Finally!
Jonah • Sermon • Submitted
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Reckless Driver Arrested After Ignoring Speeding Citation
Police cited a woman for speeding , hoping it would help her to slow down in the immediate future. Their hopes were in vain.
Deputies with the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department pulled over Chauntl Wilson for driving her yellow 2018 Ford Mustang over the speed limit, clocking her at 92 miles per hour (148 km/h) when the limit was 75 (120 km/h). However, after issuing the citation and letting her go, the deputies were surprised when she "accelerated very rapidly" and was shortly clocked again at a speed of 142 miles per hour (229 km/h), almost double the legal limit.
After engaging her in a pursuit, Wilson initially resisted, then eventually relented, and was eventually arrested and charged with willful reckless driving. Police also recovered a small amount of marijuana, which could result in further charges. [They also discovered the she was texing at the same time!]
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said:
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,
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 floods surrounded me;
All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight;
Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord, my God.
7 “When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.
8 “Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their own Mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord.”
10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
The depths of Jonah’s rebellion is evident in Jonah 1. God calls his servant to preach of message of reproof and warning to the wicked people of Nineveh. However, he immediately boards a ship going the complete opposite direction of Nineveh in order to evade the utterly distastful task of preaching to the filthy, murderous, idolatrous Ninevites.
God sends a terrible storm to revive and arouse his sleeping, rebellious servant, and Jonah finds himself (at his request), being thrown into the deep. How far was Jonah going to push his rebellion in order to flee from what God had called him to do?
Is it possible that Jonah was intending to end it all.? There was no way that he was going back up to Nineveh!
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous.
12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
There was no fish at this time, just the raging waters. Jonah must have been certain that he was going to plunge into the depths of the water and perish. Jonah had a somewhat pagan view of God, just as pagan’s subdued the wrath of their god’s by offering human sacrifices, Jonah (perhaps unwittingly), subscribed to the same notion concerning the God of Israel (see Jonah 1:17).
From Jonah’s perspective, the storm was sent as a punshiment from God, from God’s perspective, the storm was sent to revive his servant.
Are you going through a storm right now? Do you feel that God has permitted this trial to punish you, to cause you pain so that you straighten up and fly right? Perhaps you need to try and see things from God’s perpspective. Perhaps your view of God is pagan and not based on the Bible.
Listen to the words of the prophet Ezekiel:
23 Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?
32 For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”
God takes no pleasure in the suffering of people
God takes no pleasure in the suffering of people
Imagine how he feels about his children.
17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Again, when Jonah saw the great fish coming for him, he must have said to himself, “Wow, I thought I was going to drown and that would be it.” “But now I’m going to be gobbled up by this great fish!”
But notice what verse 17 says,
Jonah 1.17 “17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
God could have allowed Jonah to drown, but the text tells us that He prepared a great fish...
Recall the illustration I shared at the beginning of this message. Did you think to yourself what it’s relation with this sermon? Was the pastor just throwing in a illustration for the sake of form? The young lady was rebelling… 92 mph… stopped, 142 mph… stopped again, bigger fine… if the police had not stopped her, what do you think would have most likely happened?
If things are going from bad to worse, could it be that God has prepared a more severe trial to save, rather than to destroy? Yes, friends, out of love for Jonah God hand picked a fish to swallow him up before he drowned! Perhaps that’s God intention for the intensification of our trials?
God Prepares Trials to save and not to Destroy
God Prepares Trials to save and not to Destroy
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said:
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,
And He answered me.
“Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
And You heard my voice.
Did you miss it? Did something just jump out at you? Let me read it again.
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly.
Did you see it?
Let’s quickly review the story from the beginning?
God called Jonah to preach to Nineveh? What did Jonah do that no other prophet mentioned in the Bible ever do? He straight up ignored God, he didn’t argue with God like Moses? He didn’t complain about the hardness of the task like Jeremiah? No, he just made like he didn’t hear a thing! No communication!
When the sailors aroused Jonah from his slumber and implored him to call on his God, did Jonah call on his God? No!
Look at verse 14:
14 Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.”
The pagan sailors pray to Jonah’s God, a god they encountered for perhaps the first time, and Jonah says nothing! Absolutely nothing!
When they ask Jonah who he is what does he reply?
9 So 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.”
He claims to fear the Lord, the God heaven, but doesn’t even communicate with God!
What will it take to get us to really pray? I’m not talking about going through the motions and saying all the right words, I mean really pray?
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said:
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,
And He answered me.
“Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
And You heard my voice.
7 “When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.
The phrase the “belly of Sheol” is used to amplify the meaning of the “fish’s belly.” What is Sheol? The domain of the dead, the grave. Even though God sent the fish to save Jonah, he was so stubborn that he had to come to the point of facing death the snap out of his slumber.
Jonah had to come to the point of facing death to stir him to pray to God. What will it take to get us to pray? Will we have to face death, and escape it by the skin of our teeth to shake us out of our slumber? What will it take?
God will use trials to get us to talk with Him
God will use trials to get us to talk with Him
Like Jonah, God will sometimes “prepare” impossible trials to save us. Are you experiencing something right now? Do you feel like you are going to be digested, your not going to make. You will if you talk to Jesus, if you open your heart up to him. You will make it if you pray, for:
"Prayer is the answer to every problem in life. It puts us in tune with divine wisdom which knows how to adjust everything perfectly. So often we do not pray in certain situations, because from our standpoint, the outlook is hopeless. But nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is so entangled that it cannot be remedied; no human relationship is too strained for God to bring about reconciliation and understanding; no habit so deep rooted that it cannot be overcome; no one so weak that he cannot be strong. No one is so ill that he cannot be healed. No mind is so dull that it cannot be made brilliant. Whatever we need if we will trust God, He will supply it. If anything is causing worry or anxiety, let us stop rehearsing the difficulty and trust God for healing; love and power. "