Jonah 1:1-3 – The Real Impossibility – Bible study

Jonah 1:1-3 The Real Impossibility There is a role model for almost everyone in the Bible. There are some very good role models. Joseph is a good role model. He was not a perfect man but he was pretty close to it. He stayed faithful to God despite trying times and was ultimately promoted as God has promised. Job is a good role model. The devil worked against Job to crush him and his testimony, but he could not. He hurled everything at Job lose, sickness, and death; but Job stayed faithful. Of course, people in the Bible are not perfect just like people in life are not perfect. Moses is the role model for the short-tempered. He got angry at the Egyptian and killed him. His short temper did not go away after God began to use him either. When he came down from Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments and found the people in sin, he threw the tablets of stone down and busted them. I think he did that in anger. Jonah is one of those whose life was less than perfect. Jonah was a man of God, a prophet, a good prophet; but he received some orders from God to go to a place and a people that he did not want to go and he rebelled. He rebelled against Gods assignment and he rebelled against God. \#3\ tells us that Jonah attempted to flee from God. His flight lead him into a giant storm, then caused him to be cast into the sea to drown, and ended him up in the belly of a fish. Some asks is the story of Jonah true? Why would it not be? Because of the great storm? Storms large enough to sink ships happen all of the time. Because Jonah was cast into the sea to drown? Sadly, I have heard of several who either cast themselves into the sea or were cast into it by someone else all seeking the same goal, to die. Because of the giant fish? Friend, the God who could create a universe so large we cant see it all would have no trouble creating a fish large enough to swallow a man! If there is a reason to doubt the facts of the story of Jonah, it would not be the size of the fish that swallowed Jonah, but the fact that Jonah would so disobey God. How could a man who had served God, had seen Gods power, had been used of God not know God any better than Jonah? And if he did know God, why would he do what he did? But I guess God must wonder that a lot at all of us! But if this story is hard to believe, it is not because its hard to believe a fish that could swallowed Jonah. Rather it is hard to believe the behavior of Jonah! Lets consider the man Jonah and a few of the thoughts that entered his head. I. Jonah had the thought that he could calculate the price of sin. Jonah 1:3 so he paid the fare thereof. A. Jonah paid the price of the ship fare and perhaps had the thought that he was done with God and that God was done with him. 1. Jonah was not the first nor the last to think he could figure and pay for his disobedience and rebellion to God. 2. We have all miscalculated sins price at some point. a. The young person who cheated on a test might have thought the price would be a zero on the test only to find out it cost them their reputation and to be expelled. b. The worker who laid out might have thought the price would just be a reprimand but it was pink slip and financial ruin. c. The spouse who cheated might have thought the price would just be his fidelity only to find it cost the relationship of everyone in his family. d. The church member who chose sin over God might have thought the price would just be a little lost fellowship with God only to find out it set them on a path of sin from which they never recovered. 3. But friend, we do not figure very well. a. When David cheated with Bathsheba, it cost him the childs life and a sword that stayed inside of his home for generations. b. When Elishas servant followed Naaman for a few coins and a change of clothing, he got Naamans leprosy. c. When the Israelite man brought the Midianite woman into the camp, it cost both of their lives. B. Jonah misfigured and kept misfiguring. 1. In the beginning, he thought defiance could nullify Gods will. 2. Then he thought distance could nullify Gods will. 3. Lastly he thought death could nullify Gods will. 4. But nothing nullified Gods call and Gods will for his life. C. Sadly, Jonah kept doubling down on his sin. 1. Doubling down is a gambling term. a. I believe it is when you lose and instead of stopping, you double your bet with the hope that you can win back all you lost and still make a profit. b. I understand it seldom works. c. Instead, you just go further and further in the red. 2. Jonah doubled down! a. He tried definance which left him no ministry. (1) He was a prophet who served God, but not now. (2) He had no purpose, just emptiness and unfulfilled. (3) Every person needs a reason to live. (4) Every person needs a purpose. (5) This is the reason God gave man a task even before sin entered into the world. b. Then Jonah had no joy. (1) Few people have joy, sadly thats either in the church or outside of the church. (2) I believe part of the problem is most dont know where joy, contentment, and fulfillment come from. (3) They do not come from the fun things we do. (4) These things come from accomplishing the purpose God gave to us. (5) That accomplishmentnot making just making money or conquering enemies earns the right to have joy, fulfillment, and contentment. c. This left Jonah with no choices. a. The only choice anyone has who is running from God is get right with God or run deeper into sin. b. Unless someone intervenes, man always chooses to run deeper into sin. 3. Doubling down is very foolish when it comes to sin. a. You are not playing against the house where you might actually have a change of 1 in 10. b. When it comes to sin, you are playing against God and you have no chance at all. D. Friend, you and I do not have enough vision to figure the price of our sin or enough collateral to pay it. 1. If we did, God would not have sent Jesus. 2. The beauty is no matter whether you are saved or lost, Jesus paid it all! II. \#Jonah 4:1-11\ Jonah had the thought that his desires were more important than Gods. A. The whole issue for Jonah was WHERE God was sending him. 1. God sent Jonah to Nineveh. Jonah 1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. a. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. b. Assyria was the nation God was going to send to destroy the Northern Kingdom in a few years. c. I dont know if that is why Jonah did not want to go or not, but I feel like it is. d. His reasons for not wanting to go are not important. God TOLD him to go and that is all that matters. 2. But Jonah refused to go. a. He told God why he did not want to go. Jonah 4:2 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? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. b. Basically, Jonah did not want God to forgive them. (1) He wanted Nineveh destroyed. (2) Maybe that was because he knew they were going to destroy Israel one day and maybe it was not, but according to Jonah what he wanted was more important than what God wanted. B. For some reason, God was moved with compassion not only on the Ninevites but also for Jonah and God wanted Jonan to understand His love for these people. 1. That is a good thing because a lot of people do not know the God of the Old Testament loved people other than the Jews. 2. I have been wrong. a. I have often said that the first evangelistic crusade was during the life of Jesus when He sent His disciples to other cities to tell them about Him. b. This looks to me to be the first. (1) God sent one man, Jonah, to do a seemingly impossible task, to see if he could help in converting a whole city to God. (2) Bless God, although Jonah did not want it to happen, it did. The city turned to come from the king to the pauper. 3. Get this. a. God wanted to forgive the Ninevites. b. God wanted to forgive them even if it meant they would one day attack His own people. c. And God worked to make it possible for Him to forgive the Ninevites. C. On this rare occasion, God explained to Jonah why He wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah 4:11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? 1. We do not know what effect it had. The book ends there. 2. But get this, whether God reveals to us WHY He tells us to do what He tells us to do or not, God always has a reason. 3. This is where faith comes in. a. God wants us to trust Him even when we dont know what He is doing or why. b. Im afraid Jonah did not do well in either the faith or the obedience department on this occasion. III. Jonah had the thought that he could outlast God. A. Jonah could not outlast God. Jonah 1:17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 2:1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fishs belly, 2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. B. Some seem to do so. 1. I heard a broadcast and the speaker said something profound. a. He said the worst thing that can happen to us not to try something a fail, but to try something out of the will of God and succeed. b. People who succeed at the wrong thing tend to keep doing the wrong thing. c. That relates to something I have thought. (1) The worst situation a person could be in is to be in sin and God not deal with you about it. (2) If God is dealing with you, run to Him not away from Him. 2. Friend, if you are rebelling against God and God seems to be letting you, you have not outlasted God. a. You are still going to have to face Himsaved or lost. b. The wages of sin are never diminished. C. Why does God seem to deal with some in this life so hard and with others so little? 1. I dont know, but I wonder if at some time, they were tender toward God. 2. When I was a child and lived across from Alberta United Methodist Church, I would go into their prayer room. 3. \2Kings 22:1-19\ Josiah began to reign at 5 years old. At 18, he had the temple repaired and a copy of the Word of God was found and read to him. 2Kings 19:11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. 19 Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD. 20 Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again. 4. \#1Kings 21:27\ Even Ahab found mercy because he responded with humility and tenderness to God ONCE. 5. Friend, I promise you, God is merciful to you when He will not let you get away with sin and God is doing you no favor when He does. The impossible thing about the story of Jonah is not the fish swallowing Jonah. The impossible thing is that Jonah thought he could get away with sin. He could not and neither can you.