Jonah 2
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
So when we left Jonah in chapter 1, we were expecting sure death, but what we find in chapter 2, is that Jonah is not facing death. Instead, Jonah is facing the mercy of God. This is not mercy in the way that we would imagine it.
God’s mercy for Jonah is:
Almost Drowning in the sea.
Living inside an animal.
Having that animal vomit you out.
This is God’s mercy to Jonah, and it’s not how we would imagine God’s mercy.
Someone once called it severe mercy… We will talk about this a little bit later.
Jonah is a representative of God’s people
Jonah is a representative of God’s people
One thing that this chapter makes clear is that Jonah is a representative for God’s people.
Jonah represents the Israelites.
Jonah represents all of us.
This is something that we’ve mentioned a number of times as we’ve studied Jonah over the previous week or so. This book is holding up a mirror.
The Holy Spirit wants us to see ourselves as Jonah, and that was the purpose for the original readers as well. Jonah is a representative for the Israelites, for God’s people, and for all of us.
As I said, this is something that is made clear in this chapter. Let’s break down the chapter just a little bit before we jump into the text.
v2. Tells us that Jonah is in distress and in the belly of Sheol.
v3. tells us that Jonah is in the deep, he’s in the heart of the sea, and that floods surround him.
v.4 tells us that he is driven away from God’s sight.
v5. Tells us that the waters close around him to kill him.
etc…
Why is Jonah in this situation?
It’s because he sinned.
Since he sinned, what is God doing?
God is punishing him, but notice with me that punishment is not the end of the story.
v2. tells us that Jonah was in distress, but God answered. Jonah was in Sheol, but God heard.
v4. tells us that Jonah was driven away, but also says that he will again look upon the holy temple.
etc.
So, even though Jonah sinned and was going through punishment, God’s judgment was not the last word.
Now we have to ask… Why is this even in the book of Jonah? How does this fit in?
To answer this question, we need to look at context.
Context:
Context:
Max always likes to say that some of the biggest rules of Bible study are context and harmony. If we are going to truly understand scripture, then we must understand it in its context.
This isn’t just true of the Bible. In order to be a good listener of any form of communication, then we need to understand the context.
Unfortunately, modern readers of scripture don’t often do this. Instead, we take out the parts that we like and turn them into pictures or bumper stickers. Some in our culture see the Bible as this book of self-contained sentences that have no relation with one another.
There’s a huge problem with this. If we take verses, sentences, or stories out of their context, then we can make the Bible say what we want.
The same words can mean different things in different contexts.
The same sentences can mean different things in different contexts.
The same paragraphs or stories can mean different things in different contexts.
So, when looking at the book of Jonah, we need to ask what is the context of this book?
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Looking at 1:1, we see that the context of this book is prophecy.
This makes sense, when looking at chapter 2. We already said that we see at least 3 elements in chapter 2.
Jonah sinned.
God punished Jonah because of his sin.
Judgment is not the last word: God restores Jonah.
Isn’t this the message of the prophets? The message of the prophets is:
Israel sinned (or another nation)
God punishes them for sin.
Judgment is not the last word: God restores.
So, in other words, Jonah’s story really is the story of Israel. Jonah’s story really is the story of God’s people. Jonah’s story is our story.
Let’s cement this idea into your minds.
1 Set the trumpet to your lips!
One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord,
because they have transgressed my covenant
and rebelled against my law.
2 To me they cry,
“My God, we—Israel—know you.”
3 Israel has spurned the good;
the enemy shall pursue him.
4 They made kings, but not through me.
They set up princes, but I knew it not.
With their silver and gold they made idols
for their own destruction.
Notice here that Israel has sinned against God, and transgressed the covenant.
Notice the language in verse 2… They say the right words, but don’t do the right things.
Doesn’t that sound familiar? Who else did this?
9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
Jonah did the exact same thing.
What was the outcome of Israel’s sin?
8 Israel is swallowed up;
already they are among the nations
as a useless vessel.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
a wild donkey wandering alone;
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Though they hire allies among the nations,
I will soon gather them up.
And the king and princes shall soon writhe
because of the tribute.
Israel is swallowed up. Just like Jonah was swallowed up by the sea, Israel is swallowed up by the kings of other nations
Let’s look at one more example.
34 “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me;
he has crushed me;
he has made me an empty vessel;
he has swallowed me like a monster;
he has filled his stomach with my delicacies;
he has rinsed me out.
Here we see something similar. Israel has been attacked by a foreign king, but what is the metaphor that is used?
It’s like Israel has been swallowed by a sea monster.
Doesn’t that sound familiar?
So, the point of Jonah is to hold up a mirror. Jonah represents the Israelites. Jonah represents God’s people. Jonah represents all of us.
We sinned.
God punished us.
God is the one who has to save us.
So, that’s what we see in this chapter.
Jonah 2:1-3
Jonah 2:1-3
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
Just a couple of things that I want to point out from these three verses.
God hears us in our distress.
God hears us in our distress.
Sometimes we go through things, and we think that God doesn’t hear us. We think that God doesn’t care or understand.
Jonah is clear that God heard him in his distress, Jonah was a broken person. He was fallen and sinful.
Sometimes, we think that we’re so broken that God doesn’t hear us anymore. Of course he does, and that’s what we see here.
God is at work.
God is at work.
3 For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
Jonah says, “you cast me into the deep.” Who cast Jonah into the deep?
He says that it was God.
But looking back at chapter 1, who threw Jonah overboard?
It was the sailors...
So, how could Jonah say that God is the one who cast him into the deep? It’s because he could see God’s hand at work.
Jonah was able to look at his dire situation and see that God was at work in it. He was able to see that his punishment was from God.
This is something that we’ve harped on as we’ve gone through our Bible reading, but this is something that we must be able to do. We must have the discernment to recognize that God could be at work in our lives.
Do you remember what Mordecai said to Esther?
12 And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. 13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Jonah was able to look at his situation and see God at work, but he was a prophet. He has a good excuse.
Mordecai wasn’t a prophet, and he was able to see that God was at work in the world as well.
We must have eyes to see like Mordecai (and Jonah) had eyes to see.
Those sailors might have thrown Jonah out of the boat, but God was at work.
Jonah 2:4-6
Jonah 2:4-6
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
5 The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
6 at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord my God.
In verse 4, Jonah is clearly upset because he complains at the beginning of the verse. He says, “I am driven away from your sight.”
This is ironic. Why is it ironic that Jonah is complaining about being driven away from God’s sight?
It’s ironic because this is exactly what he wanted. In chapter one Jonah was trying to run away from God. He was trying so hard that he attempted to go to the other end of the world.
How did God respond? He responded by giving Jonah exactly what he wanted. Jonah wanted to run away from God, so God sent him away… into the depths of the sea.
God says, “if this is what you want, then I will give it to you.”
That’s the lesson for us: God gives us what we want.
God gives us what we want.
God gives us what we want.
We see this idea in Psalm 115
1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
6 They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
7 They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
8 Those who make them become like them;
so do all who trust in them.
“You want to worship Idols? Fine, then you will become just like them.”
We also see this idea played out through Israelite history.
The Israelites wanted to be just like the other nations; they wanted to live like the other nations even though God called them to be a distinct people among the nations. God called them to be different, but they weren’t. Instead, they were wicked just like nations around them, so what does God do?
“Do you want to be like the other nations? Do you want to live as if you don’t have a God? Then you can go and live with those wicked nations in captivity.”
The Israelites live like the nations, so God sent them to live with the nations… God gave them what they wanted.
Also, the Israelites didn’t want to live according to God’s wisdom, so he plunged them into spiritual blindness.
In Amos 8, the Israelites were living according to their own wisdom, instead of living according to God’s.
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.
“Do you want to ignore my wisdom? Then you can live without it. Then you can wander in spiritual blindness”
God gave them what they wanted.
The same is true for us… God will give us what we want.
If we want to live as if there is no God, then God will give us what we want. God will give us a world and a reality without him.
For those who live as if there is no God, God will give them an eternity without him in Hell.
If we want to live without God’s wisdom, then God will give us what we want. God will give us spiritual blindness.
God gave the Israelites what they wanted… God gave Jonah what he wanted… God will give us what we want as well.
God fixes our mistakes
God fixes our mistakes
So, Jonah is complaining about the consequences of his own choices.
Driven away from your sight
Waters close in over me to take my life
The deep surrounded me.
He’s trapped at the roots of the mountain (The idea is that he’s stuck in an earth prison… Trapped in a pit)
But notice what he says at the end of verse 6.
6 at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord my God.
Jonah has dug himself into a pit, but God is the one who has to get him out.
Do you remember what we said when we discussed chapter 1?
3 But Jonah rose 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, away from the presence of the Lord.
Jonah went down to Joppa
Jonah went down into the ship.
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.
Jonah went down into the depths of the ship.
Jonah laid down and fell into a deep sleep.
What we see in chapter 1 is that Jonah is going down into a state of spiritual slumber/darkness. He’s dug himself into a pit.
Here’s the irony… Can he dig himself out by himself?
No, who does he need to dig him out of the pit?
He needs God to dig him out.
That’s another lesson for us. We put ourselves into horrible situations that we can’t fix on our own.
Think about Adam and Eve in the Garden...
Have we fixed the death problem yet?
Jonah 2:7-10
Jonah 2:7-10
7 When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
I want to take a look at verse 9. In this verse, we see that Jonah is giving thanks. He’s praising God because of the salvation that he offers.
It’s very surprising that Jonah is giving thanks.
Why is it surprising that Jonah is giving thanks in verse 9?
It’s surprising because of his location. Jonah is giving thanks from the belly of the fish.
Severe Mercy
Severe Mercy
Jonah can give thanks to God at this point because he understands that God has shown him mercy. As I said at the beginning of the class, this is not how we would think mercy.
When we think of mercy, we think of God saving us from all of our troubles, from all of our pain, and from all of our consequences.
Some people believe that Christians are free from pain and trouble because our God is a merciful God. This just isn’t true.
What we see from Jonah’s story is that sometimes God’s mercy is severe. Sometimes God’s mercy is painful.
Think about Jonah. God’s mercy involved:
being thrown out into the sea
being eaten by a fish
being vomited out by that fish
For Jonah, God’s mercy was ugly. It was painful. God’s judgment also happened to be God’s way of showing mercy.
This is true for us as well. God’s mercy will be painful for us at times. There may be times where God is punishing us, but it’s not out of vengeance, it’s out of mercy.
This is something that we need to remember. God’s mercy can be painful.
So when we go through pain and trouble, when we are thrown into the depths of the despair, let’s remember that it could be God’s mercy at work.
Obedient Creation
Obedient Creation
10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
The last thing that we see is that God’s creation is obedient…
This is a theme that we have seen, and will continue to see, in this book.
Everything else in this book is obedient except for Jonah.