. Think about these men that are on this boat. These are probably hardened, wicked men. That port in Joppa is known to be a very wicked port where sailors would come in and engage in debauchery.

So these men are probably very hardened men. Not only are they hardened men, but these are sailors that have probably been sailors their entire lives. This is not the first storm they've seen, is it? This isn't the first storm they've seen.

But this one scared them. They were scared. It says, they were afraid. This brought them to the point of breaking. These men knew what every man knows, that they were under the wrath of the Almighty. Yet they did not know the Almighty.

God has made Himself evident to all men, right? He's made Himself evident to all of creation. The law of God is written on every man's heart. Even the atheist that vehemently opposes the existence of God knows in his heart that there is a God.

Every man knows that there's a creator judge. But what happens? Man suppresses the truth in his unrighteousness. And as they do that, they build a God of their imagination, don't they? They know that there's a creator judge, and so they need to create that creator judge.

And that's the God they call out to in day of trouble, with no response, with no hope. And I would say that is why it's so important for us that do know God, that do know who God is, to define our terms, right?

To define our terms with them. Tell them who God is. To diligently proclaim the truth about that God, so that in the day of trouble they can call out to the one true God. And we don't like to do that, I know.

And we don't like to do it because most are going to hate that truth. As we proclaim the truth about who God is, as we say what we've said this morning, which some of you in here might already be mad at me for saying this about God, but if we proclaim this about God, people are going to respond in anger, aren't they?

They don't want to hear that truth. But let me tell you something, just like we see here, some, those that are called by God, those that are the elect, that God has set His love and affection upon from the foundations of the world, those, just like the sailors in the ship, they won't hate it.

They'll cling to it. They'll run to it.

Because just like these sailors, God had prepared that storm for them. God had prepared that moment to drive them to the end of themselves. You experienced it in your own life, didn't you? God used something in your life.

God used storms in your life to drive you to your understanding of your great sin against that creator judge and drove your affection and attention towards our Savior, right? He used a storm for it. He brings us to the end of ourselves.

And in this case, He placed Jonah on the ship to tell them who He truly was, didn't He? Remember, that storm wasn't just for Jonah. That storm was for the sailors also. Because we see later in the book that all the sailors are saved.

They all believe in the one true God and they look to the one true God. And they wouldn't have known the one true God. They would have perished in the storm had it not been for Jonah on the boat to tell them who God truly is.

So they can call out to that one true God. But before that took place, we see the sailors doing something that every person tries to do in the midst of the storm. It says they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.

They hurled the cargo over.

When confronted by God's holiness, by God's storm, by God's might and power, when confronted by that, what does the natural man seek to do? He seeks to lighten the load, doesn't he? He seeks to throw things over.

He takes matters into his own hands and he seeks to appease God. These men thought that they could throw their livelihood off the ship to lighten the load and save themselves, didn't they? They wanted to do that.

But that's what we all do before Christ. We try and do better. We try and do things based upon our own earthly understanding and how we're going to be freed from this storm. But none of that work did it.

It never works. None of that ever works because we can never throw out enough sin to make us clean, can we? We can never throw out enough baggage in our lives to make us right before God. We need a sacrifice, which is exactly what these men didn't want to do because they wanted a sacrifice of their own choosing,.

Their cargo.

But what did Jonah come to them? When he finally woke up and he comes up and tells them who God is, he gives them a solution.

He says,.

Hey, you want the storm to calm? You're going to have to throw me over the ship. You're going to have to hurl me into the sea. Get rid of me. I'm the sacrifice. But the men didn't want to do that. They sought to row and row and row and try and get to the shore with no luck.

The harder they tried, the more they couldn't get to their destination. And they come to realize that their only hope was this sacrifice. It's not a perfect illustration, but I think we see Christ in it, don't we?

We see our Savior, the ultimate sacrifice for us. We don't want that sacrifice, do we? The natural man doesn't want that sacrifice. Think of every religion in the whole world, including much of moral Christianity, is all about what can I do for God?

How much cargo can I throw over? How much baggage can I get rid of? How light can I get this boat?

With no avail.

But there was a sacrifice. And the natural man doesn't want that sacrifice. And the only way to appease God's wrath, to calm that storm, is Christ Jesus.

Amen?

That's the only hope any of us have. Now in this case, I know we're speaking about unregenerate man. We're speaking about unbelievers and even ourselves prior to salvation. But what about us now, this side of salvation?

Do you ever find yourself in the midst of the storm, seeking deliverance from it on your own terms?

I do.

Trying to make sacrifices so that God would deliver us from our discomfort. That's the first thing we want to do when we're in the midst of a storm, isn't it? We want to get out of it. And we try and take matters into our own hands.

It's ultimately us saying to God, I don't trust Your providential hand in my life. Because if You're the God of the storm, You're the one that brought it to me. And You promised me it was for my good.

But we don't trust that. And we want to get ourselves out of that storm as quickly and as easily as possible. We want as little pain as we can possibly get. And we want to take things into our own hands.

We forget that the one that brought us there is the one that will bring us through it. In His time. In His way.

And it's perfect.

But now we see another kind of response to God's storm. Look at the last part of verse 5 with me. It says,. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.

You know, it's funny. When a storm hits somebody, you can really begin to see your narcissistic selfishness, can't you? When that storm hits, you begin to see how internal you are. How self-focused and self-absorbed that you are.

Because just like Jonah, while a lost and dying world is ready to die on the top of the ship, they're in despair. They're coming to the end of themselves and they don't know the one true God.

What does He do?

He climbs down into the bottom of the boat and lays down. Such selfishness. Such self-absorption of Jonah for Him to do that. Knowing good and well that He is the cause of this storm. That God has brought this storm because of His disobedience.