Returning to the Call

Jonah 1:17-2:9

Welcome! Today we continue our exploration of the fascinating book of Jonah. Because it is a relatively short book, I want to start today by reading last week’s passage. But first, let me give you a quick reminder of the setting; Jonah takes place between 793 and 758 BC, around the time of King Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel (as verified by 2 Kings 14:23-25 which mentions Jonah in the context of this king’s reign). Now, Jonah begins in Israel, but tries to flee to Tarshish, about 2500 miles west of Israel. Jonah was supposed to go to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire; well, Nineveh is about 600 miles east of Israel. Nineveh wasn’t a Jewish settlement but instead a huge thoroughly non-Jewish city filled with people (Assyrians) who hated Israel and for many years had wanted to destroy or capture its people. Assyria was a powerful force to be reckoned with. Anyway, here is what we read last week:

The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. – Jonah 1:1-3

Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.” – Jonah 1:4-6

Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” – Jonah 1:7-9

This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us? “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”  – Jonah 1:10-12

Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for You, Lord, have done as You pleased.” Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. – Jonah 1:13-15

At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to Him. – Jonah 1:16

As I mentioned last week, our familiarity with the Jonah story can cause us to miss the many surprising plot twists and turns in the story. Even this first chapter is filled with surprises. This is not how Bible stories about prophets are supposed to go. First of all, when God calls a prophet and tells him to do something, what is supposed to happen is that the prophet actually does what he is told. Again and again we see the prophets of God as servants of God, doing whatever is asked of them, no matter how difficult.  I think of, for example, Hosea who was commanded to take a woman as his wife who would be unfaithful to him, thereby illustrating Israel’s unfaithfulness to God – through it all, Hosea was supposed to manifest God’s faithfulness and love. Talk about a hard assignment! Another example is Ezekiel who was told to lie on one side continually for 390 days and on his other side for another 40. I think this was even harder than Hosea’s task. Yet they did what they were told to do. So when God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, yes, it’s a scary place, a place of Israel’s enemies, but if God tells you to go, you go, right? You just go. What was wrong with Jonah?

Now, I want to take a bit of a digression here, but I will tie it in to Jonah, eventually. A classic approach to evangelism starts with the statement that there are two ways to live, for oneself, putting yourself on the throne of your heart, or for God, putting Him on the throne of your heart. But maybe it would be better to say that there are three ways to live, not two. There are two ways to avoid putting God on the throne. One is to be – to put it overly simplistically – very bad, not following the 10 commandments, rejecting obedience to God, living for yourself, doing what feels good to you, worshiping idols, etc. In the Jonah story, who could we classify in this category? The sailors! From the Jewish readers’ perspectives, they were heathens – they didn’t follow the Law of Moses at all. They worshiped false gods, had foreign values, and had detestable practices – they were the very types of people God in His Law warned the Israelites to avoid so that the foreigners’ culture and ways would not corrupt Israel.

So, one way of not putting God on the throne is to be, as we said, “very bad.” But the other way of not putting God on the throne is to be very good, obeying the laws and rules to an amazing degree, trying to be so moral that God “has to” give you the future “good life.” They may not use these words (probably not) but the idea is buried down in what they are doing.

I would argue that these two approaches of not putting God on the throne are found in many places in Scripture. One example is the first three chapters of Romans. In the first chapter Paul focuses on people who “suppress the truth by their wickedness,” who “exchange the truth about God for a lie,” who “worship and serve created things rather than their Creator.” It goes on to say that because they “refused to think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, God handed them over to their depraved minds,” resulting in wicked fruit. In historical context, Paul is speaking of Gentiles here.

That’s obviously the “very bad” type. What about the “very good”? Paul addresses these in Romans 2 and 3. Paul turns to the Jews, those who have the law and seek to follow it. He warns them that their hypocritical judging of others (when they do the same things they are complaining about) is only storing up wrath for them. He speaks specifically to the “very good” Jew (at least outwardly very good) in the second part of Romans 2, condemning their hypocrisy, and then in Romans 3 he first says that the “very good” Jew has tremendous benefits stemming from the fact that they were given the Law.  But then Paul says something pretty shocking: Jew and Gentile alike are under the power of sin, guilty of it, completely unrighteous. It’s not shocking that this is true of the “very bad” person, but it is also true of the “very good” one too. The “very good” person actually has no goodness to speak of, and thus, God owes him nothing (but condemnation) – apart from Christ. The latter part of Romans 3 powerfully explains how Christ can be our righteousness, through faith in Him.

Another example of these two types of people can be found in the parable of the prodigal son. You may recall that this parable is really not about one son, but two. One of them is very bad, literally running away from his father to participate in wild sinful living, but the other is (relatively speaking) very good.  He stays at home, helping his father. The bad one “comes to his senses” and seeks reconciliation with his father. His father is not angry to see him, but overjoyed, and preparations are made for a spectacular celebration. But the older son is not happy about this at all; he is upset that the father is squandering his possessions on the “bad” son. At the end of the parable, the bad son is fully reconciled with his father but the “good” one is not!

So there are two ways of not putting God on the throne: the “being very bad” way and the “being very good” way. I want to say a little more about this second way. Note that such a person is basically living under a salvation-by-works perspective. They probably would not say God “has to” give them salvation, but that is really what is going on. If you ask them, “If you were to die and were standing at the ‘pearly gates’ and God was there and asked you, ‘Why should I let you into heaven?’ what would you say?” they would respond “Because I am a good person, I have regularly gone to church, or given to the poor, or so on.” And they might say, “Because I haven’t done anything really bad. I haven’t killed anyone or stolen from them,” etc. But what they are really saying is that God “has to” let them in because, well, they’ve earned it!

Someone like this would probably never say it out loud, but fundamentally, deep down, they are thinking that God “owes” them. Well, if God owes you, then doesn’t it follow that there are limits to what God can reasonably expect of you? You’ve got some rights! You’ve earned them! Some things are too much for God to ask, because you have been a good person. Well, I would argue that this is what we see in Jonah. If you ask the question, what would make a prophet of God choose to deliberately disobey God, I think the answer is that he thinks that there should be limits to what God can ask of him, because, after all, he is a good person and has already done a lot of good things for God.

Have you ever talked to someone who said something like “Following Jesus is OK, but don’t become one of those crazy Jesus people; don’t go off the deep end.” This person may be struggling like the elder brother in the prodigal son parable, like Jonah. I think it is fair to question whether they really fully have embraced the true gospel, or whether they have mixed in a little (or a lot) of the “I’m a good person” thinking in with how they view God.

I think even saved people can fall into this way of thinking and do so all the time. It is possible to accept the gospel with your head before it completely filters down through your heart. I think it can be this kind of thing that is why people look for a church where they can sit anonymously in the back row and leave within 30 seconds of the end of service without anyone bothering them. I think it is this kind of thing that is why some people hold on to secret sins. I think it is this kind of thing that is why some people just don’t share their faith with anyone. It’s not the only reason, but truly embracing the gospel includes a realization that there is nothing that God shouldn’t ask of us; we owe Him our entire lives, for now and eternity. Our future is entirely because of Him and it cost Him everything. What God the Father asked of His Son is infinitely greater than anything He could ever ask of us, and so we should give Him all that He asks of us, no matter how hard or how unpleasant. 

By the way, I read this week President Reagan’s answer to the question, “What would you answer when God asks you why He should let you into heaven?” Reagan answered, “Jesus.” The reporter asked him, “Anything else?” Reagan replied “No. Anything else ruins it.” I love this answer!

Now our passage last week ended with the sailors holding a worship service because the God of sea and dry land had spared them. It says they made vows to Him. Perhaps they were promising to do the very thing Jonah would not, to serve God and do whatever He asked of them. How ironic! Like the story of the prodigal son, the “very bad” people (the sailors) apparently repent and enter into fellowship with their Father; and like the story of the prodigal son… but wait, we are getting ahead of ourselves.

By the way, this would have made a pretty reasonable ending for the story, although a quite unconventional one – the prophet is lost at sea while the sailors come to faith in God. But there is a lot more to this story! Where’s Jonah? He’s still in the sea. Perhaps he is treading water, but perhaps he is drowning, unable to swim, or drowning because he took in too much water while the seas were still roiling. In any case, let’s continue the passage:

Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. – Jonah 1:17-2:1

A huge fish? Is this even possible? Yes, it is. There are at least two candidates among creatures still living, and it is also entirely possible that the creature was something that is now extinct. One creature still living is the Balaenoptera Musculus, or blue or sulphur-bottom whale; this creature can be up to 90 feet long. Another is the Rhinodon Typicus or whale shark; this creature is frequently sighted at lengths over 45 feet. Both of these animals feed by opening their mouths wide, going through the water at a great rate of speed so that whatever is in their path is funneled into their mouths. They strain out the water and swallow whatever is left.

A sulphur-bottom whale in 1933 was captured off Cape Cod and his mouth was 10-12 feet wide, wide enough to swallow an entire horse. These whales have 4 to 6 compartments in their stomachs, the first of which has minimal acid. In their heads there is an air storage compartment that can be 7 feet wide, 7 feet tall, and 14 feet high. In addition, it is known and observed that if one of these whales has something in him that bothers him, he will actually swim to the nearest land and well, “upchuck” the offending item.

An additional fascinating thing about sulphur-bottom whales is that they can communicate with one another over hundreds of miles, but it is not entirely known how they do it. Like other creatures, their throat helps amplify sound, but they have not found an actual “voice box” in these whales. In any case, they need huge quantities of air in their throats in order to produce these sounds. Air, of course, would probably be important for Jonah. (I’ll tell you why I say “probably” in a few minutes.)

I have not personally verified the following, but I am quoting another reference on this reference: There is a book by Grace Kellogg called “The Bible Today” that refers to an article that mentions a dog that was lost overboard and found 6 days later in the head of a captured whale, alive and barking.

J. Vernon McGee, host of the Through the Bible radio show has the following account in one of his books:

"Dr. Harry Rimmer, President of the Research Science Bureau of Los Angeles writes this, In the Literary Digest we noticed an account of an English sailor who was swallowed by a gigantic Rhinodon in the English Channel. Briefly the account stated that in the attempt to harpoon one of these monstrous sharks, this sailor fell overboard, and before he could be picked up again, the shark turned and engulfed him. Forty-eight hours after the accident occurred, the fish was sighted and slain. When the shark was opened by the sailors, they were amazed to find the man unconscious but alive! He was rushed to the hospital where he was found to be suffering from shock alone and a few hours later was discharged as being physically fit.'"  

A few commentators also state the theory that Jonah actually died in the fish and that the Lord resurrected him. I suppose this is possible, and it would make the fact that Jesus on multiple occasions said that various people would only receive the “sign of Jonah” a little more literal, but the passage doesn’t actually say. We don’t know.

But let me say this: this is supposed to be a miracle, is it not? It is certainly in the context of other miracles; the storm was miraculous, and the sudden ending of the storm was so miraculous that it caused the sailors to worship God. So we really shouldn’t be bothered if we cannot explain exactly what the fish was that swallowed Jonah or how Jonah survived. This is God we are talking about; God can do anything.

And I say this with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but I suppose we should praise the fish. Why? Because, unlike Jonah, when God called the fish and said, “Go here,” it obeyed!

Now, did Jonah in his stubbornness wait three days in the fish to pray to God? Well, the passage doesn’t actually speak to that. It doesn’t say what happened. Was Jonah conscious all of those three days? Well, the passage doesn’t actually speak to that either. Did Jonah only pray the exact prayer that is presented in the following verses? Again, we don’t know. The passage, once again, doesn’t actually specify that. I mention all these things because it is really easy to read into this passage things that it doesn’t actually say. All we really know is what it says: this creature swallowed Jonah, and Jonah was in it for 3 days and nights and while there Jonah did pray to God. And the following verses appear to give us Jonah’s prayer that he made during this ordeal. It is possible, I suppose, that it was composed later, but the fact that the account doesn’t really finish until after this prayer makes me think that the prayer was prayed during the ordeal.

He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and You listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all Your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple. ’The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. – Jonah 2:2-5

Now, this account may be describing Jonah’s experience in the fish, or it may be describing Jonah’s experience drowning before the fish comes. Currents swirling around him, waves breakers sweeping over him, waters threatening him, the deep surrounding him, seaweed wrapped around his head – these give the feel of sinking down in the open seas to me. Certainly the sailors expected throwing Jonah in the sea would cause him to die; most likely Jonah thought the same thing. And here was sinking to his death (if this is the correct interpretation), but as he recounts it, God saved him. God listened to his cry. I actually think the fish was Jonah’s salvation. It was while Jonah was spending all that time in the fish that he realized this.

Interestingly, there are some parallels to the experience of the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus in Acts 9. Recall that a light came from heaven and voice came, saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” Paul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” And the voice replied “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what to do.” Paul then realized that the encounter had made him blind, and so, blind, he was led by the hand into Damascus. There, nothing basically happened for 3 days! For 3 days, Paul had time to simply think. Well, I think Jonah perhaps similarly had time to think during his 3 days in the fish.

If I am interpreting this correctly, Jonah had time to realize that by sending the fish, God had saved him from certain death by drowning. He also realized that he would one day again be on the surface, and that one day he would again get to gaze on the Temple of God. By the way, this part of the song of Jonah is very prophetic towards Christ; “I have been banished from Your sight” perfectly describes how God the Father had to reject God the Son on the cross, so that Christ’s death on the cross could pay for our sins. And so, “I have been banished from Your sight yet I will look again toward Your holy temple” – describes so powerfully how Christ would die on the cross, but would rise again in 3 days in Jerusalem and make multiple visits to the disciples there. From the point of view of Christ, the “temple” could also refer to His body, for He had said, “destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it.”

“To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But You, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered You, Lord, and my prayer rose to You, to Your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to You. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’” – Jonah 2:6-9

So Jonah continues his description – with different wording he expresses the same thought, that he was dying, sinking, but God saved Him. And he says that when he was dying, he remembered God and prayed to Him. Then he says something that to me seems a little jarring, a little out of place: Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to You. It’s jarring because suddenly he is comparing himself to, well, “stupid” pagans. You wonder if he meant people like those on the ship? Remember them? They may have been “pagans,” people who worshiped many false gods, but they showed genuine concern for Jonah, risking their own lives before, at last resort, finally throwing Jonah into the sea in the midst of that storm. And they also prayed to God, Jonah’s God, that He would not punish them for tossing Jonah, because it seemed like it was what God wanted them to do. And then, when the sea became calm, they praised God, Jonah’s God, because He had made the sea grow calm and had saved them. For people “who cling to worthless idols,” they had come a long way in a short time towards understanding and worshiping the true God. They weren’t “turning away from God’s love for them,” but seemingly embracing it!

I suspect Jonah had more than the shipmates in mind, though. I think Jonah had in mind all Gentiles. I think he was still deeply disturbed that God had asked him to go to Nineveh telling the people to repent. He thought that would have been an utter waste of time, because “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.” It’s almost like, in the midst of this astounding drama, Jonah is having a theological argument with God, saying, “Look God, I didn’t want to go to Nineveh because people like them aren’t going to come to God; they won’t appreciate anything about it! They are brutish, evil people who cling to worthless idols! It’s only us Jews who can appreciate You. You shouldn’t have told me to go to Nineveh, God!”  And then he goes on, saying in effect, “But I, God, am not like those people. You have saved me, and I will shout and praise and make sacrifices to You. I’m not like them!”

One passage this reminds me of is the following:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ – Luke 18:10-12

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” – Luke 18:13-14

There are two ways to run away from God, remember? Or to make the comparison between Jonah and Paul: Paul was a completely, radically changed person after his 3 days; he went around showing love to all he had formerly persecuted, and became a bold force in sharing the gospel. He was humble about himself, calling himself chief of sinners, a mere slave of Christ, and so on. But Jonah shows no real change; he is still apparently debating with God. Yes, he acknowledges that God has saved him, but there not much else here. He certainly doesn’t show any contriteness; he doesn’t admit he was wrong! That’s a far cry from calling oneself the chief of sinners.

It’s interesting to compare Jonah’s prayer with the Psalms. Many have similar themes. For example, the following from Psalm 32:

Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore let all the faithful pray to You while You may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. – Psalm 32:1-6

Another example:

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God. Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal. You, God, know my folly; my guilt is not hidden from You. Lord, the Lord Almighty, may those who hope in You not be disgraced because of me; God of Israel, may those who seek You not be put to shame because of me. – Psalm. 69:1-6

But I pray to you, Lord, in the time of Your favor; in Your great love, O God, answer me with Your sure salvation. Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters. Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me. Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of Your love; in Your great mercy turn to me. Do not hide Your face from Your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble. – Psalm 69:13-17

But as for me, afflicted and in pain—may Your salvation, God, protect me. I will praise God’s name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hooves. The poor will see and be glad—you who seek God, may your hearts live! The Lord hears the needy and does not despise His captive people. Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and all that move in them. – Ps. 69:29-34

I hope you see the world of difference between these Psalms and Jonah’s prayer. The Psalmist is contrite; Jonah is not, at least nothing like what we see in the Psalms. And the Psalmist is continually thinking about others – first, that his actions would not hurt them, and second, that they would experience His love – but Jonah is instead thinking about how dumb the heathens are! There just is no comparison.

And so, what about us? There are two applications I see here for us. The first has to do with repentance. Are we actually spending time in prayer repenting of our sins to God? Are we instead like Jonah, focused on being thankful for how God bails us out, instead of telling God how sorry we are for going our own way in the first place? Perhaps it has been a really long time since you have really opened your life up to God, asked Him to search your heart, to reveal any wrong ways within you. If so, I would encourage you to schedule a time to actually spend time alone with God for this purpose. Ideally, it would be later today, perhaps sometime this afternoon. It doesn’t have to be a large block of time, although it can be. But even 15 minutes with God for this purpose is dramatically better than zero. During the time, just be honest. Ask God to bring to mind areas in which you have sinned against Him, and He does, sincerely admit your fault, that you were wrong, that you sinned/were selfish etc. And seek His help in helping you to overcome in this area.

The second application I see has to do with loving those around us. Is your attitude hostile, like Jonah? Or do you have a heart for all of the lost? Does your heart for the lost include your coworkers? Your boss? Your relatives? Your in-laws? Does it include grocery store checkers, DMV workers, etc? If you are a Republican, does it include Democrats? If you are a Democrat, does it include Republicans? Do you really understand that there are three ways to live, two of which involve running away from God? Who are you?