SERMON: Jonah (Idols or Grace?)
TEXT: Jonah 2:1-10 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 3-29-20
I want to welcome all of the Gateway folks who are joining us — and I especially want to welcome everyone else who’s joining us even if you’re not regularly a part of Gateway Church. And before we get to the sermon — and this is the one thing that I always want you to know — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.
We’re continuing in our Finding Jesus series — where we’re looking at a group of books in the Old Testament known as the Minor Prophets. And what we’re seeing — in this series — is how the whole Bible is telling one story — the story of Jesus.
And here’s a quick idea of what this sermon will be like. I’m going to introduce you to a book of the Bible that you may or may not be familiar with — but I’ve got a sneaky suspicion that — of all the Minor Prophets — this week’s book is the one you’re most familiar with. Then I’ll give you an overview of the book and then we’ll focus in on one section of the book. And finally — and this is what I hope will be most beneficial to you — I’ll show you how to find Jesus. I’ll show you how to find the one story that the whole Bible is telling — the story of Jesus. Because the whole Bible is ultimately pointing us to him.
And in this iteration of our Finding Jesus series — we’re looking at the first six of the books known as the Minor Prophets and — today — we’ll be looking at the book of Jonah. So if you have your Bible, please turn with me to Jonah chapter 2.
In previous weeks we’ve looked at Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obadiah and next week — our final week in the Minor Prophets — we’ll look at the book of Micah. And I hope you’ll grow to know and love these books and spend time in them — finding Jesus and the joy that’s found only in him.
Now I just mentioned that we’re nearing the end of this series and I want to quickly share with you what’s coming up. Some of you may have wondered, “Hey Josh, don’t you know there’s this whole worldwide pandemic going on? So why aren’t you preaching about it?” That’s a valid question. There are many reasons why — one — being that so much of our life has been disrupted that I feel that staying the course — in this series — brings a sense of continuity in the midst of all of the changes we’re experiencing.
Also, I hope that you’ve seen how — without even having to change things up — that what we’ve been encountering in these Minor Prophets does speak to our current situation. From what does it mean to know God, to hungering and thirsting for him in these uncertain times, to the sin of pride — that we looked at last week — to next week’s focus on what does God require of us — to today’s subject — which speaks directly to a lot of the things that have been put on hold in our lives — I hope you’ve seen how this series has been speaking to our current situation.
But here’s primarily where my concern lies. I think it’s pretty clear that things aren’t going to get back to normal very quickly. So after Easter, I’m going to start a series on emotions that I originally planned to do later in the year. And we’re going to explore the emotions of loneliness, emptiness, anxiousness, and depression — as I’m sure these are some emotions we can all relate to right now. When the series begins, we may be weeks into our stay at home orders here in Ohio and I think that gaining a biblical perspective — but more importantly — finding some biblical help with these tough emotions will be very timely for all of us. So that’s what will be coming up in the next few weeks.
So with all of that out of the way let’s begin by taking a few minutes to get our bearings in this book — and — I hope — you’ll see that Jonah is a book you’ll want to go read for yourself.
First, what do we know about Jonah? Well — guess what — Jonah was a prophet — meaning he spoke on behalf of God — and he lived during the 8th century BC.
Now if I was going to give you the short version of Jonah’s story — I’d basically say — the guy had some serious issues with God’s unconditional love towards all people. Wait, what? Yup. Jonah’s got a serious chip on his shoulder when it comes to God being merciful and kind towards people Jonah thinks God shouldn’t be so merciful and kind towards.
Now what makes this book unique — compared to the other Minor Prophets — is that the other books contain words spoken by the prophets — but Jonah is a story about the prophet — it’s a narrative.
And the only other time we come across Jonah — in the Old Testament — is in the book of 2 Kings — where Jonah gives the king — Jeroboam the second — who — a few weeks ago — we saw that he wasn’t a very good king. But Jonah gives Jeroboam the second an encouraging word — that God will restore the borders of Israel that had been conquered by other nations. (See 2 Kings 14:23-25) But a prophet we looked at a few weeks ago — Amos — comes around and tells Jeroboam that — due to his wickedness — instead of blessing — like Jonah said — God’s justice is coming for the king. (See Amos 6:13-14)
Finally, the book of Jonah can be divided into two sections. (See the Bible Project Jonah for more information on the outline of Jonah. Much of what I say here can be found there.) Chapters 1 and 3 focus on Jonah’s interactions with non-Jewish people — some sailors in chapter 1 and the Ninevites in chapter 3. And chapters 2 and 4 contain the prayers of Jonah. So let’s look at each of these sections more closely.
Jonah’s story begins with God calling him to go preach to the people living in Nineveh — and Nineveh — by the way — is the capital of the Assyirian empire — the dreaded enemy nation that’s going to conquer the Israelites soon. “The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Ahm-eh-tie: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”” (Jonah 1:1-2 NLT)
Now — if you weren’t already familiar with the story — you’d probably assume that — like all of the other prophets — Jonah’s going to do what he’s been told to do. Afterall, that’s what all of the other prophets have done — prophets do what God tells them to do, right? Well not so fast.
“But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.” (Jonah 1:3 NLT)
So instead of going to Nineveh, Jonah goes in the complete opposite direction to Tarshish. And this sets up — in his story — some irony. Here we have God’s prophet rebelling against God — which is the opposite of what you’d expect to happen. But then everyone else in the story also ends up doing the opposite of what you’d expect them to do.
And the question — for now — is this: Why does Jonah go in the opposite direction? But — at this point in the narrative — we’re not told why. All we’re told is what happens. He gets on a ship — that’s run by some pagan sailors — goes down to a room in the bottom of the ship — and falls asleep.
And — at some point on the journey — God sends a massive storm to wake his prophet up. And — though Jonah’s asleep in the boat — the pagan sailors are wide awake. Not just because of the storm — but these pagan sailors see that this storm is the result of divine judgment. Now they don’t know why judgment is upon them — they haven’t done anything wrong — but this is part of the irony in the book. These pagans — people who we’d say are lost — spiritually speaking — are able to connect the dots that something’s going on in the spiritual world that’s resulting in their ship being tossed in the sea.
And here’s what happens and — remember — Jonah’s asleep. “So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.” 7 Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. 8 “Why has this awful storm come down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?” 9 Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” 10 The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned. 11 And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”” (Jonah 1:6-11 NLT)
OK. So Jonah acknowledges that God is the one who created the land and sea — yet he thinks he can run from God by getting on a boat! That doesn’t make any sense. And look at his reply to the sailors’ question of “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”
““Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”” (Jonah 1:12 NLT)
Now that sounds noble — but remember — Jonah’s the rebellious one here. And the sailors don’t like his plan — so they try to row their boat harder in order to not have to throw Jonah overboard. And the reason why I say Jonah’s answer sounds noble — is that there are some who believe that Jonah wants to be thrown overboard because he believes that he’ll drown in the sea and that’ll keep him from having to obey God’s orders. So let me ask you something. How rebellious do you have to be to think death is better than obeying God?
And here’s what happens — the sailors throw Jonah overboard — and you all know what’s coming next. A big fish swallows Jonah up. And the storm ends. And — in response — the sailors worship God.
Now this leads us to our passage for today — so let’s skip chapter 2 — and move on to the rest of Jonah’s story.
So after his whale of tale — do you like what I did there? — God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh again. And — this time — Jonah does what he’s told. He goes to Nineveh — a large city — and during his first day there — he preaches God’s message to the people. In the Hebrew language — his sermon is a whopping five words long. Here’s what he said in English. ““Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”” (Jonah 3:4b NLT)
Now ain’t that a great sermon! Actually — it’s pretty weird. Jonah doesn’t mention why they’re going to be destroyed. He doesn’t tell them to repent or how to change the course of things. And Jonah doesn’t even mention God!
Now it’s hard to tell what’s really going on. Is Jonah intentionally leaving out these important details? I mean — we know he doesn’t like the Ninevites — we know he didn’t want to go to them — so is he just doing the bare minimum here to get God off his back? We can’t know his motivations with certainty — all we do know is that the response of the Ninevites isn’t what he was hoping for.
Because — after that short sermon — the king repents. And the people repent. Once again — we see pagans — like the sailors earlier — pagans act more godly than God’s own prophet. And with words that may remind you of another sermon from this series, the king of Nineveh — in hearing Jonah’s five word sermon says, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."”(Jonah 3:9, ESV) You may remember a similar “who knows” from the prophet Joel.
And the people repent and God relents of his judgment upon the city.
Now there’s a bit of play on words happening here in the Hebrew language. In the English translation of Jonah’s sermon — that I read earlier — he ends with the word “destroyed.” That word can also be translated as “overthrown” or “overturned.” And in our English Bibles, the Hebrew word is used with that kind of meaning. But also — in our English Bibles — the word is used with the meaning of being “transformed” or “changed.” So a bit of irony for the prophet who wants these people to be destroyed because the word he preaches to them does get fulfilled — just not with the definition Jonah had hoped for. Because the people — instead of being destroyed — are changed.
Which leads us to Jonah’s final prayer.
And we know he’s pretty mad because... “This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. 2 So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. (You may remember that those words were spoken by the prophet Joel a few weeks ago — but with a much more hopeful tone than here. Jonah goes on to say...) 3 Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.” 4 The Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”” (Jonah 4:1-4 NLT)
Did you hear Jonah’s last words? He’d rather die than live with a God who’s willing to forgive his enemies. Talk about missing the whole point of — well — of everything — that God saves sinners! But even though Jonah’s mad at God for not killing his enemies — and even though Jonah doesn’t appear to catch the fact that he’s acting like an enemy of God and deserves death — God doesn’t kill him. God’s merciful to Jonah just like he’s merciful to the Ninevites. And this is a good reminder of the fact that all of us need God’s mercy and none of us are so far gone that we’re outside of the bounds of his mercy.
But Jonah — well he’s still angry — so he ignores God’s question and goes outside the city — finds a spot with a nice view of the city — and sits — and waits — hoping that the people will go back on their repentance and be destroyed.
And then there’s the odd part about God providing Jonah some shade from a plant — only to send a worm to eat the plant. And this just ticks Jonah off even more. And he asks God to kill him again!
Jonah says, ““Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed. 9 Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?” “Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”” (Jonah 4:8b-9 NLT)
And those are Jonah’s last words in the book — but God still has something left to say. And God says, “Jonah, you feel sorry for this plant that I gave to you and took away from you. So why isn’t it OK for me to feel sorry for the people of Nineveh?” And — again — Jonah doesn’t answer. The story just ends with God’s question.
And the reason why the story ends this way is because the book is essentially asking us the same question: Are you OK with God loving your enemies? (From the Bible Project Jonah) And for those of us who realize that God loved us while we were his enemies — your answer to the question has to be “Yes. I’m not just OK with God loving my enemies — but I want to love them too.”
Now one last thing about this book before we move on to our text. The story has a bunch of crazy stuff that we’ve already talked about — but probably the craziest of all — is something not stated in the book — but it’s something implied by us even having the book.
Who wrote the book of Jonah? Some will debate this — but — most likely — Jonah did or — at the very least — he told the story to someone because he’s the one there at the end — all by himself. So what does that tell you about the end of his story? Not the end of his story here — but the end of his life story. Well the only person who’d let everyone else know about this not so glamorous moment in their life — is someone who’s learned the lesson from this not so glamorous moment.
Jonah eventually got it. And he shared this unglamorous story — from his life — so we’d all learn what it means to worship a God who is “merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.” That we would know what it means to believe in a God who is “eager to turn back from destroying people.” What a hopeful message hidden in a not so seemingly hopeful story.
So let’s turn to our passage — Jonah chapter 2 — to discover a way to find Jesus in the book of Jonah — and in all of the Bible. Let’s begin in verse 1 — and remember — this is Jonah’s first prayer.
“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, "I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.' 5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!" 10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.” (Jonah 2:1-10 ESV)
What’s your view of love? For many — especially here in the US — the idea of a jealous love is a turn off. Meaning, our culture embraces various kinds of “open” relationships. We’re told that we have enough love for several people — even at the same time. So the idea of a jealous love — a love that’s jealous for the love of another — is a turn off because a jealous love is a bit intrusive — it’s a bit overwhelming — let’s be honest — it’s demanding.
Now — for sure — love has an endlessness to it as — even in the Christian faith — we’re told to love one another — meaning many different people — and we’re even told to love our enemies.
But where our culture’s revulsion to a jealous love misses the mark is that it doesn’t acknowledge or value the kind of love that God — not only has for his people — but expects of his people. For God loves us with a jealous love. And the reason why his love for us is a jealous love is because he wants to have the sole affections of our heart. Meaning anything else we love is not to have a priority over our love for and commitment to him. And anything we love more than God — is what the Bible calls — an idol. And idolatry is a sneaky way our heart leads us away from the eternal love of God.
But how do you spot idolatry in your life? Well let me ask you a question that helps to answer our question. What do you think about the most? Your family? Your job? The way your body looks? The way someone else’s body looks? Your health? Your anxieties? Your fears? Your favorite sports team? Or when your favorite sports team will be playing again once this whole coronavirus chaos settles back down? What do you think about most?
Now I’m sure all kinds of things may come to mind, but we often don’t stop to think about what we’re thinking about. And here’s my point. Often what we most often think about are things that we’ve turned in to idols. Now this isn’t always the case — but more often than we recognize — this is the case. Where we’re thinking about all kinds of other things and — yet — we supposedly don’t have time for God — to think about him, to pray to him, to hear from him in his Word — the Bible — although some of us are finding that we now have lots of time for God — and that’s a blessing in all of this. But this thinking of ours — is so sneaky because we’re always thinking. And it feels so natural and comfortable and good to think about what we like to think about. Even if what we’re thinking about is rarely — if ever — God.
Another way to think of idolatry — is that it means to love God for the things he’s given to you rather than loving him for who he is. Where we say to him — at least through our actions and thoughts — “I love the things you’ve made more than I love you.”
And yet very few people are able to acknowledge their idolatry. Most of us are just flat out blind to it. Just one example that hopefully won’t hit you too hard. Men — so I’m just talking to men here — husbands, dads, grandpas — though I’m sure there are women that this applies to. Men — if you can’t cheer like crazy for your favorite sports team — only to watch them lose the game — and then go outside and play in the backyard with your kids or grandkids — or go on a walk with your wife — and not think about the game — you have an idolatry problem. And do you want to hear something scary? For some kids and wives — the only reason why they want your team to win is because they know what you’ll be like if your team loses. And that’s because you have an idolatry problem. As John Calvin said — “The human heart is a factory of idols.”
And that’s how sneakily idolatry works in our lives. Yet the Christian faith shows us that what God expects of his people is devotion to him. And he’s jealous for our love and worship and thought life. He wants to be what we think about when we’re thinking.
Now — you may be thinking — “But Josh. What’s the big deal here? I mean it’s not that big of a deal if I think about things other than God, right?” Right! You’re absolutely right! But what is dangerous — and what we often so easily justify — is to think about anything and everything other than God — while rarely thinking about God — and have that not bother us. And that’s the life of idolatry.
And it doesn’t matter if it’s other people that we’re thinking about — even if it’s in a “How can I help so and so” — or if it’s our status that we’re thinking about — “How can I get other people to see how successful I am” — or whether it’s thinking about the next vacation — “When will Disney open up so I can get back to my happy place?” Our thoughts so easily reveal to us — if we’re paying attention — our thoughts will show us what we really love.
And though there’s much we could look at in Jonah’s prayer — I want us to move quickly so we can focus on a verse. So let’s go back to the beginning — but know that we’ll be moving quickly so we see how we either receive and respond to God’s love for us — which is a jealous love — or we refuse his love by chasing after idols. Back to verse 1.
“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, "I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
Even though Jonah’s run away, disobeyed, and showed hatred towards others — notice God’s kindness and mercy towards him. I think we could all agree that Jonah doesn’t deserve God to hear his cry of distress — much less for God to answer him. Yet this is who God is.
So know that if you’ve been running from God, disobeying him, even if you’ve shown hatred towards him or his people — know that God will be kind to you — and merciful towards you — if you cry out to him. God hears and responds to the cries of those who need to be rescued.
3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.
But know that the God who is merciful and kind is also sovereign — in control. And he will set the chessboard of this world in his favor — putting you in a place in life that you never imagined — in order to get your attention. He’s the God who will send a fish to swallow you whole to get your attention for he is committed to his will being done in your life.
4 Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.' 5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
Jonah believes this is death for him. But it’s not his time to die. Thus God brings him up from the watery grave. Remember — later in the book — he’ll want to die again — but in this moment when he thinks he will die — there’s no celebrating or rejoicing on his part. In fact, look at what he thinks about in this moment.
7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!" 10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.” (Jonah 2:1-10 ESV)
Jonah remembers God. So though he’s far from perfect — he’s far from even being admirable — yet here he remembers that his God is the One who saves. Or as Jonah says it, “Salvation belongs to the Lord!” And the fish spits him up onto dry land.
Now the verse I want you to pay attention to is verse 8. “Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.” (Jonah 2:8 ESV)
This is why idolatry is so dangerous. Those who love their idols more than they love God forsake the steadfast love of God. They reject his grace. In fact, they reject Jesus. How so?
One day, Jesus was teaching. “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." 39 But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” (Matthew 12:38-41 ESV)
Remember the crazy sermon that Jonah preached in Nineveh — “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” (Jonah 3:4b, NLT) Yet the people responded even though Jonah didn’t mention why they were going to be destroyed. He didn’t tell them how to avoid destruction. He didn’t even mention God — yet — the people responded by repenting.
But do you know something else the people didn’t have in their favor? They didn’t know anything about Jonah’s resurrection — his being spit up by the fish after three days in its belly. So Jesus — in responding to these religious leaders — tells them that the people of Nineveh are going to judge them. And what will give the Ninevites the right to judge? Well they responded to Jonah’s message without knowing anything about his three days in the fish and his being spit out. But these religious leaders will know about Jesus’ three days in the grave and about him being resurrected. And yet even after witnessing his death and resurrection they will...not...believe.
And their unbelief is due to their idolatry — for they had elevated a religious system to a place reserved only for God. And — ultimately — they became what they loved. Because idols — in order to keep their place in your life — know that they must kill God in your life. And these Jewish leaders — because of their idolatry — became like their idols — and they killed God by hanging him on a cross.
So what about you? I know the hardest part in all of this is recognizing our idols. The second hardest part is to face the fact that good things — not necessarily wicked and evil things — but good things — like family, and work, and serving others — can become idols in our lives. And this may make you concerned because it sounds like God is sojealous for your love that he doesn’t want you to care about your family, or work, or other people. But know that that’s not the case.
As C.S. Lewis said, “In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God — and instead of God — I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” (C. S. Lewis, The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950–1963 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 1952.)
What is Lewis saying? He’s saying the more we love God, the more our love for everything else in life will be increased — not to the same level as our love for God — but to the place and value and significance that God’s created those things to have in our life. And then God — and everything else — will be sweet to our soul because our loves will be in order. And we will respond to God’s jealous love for us with a protective jealous love for him — letting nothing get in his place in our lives.
Is God’s love for you — and your love for him — the first priority in your life? And before you answer too quickly, pause and really think about what you find yourself thinking about most. And my prayer is that God — and his love for you — will be what you discover is most often what’s on your mind. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for having a jealous love for us. Thank you for not being satisfied with being second or third or fourth in our list of things we love. For a god who would settle for second place isn’t a god worthy of our worship. Help us to recognize the idols in our life. The things that we’re loving out of order. Things that we’re actually loving less because we’re not loving you first. And Father, Son, and Spirit — may we learn the lesson that Jonah is wanting us to understand. Of what it means to worship a God who is “merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.” That we would know what it means to believe in a God who is “eager to turn back from destroying people.” That we would know that “Salvation belongs to the Lord.” And Jesus is our Lord who saves. He is our Lord who loves us. And it’s in his name that we pray. Amen.
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May you go thinking about God — thinking about his jealous love for you. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
You can find the sermon notes here.
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