
A Whale Tale Part 1
Deep Truths from a Whale of a Ride or ‘Why most of us run from God at times.’
Jonah — an intro — it’ more than a whale tale. It’s far deeper than that. There is a vital message that God is delivering through Jonah’s tale.
Who told the story of Jonah originally?
Was it an allegory or was it a true series of events? Either way, the message remains for those who are wise enough to go deeper.
The literary structure of the book of Jonah is amazing and complex.
4 simple chapters that tell a story that any child can enjoy and understand at the surface level. But, if you let the whale tale take you deeper you will see so much more that God wants to reveal to you. It’s like the ‘red pill’ from the movie, ‘The Matrix’ and it will take you deeper and deeper if you care to go there. Chapters 1 and 2 are a direct parallel to chapters 3 and
Try it and see! Interesting, right?
Assyria - Israel’s arch enemy - was a powerful empire that had been dominating Israel and Judah for decade upon decade. Assyria was a ’terrorist state’ whose armies committed horrors such as have rarely been visited upon the people of earth. [ see pages 10-11 of ‘The Prodigal Prophet’ by Timothy Keller to read the full list of horrors the committed. ]
Nineveh, the capital of Assyria during Jonah’s time was a military and cultural powerhouse. It was originally founded by King Nimrod according to Genesis 10:11. It was at the confluence of the Tigris and Khoser rivers at the same location as modern day Mosul, Iraq. It is about 400 miles to the northeast of Jerusalem.
Jonah was a patriot statesmen who was a supporter of the military - expansionist agenda of his reigning king, Jeroboam II [ 786-746 B.C. ] according to 2 Kings 14:25. He was a highly partisan nationalist.
The Text of Jonah 1 and 2
Why did Jonah run from God?
Here are a few guesses. [ there is a right answer but we will get to that next week, so be sure to join us for Part 2 of Jonah’s Whale of a Tale ]
Fear of the Assyrians, perhaps? Imagine a Jewish Rabbi on the Streets of Berlin, Germany at the height of the Nazi’s reign of terror prophesying against Hitler’s war machine.
Because as a staunch nationalist there was no way that Jonah could understand why God would send him to the enemies of his country. It would represent a betrayal of his own country’s interests. To the mind of Jonah and other God followers of Israel who were also loyal to Israel this missionary call would not make sense. Why would God send someone, especially someone like Jonah, who was a staunch patriot to preach to the Assyrians who were enemies of the Israelites? The Israelites, because of their position as God’s chosen people, assumed that God would take up their cause and oppose — and hopefully ‘smote’ — the Assyrians as well. So, clearly God did not know what He was asking of Jonah. God was out of His divine mind, so to speak. Bottom line: ‘How could God ask anyone to betray his own country’s interests like this?’
It just didn’t seem to make practical nor theological sense to the Jewish imagination. Therefore, certainly, God was confused or deranged or lacked common sense. Besides, the Prophet Nahum prophesied the utter annihilation of Nineveh and the Assyrians so why bother at all with ‘saving’ that city or those people. ‘They were gonna burn in hell anyway.’
Jonah had a problem with his job description and simply did not want to go. Keller writes it this way, “Jonah concluded that because he could not see any good reasons for God’s command, that there couldn’t be any. Jonah doubted the goodness, wisdom, and justice of God.’ [ The Prodigal Prophet, page 15 ]
What happened because Jonah ran from God?
God ‘appointed a storm’ — He is sovereign over all things.
Jonah appears to be depressed and manages to fall asleep in the belly of the boat during this huge and unusually violent storm. The experienced sailors were shaken.
Jonah gets tossed overboard.
God ‘appointed’ a fish to swallow Jonah.
Jonah repents and prays to the Lord from ‘Sheol’ — away from the Lord.
God renders mercy and grace — unmerited favor in spite of Jonah’s direct disobedience to God’s direct command.
He becomes fish vomit.
We’ll pick up Jonah’s story right there next week.
Why do we sometimes run from God?
We struggle with commands we don’t like or understand don’t we?
When God asks something of us that we don’t like or don’t understand what our default mode of operation? Ignore Him? Run from Him? Hide from Him? Be angry with Him? Try to ‘kill Him off by declaring our allegiance to world where there is no God’? That is, by refusing to recognize Him as even existing we try to gain control over our total destiny. We want to be large and in charge don’t we?
“We have all had that experience [ of not liking what God is up to in our lives or the world ]. We sit in the doctor’s office stunned by the biopsy report. We despair of ever finding decent employment after the last lead has dried up. We wonder why the seemingly perfect romantic relationship — the one we always wanted and never thought was possible — has crashed and burned. If there is a God, we think, he doesn’t know what he is doing! Even when we turn from the circumstances of our lives to the teaching of the Bible itself, it seems, to modern people especially, to be filled with claims that don’t make much sense.
When this happens we have to decide — does God know what’s best, or do we? And the default mode of the unaided human heart is to always decide that we do. We doubt that God is good, or that he is committed t our happiness, and therefore ifs can’t see any good reasons for something God says or does, we assume that there aren’t any.” [ page 16 of ‘The Prodigal Prophet’ by Timothy Keller ]
Bottom line: Most of us struggle to believe that God is good and that He has our best interest at heart. And when we can’t see or understand what He’s up to we tend to want to regain control anyway that we can — including running as far from Him as we can.
What happens to us when we run from God?
-We disconnect from God’s mission and adventure that He calls us to.
-We experience soul level depression and try to ‘run’ from God anyway we can. We medicate, and meditate and ruminate and worry and overwork and sometimes suffer
from deep depression as we try to ‘sleep it off.’
-We live in ‘sheol’ as far away from God as possible
-We hurt those around us.
Today, perhaps this is your ‘fish tale’ — a big moment when the mercy and grace of God will swallow you up and give you a second chance at life.
What are you gonna do? Keep running or surrender?
Be sure to join us next week when we reveal the stunning real reason Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh. but that will have to wait til next week.
If you’d like to explore Jonah more then grab Timothy Keller’s book, ‘The Prodigal Prophet’