Running from God | The Prophet Jonah | Jonah 1:1-17

Show Notes

Episode 628: 
In this episode, we discuss Jonah's journey, starting with God's command for him to go to Nineveh, a city notorious for its wickedness. We highlight Jonah's immediate reaction: instead of obeying, he chooses to flee in the opposite direction, heading to Tarshish. This decision sets the stage for a series of dramatic events, including a violent storm that threatens the ship he is on.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Good morning, good morning. Here we are we talk good morning do you and you? And you? Yeah, good job, thank you, thank you so much. Man. We were waiting and waiting, we were wishing upon a star, upon a star, that you would sing to us this week, and you did it. Here we are in the middle of the week. Yes, it's perfect day, I know, perfect right here. Thank you, Chris, You're welcome, Jeff, Chris. You continually saying that people like it or whatever. Yeah, we regularly get an email or a text or something about it. Yeah, that's funny. Yeah, all right. Wait, today we're diving into Jonah, the brand new book of the Bible for us. Brand new, and this just written hot off the press. This just didn't know, I mean new for this new for us. Because we've been in first second Kings and first and second chronicles for for a while, like one hundred years or something. Are going to go back after Jonah? Well yeah, probably probably right, i'd imagine. Okay, So, because again we're doing this chronologically, so before we dive into Jonah today we have a segment, and this is one of my favorite segments, and. It is would you rather okay? And these are fun Yeah, I just you. Know, I love the fact that it's too hard choices. Okay. So number one, would you rather Jeff be a great chef who loves his job or have a great chef cook for you? Is being the great chef his job or he is a great chef and he loves his job. Because that's me. It says, be a great chef. Oh, I see, I'm not a great chef. I cooked a little, That's right. Yeah. Who loves his job? Which job? That's the question. You ever see Christopher walking into that clib of that movie where he goes, so let me get this straight. He goes, if I do between three and four hundred push ups, I get all the money. And there's a big group of men. He's like yeah, and they lay down all this money and he gets down and he does four push ups and he takes the money and they go, wait, old man, you said between three and four hundred push ups. He goes right, between three and four hundred push ups and then he took the money and he left. Because he did four, which is between three and four hundred. You just did. That's exactly what I did. Yeah. Yeah, So, or have a great chef cook for you? I think, Ah, man, I don't know what would you say? Well, there's no doubt for me, I'd love to have a great chef cook for me. Yeah, you kid me. It's like with the dream of my life. I love it. I love going to a good restaurant and having a good meal. But I also love cooking a good meal. Jeff, Well, I think I'm going to have it. I like the job I have, so I don't want a new job. Ok I'm gonna have I'm gonna have a chift cook chef cook for me. Okay, all right, but I love cooking. Okay. Would you rather face the heat of the desert or the cold of the Arctic. The heated desert, which is pretty brutal. Yes, for the cold of the Arctic. Yes, Oh that's that's pretty tough. Well, I kind of faced this couple of days ago. You were in the Arctic. No, I was. I was in I was in the desert. It was one hundred degrees ninety nine and one hundred degrees every day. Yeah. I flew home and when I landed. It was seventeen degrees outside when I walked out the door of the airport. Okay, all right, not quite the right ache, but not quite. But it was cold, literally it was cold. It was cold. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, yeah, so I heard I've heard that when you get cold enough, you don't really feel anything. There's not much more. Yeah, but I would definitely for me, I would say the heat of the desert. I guess, yeah, as long as you have water. I was going to say, it doesn't say that you don't. You can't manage it. So you're either just managing the heat of the desert or managing the cold of the Arctic. Yeah, and I think between those two, I would rather manage. Yeah, I think so too. I think so yeah. Okay, well I've done it enough that I think I don't have a lot of experience in the Arctic. Just we live in Michigan. Sometimes we get Arctic. Blasts, right right, Arctic blasts number three? Taco Bell. Would you rather live in a castle with a secret passages or a modern mansion with all the latest technology? No brainer? What modern mansion? This is very hard for me. Yeah, because with all the latest technology, I know but it. Doesn't say that you can't put some technology in the secret Castle. That's true. That's true. So there's the lawyer in my head too. That's kind of cool. Secret Castle's kind of cool. I love the secret Castle thing, man, I love it like nobody's business. All Right, you get it. I'll come over to your place and vision. I'm going to say, see Creek Castle. Okay, okay, yeah. Would you rather have ears that record everything you hear or eyes that record everything you see? Oh but wait a minute, does that mean that you have no sound on the recording of the eyes? I don't know. That's what I didn't say that it does. It doesn't exclude it. It's just saying you remember everything you see, or you remember everything you're here. But the distinguished is audio or video, That's what it's saying. I don't think so. I think it's the fact that it's recording everything. Well, then what then you have the audio? If it's if your video has audio? Well, she didn't think it through. No, that's not true. She does not exclude anything. It's the intent, Jeff. Okay, So I'm gonna say video anyway. Video, I'm gonna say video. Well, it's because you already have ears that record everything you say. Right, zar Ball can pull out things from obscure conversations from like three years ago and to no I said this, and then you said this, and then I said this. Right, you already have that. Yeah, well it depends on the topic. But yes, my wife would say, I'm terrible at the things that really matter, and. You're selective and what you remember. Okay, yeah, I think I go with the eyes too. I don't know, maybe ears not ears. I would have ears that record everything. Oh really yeah, yeah, I think so audio. Okay. Would you rather your life be a game of SIMS or your life be the Truman Show? Remind me what SIMMS is again. SIMMS is like a video game where you're kind of, I don't know, developing society, building. Please build, oh, sim city yeah SIMS Yeah, yeah, sim city, sim zoo and all that stuff. Okay, would you rather be the l's like where you're the one controlling? So the one SIMS is you're controlling society. The Truman Show is everybody. You're living in the show. So you're controlling the show or living in the show. There's there's no question. Would you rather be in control? Or be controlled. I'd rather be in controlled. Yeah, me too, Yeah sims Okay, I. Mean, is there anybody who'd like to say I'd like to be the planet? Wait, wake up and discover you're in the in the Truman Show. Yeah, you're you're the star of a fake life. Yeah I don't think so. Yeah, I mean we vote for that. Talking about waking up and being the star of the story. Ooh ooh. Jonah wakes up one day, wakes up one day, and God says, Joonah got a big planned for you. We're going to write a whole book about your story. Wow. And Jonah had no idea when he woke up he can be this star. He had no idea his own, no idea. Wow. So we're jumping into the book of Jonah today. That was pretty good. To stop your It was good, all right, I liked it. It was a pretty bad transition. So Jonah chapter one, verse one, We're gonna read the whole chapter and it says the Lord gave this message to Jonahs, son of an Amati, get up and go to the great City of nine us. See he got up in the morning. Remember, he woke up announced my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are. But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish. But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and through the cargo overboard the light and the ship. But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold, So the captain went down after him. How can you sleep at a time like this, he shouted, Get up and pray to your god. Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives. Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. Why has this awful storm come down on us? They demanded, Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What's your nationality. Jonah answered, I am a Hebrew, and I worshiped the Lord, the god of heaven, who made the sea in the land. Sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. Oh why did you do it, they groaned. Since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, what should we do to you to stop this storm? Me into the sea, Jonah said, and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault. Instead, the sailors rode even harder to get the ship to the land, but the stormy sea was too violent for them and they couldn't make it. Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah's god. Oh Lord, they pleaded, don't make us die for this man's sin, and don't hold us responsible for his death. Oh Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons. Then the sailors picked Jonah up, threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once. The sailors were awe struck by the Lord's great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him. Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights. We well, we talk about a lot happening from the start of the chapter. To the end of the sear seventeen verses, right, that is a lot. And I always think of the I told you. I think I told you this a long time ago. But there was a college kid that had written a song by himself. So the only person that knows this tune is like me and this college kid, and probably like my brother Jimmy. But so his music was never popular, but he got and he sang it for the group and I still remember it, and he goes, Jonah, Oh, Jonah, when will you ever learn? The plan of God? Almady is not a thing to spurn you can. You can't get away from God no matter how you try. So do his will, his plan fulfilled, and you'll be a happy guy. It's a good one. It's a lame that's a good one. But I always think of that when I think of Jonah for some reason, because I bought his cassette tape and we played it cassette tape. Yep, this college kid anyway, that was happening. Yep, it was. So listen, here's a couple of different things about Jonah. So Jonah is trying to sell sale from Joppa to Tarshish, which is about twelve hundred miles west of where Japa is. So he's trying to get in the boat, and he's trying to go west to get away from Ninevah because Ninevah is about six hundred miles north east of where he is. So if you think about it, Tarshis was northwest. He's really like running in the opposite direction, right, and he's going by sea, right. He's trying to separate himself, you know, through the Mediterranean Sea. He's trying to put as much distance in between him and where God is telling him to go. And the Ninevah was a very prominent city, a very important city in the Assyrian Empire, and Jonah had grown up hating the Assyrians, and the Assyrians actually just a few years before this had oppressed the Israelites. So I remember preaching on this one time just recently. Actually, we just did a series like five six months ago, and I remember thinking this would have been like just after a few years, after nine to eleven to go in the middle of Times Square and to tell a Christian who lived there, Hey, why don't you go into you know, you know, find the the Arabic Islamic you know, radicalists and go give the Gospel to them. And that's pretty extreme. Find go find isis That's what I'm looking for. And and you know, again, I mean the atrocities of the Assyrians were probably that extreme. Yeah, they really were. They slaughtered people, women, children, They took spoils and oppression and wars and things like that. So I mean it would have been pretty similar. So we can't quite imagine the hatred that Jonah had because we're like what you have, Like, are you racist? Are you? Are you? Are you a bigot? No, he had legitimate disdain towards the Assyrians. And not only that, but if you're an Israelite who loves God, which of course Jonah does and and did and does. He's proven to be a person who love and recognizes God. And if you love God, then you you you detest their idolatrous practices, right, so that they were the worst sinners ever. Even God says that they are. Right, there's some of the worst, some of the worst, and so and so Jonah is committing the sin of saying they're not worthy of God's grace. That's what it is, right, So it's not racism, although it is. It's a little bit of racism, but that's not the primary objection. Yeah, I don't know that he was against them because they were Assyrian. He was against the Assyrians because they were terrifying. That's correct, right, that's a great so. So a person might be terrified to try to go or or not even want God to forgive members of Isis, right, But that doesn't mean that you're racist towards people from the Middle East. Correct, You just don't like Isis so much that you want God to judge them, not set them free. Right, right, And that's how they would have viewed it. So Assyria at the time, this is about fifty years before Syria became the world power. So they were ascending. Yep, they were becoming more and more powerful. They're to the northeast of Israel, and the people knew man, nobody can stand before them when they come in. They do horrific things to people. They flay people alive, they they they they rape the women, they burn everything, they destroyed. They're just they're horrible, horrible people, and then on top of that, their worship practices are horrible, everything about them. So that's kind of what he's looking at. There was I don't think I want God to forgive them, that's right, So Jonah. So to give you a kind of an idea where Jonah fits, he's operating during the time of King Uzaiah and before and this would be in the later years of Joan of Elisha's life. Oh yeah, so there's a thing in Second Kings that talks about there was a group of prophets, remember that that one time, the group of Raphits very likely he was part of that group of prophets, is what the Jews bel there's the Jewish people believe. Now I'm not sure I've ever had that that Jonah was part of that group of prophets that Elisha knew. And remember when Leisha was getting old and he wanted that group of prophets. So that's interesting. So it would have been about that same time. Yeah, So here's a man of God. He hears from God. He's a good guy, right, He's one of the heroes for God's people, And so it just happens to be this one time. He's like, I really don't how bad is that that? You're one really bad behavior moments the only thing that gets recorded for the next twenty eight hundred years, right right, right right. But it's a big one. Yeah, it's a big, big one and it's and it's only big because the city of Ninevah, you know, there's a there's a there's a big confrontation that's about to happen. We'll get to that in chapter three. But but yeah, it's a it's a it's a big there's a big happening that takes place there, and so it's pretty massive. But the assignment is go, yeah, that's the assignment. Right. So Ninevah was the capital city of Syrian Empire. Nineva is in modern day Mosl in Iraq today. So if you remember back a number of years ago when Isis was destroying the gates to nineva there in Mosil, all the destruction, they were selling a lot of the artifacts and stuff from this great city all that it was. So Mosl was the is where ninev used to be. And so he goes from there and it said heads to Tarsish and there's witches to the northwest, so there's different arguments about Tarsish. For hundreds of years, scholars said that they believed that Tarsish was Tartessos in modern day Spain on the coast. It was a mining city, and it was like one of the farthest things that people would have known about. To the west. Right, you're getting great towards the entrance into the Gibraltar and that that area. They were afraid to sail past it because the storms are so big, the you know, all that kind of stuff. They believe you all off the end of the planet. So this was about as far away as you could go. So for hundreds of years, that's what most of the elogiers believe. There's some thought maybe Tarsia, Tarshish and Tarsus, remember paul Is. Yeah, that was to the far side of is Cilicia, which would be in modern day Turkey Greece, you know, but it was still far to the way, almost as far to the west as he would have needed to have gone to the east to get the Ninevah. So that could be it too, some people think, and there's some indication maybe Carthage could have been it. Where where Hannibal was from. Remember when Hannibal invaded Rome. No wrong one. Hannibal was a great warrior that was able to defeat Rome. He brought the elephants and fun univer Okay, anyways, it's one of the great warriors of history. Carthage was on the northern northern African coast, which was still far to the west. Elephants. Yeah, yeah, wow, ye, yeah, that's cool. Battle elephants. Rome has never had to deal with that before, so yeah, it's neat. They came through the mountains, They came through the Alps. Very fast though a ballot. Elephants. Yeah, they're indefeatable home, undefeatable. Anyways, anyways, you hung up on the elephants. So anyway, it was to the west. It's at least as far west as he needed to have gone east in order to get to end. The point of that was he's going to go to the end of the world as he. As much as he could. Yeah, it's far away from this as possible. And isn't it funny how, you know, when when when we know what we're supposed to do and we don't want to do it. It's weird to me how often we go in exactly the opposite direction. Yeah, right, the exact opposite direction, whether you know, well, I'm not getting the specifics. I think anybody listening you know what we're talking about, that God's drawing you one way, and you're like, nope, and I'm going to go the opposite direction. We wind up making so many dumb choices running from God. So now he's on the boat. He's sleeping soundly right there in the middle of this crazy storm. And it's not like he's on an ocean liner. He's probably on a boat. It's thirty feet long, fifty feet long, it's not a huge boat, and they're being battered by the sea. He's asleep down in the bottom. These pagan boat sailors come down and they roll dice, cast lots. They rolled dice to try to figure out who's guilty, and the dices land on Jonah, just Jonah, and then like, what have you done, you jerk? Because he already said I'm running from God. I don't know why they had to roll dice when he'd already said I'm running from God. But then they're like, what do we need to do. It's sort of, you know, they cast lots for Jesus clothes, right, so they oftentimes casting lots was a practice, but oftentimes as well, it was a way to say, Okay, God, you tell us the answer, right like you, we're going to cast lots, and God, you point us to the answer. This is the only way for you to speak to us. And oftentimes it was actually a thing like it actually like God used casting lots for communicating and so in this case they were like, okay, God, whoever's out there, let us know. And then God just arranged it to where he wanted those men to know. Yep, it's my servant, Jonah. And then Jonah knew right away. Jonah's like, this storm is because of me. You guys are victims. He said, just throw me overboard, and I'm sure the storm will stop because God is you know, he's after me and so and by the way, I love how these men threw off cargo because even though Jonah said throw me overboard, it said they didn't want to do that. Hey, these are good men, Yeah, these. Are good men. These are good men. So they decided to throw cargo over first. Even though that Jonah said if you throw me over it'll stop. So Batman would have said, okay, don't have to ask me twice. Yeah, good good is relative. They're noble, yeah, noble man. Okay, all right, well, I mean they did offer a sacrifice to God and offer to serve him. Sure afterwards after they got a praying to all their own gods. Well right, you don't know that. Well, so our theologian friends that are listening and say, yes, the Bible says there's none good, but they were noble. Yeah okay, yeah, sure, so semantics some of the words absolutely, the word good absolutely, okay. But so anyway, the bottom line is is, uh, so these men decide to throw them overboard, and then God calms the sea, and so put yourself in Jonah's spot at this point, right, so you're running, you know, you're just obeying God. There's a storm that comes up. You know, as Jonah, this is beyond coincidence. And then you say, I already know that if you throw me into the sea, it'll stop. Save yourselves, because obviously, if if sailors are feel for for their lives, that means they are going to die, right, And so what Jonah is saying is the storm will stop throwing in the sea. And Jonah's really saying I'm going to sacrifice my life for yours, right, because after all, they're in the middle of the sea. So Jonah is literally very nobly. Maybe he's not purely good in doing this, but how noble it is? Is it for him to sacrifice? Is? I know, I appreciate it. Yeah, but he's sacrificing himself. And then and then God prepares a fish. It was a whale, I guess. Well, it says a fish, large fish. Do you think it's a lot in this monster? Well, we know that the other day if it was, it was blurry, right, that's right, that's a big blurry fish. Cash. So verse seventeen is an end all of Chapter two is like really critiqued by people who don't believe the Bible. This is one of those, right, So this one and. Noah's a fable with a lesson or a more or less. This one and Noah. There's a couple of those that that that people go, oh, that's impossible, that's scenario. Yeah, that's deconstructing. And so every once in a while you'll find some clever atheist or agnostic or some you know, Discovery Channel thing going probably wasn't really a fish and all this stuff. There have been people been swallowed a whole that have survived. So there's that. But beyond that part of it, do you know why I believe go ahead, go ahead, let. Me insert before we move on. There doesn't have to be a scientific way to prove that Jonah survived anyway, because you can't scientifically prove how Lazarus was raised for the death right right God, everyone. Wants to Yeah, Well, the God of the universe, who made I don't know, the whole universe, can go ahead and manage a fish if he needs to. So there's that part of it. Miracles are not a problem for people who believe in a creator. I don't understand why that's an issue for Christians. If you believe that the Creator made monkeys and mosquitoes and whales and elephants, I don't know that it's hard to imagine that God could also do this thing. So miracles are not a problem for me. But whether you struggle with that part of it or not, I believe that Jonah is a true story because Jesus believed. Any references it and all of that, but he attaches it to the most important thing in the universe, which is his own death, barrel and resurrection. That's right, just as. Jonah is in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so the son of Man will be uh, what is it? What's the wording in the grave being that? Well, yeah, he didn't say in the grave, but but yeah, he'll be in the belly of the earth, I think is what he says for three days and three you know, so in rise on the third Day. So uh so yes, So if Jesus believes it and refers to it as a story, as a factual story, uh, then uh then yes, I have a tendency to believe that. The three big ones that people kind of point at it would be creation creation, Noah Noah and Noah's flood and Jonah Jonah. And it turns out Jesus references Adam and Eve yeah, Noah right, and Jonah interesting where Jesus believed them. So I believe Jesus and Jesus believed in the Jonah's story, So I think it's a legitimate. I've always loved Andy Stanley's comment when he says, you know, I believe it because Jesus believes it. He says, uh, he goes anybody who predicts his own death Baryl in Resurrection and pulls it off. Tendency to believe anything, he says, Ye, yeah, I just love that comment because it's it's like, yeah, you should probably believe what Jesus says, right, So yeah, it's it's a great thing to do, is to believe that. And we're about to see that he's in there for three days and three nights with purpose. Right, So all right, don't miss tomorrow. Don't miss tomorrow because we're talking through that chapter two. We'll see hopefully then on the Bible Gush