What we can learn from the story of Jonah

Jonah

Jonah is the next prophet we will look at again via Kim’s paraphrase version but I recommend you read it in the Book of Jonah.  Jonah was prophet/ watchman in a time when Israel was bitter.

2 Kings 14 (New King James Version)
²³ In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria, and reigned forty-one years. ²⁴ And he did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. ²⁵ He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher. ²⁶ For the LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter; and whether bond or free, there was no helper for Israel. ²⁷ And the LORD did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven; but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. 

Jonah was bitter and when God told him to go to Nineveh and tell them that if they did not repent that God was going to destroy them, He ran toward Tarshish.  Why did he run? Because He knew that if they repented God would have mercy on them and save them, Jonah didn't want God to forgive them.  He wanted God’s revenge not mercy for the people of Nineveh.  Remember I have said in previously that the job of a watchman is to watch and then warn, God takes this responsibility very seriously and isn't about to let Jonah off the hook. Jonah gets in a boat heading to Tarshish and God sends a storm Jonah just sleeps in the bottom of the boat while the others are crying out God why are we about to die in this storm and they go to the prophet and say Why is God doing this. 

They had the fear of the Lord and Jonah was a prophet, they knew that he would know what to do.   Jonah says it’s because of me throw me over the side of the ship and the storm will end.  Maybe Jonah chose to die rather then have mercy shown to Nineveh, but God had a plan also.  Bitterness causes many horrendous actions and reactions in our lives.  Our body adjusts to it by changing chemicals in the body, like dopamine, serotonin, Melatonin. These are the chief causes of many of the mental illnesses, including depression, Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar etc.  The Body tries to do something that the spirit should be doing. While there are any number of things that cause mental illness bitterness, fear, Jealousy and wounds are the chief ones.  Jonah felt all of them.  

Also the stress it takes to be bitter can drain us of energy, cause heart attacks strokes and many other problems. Bitterness hurts us much more then the person or thing we are bitter about. Jonah lived in a time when the people were in crisis all the time. He needed to learn forgiveness, grace, and mercy.  He could have run to Secret place of the Most High (Psalms 91:1) but instead he went the other way.
 So the storm comes because God doesn't give up on Jonah, and the men do throw Jonah overboard, and the storm stops.

God had prepared a fish to swallow Jonah up.  Poor Jonah, talk about “out of the frying pan and into the fire”. God is relentless for us He sends one thing after another to help us do what He knows we need to do.

So for three day God helps and protects Jonah in the belly of the Whale.  He protects him from stomach acids it had to be bad in the belly. Sea weed all over him and all the other disqusting things floating in a fishes stomach.

After three days in the belly of the Whale (Big fish) he cries out  Oh God out of my agony I cry out and God answered me. “Out of the Pit of destruction Sheol

 I cried out, and you heard my voice, for YOU cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, floods surrounded me, your waves billowed passed over me, I told you “I have been cast out of your sight yet I will look again toward your holy temple.” The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; {You just left me here God}

You even let weeds get wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains, this likely means that the big fish picked him off the bottom of the sea. The other possibility is that Jonah is just pouring out of his despair. 

The earth with its bars closed behind me forever. You left me there way too long and I could have died, if you hadn’t been God. Yet God you have brought my life from the pit O Lord, my God. When my soul fainted in me I remembered You, I prayed and went up to you, into your holy temple Okay it would seem the ranting is coming to an end for Jonah and now he is willing to hear God again. Then although grudgingly he says “I will sacrifice to You God, I will go to those selfish people who regard worthless Idols, have no mercy. I will sacrifice with thanksgiving and do what I vowed to you. Jonah has surrendered the to will of God.

Then the whale vomits him out.  Now this poor guy covered in fish vomit, sea weeds and other disgusting things goes to Nineveh.

There are hundred of stories that could be told about all this but I want to push on to the end of the story.  Jonah goes to Nineveh and tells the people to repent and they do and God forgives them, and they are saved.

What does Jonah do now? Jonah 4

Jonah was not happy and he became angry and he prayed to the Lord 

“God this is just what I said when I was at home so I fled to Tarshish because I know you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, one who chooses not to do harm.  The interesting thing to me here is that Jonah has already forgotten that God also just forgave and saved him. So now you can just take my life, for I don’t want to live knowing you forgave them. Just take my life I don’t care anymore it would be better if I was dead.”

  Sense of entitlement is something we often think as Christians, children of God that we are owed

And the Lord replies “do you think it is right for you to be angry?”

Jonah doesn’t seem to answer him he is discouraged depressed and feeling sorry for himself and is not making good decisions. And he goes out to the east side of the city, to watch what would happen to the city.  Now God is all that Jonah said he was, a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness,

so God prepare a plant a gourd to grow up and give him shade and Jonah was very thankful for the plant.  This is very similar to what we saw Elijah do when he ran away from Jezebel’s letter and I suggest he does it for the same reason; he thinks that God cares more for everyone else and not for himself.  The next morning God prepared a worm and it damage the plant and it withered. 

 It happened then that the wind began to blow and the sun beat on Jonah’s head so that he was hot and grew faint; again we see that Jonah wished to die. “God it is better for me to die then to live just take my life”

Then God challenges Jonah’s thinking,”is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”  Jonah answers “yes it is right for me to be angry even to death.”  Then the Lord answers and says, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not worked or made it grow you didn’t do anything to make it, and it came up in a night and was gone in a night.  Then why shouldn’t I have pity on Nineveh, that great city which is more then one hundred and twenty thousand people that can not discern between their right hand and their left hand plus their livestock?” The similarities between what Jonah did and what Jesus did are found in: Matthew 16 it shows us that the story of Jonah is symbolic of what Jesus does on the cross, but we never do see the end of the story of Jonah if he repented and decided to do the will of God in the future or if he just stayed in his sorrow, and maybe died.  

Jesus is the Garden of Gethsemane also pray Father if it be your will let this cup pass from me and this is the better ending Jesus, honored The Father and went to the cross to fulfill the will of the Father.

These are decisions every watchman or warriors will have to decide, your own agenda will never get the results you want; obedience to God will stir up our heart only if we let it.  Watchman or warriors need to see bad things the way God does as an opportunity to save the lost.  We need to choose to do the will of God and thus Honor God. This will free us of so many things that life will mean fruitful growth and happiness.

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