Book of Jonah - Ch. 3, Vs. 1-Ch. 4, Vs. 11 (06/25/2000)

Predestination, the Fish, and Jonah’s Second Commission

If the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was supposed to go to Nineveh, but he had prepared this fish long before, what does that tell you about the predestination of man and the predestination of fish?

How did that fish know to be in the right place at that right moment? Or was it just an accident? But he was just there. All right, verse 1, chapter 3, And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid you.

Well, from what Jonah had felt and seen of the justice of God, do you think he's going to have to be told the third time? It takes some of us a long time to catch on, doesn't it? Well, he's told, again, the very same thing.

He hasn't changed his orders, and he knew he had to go. So he's told for the second time to preach. The term here in the Hebrew means to call out, to utter a loud sound. So Jonah arose, went unto Nineveh, and according to the word of the Lord, now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey.

It does not mean it took him three days to get there. If you look on your map from last week, it's some 600 miles that he had to travel. The fish spit him out right back where he started. So he still had the 600 miles to go, and it took him several days, perhaps a month or more.

Three days journey means that it takes three days to walk across the city. This is a tremendously large city for that time, and would still be fairly good size. There were at least 600 ,000 people living there.

It was five and a half miles in length, two and a half miles wide, and some 60 miles around its walls. So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sacrifice. From the greatest of them, even unto the least.

Sac cloth. Brother David, what is sac cloth? I know one they wore, but what was it? I did. Jonah began to enter into a city, into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, yet 40 days and none of us shall be overthrown.

Now, Diane, I can just see this strange looking man walking around on the wall, hollering at the top of his voice. He also goes down into the city. And he's still rebellious. But he is doing it. As a result of it, the people believed the message.

Now, Clarence, did Jonah tell them to repent because 40 days the city is going to be destroyed? What? Oh, he didn't. He. That's right. And that's all he told them. He said, said nothing about repenting.

So. But they did. They believed God. They believed the words that Noah was speaking. Sac cloth come from the two words sac clothes. We have a most remarkable event here now. If you can, I'd like for you to picture this strange looking man.

Someone tell me again. Russell, tell me what you think Jonah looked like. How would that affect him? What was the first thing to go? His hair. He was a body without hair. All the hair was gone. His skin was.

Bleached white with nasty brown, yellowish streaks in it. The best we can determine the toenails, fingernails that begin to dissolve. Now, here he is. He looks entirely different than they do. David, were they a white race?

Would you? They were a dark Syrian type. People. And here's this albino walking around among them. That had to be. Fearful. It had to be strange. And it had to be one of the most effective witnesses of anybody, anytime, any place.

No, not unless he told him. Um. Now, remember, he didn't appear in Nineveh just as he come out of the fish. He's had to walk for at least 30 days. And when he got over his fear of water, I'm sure he cleaned up some.

But here he is. Shouting to the top of his voice. He had 40 days and this city will be destroyed. He didn't tell them to repent. So we see that this strange little man is still rebellious. For word came under the king of Nineveh.

And he arose from his throne. And he laid his robe aside and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes. Clarence, what's ashes got to do with it? All right. It was showing them his thinking as to his worthliness.

Worthlessness. And the king, now, and he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything.

Let them not feed nor drink water, but let every man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands.

So David, we see that they were aware of violence that they were committing. I think it's the most amazing, outstanding, unusual situation. We've read other places in the Bible and throughout history of a great revival taking place.

But I cannot find any place in the Bible or history where 600 ,000 people turned. The whole city. Yes. Yes. They tried, they tried to get the asses to sit in ashes, but they wouldn't. Well, I think the appearance of Jonah also had a lot to do with their believing.

If the God that he is proclaiming or has reference to, he's not mentioning the word God. But if his God can do that, then there's something here. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not.

Do you ever make decisions for anybody else? Never do. The king is saying here that who can tell if God will turn and repent. Man cannot decide what God will do or what he will not do at any one time.

So the king phrases it just exactly right. Who can tell? No one can tell. That was the only thing they had that perhaps. That's right. And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way. And God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them.

And he did it not turn. Let's see. I don't have a reference for that, but the word repent here. Remember I told you sometime ago that there was more than one word for repent. Now, God has never repented of anything that he did.

Or that he said he would do. The word repent here is knock on. It means to breathe strongly, to be sorry, to pity, to console. Which is exactly what he did. Now, just so you're not really disturbed, he said the city would be destroyed.

And it was. But it was a lot longer than 40 days. He did. Let me ask you, when was the last time you saw a Ninevite? There aren't any around. He did get rid of. Not right now. Well, if you read real close, there's nothing said about time.

When that word came to Hezekiah, was it Hezekiah? Told him to get his house in order that he was going to die. He didn't say anything about when. Now, Hezekiah took it to mean right now, but that wasn't necessarily what it was.

He did die. That's right. Yes. That's right. Remember, God never repents of what he has done or what he says he will do. Man does. The words who can tell that, David, that struck me very forcibly while I was studying.

Who can tell if God will turn and repent? I'd like for you to think for a few moments on this verse. Who can tell? Who can tell what might take place if we yield to the to the obedience of God? Who can tell what would happen?

Who can tell what would happen if there was a man today that was totally given over to God? Can you tell me how it would be if in this church God could find such a man? Just suppose with me that each of us study the Bible just this week.

Just the best that we know how to do it. I would dare say that none of us come up fully to what we know we should do and what we could do. If we did each day that that we know to do, who can tell what the result would be?

Who can tell why I pray concerning certain things that God has ordained? When each of us pray concerning things we don't know. Who can tell but what great things may come our way? Who can tell what purpose God has in this church, in this people?

No one can tell. Come to the last chapter. Didn't take Jonah long to write down what he did. Chapter four. The people all repented and Jonah's just jumped up and down with glee. It displeased this little man exceedingly.

Well, he was very angry, very displeased. And he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? That's why I run off to Tarsus or tried to. I knew you'd do it.

I knew if I went, they'd be saved. I just knew that's what you're going to do. And I didn't want it. Did you ever do anything you didn't want to do, but you did it anyhow? Well, strangely quiet this morning.

Have any of you ever known the Lord desired you to go a certain place or do a certain thing? Perhaps you've known for some time that you needed to be doing something, but in your mind, you just put it off and put it off over and over again.

Well, if so, did you run the other way? Have you ever run the other way? Have you ever got out of doing what you knew you should do? You may think you did, but you didn't. Jonah could tell you that it would make no difference which direction you decide to go.

You're going to end up where he wants you. I hope we can learn that from this study. God's will shall be done, and it'll be done right on schedule. How do we know that things were working on schedule for Jonah?

One incident particularly, even the fish. So don't ever doubt that things are not going the way he has designed them. Yes, that's certainly true, and it was true in Jonah's case. When he finally did what he was supposed to do, he had great...

He doesn't show it here, but I'm going to say he had some satisfaction to the fact he'd done what God said, even though he tried not to. The point I want us to understand is that while we're in the midst of trying not to, even that is ordained of God.

Jonah tried to escape. He went the other way, yet there was a fish at the right place, a wind, a storm, a ship. Everything had to be predetermined, even while he was disobeying. So be sure you understand that everything occurs according to God's design.

We can't understand that, or at least I can't. I believe it, but it's hard to understand. Well, he prayed to the Lord, and he said, I pray you, Lord, was not this my sin when I was yet in my country? Therefore, I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and a merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness and repentance, and repentest thee of the evil.

He says, Lord, this is just exactly what I tried to tell you about before. I knew this was what was going to happen. He said, I really hate to say this, God, but I think I know better than you do. These people should not have been saved.

Jonah continues, therefore now, Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord, dost thou well to be angry? Is that benefiting you very much?

God says to Jonah, it's doing good. Is doing good so displeasing to you? Are you so angry at me because I did good? He says, Jonah, I'm in the saving business. That's why I sent you there in the first place.

Now, Jonah, I could have given you all kinds of reasons why it was you that had to go, but I said, I'm not going to. We don't have to know the reasons, do we? Jonah could not understand why he of all people was sent to his worst enemies.

Jonah’s Anger Over the Gourd and God’s Mercy

So Jonah went out of the city, sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would happen to the city. Now, let's walk right along with Jonah.

Jonah, he gets out of this town, and he's glad of it. He goes out on the east side. He rents him a room at the Holiday Inn that has a view of Nineveh. He takes a chair, Russell, out on the veranda, and he has a glass of iced tea in his hand, and he sits down waiting to watch the fireworks.

He sits there all day and nothing happens. He gets more angry with each passing moment. The Lord God prepared a gourd. Russell, what is a gourd? And he made it to come up over Jonah. Well, the gourd he's talking about has large leaves, very thick, one leaf to each branch, and it makes a wonderful shade.

This one grew rather swiftly. Shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief, so Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd. Because sitting there during the day, the sun was shining on him, but he sits there all day and all night.

But God prepared a worm. God prepared a worm. When the morning rose the next day, so Bill, we've seen him sitting there all this time, it spoke to the gourd that it withered. What did it do? What did the worm do?

Cut it off the ground. Well, I think the worm is just as much of a miraculous thing as the fish. It cut the gourd off and it fell to the ground. Now it came to pass when the sun did rise that God prepared a vehement east wind.

And the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted and wished in himself to die. He thought he won't die before. Now he really does. And said, it is better for me to die than to live. He's still trying to tell God what to do, isn't he?

God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? Is that helping any? What does it do when we get angry? Raises your blood pressure? Makes your face turn red? Might get you a black eye? And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death.

The only thing in all of this awful trip about which Jonah cared was the gourd and now worms destroyed it. What's next? Maybe this balcony is going to fall off. Then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd for for the which thou hast not labored.

Neither madest it to grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. You didn't have anything to do with that. God has never told us to love the lost. And he sure didn't tell Jonah to and Jonah didn't mention it.

What he has said is that he loves his lost people. What God says. He says to Jonah, I don't care if you like these people or not. I do. Therefore, I sent you to warn them unto repentance. Now you've done that and I have yet another lesson.

Before you can go home and should not I spare none of that great city wherein are more than six score thousand persons. That cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle.

Was this a city of ignorant people? What's he talking about, David? He's fully it's full of children which don't know right from wrong. They don't know right from left. And he says, Jonah, you think that because I love them, I'm going to let them go to hell.

120 ,000 children have a question. Does a preacher accept a call to a church because he loves the people? Those of you that are shaking your head, it's hard for the tape to hear that. That's right. But when a preacher does accept a church, he will become involved with the people and perhaps learn to love a few of them.

If we say, I won't go tell those people because I do not love them. Then we're no better than who? Jonah. We're susceptible to the same result. I like Vernon McGee's illustration. There's too many people in our church today that are just caterpillars.

Church members are either pillars or caterpillars. The pillars hold up the church and the caterpillar just crawl in and out. Those that are the crawlers are running on emotion. They're just watching for some great wave of feeling to come over them.

And they're still waiting. I think Jonah went down to the town and began to rejoice with the town's folks after this last lesson. Now that's stretching, but it's my imagination I'm stretching. Was there any good in Jonah's talking, taking his anger to God?

Was there any good in it? What? Since nothing happened, if you had been in the place of Jonah and you'd been down telling them in, what was it, 40 days everything's going to turn to ashes and it didn't happen, what would you think that the people thought of you?

That's right. And that angered Jonah. Because he didn't want anybody to think that he was telling them a lie. And that was part of his anger toward God because he didn't do what Jonah had told the people and God told Jonah to tell them that and then it didn't happen.

And he got his own personal feelings into it. The lesson from Jonah's gourd, earthly comforts last forever. No, they're just temporary, aren't they? The comforts in which we find the most delight are the first perish, usually.

They usually fall from unforeseen circumstances. They perish most often when we think they are most needed. I think we should consider anger as a professed enemy against us. Anger is a storm brought against us.

If you're yelling and hollering from within a storm, how many people can hear you? But a quiet counsel always makes one hurt. How is a besieged city like a well-stocked Christian? A besieged city means that they knew that there was an attack coming.

So if you know there's an attack coming, what do you do? Try to prepare the very best you know how. How is that like a well-stocked Christian? Yes, sir. He gets prepared. A Christian has a treasure full of experiences of faith and exercise to assist him in this battle against the devil, never knowing when it will come, but with a surety it will come.

He cannot wait and expect to be supplied from the outside at the time of his under attack because the enemy has got him surrounded, just like a besieged city. Anger makes reason useless. Anger makes innocent joking to be the beginning of tragedies.

It turns friendships into hatred. Surmounted obstacles not only teach us, but also hearten us to future troubles. The story of Jonah, very short, very animated. During this study, I received some software, Bible maps, and I thought they were very nice, but I pulled up the travels of Jonah.

I'd like for you all to see it. If I can remember next time you're over, I want to show you any of you there. It's animated. Children would love it. I know because I did, but it's the map of the country.

It traces the route of Jonah. Then you can put it into action. He leaves his hometown and that's a little bitty figure about the size of a dot, but it comes down to Joppa. Then there's a ship that leaves.

Then you hear the sound of a storm, awful storm, and you see a whale come up and they throw Jonah into the whale. He disappears. The ship goes on. Pretty soon, the whale reappears and spits him out over on the shoreline right where he got on, and then he runs as hard as he can run to Nineveh.

It's a good program. I wish I had some way to bring it and show you here, because it sticks in your mind when you can see visual aids. All right, that's the end of Jonah. Are there any questions or thoughts that you have actually learned something or gained something from this story of Jonah?

It's Jonah that's speaking. Yes, because before he was wanting to die. I think I told you all this a long time ago, but in case I didn't to you, in case I did act like I didn't, when Rockefeller Sr. was alive, and I've never had much to do with Rockefeller, but he was living in a penthouse in a hotel in downtown New York.

He'd go to office every day. When he would come down and go through the outside door, there was a doorman who always opened the door. Every morning, he'd hand him a dollar bill, and he did that for years.

Every morning, dollar bill. One morning, he forgot, and the doorman got mad at him. All right, if there's nothing else, let's stand. Yes, you had something. That's, well, that's true, but when he said, for such is the kingdom of God, he also meant that unless you come into him as a little child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

That doesn't mean physically. That means with total abandon of anything you have, and trust me, as a little child trusts its parents, but he is very concerned for the children. Also, it's just that that one incident has more to it than just children.

Anything else? That's right. Jonah thought he was, even though we may think we do, but how could we if everything's ordained? We're not more powerful than God. It hasn't drained because we haven't been paying the preacher enough.

Um, that's right. Absolutely. That's true. As you study the story, particularly that part, you can come to either conclusion because there's lots of strength to the fact that he did die. And there's some that he didn't.

I think all of the praying, everything he said was in the, within the first five minutes because he would be unconscious after that, I'm sure. Never having made the trip, I can't verify that. Yes, certainly not an impossibility.

I wonder whatever happened to the fish. Let's stand. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this brief study and your holy word. We trust that it has been presented in a way that we will remember and that we can apply the truth to our life right now.

Today, the purpose of all study is to learn of you and to apply it. Thank you for these dear people continue to come and study and rejoice in your word. In the name of Christ, we'd ask. Amen.