God Speaks, He Runs (Jonah 1:1-3)
[Read Jonah 1:1-3]
God has a way of calling us to do things that go against our natural inclinations—things that we wouldn’t even think of doing if God hadn’t told us to do them, things that make us wanna cringe, things that make us wanna run away. That’s what happened to Jonah.
Jonah was a prophet of Israel. There’s only one other reference to Jonah outside of this book. In 2 Kings it says, “[Jereboam II] was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.” (2 Kings 14:25, NIV). This tells us a couple things about Jonah. First, that he was from Gath Hepher. We don’t know much about the village besides that one of the early church fathers said it was an insignificant village. Second, this passage shows us that Jonah was a prophet to Israel. He was prophesying to Jereboam II, the King of Samaria—the Northern Kingdom—and Jereboam was not a good king. He was one of those kings that it is said, “He did evil in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit.” (2 Kings 14:24, NIV). This seems to be Jonah’s ministry, prophesying to a king who is doing evil in the eyes of the LORD and not turning from his sin.
Sounds like a blast, doesn’t it? Sounds like it is something one would want to run away from. Put yourself in Jonah’s shoes for a moment. God has assigned you to do ministry in a situation where you see no fruit from your ministry. You are repeatedly calling people—the king included—to repentance and nothing is happening. They continue to do what is evil in the Lord’s sight. Worse yet, the Lord gives you a prophecy to tell this evil king that his boundaries will be expanded. So, not only is the king unrepentant, but now you have to tell the king that God would expand his borders. Talk about frustrating, right? If that was you, sitting in his position, seeing no fruit from your labors, watching an evil king expand his borders, continuing to labor in calling him, and the nation, to repentance, wouldn’t you wanna quit? Wouldn’t you wanna run away?
Then God gives him an opportunity. “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.”” (Jonah 1:1–2, NIV). I like a literal translation of this better. Rather than God simply commanding Jonah to “go,” the literal translation says, “Get up, and go…” In the midst of Jonah’s unfruitful ministry to God’s people, you would think this would be good news to him. “Yes, an opportunity to go somewhere else. Maybe they’ll listen to me!”
Yet, Nineveh is not the place for a prophet of God. God even warns Jonah, saying, “Go to the GREAT CITY of Nineveh…” This isn’t just an ordinary city. It’s a great city. As people work at understanding more about Nineveh in Jonah’s time, they’ve come to some conclusions about its size and look. A note in Calvin’s commentary says this, “[Nineveh] must then have been in circuit about 60 miles. Its walls are reported to have been 100 feet high…and so broad that three chariots might run abreast, and adorned by 1500 towers, the height of which were 200 feet…some think that its population must have been above two millions” (22). Even in this modern age we would consider this a “great city.” Imagine how intimidating this would have been almost three thousand years ago!
Not only that, Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and the Assyrians were known for their cruelty. They were known for having such a powerful military that they would approach a city to inform them that they were going to attack. They informed them that it would be better for them to surrender the city than die a long and painful death. If they didn’t surrender the city, they would ransack it, take the king, skin him alive, and drag him through the city, and then pile the heads of the dead outside the city to make a statement. No wonder God says, “…its wickedness has come up before me.” It is an understatement to say that Nineveh is a tough mission field.
Then, to top things off, Jonah is called to stroll into this city and “…preach against it…” So, here’s God saying to Jonah, “Yeah, Jonah. You know that really big city, full of evil people that do evil things to people they don’t like. I want you to go there and preach against them. Tell them to knock it off.” God has a way of calling us to do things that go against our natural inclinations—things that we wouldn’t even think of doing if God hadn’t told us to do them, things that make us wanna cringe, things that make us wanna run away.
Jonah runs away! He runs away with the force and determination of skilled marathon runner. He turns around, heads to Joppa which is the opposite direction of Nineveh, searches for a boat that is heading the opposite direction of Nineveh, pays them money to take him the opposite direction of Nineveh, gets on the boat and hides in the inner part of the ship. It reminds me of a famous Winston Churchill quote in the middle of World War II. He said, “We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…” For Jonah it was, “I will run through the mountains, I will run across the prairies, I will run by foot, I will run by boat, I will search for whatever resource and pay whatever fee, I will NEVER surrender to God’s call. I will NEVER go to Nineveh.”
God has a way of calling us to do things that go against our natural inclinations—things that we wouldn’t even think of doing if God hadn’t told us to do them, things that make us wanna cringe, things that make us wanna run away. I wonder what that is for you? We don’t really like to hear that God may call us in such a way. The prosperity gospel has seeped into the American church to the point that we can easily think that God wants us to be happy, healthy, and wealthy. It has brought us to the point of thinking that God would never call us to do something that we don’t want to do—something difficult, something frightening, something overwhelming. When these types of calling are placed in front of us, we shrug them off and try to explain them away by saying, “God wouldn’t call me to do that…” Yet, God does call us to do those types of things. Take a look throughout scripture, it’s full of stories where God is calling people to do things that go against their natural inclinations—calling them to do hard things, frightening things, overwhelming things. Most likely, He is calling you in the same way. What is it?
God has a way of calling us to do things that go against our natural inclinations BECAUSE our natural inclinations are distorted by sin. Our natural inclinations are fallen. Jeremiah has something to say about our natural inclinations: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, NIV). Paul also talks about his own natural inclinations (and remember this is written as someone who is a believer): “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15, NIV). As a believer, there is war going on inside us—a war between our natural inclinations (our sinful nature) and our redeemed inclinations. Christ, through the work of the Spirit is reshaping our inclinations, and forming them more into His image. That is why God calls us to do things that go against our natural inclinations, BECAUSE he is shaping us to have inclinations that are more in line with his will.
There’s an amazing story about a missionary named John G. Paton who felt a call from God that was contrary to natural inclinations. He felt God’s call to reach the people of the New Hebrides Islands. The first two missionaries to attempt reaching these people were killed and eaten by cannibals only minutes after arriving on the island. Yet, God was still speaking to Paton, saying, “Get up, and go to the New Hebrides and preach the Gospel.” This calling goes contrary to our natural inclinations. When Paton told some people he respected about this calling, one man responded, “The cannibals! You will be eaten by cannibals!” Here’s how Paton responded. I think it gives us a glimpse into a man whose inclinations are being redeemed. So, the man says, “The cannibals! You will be eaten by cannibals!” and Paton responds, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer. (p. 56)” That’s what it looks like to have our inclinations redeemed and restored into the image of Jesus Christ!
God has a way of calling us to do things that go against our natural inclinations. Where is He calling you? To what is He calling you? I just gave an extreme example in John G. Paton. Jonah can even seem like an extreme example. What about you? God calls us to small things that go against our natural inclinations and we still run away from them. God calls us not to lust after someone we’re not married to—that goes against our natural inclinations. God calls us to daily deny ourselves as we follow Him—that goes against our natural inclinations. God calls us to read His Word regularly, pray regularly, and worship regularly—these all go against our natural inclinations. What is God laying on your heart this morning? What difficult calling is God placing before you this morning? Don’t trust your natural inclinations and run away from it. Rely on the Holy Spirit, TRUST your Heavenly Father, and run TOWARD thing God is calling you to do.
There’s one more thing God calls us to do that is contrary to our natural inclinations. Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5:44, NIV). Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. THAT goes agains our natural inclinations! Really, that’s why Jonah ran from Nineveh. Jonah didn’t run because he was afraid of the Assyrians nor because he was afraid of the “great city.” He ran because he was afraid God would show mercy on them. That’s what Jonah says in chapter four: “That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (Jonah 4:2, NIV). Jonah ran because God was calling him to preach to a group of people he hated—a group of people he didn’t want to see receive God’s mercy. He ran because he didn’t want to love his enemy or pray for those who persecute him. In his mind, it was a calling that was too difficult—too far against the grain of his natural inclinations—so he ran.
Yet the redeemed inclination doesn’t run from loving it’s enemies. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NIV). While we were still sinners, while we were still enemies of God, Christ didn’t run away from us. He ran toward his own death because he loved us—his enemies. He showed his love for us—his enemies—by dying for our sins on the cross and redeeming all those who turn to him in faith, washing their sin as white as snow, and adopting them into his family. Then, through the power of the Holy Spirit, he begins to shape/change our natural inclinations so that we will become more like him—not running away from loving our enemies but running toward loving our enemies by sharing the Gospel of God’s grace.