TEXT: Jonah 1:17-2:10

SUBJECT: Exposition of Jonah #3: Unchanging Purpose

Let's continue our study of Jonah tonight, praying the Lord will open our eyes to see what He is up to in it. The Prophecy--you must remember--is not about runaway preachers, hungry fish, or penitent sinners. It is about Jesus Christ. Although His name doesn't appear on its pages, He is everywhere. Our Lord is the central figure of all Scripture--Jonah chapter two, no less than John, chapter three.

What has our Lord done so far? Three things: (1) He has tried Nineveh and found it guilty. No one escapes His notice--"Every mouth is stopped; all the world is guilty before Him". (2) He has purposed to save Nineveh. "Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds". Why? So that we will know salvation "...is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy". (3) He has chosen an unlikely man to bear the message of salvation. Jonah--of all people!--is sent so that "No flesh will glory in His sight, but whoever glories must glory in the LORD".

This second chapter, of course, is the best known part of Jonah--and the most controversial. Believers have spent much time trying to prove a man might live 72 hours in the belly of a fish. Their time should have been put to better use, for the man's survival was miraculous. And miracles depend on the power of God--not how often a whale comes to the surface.

We mustn't allow the details of Jonah to take us away from its message. In this chapter, we see it further unfolded.

The Lord's plan is not frustrated by the unwillingness of His people to play their part in it.

When God called Jonah to Nineveh, the man should have leaped for joy. What a privilege, to be the Lord's co-laborer! To bring the message of salvation to a people prepared to hear it and ready to respond in faith.

Jonah, however, is not so enthusiastic. Rather than obeying the Word with joy, he rages against God and sails for Tarshish. He has torpedoed the Divine purpose, it seems. Now God cannot do what He planned to do--at least not in the way He planned to do it.

But God has a knack for getting His way. Jonah had read the Proverbs, I suppose: "A man's heart plans His way, but the LORD directs his steps..."There are many plans in a man's heart, nevertheless the LORD's counsel--that will stand". He thought they applied to everyone but himself and to every situation but this one.

He was badly mistaken.

God wants to save Nineveh by the Word of Jonah. And He will. The prophet's sin is great; the LORD's power is greater.

His saving work did not stop at Nineveh, but all along the way, He found people unwilling to play their parts in it. Abraham, for example, is promised a "Seed" in Whom "all the families of the earth would be blessed". He waits patiently for a long time. But his patience wears out at last; he fathers a child by a slave girl. This hurts him very badly and causes many problems down the line. But it does not thwart the purpose of God. In time--God's good time--the Word comes to pass, Sarah conceives and bears a son in old age.

Centuries later, an angel comes to a virgin of Nazareth promising a miraculous son to her. She doesn't believe--"How can these things be?" Yet her doubt does not prevent God form carrying out His plan--"The power of the Highest overshadowed her--the Holy Thing within her womb would be called the Son of God".

The Early Church wants no part of the Gentile races. Yet the Spirit falls on the Romans as He had on the Jews. They admit, "Who were [we] that [we] should withstand God?"

For now, He tells us to "Preach the Word". He promises to bless it when we do and to bring His people to Himself through our efforts.

But, like Jonah, we're sometimes less than eager to obey. We miss opportunities for witness--sometimes intentionally. Oh how we ought to bemoan this sin! How we ought to repent of our lukewarmness! But we must never despair. God uses us; He does not depend on us! Even Balaam knew that,

"Has He spoken,

And will He not make it good?"

If the Assyrian capital depended on Jonah, it would have been overthrown. It didn't and it wasn't. If the world depends on us, it is hopelessly lost. It doesn't and won't be. For, as Jonah himself blurted out at last,

"Salvation is of the LORD".

The LORD chastens His people into doing His will.

In chapter one, we find Jonah fleeing God's will; in chapter three, he's obeying it. What happened? Chapter two! He spent three days and three nights in the belly of a fish. What did it do for him? It convinced him that running away from God was a horrid thing to do and resisting His will wouldn't make things easier on him.

The prayer borrows extensively from the Psalms. This is important, for the man who once fled the Word has now returned to it. What are its themes? Guilt, grace, and obligation. Jonah admits his sin, pleads for God's favor, and promises to obey if he should receive it.

Does God hear his cry for help? He does. "So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land".

In one way, Jonah's experience was unique; in another, it was quite common. The Lord wants us to trumpet the Good News. He wants us to do it energetically and from the heart. When we do, He is pleased with us.

If we don't? He doesn't scale down His plan to fit our willingness to do it. He enlarges our willingness to fit His plan. How? By applying pressure. Chastisement is the word. "Discipline" some Bibles have it. What is chastisement?

Pain. Not all pain is chastisement, of course, but all chastisement is painful. Like a spanking, if it doesn't hurt, it doesn't do any good. It doesn't get our attention; it doesn't sober us up.

Jonah's disobedience got him "three days and three nights in the belly of a fish". Ours probably won't. Yet, if we don't carry out the Great Commission, we're sure to suffer for it. How? Only God knows that, but some likely consequences are these: dwindling numbers, reduced enthusiasm, restlessness, ingrownness, a quenched Spirit, and a growing irrelevance in the world.

Why would God do these things to us? Not because He hates us, but because He wants us to listen up! Micah has it: "Hear the rod and Who has appointed it!"

When listened to, chastisement is good for the soul. "Before I was afflicted I went astray--says David--"But now I keep Your Word". We shouldn't court it, of course, any more than Jonah should have chummed for his fish. But we should respect it, learn from it, and, in time, thank God for its blessing.

The Lord enhances the ministry of His people through their chastisement.

The fish did Jonah good. But not only Jonah; it also did the Ninevites a favor. One reason they repented was because he gave them a sign--"the sign of Jonah" our Lord calls it. What was it? It was himself, alive after "three days and three nights" in the belly of the fish. How did they know he had been there? They wouldn't have taken his word for it--who would? It must have been his appearance. What would a man look like after 72 hours in stomach acid? Can you imagine how he smelled? He must have shocked them into a hearing. Jonah's chastisement enhanced his ministry. Though he wouldn't have thought so.

The same was true of Paul. If only he were healthy, what a preacher he would be! He prayed for health repeatedly, till he learned "My grace is sufficient for you. In your weakness My power is made manifest".

Our chastisement humble us; they make us sympathetic; they lend an authenticity to what we say. Hence, they not only do us good, they also promote our work for Christ and advance His cause in the world.

How gracious our God is! In Jesus Christ, He promises to save the world. And what He promises, He also fulfills. Through His people. Whom He prepares for their work through suffering, which, in turn, guarantees their success.

"Oh the depth of the wisdom

and the knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are His ways

and His judgments past finding out!

For of Him and through Him

And to Him

Are all things. To Whom be glory

Both now and forever. Amen."