Jonah
Week 1: TaNaK
Pastor Rick Henderson September 28-29, 2024
We’re kicking off a new series today on Jonah. It’s a short book that tells a wild story about a prophet named Jonah. Go ahead and turn to it. There are 39 books in the Old Testament. Jonah is the 32nd. If you open your Bible to the exact middle, you’re probably in the book of Psalms. It’s 13 books after Psalms. If you’ve found your way to the book of Daniel, next comes Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah then Jonah. Good luck.
As you turn to it, I want to ask you to do something with me right now. This is one of those things where participating and not participating look identical. So, no matter what, you are safe from scrutiny or embarrassment. Are you ready?
I want you to scroll through the memories of your past and find a moment in time when you were foolish. Do your best not to answer for someone else. And don’t confuse this with an embarrassing moment, though you may have been embarrassed. I’m talking about a specific moment or even a season of foolishness. You don’t have to tell anyone what it was. Just think about it.
Grab a hold of that memory, and let’s try to peel the layers back. Can you pinpoint the reasons you were foolish? Howyou and I were foolish is not as important right now as why we were foolish. Whatever your story is, I bet that if we all told our stories to each other, two words would probably dominate.
Maybe this is the word that comes to mind first. I did foolish things because I didn’t know better. This is why none of us should be embarrassed. We all start out in life not knowing all we need to know. Some of us have strong families and communities that prepared us. Some of us didn’t. And yet, everybody starts out with this [Pointing to screen]. So, we all have foolishness in our story. This is not a cause for anyone to feel shame.
Some of our stories of foolishness would have to include this word. Now this a matter of character. It’s very much a moral issue. I launched into adulthood with IGNORANCE about money. So I was foolish with money in my 20s. My real problem, however, was that I had too much PRIDE. I wouldn’t go to a class like Financial Peace because I didn’t want my ignorance exposed. PRIDE is nasty that way. It makes us feel safe all the while its hurting us. My PRIDE perpetuated my IGNORANCE, cultivating more foolishness until I finally broke down and went. Financial Peace University changed my life. And when I went, I discovered that everyone there asked the exact same question. “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” [Pointing to the screen: PRIDE]
- PRIDE + IGNORANCE = FOOLISH
If this is what makes us fools. What is it that will make us wise?
- HUMILITY + INSTRUCTION = WISDOM
If we are humble and we receive truth, even truth that confronts us and corrects us, if we have enough humility to receive truth, we can become wise. This battle plays out in every human heart, so it shouldn’t surprise us that it plays out in the book of Jonah—maybe in ways that surprise us.
As we make our way through Jonah, we will discover that no amount of this [INSTRUCTION] can make up for a lack of this [HUMILITY]. That’s a dominant theme in the life of Jonah. We could probably summarize him like this.
- PRIDE + INSTRUCTION = FOOLISH
I am so excited to journey through this book with you. The book of Jonah is like the entire Bible in miniature. It’s an intersection of the all the major themes and plotlines of the Bible, all at once. I want you to see that. Because when you will be stunned by the literary genius of this book and I’m convinced that the Holy Spirit will use it to for massive good and wisdom in your life.
That means to understand Jonah first must understand the Old Testament. And I get it. That feels daunting. For some of us, that feels impossible or intimidating. The Bible is one book, but it’s also a library of books. These books come together to tell one massive story. Everything that is before the arrival of Jesus is called the Old Testament. Believe it or not, it was compiled to be read in light of everything that was written.
The Bible was written by adults to adults. There is an adult level expectation that whenever we read something from the Old Testament, we read it with both the past and future parts of the Old Testament in mind. While that’s an adult level expectation, kids do that with stories all the time. If any of you are fans of Lord of the Rings, this doesn’t sound crazy at all. Right now I’m watching Rings of Power and I’m nerding out over Tom Bombadil. The only way to truly appreciate the show is to know the past and know the future parts of Lord of the Rings while watching each episode. The Old Testament is the same way.
It was originally put together like this. Let me acknowledge I’m in debt to the scholarship of Tim Mackie and the Bible Project.
Bookbinding wouldn’t emerge until later, so everything was written on scrolls. The scrolls, or the first 5 books, called the Law were grouped together. The scrolls of the prophets were bundled together. The scrolls of the writings were bundled together. This is how the Old Testament was put together in Jesus’ day. This was Jesus Bible. It’s the exact same Old Testament that’s in your hands. It was just organized differently.
They didn’t call it the Old Testament. They called it the TaNaK. That was an abbreviation. The Law was called the Torah. The prophets were the nevi’im. The writings were the ketuvim.
It was never intended to be approached like a buffet. Pick what you want and enjoy it insolation. They are all stitched together in a cohesive whole. The last lines of the last book of the law are stitched together with the first chapter of the prophets. And the last lines of the prophets are stitched together with the first chapter of the writings.
DEUTERONOMY 34:10-12 Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
The books of the Law end with a hope and a longing for a prophet like Moses. He is the one who delivered God’s law. And he brought the power of God by delivering the Jewish people from slavery. With his departure there is a loss that’s grieved and a hopeful longing for one who will take that place. This points to Jesus. Now, let’s look at the first chapter of the first book of the Prophets.
JOSHUA 1:7-8 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Hold on to the law that you received. The good life is found inside the boundaries of God’s law. Remember that God is with you. Don’t ever be afraid.
The Law and the Prophets are stitched together. How about the end of the Prophets and the beginning of the Writings?
MALACHI 4:4-6 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
These are the last lines of the last book of the Prophets. Remember the law of God. The good life is found inside of his ways alone. But we’ve got problems. One day, a prophet will come to address our most significant need, what’s going on in our hearts. The only options are reconciliation or condemnation. God would much rather engage in reconciliation than condemnation. That’s going to be so important to remember as dig into Jonah.
How does that stitch together?
PSALM 1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
This is the whole point of all of it all. Life that is truly life is found exclusively inside of God’s law, his boundaries. That’s where we find a life of wisdom and thriving. The problem is that we are all a mess. Being our own authority comes with a destructive price tag. We hurt ourselves and each other.
The Old Testament keeps pushing us to the reality that we need the law of God, but that’s not enough. We need a prophet. We need someone who knows God, who can close the relational gap between us and God and be an ambassador of his grace. Someone who can show us that God desires reconciliation, not condemnation. Someone who can inspire us toward humble repentance.
When you understand that, you can now understand why the Apostle Paul wrote these words to a young man named Timothy, who he mentored.
2 TIMOTHY 3:14-15 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
All of it is a massive attempt to get us to be humble, receive truth, so that we can be wise and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and new life.
That’s what the entire Old Testament is building up to. And Jonah is right in the middle of it all. This grand story plays out in wild, stunning, and tragic fashion across the four chapters of Jonah. Let’s start in chapter one, verses 1-3.
JONAH 1:1-3 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.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.
From the start, the author tells us that this is not going to be what you expect. Normally, when a prophetic book begins with, “The word of the Lord came to...” the majority of what comes next is about that prophet’s message. But this is different. It will be about the prophet’s life. His story is told with truck loads of comedy, satire, and symbolism.
Let me show you what I mean. His name means dove. His dad’s name means faithfulness. And his response to God is foolish. The dove, son of faithfulness, foolishly ran from God. Strange. Why did he run?
God wanted him to deliver a message to Ninevah. That was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. They were bad dudes. They perpetrated grotesque, evil abuses on the people they conquered. And at this point in history, they pretty much conquered everybody. So, Jonah refused to deliver God’s message to them because he feared they would repent. While God’s heart is oriented toward reconciliation, Jonah’s was set on revenge.
It would be so easy for us to feel morally superior to Jonah and to look down on him condescendingly. Before we do that, let’s turn the spotlight on ourselves.
Who remembers the controversy from the opening ceremony of the Olympics? Who can forget this guy? Christians around the world were offended. Faith leaders and politicians called for an apology. It was offensive. They combined imagery of the Last Supper with imagery of an orgy in celebration of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. That’s sticking your thumb in the eye of Jesus followers. Personally, I don’t think it ever helps us to respond defensively. If you know French history, art, and philosophy—that shouldn’t have been surprising. I’m surprised it wasn’t more provocative.
Just imagine with me that the very next Sunday, I somehow got the cast to join us for a service. Imagine they sat down in front and I treated them like guests of honor. The elders and I even wash their feet. In that imaginary scenario—would any of us be grumpy about that? Do you think rumors would start flying around? Or would we graciously welcome the people who offended Christians around the world and include them as we celebrate Jesus? Which response do you think would be more likely? What we find in Jonah probably isn’t all that different than what we might find in our own hearts.
So Jonah got on a boat and headed in the opposite direction. God caused a violent storm. The sailors were convinced they would sink and drown. Jonah comes clean and tells them it’s his fault and convinces them to throw him overboard.
As Jonah sinks in the deep, God causes a fish, or whale, or creature of some sort to swallow him. After three days, this sea creature vomits Jonah out. He then goes to Ninevah and sort of preaches a half-hearted sermon. The entire city and the king repent.
You’d think that was good news. But Jonah found hill outside of the city and was hoping to watch God bring destruction on the city. But God never did. The book ends Jonah chewing God out for being compassionate and God’s response is a question. Shouldn’t I be compassionate? That’s the book of Jonah in a nutshell.
Unfortunately, when people think about Jonah most of the attention is placed on him getting swallowed by a fish. I get it because it’s sensational. But there are only two verses that mention the fish. That’s not the focus. It’s not a minor detail. But it’s not the focus. And it’s become a kind of test. What do we do with this? Should we take it seriously? Can we take it seriously?
A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because its throat was very small, even though it was a very large mammal. The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, “When I get to heaven, I will ask Jonah.” The teacher asked, “What if Jonah went to hell?” The little girl replied, “Then you ask him.”
That does open two critical questions.
- Do you have to believe that a whale or fish physically swallowed Jonah?
- Was Jonah a repentant man of faith, or was he unrepentant?
Good-hearted, intelligent, Jesus-loving people disagree. Some say that Jonah is historical narrative; it happened exactly as described. Others say Jonah is a parable, a fictional story told to teach a point. After all, Jesus did that sort of thing all the time. People from those two very different positions do have something in common. They both want us to take Jonah seriously. But which viewpoint is correct?
Before I respond, let me ask you. Are we coming to the text with pride or with humility? If we insist that it must be historical narrative, or if we insist that it must be a parable, before letting the author tell us what he is trying to accomplish—that’s pride. Humility says we should let the author tell us what kind of work this is.
The book of Jonah doesn’t come with a label at the beginning: historical narrative or parable. The clues are found in the text.
Evidence for the case of historical narrative includes that Jonah was a real person from history. He was a prophet in the 8th Century B.C. In 2 Kings 14, he prophesied for King Jeroboam II. There are other historical facts. Tarshish and Ninevah were real places.
Evidence for it being a parable include comedy, satire and extreme exaggeration.
- The ship is personified and feels fear.
- After the storm subsides, the sailors make sacrifices—on a ship that’s at sea. That’s not realistic.
- Jonah was not only in the belly of a fish for three days but also wrote a complex, eloquent psalm while there.
- It takes three days to walk across the city of Ninevah. That would make it between 40-50 miles across. There was no city anywhere near that size.
- The king of Ninevah is never named. That’s out of the ordinary for historical narrative.
- When the people of Ninevah repent, even the animals repent, fast, and mourn.
So which is it? Did this actually happen or is it a parable? Have any of you ever been fans of Saturday Night Live?
My all-time favorite cast member was Will Ferrel. This is my favorite sketch about a presidential debate. I know it’s totally a middle-aged guy move—to say that the best ever was 20 years ago. It was a satire of the debate between George Bush and Al Gore. It’s not a comedy for the sake of laughs alone. It doesn’t matter if you agree with their political slant. They used humor to get people to think seriously about an election.
Is this [pointing to screen] a historical narrative or a parable? Neither one of those labels fits. Those are real figures from history. That was an actual event in history. This retelling of a historical event includes satire, fictional elements, and exaggerations all done to get us to critique the candidates and ourselves seriously.
The book of Jonah has all the hallmarks of a Saturday Night Live sketch. It combines real figures of history, events of history, and comedic exaggerations to bring us face-to-face with serious truth.
What about the second question: did Jonah truly repent? You need to stick with us during this series. I’m not going to answer that question for you. I think you need to wrestle that one down. I want to wrap up with a thought that’s a helpful filter for reading Jonah.
Jonah is the story of a QUESTIONABLE prophet who QUESTIONED God, written so that we will QUESTIONourselves.
What questions should we ask ourselves?
- Do I genuinely want to be wise, or will I be foolish?
- Will I hold on to my pride, or will I embrace humility?
- Am I willing for the truth to teach, rebuke, correct, and train me?
- Is my heart aligned with the heart of God?
- Is there anything in me that is antagonistic to what he treasures and desires for people?
Jonah ran from God and refused to share a message from God because he despised, he despised that God longed for reconciliation with all people. I love being a part of a church that wants to be aligned with the heart of God.
It’s one of the reasons we are praying for this. We want the Holy Spirit to soften our hearts and help us take our next steps in being a church of all cultures, for all people. I’m going to include that as we pray. While I’m praying, you might want to pray right where you are.
- God help me to be humble and show me where I’m prideful.
- By your Holy Spirit, cause me to treasure reconciliation the way you do.
- By your Holy Spirit, show me anything that is keeping me from being an ambassador of your grace so that I can turn from that and follow in the way of Jesus.
- Will you use me to cause others to see how gracious and good you are?
Let’s pray together.