We have come to the fifth book of the Minor Prophets. And if I were to give you an assignment, it would be this. Read this book and tell me why it is among the prophets. I mean, what is prophetic about this book? Now, let me see how many we have in this congregation by name of Jonah. How many Jonahs do we have here? One, one, two, two. Okay, thank you. Well, let me give you some information, then I will check again. There is some evidence that the name Jonah is an early Hebrew name that later became Joannes in Greek and which is the same name as the familiar name John that we know today. And if that is true, how many Jonahs do we have this morning? Come on, that's not that many for a Mennonite community. We have some more. John's and Jonah's apparently the same root word for this. Well, once more we are in a book where we can establish the date with some degree of certainty. So we go to verse one of the first chapter of Jonah. Jonah chapter one. First words now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, So notice that Jonah was the son of Amittai, and in 2 Kings 14 it says, he, that is Jeroboam II, whom we have mentioned a number of times, restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of Arabah, according to the word of the Lord of Israel, which he had spoken through his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai. This is in 2nd Kings, the prophet who was from Gath-Hephur. So he was known as a prophet and he was from Gath-Hephur, just west of the Sea of Galilee. So he is, you tell me, the southern or the northern kingdom? If he's from the Sea of Galilee, is he from the southern or northern kingdom? Northern. I shouldn't be putting up maps all the time here, shouldn't I? So we'd see he's from the northern kingdom. So from this we gather according to Charles Ryrie that the book is written somewhere about 760 BC, 760 years before Christ. Now the book centers around the city of Nineveh. In Genesis chapter 10, in this chapter we have three sons of Noah and their children are enumerated. First we have Japheth in verses 1-5 and his family, I was going to take time for this, will need to move along this morning. These settled in Europe and Asia. Then we have Ham, the second son of Noah, in verses 6-12. And they went and settled the area of Africa, that would be south. And in verses 21-31 we have Shem, from whom came the Jewish people and the Arabic people. in verses 6 through 12 and here we have the founding of the city of Nineveh in Genesis chapter 10. If you look up Iraq on the map and then Baghdad, Nineveh is just north of Baghdad, Iraq, just below the border of Turkey. Now I have outlined the book under two sections. The first section is the first call of Jonah and then the second call of Jonah. So we want to begin by looking at the first call. So let's look at verses 1 and 2. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me." Here we have the content of Jonah's first call. He was to go and cry out against this very wicked city of Nineveh. Now, I mentioned sometime way back that there are two kinds of prophesying. The one is to speak exhortation, and that is what Jonah was to do here because of their extreme wickedness. So that makes him a prophet. It says in these verses there, wickedness has come up before God. That, I think, means the same as when Amos says, for three transgressions and for four. What it means is, it's over. Something's got to be done. Well, this call resulted in a man by name of a dove, Jonah, a dove, turning into a rebel. So look at verses three through four, but Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish, I think, I didn't check this, that's Britain, a long way away. And he went down to Joppa, if you know, if you've heard of Jaffa Oranges, that's where it comes from, Joppa, this is where they live. And so he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Now, let me remind us of something here, that favorable circumstances do not always indicate the will of the Lord. Jonah wanted to run from God and there, wouldn't you believe it, sure enough there's a ship. This must be the will of the Lord. It's ready to carry him away. But these favorable circumstances were not God's provision for a rebel. And alas, when they were out on the deep blue sea, God caught up with this rebellious Jonah. Now let me just say that Jonah had, humanly speaking, very good reasons for not wanting to preach to the Ninevites. They were very wicked and very cruel people. They were, when they took over a nation, they were so cruel, if you ever saw any of this, they would take the people, lay them out and run over them with big plows and just cut them up to shreds. They were very wicked and Jonah said, I am not preaching to them. He didn't want to go. It may very well be that, like Iran of today, they're saying over and over again, we need to destroy, we need to drive them into the sea, we need to get rid of them. And God says, go bring them this message of hope. If you don't repent, you're going to get... You want to get it and so on. So the nation that surrounded this wicked city of Nineveh is the nation that in about 40 years from this time would come upon Israel and Israel would experience their fierce cruelty to their prisoners of war. And Jonah in Nolwis wanted their conversion. He wanted their destruction. So he refused to do what God had asked him to do. May I ask you this morning, is there some person you would sooner see destroyed than converted? We had to deal with a man in our community, in our membership yesterday. we must watch our hearts that we do not want to see his destruction. We want to see repentance and restoration. I want to ask you this morning, do you have a heart capable of what my heart is capable of? You see, if we are like that, we are a Jonah too. Do you understand? Well, in the storm, God caught up with Jonah. So let's read verses five through six. Well, it was all read for us. Let me just keep going from here. We have the account read for us earlier. So let me shorten the story. God had prepared a large fish and it swallowed Jonah. And when Jonah was in the belly of the fish, he cried out to God. So look at that chapter two, verses six through nine. I went down to the moorings of the mountains, the earth with its bars closed behind me forever." He's in the belly of the fish. Yet you have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer went up to you into your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. I wonder, is there any Jonah here? that anyone here could be running from God. Here, there's a call to repent. This is the call. And the book says that God spoke to the whale or the large fish. Jonah has repented. And I want to tell you something this morning. I appreciated this song so much, Ernest, you were right this morning. God can speak to your circumstances and to mine as well. He can speak to the big fish. And when God spoke to the whale, it vomited Jonah out on dry land. And you know, when I thought of this vomiting, there is in the book of Revelation a verse that talks about lukewarm Christians make God want to vomit too. I wonder where are we this morning talking about repentance. This is a morning to straighten things out if we're off the path. Now, it has often been questioned if a whale or a large fish could swallow a man, and the man could survive. There are numerous accounts with good verifications of this happening, and let me just take time for one this morning. Harold Wilmington, in his Old Testament section of basic stages in the Book of Ages, writes on page 266-267, one of the most striking instances comes from Francis Fox. book, 63 Years of Engineering, who reports an incident that was carefully investigated by two scientists. The story goes like this, in February 1891, the whaling ship Star of the East was in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands, And the lookout sighted a large sperm whale three miles away. Two boats were lowered, and in a short time, one of the harpooners was unable to spear the creature. The second boat also attacked the whale, but was then upset by a lash of its tail so that its crew fell into the sea. We've just been in the ocean. We've just been where the whales were doing this. Our friends that took us were just on the ocean a little while ago, and the whale went underneath their boat, and they were afraid of being capsized. Just a little flip like this, and you're gone. So one of these sailors drowned, but the other, James Bartley, simply disappeared without a trace. After the whale was killed, the crew set to work with axes and spades, removing the blubber. That's what they got the whales for. They worked all day and part of the night. Then the next day they attached some tackle to the stomach, which was hoisted on deck. The sailors were startled by something in it, which gave spasmodic signs of life. And inside was found the missing sailor, doubled up and unconscious. He was laid on the deck and treated to a bath of seawater, which soon revived him. At the end of the third week, he had entirely recovered from shock and resumed his duties. His face and neck and hands were bleached by a deadly whiteness and took on the appearance of parchment. Bartley affirms that he would probably have lived inside his house of flesh until he starved, for he lost his senses through fright and not through lack of air." So according to this account, Now, I do not know if I rightly recall the details of a little joke, but it went something like this. A school teacher chided a young student for believing the biblical account of Jonah, and that he had survived in the fish three days and three nights. And the student said, you know, when I get to heaven, I'm going to ask him. And so the teacher said, well, what if Jonah is not in heaven? And the student said, well, then you ask him. Let me add to this whole account. When God is in the picture, you do not need to be able to prove something to be scientifically possible. Am I correct? God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and that is not scientifically possible. That's just a tad hard to prove. As a matter of fact, to create anything out of nothing requires a supernatural being, one outside the realm of the laws of nature. And such is the one who inspired this account of Jonah and the fish. Such is the one who prepared this fish. But back to the prophetical nature of the book of Jonah, and the story of Jonah and the big fish, it is one of the greatest prophecies of the resurrection of Christ, and it's three days and three nights in the heart of the earth to be found anywhere. By the way, talking about the resurrection is not a very prominent subject in the Old Testament. So you will have forgotten, but in the introductory messages I spoke to you of a kind of prophecy that is written in the past tense. I called it, anybody remember? No, you wouldn't remember. Historical prophecy. Historical prophecy is when some historical event speaks of another event in the future that has similarities. So I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12, I'm going to read from verse 38 to 41. Verse 38, Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you. But he answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah or the prophet Jonah. So Jonah is for a sign. For 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. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed are greater than Jonah is here. So Jesus laid out the similarities of the historical account to his own situation. And here is the prophetical nature of the book of Jonah. So as Jonah was in the belly of the fish, so the Lord would be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. Well, from there we go to chapters 3 and 4. From chapter 3 onward, we have a new beginning. You see, when we have fallen into some sin, and God has allowed difficult circumstances to come in, and we repent, we have a new beginning. And when Jonah got a new chance, God's call came to him again. Look at chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. It will sound very familiar. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you. Now earlier, I asked a few times if there were some Jonahs among us. Someone has said that God is the God of the second chance Do you need a second chance this morning? After repentance We get another chance. I want to ask you this morning Are you not glad God doesn't give us the axe the first time? Are you not glad we get a second chance and a third and a fourth Now the verses we just read sound familiar. God has not changed his mind. But Jonah has. Jonah has repented. And now he is ready to obey God. This fish experience did work some wonders. I'll tell you what. Some of us will not change until we have some life-changing experience. Till God allows us into some squeeze that squeezes us and we become willing. When God allows us to fall into hard things, it too can do some wonderful things. I want to tell you something here. Sometimes I have thought in my life, well, I wasn't willing to trust God, so how can I trust Him now that I have hard circumstances? Now I want to go to Him. That doesn't work. Oh, yes, it works. That's what it's for. He didn't come when it was easy and now the circumstances are hard. That is what it's for. God allows these things to do this to us. While Jonah began to preach in this huge city, his message was very simple. Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Over and over he repeated the message. It was a huge city, three days journey around the city. And I want you to see what happened. Look at verses 5 through 10. So the people of Nineveh believed God. This is like going to Iran and they believe. It's unbelievable, isn't it? Verse 5. So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Then the 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. 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, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God, Yes, let every one of you turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish? Now, the very thing Jonah did not want to happen, happened. Nineveh repented. Can you believe this? It's like Ahmadinejad falling down and repenting, saying to all his people, let's repent and change our ways. And when Nineveh repented towards God, God repented towards them. That is, he changed his mind about what he had planned to do. As a matter of fact, he had Jonah bring this message because he wanted them to repent. Jonah brought the message, he didn't want them to repent. These very people you and I might sometimes wish destroyed, God wants them saved. We must remember that here. But look now at Jonah's response to his own preaching in chapter 4. verses 1 through 3, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord and said, Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish, for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. Therefore now O Lord, please take my life from me for it is better for me to die than to live Jonah did like the message Yet 40 days and you're doomed he liked that message in my preaching that message, but he did not like the outcome and He wanted Nineveh to die. And here he confesses why he fled from God in the first place. He knew that if Nineveh repented, God would not destroy them. And now that is exactly what happened. And so in verse 4, God asked Jonah if it was right for him to be angry. But what we read happened was that Jonah went out of the city, made himself a little shelter from the sun, and sat and watched to see what would become of the city. I think he hoped against hope that the Ninevites would fall from their resolve and God would destroy them. So he sat and waited. And then the Lord did something interesting. Look at verse 6. And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah so that it might be a shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. This is the second time God prepared something for him. First he prepared the fish, now he prepared this plant. Then look at verse 17. 17, must be 7. But as morning dawned, the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. God planned the fish episode. He plans some events for us as well. The question is, do we rightly read what he is doing in our lives? Is there some obstinacy in us and God has to prepare something a little special for us? God is so well capable of doing that. But now God prepared something nice for Jonah, not a big fish with a big mouth and a big stomach and a big appetite. Now it was a plant with big leaves that would give him shade from the sun. And Jonah for the first time is grateful. Here is the first time we see something positive in this man. However, he is selfishly grateful. It is for his own pleasure that he is now positive. And Ellie Maxwell would probably say, we had a little party this afternoon at three. It was very small, three friends and all, just I, myself, and me. Myself ate all the sandwiches while I drank the tea. It was also I who ate the pie and passed the cake to me. There's Jonah. Good for me. But now quickly on the heels of the second thing God prepares for Jonah is a third and then a fourth. Look at verses 7 and 8. But as the morning dawned, the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened when the sun arose that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat on Jonah's head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself and said, it is better for me to die than to live. Now will come God's application of what he has been trying to teach Jonah. He asked Jonah a question in verse 9. Then God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? Well, look at Jonah's response to this. And he said, it is right for me to be angry even to death. Jonah felt he had the right to be angry. There is a time when you do have a right, but he didn't have a right here. And James 1.20 says this, Man's anger does not produce the righteousness of God. Man's wrath does not produce the righteousness of God. Now look at how God reasons with Jonah in verses 10 through 11. But the Lord said, You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night? And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and much livestock?" We might question, did Jonah actually pity the plant? And the answer is no. But by all appearance, he did. And one morning, he woke up to watch Nineveh. He is one nearer day to the 40th day and hopefully the destruction of Nineveh. But this morning, that wonderful plant that had so mysteriously sprung up and shaded him with its broad leaves was now drooping listlessly. And he was angry with the plant. He wanted it back up and running. He wanted it healthy and strong and spreading more leaves. But there it drooped listlessly and uselessly. And God said, you didn't plant it, you didn't nurture it, you didn't fertilize it, you had nothing to do with its existence, and now you get all emotional about its premature death. And then he said, look down there Jonah, look at that great city. You didn't have anything to do with bringing it into existence either. And you sit and long for its destruction. The plant you want saved, the Ninevites you want destroyed. Jonah, do you see what kind of a heart you have? I'm putting words in you. And then God might say, now look at it from my perspective. I created man, and down there, there may be a lot of wicked people, but there are 120,000 who cannot discern between their right hand and their left. And there is a lot of livestock as well. So let me stop there and ask a question. Who are these who cannot discern between their right hand and their left? It is my view that these which cannot discern between their right hand and their left are those children who have not yet reached the age whereby they can make such discernments. A few Sundays ago we had a message on children and the value that God places on them. And here is Jonah, he cares about an inanimate plant, but cares not a whit for animate creatures such as livestock, and much worse yet, has no concern for 120,000 children who do not know the message of God. I think I might conclude with regard to this book of Jonah, that it is among the prophets because, in a sense, it tells us why all the other prophets had to prophesy. Israel's greatest failure was that same failure that has so beset the Church. It was her failure to be a light to the world. Israel, like the Church, caved into the desire to be like the rest of the world, rather than to win the world to God. And in worshiping false gods, Israel miserably failed God. When God had first created man, he communed with man and walked with him. Then man fell into sin and God taught man how man was to come to him and to walk with him anew. In the first two sons of Adam and Eve, one walked with God, one did not. And then there began to be two camps, those who knew and worshiped God and those who did not. They all had the revelation of God, but not all obeyed Him. As a matter of fact, just like today, most did not. Then as man multiplied, nations grew. And eventually God chose one nation, one man to become the head of a nation that would be God's nation. And through this nation, God would share with the rest of the world His plan of salvation. And in Genesis chapter 12, we have the call of Abraham and God said in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. You shall disseminate the truth to the world. He said in the Bible, you are my, anybody know? You are my witnesses. You are my witnesses. Now before we close, I want to very briefly show you God's missionary plan for Israel. When I went to Bible school in mission class, we were taught, and I think rightly so, that in the Old Testament, God used the centripetal method of evangelizing the world, and in the New Testament, He uses the centrifugal method. Let me briefly explain. The centripetal force is that which draws something into the center. For example, when you drain water in a tub, it'll go around like this until it comes down to the center. That's centripetal force. And when you have centrifugal force, it's like driving around a corner. It wants to push you out. It's a different method. Now, I want to show you this in the Bible. The Old Testament is the centripetal force. Everything was drawn into the nation. In the New Testament, it is go ye into all the world. It's centrifugal in force. So I'd like you to go to 2 Chronicles 6. Solomon is going to dedicate that great temple to God and he is praying and in his prayer he says the words of verses 32 to 33. 2nd Chronicles chapter 6 verse 32, Moreover concerning a foreigner who is not of your people Israel but has come from a far country for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when they come and pray in this temple then hear from heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, that all people of the earth may know your name, and fear you as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by your name." There's God's missionary program of the Old Testament. In Solomon's days, thousands upon thousands of Gentiles got saved and came into Israel. when the prophets later began to prophesy and for the sake of time let me just tell you give you Isaiah 56 6 through 7 there you have God's program for Israel in the Old Testament and later he will say you are my witnesses and my servant whom I have chosen I want to ask you who are his witnesses today would you tell me it's us it's us But Israel miserably failed. Rather than follow God and be different than the nations around them, their witness was this. They followed the practices of the gods of the pagan world. I feel that largely as Christians we fail because we follow a lost world in its practices rather than being a light to it. Our mission board is right now challenging the Brotherhood to consider how much money this church should send to missions. Let me further add that one of the great mission needs today is right on our doorstep. It's right around us here. You can look on a map and look at the reserves that are around us here. And then today, Canada is in need of new churches like never before. North America is in need of that. Now back to Jonah. The land in which the city of Nineveh was, was the land that would soon come and take the northern kingdom captive. This book is written somewhere in 760 BC and in 722 BC, just a few years later, the people from this area around Nineveh came storming down and conquered vast tracts of land and added it to their domain, including Israel. The reason why Jonah wanted this city destroyed is the very thing that this nation would now do to them. Today, there is a vast number of people who hate the God of the Bible with a vengeance. They would like to get rid of every Jew and every Christian. Can you tell me who they are? The Muslims. Yes. Now, it doesn't include all of them, but a very large percentage. And because they hate the God of the Bible, they hate the Jews. And because they hate the God of the Bible, they hate Christians. The gravest danger for Jew and the true Christian today is the teaching of the Quran and the Muslim faith. And I want to propose that the answer to this great hate is not to hate them, but to love them and bring them the gospel. And if we do not evangelize the Muslim world, maybe the same thing will happen to us that happened to Israel from Nineveh. In Britain, that great nation that had such a powerful impact on the world, both spiritually and politically, is today in parts under Sharia law. That is unbelievable. from a few years ago. And so in conclusion, I ask, may it be that the book of Jonah is in the prophets because it does contain some important prophecies, but more so because it shows us why the rest of the prophets had to prophesy judgment over and over again. If Israel had not failed in being God's light to the world, the other prophetical books may not have been necessary. That is a reminder to us to evangelize while it is yet day. L.E. Maxwell in his book Crowded to Christ gives a little poem on this book and he says this, at the conclusion of a message on Jonah, wherein we likened him to a present-day believer, one of our students, now a foreign missionary, wrote the following appropriate lines, Jonah built a little booth, a shelter from the heat, a gourd vine grew, protection from the wind that on him beat, Jonah rejoiced, exceeding glad for this convenient gourd, especially since this comfort was provided by the Lord. I thank Thee, Lord, Thou hast been good to my dear wife and me. We're glad we're in a peaceful land of great prosperity. It makes us feel so good, this little bungalow, the kitchenette, the living room, the rug so soft, you know. We love our children, every one. We keep them home for God. The homeland needs them just as much as mission fields abroad. And fundamentalists are we, my children, wife, and I, so thankful that we're saved by grace, secure until we die. What did Stau say? Oh, Nineveh. Well, that's another thing. Right now, we want to praise our God. We're sheltered neath his wing. Thus, fundamental Jonahs to the Lord their praises tell, they'll sing, we're saved and satisfied, till Ninurah goes to hell. It's a reminder this morning to us of the importance of missions and the task of the church. And oh, by the way, This book doesn't end, and they lived happily ever after.