Running From God
May 16th, 2005RUNNING FROM GOD
Jonah 1:1-3
05/15/05
1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
The book of Jonah is one that is familiar to us all. Even young children know the story. It is one of those books that liberal critics love to heap scorn upon because of their unbelief and anti-supernatural bias. The book is written as historical narrative and nowhere is there a hint that this is a made up story used to teach a moral lesson. This is simple but true story of what happened to Jonah and though the book does not identify the author, no one but Jonah could have written it. There are four chapters in this book. In the first chapter Jonah says “I won’t go”. In the second he says, “I will go”. In the third he says, “I’m here” and in the fourth he says “I wish I hadn’t come.” In the first two chapters we see God’s mercy upon Jonah and in the last two chapters we read of God’s mercy to Nineveh.
This book reads, as Peter Williams states, “like an honest down-to-earth confession of a man, who-under God’s discipline-discovered his own weaknesses and prejudices, and passes on the lessons he has learned from that experience for the benefit of his readers.” This book was written so that we might examine our own lives and learn those lessons. You can learn these lessons from the book of Jonah, or you can learn them the hard way as Jonah had to. May I suggest the former method of learning to be the more preferable way! Far better to learn from Jonah’s mistakes than to learn from your own!
Jonah is a book that was written to teach us many things. It has been given to show us that we ought always to obey God’s commands and that God’s discipline awaits those who don’t. This book shows us that you can run from God but you cannot hide. The book of Jonah is a book about God. Jonah reveals the power of God over His creation. We discover that God is sovereign over all things and as Jonah said, that “salvation is of the Lord.” God is revealed as a God of judgment and wrath and also a God of mercy and compassion. In this book we discover God’s worldwide love and universal salvation. Long before John 3:16 was uttered by Jesus, God demonstrated that love by saving the Gentiles of Nineveh. He loved not only Israel, but He loves and saves people from every nation. He is the Lord of the nations. And perhaps the most important purpose of all is to foreshadow the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What does God want to teach you from this book? I urge you to pray and ask Him to show you your faults and weaknesses and to teach you His ways. Are you teachable? Are you willing to humble yourself and learn to walk more closely with God? The prophet Micah, said, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?” Let the book of Jonah teach you so that you learn to walk more closely with God.
In this brief passage, first of all let’s find out what we can about the background of this man Jonah.
I. JONAH THE SON OF AMITTAI Who was this man named Jonah? The name Jonah means “dove”. He was the son of Amittai. Amittai means “my truth”. Jonah was called to proclaim God’s truth. He was a prophet called by God to proclaim His word to the northern kingdom of Israel. The twelve tribes of Israel had split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Jonah was a prophet to the northern kingdom during the reign of Jeroboam II. Jeroboam II was a very wicked king. 2 Kings 14:24 says that “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.” The people of Israel usually did as their king did. They also did evil and therefore deserved God’s discipline. And yet God was merciful to His people.
In 2 Kings 14:25 we read that Jeroboam “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.” Jonah had prophesied that God would thus bless Israel, in spite of her sins, and it came to pass. This verse says that Jonah was from Gath Hepher, which was a town in Galilee. In is interesting to note that in John 7:52 the Pharisees were wrong when they said to Nicodemas, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.” They forgot about Jonah, who was a type of Christ whom they rejected.
Jonah prophesied the expansion and blessing of Israel in spite of their sins. In 1Kings 14:26 we read that “the LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter; and whether bond or free, there was no helper for Israel 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.” God demonstrated his kindness to a people who had neglected His worship and disobeyed His commands. He prospered those who had forsaken Him. Our God is a very patient God. He was patient with Israel and He has been patient with you and me. We have all provoked God many times in our lives by our sins and self-centered living. God could have taken us from this world and put us straight into hell. This is what we all deserve. It is only His mercy that has kept you out of hell and keeps you out of hell at this very moment. Do not take for granted His blessings in your life. Realize what Romans 2:4 says: “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” Let God’s goodness to you this day be an encouragement for you to repent of your sins and turn to Jesus Christ, to be saved from your sins. If you are a believer who has drifted away from God, let God’s goodness and blessing in your life move you to turn away from that which displeases Him. Humble yourself and seek first the kingdom of God again.
Israel had become complacent about their blessings and prosperity. In America today we are no different. We have been blessed above all other nations on earth and yet we have forgotten who it is that has blessed us. In our nation God has been relegated to our churches or our private lives, and our secular mindset today does not want God acknowledged in government or in public places. A chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court was removed from his office because he refused to stop acknowledging God in his position. Thank God for men like Judge Roy Moore. But there are far too few of such men today who are willing to risk loss in the service of our Lord.
It may be that God is calling you to take more of a stand for Him in your own realm of influence. Jesus has given us a Great Commission to preach His gospel to all nations and to make disciples. But we have not always been faithful to do what He has commanded. Jesus said, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” Of course it is never easy to confess Christ before a world who hates Him. We are called to tell them that they must repent of their sins or face God’s judgment. That is essentially what Jonah was commanded to do in Nineveh.
Let’s look now at
II. THE WORD OF THE LORD TO JONAH “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai.” “The word of the LORD” was a common expression in connection with the OT prophets. This phrase was used to signify “both the source of their message and its divine authority.” (Peter Williams) The prophet of God did not deliver his own message or his own opinions to the people. He simply proclaimed the message as it came from God. The prophet received and communicated divine revelation. Jonah was very privileged that the word of the Lord came to him. But you and I are even more privileged! We have the complete word of God in the Bible, which tells us clearly of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. This word tells us how to be saved from our sins and how we can live to please God. We have had this word preached to us each Lord’s Day. We all have one or more Bibles which we can pick up and read at any time we wish. The word of the Lord comes to us through music, Christian books, magazine articles, daily devotionals, CDs, tapes and DVDs.
In this country, the word of God is abundantly available. And yet most Americans treat God’s word as a matter of indifference. What about you? Have you valued, treasured and appreciated the fact that the word of God in all its fullness has come to you? Do you bother to read it and study it? More importantly do you believe it and have you obeyed it? Let’s get specific - has God recently brought something to your attention in your life that is not in accord with His word? Has the word of God come to you telling you to put away some sinful habit or to start living differently than you have been? It may be that God has shown you what He wants you to do, but you have hesitated because it was something that was difficult or painful.
God’s word to Jonah was certainly not an easy thing for him to hear. God said, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” Nineveh was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Assyria which was situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. Today it’s ruins lie opposite the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. The population was large and so was the land that the city encompassed. Jonah 4:11 tells us that there were 120,000 that could not discern their right hand from their left, probably children, which would give a population of about 600,000. Jonah 3:3 says that “Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.” The historian Diodorus Siculus, said that “Nineveh was twenty-one miles long, nine miles broad, and fifty-four miles in circumference; that its walls were a hundred feet high, and so broad that three chariots could drive upon them abreast; and that it had fifteen hundred towers, each two hundred feet high.”
Its inhabitants were wealthy, warlike, and far advanced in civilization. It was the most powerful city of its day. “Its kings were notoriously brutal,” said one commentator, “and they followed a policy of calculated terror to forestall revolts in the small countries they had subjugated.” Nineveh was a great city alright - great especially in its wickedness. Nineveh was a heathen city, without the knowledge and worship of the true God. The Prophet Nahum said of Nineveh in Nahum 3:1 “Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. Its victim never departs.” God said to Jonah, “their wickedness has come up before Me.” Nineveh was ripe for judgment but they were also ripe for harvest as we will see. God’s simple command to Jonah was, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it.” This leads us to the last point we will study this morning:
III. JONAH’S DISOBEDIENCE TO THE WORD God issued a very clear command to Jonah. A command which Jonah clearly disobeyed. God said to go East to Nineveh, and Jonah went West to Tarshish. Verse three says, “But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” What was Jonah thinking? Surely as God’s prophet acquainted with God’s ways, he knew that he could not escape from the omnipresent Lord. He would have known Psalm 139 well. “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” Why then does the text say that Jonah arose to flee “from the presence of the Lord?” Jonah was simply trying to get away from having to submit to God’s commandments. He was running from God and I think we all know what that means. In Genesis 3:8 Adam and Eve, “heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” In the book of Genesis, Cain “went out from the presence of the Lord” signifying that he was no longer in the service and favor of God. We run and hide from God when we turn our hearts away from seeking Him. And when someone turns away from doing God’s will, then he or she is putting themselves away from God’s presence and therefore away from His blessing.
Have you been running from God? The person who runs from God is simply going his own way. Going your way is the very opposite of God’s way. It is the difference between going East and going West. The person who runs from God will try to avoid other Christians. He will stay away from church and from hearing the word preached. The one who runs from God, like Jonah, is running away from responsibility. The text does not say here why Jonah ran, but we know that in all such cases it is due to a desire to please self instead of God. It is sinful pride which causes us to go ahead and do what we want to do instead of doing what God plainly says to do. It is one thing to fail to do what you really did not know you should do. But Jonah knew full well what God’s will was. His was a blatant form of rebellion in the face of crystal clear revelation. God has clearly shown you in His word what He wants you to do. If you know His will and do not do it, then greater judgment awaits you. Jesus said in, Luke 12:47, “And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”
By his direct, willful disobedience, Jonah was preparing himself for a hard road ahead. But initially, he found smooth sailing, as it were. God always brings his children back to Him, but sometimes He allows them to wander far away before He does. Jonah might have started to feel pretty good about his choice. He went down to Joppa; he found a ship going where he wanted to go; he paid the fare, and went down into the ship. Everything was falling into place. Maybe God would just forget about it and let Jonah go his merry way.
In a similar way, you may have gotten into some habit of sinning and at first you were afraid that God would come down hard on you and make something bad happen to you. You waited for God to act, but nothing happened. Then you did it again and still, no response from God. After a while you forget about God and go on in your sin, enjoying it without feeling much guilt at all. If you follow such a course, you may be sure that God has not overlooked your sin. The Bible says, “Be sure, your sin will find you out.” Hebrews says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” God is patient but that does not mean He has turned a blind eye to your sin. Repent now, before His patience runs out and His heavy hand of discipline is stretched forth to bring you back.
Another lesson we learn from Jonah’s flight from God is that we must not seek guidance from our circumstances. Who knows, maybe Jonah prayed and said, “Lord, if you really want me to go to Tarshish instead of Nineveh, then open a door and let there be a ship with room on it when I get to Joppa.” When he got to Joppa, there was the ship waiting on him and someone ready to sell him a cheap ticket. If you are seeking guidance from God, don’t look to circumstances to guide you. Circumstances cannot tell you what you ought to do. Only Scripture can give you such guidance. I can’t tell you how many people I have talked to who thought they were doing God’s will because of some inner impression or outward circumstance, and yet upon investigation they had clearly gone against Scripture in their decision. If you are sinning against God, you will find many open doors to help you along the way. A wise old Scottish preacher from the 19th century named Hugh Martin said that, “Beyond all question, if you are on the paths of sin, on the broad road, .in that path, in that road, you will find means and opportunities, help and facilities to sin.” Of course the very opposite is true as well. If you are committed to doing God’s will from the heart, you will also find abundant means and helps for doing good. God’s providences will all work together to bless you and help you on your way if you are walking on the narrow road that leads to life.
The question that confronted Jonah and that confronts every one of us - is whether we are going to obey God’s will for our lives. If you are here today and you are not saved, then God’s will for you is to turn from your sins and place your trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. His will is that you fully commit yourself to Christ as Lord and Savior. Stop trusting in your own goodness and rely upon Christ alone to save you and give you eternal life. God calls and saves us to live a life of joyful obedience and service to Him. It is a life of true freedom from the bondage of sin - a life of fellowship with and enjoyment of God. If you are His, you are called to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Loving Him means obeying His commands. Of course you will find that His will goes the opposite of human wisdom and personal preference.
Jonah did not want to do God’s will. He thought he would be miserable if he obeyed and went to Nineveh. Jonah did not know what misery was until he lived inside a fish for three days! How do you look at obedience? Do you look at God’s commands as a burden or a joy? Far too often we obey God grudgingly - more out of mere duty and fear than out of joy and love. The Psalmist said, “I find my delight in your commandments, which I love.” Do you have a positive joy in doing God’s will? A humble delight to follow Jesus as His disciple? Serving Christ may be difficult and costly, but it is the way to real joy and true fulfillment. (see Commentary on Jonah, by Gordon Keddie)
Remember, the word of the Lord has come to you today as plainly as it came to Jonah. The Lord says that you are to obey all He commands you and then to go and make disciples of others, teaching them to do the same. You may have to move out of your comfort zone and go to some Ninevites who need Christ. It is time to stop running from the Lord! If you run from God you will find out that He will pursue you. Thanks be to God, He will not leave His children in their sin, but will eventually bring them back to Himself when they wander. But far better to stay on the path of obedience and not leave it. Jonah tells us about his running from God so that we would learn from His mistake. Don’t put yourself outside of His revealed will, or out of His presence. Run to Him, and not from Him! Walk by faith in His promise and obedience to His command. And the Lord has said that when we do, He will be with us, even unto the end of the age.
Mark Wright
