Jonah, the negative example of how our relationship with God should work

Our story so far:

• Called to go to Nineveh, one of Israel’s great enemies, and warn them of God’s coming wrath
• Ran away and took a boat headed for Tarshish, in Spain, the farthest point west that known to Israel
• Great storm
• Sailors pray to their gods, and Jonah slept
• The captain calls Jonah to the prayer meeting, but there’s no evidence he prays
• Jonah says they should throw him overboard, because he is the reason God has brought this storm
• The sailors do so only after realizing they cannot row their way out of the tempest
• Immediately, the storm calms, and the sailors praise the God of heaven and earth, offering a sacrifice to Him and making vows to Him

What we know or can surmise about Jonah from Chapter 1

• Jonah was the son of Amittai (faithfulness) — irony
• He hates (possibly with good reason, from his perspective) the Ninevites
• He was disobedient to God’s commission
• Prayer was not his first line of defense
• He understood and recognized God’s sovereignty over himself and nature
• He had a low value of his own life

What do we need to know about the rest of the story before looking at Chapter 2?

• He eventually went to Nineveh
• He did the very least he could do to answer God’s commission: “Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
• He believed God to be merciful and believed God would relent in His judgment if the people of Nineveh turned from their wicked ways
• He hated the people of Nineveh more than he loved the life God had given him
• He tended to seek God only in his distress (sea, fish, heat, vine)
• He was kind of a miserable snot
• This story, though there’s evidence (including Jesus’ reference to it) that it’s historical, is also an allegory about Israel at the time of Jonah
  • They were self-righteous in their expectation that God would (as He had done so many times before) deliver them from their enemies BECAUSE they were His chosen people
  • They had not followed God’s call to evangelize the other nations:
    g., Psalm 67:2 — “God be gracious to us and bless us,
    And cause His face to shine upon us
    That Your way may be known on the earth,
    Your salvation among all nations.”
  • They sought God’s “judgment, justice and retribution for others,” while begging Him for grace and mercy for themselves (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary)

Consider these things as we take a look at Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the great fish

• Do you see the echo of the Cycle of Sin that we talked about a few weeks ago?
  • Summary verse
  • Jonah in dire straits
  • Jonah cries out for help
  • Jonah delivered
• Note that Jonah recognized Who had put him in the situation
  • The storm
  • The sea
  • The fish (frying pan and fire?)
    • Criminals in jail
      • “I have been cast out of your sight”
      • “I was incarcerated on charges of stealing”
        • versus
        • “I was jailed for stealing money”
        • “God had me tossed into the sea to get my attention when I was disobedient”
      • This seems, at best, a weak recognition of Jonah’s own responsibility for his plight
    • Jonah recognized God’s power, just as a criminal might recognize the power of the justice system, but something’s missing from his prayer
      • Repentance
      • Shame
      • Willing heart
    • Jonah cries out for help, and he praises God when he gets it, but his heart is unchanged
      • Nineveh
      • “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord.”
      • Again from Nelson’s Commentary: “The self-righteous make the grave mistake of rejoicing only in their own deliverance (2:9) and in God’s answers to prayer. They miss out by narrowing God’s grace and mercy to themselves.
    • “And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
      • NKJV says “so.” Other versions say “And.”
      • Your learner guide and my teacher guide suggest that Jonah’s prayer was one of repentance and that his repentance led God to release him from the fish
        • I don’t see it
        • Pastor Chris doesn’t see it
        • I think God delivered Jonah IN SPITE OF his unrepentance
          • Why?
            • Merciful
            • Patient
            • Kind
          • What can we take from seeing it that way?
        • God’s love preserves us, even when we’re miserable snots
          • Don’t be that way