I heard a sermon Dr. Jerry Vines preached years ago called “Jonah”. I liked it so much that I decided to take some of his points, and expand them. Since then, I’ve preached this sermon at three different Churches in two different states. The power of the text is not in me, but in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scripture. Let’s start at the best place – the beginning of Jonah’s story.

Jonah 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

Oh, how I love the Book of Jonah. I think every Christian should read it at least once a year. Once you read it, it will fix a lot of the crazy ideas that have entered into Christianity in my lifetime. I have been invited to “Pastor Prayer Meetings” where I thought we were going to pray. Instead, when I got there, I listened to the Director of Missions tell us “The reason your Churches are not growing is because …”, and then he has some book or “expert” talk to tell us what we’re doing wrong. I remember years ago when Rick Warren published Purpose Driven Christian and Purpose Driven Churches, nearly every Church in our Association jumped on board with a “40 Days of Purpose” campaign. These rabbit’s feet were going to grow the Churches, empty the saloons and drug houses, and put the pushers and sex traffickers out of business.

It did absolutely nothing.

What grows a Church and changes nations is WHO we see in Jonah.

Jonah 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai…

Who was Jonah? He was “the son of Amittai”. Who is this? NOBODY. The Bible doesn’t tell us who this man is. We know his father’s name, but no one knows who his father actually is. You look it up. Look up “son of Amittai”. It will tell you that it’s Jonah. And who is Jonah? “The son of Amittai”. He’s nobody! Nobody!

But what I find interesting is that the Bible says “Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah”. In the King James and most translations I see, the word translated “word” is in the lower case, like “word”. I don’t think that’s right. The Bible tells us Who the Word of the Lord is. The Bible says:

John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God.

Who is the “Word” that was God. We are told later in John:

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The WORD is Jesus Christ our Lord. The Preincarnate Jesus comes to Jonah, this unknown man. This is the same Jesus Who told His Church before He went into Heaven:

Matthew 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: [20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you …

God sent Jonah into a horrible place. God told Jonah:

Jonah 1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me

Jonah was not sent to a comfortable place to share the Gospel, but a horrible place. “Nineveh” is the capital city of Assyria, a nation that persecuted and attacked Israel. They have become so wicked that God says, “their wickedness is come up before Me”. It’s gotten more than our God can ignore. When wickedness became so prevalent in Noah’s day, the Bible says:

Genesis 6:5-6 … God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth …

Eventually God reaches a point of NO RETURN where He will destroy a civilization if it will not repent. Jonah, the clock is ticking.

God does not wish to destroy – but He will. God said “if the wicked will forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts, and return to Me, I will have mercy on them, and will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7, *AP).

Word Study: Jesus told Jonah, “Arise, go … and cry” (vs 2). Each of these words are Imperatives in the Hebrew text – they are COMMANDS. Three commands. God told Jonah to “Arise”, the Hebrew cum (pronounced koom). This means “rouse yourself – let’s go!”. The Lord also told Jonah to “go”, the Hebrew yawlak (pronounced yaw-lak’). This means “as you travel, carry and spread”. Just as a farmer broadcasts seed on prepared soil, God tells us to broadcast His Gospel (see Matthew 13, the Parable of the Sower). Jonah was also told to “cry against Nineveh”. The word translated “cry” is the Hebrew kawraw (pronounced kaw-raw’), and it means “to publish, call out, make known”. God was going to destroy Nineveh if it didn’t repent. Jonah, go!

But Jonah

How did Jonah respond to this call? We read:

Jonah 1:3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

The Ninevites were a horrible people! When they conquered their enemies they were exceptionally cruel. They made examples of those who stood against them by skinning them alive, or by impaling then on sharpened and greased poles. They would bury their enemies alive in sand. Often when they conquered a village they would behead many of its leaders, and stack their heads at the gateway of that place. They were so cruel that whole towns in danger of being conquered by the Ninevites would many times commit suicide en-mass rather than give themselves over to these terrible people. What a horrible people! Who would love such as this?

God would. The Bible says:

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

No matter how horrible a person might have been in their lives, the Lord will call them to repentance. “There is no respect of persons with God – He treats all the same” (Romans 2:11, AP). “God so loved THE WORLD that He gave His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, that Whosoever believeth in Him should NOT PERISH, BUT have everlasting LIFE” (John 3:16). There is no one that God cannot save, if they would but repent.

“But Jonah”.

Jonah decided that – rather than go to Nineveh – he would run from God. Listen, dear one, no one can run from the presence of God. God is everywhere. The Bible says:

Psalms 139:7-10 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? [8] If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. [9] If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; [10] Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

The Lord Jesus did not SEND Jonah to the Ninevites by himself. It was the Lord’s intention to GO WITH Jonah. When Jonah started running, the Lord is right by his side. It’s actually very comical if you think on it.

I’ve heard people say, “Well, if I don’t do it, perhaps God will get someone else”. Maybe He will will. But maybe He won’t. If God wants you to ARISE, GO, and CRY, then you had better do it. Look at this phrase again:

Jonah 1:3 But Jonah … found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it…

When you run from what the Lord commands you do, you will always “pay the fare thereof”. On top of that, you will always “go down” when you walk away from God’s light. The reason many Christians suffer sickness, stroke, paralysis, diseases, and premature death is because they decide to “GO DOWN TO TARSHISH”.

Jonah 1:3-4 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD…. [4] But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken

Word Study: We are told that “the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea”. The words “sent out” is the Hebrew tul (pronounced tool), which means “to take aim, to throw as a spear”. The Lord reached out very specifically. What happened was no accident, no coincidence. Our Lord deliberately took the wind and cast it specifically at that ship. Dr Vines said:

“The same God Who can calm the storm can also stir up the storm”

Jonah 1:5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

Neither the Church nor the Christian can afford to be asleep. The Mariners – unbelievers by all accounts – see a targeted attack on their ship. They see the ocean around them boiling, while in the distance the waves are calm. Yet Jonah sees nothing.

Sleeping in the belly of the boat Jonah was just dead weight. The believer is to be more than dead weight!

Jonah 1:6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.

The shipmaster didn’t have a clue that Jonah was a Christian! It is so sad when professing Christians become so much like the world that they cannot be seen. As we read through this section, it becomes apparent to the Mariners that the problem on board is Jonah. “They cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah” (Jonah 1:7). The Bible tells us that:

Proverbs 16:33 NET The dice are thrown into the lap, but their every decision is from the LORD.

When they cast lots – which is like throwing dice – the lot fell on Jonah. Jonah confesses his sin to the men, but not to the Lord. Jonah does not seek God’s face, but instead proposes a human solution:

Jonah 1:12 … Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.

God knows our hearts. He knew Jonah’s heart. The Lord knew that Jonah had hardened his heart – even worst than the mariners. The mariners did all they could to save Jonah. But in the end,

Jonah 1:15 … they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.

Though Jonah had disobeyed God, God still used Jonah to lead these mariners to Him. After Jonah was cast in the sea:

Jonah 1:16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.

If God Wants To Use You, He Will.
He Doesn’t Care How You Feel.

Jonah 1:17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Why do bad things happen to God’s people? Sometimes its because the devil or the devil’s world is attacking us. But there are times, dear Christian, when the attack comes because we are disobedient. Notice the wording of our text. “The LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah”. It’s not the Lord PREPARED, but He HAD PREPARED. The Lord Jesus knew the heart of Jonah, and knew what Jonah would do, before Jonah ever did it. The English Standard Version translates this as “The LORD APPOINTED a great fish to swallow Jonah” (also the NASB 95, LSB, RSV, YLT). I kind of like that.

God APPOINTED Jonah to go to Nineveh.
Jonah ran from his APPOINTMENT.
The LORD APPOINTED a fish to eat Jonah.
Jonah kept that APPOINTMENT.

The God Who made all things, and by Whom “all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17), made a fish that could hold Jonah for three days and three nights. This was a real event. Jesus said, “as Jonah was three days and three nights in the fishes belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). Jesus did not see this as a fairytale or an exaggeration. It happened. It is a picture of the tomb of our Lord. Our Lord Jesus went willingly to the Tomb. But for Jonah, his heart changed in the belly of that fish.

Jonah 2:1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,

There’s nothing that gets our attention like suffering. Jonah was suffering, so Jonah prayed like he’s never prayed before. He was running to and not away from God. An interesting thing about Jonah’s prayer is that he prayed the Scripture back to God.

Jonah 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

This is actually the text of Psalms 120:1. Several times Jonah quotes from the Book of Psalms. As a son of God Jonah prayed the Word of God back to it’s Author. The exhale of prayer is most sweet when it is based on the daily inhale of the Word of God! As Jonah repents, he promises to obey God in his calling:

Jonah 2:9-10 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. [10] And the LORD spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Once more (Jonah 3:1) “The WORD OF THE LORD came unto Jonah”.

God Will Bring Miracles To Those Who Do His Will

When people read Jonah, they think the miracle is that a man could live inside a fish three days and nights. No, that’s not a big thing with God. The miracle is that the Lord could use a nobody like Jonah to accomplish His will. The miracle is that a hard hearted people like the Ninevites could be saved. Here we see the miracle:

Jonah 3:4-9 … Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. [5] So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. [6] For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. [7] And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: [8] But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. [9] Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

Here is the greatest miracle of all. God had prepared the hearts of these people. God’s servant preached a very simple Gospel to these terrible Ninevites. Something happened that no one but God could foresee. Nineveh repented.

Look first at the SERMON Jonah preached. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown”. This is eight words in the English language, but in the original Hebrew from which it is translated it is:

ʿôḏ ‘arbāʿîm yôm nînvê hāp̄aḵ

This is a five word sermon. Five words! In the Bible, the number 5 is the number of Grace. Jonah preached the simplest sermon ever recorded. The Bible says that “the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them”. The leadership of the nation, the King repented.

And Nineveh was spared.

While Nineveh pushed against God it was in danger of destruction. It could make some headway, but, sooner or later, God would destroy that nation. When Nineveh turned and walked toward God, He in mercy spared them.

Jesus Christ is the Lion of Judah Who will crush His enemies. Receive Him, and to you He is the Lamb of God that takes away your sin. Receive Him, and He is the Great Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

The Worst Part Of The Book Of Jonah Is Jonah

If we were to outline Jonah, we could say:

Chapter One: Jonah ran FROM God
Chapter Two: Jonah ran TO Repentance
Chapter Three: Jonah ran FOR God
Chapter Four: Jonah ran INTO God

Though Nineveh repented, Jonah was angry. Why? Because Nineveh repented. Jonah says:

Jonah 4:1-3 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. [2] …. I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. [3] Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

Can you imagine that? Jonah was mad because God saved these people. Jonah cherished HATE in his heart toward the Ninevites because of the harm they had done to his people. But Jesus tells us:

Matthew 6:12, 14-15 … forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. … 14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 5:44-45 … I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven …

God does good to those who do bad to Him every day. He loves people anyway. We are to love even our enemies, even the most hateful. The Bible says:

Acts 10:34-35 …. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: [35] But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

Now God wants to show Jonah why He was so intent on saving Nineveh.

Jonah 4:6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

The Lord prepared a gourd for Jonah just like He earlier prepared a great fish. And Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd. He wasn’t happy that the Ninevites were saved, but he was happy over that gourd. Isn’t it strange how Christians can sometimes be happier over the gourds of life than they are over the greater eternal things? Gourds come in all shapes and sizes, just like the things we allow to come between us and God come in all shapes and sizes.

God prepared a gourd for Jonah, but He also prepared a worm (Jonah 4:7) to eat the gourd. If you ever take advantage of the blessed gourds that the Lord gives you, He may turn around and take it right back.

As that old Prophet Job said, “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the Name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). The gourds of life are not what is important. What is important to God is the human soul.

Jonah 4:10-11 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: [11] And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

God called Nineveh to repentance because there were 120,000 children who did not know the difference between their right and left hand. Jonah, you are upset over a gourd. God doesn’t care about the gourds. He cares about the children. He cares about life.

If God can use Jonah to move a city to salvation, He can use you! And, dear friend, if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, then come to Him by faith. God is faithful! He is ever ready to save. May God touch your hearts with His Word. Amen and Amen.