Obey Or Run Jonah 1:1-3
Jonah 1:1-3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me. Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord s presence.
Jonah 1:1-3 He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord s presence.
Key Question: Is the Book of Jonah historical fact or fiction?
Outline: 1. The Book 2. God s Command 3. Jonah s Response
1. The Book
Book One of 12 Minor Prophets
Book One of 12 Minor Prophets Prophetic narrative
Book One of 12 Minor Prophets Prophetic narrative Utterly unique among the Major/Minor Prophets
Book One of 12 Minor Prophets Prophetic narrative Utterly unique among the Major/Minor Prophets Didactic
Book One of 12 Minor Prophets Prophetic narrative Utterly unique among the Major/Minor Prophets Didactic Sensational
Book One of 12 Minor Prophets Prophetic narrative Utterly unique among the Major/Minor Prophets Didactic Sensational Intentionally ironic
Parable: a succinct, didactic, obviously fictional story, in prose or verse that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles.
Two Historical Components Jonah son of Amittai
2 Kings 14:23-27 In the fifteenth year of Judah s King Amaziah son of Joash, Jeroboam son of Jehoash became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. He did what was evil in the Lord s sight. He did not turn away from all the sins Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.
2 Kings 14:23-27 He restored Israel s border from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word the Lord, the God of Israel, had spoken through his servant, the prophet Jonah son of Amittai from Gath-hepher. For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter for both slaves and free people.
2 Kings 14:23-27 There was no one to help Israel. The Lord had not said he would blot out the name of Israel under heaven, so he delivered them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.
Two Historical Components Jonah son of Amittai The Great City of Nineveh
Two Historical Components The Great City of Nineveh One of the greatest cities in the ancient world.
Two Historical Components The Great City of Nineveh One of the greatest cities in the ancient world. Located 600 hundred miles NE of Israel.
Two Historical Components The Great City of Nineveh One of the greatest cities in the ancient world. Located 600 hundred miles NE of Israel. It endured for over 1,000 years.
Two Historical Components The Great City of Nineveh One of the greatest cities in the ancient world. Located 600 hundred miles NE of Israel. It endured for over 1,000 years. Located in what is now Northern Iraq near Mosul.
Two Historical Components The Great City of Nineveh One of the greatest cities in the ancient world. Located 600 hundred miles NE of Israel. It endured for over 1,000 years. Located in what is now Northern Iraq near Mosul. Destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians in 612 BC.
Jonah 1:2 Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.
The Assyrian war machine was the most efficient military force in the ancient world up until the fall of the empire in 612 BCE. The secret to its success was a professionally trained standing army, iron weapons, advanced engineering skills, effective tactics, and, most importantly, a complete ruthlessness which came to characterize the Assyrians to their neighbors and subjects and still attaches itself
to the reputation of Assyria in the modern day. A phrase oft-repeated by Assyrian kings in their inscriptions regarding military conquests is "I destroyed, devastated, and burned with fire".
One inscription from a temple in the city of Nineveh records the fate of the leaders of the city of Suru on the Euphrates River, who rebelled from, and were reconquered by, King Ashurbanipal: I built a pillar at the city gate and I flayed all the chief men who had revolted and I covered the pillar with their skins; some I walled up inside the pillar, some I impaled upon the pillar on stakes."
Such punishments were not uncommon. Furthermore, inscriptions recording these vicious acts of retribution were displayed throughout the empire to serve as a warning. Ancient History Encyclopedia
Matthew 12:39-41 He answered them, An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
Matthew 12:39-41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah s preaching; and look something greater than Jonah is here.
Why does it matter?
If it really happened, it is really serious. If this is the way God works in history, then a less narrow attitude toward our enemies (as one application) is not just an ought, it is a must; it is not simply a narrator s desire, it is God s enforceable revelation. Douglas Stuart
2. God s Command
Jonah 1:1-2 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.
God s Command 600 mile walk through the dessert.
God s Command 600 mile walk through the dessert. Assyria is hostile to Israel.
God s Command 600 mile walk through the dessert. Assyria is hostile to Israel. Assyria is prophesied to conquer Israel.
Hosea 11:5 Israel will not return to the land of Egypt and Assyria will be his king, because they refused to repent.
3. Jonah s Response
Jonah 1:1-3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me. Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord s presence.
Jonah 1:1-3 He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord s presence.
Why does Jonah run?
Jonah 4:1-3 Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. He prayed to the Lord: Please, Lord, isn t this what I thought while I was still in my own country? That s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God,
Jonah 4:1-3 slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.
Case Study on Disobedience Jonah receives a clear command. Jonah doesn t like the command. Jonah runs.
Why Jonah Runs 1. Jonah runs to remove his availability.
Why Jonah Runs 1. Jonah runs to remove his availability. 2. Jonah runs to quiet God s voice.
Application 1. Know that disobeying God almost always involves running away from Him.
Application 1. Know that disobeying God almost always involves running away from Him. Running from proximity.
Proverbs 18:1 One who isolates himself pursues selfish desires; he rebels against all sound wisdom.
Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.
Application 1. Know that disobeying God almost always involves running away from Him. Running from proximity. Running from orthodoxy.
Are you running from God?