Jan. 21, 2018 PM Jonah A Great Prophet by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Jonah as a Historical Narrative and a Great Prophet

Well as we had mentioned some time ago The next major series I wanted to embark upon in the afternoon service here Which the Lord has seen fit to once again bring us to is to go through the book of Jonah.

The book of Jonah if you want to turn there. We'll look at just the first three verses and just so you know where we're heading after Jonah's. I'm going to stay in what is called the minor prophets for a while.

I don't know if I will preach all the minor prophets. But I do want to preach more than just Jonah who's one of those twelve so-called minor prophets. I think they're called that because of the shorter length of their prophecies compared to the longer books such as Isaiah Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but it was as we Lord willing will find.

There's nothing minor at all about their messages and again my purpose this morning is Not so much to begin a detailed exposition and proclamation of Jonah's message that we will do some of that this morning or this afternoon as To introduce you to this book and to as it were so to speak to get us all on the same page regarding this prophet.

So let's look at just the first three verses of the book of Jonah. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying arise Go to Nineveh that great city and call out against it for their evil has come up before me.

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 to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord.

In the movies for the Lord of the Rings at the end of I think it's the first one. Sam wise is wondering aloud with Frodo. Whether they will ever write the story of this great adventure that he had had with that they'd had together Frodo and Samwise.

And he imagines it this way. He says do you think? Master master Frodo that one day this story will be written and little boys will sit on their father's knees and say daddy can you read me the story of Frodo.

And Dad would say yes, he was most famous of all hobbits and that's saying something. We're about to begin the book of Jonah one of these so-called minor prophets indeed. He can be called that and he becomes for us one of the best-known Prophecies prophets we might say he's among the most famousest of the prophets and Part of the reason for that part of the reason he's so widely known even outside the church though I would argue that very little of his actual message is known very much outside the church.

It's because of such things like Disney's Pinocchio. Disney's Pinocchio where Pinocchio's father Geppetto is swallowed by a whale of all things. And Pinocchio finally finds him in the whale and gets swallowed by the whale himself.

And they build the campfire and the whale vomits them back out into the safety of dry land. Jonah is a book that gives cynics cause to deride the faith of any who take it at face value in any way mainly because of Jonah's three days in the belly of the fish and if we think of that Historical record we have of those three days that Jonah spent and compare it to Disney.

Well, it's almost as if Disney is mocking that story by using it in that way, but by that much of the world is familiar with the Prophet Jonah if only by name. Cynics have caused to deride the faith if we take it at face value.

Churchmen over the centuries have called the book an allegory not a narrative not a historical record, but an allegory. Many have pointed out that everyone knows no one could survive for three days in a literal fish.

And sometimes adding sort of parenthetically in a smaller font, but of course we know God could do anything. Many have also pointed out that the word fish is What the Hebrews would have called a whale because they had no name for well if it swam in the ocean it was simply a fish.

And most of those arguments being made before Herman Melville famously proved in Moby-Dick that whales are fishes and These sort of things that get us away from the point of Jonah and what this prophet is all about.

Jonah's fame we might even say his infamy is derived from many aspects of this prophecy. The whale as I mentioned a moment ago. Swallowing him in the nick of time preserving him for three days. There's the fact that this prophet runs away from God's call goes west when he was called to go east.

The lesson is often derived from this prophecy that Jonah was a racist of sorts and He would limit God's extension of his mercy only to his chosen people and not to them that are not us and Then there's his near suicidal anger and his depression after God chose not to destroy this great city that he was sent to Nineveh and all these things kind of conspire they kind of combined together to give this jaundiced view of this prophet and Who he was and what he was sent to and what was the result of his ministry?

This afternoon. I only want to introduce Jonah to you. I won't look at just these first three views versus but really it's just an introductory message. I Want to set some parameters for us? There's a small handout that you should have received and the reason you didn't is because I completely forgot it.

So if I could ask them, they're right there on my desk. These will come out to you soon and what you're gonna see when you get them and you can look at them while I'm speaking. But only for a moment. You're gonna see on one side a map.

That's gonna show Jonah's most likely path which way he went when he went west how he went back east is a very very simple map. But it just gives you an idea of the scale and the differences of distance that he was going and on the other side You'll see a very simple chart.

Showing the kings of Israel and a few of the prophets who preached to them or were there in Israel during that time. And it's just to give you a little bit of historical background. And one reason for giving that to you if it's interesting you can keep it I can even email you copies of it if you like is To set in our minds this idea.

That what we have in Jonah is a narrative. And this makes him fairly unique among the prophets. Now many prophets have historical records within their prophecy. Jeremiah has quite a lot. In Isaiah at chapter 37 when the Assyrians attack all of a sudden he he jumps out in that holy Time with Hezekiah we have this historical narrative, but it's an interlude in his prophecy.

Jonah is pure narrative from beginning to end and I hope that that handout especially the dates will help you to understand this that we're looking at a history. And if you look at those dates It's interesting to ponder that Jonah might well have been a contemporary of the Prophet Elisha.

He wouldn't have to have been extraordinarily old for that to have been the case. Elisha of course took over his head of the school of prophets from Elijah and so it's Within the realm of possibility that Jonah was in that school of prophets that he was a pupil there.

So I've titled this message Jonah a great prophet. Will deal with his disobedience which is to say we'll take this book of prophecy at face value. We'll also deal with his offense against Assyria, which was so strong.

He went west when God sent him east and so I Want to at least give you some reasons here why I've titled this message, and I believe it's an accurate title for Jonah. Why I call him a great prophet. Think first.

That Jonah actually falls in his ministry within the pattern of Elijah. Elijah arguably Israel's greatest prophet. Elijah was sent out of the land of promise out of Israel remember He went to the book Kidron.

And then he went to Zarephath and that was as a judgment against Israel the Word of God which was Elijah went outside of The land of Israel which was a judgment against them. Phillips ministry to the eunuch in Acts chapter 8.

Paul Peters ministry to Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 are actually in that same pattern. Where the Word of God goes away from the people who were supposed to have obeyed the Word of God Israel. But ignored the Word of God again Israel and so the Word of God Leaves it departs as we'll read in Ezekiel chapter 11.

I believe it is when the Spirit of God leaves the temple before its final destruction. The Spirit of God comes out goes east hovers for a moment and then departs a fairly unusual a very dramatic majestic picture that we have in Scripture.

Jonah fits this pattern of Being the representative Word of God. But going outside the boundaries of the people of God in Acts chapter 13 verse 46 Paul and Barnabas Shaked the dust of the unbelieving towns off their feet.

Jonah has this mission to those outside God's covenant nation which puts him in this kind of company. So that's one reason I call him a great prophet. I Don't rank these reasons. I'm giving you now. I'm just giving them to sort of a brain dump.

They're not serialized or Prioritized but the second reason is that Jesus never criticizes them. He mentions him, but he doesn't say wrong way Jonah, and he finally got back on track. He doesn't give any Negative about Jonah at all and this becomes very important.

We have to understand the Old Testament the way Jesus and the Apostles understood the Old Testament. And how was that that was in light of the revelation of God by Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ. John 1 18 Narrated God to us explains God to us shows us who God is.

Jesus Christ is the point of all that Old Testament Scripture and so to understand it we have to understand it the way he understood it. We look back from the revelation of Christ in the New Testament to understand Christ in the old.

Jesus never criticizes him. Now we know Jonah to be a flawed character. But if we look at him in light of what Jesus said we can somewhat rehabilitate him. Which is really as much as my purpose is to introduce Jonah to you is just that to rehabilitate his image.

To get us away from the silliness of Pinocchio in a well to keep us from trying to decide scientifically if it had to be a fish or if it was a whale or you know the The the Hebrew word for fish because they didn't know whales existed and all those other things.

We need to take this book at its own face value. So I want to rehabilitate his image, too. So according to our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a reason for calling him a great prophet. His preaching was successful.

His preaching was successful Nineveh and we'll get to this in a while not today. It's gonna take some time. Nineveh repented. Jonah went to this city this great city with all all the delays of ships and storms and fishes and all that stuff and He preached repentance in such a way that that pagan vile cruel Violent people actually repented in sackcloth and ashes.

Now my preaching has affected people now and then and other fellows fellow preachers in their churches speak of these glorious times when somebody comes and says it could just be one person and says You spoke the Word of God to me in a way that I needed to hear.

I was encouraged to stay the course. I repented of this sin. I had this other iniquity exposed and I didn't know it until you preached God's Word and all the glory goes to Jesus Christ and That's the power of his spirit working through the faithful proclamation and faithful hearing of God's Word all glory to him.

My preaching has every now and then affected someone's heart. But I nor anyone else I know Have ever brought a nation to its knees an entire nation of vile unbelievers. It may take us a few weeks to get there, but we all know that story.

Third Jonas three days in the tomb that was the whale or the fish or whatever that sea creature was and Is returned back to life by our Lord Jesus Christ's testimony all prefigure his own death and burial and resurrection.

We need to go to Genesis 22 and Abraham offering up his son at the command of God and then of course God. Stopping Abraham from slaughtering Isaac and providing the ram as a substitute we need to go to Genesis 22 to find so clear a picture of the sacrifice the death burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus as What we have here with Jonas three days in the belly of that creature.

This places Jonah in some amazing company his life is a living parable about Jesus Christ. This is something that Isaiah at some point in his ministry had to live himself and be that living parable of God's God's prophecies.

Hosea his marriage to Gomer a living parable of God's relationship to Israel and vice versa and so Jonah is in this kind of company Where the events of his life are the such clear prefigurement of nothing less than the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Another reason Is that Jonah had a confidence in the power of God's Word that should convict us all. If we look at his certainty that the Lord will accomplish his purposes. Jonah's certainty in God and Accomplishing his purposes by means of frail men like himself.

We have a model of faith that we could strive after Jesus said faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. Jonah believed it. Now think about this for a moment when there is an occurrence an event something happens that we can point to healing a restored marriage a God-sighting by way of an obviously divine appointment.

We look and we say what look what God did. Look what God did. But Jonah's faith actually goes further. Because when God does not destroy the city of Nineveh He looks beyond what God did. He says look what God didn't do.

He sees the forbearance as a positive act of God. And how often do we miss this? We often pray in our prayer meetings on Wednesday night about the things that God has done. And we say look what God did and that's proper and we should and let's not stop doing that.

Jonah said yes, and look what that same God didn't do because this did not happen. I Know that God has acted in John's gospel read how often people believe when they saw a miracle. We have to look at God's forbearance.

We have to look at his non-action with the same faith that we look upon his actions the way Jonah did. Calvin puts this this way. I Hence think that Jonah disobeyed the command of God partly because the weakness of the flesh was a hindrance.

Partly because of the novelty of the message and partly because he despised he despaired of fruit or of success to his teaching. Here's a faith. Here's a faith that knows if I go and preach repentance because God has ordained that these words will bring repentance.

These people are going to repent. I'd like to have that strong of faith. To despair with God's Word will succeed as a problem in and of itself. But the greater point is Jonah Absolutely believed that he had within himself the very Word of God and that that Word of God would accomplish its purposes.

Now there's a huge problem here the 800-pound gorilla sitting on the table is but you're supposed to want what God wants. Yes. But I'm only talking about right now. I'm only talking about Jonah's absolute confidence that if he said what God told him to say.

It would have the result that God ordained for those words to accomplish and he didn't want that to happen, but he believed it would and Finally let us Understand that he was a powerful preacher. I said before he was successful.

That's what Jesus said. They repented. Nineveh Repented the whole city from the king on down and when he preached to the king of Israel Jeroboam the second. That's in 2nd Kings 14 25, which is the first time we meet Jonah.

When he preached to him to Jeroboam the second that he would recover the borders of the borders of Israel as far as they had Been when Solomon was king and this was centuries after that. It did in fact happen.

So this is the way I take Jonah. I want us to look at Jonah as a powerful preacher as one of the greatest the most famousest of Prophets. For all these reasons. Take Jonah as a narrative. This book is history.

It is historical record is not an allegory. It's not a made-up fable that teaches moralistic lessons about God. It's not just a parable so that we learn to not despise these people over here. But to hope God gives his love to them.

We do do that but let's take Jonah on its own merits a historical record. Could have been written quite a long time afterwards. There's no evidence that Jonah himself wrote this it hardly matters. However, the author be it Jonah or a scribe got this.

We know we who have faith that this Word of God is complete and Gives us everything that we need to know. We know that this book is what it purports to be a historical record. About the one man Jonah his mission to that place Nineveh and is dealing with God Before during and after his resistance to God's will is really not all that unusual.

Resistance to God's Will in Scripture

Peter in Matthew 16, you remember when he heard that Jesus is obedience to the Father will lead him to the cross. He immediately says far be it from you Lord. This shall never happen to you. Gideon's fleece is like that He hears the call to lead Israel from the angel of the Lord, which is probably the pre-incarnate Christ.

And he sets out to test God with a fleece in the morning dew and let the drops be here and let the drops be There and all those things. In Acts chapter 10 Peter was shown the vision of the previously unclean animals three times.

Before he was ready to obey Christ and go and preach to Cornelius. And what is he said? Why did it have to be three times as he was resisting? God's will by no means Lord. I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.

I mean do we hear an echo there of Jonah and Tarshish? Saul Hid behind the baggage train in order to avoid becoming Israel's first king. Even the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 16 verses 6 through 9 is twice forbidden by the Spirit of God to go his chosen way.

Moses tried as much as he dared to talk God into choosing someone else to liberate Israel from Egypt. Those idea of resisting God's will is not Completely unique in the scripture even amongst men that we hold very high as models of faith.

Jonah was a true and a brave and a powerful prophet of Yahweh. His father's name was Amittai which derives from the Hebrew word and met or truth as Matthew Henry writes all prophets must be sons of the truth.

So we know that in the four chapters that is the prophecy of Jonah we have only truth spoken about our Lord and much good truth for us to to feed upon. And Jonah might be faulted for disobeying God. We already have that in those opening verses, don't we?

God says go here. He says arise go to Nineveh that great city. Jonah rose. He rose to flee and go the other way. He could be faulted of course for disobeying God and we will come to that. He might be faulted for wanting to deny God's mercy to others and we're going to come to that.

But he cannot be faulted for denying the power of God's Word. He knew with a certainty you or I would do well to strive after That God's Word is one and the same with his purposes and will ultimately bear the intended fruit.

You know God's call is an awesome thing. It brings duties that are hard. Not just to prophets in the 8th century BC. Duties that are hard to all of us. He forces us out of our comfort zones. He brings us to people.

We dared not think could repent. Those who hear his call had to stand before wicked and violent kings in their own lands Israel and Judah for example and as a result of his call. As Augustine famously prayed what he commands he also provides.

But who does he command and then provide for? It's men with a spirit like ours. As James says Elijah was a man with a spirit like ours no less. We could say was Jonah or any of the other prophets really.

Men whose vision is hard to expand beyond the immediate. You remember that Jonah ends up where God wanted him and when he was there he did what he was sent there to do. Jonah his very name means dove it's a symbol of peace.

Wherever it comes up in the Bible and peace is what God would have the Ninevites to have heard. Now they were a violent people. They were a long-term implacable enemy of Israel. Nineveh is synonymous with the nation of Assyria.

Nineveh was their capital. They were the power of the ancient Near East football the patriots of nations if you will. They were proud they were boastful. Archaeologists have found steels with detailed and boastful accounts of the torturous deaths that they imposed upon prisoners captives.

Their Kings bragged about it. And they seemed to outdo each other or try to do outdo each other in their cruelties. This is where Jonah was sent. Not just you or I being sent. Let's say 40 miles north of here being told to stand in that center of so many things and call out Assyria was much more intense than that in Jonah's day.

Assyria was at kind of a low ebb politically economically material militarily and. At that time Israel itself was the opposite. Under Jeroboam the second which is the king in second Kings 1425. Who Jonah talks Jonah preaches to gives the prophecy to.

That's the first time we hear of Jonah, but under that King fourth from Jehu's line Israel was able to live without fear of the surrounding nations, especially Assyria. Because we're a serious on this low ebb Israel was on a very high note at that time.

Jonah. This book took place about 760 BC you can see that on the little chart I gave you. Think about this less than 40 years later Assyria will have recovered their strength Regained their dominance and in 722 less than 30 years after this time that Jonah goes to this city they're going to conquer Israel in 1948 not notwithstanding.

Israel never rose up again from those ashes. If we think of Jonah in this context then his mission to Nineveh was one of mercy to both nations. If the Assyrians repented and came to God and we'll talk about true repentance as we go through this book the sailors repentant.

Repented then Jonah repented then Nineveh repented the Lord chapter 4 verse 2 Relents using a word that is often translated to repent. Repented from destroying that great city if Nineveh should repent if the Lord did a work of changing their hearts the disaster of 722 might have been avoided and Then Assyria might not have been destroyed by Babylon which came next in the ancient Near East series of great powers.

And by Babylon Assyria was judged for their excesses against their conquered foes. We might even speculate that Israel might have been driven to jealousy by Nineveh's conversion and themselves divest of their idols.

None of this of course could happen. None of this was in God's will. That's all speculative. A Syria rose again from the ashes. Israel remained as complacent as ever. They were like those in 2nd Peter 3 verse 4.

They will say where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago.

And the earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God and that by means of these the world was. Then that then existed was deluged with water and perished. So Jonah's mission was one of mercy to both lands Israel and Assyria to shake them out of their stupor.

The Distress of Nineveh and the Mercy of God

It's called a sudden. Now the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the command is immediate. He says arise go the direction is east. He says go to Nineveh that great city and Jonah's response is just as prompt.

Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish. As you see on that little map. I gave you Tarshish is to the west. It's near the Strait of Gibraltar some 2 ,500 miles from where he was. And Also, the problem here is clear.

The problem was made clear. God is sending them a prophet of God with a message for a specific reason. Their evil has come up before me. This is like Abel's blood crying out to God. This is the pre-flood violence that filled the earth and was known to God.

This is God coming down to see the tower. They were building in Babel. It's Genesis chapter 18. God says because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave. I will go down to see whether they have done all together according to the outcry that has come to me.

And if not, I will know. Of course blood doesn't actually cry out nor does God have to travel down here to find out anything. He knows all things he knew all about Nineveh, but Nineveh situation. Can we say had come up before God?

The word translated as evil and their evil has come up that word can also be translated as trouble or Distress and if we take it that way their distress Has come up before me if we take it like that We actually make I think better sense out of the end of this prophecy Chapter 4 verse 11 and should I not pity Nineveh that great city.

Now I don't deny that Nineveh was an evil place that Assyria was an evil nation, I don't deny that. But I think if chapter 4 verse 11 the end of this prophecy should I not pity Nineveh that great city.

That makes better sense. I think if we say if we translate this words in a legitimate translation their distress Has come up before me. You see God doesn't just destroy. As Amos says he warns first by his prophets.

God doesn't act unless he sends one of his servants sends a prophet to warn people that the act is going to come now if he's ignored as he usually is if the prophets are mocked as they usually were and Are if men insist that is coming in his vengeance or the stuff of myths as they always have and still do.

Then as Ezekiel says the alarm having been sounded and ignored their blood is on their own heads. It strikes me That the end of this prophecy really ties to the beginning should I not pity that great city.

It is the same God who sent Jonah because of his pity for their distress. Who took pity on us and our distress. Is he not? He saw our distress he saw our wickedness. We could translate it that way as well.

He saw all about us as we bounce from this philosophy to that self-help all to no avail. He saw the turmoil we're in as our consciences being stirred. All mankind having a conscience. And what did he do?

He sent the Word of God Jonah to this distressed city. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ He sent that Word of God to you and by this word Exposed you to his grace and his goodness and the redemption we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This word that James says is able to save your souls. This is the same God who knew what was happening in Nineveh. That wicked city, but I'm gonna translate their distress has come up to me. And he does something about it.

He says Jonah your distress has come up to him. He did something about it. He sends us Jesus. He sees us Fumbling around seeking peace trying to make sense of things spiritually. Our souls distressed.

Our souls are stirred up. Maybe it's a sin that's tearing at our conscience. You don't want to call it that because once sin is named it can only be understood by his opposite. Which is the righteousness of God.

I? Think this is why the world won't call sin sin because sin can only be defined by what it isn't which is Righteousness, and it's the righteousness of God that defines the other for us. Sin makes no sense except that we serve a holy God.

Who knows no sin who cannot have iniquity even close to him? Which is what defines? The other side of it for us. And we get stirred up that way. What does God do? Sends his word sends his word to convict the soul.

Sends his word to comfort your soul sends his word to bring repentance and By his spirit give faith and here we are. Without the Lord anyway a Nineveh. We're strong. We're independent. We're able to impose our own will on our own destiny or so.

We think and we're still distressed. A Remnant of the conscience that God gave to all mankind remains in everyone and leaves us in what before Christ distress. And can we not look at this opening few lines of Jonah and can we not ask ourselves?

Has God not seen our distress? Has God not taken note? Today he sends his word again. Just as he did to Nineveh. He is sending right now his word to us all. Skipping ahead to chapter 3 his Sermon is very famous and so easy to memorize the entire thing.

Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Now I can't be as specific as to say 40 days. But I can say that to anyone who will not repent if you will not abandon self and flee to Jesus. If you will not put your faith in him and invest all your hope in his cross.

If you will not repent and pray to him to Jesus Christ for forgiveness I can say You too one day shall be overthrown. I Won't say 40 days 40 years or 40 centuries but I will say without faith in Christ and his sacrifice and His atoning death where he suffered for your sins without faith in that great act of God.

Where Jesus Christ actually did in fact in time and space die and was buried and rose again from the dead. If that is not the core of your being and your faith and your hope and your trust I Can call out to you?

Yet one day You too shall be overthrown. I'd be overthrown would be for the Lord to return. And not find you with your faith in him and enter into eternal torment as you then. Pay for what Jesus paid.

Jesus paid your price on the cross. Jesus paid for your sins he in his very body. Took upon himself the suffering that you deserve that I deserve and should he return. Those whose faith is not in him shall be overthrown.

Shall be turned over to suffer that torment themselves and close with a word from another prophet from Ezekiel. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.

Why will you die O house of Israel. For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone declares the Lord God so turn and live. This is why God Sent Jonah to Nineveh that they would turn from their evil ways and live.

This is why God took note of their distress their troubles so that they could hear the Word of God from the Prophet Jonah and Turn from their wicked ways to repent and to live. And this is why God sends his word to you to me.

Out in the world until the Lord should return in his word his gospel going forth that men should turn from their evil ways. They may should understand that yet in some time You shall be overthrown but in God's grace in his goodness and his kindness he grants repentance to some.

He remakes your soul gives a new heart gives you faith to believe and repent and come to the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness. Well, this is how we're going to approach Lord willing this book of Jonah and Hope you will see.

Hope you would trust and pray that we will continue to take the book on its own merits. It's a standalone prophecy. It stands by itself. And we'll tie it to other places in the scripture as we always do.

But what a wonderful book we have before us. What a great prophecy. Showing forth the goodness and the power and the mercy and even the severity of the Lord. So much lies before us is but I'm so excited to preach this the Lord led me to Go into the minor prophets to start with Jonah this like some other studies I've done in the last few years has been very enlivening for my soul and I trust it will be for years as well.

Amen, well, let us prepare for the Lord's table.