Title: What's wrong with Jonah?
Contents
Bible text: Jon 1:6,12
How are you, Jonah?
A man with a phobia lured his wife to the reservoir embankment at night. It was disguised as a night date. Suddenly, I fell into a reservoir that was 8m deep. Confident that he was dead, he called 911, “I think he committed suicide.” The husband did not know the secret of his wife. My wife, who fell into the water, was a swimmer when she was a student. He swam into the water and hid on a pier before calling the police. Now in prison, he blames himself and says, "It's my fault! Yo- it’s because of me,” he lamented, crying tears of regret. Your friends will say, “What are you doing, my friend?”
Jonah is a prophet of God. When they learned that they refused God's command and ran away, people rebuked them, "Why did you do this?"
Fugitive, what's wrong?
The book of Jonah begins like this. “The word of the Lord … came to Jonah. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for its wickedness has come upon me. But Jonah got into the boat to go to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord” (John 1:1-3).
Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord. Run away, what are you doing? He has good reason for running away. At that time, Nineveh was the territory of Assyria, and Assyria was the enemy of Israel. Israel was attacked by Assyria several times and paid tribute to Assyria. Jonah doesn't like Assyria doing well. I want Assyria to be destroyed. He loved his people. However, his national love was different from God's missionary vision. It was different from God's heart. They did not understand God's will to save the Gentiles.
Hiddink is from the Netherlands and became the head coach of Russian football. Coincidentally, a Russian soccer team and a Dutch soccer team faced each other before the semifinals of the Euro 2008 finals. Hiddink said, “I want to win even if I become a rebel of my homeland Netherlands.” As he said, Russia defeated the Netherlands and became a traitor to the motherland. Of course it should be. That's sportsmanship. If you let Russia lose to make your country win, Hiddink will fail as a human being.
Jonah revealed himself. I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land, and when I told them that I was hiding from the LORD, the crowds knew it, and they were very afraid, and they said, "Why did you do this?" (Jon) 1:9-10).
The Gentiles think that there is no such thing as disobeying God's commands while claiming to be a God-fearing person. It was unimaginable in their minds.
You work hard to become a boss! This is David's will. The ledger is doing what God says. It is to keep and do as it is written, “Keep the commandments of the Lord and do them” (1 Kings 2:1-2).
You sleeping, what's wrong with you?
Jonah got on a boat going to Tarshish, in the opposite direction from Nineveh. The LORD sent a great wind, and the storm was so great that the boat was almost clogged (verse 4). God caused a great storm and blocked Jonah's way. The sailor threw things into the sea to lighten the boat, and people were calling on the name of the god they believed in in order to live. Even in an emergency, Jonah went down to the bottom of the boat, lay down, and fell into a deep sleep. Unable to contain his disappointment, he went down to the bottom of the boat and fell asleep. The captain said to Jonah, "Why are you sleeping? Get up and ask your God, for perhaps God will think of us, that we may not perish" (verse 6).
Jonah's sleep is an act borrowed from death. During the time of the Judges, Sisera died while sleeping. He was the commander of the army of Jabin, king of Hazor in the north of Canaan. After being defeated by Deborah and Barak's army, the judges fled, and went into the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, to ask for help. Heber's wife Jael drove a stake into his temple while he was weary and falling into a deep sleep, and he died. As a military minister, he was killed by a woman while sleeping.
“Awake, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Ephesians 5:14). The sleeper and the dead are synonymous.
He has no sense and is separated from God who is life. Death is a long, long sleep. Sleep is a brief death. Don't let your soul sleep. Jesus said, “…Pray always and stay awake” (Luke 21:36). “In my trouble I cried out to the LORD, and cried out to my God, and he heard my voice from his temple, and my cry before him was heard in his ears” (Psalm 18:6).
If you pray, you will discover the will of the Lord. If you do your will, all problems will be solved. “I cry out to the LORD with my voice, and he answers me from his holy mountain” (Psalm 3:4).
Honey, how are you doing?
The sea is getting more and more ferocious. The crowd in the boat said to Jonah, “What must we do with you, that the sea may be calm for us? He answered, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea, and the sea will be calm for you, and I know that it is because of me that you have met this great storm” (verses 11-12).
Jonah says that he met the storm because of his mistake. And he says to lift me up and throw me into the sea. Here we discover the spiritual greatness of Jonah. Admitting your mistakes is not easy. It's easy to say it's your fault, but it's hard to say it's my fault. Jonah was convinced that if he was thrown into the sea, the sea would be calm. I thought I was going to be a victim. This is something that cannot be done without grace.
Ordinary people do not link tribulation with self. But Jonah admitted it was because of him. Transferring responsibility is increasingly difficult. When there is no one to take responsibility, there is no future. A difficult situation can be solved only by someone who can blame themselves. Jonah, who I know is my connection in a world that is obsessed with self-righteousness, is refreshing. Jonah, a troublemaker who disobeyed God's command and ran away, knows how to blame himself and sacrifices himself to take responsibility for it.
Glory is one's fault and fault is passed on to others. Jonah is a better person than the first. He who was obsessed with his own righteousness is maturing into a person who admits his mistakes. “I fell on my knees before the merciful throne, confessed, and repented. Give me faith. Lord, Lord, hear me and call me when you say, ‘Come, sinner.’” 1:15) Jonah who threw me to stop the storm, he was great. How are you, Jonah? We also need Jonah's grace.
Obedient, what's wrong with you?
“Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, just as the LORD had said. Nineveh is a very large city, and it is a three-day road” (Jonah 3:1-3).
God's love for Nineveh does not change. He is sure to save Nineveh. People disobeyed God and threw Jonah into the sea to die, but God protected Jonah by preparing a fish in the sea to save him.
God caused a big fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah stayed there for three days and prayed to God, saying, “Even if I have been cast out of your sight, I will look to your temple again (Jonah 2:4).
This time I obeyed. When I saw the spicy taste, I was relieved. It was only when I was thrown into the sea that I realized. It was only after three days in the belly of meat that he became an obedient person.
The Apostle Paul, having lost hope of living and was sentenced to death in his heart, realized that he had not put his trust in himself, but only in God who raises the dead (2 Corinthians 1:8, 9). Then, “I want you to know, brethren, that what has happened to me has made progress in the gospel” (Philippians 1:12).
There were 120,000 people living in the city of Nineveh who couldn't tell right and left. Jonah went into the city and cried out. “In 40 days Nineveh shall be overthrown” (3:4), Jonah's proclamation is simple. It emphasizes only what God has commanded. Jonah repented thoroughly and preached only His words.
True repentance is submission to the Word. Jonah realized with his whole body and returned to God. “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word” “…I delight in Your law…I have learned Your statutes” (Psalm 119:67, 70-71).
When Jonah preached a message calling for repentance, the people of Nineveh believed in God. Evangelism is what people do, and God does what makes people believe. “And the news came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and clothed himself in sackcloth and sat down in ashes” (3:6).
The city of Nineveh was declared fasting by the king's command, and all the people put on sackcloth and cried out to the Lord with all their might. “When God sees what they have done, that they have turned from their evil way, He will relent and will not bring the calamity that He said He would bring upon them” (Jon 3:10).
Obedient, what are you doing? Jonah's obedience and missionary fruits were created in three days. Jesus said that the only sign I would show to those who asked for a sign was Jonah's sign. The sign of Jonah is that just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days, so Jesus will be in the earth for three days.
How are you, Jonah? Pointing your finger at me, yo-what's wrong with me? should be scolded. Fugitives who disobey the word of God and run away, what do you do? The person who should pray is irresponsibly sleeping Yo-Me, what's wrong with you?
What is it, Jonah, the man who said that I knew it was because of me, even though I knew that I would be thrown into the sea of death in a place where I could make excuses and deny as much as I could and do not have to admit it to the end? It is God's grace. A wonderful person is a spiritual boss.
I hope that the grace that made him obey God by breaking Jonah, a man who is assertive and stubborn, who cannot be broken, will come to Yo-na.
“I am not full and I am like an egg. I am the one who persecutes the church and cannot be called an apostle. But it is by the grace of God that I am who I am. That grace that was given to me was not in vain. by the grace of God” (1 Corinthians 15:8-10).