Title: Jonah's Sermon 04 / Jonah 1:06~10 God Seeking
Contents
Jonah 1:6-10
God looking for
God is a God who seeks sinners. In Genesis 3, God was looking for Adam, who sinned. “Adam, where are you?” In Genesis 4, he found Cain who sinned. “Cain, where is your brother Abel?” God is looking for sinful mankind. In the Old Testament, God constantly sent prophets to find sinners, and eventually sent Jesus. “The healthy do not need a physician, but the sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Jesus came to this earth and called us sinners. “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus is the good shepherd who seeks to find the lost sheep. Jesus is the voice of God seeking sinners. To the extent that Jesus came to this earth in the flesh, God seeks and seeks sinners.
We can now read the picture of God looking for Jonah in Jonah 1. First, God sought Jonah and appointed him as a prophet and missionary. In Jonah 1:1-2, God spoke directly to Jonah. But he fled to Joppa and caught a boat going to Tarshish. God, who was looking for Jonah, now spoke to him with a great wind and a great storm. But he went downstairs, covered his ears, and deliberately fell asleep. God, who was looking for Jonah, spoke to Jonah in another way. In today's text, the captain and sailors are asking three questions to Jonah. You can think of these questions as questions that God, who is looking for Jonah spiritually, asks Jonah.
The first question was “What are you doing, you sleeping?” in verse 6 of the text.
The captain rebuked Jonah, who was sleeping, and woke him up. Jonah's sleep was obviously a sleep of the flesh, but spiritually, it was a sleep of disobedience that disobeyed God's command and ran away. It was a sleep of disloyalty that ran away from the face of God. The captain's rebuke that woke Jonah was the sound of God's trumpet that woke Jonah from a spiritual sleep. Guys, do soldiers like the sound of the trumpet? Do you like the sound of the trumpet? I love the sound of the bedtime trumpet. No soldier likes the sound of the trumpet, longs for the sound of the trumpet, and waits for the sound of the trumpet. The devil and Satan blow the trumpet we like, longing for, and waiting for, but we believe that God blows the trumpet even if we hate it.
In the captain's eyes, Jonah was only a sleeper. Are you a missionary? Or are you sleeping? Just as God awakened Jonah who was sleeping through the captain, through the words of Jonah 1:6 at this time, God awakens us who have forgotten our mission and are sleeping. “Sleep, what are you doing? Get up and pray to your God.” Now is the time to hear the sound of God's trumpet and to wake up from spiritual sleep and pray. “When he came to the disciples, and saw him sleeping, he said to Peter, “Can you not stay awake like this for an hour with me? Watch and pray so that you may not fall into temptation.” As we well know, Muslims set a set time for prayer, five times a day. The Jews set a set time to pray three times a day. We need to pray more. I hope you will actively participate in the morning worship service, the intercession prayer at 10 am, and personally, the ‘30-minute Bible, 30-minute prayer.
The second question was, “Who caused this calamity?” in verse 7.
At sea, savvy captains and sailors intuited that strong winds and great storms were unusual. The ship was almost wrecked, and all the cargo on the ship had to be dumped into the sea. They wanted to find out who was responsible for this great catastrophe. He also asked Jonah, “Who is responsible for this plague?” And they cast lots. Jonah was chosen. It is no coincidence that Jonah was chosen by lot. There are no coincidences in the world. Because God lives. I believe that Jonah's prosperity turned into trouble because God lives. I believe that because God lives, there has been a great wind and a great storm. I believe that because God lives, the ship Jonah was on was almost destroyed. We believe that Jonah was chosen by lot because God lives. “The lot is cast by men, but it is with the LORD that all things are decided.” Not a single sparrow falls to the ground without God's permission. God said that even the hairs on our heads were counted.
Sometimes we use the negative expression “stamped”. It means that you are out of the eyes of your superiors. Jonah was literally “a prophet stamped by God” because he disobeyed God’s commands and because he was disloyal to the mission God had entrusted to him. Because he was cast by God, he had to be drawn by lot. God is now looking for Jonah who is fleeing, the disobedient and disloyal Jonah by lot.
The third question was, “What is your livelihood?” in verse 8.
The captain and sailors questioned Jonah, who had been drawn by lot. (Hearings in today's terminology.) This question, “What is your occupation?” means, “What is your vocation?” What was Jonah's vocation? He was a prophet and a missionary to preach the word of God. This question, “What is your livelihood?” was obviously the question of the sailors, but from a spiritual point of view, it was God's question who was looking for Jonah. Jonah couldn't help but answer. “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” He was finally forced to confess in front of people that he was a fugitive fleeing Jehovah's face. When the sailors heard the confession of the fugitive, they feared God. They rebuked Jonah, “Why did you do that?” This rebuke also means “Why did you run away?” God is looking for the fugitive Jonah.
What is your livelihood? What is your main job? Occasionally, I see people who confess like this in front of such a question. “Your job is my main job, and mine is my side job.” “Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness.” We are all lay ministers. I hope you will live as a missionary at home, at work, and in this society.
tidy up.
God was looking for the fugitive Jonah. Likewise, God is looking for us today who have forgotten our mission and are in a spiritual sleep. I will summarize today's message by introducing the lyrics of the gospel song this time. “How can I meet the Lord if I find myself in the world’s riches, complacency, and worldly worries? / How can I meet the Lord when I am entangled in worldly affairs and do worldly things? I hope that you will wake up and be faithful to death and live your mission more.