The Book of Jonah, Lesson 1
(Read this and Jonah 1 prior to the group meeting)
Many of us tend to shy away from most of the Old Testament because of the images it evokes of an angry, vengeful God. It records God’s punishment for sinful disobedience on Abraham’s descendants and the enemies of God’s people. It describes the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden; a mighty flood that left only Noah’s family of eight people alive; the destruction of sinful cities and the cruel enslavement of God’s chosen people for 430 years. And that’s just the highlights. It also contains explicit accounts of the many battles that involved killing every living thing, including women and children. So, it is understandable if you view the Old Testament as being too violent to provide much comfort or to have much relevance to you. But, when you read it carefully, it is difficult not to see a loving, relational God throughout. Nowhere is that more evident in the Old Testament than in the Book of Jonah. In fact, in some respects, Jonah foreshadows the gospel narrative.
The Book of Jonah is more than just a humorous, interesting literary work or simple historical account of a man, a fish, and a wicked city. Jonah emphasizes God’s role in creation and salvation. “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” ( v.9) At least two rhetorical devices are employed by the author: hyperbole or exaggeration and personification or anthropomorphism. It is also jam-packed with theology. There are about a dozen theological concepts introduced in the book. The two primary concepts are God’s sovereignty and his response to genuine repentance. The specific theological concepts that have relevance to us in this chapter include: sin, confession, theodicy, testimony, intercessory prayer and substitutionary atonement. Four more: prayer, repentance, grace and salvation appear later.
God’s Sovereignty. That simply means, if God wills it, it will happen. And it was God’s will that a Hebrew prophet named Jonah would go the city of Nineveh and preach against it. God was angry about the way the pagan people of Nineveh were treating each other. They did not serve or even know him, yet he responded to Nineveh in the same way he did to his own, disobedient people. He sent them a prophet to tell them to clean up their act. But notice he made no promises to them for changing their wicked ways. And we shall soon discover that, although Jonah may have had no love in his heart for the people of Nineveh, God certainly did.
Sin. It almost seems like we are expected to view the sailors Jonah encounters as pagans, just like the Ninevites. As such, Jonah might have considered them to be “less than.” Perhaps because of his sense of superiority and national pride, along with his judgmentalism, Jonah also, initially considered them unworthy of his God’s blessings. Yet he eventually came to view them as worthy of salvation. Jonah sinned by ignoring God and running away. Disobedience is the very definition of sin. The pagan crew cried out to their gods while witnessing Jonah’s God’s awesome power in the storm. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. (v.5) Jonah, on the other hand, slept as the boat he was on sailed headlong into the consequences of his sin.
We can learn two lessons at this juncture. First, it is possible to become so comfortable with our sin that it no longer keeps us awake at night; and second, the consequences of our sin often extend beyond ourselves. There is a storm in the wake of every sinful act. Pastor and popular author, Timothy Keller asserts, “The Bible does not say that every difficulty is the result of sin—but it does teach that every sin will bring you into difficulty.” (Timothy Keller, The Prodigal Prophet, Kindle, Location 252) The world may call it karma, but we know the Bible teaches that we often reap the consequences of our sin. The good news is we do not have to wear that sin around our necks or have it emblazoned on our chest. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 | NIV).
Sin is a topic we don’t talk about much these days. It doesn’t fit nicely with a “feel good” gospel that somehow omits the things Jesus taught and demonstrated by the way he lived his life. If you grew up in a legalistic faith community, you probably still have a mental list of the things they taught that God doesn’t like. I’m not talking about that stuff. Christianity isn’t about following a list of rules. It is about a relationship with a ruler, Jesus, through the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The Greek word often translated as sin is hamartia, it is a word used in archery for “missing the mark.” Two of the most common Hebrew words for sin are chata and pesha. Chata is analogous to hamartia. Pesha means “deliberate rebellion against God.” Jonah’s sin had likely risen to the level of pesha. When we stop to consider what sin represents, we soon will discover that the very heart of sin is pride, placing personal desires ahead of serving God. Sin is the exercise of pride that leads us to attempt to displace God or live as if there is no God. (Walter A. Elwell, ed., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., (Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2001, p. 1104).
We all sin, but the only sin that will result in eternal separation from God is the sin of unbelief. Jonah’s pride, prejudice and sense of superiority certainly contributed to his open rebellion against God. Like us, he inherited the sin virus from our first parents, who infected everyone born after them. And, as their story and the one we are studying demonstrates, the primary, almost immediate, effect of sin, is alienation: from God, from others, and even from creation. Even though we Christ-followers have been filled with his Holy Spirit, we still mess up. Sin is in our DNA. Our sins may have been forgiven but they continue to impact our relationship with God and others.
Sin grieves the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:20) whose job it is to lead us in living a sanctified life; one that honors and glorifies God. If we listen and obey, God is glorified. But, if like Jonah, we hear and ignore the Spirit’s prompting, we sin. When we sin, we drive a wedge between ourselves and God because the Holy Spirit pricks our conscience and makes us feel guilty. Sin causes us to attempt to distance ourselves from God. The gulf between us may grow, but it isn’t because God moved. We have.
Confession. When we feel guilty about our prideful rebellion, we typically respond in one of four ways. We can choose to: run like Jonah, hide like Adam, ignore like King Saul, or confess like King David. Confession, alone, offers hope and restoration. It acknowledges the effect sin has on our relationship with God. Putting words to our failure strengthens us to do more the next time we are tempted to sin. That is what it means to repent—to make different choices when we are tempted. If we confess our sin and repent (turn around and go in a different direction), guilt disappears and our intimacy with God is reestablished. The thing about confession is its lasting results. God is the only one who can truly forgive and forget. As Jesus-followers sin may not count against us in the hereafter, but we are not exempt from paying a price for it in the here and now. Let’s read Jonah’s confession. “I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” (v.12b)
The writer of the Book of James instructed the church to, “. . .confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16a | NIV) When we have sinned against another person, the Bible is clear that where it is possible and will not cause additional harm, we should make it right by confessing. (Matthew 5:23-24). Confession works toward healing and restoring horizontal relationships; the ones between us and other people. But a word of caution from an old chaplain before continuing. Confession often includes apologizing. We should accept forgiveness if the other person offers it. But is it best not to ask them for their forgiveness. Requesting forgiveness puts them on the spot only to make us feel better. Rather than asking them to forgive you it would be better to ask them to pray for you. Forgiveness will often follow.
Confessing our sin to God restores the vertical relationship, the one between him and us. That might seem counterintuitive. Why should we own up to something God saw us do? And why should we take it to him in prayer when he already knows what we are going to say? Psalm 134:4 | NIV says, “Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.” And the prophet Isaiah quoted God as saying, “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” (Isaiah 65:24 | NIV) There are at least three good reasons we should confess to God and, where appropriate, those we have hurt. They are: 1) to restore relationships, 2) clear our conscience and 3) aid in repentance. Restored relationships may be represented by Calvary’s cross, restoration of both vertical and horizontal relationships.
Theodicy. Theodicy is a term used to justify the things God does in a way that demonstrates he is omnipotent, loving and just. What happened to the ship’s crew demonstrates why God sends and sometimes allows bad things to happen to innocent people. “Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.” (v.4) The crew experienced a crisis that was not of their own making. Instead, they were reaping the consequences of another’s (Jonah’s) sinful decision.
In Old Testament times and even at the time of Jesus, people often believed that their sin was behind the suffering they experienced. That is not always the case. In fact, that was the belief the Book of Job was intended to dispel. As you recall from that story, Job was a blameless man who was tested like few others in history. His sin did not cause his suffering. Instead, his acceptance of suffering as God’s will brought glory to God. And remember when his disciples asked him whose sin caused a man’s blindness, that of his parents or the man himself, Jesus responded, “‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ . . . ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” (John 9:3 | NIV). There were a lot of sick people in Israel during Jesus’s ministry, but he did not heal them all even though he had the power to do so. Those he did heal were chosen as a way for Jesus to glorify his father.
To this day, an imagined connection between sin and suffering often lurks in the minds of many. We blame our illness or misfortune or that of a loved one on their sin, their failure to do enough or their lack of faith when it may really be that God is working to accomplish something else in their life or that of another. The core of faith is the belief that God always has our best interests at heart even in the darkest of circumstances.
Healing or a longer life is not nearly as important to God as our spiritual growth. He desires that we accept his sovereignty by faith and trust that he always has a reason for his actions. What is best might be spiritual healing, rather than a physical one. I think we have all seen how the response to adversity by a believer has resulted in bringing a lost person to faith. No matter what we face, the apostle Paul encouraged us to ” . . .give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:18 | NIV).
God is in charge despite the presence of adversity in our lives. Sometimes he allows bad things to happen because the world is sinful and fallen. We witness examples of this every day in war and with innocent victims of violent crime, traffic collisions and weather-related disasters. This might rock your boat, but God may even send calamity your way to get your attention like he did with Jonah or to bring others to an awareness of him like he did with the crew of Jonah’s boat.
Testimony. Jonah gave his testimony and it caused fear in the sailors’ hearts. “This terrified them and they asked, ‘What have you done?’ (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)” (v.10) Notice the disconnect between Jonah’s actions and his testimony, “I worship the Lord” (v.9) and, (“They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.”) Jonah was running away from the God he professed to worship. His walk did not match his talk. There are two reasons we are not immediately taken to heaven when we surrender our lives to Jesus. First, God wants to mature us spiritually and, second, he expects us to show and tell others about Jesus through both our words and our actions.
When all appeared lost and the crew turned to Jonah for answers he told them about his powerful God. In effect, he shared his testimony. It took Jonah telling them about his God for them to make sense of the storm they faced and turn their eyes toward his God. Often the best time to share Jesus is in response to hearing the difficulties another is experiencing. But we cannot do it if we are sleeping while a storm rages. When people trust us with their hurts and hang-ups that is not the time to be a secret or silent witness for Jesus. We need to be willing to state boldly the words Jonah did, “I worship the Lord.” God has called all of us to point to the only one who can calm the storms we face in life.
Jonah’s testimony made a difference even though those who heard it saw how flawed he really was. It’s ok for people see that we are human and make mistakes. What matters most is that they know we serve a God who accepts us, blemishes, and all. And even more importantly, that he will accept them as they are, too. We don’t have to quote Scripture. All we need to do is share our experience with a God that is greater than any storm. In difficult times people need and desire a living, loving, responsive God—a God that may not always calm their storm, but promises to remain with them no matter what may come.
People of Jonah’s day often worshipped a whole boatload of gods. Yes, that pun is intentional. The sailors turned to their collection of false gods to save them before they knew the God, whose power they faced, was the real deal. That is not much different from today, except the gods people worship today are not bizarre creations of wood, stone, or metal. Their gods may be easily identified because they are the first thing they turn to in a crisis. All of us, even atheists, serve a god. Everyone we meet places their faith in someone or something that provides them strength and solace until it doesn’t. It might be faith in themselves, family, science, or technology, an individual or a even particular group or organization. Just like Jonah’s crew they will turn in that direction in a storm, only to find the object of their faith useless.
If ever there was a perfect example of the response many people have when confronted with their need for a savior. This is it. The passage tells us the crew tried to do right, to live a good life. They were good people who did not want to sin by shedding innocent blood. They hoped for mercy, but Jonah’s God demanded justice. Initially, they believed they could make it on their own by doing their best. They felt they did not need to listen to Jonah. “Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.” (v. 13) Sometimes we share Jesus with people in crisis, but instead of accepting what he offers, they simply row harder. Insanity has been defined as “doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.”
We often hear unchurched people say that they are as good or better than the hypocrites that attend church. And that may be true. Jonah was certainly the poster child for what most people call hypocrisy. He knew what he was supposed to do, but he obviously wasn’t doing it. The difference between him and the crew was Jonah, like us, knew the living God. In a storm people will grasp at anything that will save them. And you possess the ultimate life preserver. Believers are expected to emulate Jonah and share our hope with them. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect . . . (1 Peter 3:15 | NIV) The source of our hope is Jesus. How they respond to the gospel is up to the Holy Spirit, not you. Your job is to just tell them what Jesus did for you.
Intercessory Prayer. While he was sleeping God sent a violent storm that threatened the ship. The captain realized they were facing a deadly storm. Yet, he sensed there might be help where he had not known to seek help before. He awakened Jonah and directed him to pray to his God hoping that he would take notice and save them. Here we see a pagan imploring a prophet of God to pray. “The captain went to him and said, ‘How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.’” (v.6) Many of us can identify with Jonah in that instance. Some people may not yet be ready to believe that God is a sure source of hope and peace for them, but how will they know what they need unless we speak up?
Are you calling on your God so he will take notice of the lost around you and save them? When others share their crises with you, do you seek God’s wisdom before giving advice? When a stranger or even a friend shares a painful story, do you offer to pray with them on the spot? As you end a meeting for coffee, do you ask your friends how you can pray for them? If you see a frazzled mom with a couple of cranky children in a grocery line, do you whisper a prayer for her, the checker and everyone else in the immediate vicinity? There are violent storms raging all around us and we know the God who can calm them.
Substitutionary atonement. “‘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.’” (vv.12 & 13) Jonah told them how to get deliverance, but they just started rowing harder. When they eventually listened to him and responded to his offer the sea grew calm. “Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.” (v.15) Jonah was a sinful man who offered himself to save others and experience God’s full wrath. Once the sailors hurled him overboard, the sea became calm. Except for the sinful man part, this account mirrors one in Mark chapter 4. Like Jonah, Jesus was asleep in a boat when a terrific storm blew in. Everyone on board was terrified and turned to the sleeping man for answers. God intervened and calmed the raging sea. That was merely a prelude to Jesus proving he was the answer to the storms of life we face as residents of a fallen, sinful world.
Jonah’s sacrificial act points to what Jesus came to do. It is what some people call a “type,” an Old Testament example of something the Messiah would do. Jonah was willing to die to save the ship’s pagan company. His was what theologians call substitutionary atonement. The heart of the New Testament gospel is God’s incarnation and willingness to pay the price for the sins of everyone willing to place their faith and trust in Jesus. He said this about the love he has for the unsaved. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13 | NIV). Jesus entered a world that was perishing in a storm of sin. Unlike Jonah, he was innocent, yet he willingly gave himself in order that God’s love might be demonstrated and God’s justice would be satisfied. Jesus took the wrath God intended for all humankind upon himself. Because he did, God extended a grace pardon to all who believe. “At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.” (v.16) When the sailors finally heard and acted on Jonah’s words, they were saved. People respond to the truth when they see or hear it. Remember the Roman centurion who witnessed Christ’s execution and its aftermath and exclaimed, “Surely He was the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:54).
Some commentators believe that the sailors experienced a “foxhole conversion.” We have all heard tragic stories about people who turned to God in a crisis only to revert to their old life after it passed. We don’t know how it turned out for those sailors. I want to believe they continued to worship Jonah’s God. What about you? Are you grieved because of the separation from God your sin has caused? Is there a painful awareness that you can’t fix it yourself? It doesn’t have to be like that. It can be made right. God’s grace is a gift that costs you nothing. You can’t be good enough to earn it or too bad to receive it. Ask him to forgive your sin, repent—turn away from your old life and follow Jesus by making him both your Lord and Savior. If you do, let us know about it. We want to celebrate with you. Next time, we will pick up the story where Jonah makes his big splash.
Discussion
1. What do you find most difficult or disturbing about reading the Old Testament?
2. What do you think the passage said to the original audience?
3. After reading this lesson, do you have any questions or concerns?
4. Do you believe there is a connection between sin and punishment in this life? Why or why not?
5. Why do humans reach out to God when they are fearful?
6. What is the application of this chapter to your life as a disciple?
7. We are expected to share the hope we find in Jesus with others. How might you use this chapter to initiate a gospel discussion with an unbeliever?
8. Hove you thought about how you would share the gospel with someone who has not heard about Jesus? Can you do it in two minutes?
9. What happens when our walk does not correlate with our daily walk?
10. What does it mean to repent?
(Rev. 11/15/2022)