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." But Jonah ran away from
the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went
down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound
for that port. After paying the fare, he went
aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the
LORD (Jonah 1:1-3 ).
The book of Jonah may be studied for many
reasons, but a chief reason is for what it
teaches about God's sovereignty. Sovereignty
is a problem for some Christians in certain
areas. There are areas in which it is not a
problem, of course. For example, most of us
do not have problems with God's rule in the
area of natural law. Gravity is one illustration.
God exercises his rule through gravity, and we
do not have difficulty at this point. In fact, we
are even somewhat reassured that objects
conform to such laws. The point at which we
do have problems is that at which the
sovereign will of God comes into opposition
with a contrary human will. What happens at
this point? God could crush the human will
and thereby accomplish His own purpose with
a ruthless hand. There are times when He has
done this, as in the contest between Moses
and Pharaoh. But generally God does not. So
what happens in such cases? Does God give
up? Does He change His mind? Or does He
accomplish His purposes in some other way,
perhaps indirectly? The answer is in the book
of Jonah.
A Great Commission
Interestingly enough, this is the point at which
the book starts. For it begins with a
commission to Jonah and with Jonah's refusal
to heed it, In other words, the book of Jonah
begins with a formal expression of God's
sovereign will and with a man's determined
opposition. We read, "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.' But Jonah ran away from the Lord and
headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa,
where he found a ship bound for that port.
After paying the fare, he went aboard and
sailed for Tarshish to flee from the
LORD" (verses 1-3).
There is some dispute as to the location of
Tarshish. It has been identified with one of
the cities of Phoenicia or with ancient
Carthage. Most probably, Tarshish was on the
far coast of Spain, beyond Gibraltar. And if
this was so, it means that in his disobedience
Jonah was determined to go as far as he
possibly could go in the direction opposite
from that in which God was sending him.
Nineveh was east. Tarshish was west. We can
visualize the geography if we imagine Jonah
coming out of his house in Palestine, looking
left down the long road that led around the
great Arabian desert to the valleys of the
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and then turning
on his heel and going down the road to his
right.
Why did he do it? We can imagine some
possible reasons. We can imagine, first, that
Jonah was overcome by thoughts of the
mission's difficulties . They are expressed very
well in the commission which God Himself
gave Jonah. God told Jonah that Nineveh was
a very "great city," and indeed it was. In
addition to what the book itself tells us - that
the city was so large that it took three days
to cross it and that it had sixty thousand
infants or small children ( Jonah 4:11 ) - we
also know that it was the capital of the great
Assyrian Empire, that it had walls a hundred
feet high and so broad that three chariots
could run abreast around them. Within the
walls were gardens and even fields for cattle.
For a man to arrive all alone with a message
from an unknown God against such a city was
ludicrous in the extreme. What could one man
do? Who would listen? Where were the armies
that could break down such walls or storm
such garrisons? The men of Nineveh would
ridicule the strange Jewish prophet. If Jonah
had been overcome with the thought of the
difficulties of such a mission and so had fled
to Tarshish because of them, we could well
understand him. Yet there is not a word in the
story to indicate that it was the difficulties
that upset this rebellious prophet.
Perhaps it was danger? The second word in
God's description of the city is wickedness . If
Jonah had taken note of that wickedness and
had refused to obey for that reason, this too
would be understandable. Indeed, the more we
learn of Nineveh the more dangerous the
mission becomes. We think of the prophecy of
Nahum, for example. Nahum is written against
the wickedness of Nineveh entirely, and the
descriptions against it are vivid. "Woe to the
city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never
without victims! The crack of whips, the
clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting
chariots! Charging cavalry, flashing swords and
glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of
dead, bodies without number, people stumbling
over the corpses - all because of the wanton
lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of
sorceries, who enslaved nations by her
prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft. 'I
am against you,' declares the LORD Almighty.
'I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show
the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms
your shame' " ( Nahum 3:1-5 ).
What was one poor preacher to do against
such hardness? Would they not simply kill him
and add his body to the already soaring heap
of carcasses? Thoughts like these could have
made Jonah afraid; and if he had been afraid,
we would not blame him. But again, there is
not a word in the story to indicate that it was
the danger that turned Jonah in the opposite
direction.
What was the reason then? Well, in the fourth
chapter of Jonah, after God had already
brought about the revival and had spared the
Ninevites from judgment, Jonah explains the
reason, arguing that it was precisely because
of this outcome that he had disobeyed
originally. That is, he declares that he knew
that God was gracious and that He was not
sending him to Nineveh only to announce a
pending judgment, but rather that Nineveh
might repent. Jonah's own words are: "O
LORD, is this not what I said when I was still
at home? 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 ).
As we read these words carefully we realize
that the reason why Jonah did not want to go
to Nineveh was that those who lived there
were the enemies of his people, the Jews, and
that he was afraid that if he did go to them
with his message of judgment, they would
believe it and repent and that God would bless
them. And he did not want them blessed! God
could bless Israel. But Jonah would be
damned (literally) before he would see God's
blessing shed upon these enemies. So he fled
to Tarshish. We can understand Jonah's
motives if we can imagine the word of the
Lord coming to a Jew who lived in New York
during World War II telling him to go to Berlin
to preach to Nazi Germany. Instead of this, he
goes to San Francisco and there takes a boat
for Hong Kong.
We may laugh at that, of course. But before
we laugh too hard we should ask whether or
not we are in the spiritual ancestry of Jonah.
True, we have never been sent to Nineveh,
and we may never have run away to Tarshish.
But the commission that has been given to us
is no less demanding than Jonah's, if we are
Christians, and often our attempts to avoid it
are no less determined than his were.
What was Jonah's commission? "Arise, go to
Nineveh, that great city, and cry against
it" ( Jonah 1:2 KJV). It consisted of three main
words. He was told to "arise." He was told to
"go." He was told to "cry." This is precisely
what we have been told to do in the Great
Commission. We are to arise from wherever
we happen to be seated. We are to go into all
the world. And we are to cry against the
world's wickedness, teaching it all that we
have been taught by Jesus. Matthew's form
of the Great Commission says, "Therefore go
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit , and teaching them
to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always, to the very
end of the age" ( Matthew 28:19-20 ).
Wings of Dawn
Verse three tells us of Jonah's attempt to get
away from God, and it gives us the
consequences of that attempt. It is surprising
that Jonah did not know of these
consequences before he ran or consider how
impossible it is to escape God.
We must remember at this point that Jonah
lived relatively late in Old Testament history,
certainly long after the psalms were written,
and that he therefore knew or had ample
opportunity to know those great words in
Psalms 139 : "Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? If I go
up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my
bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on
the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far
side of the sea, even there your hand will
guide me, your right hand will hold me
fast" ( Psalms 139:7-10 ). Did Jonah know
these words? Probably. Then why did he not
remember them as he set out in the ship for
Tarshish?
As I read that psalm I find myself wondering if
the name of the ship upon which Jonah set
out might not have been The Wings of Dawn .
The story does not give the name of the ship.
But that is a good name for a ship; and if the
ship of the book of Jonah were so named, it
would be an irony well suited to Jonah's
situation. Did he notice the name, if this is
what it was? Did he notice the rats getting off
as he stepped on? If I understand sin and
disobedience at all, I suspect that Jonah
noticed none of these things, so set was he in
this folly. No more do we when we take our
"wings of dawn" to sail away from God across
life's sea.
God's Sovereignty
At this point we find our first great lessons
regarding God's sovereignty. For built into
Jonah's first attempts to get away from God
are two results which will inevitably follow
whenever anyone tries to disobey Him. These
results are in verse three, that is, one verse
before the one that tells of God's special
intervention in sending the storm after Jonah's
ship. God has His special interventions too.
But the fact that these occur before this
indicates that they are as inevitable in
spiritual matters as physical laws are in the
physical universe.
The first result is that Jonah's course was
downhill. He would not have described it that
way. He would have said that he was
improving his lot in life, just as we also do
when we choose our own course instead of
God's. But it was downhill nevertheless. In
verse three, we are told that Jonah went
"down" to Joppa and that having paid his fare
he went "down" into the ship (see Jonah 1:3
KJV). This is not accidental in a story in
which the words are as carefully chosen as
this one. Nor are these two instances of the
word down isolated. Two verses farther on, in
verse five (KJV), we are told that Jonah had
gone "down" into the sides of the ship, that is,
below decks. Then in chapter 2, verse 6
(KJV), in a prayer which takes place after
Jonah has been thrown overboard by the
sailors, Jonah describes how he had gone
"down" to the bottom of the earth's mountains
beneath the waves. That is a lot of going
down! Down, down, down, down. But it is
always that way when a person runs from the
presence of the Lord. The way of the Lord is
up! Consequently, any way that is away from
Him is down. The way may look beautiful
when we start. The seas may look peaceful
and the ship attractive, but the way is still
down.
There is another result. In his excellent
preaching on Jonah, Donald Grey Barnhouse
often called attention to this by highlighting
the phrase "he paid his fare" (KJV). He noted
that Jonah did not get to where he was going,
since he was thrown overboard, and that he
obviously did not get a refund on his ticket. So
he paid the full fare and did not get to the end
of his journey. Now, says Barnhouse, it is
always that way. "When you run away from
the Lord you never get to where you are
going, and you always pay your own fare. On
the other hand, when you go the Lord's way
you always get to where you are going, and
He pays the fare."
Jonah illustrates one-half of that statement.
The story of Moses' mother, Jochebed,
illustrates the other half. Jochebed conceived
Moses during a time of great persecution by
the Egyptians, a time in which the young male
children were being thrown into the river to
die. When the child was born, Jochebed and
her husband, Amram, tried to hide him as long
as possible, suspecting, I believe, that this
was the one who had been promised by God
to be the deliverer of the people. But at last
the baby's cries grew too loud, and another
plan was necessary. The mother made a little
boat of bulrushes, covering it with tar. She
placed Moses in it and set it in the reeds by
the river's bank. Then she stationed Moses'
sister, Miriam, at a distance to see what
would become of him. Though she wanted her
baby more than anything else in the world,
Jochebed trusted the matter to God, allowing
Him to do as He wished with her and the
child.
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to the
river, and when she saw the ark in the water
she sent her maids to fetch it. When it was
opened she saw the baby. He was crying. This
so touched the woman's heart that she
determined to save him and raise him in the
palace. But what was she to do? Obviously
the child needed a wet nurse. Where could
she find one?
At this point, Miriam, who had been watching
from a distance, came forward and asked if
she could be of assistance. "Shall I go and call
to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that
she may nurse the child for thee?" Miriam
asked.
"Yes," said the princess. So Jochebed was
brought.
At this point Jochebed is about to receive
back the child she most dearly wanted. She
would have done anything to have had him.
She would have scrubbed floors in the palace,
anything. In fact, suppose the daughter of the
Pharoah had said, "I am going to give you this
child to raise. But I want you to know that I
have seen through your stratagem. I know that
this young girl was not up on that hill
watching by accident. She must be the sister
of this baby and, therefore, you must be the
mother. You can have your child. But as a
sign of your disobedience to the Pharoah, I
am going to cut off your right hand. . . " Well,
if she had said that, Moses' mother would
have held out both hands if only she could
have had the child back. But that is not what
happened. Instead Pharaoh's daughter gave
her the child, declaring, "Take this baby and
nurse him for me, and I will pay you " ( Exodus
2:9 ).
"I will pay you." That is the point for which I
tell the story. Jonah went his own way, paid
his own fare, and got nothing. Jochebed went
God's way. Consequently, God paid the fare,
and she got everything. So I repeat: When you
run away from the Lord you never get to
where you are going, and you always pay your
own fare. But when you go the Lord's way you
always get to where you are going, and He
pays the fare.
But the Lord
Now in one sense Jonah's story is over at this
point. That is, the story of his choice, his
disobedience, is over. God has given His
command. Jonah has disobeyed. Now Jonah
must sit back and suffer the consequences as
God now intervenes supernaturally to alter the
story. This point is made very clear by the
contrast between the first two words of verse
three ("But Jonah") and the first three words
of verse four ("But the Lord" KJV). It is true
that Jonah has rejected God. He has voiced
his little "but," as we sometimes do. He is
allowed to do it. God's sovereignty does not
rule it out. But now God is about to voice His
"BUT," and His "but" is more substantial than
Jonah's.
What does God do? Well, He does three great
things. First, He sends a great storm. The text
indicates that it was a storm of unusual
ferocity, so fierce that even experienced
sailors were frightened. I never read about it
that I do not think of that other storm that
also frightened experienced men on the lake
of Galilee. The men were Christ's disciples,
and Christ was with them, although asleep in
the boat. For awhile they rowed. But they
were in danger of sinking and were afraid. So
they awoke Jesus and cried, "Lord, save us!
We're going to drown!"
Jesus replied, "You of little faith, why are you
so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the
winds and the waves, and it was completely
calm. The disciples were amazed and asked
"What kind of man is this? Even the winds and
the waves obey him!" (see Matthew 8:23-27 ).
The Lord who can calm the troubled waters of
your life is the same Lord who can stir them
up to great frenzy. What He does depends
upon whether He is with you in the boat or,
which is a better way of putting it, whether or
not you are with Him. If Jesus is in your boat-
if you are going His way and are trusting Him
- then, when storms come, you can cry out,
"Oh, Master, help me!" and He will calm the
violence. But if you are running from Him - if
He is not in your boat and you are disobeying
Him - then He will stir the waves up.
Second, the Lord prepared a great fish. Farther
on in the story we read that God also prepared
a small worm to eat the root and so destroy
the plant that shaded Jonah. So we notice
that, on the one hand. God used one of the
largest creatures on earth to do His bidding
and that, on the other hand, he used one of
the smallest. Apparently it makes no
difference to God. He will use whatever it
takes to get the disobedient one back into the
place of blessing. Are you running away from
God? If so, he may use the cankerworm to
spoil your harvest. He may use the whirlwind
to destroy your barns and buildings. If
necessary, He will touch your person. He will
use whatever it takes, because He is faithful
to Himself, to you, and to His purposes.
Finally, God saved a great city. This last act,
like the others, is an act of great mercy. For
the city did not deserve His mercy. Yet He
saved it, thereby preserving it from destruction
for a time.
God is so determined to perfect His good work
in us that He will continue to do so with
whatever it takes, regardless of the obedience
or disobedience of the Christian. Will you go in
His way? If you do, you will find the way
smoothed out and filled with great blessings.
