Jonah 1:1-17
March 7, 2010
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.’ But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. The captain came and said to him, ‘What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.’
The sailors said to one another, ‘Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.’ So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, ‘Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?’ ‘I am a Hebrew,’ he replied. ‘I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.’ Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, ‘What is this that you have done!’ For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.
Then they said to him, ‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may quieten down for us?’ For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. He said to them, ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quieten down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.’ Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. Then they cried out to the Lord, ‘Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.’ So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.
You know, there’s a funny thing about the Book of Jonah. Pretty much everyone knows who the prophet Jonah was and knows the basic story, but very few people really know what the story means and why its so important. So this morning I want to introduce you to Jonah so that you can learn why the story of Jonah was considered to be a major part of the Old Testament.
So let’s begin with who Jonah was. The fact is that we don’t know much about Jonah. What little we do know doesn’t tell us much. We know that Jonah did not write the book of Jonah, and we know it for a very simple reason. The story is told in a biographical way, not an autobiographical way. Also, it’s language uses words and phrases common to the 6th century B.C., yet the prophet Jonah lived during the 8th century B.C. in the northern kingdom of Israel. Last week I mentioned that after the reign of Solomon, the nation of Israel was split in two, with the southern kingdom of Judah (which contained Jerusalem) being led by descendants of Solomon, and the northern kingdom, Israel, being led by non-descendant kings. The Assyrians, who would eventually take over and destroy the northern kingdom in the 7th century, were constantly attacking it. Other than what the Book of Jonah says, we don’t know much about him, although Isaiah says that he was a great prophet.
The story begins with God calling on Jonah to travel east to the city of Ninevah to tell it’s citizens that unless they change their ways, God was going to destroy them. Jonah is a man who has spent his life listening for and following God’s call. So what does he do? He immediately gets up and heads west to the city of Tarshish. We really don’t know where that city was, although it probably was in what is today Spain, or on the island of Sardinia. Either way, he was trying to get as far away from Ninevah as possible. Why did Jonah head toward Tarshish? Simply put, he didn’t want to preach to the Ninevites lest God save them. He wanted God to destroy them.
You see, Ninevah was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, the same empire that was constantly sending armies to attack Israel. They were the sworn enemies of the northern kingdom, and for good reason. Within a hundred years they would sack the kingdom and disperse the population throughout their empire as slaves. Unlike with the Babylonian exile two-hundred years later, when the Babylonians destroyed Judea, took their population into exile, and let them return fifty years later, those enslaved by the Assyrians never returned. We have a name for these people. We call them the “Lost Tribes of Israel.” The Mormons believe that these dispersed Jews eventually became the Indians of North America. That belief seems ludicrous to most of us Christians and also to Jews, but hey,… we’re not Mormons. At any rate, Jonah knew what the Assyrians could do to Israel, and he wanted to prevent it by having God destroy Ninevah. To ensure Ninevah’s destruction, Jonah promptly headed west.
Finding a ship in the port city of Joppa, he set sail westward. This is where the story becomes very familiar. He goes into the hold of the ship, and promptly falls asleep. A storm suddenly rises up and smashes the ship from side to side. Storms in the Mediterranean can be very powerful, as you may have noticed last week from the cruise ship off the coast of Spain that was hit by three huge waves that killed two passengers and injured many others. Jonah’s ship was in was tossed to and fro, yet Jonah slept. The crew of the ship was in a panic. They knew there was a real possibility that the ship would sink, and so they started praying to their gods to spare them. Nothing worked. Eventually they cast lots, which is the practice of shaking a cup with small bones or sticks of different lengths, throwing them onto a table, and then interpreting the configuration of the bones to discern what God, or the gods, wanted. They cast their lots and realized that it was Jonah who was causing the storm. So they woke him up to ask him what he had done to his God to cause the storm. Jonah tells them, and asks them to throw him overboard in order to still the storm.
This shows something really interesting about Jonah. Even in disobeying God he is the ultimate prophet. Like all the prophets he fears nothing because he knows God is with him. He’s able to sleep like a baby through a horrific storm. He trusts in God, even though he is disobeying. Also, he has incredible integrity in that he owns up to his transgression, and even asks them to throw him overboard. And the final thing is that he is the kind of prophet that when he speaks, people listen and are transformed, as you’ll see in a moment.
At first the crew refuses to throw him overboard. They may be rough sailors, but they aren’t murderers. They row harder against the storm, but to no avail. Finally, they agree to throw him overboard, but with much regret. They also pray to God, not their gods, to save them. And as soon as Jonah is thrown overboard the storm stills. The great fish then swallows Jonah. Most people make the mistake of saying that a whale swallowed him, but that’s wrong. First it’s wrong because the Bible says “fish,” not “whale.” Second, there are no whales in the Mediterranean. He remains in the belly of the fish for three days.
This part of the story causes problems for many people because it really is impossible for a human to remain in a fish’s gullet. All the digestive juices would have killed him if, in fact, there was a fish large enough to swallow him other than a great white shark. I think that when people get caught up in obsessing about whether it happened or not, they miss not only the point of the Book of Jonah, but much of the Bible. The Bible, despite what many fundamentalists and literalists believe, is not a book of history. It is a book that uses history to tell us about what God has done and is doing in the world. I’m fairly certain that there was a great prophet named Jonah. I’m fairly certain that he was called to preach to the Assyrians in Ninevah. I’m fairly certain that his preaching had some impact on them. At the same time, details are added to the story to communicate symbolically and metaphorically God’s will in life. Being in the belly of the fish taught something powerful about God, a message that makes use of the number 3. When you see the number 3 in the Bible, it often stands for a time of being transformed by God. For example, Jesus dies and three days later is resurrected. Jesus’ ministry was for three years, and during that time God transformed the world. Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish, and afterwards he was transformed. Unfortunately his transformation was a smelly one, as he was spit out covered with fish goo.
From there he goes to Ninevah, and it takes him three days to walk across the city as he preaches. And much to his dismay, the city is transformed over those three days. The people hear his words, repent, tear their clothes in grief, and wear sackcloth, which is basically burlap (very itchy, and perfect for doing penitence). When he’s done, Jonah goes to a hillside overlooking the city, hoping that God will still destroy the city, but nothing happens. Jonah sits, seething in anger.
Overnight, God causes a great broom bush, a bush with a fan-like leaf that offers shade, to grow up around Jonah. Jonah, feeling the heat, is happy for this. Then, the next night God causes a worm to attack the tree and to kill it. It dies, and once again Jonah is struck by the heat, and becomes angry at God for killing the tree. It’s at this point that God speaks. God says to Jonah, in essence, “How can you be angry at my destroying a tree that I created to do with as I will?” He goes on to basically say, “Who are you to decide what I should do with my creation? Who are you to tell me which people I should love, and which I should hate? Who are you to decide whether or not I should spare the Assyrians?” And the story basically ends there.
So what are we to make of a story like this? I think we could spend a lifetime with it and cull wisdom for life. But I want to share two points that I think are prominent among the lessons.
First, the story of Jonah teaches that life spirals downward when we don’t follow God’s call. The story of Jonah uses a pretty powerful metaphor for this. Think about what direction (I don’t mean west) Jonah moves in after he refuses to follow in God’s direction. He goes down to Joppa, down to the docks, down onto the ship, down into the hold of the ship, down into the water, and then down into the belly of the fish. In the belly of the fish he realizes just how downward his life has gone, all because he didn’t follow God’s call. And in that belly he prays, offering to serve God and God’s will.
Our lives are the same when it comes to doing God’s will. God is calling us in life to serve and live in a certain way. When we do, life becomes full of blessings. But when we don’t, our lives spiral downward. It doesn’t take much evidence to show this. Think about the times your life has been at its worst, and think about what your relationship with God was like. Were you following God, or ignoring God? Most people find that their worst times were also the times they were furthest from God. That’s the story of Jonah in a nutshell. The Ninevites could have ignored God’s calling and been destroyed, but they didn’t, and life was restored. Jonah’s life was good, but as soon as he ignored God, his life spiraled downward. When I think of this I think of alcoholics and AA. Their lives spiral downward to rock bottom, but when they join AA and turn their lives over to God (the higher power), life gets better. The enduring lesson of Jonah is to look at our lives and recognize that as long as we ignore God, our lives spiral downward.
A second point is that to follow God’s will we have to give up our will. I think that the chronic spiritual battle in human life is between God’s will and our will. For too many of us the battle is won in the short-term by us, which often leads to point number 1. But if we are willing to let go of our will, and to let God’s will work through our lives, great things can happen. But they can only happen if we are willing to give up our will.
I’ve experienced this first-hand in my own struggle to become a pastor. This is not the career I would have chosen for myself, and it was one that I actively fought with God about. Yet when I finally relented and said “yes” to God, my life became immeasurably better. But I had to give up my will in order to discover this fact. For those of you who know Steve Cramer, who was a member of Calvin Church and is now a pastor at Crossroad Presbyterian Church, you’ll recognize the same dynamic. Steve says that for twenty years he grappled with God’s will. He sensed God was calling him to be a pastor, and he kept saying no. It’s not that his life was bad because of his saying no. He would simply say that his life was never completely fulfilled. But when he let go of his ego, everything became possible. I think he would tell you now that his life is fulfilled in a way that he never could have anticipated in all those years of saying no.
Now I certainly don’t want to give you the impression that saying yes to God leads inevitably to becoming a pastor. It doesn’t. But each of us is called by God to follow in some way, whether large or small. The question is whether we are willing to give up our will in order to do God’s will.
So I want to leave you with two questions to reflect on. Which direction is your life going, up or down? And if it’s going down, to what extent are you willing to give up your will for God’s will?
Amen.
