The Declaration of Dependence
Jonah 1 and 2
By: Leonor Fernandez
One hundred fourteen years ago, on June 12, 1898, in El Viejo, Cavite, now known as Kawit, Cavite the public reading of the act of Declaration of Independence occurred. Filipino revolutionary forces under Emilio Aguinaldo declared independence and autonomy of the Philippine Islands from the colonial rule of Spain. The event saw the unfurling of the Philippine national flag made by Marcela Agoncillo and the performance of the Marcha Filipina Magdalo as the nation’s national anthem, now known as Lupang Hinirang. Fast tracked to date, The Philippines is now a democratic nation, a constitutional republic, governed by a unitary state, away from the cocoon of those that ruled and colonized us. We are now and independent nation, a free people.
As individuals, independence is also what we long for. We like to have autonomy to govern our own path. We want to make a mark, but on our own terms. As present day believers, we follow Christ as long as His path eventually converges onto the one we already have chosen. We want to have autonomy on our own life’s decision. So when anyone, including God, step in and make demand we push back and disobey.
In the Bible there’s a prophet who was somewhat like us. He wanted to be independent, that’s why when God called him for a mission, and he ran away.
THE CALL
Jonah 1:1-2 (NKJV)
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out (NIV- preach) against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me."
In verse 2, He gave him three commands: "Arise, go, preach.”
Jonah was sent there not only for Nineveh's good but also to shame Israel in a very dramatic way. Instead of evangelizing, instead of reaching out and proclaiming the one true God to the nations around them, Israel was entrenched in a self-indulgent form of religion. And when this one sort of non-descript strange prophet went to Nineveh all by himself, preached to them, and the whole place repented, it was going to be a rather large rebuke of Israel's attitude. Jesus used Nineveh’s response to Jonah’s preaching as a rebuke to Israel during His earthly years.
Luke 11:32 (NKJV)
The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
THE RESPONSE
Jonah 1:3
“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 did not respond positively, and that is the disobedience.
Reasons of Jonah’s disobedience:
1. FEAR- Nineveh was Israel’s enemy in time of war. You don't just walk into the chief city of the enemy and preach at them, especially if you are the ones that they are attacking. That's tremendously frightening thought to most people.
2. SELFISHNESS -The last thing the Jews wanted was the Gentiles honing in on their God. They were so far away from the mentality of reaching the lost nations with the truth of Jehovah as to be locked into an attitude that says "we don't want any Gentiles sharing any of this good stuff with us," they were entrenched and had no thought for reaching the Gentiles.
3. PREJUDICE-Because he knew God is gracious (Chapter 4) and he knew that even though the message against Nineveh was judgment, if Nineveh repented, God would forgive Nineveh and he couldn't stand the thought of heathen people being forgiven. He couldn't stand the thought of any Gentile nation that was an oppressor and an aggressor against Israel being forgiven. I mean, that is prejudice that runs very, very deep.
4. NATIONALISM/RACISM- If he goes and preaches and they repent, they'll step into the place of blessing and Israel that was filled with sin will be out of the place of blessing and God will turn to the Gentiles and his people will be lost to His blessing. Do you see his dilemma? I mean, it's nationalism to the hilt. He feared the end of Israel's special election.
THE CONSEQUENCE
1. God Sent A Storm
Jonah 1:4, 5a
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
This was a miracle wind, the Lord sent this wind.
This is not a normal course. The Lord sent it. And there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was in danger of being broken. Now God went after the fleeing prophet. All the rest of the people were victims. I suppose you've thought when you've gotten on a plane, "I hope there's not a fleeing prophet on this airplane," right? See, rebellion never escapes God. He always identifies the person and says, "Thou art the man." God may let a person go to a certain point, but eventually He'll step in. And God sent a storm.
2. Jonah Was Reprimanded
Jonah 1:5b, 6
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
This was ironic. Everybody else was praying to their gods and throwing things overboard in the midst of the storm and he was in this deep sleep of false security, with no thought that God was after him. "So the shipmaster captain came to him and said to him, What do you mean, O sleeper? What are you doing? Get up, call on your God." I mean, among all of us we must be able to get through to somebody to stop this thing. And so far we are unsuccessful. "If so be that God will think upon us that we don't perish.” Start praying to your God. And so here was a pagan who called Jonah to prayer. He didn’t want to talk to his God about anything, he just wanted to sleep.
3. He Was Pitched Into The Ocean
Jonah 1:11, 12
The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.
And they said to him, What do we do for thee that the sea might be calm unto us for the sea raged and was tempestuous. What do we do?" Now Jonah on the spot could have repented in prayer, he could have told God he would obey. He was so belligerent and he was so prejudiced and he was so self-willed that he says, "I would rather die than go preach grace to those Ninevites, have them converted, blessed by God. I can't stand the thought. I'd rather die." That's amazing, isn't it? Now that shows how deep this prejudice was. That shows how far away the heart of this man was from the passionate concern for the lost that filled the heart of God.
So he said in verse 12, "Take me up and throw me into the sea." That is amazing. Sometimes negative situations soften the heart of a man, but this negative situation just hardened it. And he was angry. He said, "Just pitch me in the ocean. I'd rather die than see that Gentile city converted, those enemies, those Ninevites."
4. He Was Swallowed By A Huge Fish
Jonah 1:17
Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights
God was not done with Jonah, he's not going to be able to just go down there and drown like he wanted. He's not going to be able to have that luxury. God prepares a big fish and swallowed Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Remarkable, wasn't it? And some people have as much trouble swallowing that as the fish no doubt had swallowed Jonah. And the rationalists and some people I talked with really struggle with that. But I don't think this was a very special miracle. It was unique but I don't know, I've seen it in National Geographic, you know, about a 70-foot great white shark swallowing a man and the man survived and there are sharks and sperm whales whose mouths are big enough and whose stomachs are big enough. I really can't imagine what the accommodations were like over that three-day period, or how all of the factors worked out, but I don't have any problem believing that. I mean, he was swallowed. I mean, to put it another way, the God who preserves the living embryo in its living grave in the womb of a mother can sure preserve a man in the belly of a fish, if He wants.
THE RECOGNITION OF GOD AND DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE UNTO HIM
1. Recognition Of God’s Authority
Jonah 2:1a
“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God”. "Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the fish's belly."
He went right to God, just like the prodigal son in Luke 15, "I will arise and go to my father." He was awakened to submit himself to the Lord his God. He stopped running and said, "Okay, God, this is it. If You're going to play this way, I give. I can't fight like this, I submit to You. I recognize Your authority, I come to You. I depend upon you.
2. Recognition Of His Own Predicament
Jonah 2:1b
“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry”.
I cry by reason of my affliction." I mean, the reason I'm crying out is because this is not a happy occasion. Don't get the idea that being in the fish's stomach was somewhat of a pleasant experience, it was an absolutely horrifying painful affliction that's beyond imagination, inconceivable what kind of horrible experience it would be. And he knew he was as good as dead. He was crying, as it were, out of the belly of the grave. And it is crucial to deliverance from disobedience that one recognizes God's authority and recognizes his predicament. And what he was saying was, "I'm hopeless, I can't go any further, this is it, God, I cry out to You in my hopelessness."
3. Recognition Of God's Presence
Jonah 2:3-6
“You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. For You cast me into the deep in the midst of the sea and the floods compassed me about all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me. Then I said I am cast out of Thy sight, yet I will look again toward Thine holy temple. O God, You've done this, You've put me here and now I lift my eyes to look to Your holy temple. The waters compassed me about even to the soul, the depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped around my head, I went down to the bottom of the mountains, the earth with its bars was about me forever, yet hast Thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God."
And what he said was “I recognize You're in all of this. You threw me down here. You've preserved my life. You got me in this thing and You're still here.” And when you have disobeyed the Lord and drifted from His presence, you must recognize His authority and recognize your predicament and recognize the presence of God in all the things that have happened.
4. Recognition Of God's Forgiveness
Jonah 2:7
“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple”.
Jonah got his eyes off his problem now and said, "I remembered the Lord, I remembered the Lord." Ever and always, the pattern for the overcomer is to see his circumstances, see that God is in his circumstance and then lose sight of his circumstance and see God and God only.
5. Recognition Of God's Power
Jonah 2:8. 9
“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. 9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.”
He who had observed the lying vanities of the world, he who thought he could be happy and satisfied in being independent from God and grasping for the nothingness of that disobedience found out that he had forsaken the mercy that was available to him. In other words, what he's saying there is when I went into disobedience I forsook your blessing. No believer is blessed apart from God. They forsake their own mercy. Disobedience is to walk away from the merciful goodness of God. So what he was doing was repenting, that's what he was doing...he was repenting. They that do what I do forsake their mercy. And then he can't make a sacrifice there, obviously, so he says, "I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving." The best I can do is just offer you praise, I can't start a fire in here, obviously, I don't have a lamb, I'm going to pay my vow...I'm going to make You promises and I'm going to pay those promises. This was a foxhole conversion if ever there was one. "I sacrifice unto You with a voice of thanksgiving, I'll pay...I'll do everything I promise, O God, salvation is of the Lord." And what he meant was “save me, O God, save me, O God, get me out of here.”
You may come to a disastrous point in your life but in the middle of that extremity and that disaster, if you recognize God's authority, if you recognize your predicament, if you understand God's presence is there, God's forgiveness is available and God's power is mighty to save. He can turn the course of your life all the way around, even in the midst of a desperate situation.
Jonah 2:10 Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto a dry land.
CONCLUSION:
Chapters 3 and 4 tell us that Jonah had the same call from God, this time he responded in the positive way, He obeyed the Lord.
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