Jonah-More Than A Fish Story!

This morning I want to begin a series of messages on the book of Jonah, which really is an illustration of story that illustrates exactly what we just heard Jerry Singh. We cannot climb, we cannot fall, nor can we run further than the grace of God can reach. And that's what we're going to see in this great story of the book of Jonah. However, I must confess that Jonah is often mistreated by many who teach or preach this book or even who read this book because the fish gets all the attention in the book of Jonah most of the time. For decades, actually for a couple of centuries, liberal scholars have tried to deny that there is such a fish that could swallow a man. Conservative scholars has been all their time trying to document that it has happened and so the fish gets all the attention. The fish is not the center of the story. This is more than a fish story. This is a story about a prophet who runs from God. This is a story mostly about a God who loves all people and a God whose heart is so big that he loves even the most cruel, the most aggressive military power in the world. He loves all people. That's what this book is all about. It is a familiar story. It's an interesting story. It's fascinating story, but it is much more than a fish story. And I trust that God will help us to see what his intent was as he caused his prophet to pin his own experience and learn some lessons about himself and about God as we look at this great book. But we cannot fully appreciate the message of this book. It's emphasis upon our God of love, a missionary heart of God. We cannot fully appreciate that unless we understand the background of the book. So that's where we're going to begin this morning with the background of the book. We're going to talk about the times in which Jonah lives. So let's look first of all at the background in Israel. Jonah is mentioned one other time in the Bible in the historic part of the Old Testament, the historic books, which helps place him in a historical setting. And indeed, it is a very interesting historical setting. That reference to Jonah is found in Second Kings chapter 14. It's going to be on the screen for you. Look at these three verses and let's see what it tells us about Jonah's times, the background of the book in Israel itself. Second Kings 14 says in the 15th year of Amazaya, son of Joachim of Judah, that's the southern kingdom. Jeroboam, son of Jehoash king of Israel, that's the northern kingdom, 10 tribes, became king in Samaria. So this is during the reign of Jeroboam, he's often called Jeroboam the second, and you'll see why in just a moment. But the Bible says he reigned 41 years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebeth. That's a different Jeroboam. That's the first king of the nation of Israel who led Israel into idolatry and every king after that is measured by the first Jeroboam. So this Jeroboam the second is measured by his predecessor, Jeroboam the first, and he does evil, did not cause the people to turn away from what Jeroboam the first had caused them to do. And the writer explains which he had caused Israel to commit the sins. He was the one, Jeroboam the second, he was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Libel Hamat to the dead sea. I'm not going to try to show you where all that is, but basically this is extending the borders to the borders almost that were the greatest Israel ever had during the time of King Solomon. So these are glory days for Israel. And notice what the verse says, this is in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel spoken through his servant Jonah, son of Amatai, the prophet from Gathheifer. So we know the time in which Jonah lived. This is the same Jonah about whom we will read in the book entitled Jonah. So he's living ministering during the reign of Jeroboam the second, a 41 year reign in the middle of the eight century BC, 793 to 753. He ruled. He was an ungodly king, a wicked king who continued the immorality and idolatry of the nation of Israel. But these were great times in the nation economically, politically, militarily. You see, the borders as we just saw had been expanded. They had taken back land that once belonged to them and they had lost. And those borders now rival the largest and most prosperous time in Israel's history under King Solomon. And so these are great days. The economy is booming. Politically, Jeroboam is very popular. Milaterally, they are strong, but it is a spiritually weak time in the nation of Israel. Because we know the time frame in which Jonah ministered, we know that he had some buddies that prophesied along with him called Amos and Hosea, two other prophets who ministered at the same time. Amos is very descriptive about what was going on in Israel during their time of ministry. Listen to these words in Amos chapter 6, verse 1, where Amos says, this is the time of Jonah now, low to you who are complacent in Zion and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria. You notable men of the foremost nation to whom the people of Israel come. You lie on beds, inlaid with ivory, and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. You strumble lay on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. The idea is almost like, you don't have anything better to do. So you kind of, ah, just dream up a new tune. Let's try to learn how to play this harp or this wire. We don't have anything else to do. These are good times, easy living in Israel. Verse 6, you drink wine by the bullfall and use the finest lotions yet, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile. Your feasting and lounging will end. So, prosperous times in the nation, but God sees things differently. And what had happened is because of the security and the prosperity and the ease in these days in Israel, the people themselves had become completely complacent spiritually. So much so that their worship, even though they were still doing the same things, were in abomination to God. In chapter 4 of Amos's book, he paints the picture this way. God says this, go to Bethel and sin. Go to Gilgau and sin yet more. Two worship places in the northern kingdom of Israel. Go to both of them. Go ahead, go worship and sin. He says, bring your offerings every morning, your tides every three years. Burn, leaven, bread as a thank-offering. Bragg about your free will boast about the Mu'izra lights for this is what you love to do. Declares the sovereign lord. But here's how God sees it over in chapter 5 and verse 21. God's still speaking, I hate, I despise your religious beasts. I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me bird offerings and grain offerings, though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs, I will not listen to the music of your harps, but let justice roll on like a river, righteousness, like a never-ending stream. So here's the picture in Israel, boom time, militarily, we're our strongest we've been in a long time since the days of Solomon. Politically, things are going great. We've got a guy that's on the throne for 41 years and he's doing well. Economically, the country is in its best shape since Solomon. This is great days in Israel and God says these are the most terrible days this nation has ever seen. Because of the security, politically, economically, militarily, people had gone to sleep spiritually. And they were complacent. They were still going through the motions of religion, but were complacent. Just doing the right stuff, offering the sacrifices, singing the songs, but all the time living wicked lives. And Amos will go on to say throughout his book, they were treating the poor with disdain, keeping justice from those who had no ability to pay off the judges of the day. So it was a bad time as far as God saw the nation. Seemingly, everything okay, great security, but it's a time of spiritual poverty in the nation of Israel. That's the background. That's the time in which Jonah mentions, but there is another power on the scene, a world power even greater than Israel at this time. And that is Assyria. So let's talk a little bit about the background that Jonah is facing as regards Assyria and Nineveh because this is the land and this is the city that Jonah will focus on. Assyria and Nineveh, it's great city. Let's look first of all to map so we can kind of locate where we are. Here is Israel, right here. There's this little sliver of land that goes up here to the Sea of Galilee. And actually it's the northern two-thirds of this that is the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom that is mentioned in this book. Way over here is Assyria and way up here is Nineveh. It's a long ways away from where Jonah is living, long way away. It's in current day, present day Iraq. Nineveh is actually the old site of Nineveh is actually today, actually across the Tigris River, from Nineveh is the city of Mosul. If you remember the early part of the war in Iraq, Mosul was very much in the news. And it's north, about 220 miles north of Baghdad. That's where Nineveh was. It's always been a strong city. And in Jonah's day, it was the strongest city in the nation of Assyria. It was not yet the capital that would come later, but it was still the strongest city because it had some other city states around it and it formed the largest and greatest most powerful city in the nation of Assyria at the time. But Assyria was a world power. For 300 years, they had been the world power. Everybody feared Assyria. Assyria was a brutal war machine. Now at this particular time, they were hitting kind of a low point, a blip on the radar screen. There were some internal problems that caused the nation of Assyria to weaken a little bit and pull back from their international efforts. And so at this particular time, the reason for Israel being strong, expanding their borders, feeling secure is because Assyria is in a downturn. By the way, I think we have another map here. Let's go ahead and get that Tim. Sorry about that. This is a satellite view. Here's Gath Heffer, where Jonah's from. There's Joppa, where he'll sail from Jerusalem, all in this area. Whoa, Nineveh's way over here. Way over here. Assyria was a wicked brutal nation. When Assyria would overcome a land, when Assyria would attack a city, they would take all the men of that city. They would cut off their tongue, their nose, their ears, their hands, and their feet. Then they would skin them alive and impale them on a sharp-ended pole and let them die a gruesome death. They would burn all the children of the city alive. And then they would take the women, go outside the city, take some of the men who had already died, cut off their heads, build a pyramid of heads outside the city gate, just to make a point. Then take the women, burn the city, and they were gone. The most fearsome group of military warriors that maybe the world has ever known. That's Assyria. And Nineveh is their big town. Nineveh is their most important city. Please keep that in mind as we look at this book. It's awful easy for us, armchair Bible readers to sit back and say, oh Jonah, terrible, terrible response to what God asked you to do. We don't even understand what God asked Jonah to do. The nearest thing we can get to it today is God telling you and me, go to the Taliban. I love them. I want them to know me. Take my message to them. Tell them I'm going to judge them. Now, how would you respond to that? What would be your normal, good old American response? Probably the same response that a good Issyria light like Jonah would have. So before we criticize him too sharply and we'll see his faults and weaknesses because God will point them out and deal with him on those through this book. But before we get to in our easy chairs, too critical of Jonah, let's really understand what he's being asked to do. He's being asked to go to the most fearsome cruel nation on planet Earth at the time and they have their eyes set on Israel. His people and he knows that and he knows they have the power to attack and within 30 years after his ministry they will and they will take his people captive. So that's what Jonah's dealing with. That's the background in Assyria and Nineveh. What about Jonah himself? Who was he? All we know is that he was from Gathepher, a city in Galilee and he was a prophet. His father's name was Amitai, we know nothing about him. That's about all we know about Jonah's background. But from things that we see of him in his book, many have speculated that possibly he was a court prophet. He talks about ministering in the temple and going back to the temple. It may well be that he was actually kind of headquartered in Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah even though he was from the northern kingdom of Israel. And so it could be he was a court prophet much like Isaiah which raises the possibility that he had profited very nicely from the security and the ease of his times. We know from what we see of him in chapter 4 that he was very pleased when God provided for his material comforts and very displeased when they were taken away. I don't want to be too speculative or too critical but could it be that Jonah had fallen into some of the same complacency? That was so rampant in the nation and God is going to pull him out of that drastically, drastically like he may have to do with us at times. That's the background of the book. What about the message of the book? The message is not just a nice little Sunday school story about a big fish who swallowed a man and spitting out. That's not the real purpose of the book. It's not the real message of the book. The message of the book is primarily about God. God has found 38 times. He's mentioned 38 times in this book. 38 times God has mentioned. Four short chapters. I mean this book is all about God and it's all about God's heart of love for lost people. I don't care who they are. I don't care if they are the Taliban. God loves them and God wants them to hear of his love. God wants them to respond to his love. God wants them to be in his family. It's the great missionary heart of God. It's the great love of God for the peoples of the world. That is really the thrust of this book. Now a sub-theme of this book is Jonah. Yes, because Jonah is God's instrument. God's messenger. God's tool to reach out and show his love to the people of Nineveh. But Jonah doesn't want to do that. And so God is dealing with complacent self-centered people. Man of God. Who will not do what God tells him to do. And so a sub-theme running through this book is how God deals with one of his own. Who will not do what God tells him to do. How God chastens. How God lovingly draws. How God challenges and stretches and rebukes and teaches lessons to us, his children. That is a theme of the book of Jonah. Let's put ourselves in Jonah's sandals, if we will, as we move through this book. And let's find out how God is dealing with him so that we can let God deal with us in the same way. Let's find ourselves as we run from God, as we're chastened by God, as we cry out to God, as we then hesitantly, reluctantly, halfheartedly, do what God says to do with impure mixed motives. And then God slams home to our hearts, his lesson of love for all people. Let's let ourselves be challenged by this book and what God is seeking to teach us. How does the book lay out? Well, I've kind of given it to you just now. I'm going to follow as far as the outline of the book is concerned. Charles Rierry's wonderful outline. It's one of the greatest outliners I've ever seen of books of the Bible. And it goes something like this, at least, close to what he does. Chapter one is Jonah running from God. Chapter two is all about Jonah praying to God. Chapter three is all about Jonah preaching for God. And chapter four is all about Jonah learning from God. And that's the real apex of the book. That's the real point of the book is chapter four. Everything else leads us up to the great lessons that God wants us to learn about himself and about us. But Jonah, after running from God, prays to God, then preaches for God, but he's got a lot of lessons to learn about God and from God. That's what the book of Jonah is all about. Let's go back to the beginning of the book. If you've found the book, if you're still struggling to find it, just find the part of your Bible where the pages are still stuck together. If you can't get them open, turn to the back of the Old Testament and start going to your left. Yeah, to your left. Backwards. And you'll find Jonah. Okay, if you're there, let's look at the first three verses. The word of the Lord came to Jonah's son of Amatai. Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Japa 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. The beginning of this book deals with two issues, the first being God's command. That's how the book begins. God's command. Notice what God commands. First one, the word of the Lord. That's its authority. The authority of God's command is that it comes from his word. It is his word that speaks to Jonah. This is God's word. This is not God's suggestion. This is not God's option. This is not God's question. This is God's word. An authoritative command. And that is what God's word is. God's word is not to be trifled with. God's word is not to be considered. And then we decide whether or not we want to do it. It is God's word. It is his authoritative declaration to us. When we deal with God's word, we're not dealing with a self-help book. We're not dealing with a book of hints, tin hints, about how you can improve your life. I get sick of all of those kinds of things today. You see them all the time. I've subscribed to USA Today and every day in that newspaper, they got 10 this, 7 this, 4 this, 8 this, about things, you know, 10 best places to retire. Who cares about 10 best places to retire? God, when He gives us His word, says, this is what I'm telling you to do. This is how to live. This is what to believe. This is my word. This is not my suggestion. These are not hints that you might want to consider. This is my word. God wasn't telling Jonah. You got four choices behind door one, behind door two. Pick your door, Jonah. No, He says, this is my word. This is my word, which comes to you. The word of the Lord came to Jonah. 16 prophetic books in the Bible. 10 of them start that way. The word of the Lord came to the prophet. This is an authoritative message. This is an authoritative book. It is not like any other book you own or will read. It is the living word of God. God's word came to Jonah. But notice its direction. Its direction. Go to the great city of Nineveh. The direction of God's command. Go to the great city of Nineveh. Wow, wow, how shocking that must have been for Jonah. Go to the city of Nineveh. I mean, it had to be shocking on a couple of levels. First of all, there is no other Old Testament prophet before Him or after Him who is sent from His homeland to be a missionary to a foreign land and take the message of God to that land. Jonah is the only one. Now, there were some prophets like Ezekiel and Daniel who were taken captive in debablin and ministered in those lands. There were prophets like Obadaya whose entire message was a message against another foreign power, Edom in Obadaya's case. And most of the prophets have a section of their prophecies that deal with God's plan or judgment for foreign countries. But nobody's like Jonah. Nobody else is asked to leave his homeland and go to the enemy and tell them my message. So it had to be shocking on that level. But it also had to be shocking that it would be Nineveh. Nineveh of all places. You know, Jonah is much more aware than we are just, you know, looking back and reading books about what it was like. Jonah lived in it. Jonah lived under the shadow of Assyria. Jonah knew about what Assyria had done to other people. Jonah knew that Assyria had its sights set on the northern kingdom of Israel and ultimately Judah as well. Jonah knew how fearsome they were. Jonah knew how cruel they were. It's like God saying to us, go to the Taliban and take my message of judgment. We just walk into the Taliban and say, God's going to judge you. That's shocking. I mean, that's a tough challenge. I'm not sure I would respond very well to that. In fact, I'm pretty sure I would not. That would cost some real soul-sircing. You mean I'm supposed to go up to headhunders, to people who cut people's heads off, to people who would cut my tongue and my ears and my eyes and my nose and my hands and feet off and stick me on a pole to rot and die. I mean, you want me to go tell them you're going to judge them? Are you serious? It had to be a shocking command, the direction of this command. But it was the authoritative word of God. It's purpose. The purpose of God's command is very clear in verse 1, verse 2. Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it. Now, this is a great city. We know from chapter 4, at least 120,000 residents, depending on how you take some of the wording there, at least 120,000 residents. That is huge for an ancient city. It was a large city, a powerful city, and God says, I want you to preach against it. Whenever you find that terminology in the prophetic books, it means basically declare my judgment. So Jonah was to go declare God's judgment on the most fearsome people. Here's one man walking into the most powerful city of the most powerful nation on earth saying, God's going to judge you. You are serious. Now, it will be also an offer of grace because in chapter 3, when we find a little bit more about the message, it's yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. In other words, God's giving you a time period to repent. If you don't repent in those 40 days, your history, your done, God will judge you. So there is also couched in this message of judgment, a judgment of grace and of love. And that is the message of the Bible, my friend. It is really the same message that we have today. And it starts with the fact that we are all sinners. And because we are all sinners, we are under the wrath of God. We are under His judgment. We don't have to do anything to get under His judgment. The Bible makes it clear that we are already under His wrath. We are already the objects of His judgment. But that message of judgment and the holiness of God and His wrath against sinful man is couched in love and grace because God doesn't want that for you or me. He doesn't want us to face His judgment. He loves us. And so He sends us His message, His Word, to let us know that He loves us and He wants us to be in heaven with Him someday and be a part of His family. And so He loved us so much that He actually did for us what we could not do for ourselves. He actually sent His Son to die in our place, to take the punishment for our sin, to bear His wrath, His judgment, so that we wouldn't have to be judged and we wouldn't have to feel His wrath. God sent His Son Jesus to do that for us. And so the same message today is yet a message of wrath, a message of judgment, but also delivered from a heart of love from God who says, I love you. This is what will happen to you if you don't take my gift of love. You'll be judged. But I offer you a period of time in which to repent and turn from your wicked ways, turn from your self efforts to get to heaven and accept my gift of love. My son Jesus is your Savior. So it's the same message, it's the same purpose that Jonah had. That's God's command. What was Jonah's response? Look at verse three, but uh-oh. This is where the trouble starts. God gives a very clear command. Remember it's not a hint, it's not a suggestion, it's not ten things to consider. This is my authoritative command. But Jonah, that little three letter word but causes all kinds of problems. I know God says to do this, but well I know God says this in His word. I know the Bible teaches that, but how often we reason the same way. Jonah's response is to do exactly the opposite of what God told him to do. His response obviously as we know from the text is running away from the Lord. He's running from God. Now I want us to examine that a little bit because that's a very interesting concept. How do you run, how do you run away from God? So what's being talked about there? What's mint there? Let's talk a little bit about the dynamics of running from God. What does it mean to run from God? Obviously when you're running from something, you're also running to something, right? This is a directional type thing. You're running from something and you're running to something. The text makes it clear that he was running away from the Lord. By the way, when God says go in verse two, it's actually two Hebrew verbs that Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language. It's two verbs that literally mean arise, go. In other words, get up and go. Go immediately is the idea. Get up and go. When the Bible says Jonah ran away, it uses the same verb as the first one. Arise. In other words, Jonah arose and we're waiting to hear, did he go? Did he get up and go like God told him? No, he got up and turned around with the other direction. He's running away from God. What is that talking about? Does Jonah actually believe that he's going to escape the presence of God or get out of the sight of God so that God can't find him? God doesn't know where he is. I don't think so. I don't think Jonah is that ignorant or naive about the scriptures. In fact, when we get to chapter two, we will find that Jonah is familiar with the Psalms. He quotes them several times in his prayer of despair in chapter two. So that leads me to believe that Jonah probably, if he's that familiar with the Psalms, that he can quote them in a fissious belly, that leads me to believe that he's probably familiar with Psalm 139. That leads me to believe that Jonah probably knows what Psalm 139 says when it says in verse seven, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, literally the grave, sheel, the Old Testament place of dead people. If I go there, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, listen to these next words. If I settle on the far side of the sea, which is exactly what Jonah intended to do, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. In other words, I think Jonah knew you cannot literally get away from God. So that's not what running away from God means. So if it doesn't mean Jonah had in mind to get away from the presence of God or to get out from where God could see him, if it doesn't mean that, what does it mean? I think we have a clue in chapter two. If you'll look quickly at chapter two, verse four, Jonah is crying out in despair and in hope from the belly of the fish. And he says in verse four, I said recounting his prayer, remembering his prayer, I said, I have been banished from your sight. Okay, now what he means by that is clear from what he says will take care of that in the last part of the verse. Here's how it will be taken care of. Yet I will look again toward your holy temple. And in verse seven, he says, my life was ebbing away. I remembered you, Lord, my prayer rose to you to your holy temple. See, the temple is for Israelites, for Jews, the temple is the visible manifestation of God's presence in the nation. That's where when Solomon dedicated the temple, God actually came down in a cloud and made his presence known. And that's where God accepts every year the offering of the high priest for the sins of the people. This is the place in the temple where the presence of God is manifested among the people of Israel. And I think what Jonah is saying by leaving your sight and by coming back to you is I quit. I quit. I'm leaving the worship of God. I'm leaving my commission from God. I'm leaving my call, my vocation. I'm not going to serve God any longer. I'm not even going to go to the temple and worship God any longer. I quit. God, if this is what you ask of me, I'm not doing it. I'll quit before I go to none of them. So running from God is basically saying no to what God tells you to do. Nobody can get out of his presence, no matter where you go, no matter how low you get, you cannot escape his gaze, his presence, and you cannot escape his grace. You also cannot escape his chastening. But you can run from God. You can say, I quit. I'm out of here. I'm gone. I'm not going to church anymore. I'm not going to serve God anymore. If that's what it means, forget it. I'm just leaving this whole thing. You can do that. That's what it means to run from God. Running from the presence of the Lord, formally resigning his prophetic ministry, basically, and saying, I'm not even going to go back to the temple to worship you. Forget it. I'm out of here. I'm not going to live for God anymore. I'm not going to serve him anymore. If this is what it means to serve you, I'm done. I'm done with it. That's what it means to run from God. That's what he's doing. But he's also running to something. And interestingly enough, the Bible says he's running to verse three to Tarshish. He ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. In fact, that's mentioned three times in this verse. It says he went down to Jopper where he found a ship bound for that port, literally in the Hebrew word Tarshish again. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish three times in one verse. He mentions it's almost like he's emphasizing the fact that he's not going to do what God says. You told me to go to Neneva. I'm going to go to Tarshish. Tarshish. I am not going to do what you said. I want you to know. I'm going to Tarshish. You hear that God? Tarshish. Tarshish. That's where I'm headed. The emphasis is there to make a point. He is dedicated to his rebellion against God. He's dedicated to running away from God. Now, where in the world is Tarshish? Look at the map again. This is a map of the Roman Empire, a little bit later, obviously, than Jonah's time, several hundred years later, where Rome occupied all of this region of the world. Over here again, this little sliver right here is Israel. Up here is Neneva. Look at there. Tarshish. The reason it's got a question mark is because it's not at all clear that that was the actual location. Sometimes, and there's a lot of literature on this, but sometimes the word Tarshish was used for any Western port somewhere out there in the far reaches of the world. There was one of those ports, however, right here in eastern Spain named Tartesis. It could be that's the actual location, but whether and some believe it was Carthage, other places along through here, but wherever it is known that Tarshish was indicating this region somewhere, obviously, the opposite direction from where God told him to go. Go to Neneva? I'm going the other direction. I'm going to Tarshish. So, as the first step to going to Tarshish, and getting away from all of his life commitments, service for God, to leave it all behind, he's going to go as far away as he can. Some people do that geographically. Some people do it in their hearts. There are some people who sit in church every Sunday morning and they're in Tarshish. There are some people maybe here this morning who are as far from God as you can be. You're in church, you have sung the songs, maybe you've given your gifts, but you're headed the opposite direction of the way God's told you to go, and you're committed to that in your heart. No, Lord, I'm going to Tarshish. I'm going to Tarshish. Tarshish. You sit in church and have that rebellious heart against God. First step. Look at how easy this is. First step is middle of the verse, verse three. He went down to Japa. Japa. Oh, international port. Japa was, even in that day, let's look at a picture of Japa today. This is Japa called Japa today in Israel on the Mediterranean Sea, beautiful city, on the outskirts of Japa today is the most prosperous city in Israel in this day, Tel Aviv. If you go to Israel, you probably will fly into Tel Aviv. If you're going to Jerusalem, you'll probably take other some other kind of transportation up there. The international airport today, the international port today in Israel is Tel Aviv. Japa. Japa. So this is the place where you can catch a boat. He knows if there's any boat going to the far flung reaches of the world in his day. He can probably find it at Japa. And notice, see this breakwater here? Let's look at the next picture and see it up more close. This breakwater provided natural harbor, which is still in practice today and is the chief shipping center for Israel even today. It was also in Old Testament times. And so Jonah knows if I can go to the western reaches of the world, I can probably find the boat. And you know what? He did. He found a boat. Oh, how wonderful. God's putting all the pieces into place. God's allowing me to go. God's working out the circumstances. He went down to Japa where he found a ship bound for that port. Just where I wanted to go. They didn't got good. After paying the fare, oh, I have the right amount of money. This God must be in this. Have the right amount of money. He went aboard and sailed for Tarsish to flee from the Lord. Let me give you a warning. A warning about running from God. Sometimes the circumstances will convince you that it's okay. Or you will rationalize the circumstances to make it okay. Oh, pastor, I know he's unsafe, but we're in love. We want to get married. Wait a second. Doesn't God have a command about that? Hasn't God given a authoritative declaration about that? Being out unequally yoked together, certainly in a religious setting in 2nd, 3rd and 6th, but there's no closer yok in relationships than a marriage. And you're going to go against the direct command of God because God's put this love in my heart for him. No, God did not put that love in your heart for him. I don't know how many people I've had to tell me. I know what the Bible teaches, but we're living together. It's more economic for us to live together. I know we're not married, but remember that little three-letter word? I know what God says, but I know what God teaches, but you can rationalize it all day long. You can point out circumstances that just seem like and feel like God must be in this. Well, I know it's not right to do this at work, but you don't know my situation. Listen, friends, we've got to get back to the fact that God says it, that's what we were supposed to live. There are no buts and ifs. It's just what God says. And circumstances, you will be able to twist and turn and rationalize and say, I think God wants me to do this when you know good and plain and His word, He doesn't. No circumstance should ever dictate to you something contrary to what God clearly says in His word. So just a warning about running from God. There may be times when you're running from God and you think, hey, this is all right. I'm not getting zapped. God hasn't judged me. Nothing's happening. In fact, things are working out pretty good for me. Must be okay. No, no, it isn't. It never is. Don't let circumstances fool you. I know sometimes God uses circumstances to direct and even confirm what He's doing, but it's always, always if it's of God, always confirmed by His word and in line with what His word teaches. God will never lead you to do anything contrary to His word. The consequence of running from God, what is it? I'm just going to mention this, chastening. We'll talk about it next week. We'll show how God chastened His prophet who was seeking to quit and to run away from Him. God does chastening. But I want to ask you in closing this morning, are you running from God? Are you running from God? If God tells you something in His word, clearly, command you something in His word, and you're saying, I know that, but you're running from God. Well, I know the Bible teaches that, but you're running from God. Maybe God has laid something on your heart to do for Him. Maybe you've served Him and something happened didn't go quite right, and you said, I'm quitting. If it means that, I quit. Maybe you've given up on church. Now you're back today, and that's wonderful. But maybe in your heart, your million miles away from God, you're running as fast away from Him as you can. And you've made up your mind. I will not serve Him. I will not live for Him anymore. If it causes this kind of pain, if it causes people to act that way, if people are going to say that, forget it. That's what it means. God forget it. You're running from God. If you refuse to deal with some sin in your life, and that's pretty clear in the Bible, some sin that God's convicting you about it may be a sin of your attitude toward another person, brother, sister, and Christ, even. It may be a sin of some kind of manner of speech that you continually struggle with, or some behavior, some habits, something in your life that you know is wrong, but you will not deal with it. You will not repent. You will not get it right with God. You're doing the same thing. You own it. You're running from God. You're saying, I know God. I know what you're saying, but I am going to hang on to this. I've every right to feel this way after the way I was hurt. You're running from God. You're running from God. And my friend, God will chase in you. Not every hardship is the chastening of God, but every hardship we endure ought to lead us to examine our hearts to make sure that there's not something in our lives that God could be chasing us for. Are you running from God today? God will eventually get Jonah back. He wants you back today. Please bow with me in prayer. Father, whatever you tell us to do, whatever you expect of us, whatever you command us to be, to do, to go, give us the grace to just say yes and not to run from you. No matter how hard that choice may be, and Lord, I know that for some people here this morning, breaking off that relationship, may seem as hard as going to Nine of a dead to Jonah, doing that which is right, getting back to where they once were with you in serving, commitment to you, living for you, may seem as difficult as going to the Taliban. But Lord, with every command, you give the grace to do it. And I pray that you would help people here today to stop running from you, to run back into your arms and allow you to be Lord again in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.