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Jonah 1

Sunday Morning Bible Study

March 30, 2014

Introduction

Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved? Regular:  2900 words    Communion: 2500 words

YouVersion “Live” event… / “Notes” on website…

The Prophet

Jonah = “dove”
Jonah was a contemporary of our friends Amos and Hosea, but he started his ministry about ten years before them.

Unlike Amos and Hosea, Jonah’s early ministry wasn’t about warning Israel to repent from their spiritual idolatry, it was about encouraging Jeroboam II to conquer new territory.
(2 Kings 14:25 NKJV) He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher.
It’s after Jeroboam II had conquered this additional territory, when the nation had become prosperous, that Hosea and Amos come along and begin to speak about the growing spiritual idolatry taking place, and warning of the future Assyrian captivity.
Hosea warned about the spiritual harlotry that the northern kingdom was involved in.  He warned that one day they would be conquered by the Assyrians.

(Hosea 11:5 NKJV) …But the Assyrian shall be his king, Because they refused to repent.

Amos came and delivered a message aimed at Jeroboam II, king of the northern kingdom of Israel, warning that Israel would someday go into exile far past Damascus, presumably into Assyria.

(Amos 5:27 NKJV) Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,” Says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

Video:  Gath-Hepher map clip

He came from the town of Gath-hepher, 34 miles north of the capital city Samaria in the area of Galilee.

The People

In a way, the book is as much about Jonah as it is anyone else.

We are going to learn a lot by watching the growth of this prophet.

But Jonah’s message (in this book) will be aimed at the city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire.

The Assyrians were known to the Israelites long before Jonah.
The Assyrian Empire first began to emerge around the time of Abraham (2000 BC)
They went through various rises and falls, and by the time of Jonah, the Assyrian Empire was in its third phase (Neo-Assyrian Empire 911-627 BC), and began to stretch into the land of Israel.
By 830 BC, they were getting closer to Israel’s backyard, and there is a record of King Jehu paying tribute money to the Assyrians.

More Israel/Assyrian history:

In 731 BC, Ahaz, king of Judah became a “vassal” of Tiglath-Pileser III, falling in love with their ways of worship and even changed the altar in Jerusalem to look like the Assyrian altar.
In 722 BC Shalmaneser V besieged and conquered Samaria and the northern kingdom of Israel.
In 701 BC Sennacherib invaded Judah, destroyed 46 towns and cities.  When he encircled Jerusalem, the Angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrians in one night, and Sennacherib returned to Nineveh.
In 681 Esarhaddon considered Judah a vassal kingdom, and had taken Manasseh captive for a period to Nineveh.
In 612 BC Nineveh fell to a combined army of Babylonians, Medes, and Scythians.

In the reign of Ashur-dan III (772–754) Jonah preached to the Ninevites (see the Introduction to Jonah).[1]

(this would predate Amos by about 10 years)
Nineveh was the capital of one of the cruelest, vilest, most powerful, and most idolatrous empires in the world. For example, writing of one of his conquests, Ashurnaṣirpal II (883–859) boasted, “I stormed the mountain peaks and took them. In the midst of the mighty mountain I slaughtered them; with their blood I dyed the mountain red like wool The heads of their warriors I cut off, and I formed them into a pillar over against their city; their young men and their maidens I burned in the fire” (Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, 1:148). Regarding one captured leader, he wrote, “I flayed [him], his skin I spread upon the wall of the city …” (ibid., 1:146). He also wrote of mutilating the bodies of live captives and stacking their corpses in piles.
Shalmaneser II (859–824) boasted of his cruelties after one of his campaigns: “A pyramid of heads I reared in front of his city. Their youths and their maidens I burnt up in the flames” (ibid., 1:213). Sennacherib (705–681) wrote of his enemies, “I cut their throats like lambs. I cut off their precious lives [as one cuts] a string. Like the many waters of a storm I made [the contents of] their gullets and entrails run down upon the wide earth Their hands I cut off” (ibid., 2:127).
Ashurbanipal (669–626) described his treatment of a captured leader in these words: “I pierced his chin with my keen hand dagger. Through his jaw … I passed a rope, put a dog chain upon him and made him occupy … a kennel” (ibid., 2:319). In his campaign against Egypt, Ashurbanipal also boasted that his officials hung Egyptian corpses “on stakes [and] stripped off their skins and covered the city wall(s) with them” (ibid., 2:295).
No wonder Nahum called Nineveh “the city of blood” (3:1), a city noted for its “cruelty”! (3:19)
Ashurbanipal was egotistic: “I [am] Ashurbanipal, the great [king], the mighty king, king of the universe, king of Assyria.… The great gods … magnified my name; they made my rule powerful” (ibid., 2:323–4). Esarhaddon was even more boastful. “I am powerful, I am all powerful, I am a hero, I am gigantic, I am colossal, I am honored, I am magnified, I am without equal among all kings, the chosen one of Asshur, Nabu, and Marduk” (ibid., 2:226).[2]

The Times

King Jeroboam II (remember him from Amos?) became king of Israel around 790 BC.

We think Jonah began his career as a prophet around the year 786 BC.

Amos’ prophecy, warning Israel to repent or face Assyrian conquest, came around 762 BC.

We think the events of this book take place around the year 759 BC.

If Jonah arrived at Nineveh in 759 BC, then there were some significant things that had already taken place.
Nineveh had already experienced two “plagues” in 765 BC and 759 BC.
There had been a total solar eclipse on June 15, 762 BC.
You could say that Nineveh has been “shook up” and is open to God.

1:1-3 Jonah’s Disobedience

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

:2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”

:2 Nineveh

This was a very old, very ancient city.

Genesis records it was founded by Nimrod after the (real) flood of Noah. (Gen. 10:11)

(Genesis 10:11 NKJV) From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah,

:2 their wickedness

The Assyrians left records of their exploits.  It wasn’t pretty.

Ashurnaṣirpal II (883–859) boasted, “I stormed the mountain peaks and took them. In the midst of the mighty mountain I slaughtered them; with their blood I dyed the mountain red like wool. The heads of their warriors I cut off, and I formed them into a pillar over against their city; their young men and their maidens I burned in the fire” (Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, 1:148).
Regarding one captured leader, he wrote, “I flayed [him], his skin I spread upon the wall of the city …” (ibid., 1:146). He also wrote of mutilating the bodies of live captives and stacking their corpses in piles.
This was not unique to this ruler.  This was the Assyrian way.
Shalmaneser II (859–824) boasted of his cruelties after one of his campaigns: “A pyramid of heads I reared in front of his city. Their youths and their maidens I burnt up in the flames” (ibid., 1:213). Sennacherib (705–681) wrote of his enemies, “I cut their throats like lambs. I cut off their precious lives [as one cuts] a string. Like the many waters of a storm I made [the contents of] their gullets and entrails run down upon the wide earth Their hands I cut off” (ibid., 2:127).

:2 has come up before Me

Lesson

God loves the world

If you’re not careful, you can get the idea that God only cares about His “people”.
A Jew might think that God only cared about the people of Israel.
A Christian might think that God only cares for those who believe in Jesus.
The truth is, God cares about the entire planet.
(John 3:16 NKJV) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Some people look at this and think that the “world” that God loved was only those who would believe in Jesus.

The text says “the world”, not “the elect”.

Nineveh had become a wicked place.
God was grieved over the way they lived.
God knew that His own sense of justice would require Him to one day bring judgment on this nation unless they around and turned to Him.
God told Moses what His true character is like:
(Exodus 34:6–7 NKJV) —6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

You might want to stare at that last phrase about God judging those who are “guilty”, but don’t miss the first eight qualities of God (merciful, gracious…).

God will indeed judge the guilty, like Nineveh.

But God is first and foremost merciful, gracious, and patient (longsuffering).

To be honest, Jonah knows this.
And this is why Jonah is going to run from God.
Jonah doesn’t want God to be gracious to Nineveh because he hates Nineveh and he is hoping that Nineveh will get wiped out.
How do you feel about lost people?
(Matthew 9:37–38 NKJV) —37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

We were reminded last night that we need to “pray” for the Lord to send out laborers into the harvest.

And if you are serious about praying for the lost, you will find yourself actually doing something about it as well.

Video: “The Fishing Club

:3 But Jonah arose 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 down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

:3 Tarshish

It is generally thought that Tarshish was on the western side of the Mediterranean Sea, either in Northern Africa or Spain.

:3 Joppa

Video:  Joppa, Nineveh, Tarshish map

Joppa was the ancient seaport on the coast of Israel, where Tel-Aviv is today.
Nineveh is over 500 miles northeast of the capital city Samaria.
In ancient terms, Tarshish was on the other side of the planet from Nineveh, the opposite direction of Nineveh.  It’s 2300+ miles west of Samaria.
If God wants Jonah to give a message to Nineveh, then Jonah is going to get as far away from Nineveh as he can.

:3 from the presence of the Lord

Jonah has even shared with his fellow travelers that he is fleeing from God.

When he boards the ship in Joppa, he actually let them know that he was fleeing from Yahweh.

The truth is, you can’t flee from God’s presence.  David wrote,

(Psalm 139:7–10 NKJV) —7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.
Illustration
There’s a story about a fellow who suddenly left a discussion group at a Bible Study quite disgusted, slamming the door after him. One person trying to relieve the tension, remarked, “Well, he’s gone.” To this the hostess replied, “No, he isn’t. That’s a closet!”
You may tell yourself that you are trying to run away from God, but you really can’t do that because He is everywhere.

1:4-9 The Storm

:4 But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.

:4 a mighty tempest on the sea

You have to be careful what you think about storms.

Some might think storms can be kind of funny, especially if you put some music to it…
Video: Cruise Ship Ragtime
Jonah’s storm was more like …
Video:  Perfect Storm

:5 Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.

:6 So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”

:7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

:7 the lot fell on Jonah

“Casting lots” was a little like throwing dice.  It’s one of the ways that ancients would use to make decisions or try to find out what God wanted.

It’s what people do when they don’t know what to do.
I don’t think it’s the kind of thing we ought to make a regular habit of because God gave us brains and I think He prefers that we use them.

Yet God has a way of using things like this from time to time.

(Proverbs 16:33 NKJV) The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord.
God has a way of getting His message to people.
It will be very clear as the story develops that Jonah indeed is the reason for the storm at sea.

:8 Then they said to him, “Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”

:9 So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

1:10-17 Tossed Overboard

:10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

:10 the men knew that he fled

Apparently Jonah had told them as he boarded the ship that he was fleeing from Yahweh.

What they DIDN’T know at the time was that he was also a worshipper of Yahweh.

It’s one thing to flee from Yahweh when you don’t know Him.
It’s quite another to flee from God when you do know Him.
And now they hear that Yahweh is the maker of the “sea and land”.

:10 Why have you done this?

Lesson

The sinking ship

Or … My disobedience imperils others
Jonah isn’t alone on a sinking ship.  There are others on board. 
Sometimes we tell ourselves that we are the only ones hurt by our disobedience.
The alcoholic may be aware that they are ruining their own life, but rarely do they realize that their boat is sinking, along with everyone else on board.
The sex addict may be thinking that their little porn addiction is something that doesn’t hurt anyone else.

Or they may think that it’s no harm done to the prostitute or the willing sex partner.

They have no clue to the harm that is being done to their spouse.  They have no clue to how their addiction has changed the way they treat other people.  They have no clue what kinds of things their kids are learning about relationships by watching how they relate to other people.

The food addict tries to pretend that it’s not a big deal that they are a few pounds overweight.

Actually, your ship is sinking.  You are at risk for diabetes, which WILL sink your ship.  Your high blood pressure, which if left untreated will eventually damage a multitude of your internal organs.  Your high cholesterol levels putting you at risk for a heart attack.  Your sleep apnea is causing you heart damage.

And when you’re in the hospital with one of these things, I will come and visit you, but I can’t help but wonder how things would have turned out if you had gotten your eating under control.

I could tell you that the chances are there are others in your family who are also overweight, and it doesn’t help when they see you and your own poundage.

I know these things and may sound like I’m being extra hard on you, because this is an area I’ve struggled with.

With Jonah, the issue is his unwillingness to go where God wanted him to go and speak what God wanted him to speak.
God had a message for the people of Nineveh.
God had a man who could share that message.
If Jonah goes, the people might listen, turn from their sins, and be saved.
If Jonah doesn’t go, the people of Nineveh will cross that threshold of sin, and they will experience destruction because of their sin.
My disobedience does affect others.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians about how one person’s sin affects the whole church:

(1 Corinthians 5:6 NKJV) Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Sometimes my disobedience is sinking the entire ship with everyone else on board.

:11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous.

:12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”

:13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them.

:14 Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.”

:15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

:15 threw him into the sea

Lesson

When to toss the bum

I think there’s a lesson here about how to treat “Jonahs”.  Sometimes we need to be tossed overboard.  But first
Patience
I applaud the sailors for wanting to keep everyone on board safe.  They are reluctant to toss Jonah overboard, even though he’s the one suggesting it.
God is by nature “patient”.

(2 Peter 3:9 NLT) The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

We too need to learn to be “patient” with others.

When Paul is telling the Corinthians about the better way for the church to operate, he wrote,

(1 Corinthians 13:4 NLT) Love is patient and kind..

Paul used the same word for “patient” that Peter used to describe God.

Sometimes it’s “patience” (or, “kindness”) that causes a person to turn around.  This is how God prefers to act towards us…

(Romans 2:4 NLT) Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

I was wondering … since Jonah recommended they toss him overboard, why didn’t Jonah just get up and jump overboard?

I think that the sailors didn’t want anyone to die.  They didn’t want to be held accountable to Yahweh for Jonah’s death.  I wonder if they had Jonah tied up to keep him from going overboard.

I think it’s a good thing to err on the side of patience.  But sometimes we need to …
Toss ‘em
But there came a time when they realized that having Jonah on board was going to sink the ship with all of them on board.
There is a time when patience becomes “co-dependence”.

We tell ourselves that we are trying to be kind and patient with a person, when in fact we are just helping them continue in their sin.

When an addict is always being “rescued” from facing the consequences of their actions by the people near them, it’s harder for them to learn their need for change.

They say that a person has to “hit bottom” in order to want to change.

Jonah is going to literally “hit bottom”, but not until he gets tossed from the ship.

:16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows.

:17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

:17 the Lord had prepared a great fish

There are theories as to what kind of “fish” this might have been. (Note:  it doesn’t call it a “whale”)

Some suggest that it might have been a special fish “prepared” by God, and we shouldn’t spend too much time worrying about it because it could have been unique to Jonah’s day.
Some suggest a sperm whale which can grow up to 70 feet long and swallows their food whole.
Two marine scientists from Sea World have actually hypothesized it could even have been a great white shark
Videos: Two Jaws clips:  Bigger Boat and Quint is Devoured

:17 three days and three nights

We’ll get to this next week…

:3 Jonah arose to flee

Lesson

Running?

Are you running from God?  Perhaps today is the day you ought to turn around.
 


[1] Johnson, E. E. (1985). Nahum. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1493). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

[2] Johnson, E. E. (1985). Nahum. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1494). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.