1/25/26 Jonah 3:1-10 “But I Don’t Like Them!”

10 Jan 1/25/26 Jonah 3:1-10 “But I Don’t Like Them!”

1/25/26  Jonah 3:1-10         “But I Don’t Like Them!”

I don’t know if you have ever noticed that I’m sort of a ‘the glass is half full’ type of guy.  Actually, because of the work that Jesus has done in my life and in your lives, I might even say the glass is ¾ full.  One time I was talking with some people who were discussing how atheists behave at events like funerals.  Before I begin, I would like to say that if you want to be an atheist, then that is ok by me.  Just know that your system of belief is totally wrong.  Others and I have seen the total despair at funerals by atheists.  When you only believe in yourself, then you have no hope and that is what atheists have; no hope.  They don’t believe in anything so they end up trying to make everyone miserable.  I’ve told you before about the newscast I watched a few years ago where there were hundreds of atheists marching in celebration of something.  It was supposed to be a happy time and there was not one smile in that whole group of people.  How sad!  We weren’t made to be like this.  We were made to have joy and lots of it.  Yes, there are times when we get sad or unhappy but it is not a continuous state and we should praise the Lord for that.  In today’s reading we are looking at part of the story of Jonah.  Today, we are going to look at a city that was darkened, blackened by the work of Satan.  Let’s see who comes out on top of this story.

I would like you to use your wildest imagination as you imagine that I’m driving our car with Sharon and I get lost in a city.  But the good news of this is that Sharon is not lost.  She tells me to make the next right turn.  So, in my lost confused state, I turn left.  Suddenly I realize my mistake and I apologize profusely to my wife who was right as she usually is.  I apologize and I keep on driving the wrong direction.  Do you notice anything wrong with this line of reasoning?  If I keep driving the wrong way, I will just go farther and farther from where I want to be.  In order for this apology to mean anything, I have to turn around and go in the right direction.  It is the same way when we come to Jesus.  We have to repent and turnaround from the way our lives were going.  And every time we confess after we become a Christian, we have to turn back to the right road or we will end up in places we don’t want to be.  Who knows, we could end up with a group of people who never smile and have no joy!

Before we begin in chapter 3 today, I would like to refresh you on what has happened so far.  This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible.  It is so unbelievable and yet so like us.  It starts off with God telling Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach to them.  They were so wicked that God is sending someone special to help them out.

The first problem of this story is that Jonah doesn’t particularly like the people of Nineveh.  As a matter of fact, he hates them so much that he takes off on a ship in the opposite direction.  Remember last week when we talked about how if God has a project for you to do, He will make certain that you do it even if you hate the Ninevites.  So, Jonah is on this ship which would be just a larger boat now days.

The boat runs into a terrible storm which came from God.  Sailors in those days were so superstitious that they believed that storms like this were caused by someone doing something wrong and wouldn’t you know it, they were right this time.  Anyway, they decide that it is Jonah’s fault that they are in this storm.  It may capsize their boat and they will all die.  So, they decide to throw Jonah overboard to save their lives and the storm immediately calms.

But this is just the beginning of the story for Jonah as a huge fish then swallows him.  He remains in the belly of this fish for 3 days and 3 nights.  I wonder if this is a vague reference to Jesus being dead for 3 days because Jonah should have been dead.  Then the great fish spit him up on shore.  At least the fish was nice enough to put him on shore instead of the middle of the sea.  This is the first and the most obvious miracle of this story.  Of course, the experts think that this couldn’t have happen but I did read that in the 1890’s a whale swallowed a man and he was alive 2 days later when he escaped.  So much for experts but I will get back to that.

During the time that Jonah was in the fish, he prayed.  Chapter 2 contains part of this prayer.  I would guess that he was probably praying continuously inside that great fish.  I mean, wouldn’t you?  If you had disobeyed a direct command from the Lord Himself and you had ended up inside a fish, you would be praying for all your worth.  And that is what Jonah did.  Jonah feels life slipping away and he vows his allegiance to God.  Things like this happen often when people approach death.  He doesn’t promise to do what he has been told but rather that he will be faithful.

Now Jonah has just been spit up on shore.  I don’t know about you but I would think that he would have been a terrible mess at this point.  Jonah had probably been at the very lowest point in his life when he was inside that fish.  But now he is on shore and alive.

What would you do if you had just been brought back from a death sentence?  I’m sure that some of you listening have had this happen in some form.  How did you feel when you knew that you had postponed death?  Were you grateful to God or were you just thankful for doctors or whatever?  God brings us to these places so that we can see His finest work.  It is ok to be thankful for doctors or whatever but we have to be eternally grateful and thankful that God put these people in place.

If this has ever happened to you, I hope that you came back with a renewed vigor towards Jesus Christ.  This is the point where God brings many atheists and non-believers.  Many people, including myself, have been brought to their knees before they have found out that the only answer, the only way out is through Jesus Christ.  This is kind of what happened to Jonah.  He had been a major backslider and now God got his attention.  He would now follow God in whatever He said.

So now God speaks to Jonah again now that He has his attention.  God says, “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I gave you.”  God has not given up on Jonah.  So, Jonah gets up and does what he was supposed to in the first place.  Please note here that it doesn’t tell us that Jonah still hates the people of Nineveh.  That comes later and we will talk about it next week.  Jonah tells them that the city has 40 more days to exist.  Then all will be lost unless they repent.

Now this is no small task.  Nineveh is larger than Fargo and it takes 3 days to visit.  We don’t know how Jonah spread the Word but he must have been one of the first great evangelists of the Bible.  The whole city will repent as a result of Jonah doing what he was made to do.  Jonah is now obedient.

I love preaching these Old Testament stories because they are stressing the same thing that Jesus was calling for in the New Testament.  Here we are called once again to be obedient.  The moral of this story is much more than if you aren’t obedient to God, you will get swallowed by a great fish.  However, I think that something close to this can and will happen.

We live in a world, a country, that doesn’t believe in Jesus and the Bible.  I say this because we have so many people and denominations that are trying to define Jesus in their own way so that they can be in tune and politically correct.  Unfortunately, I don’t know if there is a lot we can do about much of this.  However, Jesus doesn’t want us to give up or go in the other direction.  If we do, then we will be swallowed up by the evil one and our eternal lives may be horrendous.

I remember a few years ago, I was called to put on an evangelistic revival type meeting.  I have never done this before.  I didn’t know what I was doing.  But I’m was going to be obedient because Jesus has told me to do this.  Also, there might be one person who will benefit from this by getting to know Jesus in a personal way.  I have already been swallowed by the great whale and spit up on shore.  I don’t want that to happen again.

So far, I have given you some pretty generic information but now I’m going to get a little nasty.  I’m going to turn up the heat a little and ask, “What is it that God calling you to do?”  Or maybe you have already disobeyed God’s directive to you.  Maybe you have already been swallowed.  This is one place where I cannot help you.  I think that most of you know the voice of God and I think that there are some who have not heeded it.  Some of you may be Christians who have not heeded and you find your lives going nowhere.  This is a simple cause and effect.  Whatever it is that God is calling you to do, go and do it.  There are people depending on you doing God’s work.  Their eternity may depend on you.  I want you to think this in the coming week.  What have you put off doing for God because whatever lame reason you have?  With the help of Jesus, you can do anything He requires.  Notice I said requires instead of asks.

As I mentioned earlier, Jonah must have been about the greatest evangelist ever because this whole city of around 200,000 repented.  These people believed in God and they all repented.  It tells us from the greatest, who was the king, to the least.  They all put on sack cloth.  How would you like to be owning the sack cloth store when this happened?  Anyway, this is the miracle of this passage.  Jonah may have thought it was his surviving the fish but this is the real miracle.  You see, God can do anything.

This is where we are sitting in this country.  We are so anti-God that it almost makes me doubt.  How in the world is God going to get in touch with everyone when we have all these goofy atheists and naysayers who are against God at every step?  But you know what?  It isn’t up to me.  It is up to God and I praise the Lord for it.  I don’t know how He is going to do it but I know that He will.  All I can do is keep preaching the Bible and Jesus Christ here.  I’m going to need some help here so if God calls you, please answer.

The last verse of this reading is very important.  Please remember that Nineveh was an evil city.  Everything they did was against the ways of God.  God was ready to serve them up the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah.  You see, we have a God of many chances.  They had many chances to change their ways but they had not heeded the warnings.  We have a God of many chances and not infinite chances.  There will be a time for everyone to pay the piper for their bad deeds.  However, God sees that the whole city had repented!  Therefore, the people averted disaster when they all repented.  By the way, later they would fall back into their old ways and God does eventually destroy Nineveh.

Anyway, this has to give us hope on a couple of levels.  The first is that our country may not be destroyed if we can gather everyone to repent and turn from their ways.  We need to follow the righteous into revival.  Only revival will turn this country around.  Democrats can’t do it.  Republicans can’t do it.  Our armed forces can’t do it.  But praise the Lord, He can do it.  If you are going to hitch your wagon to anything, let it be God.

And of course, the second way this is that Jesus loves each and every person here and everywhere on an individual basis, no matter what you do or what you look like.  There is a story about a couple who were flying someplace and it was announced that the flight was overbooked.  Don’t you hate when that happens.  Anyway, they were called to the boarding station and offered a place in first class at no extra charge.  So, they sat down to enjoy an elegant flight of the best food, beverages and service that airlines offer.  They decided that they would play a game.  They would watch people and try to pick out those that didn’t belong in 1^st class.  There was one man who stuck out like a sore thumb.  He had his shoes off and he was wandering all over the cabin talking on the phone.  He would sneeze so loud that it almost triggered the oxygen mask.  When he finally sat to eat, he tucked the napkin into his collar and ate.  Obviously, he didn’t belong in 1^st class.

A story like this makes me wonder if maybe we don’t do that to people who come to church.  I know of a church in the Fargo area where they talk about reaching out to the homeless but heaven forbid if one should ever show up for worship.  Many churches think they are welcoming but they are just the opposite.  We all show some sort of evidence that we live in Nineveh.  Search your heart and you know you will find that you may not be the perfectly good Christian that you might think you are.  But never fear for Jesus will show up for you also.

Jesus doesn’t like it when we judge others but we can be forgiven.  All we have to do is ask.  All we have to do is keep repenting.  Keep bringing your sins to Jesus on a daily basis.  Nineveh turned from its ways and began to prosper under God.  You can do the same thing.  The only thing you have to worry about when a stranger enters your midst is that you treat him or her as Jesus would do.  When you do this simple act, Jesus will be smiling on you.

You see, this has never been about you.  It is about the people around you.  Welcome all you meet with the love of Jesus and leave the rest to God.  That is your job and it is very simple.  Jesus loves you more than you can imagine.  Take this love and pass it on to all you meet.  You will see a difference in your life.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.