The Great Book of Jonah- Part 2
Last time I spoke I did the part 1 version of this Book of Jonah. And I titled the message ”The Great Book of Jonah”, because of how often the word “great” appears either directly or indirectly. We have the great city of Nineveh, in which there was a great deal of sin. Then we had Jonah who flees from God and goes in the opposite direction to where he is supposed to go, where God sends a great wind and a violent storm. The sailors end up throwing Jonah into the sea, where he is swallowed by a great fish. In this second part of the message we are going to see what great compassion God has, how great is His power and how great is His love for all peoples.
We are going to pick up the story with Jonah’s prayer in Chapter 2
Jonah 2 (New King James Version) Jonah’s Prayer and God’s Answer
2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said:
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,
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 floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.6 I went down to the [a]moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord, my God.
7 “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple.
Sometimes inadvertently we have preconceived ideas of what of what the bible says. For instance we think there were three wise men- the bible doesn’t say how many- maybe there was one- who knows? Another example is the picture of Eve giving Adam an apple, that’s not in the bible? And sometimes we think of Jonah being chucked overboard with a big whale just waiting with its mouth wide open ready to swallow him! Well firstly the bible does not say it was a whale- just a great fish, maybe it was a whale. Maybe not, and when you look at the prayer Jonah was drowning as he sank into this deep sea. He says this..
For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas,
And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
Keep in mind Jonah would have all his clothes on- probably robes of some kind- which would have weighed him down. He didn’t say let me just put my bathers on, I don’t want my clothes to get wet! Also he didn’t go to “State Swim” lessons or anything- swimming lessons weren’t a thing in Israel at the time! So when he went into the sea – he sank! And that’s why we have a picture of a drowning man.
The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
He is between life and death, between separation of soul and body. You will notice there is no mention of a fish in the prayer, he believes he is in Sheol and he calls out to God from this place. It seems likely also that he took three days to pray this prayer, because the Lord then commands the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land? No one can say for certain whether he was actually dead or not at this point. It’s really not that critical, the fact is for all intents and purposes, if he was not dead he was very close to it. No one could do anything for him no one could pray for him, no one could communicate with him. To the outside world he was dead and dead for 3 days. But we see in this story of Jonah that God can intervene even in the time between the separation of the body and the soul. Even when everyone thinks someone is dead, God can reach out (like He did for Jonah). Do you know that God can even reach down into Sheol!
Psalm 139:7-8 New American Standard Bible
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
I tell you this for one reason. Even if you have lost loved ones who you believe are not saved, God does not let them go that easily. There is hope. Lot’s of it. As we progress in this book, I am going to show you how great is God’s compassion and His grace and His love for all- even the cattle! If God can do it for Jonah He can do it for those you have loved and lost as well! When you die it’s not over!
I have in the past spoken about what people generally call hell. We spoke about Sheol being made up of the “Bosom of Abraham” or “Abrahams Side”, and Hades. We spoke about a separate place called the “abyss”- a holding place for demons . And we also spoke about the “lake of fire” into which Death and Hades are thrown into at the end. We can relook at that sometime if you want to? But know that God can intervene even when we think it’s all over and he can even reach into Sheol. That is so encouraging!
Let’s carry on with the story in Chapter 3
Jonah 3 New King James Version
Jonah Preaches at Nineveh
3 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. 4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
The People of Nineveh Believe
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,
Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?
10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
A few learning points from this
God does NOT give up on you! Ever- even if you go wandering off to Tarshish in the opposite direction. We see that the word of the Lord came to Jonah a “second time”, and then Jonah finally does what the Lord asks. We serve a God of second chances- multiple chances- He is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and abounds in love. Even if you have been going the wrong way, God does not give up on you. He does not say “Jonah you’re a difficult and stubborn character who goes his own way, I’ll find someone else more amenable to my requests” No, He does not give up on people and He will even reach into Sheol to save you! Look at God’s compassion on the Ninevites much to Jonah’s disappointment! So know this that God will never ever ever give up on you.
I was quite amused by these verses in Chapter 3 (5-7)
So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his [b]nobles, saying,
Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water.
The people respond with fasting then after their response the King issues a proclamation to fast. Typical governments – a bit slow on the uptake!
But there is a more serious side to this I think, and that is, it is not laws that change people or what happens in nations, it a change of heart in the people. Laws don’t change people. The law acts as a boundary with a threat of, if you are caught going over that boundary limit, you will be punished. As a result the inclination to break the law may be tempered, but as we can see by crime rates and violence, not very successfully. But when there is a change in heart, that inclination to do what is wrong is taken away. I believe only the Holy Spirit can do that in us- change our hearts.
The more a nation turns away from God, and the more we import and adopt the ways of peoples that reject the Word of God, the more traumatic and troublesome will be our experience. Ask the Ninevites. But, and an emphatic “but”, prayer makes all the difference to our future, personally and nationally, and that’s my next point!
I remember playing rugby and the opposition kicking for posts, while I stood behind the posts praying that they would miss! I am sure there were others in the opposition team praying that the ball would go through! I used to wonder if one of my prayers cancelled out one of the oppositions prayers- a little crazy I know! But I also did ask myself the rhetorical question “why do we pray if God has decided what He is going to do anyway?” I know God told us to pray, but why? Does it make a difference? Does God change His mind if we pray?
The New Living Translation of vs 10 reads;
Jonah 3:10
10 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.
I don’t think this necessarily an accurate representation of what is happening. I don’t think God changes his mind. I tell you why…
God has given man (as He did with Satan by the way), the right to
Either accept God as LORD of all and to follow the ways of God or
By giving man free will, the right to reject the way of God and in doing so to follow his own ways and to be master or lord of his own destiny.
So there are different paths we can choose to follow- rather like all the route options Google maps gives you. The route you take will determine your journey and your destination and hence the experience and consequences
If you choose to go your way there will be consequences. If you choose to go God’s way there will also be consequences- they will be different! So God says go this route this will happen, go that route that will happen. God has not changed his mind. Simply there are consequences to decision making!
And how do we know which route to take as a believer- by prayer and the word of God.
And so prayer changes things! Look what it did for the people of Nineveh- it changed their lives, it changed the journey they were on, it changed the consequences. Not to mention that it saved their lives and it saved the lives of their children.
Do you know as I meditated on this I nearly deleted everything in this paragraph about prayer- I felt so disappointed in my shallowness on this topic of “does prayer change anything”. It showed I was no better than the Ninevites before they repented. God has answered so many prayers in my life, many have been to me miraculous. Do you know I have a list of at least 17 answered prayers that I have kept a record of, that I consider to have been impossible without God intervening. They range from finding jobs, moving countries, opening business, protection and healing etc etc. Why am I trying to rationalize the question “does prayer changes outcomes”- I don’t need t, have experienced it! And who am I that I should understand the mind of God! Who do I think I am! Do you know some of the most precious times I have had in my life have been in prayer, just being in the presence of our Father not asking for anything. In the very least prayer changes us!
So to answer my one question of “does prayer change anything?”,- clearly the answer is absolutely yes- it changes everything! Sometimes we may not like the journey, but I can tell you the destination will be good!
And as to my question about opposing prayers on the rugby field, God would probably say to me “if you spent as much time praying off the field as you do on the field you would be better off, besides maybe the best team should win?”
Chapter 4 we will do at a later stage. But already we can see just how great is God’s love , not wanting one to perish or to suffer the consequences of sin. Even reaching down into the “belly of sheol” to save a lost soul. And as prayer and repentance saved the lives of the Ninevites, do you think it’s any different for us today?
We may not have Jonah walking through our streets, but we have the word of God telling us something very similar. I have to ask myself- what is my response going to be?
So if you see me in sackcloth and ashes next week- you know why!