G. K. Chesterton wrote in his book Orthodoxy, “I did, like all other solemn little boys, try to be in advance of the age. Like them I tried to be some ten minutes in advance of the truth. And I found that I was eighteen hundred years behind it.”¹ And so it remains today. We are finding ways to buy all we need through our phone line, we are engaged in endless discussions on how to make our economy strong, and there are books written on how best to handle marriage, parenting, and your self-image. Yet, the most crucial questions are so often being left behind. By trying to stay in advance of the age, it seems that we are falling farther behind asking the right questions and getting the right answers; we are falling farther behind what is true.

In a day not unlike Chesterton, who wrote that in 1908, we live in a time when we need to return to that which is not new but which is true and never changing. We need to recover the understanding that truth has been revealed to us not by our own reason or endeavors, but by one who is outside of this world and outside of us – God. We need to look to his word to find out not only what are the right answers but also what are the right questions that we should be asking.

But one cannot read the scripture without seeing clearly that most important questions are: What is God like? What is man like? Can we know God? Those are questions whose weight make the questions we are so often asking today seem senseless. So, this morning, we turn to the book of Jonah for the first of a few messages in which we will ask try to answer those questions. Thus, this morning, let us ask the question of what does Jonah teach us of God and of our relation to him. For Jonah, though written hundreds of years before any of us existed, helps us answer these most crucial questions for our day.

The book of Jonah is unlike the other Minor Prophets in that it tells a story. There is no prophetic proclamation for Israel that makes up the majority of the book, as is the case with the other Minor Prophets (called “minor” not because of their significance but because of their length). We simply read in this book the story of a prophet named Jonah, who is told by God to go to Nineveh and proclaim a message of destruction to Nineveh (1:1-2). However, he rejects God’s command and boards a ship going entirely the other direction, to the town of Tarshish (1:3).

But the story continues as a storm breaks on the sea, and the sailors conclude that Jonah should be thrown overboard as the source of the storm is his God, disciplining his servant (1:12-16). As he is overthrown, he is swallowed by a large fish, who spits him up on dry land, where Jonah is finally obedient to God’s command, and preaches to the Ninevites, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (1:17-3:4). The Ninevites then respond in repentance, and God spares their destruction (3:5-10).

Yet the story ends with Jonah complaining and pouting and God disciplining him and showing him that Jonah’s heart is not reflective of his Lord’s.

So as we look at this story, this small book written in the latter part of the Old Testament, what does it teach us of God? Ourselves?

It teaches us that God is great and sovereign over his creation

The book of Jonah gives us a picture of God in which he is nothing less than absolutely in control of his creation. It emphasizes the declaration of the Psalmist as he proclaims, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3). Like the book of Ruth, which we looked at last week, it is clear the events of the book of Jonah do not happen by chance.

We hear God, over and over, as the cause of the events in this book. He is the one who causes the great wind to blow upon the sea (1:4). He stops the sea (obvious from the fact that it stopped once Jonah was thrown in (1:15). He appoints a fish to swallow Jonah (1:17). He caused the fish to vomit out Jonah (2:10). He caused a plant to grow and provide shade for Jonah (4:6). He appointed a worm to attack and whither the plant (4:7). And he appointed a wind to trouble Jonah (4:8).

This “appointing” language is not language that we bring to the text, it is language given by the author who wants us to know, without doubt, that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is sovereign over his creation. At the end of the day, Jonah helps us to remember that our God is ultimately in control, nothing gains the upper hand on him.

But why is this a comforting thing to realize? The sovereignty of God is shown to us in the Scripture for many reasons, among which I will list three.

1) It helps motivate us to impossible tasks.

The sovereignty of God is never utilized in Scripture to de-motivate us with the thought, “I need not do anything; God will do what he wants to do.” Rather, it is given to encourage and motivate us to labor toward impossible tasks because our God is sovereign. We find this in the case of evangelism (for example) with Paul toward the Corinthians in Acts 18 and with the disciples in Acts 4, among others.

2) It helps comfort us in difficult times.

One of the best Scriptural texts for this is Romans 8:28-39. First, we are given this pillar for all times that God will work all things together for our good in Romans 8:28, and then we are shown that he will ensure the completion of the salvation of his children in Romans 8:29-30. And finally, we are reminder that God is for us and that nothing can therefore be against us.

This would not be for certain, if God were not all-powerful and all knowing, if he were not sovereign. But because he is sovereign, we may be comforted in these promises from his word, no matter the tragedy that befalls us.

Even this week, as I was able to sit with Jim and Laurie as the doctor notified Jim that a spot on his lung may be cancerous, Jim said, “God is sovereign. I’m praying that he might use this to draw my mother and sister closer to himself. Blessed be the Lord.” That is the practical application of the sovereignty of God.

3) It causes us to realize the greatness of our God, humble ourselves, and worship him.

This is the case in Exodus 33:19 as Moses had declared to see God’s glory and God reminds him, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” We see the same thing with Nebuchadnezzar and with the Egyptians in the Exodus. God wants us never to forget that there is none greater than he and none worthy of worship as he is.

It teaches us that man must first understand himself before understanding God

At the end of the book of Jonah, we realize that God intends a lesson for his prophet, while Jonah is pouting God’s sparing of Nineveh. As he grows a tree for shade for Jonah and then causes it to wither in the scorching heat, he shows Jonah his selfish heart. For God asks Jonah in 4:9, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And Jonah responds, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” But God responds in verses 10-11, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

God showed Jonah his own heart so that by contrast he might understand better God’s heart. This is indeed a great truth throughout the word of God. Man is in no position to understand God without first knowing how evil, unworthy, and unrighteous he himself is. If a man hopes to know God, he must know himself first, and his knowledge of himself must be true according to the scripture. Such is why Jesus can say that unless one humbles himself and becomes as a little child, he will by no means enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 18:3-4).

It teaches us that God is one who can be known

When you come to the position of truly realizing your lowliness and God’s greatness, you may feel helpless, asking whether it is truly possible to personally know such a God. Is it possible to have a relationship with the great sovereign God of the universe?

The answer is yes.

In this text we find men who hope some things are true of God. The sailors on the ship hope God might be able to keep them from dying as they exclaim to Jonah, “Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish” (1:6). In the same way, the king of Nineveh declares, “Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (3:8-9).

However, we see great contrast with that as Jonah tells the Lord his reason for first fleeing. He says in 4:2, “That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (emphasis added).

Jonah knows the ways of God; he knows God. But how? He knows God because God had revealed himself, as we read in Exodus 34:6-7, “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will be no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generation.’”

God, years before Jonah had declared to Moses, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). Yet God had revealed his character to Moses, as Jonah was now remembering. He knew God for God had revealed himself.

However, we know that years after Moses, John brings us back to those conversation between Moses and God, but now reminds us, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18).

So, like Jonah, we too may know God for he has revealed himself to him in his Son as we know him through the word.

Therefore, I encourage you this morning if you do not know God as your personal Father to place your faith in Jesus Christ, for knowledge of the Father comes through him. I also encourage you this morning, if you do know the Lord, not to take this too lightly but to treasure such knowledge and focus on knowing his ways and character as we can know him through his word.

It teaches us that God does not tolerate disobedience in his children

Finally, Jonah teaches us that God does not tolerate disobedience in his children as we see Jonah trying to flee from his will and God disciplining him and driving him to obedience. Our knowledge of God does not mean he becomes less holy.

But why doesn’t God tolerate disobedience in his children? It is because God wants the world to see a clear picture of who he is and we are the body of Christ. In essence, because the honor of God’s name is at stake in the lives of his children, he demands obedience. Thus, Peter, repeating God’s command from Leviticus tells us, “You shall be holy, for [i.e. because] I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).

Therefore, we should not take disobedience lightly, expect God’s discipline in such cases, and strive to live in obedience to his commands so that God’s glory and honor may be displayed clearly throughout the world.

We must see ourselves rightly in order to know God, but we can know the sovereign God as our personal father who will allow us to be the vessels to display his character to the world. This is a main part of the great message of Jonah. We will look at the rest next week. By his grace. Amen.

¹G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 172.

LESSONS FROM THE BOOK OF JONAH - PART 1