Introduction

We’re looking at a very famous book of the Bible across October.  Jonah is probably one of the top 5 most well-known stories from the Bible.  It reminds me of ANOTHER story … of a kindergarten class … where the teacher is giving a lesson on sea creatures.  And the teacher tells the students that though whales are enormous creatures … they feed on tiny little plankton … because their throats aren’t big enough to handle anything larger.  And little Cindy puts her hand up and says ‘But SIR … wasn’t Jonah swallowed by a whale?’  To which the teacher said ‘I hate to break it to you Cindy … but it’s physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human.  Their throats aren’t big enough’.  Cindy just shrugs … and says ‘well … when I get to heaven … I’ll ask Jonah’.  A little irritated … the teacher retorts ‘well what if Jonah went to Hell?’  To which Cindy replies … ‘then I guess YOU can ask him, Sir’.

Now at the outset … it’s worth dealing with the elephant in the room … which is how can a person be SWALLOWED by a whale … or as the text literally says … ‘a great fish’ … survive for 3 days … then be vomited out safe and sound?  And the answer is really simple.  IF there really IS a God … who created the whole universe … then causing a great fish to swallow a wayward prophet … is small fry.  The visible universe is 93 billion light years in diameter.  What that means is … IF you started on one side of the universe … then travelled at the speed of light … which physicists tell us is theoretically impossible … it would take you 93 billion years to reach the other side.  That’s how enormous the universe is.  And Psalm 8 tells us God put that together with his FINGERS.  So SURELY that God is more than capable of performing a little miracle with a whale.

My HOPE for this series though … is to find the meaning BEHIND this story.  And IF we can discover WHY God put this strange little book in the Holy Bible … my guess is it’s going to blow your mind about the God of the Bible.  And the reason I say that … is because it’s blown my mind … just in the last month.  Now some of us might be thinking ‘Surely you’ve listened to and even GIVEN plenty of sermons on Jonah before Brendan.’  And you’d be right.  I have.  But I came across a set of Jonah sermons by Tim Keller last month … that have literally changed my life.  I’m not joking.  And the passage that has MOST changed my life … is Jonah chapter 1.

And the thing that has changed my life is what God teaches Jonah in this chapter.  And that is that JONAH was ‘running from God’ LONG before he boarded that ship bound for Tarshish.  One of the MAIN lessons of this book … is that we ALL … Christian and non-Christian alike … are running from God in some weight, shape or form.  And God sends storms into our lives … to wake us up to this fact.  Now you might be thinking ‘but I’m a Christian Brendan.  I’ve been a Christian for years.  I’m not running from God.’  To YOU I would say ‘look at Jonah’.  His occupation was full-time prophet of God.  His CAREER was teaching people God’s word.  Yet he still gets this wrong.  So if a FULL-TIME prophet can get this wrong … then surely so can plebs like you and me.  We ALL need this series.

And to unpack THIS passage … I’ve got 3 points … as your sermon outline shows.  The FIRST point is how we are ALL running from God in some way.  And I’ve titled this point (i) Jonah rejects the Lord’s plans … v. 1-3.  We’re THEN going to see how God WAKES us up to this fact … which I’ve titled (ii) Jonah is woken by the Lord’s storm … v. 4-10.  We’ll then conclude with our application … which is realising the ONLY way to stop drowning in life … is to FACE whatever is drowning us.  So this point is titled (ii) Jonah jumps into the Lord’s storm … v. 11-17.  That’s what’s changed my life in the last month; jumping into the Lord’s ‘storm’ in MY life.  My prayer is this passage will change you too.  There will be a time for questions at the end.  But until then, let’s dive on in.

Jonah rejects the Lord’s plans (v. 1-3)

And the book of Jonah begins with these words:

Jonah 1:1-2 (NIV) The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

Now just quickly … Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria … who was the first nation in history to attempt world domination.  And about 50 years AFTER the events of this book … Assyria wiped out Jonah’s nation … the northern kingdom of Israel.  So this request … for Jonah to go and preach against Nineveh … would be like asking a Jew TODAY … ‘go to the middle of Tehran … and preach against the Ayatollah Khamenei.’  This is suicide.  So what does Jonah DO with this suicide mission?

Jonah 1:3 (NIV) But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

So instead of going north from Israel … to avoid the desert … then west to Nineveh … Jonah goes south to Joppa … then east to Spain … the end of the known world.  Why?  To flee from the Lord.  But here’s the thing.  Jonah is a prophet of God.  What that means is … he KNOWS you cannot run away from an omnipresent God.  He says as much down in v. 9:

Jonah 1:9 (NIV) … “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

There’s nowhere to hide from the God who made everything.  What Jonah is actually fleeing … is a RELATIONSHIP with the Lord.  V. 3 literally says Jonah was ‘fleeing from the FACE of the Lord’.  It’s a relational term.  And why is Jonah fleeing a RELATIONSHIP with the Lord?  Well this is the first thing we need to know … if this passage is going to change our lives.  Jonah is fleeing from a RELATIONSHIP with the Lord … because the Lord’s PLANS for Jonah have threatened his identity.  Let me explain.

Outside the book of Jonah … this prophet is only mentioned one other time in the OT.  It’s in 2 Kings 14:25 … which talks about King Jeroboam the second.  It says this:

2 Kings 14:25 (NIV) He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea, in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.

Jonah was the prophet who told Jeroboam II to expand the borders of Israel.  So Jonah’s identity … is being a successful leader … of a successful nation.  Now I said before that God’s plans for Jonah LOOK like suicide.  But that’s not what Jonah is worried about.  A quick spoiler alert … but in chapter 4 Jonah says the REASON he fled to Tarshish is because he knew that IF the Ninevites REPENT … the Lord will relent.  And so Jonah isn’t worried about physical death.  He’s worried about reputational death.  If Nineveh repents of their violence and wickedness … then God will relent from wiping out Israel’s greatest threat.  And that will KILL Jonah’s reputation of being a successful leader of a successful nation.  OK … it’s not PHYSICAL death Jonah is worried about … it’s psychological death.  If the Ninevites repent … it will be like Jonah doesn’t have a ‘self’ anymore.

And this is what I mean when I say that Jonah was running from God long before he boarded that ship bound for Tarshish.  Friends the essence of Sin … when you dig down to its very foundation … is NOT breaking the rules.  It’s building an identity without God at the centre.  The essence of Sin … the REASON we break God’s rules … is because something other than God lies at the centre of our life and identity.

Now for Jonah … that was being a successful leader of a successful nation.  For each of US … it will be something slightly different:

• Some people make being loved or being married the core of their identity

• Others look to money as their ultimate treasure

• Some desperately seek more likes or followers on social media as the centre of their universe

• Others trust in their intellect to find their value

• While others STILL think being SEEN as successful … like moving up the corporate ladder … is what their life revolves around

It will be different for everyone.  But the key to Jonah’s problems … was that he was running from the Lord LONG before he started PHYSICALLY running from the Lord.  Jonah’s problem … like ALL of us to some extent … is he has something other than God as the centre of his life and identity.

Jonah is woken by the Lord’s storm (v. 4-10)

The thing is … God KNOWS how damaging it is for someone to get their identity from the wrong place.  And so what he does … is he sends a storm to wake Jonah up to this fact.  The REASON Jonah goes to sleep below deck is he’s not even AWARE he has a problem.  He’s not aware that his identity is not centred on God.  And that’s the same with ALL of us.  OK … if this great OT prophet didn’t realise his life was centred on something other than God … then surely WE’RE susceptible to that same problem.

And the reason it’s a problem … is because WHEN we make something other than God the centre of our identity … that IDOL will start to drown us … metaphorically speaking.  And it starts to drown us … through it’s insatiable need for affirmation.  As much as modern society tells us NOT to seek validation from others … the simple fact IS … humans cannot validate ourselves.  We REQUIRE validation from outside of ourselves just to survive psychologically.  And IF we’ve chosen NOT to get that validation from God … we will need to get it from somewhere else.

• We will need our boyfriend … or girlfriend to validate us

• We will need our kids to thrive … to show the world what great parents we are

• We will need to make more and more money … to display our value

• We will need to LOOK respectable and moral … so that others will say ‘well done’ to us.

Humans NEED validation from outside of ourselves.  The CLEAREST example of this today is the transgender movement.  Why is it that some transgender people will tear you to shreds if you misgender them … or refuse to use their preferred name?  It’s because they’re drowning in the constant need for their internal identity to be validated from outside.  Whenever we chose something other than God for our identity … our sense of value as an individual … that idol drowns us in it’s insatiable need for validation.

Now BECAUSE God loves his creatures … he will not simply leave us to drown.  What he does … is he sends ‘storms’ into our lives … to wake us up.  Now for Jonah … it was a literal storm.  For the rest of us … it’s usually a metaphorical storm.  It is SOMETHING that shakes us up.  It could be cancer … losing our job … our kids going off the rails … relationship breakdown … financial troubles … being cancelled … you name it.  And God sends these ‘storms’ to WAKE us up to how we’re running from God.

So friends … do NOT despise these storms.  OK … when suffering comes into the average person’s life … our FIRST response is to complain to God.  Christians will say ‘how can you let this happen to me God’.  Non-Christians will say ‘if there really IS a God … why does he allow good people to suffer’.  Now there’s no simple answer to either of those questions.  But PART of the reason … is He is often trying to wake us up to how we’re running from Him.  So do not despise that.  The most PROFOUND kind of self-knowledge there is … is knowing the particular strategies one has for running from God.  It is KNOWING what your idol is.  And you CANNOT be transformed by this amazing passage without that knowledge.  OK … no one is more hopelessly lost than the person who doesn’t even KNOW they’re hopelessly lost.

So do not despise the Lord’s storms.  He sends them to wake us up to our idolatry … to our running from God.

Jonah jumps into the Lord’s storm (v. 11-17)

The final step in this life changing passage is … HOW does God turn Jonah around?  And this is what’s really surprising about this passage … because Jonah doesn’t need to turn over a new leaf.  You see many people think the way to get right with God is to become a good … upstanding … moral citizen.  Like WHEN Christians tell non-Christians about Jesus … the non-Christians USUALLY think we’re telling them to go to church, obey the 10 Commandments and give to charity.  But Jonah was already doing all that.  He didn’t need to clean his life up.  He was already a moral … upstanding church goer.  What Jonah needed … is what we ALL need … Christian and non-Christian alike.  Jonah needed his identity to be transformed.

And that transformation STARTS to happen in the storm.  Now this storm is SO fierce that it’s got these career sailors terrified.  They start calling out to their own gods … v. 5.  When that doesn’t work … they cast lots … kind of like rolling dice … to see who is responsible for this calamity.  And we’re told in v. 7 that the lot falls on Jonah.  Then we read this in v. 11:

Jonah 1:11-12 (NIV) The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

The reason Jonah wants to be thrown into the storm is he’s realised that if he keeps running from God’s storm … he will drown.  What I mean is … if he KEEPS his identity being ‘a successful leader of a successful nation’ … that idol will slowly drown him under the constant need for validation.  And so what he DOES … is he says ‘even though it LOOKS like suicide … I need to be thrown INTO God’s storm’.  And THIS is what has changed my life in the last month.  Let me run through it step by step:

Step 1 is to REALISE we are almost certainly running from God in some way.  If even JONAH was seeking his identity in something other than God … then chances are so are we.

Step 2 is to realise that because God loves us … he will send ‘storms’ into our life … to wake us up to this fact.

Step 3 is to realise running FROM God’s storms is what will drown us.  We will be metaphorically drowned under the constant NEED for affirmation that our idol demands.

The fourth and final step … is to jump INTO that storm … even though it looks like suicide.

Jordan Peterson was once asked if deep suffering is a blessing or a curse.  And Jordan said ‘the only way out of suffering is through.  Take MORE of the thing that poisons you until you turn it into a tonic that restrains the world around you’.  What he means is … IF you are suffering right now … then jump INTO that suffering.  Take more of that suffering.  It LOOKS like suicide.  But it is what builds the resilience that restrains your idol from hurting you anymore.  The only way out of suffering is through it.  Let me give you an example:

If your identity is your career … then that career will be drowning you in a constant need for success.  You will constantly need people affirming what a great job you’re going.  And you will constantly need new challenges to meet … or that next promotion.  What God will do … is he will send a ‘storm’ against your career … that makes it harder and harder to keep those career achievements coming.  New technologies will be introduced … that younger people are better at than you.  You’ll be passed over for promotion by better people.  Your marriage will suffer.  Your health will suffer.  And you’ll finally think ‘what am I doing this for?’  But to cut back your work hours will LOOK like suicide.  No longer measuring up at work LOOKS like psychological death.  But THAT’S what God is calling you to do.  To stop finding your identity in career.

If you idolise control … being in control … then God might send you the ‘storm’ of cancer to show we’re NEVER in control.  And it will look like suicide … to give control of your health over to God.

If you idolise money … God might send you the ‘storm’ of financial issues.  And it will look like suicide to stop hanging onto … or grabbing for more money.  But that’s what God is calling you to do.

The only way to save yourself from drowning in life … is to throw yourself INTO the storm of whatever is causing your suffering.

Now the BIG difference between Jonah jumping into the storm … and you and I jumping into the storm … is Jonah had no idea there was a great fish just beneath the waves … ready to catch him.  You and I on the other hand … can KNOW that God will catch us when we jump into our metaphorical storm.  And the reason we can KNOW God will catch us … is ‘the sign of Jonah’.

Jesus was once asked by the religious leaders to perform a miracle … to PROVE he really was the Messiah.  Jesus said ‘no sign will be given … except the sign of Jonah’.  And Jesus tells us what the sign of Jonah is.

Matthew 12:40 (NIV) For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The cross is Jesus throwing himself into THE storm; the full wrath of God for the sins of humanity.  The difference between Jesus and Jonah is … there was no one to catch Jesus.  He simply sank … under the full wrath of God.  And the REASON Jesus willingly jumped into that storm … was because he wants to save us from it.  The cross is the world’s biggest flashing neon sign … that says ‘God loves you’.

What this means is … God doesn’t allow storms into our life because he hates us.  God loves you.  What he WANTS … is to wake us up to this fact.  Wake us up to the fact that God is infinitely better than sex or money or power.  And that love will NOT stop … until it hurts us enough to wake us up.

Conclusion

So let me close this out with 2 quick comments:

To the Christians among us today.  Next time WE go through suffering … check your life.  Check if God isn’t trying to wake us up to some idol.  And if so … then throw yourself into that storm.  Go THROUGH that suffering … because IT is what will help you cherish Jesus more than whatever your idol is promising you.

To the NON-Christians among us today.  If YOU’RE suffering right now … it’s likely because God is chasing YOU.  And the reason he’s chasing you is because he loves you.  Now it SOUNDS counter-intuitive.  But God sent a huge storm against Jonah … because he loved Jonah.  What God COULD be doing … is trying to wake YOU up.  And here’s the thing.  Giving yourself up to God LOOKS like suicide.  It means admitting your sinful.  It means admitting you cannot save yourself.  And it means giving up control of your life.  All scary things.  But if you can give yourself up to God … and say ‘I don’t care what the costs are’ … let me tell you … you will find a joy and a blessedness and an honour that you cannot imagine.  So if you suspect God might be after you … then please come and talk to me over morning tea … and we’ll see what it will look like to throw yourself into God’s storm … knowing he’ll be there to catch you.