Awash In Deep Troubles

Terry Siverd
01/17/16 - Sun AM

Series: Man Overboard: Jonah In Jeopardy

AWASH IN DEEP TROUBLES

Pt#2 / Man Overboard: Jonah In Jeopardy

Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd

Cortland Church of Christ / January 17, 2016

 The book of Jonah opens with a very explicit directive from God that comes with clarity and responsibility.

Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me / Jonah 1:2

Jonah knows that his role, as a Jew in general and a prophet in particular, is to “speak the oracles of God”.

cf. Rom.3:2 and Acts 7:38

But Jonah chooses to RUN FROM GOD.

Surely He knew the truth that David discovered years before him (Ps.139:1ff):

Where can I go from Thy Spirit?  Or where can I flee from Thy presence?

Intellectually and educationally Jonah must know that it is IMPOSSIBLE to run and hide from Almighty God.

But, here is a case when his emotions get the better of him.

We sometimes forget that prophets like Jonah - - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Elijah and all the rest - -

were men “with a nature like ours” (Js.5:17) and subsequently were sometimes prone to disobedience.

We humans (even the prophets and apostles) have a tendency to rationalize our behavior.

Jonah did this as he defied the directions of Jehovah God.

Simply stated (as we saw last Sunday):  Jonah could not countenance the idea of God

bestowing compassion, grace and favor upon a city so very WICKED as Nineveh.

The very thing that was keeping the northern tribes of Israel from being blotted out was the grace of God.

2Kg.14:24 (see today’s FamilyMatters essay) states that King Jeroboam II, “did evil in the sight of the Lord;

he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat (his father), which he made Israel sin.” 

Yet Jonah was unhappy with the notion that God’s grace could likewise be extended to Nineveh.  

So Jonah devised a scheme to flee to Tarshish, a Phoenician outpost in SW Spain on the edge of western civilization.

He went to Joppa (modern-day Joffa)  - - the same place where Peter received a vision regarding the call to

preach the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 10).  There he contracted with a sailing vessel and began his flight.

? Read from Jonah 1:4-15 ?

At some point after the ship headed out to sea (whether it was hours or day we don’t know), a perfect storm arose.

Sinclair Ferguson in his book, Man Overboard, pg.21, speculates that Jonah

(in his state of rationalizing) made have been guilty of misreading his circumstances. 

He has a safe trip to Joppa.  He quickly finds a ship headed 1,000 miles westward.  He has the funds to pay his way.

What thoughts may have flashed through Jonah’s mind at that moment?

Was God being merciful to him, after all? 

Was this a sign from God, prospering him with the niggling condemnation of his conscience?

Did God in some ways sympathize with Jonah, and understand the very difficult position in which His servant was placed?…

Jonah might will have thought, he could be mistaken - - perhaps God had not really called him to Nineveh.

With such a frame of mind the provision of a berth on a boat to Tarshish was, perhaps, a gracious providence indeed.

If Jonah had been entertaining such thoughts, they would soon be dashed.

He promptly discovered the reality of Heb.10:31, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God”.

Storms were not uncommon on the Mediterranean Sea.

Vs.4 states that “the Lord hurled a great wind and sea…so that the ship was about to break up.

  Ps.104:4 declares, “(God) makes the winds His messengers, flaming fire His ministers.”

  We know from the gospel record that “the winds and the waves obey His voice” (Mk.4:41).

Those on deck became very animated and adgitated (vs.5).

They cried to their god, but also began feverishly lighting their load (throwing cargo overboard).

Strangely, the latter part of verse 5 notes that

Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down, and fallen sound asleep.

The original text implies that he was snoring.

Jonah was ADRIFT, literally at sea - - but more importantly, inwardly and spiritually.

Heb.2:1 states, “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”

Jonah was sound asleep, but his sleep was most likely not truly SOUND in the sense of healthy and wholesome.

Jonah’s situation reminds us of King David after his sin with Bathsheba.

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away… / Ps.32:3-4

Suddenly Jonah was awakened by the captain of the ship (vs.6).

It was a rude awakening in more ways than one.  First of all the ship was in extremely dire straits.  And secondly,

the captain used words that were a haunting echo the words of God:   ARISE … AND CALL OUT.   cf. Jonah 1:2 & 6

The ship’s crew interrogated Jonah with a flurry of questions: 

“what is your occupation?” … “where are you from?” … “what is your country?” … “what nationality are you?”.

Jonah avoided answering the first question (as to his “occupation”) and simply told them (vs.9):

I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.

There is a strong irony that appears in the text at this juncture.

These frightened, pagan sailors asked the prophet of the Lord, Jonah:  “HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?” (vs.10).

Jonah had revealed to them that he was “fleeing from the presence of the Lord”.

Whereas it is usually God’s prophet who rebukes the pagans in this instance Jonah is being rebuked by the pagans.

Frantically they asked, “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?” (vs.11).

Here we must give Jonah some credit.  His integrity has totally unraveled.

With an honest and courageous confession he directs them to, “pick me up and throw me into the sea” (vs.12).

We can’t help but be somewhat surprised that the sailors didn’t act immediately to do that very thing.

Instead they rowed “desperately” in the face of a relentless storm that was worsening by the minute (vs.13).

And the irony continues.  “They (the pagan sailors) called on THE LORD (Jehovah God - - Jonah’s God).”

O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life and do not put innocent blood on us (vs.14).

This statement made by these sailors who worshipped pagan gods stands

in stark contrast with the words of the Jews of the first-century  who claimed  to be worshippers

of Jehovah God, yet clamored nevertheless to have Jesus crucified with their sacrilegious shouts,

“His blood be on us, and on our children.” / Mt.27:25

Isn’t it amazing how God can make some good things come from our bad choices!

Who knows but that these sailors may have been converted to the One True Living God by Jonah’s disobedience.

Ferguson notes (Man Overboard, pg.17) - - his comments make me think of Saul of Tarusus:

“There are times in our lives when the Lord will employ us in his service despite our disobedience,

to demonstrate that the grace, the fruit, and the glory are entirely His.

Here indeed is evangelism and the sovereignty of God!”

This episode of this amazing story ends with vss.15 & 16

  They picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.

  And then, in support of the idea that the sailors had undergone a true conversion, vs.16 adds,

“Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.”

Next Sunday we will continue this series with a study of chapter 2, which actually begins with chapter 1 and vs.17.