How does the story of Jonah apply to me today?
Many people have heard of this great story of Jonah, the man who was swallowed by a great fish. I have heard it many times growing up as a child, especially growing up watching the Veggietales movie ‘Jonah’. But I never really understood it any further than Jonah getting swallowed up by a fish because of his disobedience.
In the story of Jonah, God spoke to Jonah and told him to go to the city of Nineveh to tell the people the word God had for them. Let’s read this together, and break it up into chunks. ( Read Jonah 1-4)
Jonah 1:1-17 (ESV)
1 “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
4 But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.
6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.
14 Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
17 And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
Jonah intentionally disobeyed God by fleeing from His presence and going into the opposite direction of where God told him to go. Now some of you may be thinking: Why did he not want to go to Nineveh? During this time, Nineveh was a city that was very evil, and Jonah wanted God to hurry up and bring justice and smite these people for their sins.
There are Seven things that Disobedience brings:
#1- A Storm
“But the LORD threw a great wind onto the sea, and such a great storm arose on the sea…”
As soon as Jonah left the LORD’s presence a storm came. Verse three says that “Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the LORD’s presence.” When you leave God’s presence in disobedience you leave that protective covering that God has placed over you when you trust in Him.
This was not only a physical circumstantial storm, but this was also a spiritual storm. Sometimes we face storms in life because of disobedience, and other times we face storms to grow in our faith, but that is a topic for another day…
#2- A Breaking
“...and such a great storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart.”
Jonah’s disobedience did not only affect him, but the people around him on the ship. While this storm was happening, Jonah was below deck taking a nap (v6) –so Jonah was not even aware of what was happening around him. He was oblivious, until somebody woke him up. We need to wake up.
What are we running from?
#3- Fear
“The sailors were afraid, and cried out to his god…”
“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.””
Disobedience is sin. Anytime there is sin, that we are aware of and know that we have done, we have fear in us because we know we did something wrong. Just like a child, when a child breaks something in the house, they may try to hide the evidence that something was broken, but parents know when your child is hiding something.
God knew that Adam and Eve sinned, and He didn’t ask where they were because He didn’t know. God wants you to know, for you to be aware of what you have done and take accountability. We all fall short, we must cling to our Father.
#4- Emptiness
“...They threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load…”
Disobedience will leave you so empty inside that we will start to sacrifice what we have and throw it overboard. Don’t give yourself away to the pleasures and things of this world just to fill an empty void. Doing so will just leave you more empty and dry.
The Father desires to have a relationship with you. He wants to fill that emptiness inside of us and fulfill our every need.
#5- Chaos
Jonah 1:4, 11, &13
Verse 4: “But the LORD threw a great wind onto the sea, and such a great storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart.”
Verse 11: “So they said to him, ‘What should we do to you so that the sea will calm down for us?’ For the sea was getting worse and worse.”
Verse 13: “Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they couldn’t because the sea was raging against them more and more.”
#6- Apart from God’s presence
“Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the LORD’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the LORD’s presence.”
This is the worst thing about disobedience, being apart from God’s presence. In the book of Samuel there was a king named Saul, who God rejected as king because of how much he disobeyed God (1 Samuel 13). Instead of Saul repenting before the Lord, when he felt the emptiness that this brings, he continued to live in sin, seeking other things to hear a word from the Lord instead of going to the Lord himself and waiting patiently. But because of that chaos he took matters into his own hands.
How much like us when we feel empty, when we feel confused through the chaos we try to take matters into our own hands instead of being still in the presence of God.
#7- Darkness
In Jonah 1:17 we can believe that in the belly of the great fish those three days and three nights that Jonah was in darkness. There were no windows in the belly of the fish where he could open the blinds, and the sun could creep in.
Not to mention, we do not know at what sea level this great fish swam in–we do not know whether the fish swam at the surface of light or if this fish went deeper down where the sunlight couldn’t reach. Only God knows the magnitude of this.
The point is disobedience will leave us in total darkness.
If I disobeyed, how can I come back to God?:
#1- Repentance
Jonah chapter two is completely dedicated to Jonah coming before the Lord in complete surrender to Him. While Jonah was crying out to the Lord, (Jonah 2:1-2), God heard Jonah’s cry. Jonah’s prayer starts out as a cry for help, humbling himself as a way to show that we need God and we cannot go any further without Him.
Jonah’s prayer then goes into what he was going through in the belly of the fish (Jonah 2:3-6). Then Jonah begins to reflect on the LORD’s goodness and begins to praise Him (Jonah 2:6-9).
Even though we fall short, God is still with us carrying us through and leading us into the right path. We must have a humble heart and repent no matter how big or small it may seem.
#2- Prayer & Reflection
Jonah being inside of the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights definitely gave him a lot of time to reflect on what he did and on who God is. “Deep inside of Sheol” (Jonah 2:2)...Sheol is described as a place of darkness (typically after death).
Being inside of the belly of the great fish we can assume that Jonah probably didn’t eat or drink anything for those three days and three nights and was propelled into a dry fast. [In Esther 4:15-17 we see that Esther and her people did the same kind of dry fast (no food or water).] Jonah did not have a stove or fireplace to cook or even a flashlight to see what was going on.
We should be in a place of reflection and meditation on the Word of God. Not too long ago I had to do a time of reflection and check my heart condition on some things that I was going through. I felt that emptiness from being distracted from entertainment and from my phone, and I had to reflect and ask myself if this was helping me get closer to God.
#3- Remove Distractions
Of course, Jonah was propelled into a place where he could not run or hide from God, and he did not have any more distractions. First of all, no matter how much you try to run from God and try to hide from Him, you are only fooling yourself. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that can be hidden from God.
“If I say, ’Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night’ –even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to you.”
Although Jonah couldn’t see a thing, God could see him. Sometimes we try to hide things from God and we ourselves try to hide, but we are in His sight. He sees us and He loves us and wants us to listen to Him, because He has things that He wants to share with us. We must be open to listen. God can do great things through us if we just let Him. It will be much easier for us if we just say, “Yes Lord.”
Secondly, we must remove any distractions that we have in our life. Not too long ago I had to uninstall some social media apps from my phone because I just got too distracted and I did not do what God put in my heart to do, which is this blog and creating content to spread the gospel and start my ministry.
I had to let things go and say, “Yes Lord, I am done hiding and I am done delaying what you have for me.” Delaying what God said to do is still disobedience. Ninety-nine percent of obedience is still disobedience. We must repent, pray/fast, reflect and meditate on the Word of God, and lastly we must remove distractions that are keeping us from getting closer to our Father.
Here are some truths that we can meditate on:
#1- God still works everything together for the good.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Although Jonah disobeyed at first, he still went forth and spoke to the people of Nineveh, after reflecting on what happened. Even before Jonah repented God was still working.
“Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. The men were seized by great fear of the Lord and made vows.”
If these men did not fear the Lord in reverence, then they do now…in previous verses we can assume that these mariners may not have been followers of God but may have had different gods (Jonah 1:5-6). God used this scary storm to reach the mariners as well.
#2- God still have a plan
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Sometimes our disobedience can create situations that we were never meant to go through, but God in His amazing love for us He still wants to have a relationship with us and He chases after us. God chased after Jonah. Not that Jonah could even try to hide from God., because there is nothing that can be hidden from God. That is like trying to throw a blanket over yourself to hide during hide and seek, the seeker sees that you are there. Just as God sees us for who we are inside and out.
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance”
#3- God is still compassionate even when we aren’t
Jonah was very angry at God, after Jonah had delivered God’s message to the people of Nineveh and that the people repented and obeyed the LORD God and for God not bringing destruction on the people. Isn’t that crazy?
Jonah was upset because God did not bring destruction on a nation of people because they repented. Now the people of Nineveh during this time did not have the best reputation. Jonah was so angry that he wanted God to bring destruction on the people and when God did not bring destruction on them, Jonah wanted to die he was so angry (Jonah 3-4).
God still had compassion on the people of Nineveh and relented from the disaster (Jonah 3:10); and God had compassion on Jonah, while in his anger God appointed a plant to grow over Jonah to help provide shade to him to relieve him of his trouble (Jonah 4:6).
God is so compassionate and abounding in mercy. When we can be cruel and heartless sometimes, God is still showing love to us.
