2. Jonah, the Repentant Prophet (Jonah 2:1-10)
This sermon was preached on 13/12/2009
As we saw in our previous study, Jonah refused to obey the Lord’s command to go and preach in the Gentile city of Nineveh. While the text does not give his reason for disobedience, it probably was linked to nationalism. In any case, Jonah virtually resigned from his role as God’s prophet and attempted to create a situation in which God would not speak to him again.
As we noted, we too can suddenly object to a demand by God and then try an prevent God speaking to us. This is probably more common today because we no longer live within a Christian framework in society and there are many circumstances in which we can find the demands of God to be too strong. One obvious example is the fourth commandment. A good sportsperson may resent not being able to participate in sporting events because they occur on Sundays. In this type of situation, in order to justify disobedience, he can form situations in which he can no longer hear God’s voice, perhaps by not going to church or by not reading the Bible.
But Jonah discovered that it was not that easy to get rid of God. What Jonah knew theologically now came true practically – the God who made the demand was omnipresent and could not be escaped from. Similarly, it is not possible to escape the all-seeing eye of God simply by ceasing to think about his demands.
Furthermore, Jonah discovered that God was determined to bring his servant into line. Jonah first had imagined that he could escape from God’s heavy demand by going into exile, and when that was no longer an option, he attempted to escape from God’s will by death. Yet he discovered that it was not easy to escape from God, in fact it is impossible. In this conflict, the fight was not between two equals. In Jonah 2, we read of Jonah’s surrender. If any of us are fighting against God’s demands, and an obvious one is the requirement he makes on each of his people to take part in the Lord’s Supper, then hopefully this will be an occasion for them to also surrender to God’s will.
We noted in the previous sermon that there are different ways of reading the Book of Jonah such as the impossibility of polytheism or the reality of God’s providential control of all events. Another theme of this book is that God answers prayer for he responds to the requests of the sailors, the cries of the Ninevehites and the pleas of Jonah.
As we reflect on God’s response to Jonah’s prayer, there are two points worth noting. First, God answered the prayer of a believer who was guilty of rebelling against him. This is a reminder that communion is restored the moment a person repents of his sin. This is so unlike the way that humans deal with offenders. But the Lord is a gracious God. He delights to restore his erring people to himself. We see this many times in the Bible, for example, the promises of Jesus to the backsliders in Laodecia.
At the same time, God’s answer to this prayer was with a view to restored service. Jonah’s repentance included the willingness to obey God. The Lord had not lowered his standards merely because Jonah had gone through some difficult experiences. Further, his disobedience did not disqualify him from service once he had repented of his sin. We see this principle duplicated in the experience of David who, when he was restored, said: ‘Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you’ (Ps. 51:12-13).
Jonah is describing the prayer after he has been freed from his danger. The chapter is not a spiritual video link into Jonah’s live experience within the great fish. Rather Jonah has summarised what took place when he was inside its belly, a period of three days and three nights. He has written it in poetic style, perhaps as a memory aid.
What we have in Jonah 2 is his response to God’s rod of chastisement. In Jonah’s case, the chastisement had involved hard physical events such as being caught in a storm, rebuked by a pagan sea captain, then tossed into the sea. I wonder what Jonah thought as he heard the sailors holding a prayer meeting before throwing him overboard. They were addressing the God that he was refusing to obey. There was a mixture of crises and of public embarrassment.
In the case of others, including ourselves, God can use similar means or different means. Within the Bible there is a wide variety of ways that God used to bring his erring people to repentance. With David, it was the direct word of the prophet Nathan, with Peter it was the penetrating look of Christ. ‘God is able to use means to bring us back to himself which are as undramatic as these means were dramatic. He knows the way to bring us back. We must allow him to be the judge of what is necessary to restore us to his presence' (Sinclair Ferguson).
Further, what is the spiritual significance of the great sea creature that swallowed Jonah? Obviously, it is a sign of God’s overall control of the creation. But it is more than that. It illustrates that God works to bring his rebellious servants to locations where they come face-to-face with him in a solitary environment. Repentance that is true and deep is difficult to perform in the presence of a crowd. Secrecy is a feature of the personal religion that exists between a soul and God.
A great change took place in Jonah’s outlook. The greatest miracle was not that Jonah was inside the whale; rather it was that God was active inside Jonah. Now Jonah saw the danger of his position, that he was beyond the help of man. But he also saw the duty of his position, which was to pray to God and admit the wrong of which he was guilty.
The faith of a repentant believer
The details of this chapter are proof that faith can appear in the most unlikely of situations. From a human point of view, it would seem that Jonah had found himself in a situation where penitent faith would be useless. If he had repented earlier, say before he had joined the boat or even when he was on the boat, we would say that there was hope for him being restored to his service for God. But the chapter tells us that there is not a situation that is too dark or difficult for faith to be reignited. But the chapter tells us that a reignited faith is always a repentant faith.
First, Jonah sees God in what has happened and does not object to what he has done. He sees the divine hand in his position, and does not express a grudging acknowledgement, nor a resigned admittance; instead he expresses evidence of love towards the God who is chastising him. Such an attitude is evidence of the spirit of adoption.
Second, Jonah seeks for God in the only place where he can be found displaying mercy, and that was in the temple in Jerusalem. In the temple was the altar at which sacrifice was made daily for sin. There God dwelt above the mercy-seat, a picture that he can be approached through a sacrifice of a substitute. The obvious application to us is that our penitent faith is always marked by drawing near to God through Christ. Out tears of repentance don’t wash our sins away. Aware of our sins, we draw near to the throne of grace and ask the God of mercy to have compassion on us. Just as the eyes of Jonah’s soul looked towards the temple in the earthly Jerusalem, we should look continually to the throne of grace in heaven.
Third, Jonah expresses his thoughts in the language of Scripture. His prayer is composed of seven quotations from the Book of Psalms [verse 2 (120:1); verse 3 (43:7); verse 4 (31:22); verse 5 (49:1); verse 7 (142:3); verse 8 (31:6); verse 9 (3:8)]. This obviously is an example of the importance of knowing the Bible so that when trouble comes we will know what to say. His new experience was mapped out by others who had gone before him.
There were three possible and important ways of Jonah obtaining a sense of assurance at this time. One way was to recollect an incident from his own life, to ransack his memory for an occasion of similar desperation; but such a method was of no help because he had never been in such a situation before. The second way was to recollect an incident from the life of another believer, perhaps one he knew or one he had heard about. Yet he would not be able to recall such a person because his current dilemma was unique to him.
The third way was to turn to the Bible, in particular the Book of Psalms, and use the words of the psalmists as his own. The incidents that these psalmists had gone through would have been totally different from his, but the words that God had inspired in connection with these incidents were totally suitable to his case. As Patrick Fairburn observed, ‘The staggering thing to him at first was, that his case was so remarkably peculiar; he was where no one had been before; and if he could have bethought him of any saint that had ever been as low, and yet had been delivered, it would have gone far to re-assure and comfort his heart. But lo! he does find this; he finds it in the word of the living God itself, which records experiences of others, not indeed altogether identical with his own, but so nearly alike, in all their essential features the same, that the words spoken of them were precisely those in which he could most fitly express the things that concerned himself.’
The value of a repentant believer
In Jonah’s case, we should note, first, the value of a penitent preacher. Only a repenting man can preach a message of repentance. Why did God not stop Jonah getting on the boat in Joppa? The answer is that he was not in a fit state to preach in Nineveh. Instead of letting Jonah be swallowed by a fish, why did the Lord not catch Jonah in a whirlwind from the boat and deposit him into the palace of the king of Nineveh? It would be a dramatic entrance, but not very effective because Jonah had to become a penitent believer before the Lord could use him in a particular way. There are certain qualifications that are essential for preaching, and one of them is ongoing repentance for disobedience. It has often been said that it needs a crucified man to preach a message of crucifixion; it is also the case that it needs a penitent man to preach about repentance.
Of course, what is true for Jonah the prophet is also necessary for the implementation of all other spiritual gifts. When a person does anything for the Lord, he or she should have a sense of unworthiness of such a high calling, of regret at previous failures, and of sensitivity to lack of ability in our own resources. It is not enough to exercise a gift, it has to be exercised in the right spirit. I wonder if lack of repentance was the problem with those described by Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23: ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”’
Secondly, we should note another value of a penitent believer, which is that spiritual restoration shows the effectiveness of the intercession of Christ. John Bunyan in his book on the intercession of Christ writes that ‘a returning backslider is a great blessing’. He is a blessing to the world because he says to it a second time that the ways of Christ are better than what it has to offer. He is also a blessing to the church because they see in his restoration the wisdom, power and grace of Christ.
Thirdly, Jonah is an example of the principle that what is of most importance is what we are before God in private. A fellow-traveller on the boat might have imagined that Jonah was a faithful witness when he spoke to the sailors; he certainly spoke the truth but he did not speak with power. In his heart he was rebelling against God. It was only when he was repenting that he was what he should be.
As we noted, we too can suddenly object to a demand by God and then try an prevent God speaking to us. This is probably more common today because we no longer live within a Christian framework in society and there are many circumstances in which we can find the demands of God to be too strong. One obvious example is the fourth commandment. A good sportsperson may resent not being able to participate in sporting events because they occur on Sundays. In this type of situation, in order to justify disobedience, he can form situations in which he can no longer hear God’s voice, perhaps by not going to church or by not reading the Bible.
But Jonah discovered that it was not that easy to get rid of God. What Jonah knew theologically now came true practically – the God who made the demand was omnipresent and could not be escaped from. Similarly, it is not possible to escape the all-seeing eye of God simply by ceasing to think about his demands.
Furthermore, Jonah discovered that God was determined to bring his servant into line. Jonah first had imagined that he could escape from God’s heavy demand by going into exile, and when that was no longer an option, he attempted to escape from God’s will by death. Yet he discovered that it was not easy to escape from God, in fact it is impossible. In this conflict, the fight was not between two equals. In Jonah 2, we read of Jonah’s surrender. If any of us are fighting against God’s demands, and an obvious one is the requirement he makes on each of his people to take part in the Lord’s Supper, then hopefully this will be an occasion for them to also surrender to God’s will.
We noted in the previous sermon that there are different ways of reading the Book of Jonah such as the impossibility of polytheism or the reality of God’s providential control of all events. Another theme of this book is that God answers prayer for he responds to the requests of the sailors, the cries of the Ninevehites and the pleas of Jonah.
As we reflect on God’s response to Jonah’s prayer, there are two points worth noting. First, God answered the prayer of a believer who was guilty of rebelling against him. This is a reminder that communion is restored the moment a person repents of his sin. This is so unlike the way that humans deal with offenders. But the Lord is a gracious God. He delights to restore his erring people to himself. We see this many times in the Bible, for example, the promises of Jesus to the backsliders in Laodecia.
At the same time, God’s answer to this prayer was with a view to restored service. Jonah’s repentance included the willingness to obey God. The Lord had not lowered his standards merely because Jonah had gone through some difficult experiences. Further, his disobedience did not disqualify him from service once he had repented of his sin. We see this principle duplicated in the experience of David who, when he was restored, said: ‘Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you’ (Ps. 51:12-13).
Jonah is describing the prayer after he has been freed from his danger. The chapter is not a spiritual video link into Jonah’s live experience within the great fish. Rather Jonah has summarised what took place when he was inside its belly, a period of three days and three nights. He has written it in poetic style, perhaps as a memory aid.
What we have in Jonah 2 is his response to God’s rod of chastisement. In Jonah’s case, the chastisement had involved hard physical events such as being caught in a storm, rebuked by a pagan sea captain, then tossed into the sea. I wonder what Jonah thought as he heard the sailors holding a prayer meeting before throwing him overboard. They were addressing the God that he was refusing to obey. There was a mixture of crises and of public embarrassment.
In the case of others, including ourselves, God can use similar means or different means. Within the Bible there is a wide variety of ways that God used to bring his erring people to repentance. With David, it was the direct word of the prophet Nathan, with Peter it was the penetrating look of Christ. ‘God is able to use means to bring us back to himself which are as undramatic as these means were dramatic. He knows the way to bring us back. We must allow him to be the judge of what is necessary to restore us to his presence' (Sinclair Ferguson).
Further, what is the spiritual significance of the great sea creature that swallowed Jonah? Obviously, it is a sign of God’s overall control of the creation. But it is more than that. It illustrates that God works to bring his rebellious servants to locations where they come face-to-face with him in a solitary environment. Repentance that is true and deep is difficult to perform in the presence of a crowd. Secrecy is a feature of the personal religion that exists between a soul and God.
A great change took place in Jonah’s outlook. The greatest miracle was not that Jonah was inside the whale; rather it was that God was active inside Jonah. Now Jonah saw the danger of his position, that he was beyond the help of man. But he also saw the duty of his position, which was to pray to God and admit the wrong of which he was guilty.
The faith of a repentant believer
The details of this chapter are proof that faith can appear in the most unlikely of situations. From a human point of view, it would seem that Jonah had found himself in a situation where penitent faith would be useless. If he had repented earlier, say before he had joined the boat or even when he was on the boat, we would say that there was hope for him being restored to his service for God. But the chapter tells us that there is not a situation that is too dark or difficult for faith to be reignited. But the chapter tells us that a reignited faith is always a repentant faith.
First, Jonah sees God in what has happened and does not object to what he has done. He sees the divine hand in his position, and does not express a grudging acknowledgement, nor a resigned admittance; instead he expresses evidence of love towards the God who is chastising him. Such an attitude is evidence of the spirit of adoption.
Second, Jonah seeks for God in the only place where he can be found displaying mercy, and that was in the temple in Jerusalem. In the temple was the altar at which sacrifice was made daily for sin. There God dwelt above the mercy-seat, a picture that he can be approached through a sacrifice of a substitute. The obvious application to us is that our penitent faith is always marked by drawing near to God through Christ. Out tears of repentance don’t wash our sins away. Aware of our sins, we draw near to the throne of grace and ask the God of mercy to have compassion on us. Just as the eyes of Jonah’s soul looked towards the temple in the earthly Jerusalem, we should look continually to the throne of grace in heaven.
Third, Jonah expresses his thoughts in the language of Scripture. His prayer is composed of seven quotations from the Book of Psalms [verse 2 (120:1); verse 3 (43:7); verse 4 (31:22); verse 5 (49:1); verse 7 (142:3); verse 8 (31:6); verse 9 (3:8)]. This obviously is an example of the importance of knowing the Bible so that when trouble comes we will know what to say. His new experience was mapped out by others who had gone before him.
There were three possible and important ways of Jonah obtaining a sense of assurance at this time. One way was to recollect an incident from his own life, to ransack his memory for an occasion of similar desperation; but such a method was of no help because he had never been in such a situation before. The second way was to recollect an incident from the life of another believer, perhaps one he knew or one he had heard about. Yet he would not be able to recall such a person because his current dilemma was unique to him.
The third way was to turn to the Bible, in particular the Book of Psalms, and use the words of the psalmists as his own. The incidents that these psalmists had gone through would have been totally different from his, but the words that God had inspired in connection with these incidents were totally suitable to his case. As Patrick Fairburn observed, ‘The staggering thing to him at first was, that his case was so remarkably peculiar; he was where no one had been before; and if he could have bethought him of any saint that had ever been as low, and yet had been delivered, it would have gone far to re-assure and comfort his heart. But lo! he does find this; he finds it in the word of the living God itself, which records experiences of others, not indeed altogether identical with his own, but so nearly alike, in all their essential features the same, that the words spoken of them were precisely those in which he could most fitly express the things that concerned himself.’
The value of a repentant believer
In Jonah’s case, we should note, first, the value of a penitent preacher. Only a repenting man can preach a message of repentance. Why did God not stop Jonah getting on the boat in Joppa? The answer is that he was not in a fit state to preach in Nineveh. Instead of letting Jonah be swallowed by a fish, why did the Lord not catch Jonah in a whirlwind from the boat and deposit him into the palace of the king of Nineveh? It would be a dramatic entrance, but not very effective because Jonah had to become a penitent believer before the Lord could use him in a particular way. There are certain qualifications that are essential for preaching, and one of them is ongoing repentance for disobedience. It has often been said that it needs a crucified man to preach a message of crucifixion; it is also the case that it needs a penitent man to preach about repentance.
Of course, what is true for Jonah the prophet is also necessary for the implementation of all other spiritual gifts. When a person does anything for the Lord, he or she should have a sense of unworthiness of such a high calling, of regret at previous failures, and of sensitivity to lack of ability in our own resources. It is not enough to exercise a gift, it has to be exercised in the right spirit. I wonder if lack of repentance was the problem with those described by Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23: ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”’
Secondly, we should note another value of a penitent believer, which is that spiritual restoration shows the effectiveness of the intercession of Christ. John Bunyan in his book on the intercession of Christ writes that ‘a returning backslider is a great blessing’. He is a blessing to the world because he says to it a second time that the ways of Christ are better than what it has to offer. He is also a blessing to the church because they see in his restoration the wisdom, power and grace of Christ.
Thirdly, Jonah is an example of the principle that what is of most importance is what we are before God in private. A fellow-traveller on the boat might have imagined that Jonah was a faithful witness when he spoke to the sailors; he certainly spoke the truth but he did not speak with power. In his heart he was rebelling against God. It was only when he was repenting that he was what he should be.