Jonah, a Tale of the Sea

This is the story of Jonah the prophet.

Now, you might wonder, how does a person become a prophet? Did he go to prophet school? Did he get a degree in propheting? Did he just wake up one day and say "I think I'll a prophet for a while."

The truth is there was not one way to be a prophet. There were all kinds of prophets. There were prophets who lived in caves in the wilderness. There were prophets who lived in the palace of kings/ There were also ordinary people, going about their business, who suddenly hear God's voice, and—often reluctantly—become prophets.

A prophet can be me. A prophet can just as easily be you.

We cannot be sure what kind Jonah was. But from all we can read, Jonah was probably one of the "ordinary" kinds of prophets. He is not called a prophet. He is just a man who was given a word to deliver from God.

And Jonah hated it! He was bound and determined to do anything in his power to get out of going.

Now, you may wonder what was so loathsome about this calling that Jonah would go to such great lengths to get away. If we read Jonah casually we might think that it was just too hard to go, that it was the disruption of his life that caused him to run. But this wasn't the case..

Jonah just hated Ninevites.

And Jonah had good reason to do so.

Ninevah was the capitol of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians were among the most brutal, sadistic, and loathsome people God ever put on earth. The Assyrians were the first empire to set their sights on conquering the world. In the year 721, an Assyrian king by the name of Sargon II captured the northern kingdom of Israel and deported 28,000 of their leaders—anybody who was anybody, out of Israel, effectively destroying the northern kingdom/ In 708 B. C., his son and successor, Sennacharib, almost destroyed the southern kingdom of Judah, being stopped at the very gates of Jerusalem. Before their armies, Israel was a green and beautiful land. Behind their armies, is was a smoking ruin. They destroyed everything in their path.

Jonah was probably an eyewitness to this. He saw what the Assyrians had done. He had friends and relatives who were slaughtered by the Assyrians. There is little doubt that Jonah wanted to burn the homes and gouge out the eyes of each and every Assyrian he saw. To him, the only good Assyrian was a dead Assyrian.

And now, God was telling him to go to Ninevah and preach to them.

At first, this sounds like a good idea. Who would not like to tell off that bully who bullied you in high school, or to give that straying husband who hurt you a severe tongue lashing. We think we'd like to do that sometimes, but we don't The truth is, when there is someone we hate, we don't yell at them. We avoid them. Their very presence is loathsome. It is an offense. Besides, we would rather keep all that anger inside us than to let it out. We can look so polite when it is bottled up inside, but inside we are angry cauldrons.

Jonah was like that. He didn't want to go to Ninevah and preach to them. He never wanted to see another Ninevite. So Jonah ran away. It must have cost him a fortune, but he ran to Tyre and booked passage on a Phonecian ship.

Why a Phonecian ship? Because of all the people in the ancient world, the Phonecians were the best sailors. They sailed to England and Africa. It is believed that some of them actually made it as far as America. If you wanted to to the utter end of the world, the Phonecians were the people to see. They had been there and back.

So, what was Jonah running from? God, certainly. But Jonah wasn't just running from God. He was running from the Word of God. If God had never spoken to him, Jonah would not have run.

So it is with us. We can come to church and sit in the pews or stand in the pulpit, and sing God's praises. We can say grace at meals and say our prayers at night, and feel perfectly comfortable and restful. That is because we do not hear th voice of God talking back to us. We only hear part of what God is saying. We hear Him when he whispers comfort in our ear. We hear him when He makes wonderful promises. But when God wants something back, something that we don't want to give, we run for the nearest exit.

That's the problem with God. Sooner or later, he asks for something. Some people he asks for money. Other people he asks them to sacrifice their time. God asked Jonah for something harder to give than either time or money.

God said to Jonah, "Give me your hate."

God whispered it to Jonah. Jonah ignored it. God spoke to Jonah Jonah ignored it. Then God shouted to Jonah, and Jonah could not shut our those cries, not even if he put cotton over his ears and hid his head under the pillow. He could not get away from the call of God 'Give me your hate."

So Jonah ran from God. He ran as far as he could from the presence of God.

Back in those days, people had a limited understanding of God. Many believed that God was just the God of the Jews. He was all powerful, but he was local. So Jonah reasoned that if he could run away from Israel he could run away from God, and God would stop shouting in his ear.

Many of us try the same. We try drowning out the voice of God. It doesn't work. We make fun of God and curse him, thinking that He will let us go. We lose ourselves in pleasure, in work, or in art. It doesn't work. The Hound of Heaven is on our trail, and he will not let us go.

Jonah disguised himself. He booked passage in a boat leaving Tyre. We do not know where the boat was headed—Spain or Carthage or even England. It does not matter, because Jonah never got there. Before they were many miles out to sea, a storm arose around him.

Whenever a person went to sea in those days, there was a good chance that they were not coming back. The idea of facing a gale in a little wooden box was as frightening a proposition as they could imagine.. That was why they never traveled in the times of the year when storms were most common. But sometimes, an unseasonable storm would grab them and toss them around like a bull rider in a rodeo. This was one of those storms.

The sailors pulled on the ropes, It did no good. They shortened their sails. It did no good. They threw their precious cargo overboard. It did no good. They cried out to their pagan gods. It did no good. They were a doomed ship in a perfect storm.

And all the while this was happening, Jonah lay curled up below, cowering before what he alone knew was the wrath of God. Finally, the captain went down below and sought Jonah out. "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish." Everyone else called on their god, why not you, Jonah? Maybe your God can help where the others could not.

But Jonah was unmoved. He did not call on his God. He would not give up his hate.

The sailors were a superstitious crew. They thought there might be person on board who was under a curse. They cast lots to see who it was, and the lot fell upon Jonah.

Finally Jonah confessed. His God, the God who made heaven and earth, was responsible. He was running from his God. But God was not fooled, He knew exactly where Jonah was and what he was doing. Jonah told them that their only hope was to heave him over the side, like a piece of cargo.

The sailors were not cruel men. Besides, they knew that God had his hand on Jonah. The resolved to row back to shore and to let Jonah off. But Jonah did not want to go to shore. God did not want him to go to shore. Jonah asked that the throw him in the ocean.

Why was that? Because Jonah wanted to die. He would rather go to his grave than to give up his hate.

Jonah is not alone in this. Drunkards and drug addicts go to their grave with their addictions. Greedy people obsessed with sin, will die before they let go of money. People in lust will risk ruination just to sleep with someone they desire. And bigots will refuse to live in a world where the people they hate are equal to them.

The sailors prayed to God, and asked them to forgive them for what they had to do. They were not cruel men, they said. But they had no choice. Besides, Jonah would die anyway. Jonah was too much of a coward to jump over himself. So they took Jonah by the hands an the heels, gave him a swing or two, and sent Jonah flying over the bulwarks and into the water.

And as they watched him struggling in the water, they saw a great fish, as big as the boat, surface and take him in with a gulp, like a trout taking a fly.

That should have been the end of Jonah, but it was not. This was no ordinary fish. This was one whom God prepared. All that happened was part of God's plan. The running was part, the boat was part, the storm was part, and now even the fish was part of his plan. God was not going to let go of Jonah until he let go of his hatred of Assyrians.

That fish was not his end. It was his beginning. That fish was not the object of God's wrath, but of his love. The old Jonah, the hating Jonah had to die for a new Jonah to be born. Jesus would later say that as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the whale, so th Son of man will be three days and nights in the earth. Jonah is not about God's wrath on the sinner. It is about God's mercy on those who misuse what God gave them. God loves the Ninevites, in spite of the fact that they were cruel, murdering tyrants. But even more amazing, God loved Jonah.

You can't run away from God There's no point in trying. He always gets from you what he sets out to take. So give God your hatred. Give Him you unforgiveness and your pride. When you do, your life can at last begin again.