Jonah 1:8-10

Jonah chapter 1 I want to read the first 10 verses and our focus this morning will be on verses 8 to 10 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amitai saying arise go to Nineveh that great city and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshis from the presence of the Lord Went down to Joppa He found a ship going to Tarshis so he paid the fare there off and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken then the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his God and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them but Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay and was fast asleep So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him What meanest thou a sleeper? Arise call upon thy God So be that God will think upon us that we perish not And they said everyone to his fellow come Let us cast lots that we may know for who cause this evil is come upon us, our evil is upon us. So they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, tell us, we pray thee. For whose cause this evil is upon us? What is that occupation? Whence comeest thou? What is thy country? Of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew. And I fear the Lord, the God of heaven Which hath made the sea of the dry land Then were the men exceedingly afraid And said on him, why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. And God blessed to us his Sacred and Holy Word this morning. After the miracle of Jericho destruction when God caused the walls of that Canaanite city to fall flat and the Israelites were able to conquer it. A terrible thing happened. Aiken took of the accursed thing. The Bible says that the anger of the Lord was kindled. Aiken had stolen goods from the city. The city was supposed to be totally dedicated to God and therefore none of the things in the city were to be touched. The spoils were to be devoted to the Lord. I wonder what inner terror Aiken felt when directions were given by God for the discovery of the guilty party. From the many thousands of Israel, we see the tribe of Judah is selected. And on Judah, all eyes are focused. And then by family, we see that Judah is tried. And the lot falls on the family of Zara. And we see that justice is closing in on Aiken. And then when the family of Zara, man by man, passes in review, we find that the lot falls on the household of Zabdi. And the loose news is getting pretty tight at this point. And out of that household, Aiken is chosen by lot. Be sure your sin will find you out. And then Joshua says to Aiken these words, My son, give I pray the glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confection unto him. And tell me what thou hast done. Hide it not from me. There’s another day. And the anger of the Lord is once again kindled. And this time, it has to do with a ship that is sailing from Joppa to Tarshis and gerald such a horrible storm at the ship that all hope of saving it was lost by normal means. Even the hardened sailors are down on their knees praying. And once again, lots are used to discover the guilty party. At least in man’s mind, somebody had to do something really bad for this to occur. And the finger of God points out Jonah. One can only wonder the inner terror and guilt, perhaps, that Jonah felt as the lot singled him out. We don’t know how many times they used the lot or how they went about it, but out of all the people on the ship, he is the one to get selected. He is the one that gets exposed. And once again, there is a request here for a confession. Jonah, what have you done to cause this evil to fall upon us? So there’s a strong resemblance, really, between these two events that we find in Scripture. Jonah is very much like Aiken in this storyline that we’re studying. Now the first thing we see is the interrogation of the sailors in verse 8. They said unto him, tell us we pray thee for whose cause this evil is upon us. What is thine occupation? Whence comest thou? What is thy country? And of what people art thou? You know, as soon as Jonah is singled out, he gets a flurry of questions ask him by the sailors. No one really knew much about Jonah. I guess he was just like a regular passenger. He got on there and no, you know, usually ask these kind of questions, I guess, of passengers. And so there’s an alarmed haste at this moment to find out everything they can about this guy. It’s almost as if Jonah is in court on the witness stand and he’s getting cross-examined by a very tough prosecutor. computer. He gets these battery of questions. Ask him. Tell us. Why are you responsible for making all this trouble? What do you do for a living? What is your country? What people are you from? And so forth. Dodedly, there was probably more questions than this ask, but these are the basic questions they ask. Everybody wanted something, clarify. In all the questions asked, in all the questions asked, what’s glaringly absent? What’s missing? Yes. Well, they sort of asked that question, I guess, but I was going a little bit further than that. Yes. They’re not asking about God. Here they are praying to God, and they don’t seem to be getting any answers about God here. They don’t ask him any of the questions about his God here or what he’s done to cause this to happen. But you’re right. They don’t directly ask him, what did you do? They later ask him, why in verse 10, why have you done this? But, so they ask him all these questions and their haste and excitement, poor, you know, Jonah, you can see he’s having to answer these in rapid succession. the skies are black, the lightnings flashing, the waves are engulfing the ship, the rain’s pouring down, and they want some fast answers, and they weren’t going to take any evasive answers here. Now, if you look carefully at the sailors’ series of burning questions, none of them are about Jonah’s guilt before God. Not a single person urged Jonah to make confession to God for his inexcusable transgression. Like, Jonah demanded of Aiken. Let me ask you something. Is confession of wrongdoing before men good enough? Why or why not? Yes, Russ. Yes, God is the one we have really offended here. He’s the one we’re going to have to answer to. He’s the one who’s dealing with us in regard to this matter. Now let me ask you something here. What does this tell us about modern psychology? It’s just like these, you know, they ask you these kind of questions, but there’s no getting at the solution. The solution is not with men. The solution is with God. And so this is the problem we have when we’re confessing before Matt. And we could say the same thing about the Roman Catholic priest and the confessional here. What you really need to do is confess your sin to God. he’s the one that you need to address. In the Roman Catholic, it gets… Yes. Can’t have that happen. But all these questions, when you think about it, are all concerned about the lower spear of life here on this earth. How is the facts, what you did, who you are. The men seem to be satisfied with finding out what Jonah had done. Rather, that Jonah owning up his guilt before God. He needs to repent. the proper response here is for them to tell them, as Joshua would, make your confession unto God. You know, you need to get things right with God. Aiken had trouble with Israel, but it was against God that he had sin. And it’s against God that Jonah has sin. Yeah, Josh wanted to know the facts, but he’s even more concerned that Aiken own up to what he’s done before the Lord. So it’s one thing for Jonah to confess what he had done wrong before men. It’s quite another. to acknowledge his guilt before the Lord. He doesn’t get to that. So later here in the book. You know, we have people who, in modern psychology, will openly confess their sin before others to seek relief. But confessing sin to others isn’t enough. Because you have to deal with the Holy God as the offended party. So we have the interrogation. of the sailors. Then we have the confession of Jonah here. In verse 9 and the latter part of verse 10. Let’s look at that. And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. In the latter part now of verse 10, for the men knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. Obviously, Jonah doesn’t reiterate everything that he’s told us. in the first part of the book here about what he’s done. He sort of just summarizes that he had told them that and so that they are aware of everything. When they asked, you know, whence comest thou in what is thy country, he says, I am a Hebrew. Why might Jonah say that he was a Hebrew rather than an Israelite? Why wouldn’t he say he was an Israelite? Why did he say he was a Hebrew, you think? Where’s Jonah from? Is he from the northern? are from the southern kingdom of Israel? Does anybody remember? No, he’s from the northern kingdom. He’s from the northern kingdom. His ministry seems to be there in the north. Why might that be a reason that he didn’t say that he was an Israelite? What’s happening at this point? But the, what? And the golden calves, right? Both of us. So, Jehu tried to wipe out the bail worship, but they were certainly wedded to the golden cast. And so if he said he was an Israelite, it may have been a bit confusing since they’re worshipping at least more than one god up there, and the golden cast were the chief ones. What would the word Hebrew suggest? What is the word Hebrew connected with? We’re going to get George asking a question or answering your question. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. What else? Yes. I think that’s what he’s, what he’s saying? That the idea is, I, you know, I worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the covenant God. And so I think he’s, because of the on apostasy in his own land, he sort of wanted to clarify that a little bit and indicate the kind of God that he is worshipping. And I think that might be the reason. and he used the word Hebrew here rather than Israelite, who would, the Israelites had been given over more to idolatry at this point, and they weren’t as faithful to the true God Jehovah. And so he’s not have any connection with the fictitious gods. He says, I am worshipping the God of Abraham, the father of the country. Hebrew. The second question is, what is thy occupation? He says here, I fear the Lord, the God of heaven which he hath made the sea in the dry land. How does Jonah answer here, I fear the Lord, answer the question about his occupation? So they sort of ask him, what is thy occupation here? What does he mean by the word fear there? What do you think that that, I think it’s a broader term than just I’m afraid of or I reverence. What else is connected with that, you think? I worship, I serve. Yes, I think it carries that connotation with it so that that would fit right in with his occupation as the prophet. He does not worship the god of any particular country, a regional god, so to speak, but the sovereign God of all the earth. And he mentions God as the creator, both the sea and the dry land. Russell. Well, often the word fear is used in the sense of worship. That’s right. And sometimes it’s the word fear can just mean you reverence the Lord, but reverence can take in the idea of worship. and so forth. But he seems to be indicating here he worships, he serves this God, the Lord God, the Creator God. So while there are many gods, verse 5, they were all praying to their various gods. Jona here contends he’s a prophet of the one true God, Jehovah. And then they say, tell us for whose cause this evil has come upon us, and in the answer to that, we see the second part of verse 10, he explains how he had fled from the presence of the Lord. What is confessed here in verse 10b? And what does this reveal about the uselessness of trying to keep your sin hidden? I guess what I’m asking you to do is connect verses 9b and 10b together. What’s the indication here? Jehovah is the God of heaven and the earth? Can, Joan, John, to truly flee from the presence of the Lord? No, as we talked about in the past. You can’t. You know, he tells us who this God is, and then the indication is that, you know, this is where his worship is centered, but he can’t really flee. And I think that the whole episode here on the Mediterranean and the storm and so forth indicate very clearly that he cannot run from his duty and service to the Lord. The storm is sent to fetch him back. No doubt Jonah told this with some sorrow and shame, justifying himself, or justifying God and condemning himself. And he disclosed this to the sailors. But is he disclosing all this, he’s revealing what a great God the Lord is. to these sailors. Now, he didn’t want to really testify to the Gentiles. He didn’t want to take the message of the God to the Gentiles, but he’s forced to here by the Lord. As we mentioned at last time. And so we can consider this God, and look at this tempest he’s hurled at me, who has tried to flee from his presence, just a single renegade servant. And so you can imagine, we’ll kind of God, great God this God is. So this is the confession of Jonah. And then we see the great fear of the sailors in the first part of verse 10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid and said to him, why hast thou done this? What is the reason for the heightened fear? Have you notice the heightened fear now of the sailors? Look at the first, look at verse five. When the storm comes up, they are said to be afraid. Now when Jonah explains why the storm came up, they are exceedingly afraid. So there’s a heightened fear that comes upon. Why is that? It took her back. Because that’s not the kind of thinking that they have. Okay. But I think that that’s common in all atheists, it seems to be their focus. Yeah, yeah. So if they’re not having them. having good crops, they go to the crop god, you know, the one handles the fertility and so forth. So here they, you can see that this puts some real fear into them at this point. Now, what may these sailors have known about the God of the Jews, the God of the Hebrews? What has been known? What has been recognized by the other nations about the God? of Israel, the Jehovah God, I should say. You think they’ve heard any stories about this God? Yeah. You’re certainly the Jericho, the… Okay. You know, Egypt was not some little country in some corner of the earth at the time that the plagues were falling upon it. It was one of the great nations at the time. And so it was well known. And it was, you know, they had this dynasty and this power and so forth and all of a sudden they get absolutely devastated by the true God with all these plagues and the first border debt and crops are destroyed and the you know everything gets wiped out and you can imagine you know people were having to go down there and get you remember they were going down there and they became a trade you know they were a big trade center and so you could imagine that people were well aware as they traded with Egypt. They had a lot of grain and things like that that they would grow and so they knew about what happened. They could probably see it if they ever, if they went down there. People probably came back and said, boy, the place is devastated. You said, see what happened to it. So they hear about these kind of things happening. You can imagine them hearing that the Red Sea parted. And the Israelites were crossed on dry ground and when fairer, and his army tried to do it, they got drowned in the Red Sea. I mean, that had to be, his army’s gone. You know, he’s gone. That had to be quite a big issue. You can imagine, you know, somebody that’s in a prominent position if the chancellor of Germany got assassinated or something like that, we’d hear about it. You know, it would be, you know, one of the main topics. So if you took here Egypt and you you find, hey, the Pharaoh’s gone. He got drowned in the Red Sea. I mean, that had to be something that was spread abroad as well. And then, of course, yes. And they should send it back. Yes. They can’t keep the Ark of God. I mean, these are the kinds of things that God would give a testimony before the wicked. I mean, you could imagine in the day of Joshua when the sun stands still so they can finish the battle. The sun didn’t go down. We couldn’t escape. you know, we couldn’t get, we thought darkness was going to hide us, and the sun didn’t go down. You know, things like this have an effect upon people. They notice this kind of stuff happening. And you can imagine when you have the Syrians in their great commander, Naman gets healed of the dreaded disease of leprosy, unheard off. Things like this. or remember both widows were not Israelites, but both had their sons raised from the dead. Right? Those had to be something that people would notice. So these kinds of things would indicate that there was a great God, this God of the Hebrews. Some weak local regional deity, this is the God that’s pursuing Jonah. No wonder, like we said that, no wonder they’re afraid. This is not. not this is not a god that we can escape the jurisdiction of. Now, what is indicated by the sailors when they ask him why he did this? Why hast thou done this? Are you crazy, Jonah? What are you doing? You know, it’s like, are you nuts? How could you do this? I think it’s more of a rebuke than it is a question. It’s like, you’ve lost your mind. You know, you’re crazy to do this. that God, you know, they’re in this, all this big trouble, and they’re thinking, why did you reject the Lord God? Why did you run away from your duty? Was he so unworthy of your trust? I mean, was he such a hard taskmaster? Didn’t you have any alternative? Why didn’t you just listen to him? I think all that can come through here. And, you know, how could you provoke the most powerful, and most feared God and get us into such a mess like this is their thinking, I think. So we see the great fear of the sailors. Now, let me just, we’ve been sort of making some practical implications, but let me fill the mile a little bit here. There’s a difference between admission of your sin before men and confession of your sin before the Lord. You know, this vague, you know, general admission of wrongdoing before men, it’s sort of a people’s talk about a catharsis, you know, get it off your chest, things like this. True confession focuses upon God, his holiness, his glory, his right to be offended by your waywardness, that you’ve sinned against the Lord. The sailors were interested in mission of wrongdoing, but didn’t seem to get around to this confession of guilt before God. You know, when God comes into the garden after the fall, He walked with Adam and even the cool of the day, it seemed. And he brings the criminals out of their hiding place into his presence. And he says, Adam, hast thou eaten, Eve, hast thou eaten, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, he is asking that question, not to discover the fact, he already knew that they had eaten. off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But to get them to confess their guilt, right? To induce a confession, their liability to be punished, to admit their offense before God. Now, Adam replies, the woman thou gavest me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. I said, I did eat, but really the problem was this woman. You gave her to me. and when he asked Eve about the matter, she admits she ate, but the serpent begowed me. They both blame shift. They don’t, they don’t want to confess, yeah, I did wrong, I shouldn’t have done what, they seem to like to try to mitigate the wrongdoing that they had done. What is it that you do when you confess your sin? Is it merely the fact of your sin? or you have a list of excuses so you can blame shift your sin? What we need to do, do is be like David in Psalm 51, talk about the exceeding sinfulness of our sin. Talk about, you know, how that we are corrupt and depraved by nature. We came into this world as sinners, and it’s because of my own sinfulness, my own, the corruption of my own flesh, that I ended up doing this. And as we see in Joshua. give glory unto the Lord, make confession unto him. That’s what he told Aiken. And that’s what we should do when we confess our sin before the Lord. You should give glory to God as the heart searching, all-seeing, all-knowing, Lord. Who alone can measure all the criminal aspects of your sin, who alone knows all the bitter fruits that will eventually come out. of your sin and alone can master and reverse the evil of your sin and work it all for your good. Who alone through the death of Christ can provide remission of the sin that you have committed. You can wash away your sin through Christ. If you confess the man only, yeah, you did wrong, you shouldn’t have done that. That’s all they can tell you. but if you can go to God, you can find forgiveness. Things can be repaired. So we don’t want to hide our sin or make excuses our sin. We want to give glory to God, and giving glory to God means confessing it to him and repenting of the evil that we’ve done. The second thought I suggest to you is this. You should ponder these facts when you find yourself in a backslidden condition. Consider the God against whom you’ve sinned. you see heaven and earth you see all that’s creation around you this is the God that you sin against you know from the scripture and the events of scripture the power the authority the holiness the justice of this God that you serve are you crazy enough to think you’re going to avoid answering to him you challenged the Lord God we’re but an ant in his cry in his sight were like a mere creature before him. Consider that you belong to God’s chosen people. Jonah belonged to God’s people. He’d received God’s love and mercy. He knew the Lord by divine covenant. He found the blessings that are in Christ. He was an Israelite indeed. And you and I, if we know the Lord, we are true Hebrews. We are the sons of Abraham by faith in Christ. We are a Jew inwardly. We are part of the Israel of God, as the scripture indicates to us. You’ve been grafted into Israel’s olive tree. You’re a partaker of the privileges and the advantages of being connected with the people of God. You’ve been enlightened by God’s truth and you know the way of acceptance with God. And it’s against a heavenly father who has loved you from all eternity that you’ve sinned in this man. you’ve sin against a God who is a gracious God and a forgiving God. This aggravates our sin before God. Like the prodigal son, we need it, who made his confession to God and the father, his own father. We need to make our confession to our heavenly father. Consider the fact that you fear God. God’s very grace is operating within you. His son is formed within you. The Holy Spirit resides within you. You worship. You serve the Lord God. That ought to help us. and restrain us from knowingly disobeying the Lord. God works in us both the will and to do of his good pleasure. It’s against the instincts of a new nature. The claims of Christ, the loving promptings of the Holy Spirit that you allow indwelling sin to break forth. That should soften your heart. And then ask yourself this question. Why hast thou done this? Why didn’t you listen to God? Was he that unfavorable towards you? Has he treated you unfairly? Produce your evidence against the Lord. Have you found a better God to serve? Have you found a more worthy God to serve? When you think about the sweet fellowship you’ve had with the Lord, when you think about the precious promises that he’s given you in his word, when you think about all the good things, that he has provided for you in this life? Why has to done this? It leaves us inexcusable, doesn’t it? You know, the Bible says your sins have withheld good things from you, and therefore we should think about that. You could have had something much better, but you settled for less. So there are good questions to ask ourselves. Any other thoughts on this study this morning? Maybe something that I didn’t touch on, or something you think you think. could add to the study this morning. All right, let’s close with prayer. Keith, could you close us with prayer this morning?