From the Depths

I think we have all faced Jonah decisions. You have a sense of what’s right. You know what you ought to do. Maybe you know a word of correction, or warning, is needed. It’s going to be a hard conversation; it’s not what you want to do. Maybe you really don’t even like the person, or have any sort of relationship with those people that would make you responsible to speak up or speak out. So, you don’t. You choose to just turn and head the other direction, and things, well, you may not realize it at the time, but when God calls, and we head the other direction, the story of Jonah teaches us that it’s downhill from there. I love that the writer of Jonah draws our attention to the important moments in the story by reporting on Jonah’s elevation.

When God calls Jonah, he goes down to Joppa, to a Mediterranean sea port – from there he could answer God’s call and take a ship northeast to Nineveh, or…not. We don’t know how Jonah weighed his decision as he walked down to the port, how he justified his choice to get on a ship headed west…going as far as possible in the opposite direction across the Mediterranean away from God’s call. My sermon last week explored how we tend to wrestle with God’s call; how we resist, how we struggle with risk, how we weigh the sacrifice and justify our reluctance to follow.

Jonah made his decision, paid his fare and climbed aboard, he makes his way farther down – the second change in elevation – down into the hold where he made himself comfortable and went to sleep. On first read, we might just think he’s taking a nap, but the Hebrew word is a unique word for sleep that means “stupefy” or “cast into a dead sleep.” It’s not just his body that is asleep. His faith is asleep. He has chosen not to follow God’s call. He has set out on his own. His eyes are closed to God. He doesn’t see a need for God in his life.

Here’s the irony – the sailors do. Frightened by a storm that threatens to break apart the ship, the captain goes and wakes Jonah, “Pray to your god! Maybe your god will see we’re in trouble and rescue us.” Jonah is the Hebrew, the one who worships the one true God, the one who has heard God’s voice, and yet it is the pagan sailors who seek God when they are in trouble. See, once we have run away from God’s call in our life, once we’ve made ourselves comfortable in the dark hull of the ship, once we’ve let the waves of life rock us, we fall asleep and when the storms of life come we are too disoriented to look to God as we are shaken awake.

When they cast lots and the lot falls on Jonah, the questions fly. “Who are you? Why are you going to Tarshish? What are you doing? What have you done that has caused this storm?”

Jonah responds, “I’m a Hebrew. I worship God, the God of heaven who made sea and land.” That’s quite a claim – the sailors must have been intrigued – one God over sea and land, with power over evil and good? Remember that the sea was the symbol of chaos and evil. Jonah goes on, “Throw me overboard, into the sea. Then the storm will stop. It’s all my fault. I’m the cause of the storm. Get rid of me and you’ll get rid of the storm.” But – more irony – the sailors are afraid of God’s anger if they do something against God’s will. They risked their own lives – trying to row to shore, but it’s no use, the sea kept getting rougher and wilder. Finally, they cried out to God.

Jonah – the one who has a relationship with God – has told them that they are going to have to throw him overboard for God to relent; they’ve tried everything else and it’s only getting worse. So, they are going to have to try it. But first, they pray. These sailors who didn’t know God before they met Jonah pray for God’s mercy. “O God! Don’t let us drown because of this man’s life (we didn’t know what he had done when we let him on this ship), and don’t blame us for his death (we have to do something or we are all going to wind up in the water). You are God. Do what you think is best.” What a contrast to Jonah these sailors offer – what faith and trust – You are God. Do what you think is best.

They took Jonah and threw him overboard, down into the churning waters of the sea. Immediately the storm stopped and their faith and trust were confirmed – they sang and offered a sacrifice and promised to serve God.

Jonah isn’t with them, though. He has been swallowed, down inside a great fish. It is here, in the depths three days and three nights, the turning point comes for Jonah. He cries out. He wakes up. There in the dark, he sees that he needs God.

That’s the way it tends to be, at the end of our rope, in desperation, we cry out, we turn back, we relent. Pastor and author A.W. Tozer said, “In every generation, the people who have found God have been those who have come to the end of themselves. Recognizing their hopelessness, they have been ready to throw themselves on the mercy and grace of a forgiving God.”

And God is there. God brings him up from the pit. From the depths, when we remember we need God, God hears our prayer. God listens to our cry and saves us.

And the big fish expels him onto dry land – with the same call that he ran from. God brings us up and out. But Jonah’s story doesn’t end there, “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah again has a decision to make, will he follow? What will happen?

Again, you can read the whole book of Jonah in about 7 minutes and find out. Will Jonah go? Will the people of Nineveh repent? Will God really show mercy to THEM? Jonah does not want to go. Jonah is afraid that they will repent. Jonah just knows that if they do, God is going to be merciful. We’ll talk about what happens next Sunday.