Jonah 1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me
What do you think of when you think of the story of Jonah? You probably think of Jonah and the whale or, yes, the great fish. When I think of Jonah, I think of a Sunday School room with cinder block walls in a midwestern church basement. If you go into the room, there is a low table and small chairs for the little people of the primary class. Up on those cinder block walls are a series of Bible-story posters in cartoonish pictures. Consequently, often we think in the back of our minds that this is a story but not something that is to be taken as truth.
To be sure, this is not really a story about Jonah or the great fish. God used a fish, a storm, a gourd, and an east wind, but they were just part of God’s toolbox to accomplish His purpose. This is a story about God. If there is no God, then the rest of the story would be sheer nonsense. Recently I saw a crazy video from a news outlet of a man who was swallowed and almost immediately coughed up by a whale. I don’t have to see that to know that Jonah’s experience is history. Jonah being swallowed by a big fish was not some accident. It was God-inspired, miraculous. If you take God out of the universe, then any miracle is absurd. If there is a God, then every miracle that would be attributed to Him would be what you’d expect.
Jonah 1:1 says, “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah.” Now, there is no prophecy in Jonah, but the story is itself a prophecy about the Lord Jesus and His resurrection. Verse 2 says, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”
I’ve noticed that what I see in most people is generally consistent. However, what I see is what I bring out of them. So, two people are talking about a third friend and they have two different perspectives on this friend because each of them draws out a different aspect of their friend by their own actions. What you get from people is what you bring out of them. You see the same thing consistently, but you may see something different than another friend would see. Likewise, what you get from God oftentimes is a matter of what you are living, what you are doing. We see here what Jonah drew out of God Almighty. We also see more importantly that this is a story about God and how He deals with people.
Three characteristics are very clear regarding who God is. First, God is aware. God said, “Go to Nineveh, that great city, cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.” There is no wickedness if there is no God. There is just utility. Someone may wish something against the law because they don’t like it. I don’t want to be murdered so I think murder should be illegal, unless it is convenient for me. There is no absolute right or wrong if there is no God. So, there is a God and He has to be the judge of what is right and wrong. He is the author of morality. What I say is not right or wrong. God is just, but He is aware. He said the sins of Nineveh were come up before Him. God saw; God knew; God cared. Nineveh needed to turn to God.
The one person who knew God and was running from Him was Jonah. I used to think that Jonah ran from God because he was afraid. That is not what the Bible indicates. The rest of the story shows he ran from God because he hated the Ninevites. He did not want God’s mercy for the Ninevites. These were the people who became the Assyrian Empire, cruel and ruthless to God’s people So, Jonah tried to flee on a boat, but there was a great storm. The shipmaster asked him, “Why are you sleeping? We are scared for our lives. Call upon your God. Maybe He will think about us and we won’t perish.” So, God is just and aware. He knew about the wickedness of Nineveh and this backslidden prophet named Jonah.
God is unavoidable. Verse 3 says that Jonah fled unto Tarshish “from the presence of the LORD.” That is a great irony because Jonah could not flee from the presence of God. Again, the men on the ship transporting Jonah away from God knew he was trying to flee from God. God is unavoidable. You cannot flee Him or avoid Him. Even when Jonah was in the belly of the fish, he prayed to God. God heard him and gave him a second chance.
I’m so thankful we serve a God who is merciful. In the book of Amos, speaking of wicked people, God says, “Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them.” In Jonah it wasn’t a serpent but a great fish. God is unavoidable.
Finally, God is sovereign. Verse 17 says, “Now the LORD had prepared a great fish.” Later is says God prepared a gourd and an east wind. God was not indifferent to the people of Nineveh to whom he ended up giving mercy, and he was not indifferent to this backslidden prophet named Jonah. He controlled the storm and the fish.
Really, the mariners on the boat were more noble than Jonah. They prayed not just to their gods, but to Jonah’s God. They basically prayed, “God we don’t want to shed innocent blood by tossing Jonah in the sea for You have done what pleased You.” They realized that God was sovereign and in control. Talk to God; don’t run from God. You can be glad that it was Jehovah and not Jonah who was sovereign. If Jonah was in control, he would have struck dead all those in Nineveh and would not have given himself the second chance God gave him.
What are you drawing out of God today by your responses to Him and actions before Him. Jonah is story about God and how He deals with people. He is aware, unavoidable, and sovereign.