Well, we know who his dad is, right? We know that he's the son of Amitya. And if I mispronounce names, my apologies. We also recognize that the word of the Lord came to him. Jonah was a prophet. And in fact, we find out more about Jonah. He's mentioned in 2 Kings 14 as a prophet that went to the king of Israel. Now, you recall when I kind of started off on the minor prophets that we talked about how Israel, the nation that God had chosen, that brought into the promised land, they ended up having a split. And we have the northern tribes and the southern tribes, right? The northern tribes were ten tribes and they were often referred to as Israel. The southern were two tribes. They were generally referred to as Judah. Well, Jonah was a prophet to the northern tribes. And he prophesied that the king, Jeroboam, would expand greatly the kingdom in the northern tribes. So there's a lot of wars and a lot of things going on when Jonah is the prophet for that king. Like I said, he's mentioned in 2 Kings 14. That also tells us a little bit about where he's at, that he is from Gath-Heper. And I've got a map on the screen here in a moment that shows us a little bit of the layout of Israel and where that is. One more slide, there we go. If you can see this one, it gives us a picture kind of of the Northern tribes. If you see right in the middle, there's the Sea of Galilee, which when we were studying through the book of Mark, we spent a lot of time around the Sea of Galilee. Right next to that is the tribe of Zebulun. And that area of Gath-Heper is in that section. So he's from the northern tribes. He's the voice of God. He's the prophet to the king in the northern tribes. Like I said, that's in 2 Kings chapter 14. And he's also listed in Joshua chapter, or that location is listed in Joshua 19 as part of the tribe of Zebulun. So that's the area that Jonah is from. That's what we know about him. He proclaimed the expansion of Israel to the northern tribes, and that came about in 2 Kings 14, verse 25. The other thing that we know from the rest of scripture about Jonah is listed in Matthew 12, that he was used as the sign that Jesus was going to be in the tomb for three days and three nights. Right? He's going to be in the ground. And so when Jesus mentions Jonah, everybody knows the story. Everybody knows the account. They're aware of what Jesus is talking about there. Other than that, there's not really a lot that we know about Jonah as a prophet outside of what the book tells us. So we're gonna be studying through the book itself and learn a few more things about him, but those are the main things from the rest of scripture that we know about Jonah. Because we know which king he was a prophet for, that also gives us an indication of the timeframe in which he was a prophet. Because he was the prophet to Jeroboam II, who was the king between BC 800 and BC 750, so during that era, that king was a king for 40 years. Beyond that, we don't get a real specific date. I kind of lean towards earlier in that, which is why we're studying Jonah as the second of the minor prophets. So he's somewhere around 800 BC, probably a little bit like 790, somewhere in that time frame, is when the events of this book took place. Now, we just finished studying the book of Joel. Joel did not give us a specific location, time frame, information about the prophet, any of that stuff. Jonah, on the other hand, we have specific information about who he's to proclaim to, where he's going, when he takes place, all of those ideas. It's also interesting to me that when we studied Joel, I mentioned that it's very artistic, that it's very poetic in its language, that it starts off with this imagery of a cloud of locusts, and not just one, but two, three, four times locusts sweep through, and the devastation, and it's very artful and picturesque. Well, when we come to Jonah, we're going to find that it's much more in a narrative style and genre. Historical narrative would be what I'd call that, but it's giving us more an account of what happened. And it's setting out to proclaim that as this is exactly what happened. It's telling us the story or the account of how things happened. Now, I talked about briefly with Joel that there's this spectrum of poetic to narrative and just the way that the literature is written. I don't want you to read too much into that because it is a spectrum. And as we approach Jonah, we're gonna find a lot of very poetic language, a lot of the way that he structures it and sets it and puts it together. It's still going to be a beautiful artistic flourish of the book. So don't read into that and say, well, poetry, that's just made up stories and narrative, that's the real story. No, no, no. Both of them are to be taken, what we would call literally, or taken in the context and in the way in which God authored it and intended it to be taken. but it's just a different style of presentation. Just like when we have multiple songs that have the same words to different music, like what we just sang, the idea is that that is presenting the same idea in different ways. And so as we approach Jonah, it's going to be in a narrative genre. It's going to be very specific about what happens, but it's also gonna have some beautiful artistry to it. It's gonna tell the story, tell the account in a way that really drives home the point. Now, the whole book is written in a third person. Jonah is not presenting himself and saying, I did this, I did that. And I think that part of that is because Jonah, like I said, doesn't exactly get everything right. So I wouldn't blame him for not wanting to brag about that. But it's also written in a way that allows us to understand some pictures of how God is operating. I told you when Jonah was written, approximately the earlier part of 700, so 790, 780, somewhere in that time frame. Does anybody happen to know who else was a prophet in that same time frame? Amos? And? Okay. Hosea. What do you remember about Hosea, the prophet? I know, we haven't studied him yet, so if you don't remember a whole lot, that's okay. Hosea was a prophet that God used the example of his life. He was told to marry a prostitute, and God used that to picture the fact that Hosea loved his wife even though she was running around doing things that she shouldn't be doing. I think that God uses Jonah to kind of flip that script and give us another picture. If Hosea represents God's love for his wayward people, Jonah represents the wayward people. See, Jonah was supposed to know who God was. Jonah was commanded by God to do certain things. Jonah should have known better and been able to live for God and tell everybody and proclaim for everyone. Well, why did God pick Israel as a nation but to live for Him, to know Him, to tell everyone else? If you recall from the Old Testament, how well did Israel do at living up to what God expected of them? Not so great. And so, this is a true historical account. The people, the places, the events, the things that happen in the book of Jonah actually occurred. It is very historical. In that, God is also using it as a picture of the fact that Israel has failed to live up to what God intended. And I think one of the takeaways, one of the things that we can learn from it is that, you know, sometimes Christians don't always live up to God's standards, God's expectations. That definitely doesn't make it right by any means. So what should we do? What would be expected? What would we, as you read through Jonah, what would you hope Jonah would get from this or learn or do instead of what he does? What should Israel have done as it was God's chosen people to be His messenger to the nations? What should you do as a follower of Christ, as someone who takes the name of Jesus? How should you then live? Now, we've looked at some of the background, we've looked at a couple of the big ideas. Let's get into the text itself. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. Okay, what is Jonah's assignment? Go to Nineveh. Where's Nineveh? Okay, if you're not great at geography, I've got another map for us. Because I think that it is important. We saw the one that was real close to Israel. This one is backed out. So you see the Mediterranean Sea over here on your left. You've got Israel right on the edge of that. And then all the way across, you see Assyria and Nineveh. It's something like 500 miles away, which to us doesn't sound that much. And yet in his day, that would have been a month's travel, give or take. So God has given him a big task. He needs to travel a month away in order to do what God has told him to do. But who was Nineveh? They were a wicked Gentile nation. In fact, northern tribes, Israel has had some conflict with them, some wars even, and more of that is to come. And there's not a lot of friendship between these two nations. And yet, that's where God is sending Jonah to go, to proclaim, right? Jonah was sent to cry against Nineveh. Now, in Isaiah 58 verse one, we find this idea of what a prophet was to cry against a nation. So Isaiah 58 verse one, I wanna read that for us. It says, cry loudly. Do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their transgressions, to the house of Jacob their sins. So what was Jonah supposed to do? He was supposed to go to Nineveh and let them know their sins. Right? Now, oftentimes people look at Jonah and they think, well, Jonah didn't want to go because he hated Nineveh. Okay, I can understand that. There was a lot of bad blood. There was a lot of conflict. There's not a lot of love lost. And yet, God is sending him, hey, go tell them their sins. Tell them that their wickedness has come up before me. So it's interesting to me that Jonah, as you're well aware, does not want to go to Nineveh. In fact, we're gonna find out he goes somewhere else. And yet, that's exactly what he's been told to do, is go to Nineveh. We also have in Ezekiel, chapter two and chapter three, we recognize that the prophet is not guaranteed success. And I think, yeah, I've got both of those listed up there for you as well. It says, but you shall speak my words to them, whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious. And then in Ezekiel chapter three, it says, for you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel, nor to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand, but I have sent you to them who should listen to you. Yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you since they are not willing to listen to me. Surely the whole house of Israel is stubborn and obstinate. So who is Jonah supposed to go to? Nineveh, wait a minute, wait a minute. I just read a couple of verses about prophets being sent to Israel, and Israel wasn't gonna listen to them. These northern tribes, these ones who were supposed to be called by his name, who were supposed to be followers of God, who were supposed to proclaim to the nations, they weren't gonna listen to the prophets. Now, I don't know what all goes through Jonah's mind when he hears this command from God, go cry against Nineveh. It could have been that he hated the Ninevites because of wars, and he had no desire to see them come to God. Wow, that would be rough. Do you have anybody that you just hate so badly that you don't want them to hear the gospel? Maybe we're more like Jonah than we want to admit. Maybe it's because Jonah just didn't expect him to listen. I mean, they reject him, they don't want, he doesn't want to have a losing proposition. So he just doesn't want to go through all the effort of traveling a month just to be told, no, we don't care what you have to say. I don't know, I'm making that one up. The text doesn't tell us why Jonah has his response. But I think we need to notice something very significant from just the first two verses. God says, arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. Nineveh is a Gentile nation, and yet God is sending one of his messengers specifically to go to Nineveh. Big idea that we need to notice from this book, God cares about the Gentiles. God cares about all people, not just one group or one nation or one people or whatever. He cares about everybody. And out of his love, out of his goodness, out of his desire, out of his wisdom, out of who God is, Here we are only two prophets into our study of the minor prophets, and we see that God is sending someone on a long, arduous, difficult journey so that they can hear about who he is and what he expects. God cares about even the Gentile nations enough to send one of his prophets. Now, I realize that that doesn't seem all that exciting. Well, yeah, of course God cares about the Gentiles. And yet, do you comprehend God loves people? Whatever reason Jonah didn't want to share the message, God still desired that they know and that they have an opportunity to repent. When Jonah When God sends Jonah to Nineveh, it's not a short or simple trip. This is a tough, difficult thing. And Jonah could very easily have had a lot of different reasons. As I was studying and thinking and preparing, I was reminded of an example that actually happened in my life. I was in the military, as you are aware, and deployed to the Middle East. And shortly after I got back, I ran into a missionary who was on his way to the same place that I had just been at war. And his goal, his desire, was to go into that area and share the good news. I think that's kind of what's happening here. Nineveh was not friendly with Israel, and yet God is sending a missionary to them. Regardless of bad blood or national issues or anything else, God loves the Gentiles. God loves all people and wants them to have an opportunity to come to him. And I think when we go into this book, we need to understand that about God, that that's his desire, that that's his goal. And so he gets one of his prophets and says, you go to Nineveh. What does Jonah do? Verse three. But Jonah rose up to flee, to tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Jonah goes in the exact opposite direction. Now what is a prophet supposed to do? They're supposed to speak for God. They're supposed to obey God. They're supposed to go where He sends, do what He tells them, say what He tells them to say. When you're reading through this, when the reader goes through this, the word of the Lord came to the prophet. Well, that's a normal way that books of the prophets start. "'Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it.'" That's the command from God of what would normally happen. As a reader, we would normally expect, okay, so Jonah got up and he went to where God told him to. That would make sense, that would be normal. Jonah is not normal. Instead, we have this idea in which Jonah rose up, God said, "'Arise, go,' Jonah arose and went, In fact, if you look at the map again, we have Nineveh is basically up in this corner. Jonah is somewhere around Samaria here in the middle in Israel, and he literally goes the opposite direction. It says, he arose and went from the presence of the Lord, so he went down to Joppa and found a ship which was going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So God said, go up that way and Jonah went down that way. Which brings us to one of the very interesting things. I mentioned that there's a beautiful literary style. One of the things as you're reading through this, there are certain words that come up that I think it would be important to notice and be aware of. God said, arise and go. Those are upward words. He wants him to go in this direction towards Nineveh to accomplish great and mighty things for God. And instead, the text tells us that Jonah went down and down and down. Notice, he not only goes, not only does he not go up, he goes down to Joppa, down to the boat. In verse five, we'll see he goes down to the hold, and because obviously you are familiar with the account, he goes down into the belly of the great fish. He just keeps going down. The opposite of what God had told him. There are other key words that are going to come up that go with that literary style, that beauty of the account, that when you go back and reread this chapter, which I'm going to definitely encourage you to do, I want you to notice some of these words that come up over and over again. This idea of to call. God came to Jonah in verse 1 and says to call out against Nineveh. The Hebrew word is qorah. The idea is to make a noise, to let it be known. So God speaks to Jonah and Jonah is supposed to call out and yet... Jonah's not gonna call out in the book. We're gonna see the captain tells Jonah to cry out or call out to his God, but he doesn't. The sailors do. The sailors are gonna cry out to Yahweh, we'll see here in a little bit, but notice Jonah doesn't until we get to chapter two. When Jonah is finally in the fish, he'll cry out, he'll call to God. Again, in chapter three, God's gonna repeat his command, cry out against Nineveh, and it takes all the way until the middle of the book before Jonah finally cries out as God had told him to. And then, it's not even Jonah who tells the people to call out to God. It's actually gonna be the king of Nineveh who says, cry out, and maybe he'll turn away from this judgment that he's given us. Another of the things that comes up repeatedly is great. Hebrew words, gadol, massive, huge. Nineveh is a great city that God is going to judge. But then we see that the Lord hurled a great wind in verse 4. A great storm comes up. The men on the boat were greatly frightened. So as we read through, pay attention for some of these words. I think it's just fascinating. You know, it can be very easy to approach Scripture and think that it's dull and boring. Or to read through a narrative section and just, okay, what's the facts? Let's get these basic ideas through it. But I want to encourage you, when you read Scripture, look for some of those things. Because there's an art, there's a style, there's a literature in here. As God is communicating His truth, He's letting us know, hey guys, pay attention, because this is beautiful. This is massive. This is important. This is significant. And it's not just ho-hum, boring, dull drum as you read through. It's exciting to see how God has put this all together. So, I've given you some of these ideas, now I wanna go back and I'm gonna read through all of chapter one, and then we're gonna take a look at some of the things that happens. Starting off in chapter one, verse one, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. And the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the soldiers became afraid, and every man cried to his God, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below, into the hold of the ship, laid down, and fallen asleep. So the captain approached him and said, How is it that you are sleeping? Get up! Call on your God! Perhaps your God will be concerned about us, so that we will not perish. And each man said to his mate, come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us. So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. And they said to him, tell us now, on whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? Where are you from? What is your country? From what people are you? And he said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, how could you do this? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he told them. So they said to him, what should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us? For the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. 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 on account of me, this great storm has come upon you. However, the men rode desperately to return to land, but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them. Then they called on the Lord and said, we earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man's life, and do not put innocent blood on us, for thou, O Lord, has done as thou hast pleased. So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. "'Then the men feared the Lord greatly, "'and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. "'And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, "'and Jonah was in the stomach for three days "'and three nights.'" So God commanded Jonah, go to Nineveh. Jonah turns around and goes the exact opposite direction. Literally, picturesquely, God calls him up and Jonah goes down. The whole idea being presented is God said, I want you to do this, and instead Jonah did that. We call that sin. We call that going contrary to God's will and God's plan. That happens a lot. And so Jonah not only is a man who was supposed to know God and do his will, but he kind of pictures and represents for us also Israel and what Israel did so often. Jonah goes to Joppa. He had been a prophet to Jeroboam the king and so most likely he was in Samaria at that time and instead of going north up to Nineveh, he goes south towards the sea and he gets on a boat and that boat is bound for Tarshish. Now, I'm not exactly positive where Tarshish is. It's not a normal scriptural city. It's probably somewhere in modern-day Spain. So if you're familiar with your geography, I had that map up there, and we had Nineveh on it, we had Joppa on it, and then, I don't know if you noticed, but there was an arrow and a question mark pointing off the map. Now, this was probably with a group of sailors who were good at sailing. There were the Phoenicians at that time, great sailors, world-renowned, they were able to travel all over. So it wasn't that they were literally going off the map, like nowhere, where no one has gone before type of an idea. But in our view, he's going completely off the map. He's going far away from where God wanted him to go. Now we're not told much about the sailors, but they're not Jews. They weren't from Israel, so we don't know for sure. It's supposed that they were probably Phoenicians because that was a major shipping port. group at that time. And historically, there's a lot of information about the Phoenicians and their ability to sail and to travel around. These were not guys who would normally be scared at a little bit of choppy seas. That's the point that I'm bringing up. These would be sailors who would know how to handle their boat and how to handle a ship, even in storms and even in waves and everything else that's going on. The sailors would know their own ship. They would know what disaster was and what was going on. So Jonah gets onto this boat and he goes down into the hold and he falls asleep. And they are traveling and along the way, we end up with a shipwreck. Massive wind and and the words that are used here in verse 4 The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea So there's a ship was about to break up Now, this is a modern day replica that has been made, and you can go online and do some study on different ships and ways of sailing and everything. Basically, I put this up to remind us, don't think of the Sea of Galilee and the kind of ships that Jesus and the fishermen and the disciples were using. Those were very small. They could handle just a couple of people, maybe a dozen. When they got a few hundred fish, it was almost enough to sink it. The kind of ship that we're talking about here was for the Mediterranean Sea. It's much larger than the Sea of Galilee. It's much sturdier, probably, and this is inference, so probably like a one-masted sailing ship with rowing because we're told that the sailors do row at one point. Something similar to what's pictured here. This is a modern replica, so no, they didn't take a picture of it when Jonah was on it. But these sailors, they would know. They would know when disaster was coming. And it says that the sailors became afraid, and every man cried to his God. And they threw the cargo, which was in the ship, into the sea to lighten it. They're taking every possible action. And these guys know what they're supposed to do, and how to handle themselves, and how it's supposed to work. They're terrified. If their job was to ship cargo, and you throw the cargo overboard, you just lost your payday. So this isn't something that they, oh, first sign of a storm, start throwing stuff out. This is a major decision. This is gonna cost them greatly. And yet, they begin throwing the cargo in the sea to lighten it, hoping that they could survive. They are in terror. And where do we find Jonah? Asleep. Jonah, who's supposed to represent God to people, who's supposed to go out and proclaim God's word, is nowhere to be found. It's almost as if he doesn't care what happens to anybody else. Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, laid down, and fallen asleep. The sailors become afraid. They know that this storm is about to cause problems, but Jonah's sleeping through it. So the captain approached him and said, how is it that you are asleep? Get up, call on your God. Perhaps your God will be concerned about us so that we will not perish. Now the sailors had each one prayed to their own gods. And we're not told who those are, but they're going through whatever it is to try and get the attention of their deity to save them from this storm. They're terrified. Jonah was asleep. The captain comes to him and says, hey, pray. Maybe your God cares about us. Do you think God cares about them? Yeah, good answer. Maybe, perhaps your God will be concerned about us so that we will not perish. Each man said to his mate, notice what it doesn't tell us Jonah did. Jonah doesn't get up and start praying. Jonah isn't, praying on their behalf, interceding for them, trying to get God to spare anybody. And he's not coming clean either. He's not confessing what's happened. Instead, it says in verse seven, that each man said to his mate, come, let us cast lots, that we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck. Interestingly, that word for calamity is the same one that's used for the wickedness of Nineveh. Jonah was supposed to go and proclaim that Nineveh was wicked and calamity before God, and yet Jonah is the one who's causing calamity, causing evil, causing negative things. Maybe we can figure out on whose account, or maybe we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. I'm gonna assume you're familiar with the idea of casting lots. It's like rolling dice. They were using a gambling technique to figure out, maybe chance will tell us. Well, interestingly enough, God uses that. They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Now, it could be they drew straws or cast dice. However they went about casting lots, because there are a variety of ways that that could have been done, it ends up fingering Jonah. You're the man. It's you. So they said to him, tell us, on whose account has this calamity struck? What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you? They want to know, why is this happening to us? And Jonah finally comes clean. He said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. I find that fascinating. Jonah says that he fears God and yet he hasn't been living like it. He hasn't been acting like it. Yet he makes this claim that I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. What is he proclaiming in that? that God's the one who's in charge of this stormy sea that has everybody terrified. So even though Jonah is not living it out, even though Jonah's not doing what he's supposed to, he's still being used by God to make this proclamation to let it be known who God is, that he is the one in charge of all things, that he is the King of kings and Lord of lords, the God over all, even this storm, And when Jonah tells them that, in verse 10, the men became extremely frightened. Now, wait a minute. They were already terrified enough that they were throwing everything overboard, that they were doing everything that they possibly could to survive this storm, but now that they know the cause of it, they become extremely frightened. And they said to him, how could you do this? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. Now we're not told exactly when Jonah reveals this information, but they realize, hey, Jonah is an active rebellion against God, and that's the reason that this storm is coming. So they ask him a very valid question. What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us? Valid question. All right, this is all your fault. What are we supposed to do to fix it? How do we fix this? Now, notice the end of that verse. I find this one fascinating. For the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. We were already told that it was a great wind and a great storm, a massive, huge storm, so scary that the sailors who ought to know how to handle themselves in a storm have done everything they could. They threw everything off the boat. They are at their wits end. How are we going to survive? And then the storm becomes even stormier. He said to them, Jonah tells them, pick me up and throw me into the sea, then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that on account of me, this great storm has come upon you. Jonah has the answer, he knows what it is. This is all my fault, throw me into the sea and everything will be fine. Notice what it doesn't say, that Jonah jumped into the sea to save everybody else. I just find that interesting. I don't wanna read into it. I don't wanna try and draw anything out of that other than the fact that Jonah doesn't do what is necessary to save everybody. He just tells them, yeah, you gotta throw me overboard. What is the sailor's response to that? It says, however, the men rode desperately to return to land, but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them. Okay, rewind real quick. God sends a great wind and a great storm, so bad that they're terrified and throw everything overboard. They find out why, and they are even more frightened because they know that it's from God, and the sea was becoming increasingly stormy in verse 11. Now in verse 13, it was becoming even stormier. How much stronger can this storm get? I don't know, but it's like they were already about to break up. The ship was about to break apart back in, was that verse four? And yet now the storm is getting even worse and even stronger and even more of a problem. But you notice the guys did not want to throw Jonah overboard. They valued Jonah's life. Even though it was all his fault, even though it would have been perfectly reasonable, they did not want to throw Jonah overboard. I find it fascinating. It would have made sense to do. And these are not followers of God. And yet they still had an awareness that you can't just go around killing people just to save yourself. Not a good idea. And so they do everything they possibly can to keep Jonah, Jonah the cause of all of this, to keep Jonah safe. But finally it gets to the point that they recognize they can't. And so what do they do? See, they don't have the ability to handle this themselves. So what do they do? It says, Notice, depending on how the font of your text is set up, that's probably a capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, which is the English translation of the name of God. And historically, they didn't write that out as Yahweh. There's a lot of history and reasons for that, but instead they indicate that with the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. which I mentioned that the idea of hallelujah is praise Yahweh. Praise not just any God, but specifically the Lord. Well, this is emphasizing that same idea. It's letting us know they don't, at this point, call out to their own gods, as we saw back in, was that verse six? sorry, verse five, they aren't calling out to their own gods. Instead, they are now crying out to Yahweh. They cried out, they called on the Lord and said, we earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man's life. That's reasonable request. But then they also followed up, and do not put innocent blood on us, for thou, O Lord, has done as thou hast pleased. As we go through this, I think there's another main idea that we need to be aware of. And I sometimes hesitate to use the word because it gets taken out of context a lot and misapplied and misused. But the word is sovereign. God is sovereign. And if you read a lot of modern things, then most people, when they use that term, they're talking about soteriology, salvation, and the way in which God picks those that will and those who won't and all of that kind of thing. That's not what I'm talking about when I say that God is sovereign. What I'm saying is that this book is going to show us that God is ruler over all, that he is in charge, that he has the capability to do as he chooses. God is king, there's no authority greater than him. Thus he can do as he chooses and no one can stop him if he chooses. One good working definition is nothing can successfully stop any act, event, design, or purpose which God intends to certainly bring about. Now, I fully readily accept that idea about the sovereignty of God. I reject the idea that God picks and chooses and forces people or manipulates or things of that nature. There's nothing that can or is capable of thwarting God's purposes. So, with that in mind, didn't God just force Jonah into this situation? Isn't God manipulating him and doing evil against Jonah? No, not at all. And that's where I caution with the idea of God's sovereignty. We need to know what we're talking about there. See, Jonah is already a prophet. Jonah proclaimed that he was a follower of God, and so he was supposed to do whatever God told him to, and yet he doesn't. He goes the opposite direction. So Jonah is in active rebellion to God's decree. And so what happens is not coercion, but discipline. See, God loves his people, and he's willing to discipline them, to correct them, to get them into line. But additionally, notice Jonah is never a puppet. It never goes in and says that God changed Jonah's mind or adjusted his thinking or forced him into these things. What does God control in this account? The wind, the waves, the seas. He controls the natural things around, supernaturally, in a way that points out to Jonah that he is at fault. Jonah has to answer for who he is, and when he's singled out, he makes that interesting statement back in chapter nine. I am a Hebrew, I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. God is the one who's in charge of all things. When the people begin to recognize who God is, they call out to him. and make that statement, verse 14, they begin to realize that God is the one who's in charge, that he is in control, that he has the ability to handle all of these things. And so the question becomes, what are they going to do? Are they going to accept that or reject that? Are they going to obey him or go in the opposite direction? Well, initially, when Jonah finally comes clean and tells them, pick me up, throw me into the sea, they go against that and try to do their own way. They know what's necessary to do what God has set up, and yet they say, no, we're gonna try harder. I was thinking about, you know, how many times do we share the gospel with someone and they want to try and get right with God their own way. They want to do it on their own terms. And yet, we find here that these sailors, it's made very clear to them, they cannot do this their own way. There's no way that they can row themselves to shore and be able to survive and endure and not have problems. Instead, They have to acknowledge that God is in control and that they have to do it his way. So as a result, we finally get down to verse 15. These men who have lost everything, Maybe not quite everything, but they've thrown everything off the ship. They've lost all their finances. They've done everything that they can. They finally reach a point at which they say, you know what? This prophet said, throw him overboard. So they pick up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. Everything got calm. Now remember, this was a great storm that became even stormier, that was so stormy, and then it's a great calm. I mentioned that God is sovereign. God is powerful. God is in control. God is in charge of all of this. And as a result, verse 16, the men feared Yahweh. That's what it's saying. Sometimes I understand that idea of feared the Lord, but they feared Yahweh. Earlier in the chapter, they had started off fearing their own deities. And they had prayed to their own, each one to his own deity. But now, it's shifted. And they praise Yahweh. They feared Yahweh. You'll recall Proverbs 1-7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. They're starting to get it. They begin to understand. They feared the Lord greatly. They offered to sacrifice. Who did they sacrifice to? to Yahweh, not to their previous deities, but to God, the true God, and they made vows. So what we find in this verse, in verse 16, is that the men, they have a shift. The book's not even about the sailors, and yet, what happened with the sailors? They're going this way, living their own lives, following whatever deity they might want to. Jonah, who's in complete rebellion to God, is on the boat, and they do a 180. The sailors, not Jonah, don't worry, Jonah's gonna come up more later, but the sailors turn around and they begin to follow Yahweh. They sacrifice to him and then they make vows. And the indication of that is that they're going to continue this fear of the Lord. That's gonna change their lives. I mentioned that God is sovereign, and I hesitate because that word is so misused and so thrown around in bad ways. And yet, it's true, because God wanted these sailors to know who he is. And even in the active rebellion of the man who was supposed to be proclaiming the truth, God is able to work all things together for good, for the right. And even though Jonah was rejecting God and not doing what was right, not doing what should have been done, God is able to use that to reach these sailors with the message, and they turn, and they turn to him. That's amazing to me. And yet, that's one of those things that's just kind of subtly hidden in there, like so many other things about this account as we go through. Now, we could pause right there. We read 16, the sailors get saved. Everything works out good. What about Jonah? What happens with him? Now, obviously, I assume you know the rest of the story, but if you were just reading this as you're going through, never heard of it, had no idea, Reading through this, we start off that God goes to Jonah and says, I have a mission for you. Jonah turns and runs the opposite direction. And Jonah causes calamity. He was supposed to go and proclaim that somebody else was evil and wicked, and instead he is bringing about that same idea of wickedness. Jonah, who could have solved the situation for them by just jumping into the sea, we infer, it doesn't say that, but we infer that if he would have just jumped in, that would have taken care of everything. Instead, he stands around, he sleeps, he doesn't pray, he does everything contrary to what should have happened. They finally pick him up and throw him overboard and the sailors are saved. If you didn't know the rest of the story, how many of you would be thinking to yourselves, good riddance? It's about time. He got his just dessert. Be honest. Think about it. Jonah is the bad guy up to this point. He's the cause of all of this. It makes sense. Jonah needs to just be gone. And now finally, he got his comeuppance. He got what he deserved. Well, did he? What did Jonah deserve? Death. What did Jonah get? Do you see why I said that this is such a beautiful book? When you slow down and you start reading it and you look at what's happening here, it's such an epic account. It's told in such a way that really, we ought to be against Jonah, and that's reasonable. We should be against him because he's rejected God. He's done everything wrong, he's the problem. He finally gets his comeuppance. He's thrown into the sea. Everybody else is saved. They've turned, they've repented, they've trusted in God, or at least have feared Him. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. Now, it would be really easy, and often people do look at that and be like, okay, this is God's punishment on Jonah. I would challenge that. This is God's preservation of Jonah. Jonah should have died. That was just, that was right, and yet, because of his great love, because God is long-suffering, because God was not done with Jonah, God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. I can't not catch verse one of chapter two there. It says, then Jonah prayed. And make sure that you catch that, because Jonah's the cause of all this. Jonah finally gets his comeuppance, and yet God preserves him, and it still takes him three days before he prays. I find it amazing. because of God's great love, he doesn't give Jonah what he deserves. Even though Jonah is the problem, even though Jonah, who should have been, was completely not, God still preserves him, protects him, rescues him, and even then, it's gonna take him three days to come to his sentences, but we'll deal with that next week, for now. Chapter one, so what? This is a beautiful narrative that lets the reader go through and try and understand certain things about Jonah, about what's going on. Throughout this narrative, we have seen that God cares about the Gentiles, that God is sovereign, that he's powerful, that he's in charge and in control. We even see that God cares enough about his wayward servant who deserve death, who should have been taken out of the story and sinned somebody else, and yet that's not what God does. God preserves him. One of the beauties of narrative accounts, and like I said, this is written in a narrative style, one of the beauties of narratives is that we have a tendency to put ourselves into the story, that we read ourselves into it. Have you ever read a great story and you thought to yourself, yeah, I would be like the hero, or I would be like that wise advisor, or I would be like the gardener who goes alongside and helps the hero win, or fill in the blank. Great epic stories have a tendency like that. I don't know where you may read yourself as you're going through this, read yourself into this. Maybe you're like the sailors who are blindsided by somebody else's evil, wickedness, failure to do what God tells them to. You think about that for a moment? These sailors, they did nothing wrong and yet they've lost everything and are in great fear and calamity has come upon them. Maybe you read yourself into that, and like, man, if that person wouldn't have done this foolish thing. But how do you handle that? What happens with the sailors? Maybe you know someone who's like the Ninevites. They just need to hear the good news of God. Maybe, and we hate to admit it, maybe you're like Jonah. and you know what God expects of you, you know what you're supposed to do, and yet, you're living in active rebellion to that. And if you're here in church, then I'm gonna guess that you're not living your life in active rebellion, that everybody knows, oh, he's running from God and he's doing the wrong thing, and yet, how many of us have one of those, it's just a tiny sin, nobody knows, I don't have to, I don't know. I'm not gonna try and point out to each of us exactly who we are in this account or what you need to do. But I find it interesting that God does point it out to Jonah. And he makes it abundantly clear to him that he's living in a rebellion to him. God is sovereign and in charge and God does love all people and God does desire that all would come to him. God even loves his wayward servants who go the opposite direction. As we read through Jonah and we see this account, we begin to recognize that Jonah is not the hero. Jonah needs to submit to God. And so often I think the same is true of us. We know what we're supposed to do, and yet we don't want to submit to God and His will. So God brings about these storms, trying to get our attention. Yet oftentimes we're as hard-headed as Jonah. It's gonna take him three days in the belly of the great fish. It's kind of a downer of a place to leave it, isn't it? Yet sometimes I think it's important for us to pause and consider, where am I right now? Am I where God wants me? Am I going where God wants me to go? Am I doing what God wants me to do? Am I saying what God wants me to say? In all things and in all ways? We're gonna find out what happens with Jonah next week. But right now, I wanna encourage you to pause and consider, am I where God wants me to be? Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, You are amazing. You are merciful, you are good. Your loving kindness does endure forever. So Lord, we read this account of Jonah, and it's so easy to put ourselves into various places in the story. Unfortunately, we see ourselves too often in rebellion to you. So Lord, I pray that you would help us to humble ourselves. Help us to stop running from you. If we take the name of Christ, if we call ourselves a Christian, we ought to know better, just like Jonah should have known better. And yet, we can often find ourselves going the opposite direction from what you want. And that causes problems for ourselves and for others. And yet, even still, you are able to use that to glorify yourself, to bring about your purposes. And God, we don't understand that. That's beyond our comprehension. And yet, you do. But then we begin to realize that our rebellion against you is worthy of punishment, ultimately worthy of death. And yet you are so kind, so loving, so generous. Lord, you prepared a great fish and sent it to rescue Jonah. And no, I'm sure that was not a pleasant situation. And yet you used that to get his attention, to get him to acknowledge you. Lord, it's a scary thing, but I pray that you would do whatever is necessary to get our attention. If it's calamity, if it's sorrow, if it's loss, if it's anything, Lord, get our attention back to you whenever we are wayward and going the wrong way. Lord, we trust ourselves to you in that because we know that you are good. And that your mercy, your love, your kindness are for us. And you do those things because you love us, you discipline us to draw us back to yourself. Lord, help us to come quickly, but in whatever way, bring us back to you. We love you, Lord, we praise you, and we thank you for who you are. In Jesus' name, amen.