The Fundamentals of the Christian Faith - Part 5
Salvation and the lesson from Jonah

(Sermon Notes)
By William R. Cunningham
June 1, 2003

CHARACTERS

Jonah the Prophet

• The name "Jonah" means "Dove."� Jonah was the son of Amittai.
• Jonah is from Gath-hepher near Nazareth, which makes him a prophet in the Galilean area.
• He prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam.
• Jonah was not remembered for prophesying in the Galilean area.� In John 7:52, the Pharisees forgot about Jonah being from the Galilean area.

Israel during the time of Jonah

• Peaceful
• Prosperous
• Syria and Assyria were weak and not a threat to Israel
• Israel was spiritual deficient because of all of the wealth
• Religion was ritualistic and increasingly idolatrous
• Justice was corrupt
• Israel was spiritually, morally, and ethically deficient because of the "good times."� See 2 Kings 14:23-25, Amos 4:1,5:10-13

The Book of Jonah

• The book of Jonah was written in the eighth Century B.C., probably around 760 BC
• All indications point to Jonah as the author
• The book of Jonah gives credibility to the Scriptures since the story is contrary what someone would have written about himself.� A hero would have been displayed as being honorable whereas Jonah is portrayed as running from God and ending up in a pitiful situation.

Nineveh

• The capitol of Assyria
• Founded by Nimrod (Genesis 10:11), who was the great grandson of Noah.
• It was a very large city in the ancient world
• It was destroyed about 150 years later after Jonah's visit (612 B.C.)
• Israel had a political distaste for Nineveh (Assyria).
• The Israelites believed that they were spiritually superior than the Assyrians and tended to think lowly of them.
• There was a struggle between Assyria and Babylonia for power.
• A.H. Rassam discovered Nineveh in 1845-1854 and he began excavating it.
• Some thought that Nineveh really didn't exist until this discovery
• It was found that the site was occupied since before 3100 BC
• The great palace of the Assyrian King, Sargon was uncovered
• Proved the existence of Sargon, which was referenced in Isaiah 20:1.
• This is one incident that shows that the Bible is not discredited just because something it references is not known or found.
• Nineveh was surrounded by a circuit wall about eight miles long
• Population up to 120,000
• The walls around the city as about 40 to 40 feet high at one time
• The city wall had 15 gates, five of which were excavated
• Contained a library

Assyria

• Defeated the Israelite Northern Kingdom in 722 BC
• Deported about 27,000 Israelites to other parts of the country.� Syrian and Babylonian captives then populated Jerusalem.
• Conquered Babylonia in 1300 BC
• Very cruel and merciless army.� They would burn cities, impale people, burn children, etc.

Chapter One

Verse 1

"Word of the Lord" - The word "word" was used to describe the agent of creation.� Here it seems to refer to the message from God to Jonah.

Verse 2-3

• Jonah was to go preach judgment to Nineveh (note there was no condition to the judgment)
• Jonah instead tried to run away from what God called him to do and he took a ship to Tarshish, which was west of the Mediterranean Sea.� Nineveh was in the opposite direction
• Jonah took a ship from Joppa to head to Tarshish.� Joppa was approximately 40 miles NW of Jerusalem at the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (It's called Jaffa today).

Verse 4

God sent a mighty wind that was strong enough to destroy the ship.� The word "sent" actually meant that God hurled the wind at the ship.

Verses 5-8

• Everyone was afraid and began to call on their God.
• The mariners figured that a god was angry and was causing the tempest on the sea.
• The mariners wanted to determine the cause of the calamity and they were not necessarily calling on their gods for mercy.
• They cast lots to determine who would be first to provide information about themselves in hopes of determining what would appease their God
• Lots were used as a way of making decisions.� It was believed that God controlled the outcome of lots.� However, for the most part it was used as a type of lottery.
• See Acts 1:26, Proverbs 16:33, Leviticus 16:8-10, Joshua chapters 14-21, Numbers 26:55, 33:54, 34:13, 36:2, 1 Chronicles 24:5, 31, 25:8-9, 26:13-14.
• The casting of lots gradually faded as more direct access became available to God's people via the Holy Spirit.
• The mariners question Jonah as the lot fell on him

Verse 9

• Hebrew is the name that the Israelites used among Gentiles
• Jonah might have been evangelizing the pagans with, "God of heaven, who made the sea and dry land."
• It might have appeared to the mariners at that point that Jonah's god was causing the wind

Verse 10

• The mariners became more afraid.� They asked in horror, "Why have you done this?"� They already knew that Jonah had disobeyed his God and ran away since Jonah had previously told them.� They probably figured that that was between Jonah and God at that time.
• Running from God could also mean to flee his call or assignment.

Verse 11-13

• "What shall we do to calm the sea?"� What would it take to appease your God, Jonah?� Pagan God's were sometimes fickle and required strange appeasement at times.� So they wanted to know what it would take to please Jonah's God.
• Jonah told the mariners to throw him overboard and the winds would calm down.� Jonah realizes that he was the cause of the calamity and appears to have desired to save the mariners from harm.
• They tried to row back to land.� Ships during this time stayed close to the land.

Verse 14-16

• The mariners prayed to God (as if to a pagan god) that he would not bring wrath on them for sacrificing Jonah (throwing him overboard)
• The wind calmed down after throwing Jonah overboard and then the men took vows (made promises), feared the Lord, and offered sacrifices because of their experiences with Jonah's God.

Verse 17

• God prepared (appointed) a big fish to rescue Jonah.� The Hebrew word for whale was not used here.
• Jonah was in the fish for three days and three nights.� It appears that he thought he would die in the fish

Chapter 2

• Jonah offers up a prayer of repentance and deliverance.
• God caused the fish to vomit Jonah onto land.� Jonah was probably in bad shape since it the Bible gives no indication that the fish gave Jonah a ride back to Nineveh, which it couldn't since there were no waterway from the Mediterranean Sea to Nineveh.� Only the Tigris River flowed past Nineveh.

Chapter 3

Verses 1-9

• God repeated his command to Jonah (reminds me of Moses and the 10 commandments Exodus 32:19 along with 34:1)
• Note that we do not know the time frame between the fish incident and the second calling.
• Jonah preached judgment to Nineveh and they repented of their wickedness.
• Sackcloth and ashes
• A sackcloth was a rough coarse cloth or baglike garment.� It was worn to express mourning or repentance.
• The Israelites showed their grief by wearing sackcloth
• Ashes symbolized mourning, dejection (Job 2:8) and repentance (Job 42:6)
• The King of Nineveh proclaims repentance

Verse 10

• God saw their repentance and relented from the disaster that He was going to do to Nineveh.
• Relent: sigh (breathe hard), sorry (in a positive sense), pity.
• Hebrews did not think highly of gentiles and Jonah was an instance of that
• Jonah did not like the fact that God was merciful to the gentiles.
• See Acts 10:9-16 where God corrected the Apostle Peter of such a disposition.

Chapter 4

Verses 1-4

• Jonah became angry that God saved Nineveh
• Jonah complained to God about saving Nineveh
• Jonah was so upset that he asked to die.� This could have been a type of euphemism.
• God asked, "What right do you have to be angry?"

Verses 5

• Jonah stayed outside of the city to see what would happen to it.
• God caused a plant to grow to shade Jonah from the hot sun.� The plant grew overnight.
• God then caused a worm to destroy the plant and thus, Jonah's shade from the hot sun.� After that God sent a mighty wind on Jonah.
• Jonah wanted to die because of the heat and wind.
• Jonah didn't even have a right to get angry or upset about the plant that withered.� He had nothing to do with the plant.� However, God could do whatever he wanted to do.
• God had mercy on Nineveh because he wanted to and Jonah had no right to be upset about it.� He should have obeyed the Lord and move on.

Lessons Learned

• God calls us to do whatever He purposes and we should simply obey.
• We might think that someone might not deserve God's love or God's mercy.� We might think that certain people do not deserve our love, mercy, compassion, or benevolence.� However, God commanded us to love so we should exude the love of God onto others.� God has mercy on all and we should have mercy.� God is a forgiving God and we should be a forgiving people.
• We ought not look at the drunkard, or "a brother from the hood" and say that they are scums of the earth and destined for hell.� We should not prejudge or otherwise judge anyone.� Our task is simply to obey God and we learned from past lessons in this series that God calls all to salvation. �Therefore, if nothing else, all are called by the love of God.� God does not ostracize anyone and we should not as well.
• It is important for the Children of God and especially his servants to do what God says.� We are not immune from the wrath of God.� Even the great Moses was disciplined by God and punished by God.� When God says to do something then we ought to do it.
• We should not have the disposition that because we are saved that we are somehow better than others.� The Bible declares that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).� We might have escaped death but we are still nothing without Christ just like those who are not saved yet.�
• We cannot run from God's call and even if we did then God's purpose still would be manifest.� We cannot stop the plan of God.
• Our disobedience could put others in harm's way as in the case with Jonah and the mariners on the ship.� The best course of action is simply to do what God says.
• Salvation is not a social club that you become a member of.� Salvation is a state of being where we have been born again and have taken on eternal life.� Salvation doesn't mean that you go to church, pay your tithes, do what the preacher says and when you die you will go to heaven.� Salvation is a state that God has provided for you in order for you to be with Him.� The mercy that God had on us should be extended to others.
• We have no right to challenge God when He says or does something.� God is sovereign and we are His servants.� At best we are his creation and have no authority over the almighty God.� We should be eternally thankful for the fact that he has provided salvation to us.� We should be eternally thankful and grateful that God still desires to save the human race.� You didn't deserve His salvation just as you might think someone else doesn't.� Therefore, by right and according to God's will, all should have it.
• God won't leave us just because we are rebellious.

The fundamental principle that we gain from Jonah is that God loves all people and He pursues the salvation of the lost. We therefore should not think that salvation is for a select few "good people" or "chosen people" and damnation is for the "heathen people" or the "bad people." God loves the lost person, whom He sent Christ to save, just as He loves you now that you are saved. Salvation does not put us in a place where we are better than anyone else. If anything, the main difference between us and the unsaved is that we are liberated and we have the life of God. So be consistent with your love. Don't condemn people because they appear to be unworthy of God's love or in a state where it is impossible for them to receive such love. We are all unworthy of God's love, which is why we should give thanks for God's grace to save us.

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