September 13 A READ JONAH 1–4
God’s Reaching Mercy
OVERVIEW
When God assigns Jonah to preach a revival in Nineveh, the reluctant prophet ships out instead for Tarshish—precisely in the opposite direction. But God pursues him. He uses a fierce wind and a hungry fish to deposit Jonah on shore once again, ready now to respond to God’s directive. Using a divinely given one-sentence sermon, Jonah watches as one of the greatest revivals in history takes place—“from the greatest to the least” of the inhabitants of Nineveh (3:5). But rather than rejoice at Nineveh’s spiritual awakening, Jonah is disappointed that Israel’s archenemy now will not be destroyed. God must teach his pouting prophet a lesson on divine mercy.
MY DAILY WALK
God has a marvelous way of bringing his children great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.
Consider Jonah. Summoned by God on short notice to preach to Israel’s cruelest foe, Jonah hits the panic button and runs for cover. Finally turned around by God and sent by “special delivery” to Nineveh, Jonah reluctantly preaches his message of repentance. Once again, God does the unexpected by bringing sweeping revival to the city. But instead of rejoicing over the salvation of lost souls, Jonah withdraws to grumble at God.
Are you prepared to handle a “mission impossible” today? a shift in plans? an unexpected interruption? an opportunity cleverly disguised as an imposition? Today, the first time something unexpected happens (and it will), resist the urge to hit the panic button. Instead, look for the door of opportunity God is opening to you, and take it. Let others experience God’s mercy through you.
MERCY IMITATES GOD AND DISAPPOINTS SATAN.
INSIGHT
Mission Impossible—and Terrifying | Jon. 1:1-3
Jonah’s mission was not to be taken lightly. Nineveh (located at modern-day Mosul, Iraq) was a notoriously savage city. Consider what one Assyrian king did to his defeated foes: “Three thousand captives I burned with fire. . . . Their corpses I formed into pillars. . . . Their governor I flayed; his skin I spread upon the wall of the city. . . . From some I cut off their hands and their fingers and their noses. . . . Of many I put out their eyes. . . . I formed a pillar of heads against the city gate, and seven hundred men I impaled on stakes.” Would you have wanted to go?
INSIGHT
Jonah’s Story—Did It Happen? Could It Happen? | Jon. 1:17
There are at least two documented cases of men who were swallowed by sharks or whales and lived to tell about it (1:17). In answer to the question, did it happen to Jonah? check Matthew 12:38-41 for confirmation from an irrefutable source.
INSIGHT
Judgment, Deliverance, or Both? | Jon. 2:10
Most of us would consider three days in the belly of a fish a severe rebuke, and Jonah was well aware that his own disobedience had led him there. But he also prayed with the understanding that God had sent the fish to save him from the sea (2:1-10). A dreadful judgment became the means of deliverance—not unlike a cross and a tomb centuries later.
Jonah Runs from the LORD
1The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: 2“Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”
3But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the LORD by sailing to Tarshish.
4But the LORD hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. 5Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.
But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. 6So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.”
7Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. 8“Why has this awful storm come down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”
9Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
10The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the LORD. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned. 11And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”
12“Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”
13Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. 14Then they cried out to the LORD, Jonah’s God. “O LORD,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O LORD, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”
15Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! 16The sailors were awestruck by the LORD’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.
17*Now the LORD had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.