Running From God
Jonah 1
“But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.” vs. 3
Getting Away From It All
I know I might be dating myself a bit here but when I was in high school there was one woman who really had the attention of almost every young man, a singer named Olivia Newton John. She was it. Her voice was incredible and her looks, wow! I think I owned every one of her albums and most of the guys I know would have given their right arm to meet her let alone date her or even become “Mr. John.” She was hugely popular ewhen the movie Grease came out and she starred opposite John Travolta.
In the early 2000’s she was dating a guy named Patrick McDermott. I remember back to 2005 where he disappeared. McDermott had previously filed for bankruptcy and had received a court order to pay overdue child support to his former wife, actress Yvette Nipar. Nipar and McDermott were married on March 1, 1992 when Nipar was four months pregnant. They divorced 15 months later on June 30, 1993. He later began dting singer actress Olivia Newton John. He disappeared from a fishing charter boat off San Pedro, California, on June 30, 2005. The 48-year-old McDermott was a passenger on the fishing boat Freedom which had left from the San Pedro marina for an overnight fishing trip. The 22 passengers and three crew members on board gave contradicting reports of his whereabouts both during and at the conclusion of the trip. His absence was apparently unnoticed until July 6, 2005, when he failed to attend a family event.
A Coast Guard investigation released in November 2008 concluded that McDermott “most likely” drowned. However, the circumstances of his disappearance have fueled speculation that he faked his own death. The case has been featured on America’s Most Wanted. In a 2009 feature on Dateline NBC, investigators went undercover to look for him in Mexico, where they believed he may be in hiding. The investigators claim that he disappeared to avoid debts, including USD $8,000 owed to his ex-wife for child support, and created the website FindPatrickMcDermott.com for the sole purpose of trapping Mr. McDermott. As the Dateline special showed, all visitors’ web addresses were logged and mapped. The Dateline investigators currently believe Mr. McDermott is living in a boat off the west coast of Mexico and continue to track hits to their website. The Dateline investigators claim that there have been over 20 sightings of McDermott in Mexico and Central America. In January 2009, investigators reported he is alive and well in Mexico, and asking to be left alone.
I remember being shocked. Here is a guy who just wanted to get away from it all and really wanted to start over and escape some of the mess he created. Who could do that to Olivia Newton John? In 1992 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and she underwent a partial radical mastectomy and eight months of chemotherapy. Olivia Newton-John successfully overcame breast cancer
Read Passage – Jonah 1
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. 4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 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.” 7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” 9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 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.) 11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 12 “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.” 13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. 17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
The Assyrians
Today that ancient territory is part of several nations; the north of Iraq, part of southeast Turkey and northeast Syria. Show map. Read verse 1:
“The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” vss. 1-2
The Assyrians have long been known as a ruthless and barbaric people of the ancient civilizations. The Assyrians took their warfare seriously; in fact they studied war techniques like a science. The Assyrians even had special schools set up to teach sapping (military demolition of walls etc.) and mining city walls. The Assyrians were the innovators of war in their time.
The Assyrian army was feared for many reasons one including the use of iron in their weapons. The Assyrians were the first to use iron in spears, swords, shields and armor. They even tipped their battering rams for extra effectiveness. The Assyrians had the most advanced weapons of their time. Their arrows were tipped in iron, the strongest metal of the time. Their bowmen were also among the worlds finest. They had heavy chariots drawn by two horses and had a crew of two, the driver and an archer. Later, a third man was added to protect the rear and a spare horse was hitched at the rear. They introduced cavalry and an accurate sling and developed siege craft with siege towers, battering rams and hand propelled vehicles with armor protection. Other weapons used by the infantry wear the spear, the javelin, slings and swords.
The cavalry employed horses ridden bareback by two horsemen. One rider held the reins while the other rider, with a shield on his back, used a bow or a lance. Because cavalry could be used on uneven ground, it started replacing the chariot around six hundred B.C. The army also had special technical units. They accompanied the army and had chariots for the battle field and wagons for transporting necessary equipment which would include not only the obvious items of rations and tents but also such specialists types of equipment such as siege engines and rams.
Ashurnasirpal, an Assyrian king who put down a rebellion using terror tactics to the fullest, documents one such case. He writes, ” I built a pillar over against his city gate, and I flayed all the chief men who had revolted, and I covered the pillar with their skins; some I walled up within the pillar, some I impaled upon the pillar on stakes, and others I bound to stakes round the about the pillar; many within the border of my own land I flayed, and I spread their skins upon the walls; and I cut off the limbs of the officers, of the royal officers who had rebelled.”
The Assyrian armies did not only have the best tactics and weapons but were also the most prepared and organized. Assyria was capable of deploying forces running into hundreds of thousands of men. The Assyrians had one of the most advanced and feared military forces of all times. They were the most prolific army of their time and changed how ware would be fought for the rest of time. In the end though, as all great empires do, they fell and a new dominate empire followed them. But while they ruling, the Assyrians were the best at what they did and they will always be remembered as one of the most advanced and feared empires of the ancient world.
On The Move
Now back to our story of Jonah. God calls Jonah to go to that great city Ninevah and preach against it. So can you blame Jonah when in verse 3 we read:
“But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.” vs. 3
Think for a moment what that call must have evoked inside of Jonah. The fear, the nervousness, the anticipation of how the message would be received, and the thought how he would be treated. So Jonah takes off.
Let me point out something of some opposites that are going on here.
God says go one way and Jonah physically goes the opposite way. (Show map of Tarshish)
God’s heart is for people and Jonah’s is not,
We wonder why God used Jonah. Why not get someone else? Someone who is willing to follow his commands and who has a heart to see people turn to God? We are never really told why.
Lessons From Being On The Run
But what we do have from this prophet, is a great perspective on life and how to deal with things when they don’t go our way or when God’s ways don’t match up with our ways or our ideals. I call this lessons from being on the run.
- God’s Power > Our Power
The first lesson emerges from verse 3:
“After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.” vs. 3
Obviously, as I stated earlier, Jonah is on the run. Why? What is it that made Jonah decide to flee. I think it boils down to one thing; trust, trust in God. Can we trust that God’s ways are the best ways and that he has the power to accomplish his plan? The answer is yes, God can because, God’s power is greater than pour power. This call for Jonah raises a lot of questions. Is God able to overcome the Assyrians? Can he turn people’s hearts that don’t love him to himself? Is this danger too much for God to handle? And…is God’s power greater than our power.
This is a very counter-cultural theme to our society today. We are flooded with self-help books and “religious” ideas that tell us that we have the power to do what ever we want and to overcome any obstacle. Our society, in a sense, claims self-sufficiency and the power to make things happen ourselves. Many times you hear “If you just try hard enough“ or “if you just work hard enough” or “if you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything.” I believe in positive thinking and encouraging each other and encouraging yourself but the bottom line is that there are some things that we do not have the power to do and we have to place those things in God’s hand and realize his power is greater than ours.
Ex. I was recently at a family gathering where I was speaking with a relative I love very much. They had been through the pain of a spouse dying and had recently found a person they had begun to form a relationship with. I asked when they were getting married. The response was that they couldn’t marry. Both of them had their spouse die and both were on social security. They would lose one of those incomes if they got married. (I admit our laws don’t help elderly people in these situations) I admit, somewhat naively, I said “Don’t you trust that God has the power to provide for you?” I was stunned when I spoke with them about 6 months later and they had broken up. When I asked why, they said it was what I said. They explained how the other person never wanted to marry in the first place, the money was a convenient excuse not to marry but when my relative was confronted on whether they really trusted God, they realized they weren’t.
Can you trust God in your situation(s)? Do you believe his power is greater than yours or your problem? Positive thinking is great and we can do a lot to help ourselves with a positive outlook. But ultimately we need to trust God and His power.
2. God’s Power Over Nature
A second lesson emerges in verse 4:
“Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.” vs.4
God has multiple resources at his fingertips that we don’t. He can use anything to accomplish his purpose and we would do well to remember that God has power over nature. In our story today God uses the wind, the water and ultimately a fish to accomplish his purpose. Try as we might, we can try to understand nature and maybe even use parts of it but we can’t have the power over it that God does.
We can simulate some of nature. We can make fans that create wind, machines that make snow for us to ski on, etc. But those at best come us far short of manipulating or controlling nature.
Ex. As most of you know it has been a dry winter. We can’t make it rain.
3. Our Actions Affect Others
A third lesson comes from the actions we see in verse 5:
“All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.” vs. 5
Our actions affect others. We like to think that we are somewhat isolated and that our issues are just our issues and it doesn’t involve others. Wrong. What we say, what we do, our actions, will affect others and we can’t stop that or hide that. We like to think we can. We say things like “my life is my life and you can’t tell me what to do.” That what we do in the privacy of our own homes and between consenting adults is okay. That our life is our life and I can do anything I want because it’s not about you. But those things only pacify us for the moment.
Ex. Refer back to opening story of Patrick McDerrmott. If you followed his story at all you saw how it affected Olivia Newton John. Her public plea for help. How distraught she was at first.
Try telling the guys on the ship in that raging storm that Jonah’s actions were not affecting them. Their lives were in danger. They were dealing with this raging storm while Jonah slept!
4. God’s Heart And Your Heart
And a final lesson from verse 15:
“Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.” vs. 15
A huge lesson that comes from our story today is that Jonah’s heart was not in line with God’s heart. But notice something in the story, the men of the ship turned to God. They realize that God (even if it was not the God they believed in) was doing something and they didn’t want to get him even more angry. In fact, they wanted to somehow get in line with God’s heart while Jonah didn’t. They not only wanted to calm the storm but they wanted God’s anger appeased. And….they didn’t want to make it worse by killing Jonah. Throwing him overboard was in essence killing him and in Jonah’s case it was equivalent to committing suicide. They didn’t take this whole thing lightly. If God was upset and caused this storm, how much more angry would he get if they killed one of his prophets?
Notice Jonah’s actions are to help the men but he still isn’t repentant about his actions. He would actually rather die. Not the men on the ship. They want life. They want to be in line with what God is doing. In fact, because of this, they turn to God and made a sacrifice to Him and then made vows to him as well. They could see God working and wanted to get their hearts in line with His.
God’s Grace
Now here is where I see this whole point of this story. It’s found in verse 17:
“Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” vs. 17
My question was a very simple one. If Jonah was not lined up with God, why not kill him and get a prophet whose heart and actions are in line with His? It’s a simple answer with a deep (no pun intended) meaning. God’s grace. God loved Jonah. His grace was bigger than Jonah’s disobedience.
The same is true for you and I. God’s grace is greater than any disobedience or action that we do that is not in line with his, and his grace gives us second chances and the ability to start over.
