Jonah 1 (WEB)
Dr. House explains why God sent Jonah to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria: Israel was placed at the crossroads of three continents to be a light to the Gentiles, and Jonah sailed the opposite way. He sets Jonah's refusal beside Peter's vision at Joppa and the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10.
Jonah had a command, did he not?
And his command was to function like God had intended Israel to be all the time.
Why did God take this little group of people and put them here in this little strait of land between Asia, Europe, and Africa?
You have three continents that meet at this little place.
All places to be, you're in the way.
Well, you are in the way.
God intended the Jews to be in the way.
He deliberately brought Abraham to this little strip of land that all the armies had to go through.
All the traders had to go through.
He put them here to be in the way, so that he could be a light to the Gentiles, to the people of Israel.
They had a calling.
They just never usually realized that calling.
And we may fault them as much as we do, forgetting that we also have a calling.
And when we find other people in the way, do we do any better than the Jews did with the Gentiles in our proclamation?
Sit on planes and buses and classes where people all the time.
And we sometimes forget we are deliberately put in the way, the place we are to be missionaries for the Lord.
It's not some foreign field, it's where you are.
And so God put these Jews here so that they could be a light to the Gentiles.
Well, they failed in that so many ways over the years.
But God had a plan for Assyria.
Assyria was not a nice group of people.
They make Al-Qaeda look nice.
The Assyrians did some devastating things to prisoners — mean, nasty people.
People hated the Assyrians.
God told Jonah, hey, listen, go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.
I got a message for them, that they can be saved.
Jonah said, not a chance — opposite direction.
Assyria is a little northeast here.
I'm heading directly west from Yaffa.
Joppa.
The mission of God to the Gentiles.
Years later, a man by the name of Peter had a vision from God.
And he obeyed — according to chapter 11 of Acts, he said, I obeyed that heavenly message.
Because God said, what I have called clean, you're not to call unclean.
Don't you be the one to decide what's right and wrong.
Let God be the decider.
And so he said, call for this man.
He's waiting to hear this message.
So obviously, I got that backwards there.
The point is, Cornelius had also a situation where he had a visitation, not a dream.
He had a visit from an angel.
Now, Cornelius was not a saved man.
He was not regenerated.
He sounds that way.
He gave alms to the poor.
He attended synagogue as a proselyte.
He was a Roman from the Latin Legion.
He wasn't just any Roman.
He was a centurion, one of the top guys in the Roman army, connected with Rome, Italy, Latin Legion.
And he gave alms.
He prayed three times a day.
He did things probably better than you do in those respects.
Some of you, I'm sure, thank God.
And yet he was not a believer in Jesus.
He was not a saved man.
Because when Peter came in Acts 10, it says, I came in order that you and your house might be saved.
They weren't.
And so we have almost the opposite.
Here God had intended the message to the Gentiles from Jonah, and rejected that message, to find that God made him.
And then we have also another call of God to Gentiles, where the question is, can a person be a Gentile and be a believer in Jesus?
So many of the Christian Jews at that time said, no, you've got to become Jewish.
Yeah, right?
And then God demonstrated, no, you can still be a Gentile and be a believer.
Our issue today is whether you can be Jewish and be a believer.
You've got the opposite problem, where you've got Gentiles trying to make Jews to be Gentiles.
And in those days, you had Jewish trying to make Gentiles to be Jews — the opposite problem.
But here, just south of us, is Joppa, where God has continually, sort of in a microcosm, tried to do what he did in the whole nation of Israel:
that is, be a light to people regarding the salvation.
So this is a wonderful place to be.
You're going to find more when you get over to the place where Paul's judgment seat is.
1Now Yahweh’s word came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”
3But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
4But Yahweh sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up. 5Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship and he was laying down, and was fast asleep. 6So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will notice us, so that we won’t perish.”
7They all said to each other, “Come! Let’s cast lots, that we may know who is responsible for this evil that is on us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8Then they asked him, “Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you?”
9He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.”
10Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Yahweh, because he had told them. 11Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us?” For the sea grew more and more stormy.
12He said to them, “Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great storm is on you.”
13Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. 14Therefore they cried to Yahweh, and said, “We beg you, Yahweh, we beg you, don’t let us die for this man’s life, and don’t lay on us innocent blood; for you, Yahweh, have done as it pleased you.” 15So they took up Jonah and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging. 16Then the men feared Yahweh exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh and made vows.
17Yahweh prepared a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.