Jonah and God's Work

We live increasingly in a world that appears to be more and more as a roller coaster ride. From one week to the other, we don't know what's going to happen. And a lot of that has to do with the increase in technology. And if we go back 100 years from today, at that time, World War I had finished. And at that time, basically what happened in World War I affected basically the part of Europe and hardly any other place. Most people lived normal lives. And you didn't really have a roller coaster ride like you can today. We go to some 20 years later, 1939, and here World War II started. That was a grade up from World War I. Now it wasn't just Europe. This spread eventually to most of the known world. 1941, Pearl Harbor happened in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Can you imagine in World War I something like that? No. But now technology had increased to the point where now you had these huge aircraft carriers that could go anywhere in the world and launch ship after ship and they could invade, they could destroy basically whole fortresses and places that before man was very secure. Even then, you couldn't say the world's on a roller coaster ride. But what happened at the end of World War II? Well, we had the dropping of two atom bombs and that started a new technological race. And within five years, the Soviet Union, what today we call Russia, which is a smaller part of that, used to be a much bigger team of nations, but eventually Russia got it and China got it and England and France and several others. And so here we are with this technology that we just had a drone attack, which a lot of people don't really pay much attention, but this is a new level now where you had this concerted destruction of a whole area by robots, flying robots. And it's still so puzzling here a few days later that they don't know exactly how it happened and by whom. Well, now we are on a worldwide roller coaster ride because we don't know exactly who can be attacked and with what kind of weapons. Evil is increasing on every side. God is being pushed out of the picture more and more, got pushed out of the classrooms, and now it's becoming even in public places. You don't basically say anything about God if you don't want to get into trouble.

And from the news that we have gathered about what happened this week, we know Iran and Saudi Arabia are bitter enemies and they are backing different groups. They're in the Middle East, and so that's heating up more and more. So don't be surprised that there will be, in the next few days or weeks, an attack on Iran's oil refining facilities. Somebody's going to retaliate, pay back for what has happened.

Now, the point I want to get across is, you know, what can we do about it? What is our main role in this? We are to keep the faith, keep our prayer life up, and do God's work.

Jesus Christ, in Luke chapter 18, he told us a very important principle in Luke 18 verse 1. Because people can get discouraged. Some people eventually convince themselves that God isn't going to intervene. Things are going to continue on and on as they have. And so Christ said in Luke 18 verse 1, he had just talked about his coming in the previous verses, then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Because it's hard to be consistent, to not become discouraged. As another version of this verse says, it says, don't give up. And then in verse 7, Jesus says, and shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them. God knows when to act. Not going to do it ahead of time, but he hears our prayers. Verse 8, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? This term, faith, in the Greek is pistis, p-i-s-t-i-s, and the word study dictionary means firm persuasion, conviction, belief in the truth. And of course here, that includes about his coming, maintaining that faith. Don't let anything detour you, change your mind about it, because Christ says it's going to get tougher to maintain that spiritual life in the midst of a world that is rejecting God and his word more and more. And the Bible talks about a strange work that God is doing on the earth. In Isaiah 28, verse 11, Isaiah 28, verse 11, what God is doing and how he is bringing it about is certainly a strange work. Other translations have it, a peculiar work.

Isaiah 28, verse 11, I'll read it in the New King James, which is a little different, but it has the term. Let me see if I have it right here.

It's not the one I wanted here. Let's see. 11. No, that's, I think I got the scripture off. It's in this chapter, but it talks about the strange work. I looked it up here, but if anybody knows where that term, the strange work, verse 21, okay, missed it by writing one instead. Thank you. It says, for the Lord will rise up at Mount Perzim. He will be angry, as in the Valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his awesome work, and bring to pass his act, his unusual act. And so God has a way of doing things that doesn't make much sense to man. Here, he carries out his work, not with the great and the powerful and the mighty. He does it with humble people who are obedient to him. Basically, they're powerless as far as influence, and yet they yield to him to do his will, to get the work done. And I'd like to illustrate this, the remaining message that I have today, with a biblical example of this strange work and how God carried it out then, and how he's carrying it out today. It's the lesson of Jonah and how God operates, how he uses people that usually you wouldn't think he'd do so. He could do it in a lot better way, much more dedicated and as far as powerful, but he didn't. He used a man who had his ups and downs, and yet he got a great work done during the time of Jonah. So let's look first and get some background. In 2 Kings chapter 14, 2 Kings chapter 14 and verse 25, verse 26. Here it's talking about one of the kings of Israel, Jeroboam. In this case, this is Jeroboam II.

Verse 25. It says, He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the araba according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he had spoken through his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Heifer, which is a place close to Jerusalem, close to Bethlehem as well. It's closer to Bethlehem. And so we know a bit about the prophet Jonah when he lived because he lived during that time of Jeroboam. In this period of time, it was about 30 years, the mid period of his reign was around 800 BC.

At that time, the Assyrians were pressuring that whole area. Assyria was the big superpower of that time. They have King Jehu, who had to pay tribute to the Assyrian king. And then the next chapter here, 2 Kings 15, in verse 19, it says, Pool, king of Assyria, came against the land, and Minahim gave Pool a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to strengthen the kingdom under his control. So they're paying tribute. This Pool is a name that is attributed to the king Tiglath's police, or the third. At that time, the Assyrians were quite powerful. They controlled Babylon. And there was a superpower in the region. And of course, the Israelites were very afraid of the Assyrians, including Jonah. So here, let's go to the book of Jonah. With that background in mind, this is the story of his life as a prophet of God. And as you will see, there are some parallels with our days as well. Jonah chapter 1, verse 1, it says, Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. So we know this is the same one because he had the same father mentioned in 2 Kings 14.

And this was a period of time when the Assyrians were encroaching, getting closer to Israel. They had some ups and downs according to their different reigns of the kings, but they were the superpower, and they wanted to conquer that whole region. So they were getting closer and closer. Israel had to pay tribute. That's a kind of a big bribe not to get sacked and burned. And so they were paying off the king of Assyria not to invade them at that time.

But what did Jonah do? God called this man. He didn't call the high priest from Jerusalem. He didn't have all this school of priests and Levites and all these men that represented God. No, he called this solitary man to do his bidding, and he chose him to carry it out. And what did Jonah do? Verse 3, but Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he said, no, I'm not going to do it. And he took a ship and he went as far west as possible. A lot of the commentaries mentioned that Tarshish is a term for Tartissus, which was one of the last civilized cities over in Spain. So he wanted to get as far away as possible. That's why Jonah is called the reluctant prophet, because he really wasn't too enthusiastic about doing God's work at that time. He thought, I'm going to flee. I'm going to get so far that God's going to forget about me. But it says, verse 3, he went down to Japa and found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare and went down into it to go with him to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So again, God has a strange work. He has a peculiar way of doing things. He doesn't usually do it with a great, powerful corporation, organization, whatever. He has a way of getting things done on his own. And so he chose Jonah, and Jonah fled.

We find out why did Jonah do this? Why did he flee from God's presence? The answer is found in Jonah chapter 4, verse 2.

So talking about Jonah, he prayed to the Lord and said, Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country while I was there in Israel when God called him?

Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish, for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant and loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm.

And so this is a compliment he's saying, but he's saying it in a negative way. He says, God, you're so merciful. You're so patient with sinners. And I didn't want to take a message where these terrible Assyrians that are invading the land, they're causing havoc. And you want me to go there and say, God's going to punish you unless you repent. Because what if they repent? They don't get punished. I want to see them punished. If God would have told Jonah, Jonah, go there and you are going to be like Elijah, and you're just going to have this fire rain down on all those Assyrians. You're going to be the instrument of my wrath. Seems like Jonah said, fine, I'm heading out there as soon as I can. But he said, no, God's going to give them a chance to repent. And who knows, if they repent, they're not going to be destroyed. Like I would like that to happen. And so he explains why he fled. And so we have this book that gives us important lessons about doing God's work and how God carries it out. And so then, as you well know, there was a big storm that took place in Jonah chapter 1 and verse 15. Finally, the mariners had to throw them out of the boat. So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea. And the sea ceased from its raging. Immediately everything turned calm. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows. Changed their lives. Repent.

Verse 17, Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. What a place to meditate on wanting to flee God. Jonah was saying, bad idea.

And so we have basically Jonah's prayer in chapter 2.

And then at verse 7 of chapter 2, he says, When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. And my prayer went up to you into your holy temple. As we have said many times, sometimes the most effective prayers is when you are stuck in such a dilemma, you have nowhere else and no recourse to turn but to God. Some of those are the most fervent prayers when we really get ourselves into trouble. Well, Jonah knew he was into a lot of trouble here.

In verse 8, Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Some think that whales can't do that, but there is one type of whale, which is the sperm whale, that can just swallow seals, and it can swallow enormous amount of these sea animals. And a seal is not much different than a human being, and those sperm whales, they can just open up their mouths and swallow those. And so whatever kind of fish it was, it was doing God's will.

And then we get to chapter 3. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh. He didn't try to go to Tarshish again. Guess three days and three nights inside the fish was enough.

According to the word of the Lord, now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. He took about three days just to go around that whole city. By the way, Nineveh has been discovered by archaeologists, and actually it was three cities that were all joined together, sort of like here in Anaheim. We were part of Orange County, and Nineveh was kind of this extended metropolis, had Corsabad in it, and another city as well, and they were all part of this great complex.

Verse four, and Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Well, here's this lonely man, lonely man. He begins telling this huge metropolitan city, in a little over a month, in forty days, this will be destroyed. It's similar to what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah a couple hundred years before, and he was just saying, you're going to be destroyed. Well, Sodom and Gomorrah, they didn't repent, but guess what? Verse five, So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed the fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd or flock, taste anything, do not let them eat or drink water. Notice this was a total fast, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God. I wonder if this happened today. We'd have to cover our cars with sackcloth, because that's what they used all their animals to transport people. And cry mightily to God, Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish? Many times, and it's not explained here, why Jonah's impact was so great. Was it because he had been three days and somehow it had affected his body and all of the digestive juices? And what happens is that you become completely white. You lose all the hair of your body. You are just totally lost of color, skin color. We don't know, but whatever it was, it convinced them of it. And probably those that picked him up out of the shore saw what had happened. They were a witness. Just like this world can be made to be shocked into repentance one day.

Verse 10, then God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God relented from the disaster that he had said he would bring upon them. And he did not do it. So you see it shows here that God's prophecies are conditional, which means they are subject to being revised in case of repentance. And the evil that God would punish at that time and what would come upon that, God says no, because the person has changed their mind. They have not continued in the wrong way. They have turned from evil. They have turned to me. And so what was going to happen to them is not going to occur. And so then in chapter 4, what was Jonah's reaction? Was he happy that people repented? No, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly. And he became angry. And as we read here in verse 2, he became angry at God because God was willing to be merciful. And so then he starts wallowing in his own self-pity. Oh, woe is me! Look what has happened. I wanted them destroyed, and they got release from that. In verse 3 it says, Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. He went into a depression. Verse 5, So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. And so he said, well, who knows? Maybe they won't continue with their repentance, and God will punish them. And so he was hoping there would be a change of mind and that they would be destroyed. But God had a lesson for Jonah to learn. Verse 6, And the Lord prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shaded for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. All of a sudden a very fast-growing plant came and nice broad leaves, and he felt the coolness of the shade. But as morning dawned, the next day, God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened when the sun arose that God prepared a vehemant, which means very strong, east wind, and the sun beat on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself for a second time, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And then God teaches Jonah this final lesson.

God said to Jonah, Is it right for you to be angry about the plant? And he said, It is right for me to be angry, even to death. He had quite a strong temper there. But the Lord said, You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in the night and perished in the night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left? Talk about children, innocent children, and much livestock.

Do you want to see all the cows dead? Do you want to see all the livestock? What what guilt did the animals have? They were all going to perish.

And so here is the lesson about Jonah and God's work.

And what we learn is that there are two stages to God's work. The first stage is the stage where God shows mercy. It's a period of possible repentance.

Notice in Ezekiel 18, it shows God's loving character. In Ezekiel 18, verse 21, here again, it's revealed an important part of God's nature.

It says in Ezekiel 18, verse 21, it says, But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all my statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him, because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. And then God reveals this about his nature. Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?

Says the Lord God, and not that he should turn from his ways and live. See, God is love. He wants to do good. He doesn't like to see people suffer. He doesn't like punishment. That's something that is being pushed upon him because of the stubbornness of the person that doesn't turn from sin.

Continuing on in verse 29, He says, yet the house of Israel says the way of the Lord is not fair. O house of Israel, is it not my ways which are fair and your ways which are not fair? Because God looks at the heart. He sees repentance. He rewards forgiveness. And turning from evil, He says, therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel.

Everyone, according to his way, says the Lord God, repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. In other words, a different attitude. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore turn and live. That's why we understand this is the same God of the Old Testament, that in the New Testament brings out love and forgiveness, but He will carry out justice for those who stubbornly continue in the wrong way.

Another scripture in this regard, Isaiah 55 verse 6, Isaiah 55 verse 6. It says, Also, the sons of the foreigner who joined themselves to the Lord to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant, even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, Yet I will gather to him others beside those who are gathered to him. And let me go to chapters 55. Sorry about that, too. It's covering the same subject in verse 6. It says, Seek the Lord while he may be found.

Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. God says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

So God is talking about applying mercy and love where human beings don't do so. And God says, My standards are so much higher. I'm not a wrathful God that wants to see people suffer. It's totally opposite. In 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 20, 1 Peter 3 verse 20, we see again God's patience, even when people have corrupted their ways beyond any rational level.

1 Peter 3 verse 20, it says here about during the time of Noah, he says about spirits involved, the demons in those days who formerly were disobedient. He says, When once the divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water.

So it shows us that during that period of time, God was hoping people would repent. While that ark was being built, people could have known that was a work of God that was being carried out. They could have repented. And it says, when the divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah. So again, it wasn't some rash decision that God made. It was when he had no other recourse, no other option that he had to take that extreme punishment.

into account. In 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 9, again talking about God's merciful nature. 2 Peter 3 verse 9, it says, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but his long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That's what God wants. That's why he works with people. He never gives up. People can give up on him. He doesn't give up. He always has that hope.

People will turn their lives around. And so we have this period of time where God extends his mercy, his patience, sends out his prophets, sends out his word to the world. And it's a time of evaluation. The world is being evaluated today. God is seeing how many are willing to repent and change. But then there will come a time when God will act, when wickedness reaches a certain threshold, when the warning message is repeatedly rejected and not heeded. In Daniel chapter 8 verse 23, it does tell us here when God is going to act in the end time.

Daniel chapter 8 and verse 23, it says, And in the latter times of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fears, gestures, or features. And of course, this is talking about eventually the beast and the false prophet that will arise at that time. But it says when the transgressors have reached their fullness.

And in the good news Bible version, it says, When the end of those kingdoms is near, and they have become so wicked that they must be punished, there will be a stubborn, vicious, and deceitful king.

And we know that's what's going to happen in the future, but it hasn't happened yet. We're still having that period of mercy. God is still extending his long suffering upon this world. Just like we have the book of Jonah, where we see the repentance of a gentile nation, we also have another book of a prophet, which lived a little over 100 years later. The prophet Nahum, who prophesied the punishment of Nineveh. And this time around, they didn't repent, and they were punished. So let's look real quickly in the book of Nahum, which is a companion to the book of Jonah.

Let's go to Nahum chapter 1 verse 1.

Verse 1, it says, The burden against Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum, the exoshite. Verse 2, God is jealous, and the Lord avenges, the Lord avenges, and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserves wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. When the wicked do not turn from their ways, God is not going to tolerate them forever. In verse 13 of this first chapter, it says, For now I will break off his yoke from you, and burst your bonds apart. The Lord has given a command concerning you, talking about Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Your name shall be perpetuated no longer. Out of the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the molded image. I will dig your grave, for you are vile. Behold on the mountains, the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace. O Judah, keep your appointed feast. Perform your vows, for the wicked one shall no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off. And then in chapter 3 verse 7, it says, It shall come to pass, that all will look upon you, will flee from you, and say, Nineveh is laid waste. Who will bemoan her? Where shall I seek comforters for you? And so Nineveh was destroyed in the year 612. Before Christ, it was completely destroyed. Again, archaeologists have been able to go through that huge city that was completely destroyed. It was never rebuilt again. And so God gave the Ninevites a reprieve. He gave them time. But in the end, they went back to their old ways. And eventually, they received the just punishment. And so we see that in the second stage, and by the way, there's a first stage in our life, and there's a second stage where we can finally reach a point where God has to intervene, because we're not paying attention to Him and the signals that He's giving us. And so He intervenes. And like a loving Father, He has to punish us.

So today, we're in the period, again, of preaching the gospel to the world with hope, with persistence, and we're carrying out what Matthew 24, verse 14 says. It's a prophecy that Christ gave about the end times. Matthew chapter 24, when they asked Him about the signs of His coming, and one of those signs would be described in verse 14. In this gospel of the kingdom, talking about, of the kingdom of God that is coming to this earth will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come, the second stage, in the sense that God's going to intervene in world affairs. And once He gets started with this, He says this like a pregnant woman having birth pangs. There's no stopping it. She's going to eventually have that baby, and it says that there will be a time when God will intervene to change world conditions.

So the gospel of the kingdom of God is very good news, but there will be difficult times before Christ returns. We have to continually be talking about that, and in every way, teaching the world. God is alive on His throne. He's evaluating the earth, and just like in Nineveh, He's out there and He's teaching the truths for people to wake up while there is still time, because when He comes and intervenes, then it's going to be too late. There was a time when it was too late for Nineveh, and they received their just punishment. In Revelation chapter 10, we have the description of that coming time, that second stage. Revelation chapter 10 verse 5, it says, So there's a time. We don't know when that's going to come, but when it does, there will be no more delay of the coming of kingdom of God and those birth pangs that are previous to that.

In Revelation 11, the next chapter over, in verse 18, it says, See, this is the second stage.

God's watching if you were in charge of the earth, if it was your home, and you see all of the people wrecking it, destroying it, doing more and more sinful things. Don't you think there's time when you just say enough? I need to protect the earth. I need to protect those innocent ones who are suffering right now.

And so we can see there are four lessons about this reluctant prophet called Jonah. And there are some things that we shouldn't do, as Jonah did. First, understand the stage we are presently in. There is still a time for the world to repent, a time to get the gospel out, and to prepare a people for God. The second, don't be happy to see God's punishment, as Jonah was happy to see.

It's hard sometimes when you see evil being done. You'd like God to come and just punish him immediately. But we should be saddened by the situation that has produced the sin, be thankful that we're not part of it, and pray for the repentance of those involved. The third lesson, the time will come when God's intervention cannot be turned back.

And we should be glad we have remained faithful and kept doing God's work while there's still time. And the last lesson, do the work of Jonah at this present time. God knows when to punish. That's for God to decide. Right now we have a work to do. We have a gospel to get out. We have a people to prepare, be fully involved, as that sermonette from the Chilean deacon mentioned. Put on that jersey for God. Be happy to be in this church. Be thankful and so appreciative. None of us deserve to be part of this church, but we should be so thankful. So let's have full commitment. Jonah was supposed to give the Ninevites a chance to repent. That was God's work then. And today, some will do it, just as we repented at one time. At one moment, we were like the Ninevites. God gave us an understanding, and we repented, and we changed, turned our lives around. God's timing, remember, is always right and always perfect.

The world is headed the wrong way right now. God has this strange work of people that are powerless, a tiny group that is getting out the gospel, what we would call the Church of God community that is getting it out. We are part of that. And certainly, he could have done it with much better people, with much more powerful resources. But God, just like he chose Jonah, he didn't choose the whole leadership of Judah at that time over there in the temple. And he had a lot of people involved. He could have had a whole delegation with the king and the high priest of Israel. Go before the king of the Assyrians. But no, he brought a man, very flesh and bone, and he chose Jonah to carry out his work. Why he's doing it this way, why he's choosing us, that's something God knows. But we have to get our job done, just like Jonah finally did.

The world is headed, as I mentioned, the wrong direction. They need to heed the prophecies of what is coming. And we are doing a work like Jonah did then. We're doing it today. Let's be faithful.