THE CHALLENGE TO SHARE GOD
INTRODUCTION
A. “Where Faith Conquers Fear and All Doubts Are ‘Cast Away’” - “And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1Jn.5:4)
B. Illustrating this motto, our study focuses on Jonah & his challenge to share God’s love to the Ninevites.
a . he lived & prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II (782-753 b.c.)
b. predicted the successful conquests, enlarged territory, and brief prosperity of the
Israelite kingdom under that monarch’s sway (2 Kings 14:25)
c. what else we know of Jonah is to be gathered from the book that bears his name
C. The book of Jonah is classified as a prophetic book, even though it contains no prophecy relating to physical or spiritual Israel. It is a book that focuses primarily upon the prophet’s reaction to God’s command for him to go and preach to a foreign people – the Assyrians (Jon.1:1,2). But more than that, it focuses upon God’s love toward sinners.
D. Jonah’ assignment - Ninevh
a . in Jonah’s day, Nineveh was the most powerful city in the ancient Near East as
the capital of the mighty Neo-Assyrian Empire (estimated 600,000 population)
b. a very large city (one particular city or a complex of four cities, 60 miles around
the city 20 miles a day) – “an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent” (3:3)
c. widely known as the center of fertility cult worship (all kinds of shrines &
temples; loved astrology & their gods – likened gods to people in that they were
greedy & demanding; loving sacrifices, husbands, wives, children – they controlled
their destiny, so the Ninevites were forever trying to appease them)
d. known for their cruelty to victims of warfare (no pity – tongues pulled out of
victim’s mouth, skinned alive & skin displayed on city wall, conquered city would be
left with a pyramid of human skulls – “city of blood” Nahum 3:1)
e. Jonah is to preach against its deeds with a warning of impending consequences
if there is no repentance – “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (3:4)
I THE ISRAELITES & ASSYRIANS RELATIONSHIP
A. In Jonah’s day the Assyrian empire was the archenemy of Israel. Most
people would cherish a commission to go & tell your enemies they are
going to be destroyed! But not Jonah. Why???
B. The answer to that question is found in Jonah’s own words – “for I know that
You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who
relents from doing harm.” (Jon.4:2).
C. (1:1-3) Jonah did not want the challenge of going to Nineveh and warning
its inhabitants to repent because he knew God.
a. like asking a Jew living in New York City during WWII to go to Nazi Germany
& tell Hitler that God loves him & is willing to forgive him if he repents
b. like asking a family member of a 911 victim to go & tell Ben Laden that God
loves him & wants to forgive him if he repents
c. Jonah, & most people, want everyone else to pay for their sins
d. you cannot excuse yourself from divine responsibility & disobedience is always
costly “paid the fare thereof” “when he had spent all” (Lu.15:14; Jonah 1:4-16)
D. (3:3) What was it that caused Jonah to change his mind and fulfill God’s challenge for him to share God’s message with the Assyrians?
a. Jonah’s chastisement – guilty conscience, storm, abandonment at sea, whale (1:17)
(2 types of whales Odontocetes & Mysticetes, accounts of being swallowed)
a. pain can bring us to God (to our sinses), remind us that things are not well; that
earthly things cannot be forever kept, that we should be thankful)
b. example of prodigal son (miserable man)
b. Jonah’s prayer for deliverance (2:1-9)
c. Jonah’s deliverance (2:10)
II. JONAH MEETS THE CHALLENGE BUT WITH THE
WRONG ATTITUDE
A. (3:4) Jonah met the challenge of sharing God’s message to his enemies.
B. God, not Jonah, is impartial & willing to forgive (3:5-10).
a. sometimes we forget it is God & not man who is to forgive
b. sometimes we forget it is the message of God & not the messenger that saves sinners (1Cor.2:1-5; Phil.1:15-18)
III. JONAH LEARNS AN IMPORTANT LESSON
A. (4:1-5) Jonah is probably the only preacher who had hoped his lesson would be rejected and became angry when it wasn’t.
a. Jonah’s anguish was brought on by his own inconsistent reasoning
b. Jonah knew how wicked the Ninevites had been & could not bear the thought of
them not being punished, yet mercy was ok for him when he was wicked
c. we assume that God loves us more than our enemies (we should be forgiven, but
not them)
B. Jonah initially failed to do what he was supposed to do. But do not be so quick to give up on failures. God used such to accomplished his will.
a. Sampson
b. Rahab
c. David
d. Moses
e. Abraham
C. The main lesson of the book of Jonah is to help us see that God is “…a
gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness,
One who relents from doing harm” (4:2)
a. Jonah became angry over the response of the Ninevites (4:1) (like the prodigal’s older brother)
b. while the Ninevites were repenting & praying for deliverance, Jonah was sulking & praying for their destruction
c. Jonah needed an object lesson to see why the Ninevites should be beneficiaries of God’s grace and mercy just as he had been such
d. Jonah was inconsistent (when Jonah was in trouble he wanted God’s help & when the Ninevites were in trouble he did not think God should help them)
e. the plant & worm (4:4-11)
f. “Do you of all people, Jonah, have a right to be angry that I am a God of mercy, when you yourself have benefited so greatly from that mercy? Mercy was all right for you, Jonah, but not for this important city?”
g. people with Jonah’s spirit have bad memories
CONCLUSION
Jesus endorsed the Jonah story as authentic & spoke of Jonah’s ordeal as a “sign” of His death, burial, & resurrection. Though we may be fascinated with the reluctant prophet, let us not fail to see the main purpose of the book as we are left face to face with a marvelous description of God’s nature “…a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm”