The Appointed Result of the
Appointed Means
Jonah 2:5 – 4:11
Tom J.
Nettles
In this
lesson we will revisit some of the texts from last week, giving a different
emphasis to their application. We will close this lesson with a synthesis of
theological ideas that provide the connecting sinews in this compelling look at
God’s pedagogical interaction with Jonah and his surprising mercy to
I.
The
success of the Means God used with Jonah
A.
The
call – God could have sent an angel, but he wants those who have received mercy
to be messengers that will result in mercy – 1:1-3
1.
“The
Word of the Lord came”
2.
resented
- Assyria now demanding tribute from
3.
resisted – A Pagan nation has no claim on God’s message or mercy,
acc. to Jonah, but see Isaiah 19:19-25. God’s intention is for the salvation of
both
B.
The
storm and the sailor’s deliverance
1.
“The
Lord Hurled”
2.
“
3.
Jonah’s
confession led to their apparent conversion and their effort to salvage Jonah’s
life. As we saw last week, this is the first in a pattern of wrath and
redemption in this book.
4.
God’s
fury in the elements makes their attempt to keep Jonah safe impossible “The sea was becoming stormier.” No human contrivance in the face
of divine justice can bring a guilty soul beyond the reach of the divine
purpose, whether it be wrath or redemption.
5.
Their
acceptance of God’s sovereignty –“You O Lord have done as you pleased” Faced
with the reality, even these heathen sailors, uninformed by the special
revelation with which Israel was blessed, realized that this God that created
the sea and the dry land could not be overcome. The sailors are delivered when
the purpose of the display of divine pleasure is fulfilled. In this sense,
though not to be pressed too far, Jonah becomes a type of Christ. Christ was
cast into the
C.
The
Fish and Jonah’s deliverance
1.
The
Lord “Appointed.” We commented on the series of events that God “appointed” in
the outline for last week.
2.
Jonah
recognizes that he has been rescued when he should have perished. Jonah’s
God-given persuasion that he would be rescued comes even as he seems to be in a
state of certain death in the invincible elements of the sea.
3.
Verses 5 and 6 – After the knowledge that He
would yet worship God alive in this life, things go from bad to worse. From
being tossed about in the “waves and billows” and smothered by them, now he is
drawn by their pressure into the deep; he is entangled in sea weed and moving
toward the floor of the sea, when, the fish snatches him from the certain death
of drowning, “Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O lord my God.”
4.
Verses
7, 8 - As Jonah wrote this book, he remembered the profound sense of
helplessness and absolute dependence on the Lord. He recognized how different
was the state of those that knew only man-made gods. Elements of Psalm 28 seem
to be in Jonah’s mind: ‘I become like those who go down to the pit;” (1) “I cry to you for
help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.” (2); or Psalm
30:3, “You have brought up my soul from Sheol; you
have restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.” And verse
12: “that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I
will give thanks to you forever!”; or Psalm 69 “Save
me O God! For the waters have come up to my neck . . . I have come into deep
waters, and the flood sweeps over me. . . . Let me be delivered from the deep waters.
. . .Let not the flood sweep over me. . . Let your salvation, O God, set me on
high!” 1, 2,14-15, 29; Psalm 115:, 4 5: “Their idols
are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not
speak; eyes but do not see. . . . Those who make them become like them.” Jonah
had recognized the wonder of divine grace in divine revelation and in
intervention in the lives of sinners set on rebellion. Had God let him have his
way, not only in this matter of the call to
5.
verse 9 c; “Salvation is from the Lord” Our destruction is of ourselves, but our
salvation is of God. God does not just make salvation available, but he
operates effectually to save. “Who saved us and called us with a holy calling .
. . according to his own purpose and grace” )2 Timothy
1:9ff. “He saved us, . . . according to his own mercy”
(Titus 3:5); We were sinking down, and left to our own strength and our own
will and sinful inclination perishing was the sure thing. But He saved us, for
“Salvation is of the Lord.”
D.
The
restoration 2:10
1.
The
Lord commanded – How do we perceive this command? How God commanded the fish,
we are not told, but that the action of the fish was the result of the
providential prompting
of God.
2.
And
It vomited Jonah – How do we perceive this obedience?
Perhaps God caused the fish to become sick with this large living thing in its
belly and obeyed the impulse of nature, but according to the time and
arrangement of God.
E.
The
call reissued
1.
The
second call comes with the assurance that Jonah cannot escape: We already know that Jonah is a true prophet,
2 Kings 14:25 [See last week’s discussion of his prophetic work prior to his
call the
2.
The
message will be given to Jonah when he gets there. “Call out against it the message
that I tell you.”
II.
The
Success of the Means used with
A.
An
Itinerant - “Jonah began to go through
the city” It appears that by the time he was one day’s journey into a city that
was three days in breadth, the message
he had preached spread from house to house and section to section faster than
Jonah himself could move..
B.
Summary
of the Message – 3:4
truth with little earnestness. Jonah preached the message of
destruction. We are not led to believe that he urged any repentance. God will
use his truth even at times with a half-hearted delivery. [cf. Phil 1:15-17]
C.
Effect
on
1.
The
people believed the message – The text says “The people of
2.
Repentance
began with the people in acts of humility – 3:5
3.
The
king joins with them and proclaims actions for repentance but also a change in
conduct 3:6-8
4.
He
expresses this in hope; – 3:9 This perhaps shows a knowledge of Israel’s
own past and the pattern of judgment and deliverance: cf. 2 Chronicles 7:13, 14
D.
God’s
response
1.
God
Saw – He saw their deeds, they turned from their wicked way
2.
God
relented
III. Jonah is Displeased
- Jonah 4:1
A.
With
God’s character – 2:2
This scene of repentance and forgiveness is exactly what Jonah
did not want to see. H has revealed the reason for his futile flight from the
presence of God. H really could not be contented with the idea that God was the
God of al nations, the only God, and could also show compassion on others as
had on Jonah himself. Jonah is like a spoiled child that cannot abide the
vision of a parent showing tenderness and selfless love to a sibling.
B.
With
God’s Sovereignty – Though Jonah knew divine sovereignty quite well both from
the side of just vengeance and tender mercies, he
chafed under the sovereign display of God’s sending the message of repentance
to
C.
When
Jesus opened his ministry in
IV. Jonah Miscalculates
A.
The
character of Mercy
1. Its universal necessity – Does he
not really think that Jew, as well as Gentile, stands in need of mercy?
v Publican and Pharisee – Luke
18:9-17
v Lord’s Prayer – Matthew 6:9-15
v Parable of the workers – Matthew
20:1-15
2. That the display of mercy in the
end is about God and not about us
v punishment is the pure display of
holy wrath
v mercy and lovingkindness
combine holy wrath in providing a sacrifice and a propitiation, wisdom in the
perfect contrivance of a means to both merciful and just, and sovereign choice
of those that are to receive the blessings thus contrived (1 Peter 2:6-10)
B.
The
Infinite Superiority of Salvific blessing to those of
personal comfort
1.
Jonah
loved the growth and laments the demise of a plant “of a night”
2.
Covets
the destruction of a large city
3.
We
show the same misplaced value when we refuse difficult assignments or places
for the glory of God and the spread of the gospel.
V. Truth
extracted
A. The present certainty of judgment
is implicit within the Gospel and explicitly the reason for existence; The removal of threatened condemnation does
not render God “changeable” but is consistent with his changelessness; Mal. 3:6
v We are by nature children of
wrath
v He that believeth not is
condemned already
v He ordains that faith cometh by
hearing, cf. Romans 10
B.
Repentance
is not a whim but, arising from both fear and remorse, detailed and cognitively
organized: Hosea 14:1-4; Malachi 3:7-12;
16
C.
The
repentance of one generation does not guarantee the safety of the next; see
Nahum written app. 120 years later
D.
That
we have received mercy should make us, not restricted in compassion or
impatient with sinners, but free purveyors of the gospel and patient toward
all; cf. Titus 3:1-7
VI. Summary of Theological
Foundations in Jonah
A.
Its
typology –
1. Luke 11:29-32;
Matthew 12:39-42; 16:4 for Jonah as a type of Christ
2. The sacrifice
of Jonah for the sake of the ship and the sailors can be seen as a type of
Christ. This should not be pushed very far, for Jonah was not the just for the unjust, but shows clearly
that divine wrath must be propitiated
3. Again, the belly of the fish
becomes the haven of rest from the storm of God’s wrath. Like the ark to Noah and his family, so was
the great fish’s belly to Jonah.
B.
Doctrine
of God
1.
Activities
a.
creation
1:9
b.
providence
1:7
c.
revelation
1:1
d.
miraculous
intervention 1:17
e.
redemption
3
2.
Attributes
a.
Natural
v
Omnipotence
– 1:4, 14, 17; 4:6-8
v
Omniscience
– 1:2, 7; 2:2
v
Omnipresence
– 1:3, 4; 2:1
b.
Moral
v
Wrathful
– 1:4; 2:3; 3:4
v
Merciful
– 2:6; 3:9, 10; 4:2
v
Compassionate
– 4:2, 11
v
Governs
the world for moral purposes
v
Lovingkindness
3.
Sovereignty
a.
Nature
– 1:15 cf John 6:16-20; Mark 3:38-41; 6:51;
b.
man
– 2:3
c.
salvation
– 2:9