Sermons
How Will Your Book End?
Series: Man Overboard: Jonah In JeopardyHOW WILL YOUR BOOK END?
Pt#12 / Man Overboard: Jonah In Jeopardy
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / April 24, 2016
Today we come to the end of our sermon series on the book of Jonah.
It has been an exciting study - - with numerous twists and turns, with many of them quite unexpected.
A superficial understanding of the end of this old story also strikes us as both unexpected and sad.
As I said a couple of Sundays ago, if the book had ended at the close of chapter three,
we’d all be happy: Jonah appears to be have attained to a state of renewal …
the Ninevites have repented and God has relented from destroying the city.
However, the book doesn’t end with chapter three. Chapter four depicts a Jonah who has relapsed.
He appears to be hung up by his deep-seated prejudices and stuck on his selfish self.
This truth is borne out by two particular verses.
In Jonah 4:1, Jonah is greatly displeased that Nineveh has repented.
In Jonah 4:6, Jonah is extremely happy with God’s provision of a shade-giving vine.
That which makes us angry and that which makes us happy often reveals more about us than we care to admit.
Such was the case with Jonah.
As Sinclair Ferguson notes (Man Overboard, pg.88):
How we REACT is often a better thermometer of our heart than how we ACT.
We are saddened to see Jonah react or respond the way he has in chapter four.
Whether it is right or wrong to do so, we’ve come to expect more from a prophet of God.
For first-time readers, this is another unexpected turn of events.
It is helpful, I think, to try to place ourselves in Jonah’s sandals.
Not to justify his behavior, but rather to attempt to better understand his behavior.
“After all, he had been on the run; he had been overtaken by a near fatal storm;
hours of darkness in the belly of the fish had followed his nightmare at sea.
Then there was the journey to Nineveh - - and that solemn message he had preached.
It is no surprise then that we find him an emotionally jaded figure as he sits outside Nineveh.”
(Ferguson in Man Overboard, pg.88-89).
We referenced recently, how Elijah had experienced similar feelings when confronted with the wrath of Jezebel.
1Kgs.19:3-4 records that he was afraid and arose and ran for his life … and that he asked God that he might die.
The prophet Jeremiah also tasted this bitter pill of exhaustion. On one hand, he declares,
If I say, ‘I will not remember Him, or speak anymore of His name,’ then in my heart it becomes like a
burning fire shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it. / Jer.20:9
But then on the other hand, he also declares (Jer.20:14 & 18):
Cursed be the day when I way born; Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me !…
Why did I ever come forth from the womb to look on trouble and sorrow, so that my days have been spent in shame?
Perhaps we might be truly shocked to know how many prophets wondered down deep inside
themselves if they were big enough for the task and if it was really profitable to be a prophet.
So it is not unusual to see prophets who had become jaded (wearied; spiritless with fatigue; dulled).
This very well may explain some of Jonah’s behavior - - in a nutshell Jonah was SPENT.
Most all of us have done things and said things in times of deep exhaustion that we would not normally do or say.
There is another facet to Jonah’s relapse that we have also acknowledged - - his BIGOTRY.
Jonah’s anger at Nineveh’s repentance is intensified because it is NINEVEH who has repented.
Most all Jews had learned to HATE the Assyrians and Jonah’s doesn’t appear to be an exception.
They had come to believe that such hatred was legitimized by the detestable acts of the Assyrians.
So strong was Jonah’s nationalist fervor that it drove him to even become antagonistic and rebellious
towards Jehovah God for sending him into such an unworthy mission field in the first place.
But is not just weariness and prejudicial thinking that afflicted Jonah, he was burden by SINFULNESS.
Jonah was committing the same sin the scribes and Pharisees of the first-century would commit in the time of Jesus:
distorting the grace of God into legalism; making God’s unconditional love dependant upon restrictive conditions.
To do this is to DIS-GRACE God.
Thus far, we have not dealt with Jonah’s anxieties about his own reputation.
This may have been a driving force in Jonah’s peevishness. After all, when all was said and done,
he would have to return to Gath-hepher and regions throughout Judea and face his brethren.
His brethren would have surely concluded that he was a traitor and his reputation would have been shredded.
The reputation of the grace of God in Nineveh necessitated the loss of reputation of Jonah in Israel.
Fast forward several hundred years and we see the apostle Paul coming to terms with the reality that his reputation among the Jews would likewise be destroyed because he insisted on preaching a law-free gospel to the Gentiles.
The pattern here is not Paul - - it’s in Paul, but it’s an apostle Paul who has determined to follow in the steps of Jesus.
He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant / Philp.2:7
The final question to this cliffhanger of a story is this:
Will Jonah choose to die to self?
And so the word of the Lord/the call of God comes to Jonah a third time (cf. Jonah 1:1 & 3:1 with 4:9-10).
What will Jonah do?
Will he repent of his stubbornness and sinfulness?
Read Jonah 4:10-11
Then the Lord said, ‘You had compassion of the plant for which you did not work,
and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.
And should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000
persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals.’
The story of Jonah is partially a biography.
But more than pure biography, the book of Jonah is a parable.
In this book of Jonah, the curtain drops rather abruptly and a veil is drawn as to the future.
Jonah doesn’t answer these questions directly.
What will he do? Will he repent or his stubbornness and sinfulness? Will Jonah choose to die to self?
Theo Laetsch, in The Minor Prophets, pg.243, writes the following.
“…(Jonah’s) very silence on this point and the entire tenor of his book speak louder than words.
Jonah would not have written so frank and self-humiliating a confession of his sin if he had not been
sincerely repentant and had not hoped to preserve and save others from similar bigotry and grumbling.”
Huxtable in The Bible Commentary writes:
“By the very act of penning it (his confession), Jonah at once merges out of his former character and
appears in our view not merely as a prophet, but as a remarkably humble and noble-spirited saint.”
The conclusion of the book corroborates these views.
Jonah no longer finds fault with God’s way.
In silent adoration he sinks down before the Almighty God of all grace.
Like Job (Job 40:1-4), Jonah is silenced.
Then the Lord said to Job, ‘Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it.’
Then Job answered the Lord and said, ‘Behold I am insignificant; what can I reply to Thee? I lave my hand on my mouth.
The prophet Habakkuk (Hab.2:20) writes: The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.
This book is a parable, much like the story of the prodigal son. It’s primary audience was the world of Judaism.
From the outset of the call of Abraham and the covenant God made with the nation of Israel,
the Jewish people became immersed in high-mindedness, bigotry and nationalistic pride.
As a result, rather than being a light to the Gentiles they became purveyors of darkness.
The story of Jonah was directed to them, first and foremost, but it also speaks to us today.
We have seen ourselves in the story of Jonah and quite often, we, like Jonah, do not look very pretty.
All of us are writing a book of sorts - - every year we add a new chapter to our biography.
My prayer is that Jonah’s book will help us greatly in writing our book.
So, HOW WILL YOUR BOOK END?
Will I run from God?
Will I turn to God in times of deep distress?
Will I trust God? Will I heed His words and continually live my life guided by His precepts and teachings?
Will I make daily resolutions, reminding myself that God always knows what’s best?
And if it be that along life’s journey I should find myself in a state of relapse and weak in my faith - - bent on
doing my will and not God’s - - will I wallow in self-pity or will I learn to be silent and trust Almighty God?
I am determined, with God being my Helper, that my book is going to end well and I hope you will affirm the same.
The most important goal any of us could have is to end life hearing God say to us:
“Well done, My god and faithful servant … enter into the joy of your Master” / Mt.25:23
