Jonah 1: Everything Is Under Control.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 06 May 2012.By Captain Michael Ramsay and Alberni Valley Ministries 22 October 2023. 

 

This is the 2023 Version presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, to view the longer original version, presented to Swift Current in 2012, please click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/05/jonah-11-33-everything-is-under-control.html

  

Susan has been looking at the prophet Ezekiel a lot lately. Today we are going to take a bit of a break and look at the prophet Jonah and think about God’s sovereignty.[1] (cf. TSA docs 6&7). Jonah 1:1-3:

The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

 

Picture this: God has told His prophet Jonah to go and do something. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh but Jonah – to get away – runs to the sea and gets on a boat. Nineveh is landlocked. That is like if we are living here and God tells us to go to Saskatchewan and we jump on a boat to Japan instead. This isn’t just saying, ‘we’re not going to go’. This is running in the opposite direction! Look at the map here, we will notice that Jonah runs to the sea and hops on a ship to get as far away from Nineveh as he possibly can.[2]

 

God is good though. He still has everything under control. Jonah isn’t more powerful than God. He can’t thwart God’s salvation (cf. TSA doc. 6). Verses 4-7:

Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

 

Jonah hops on the boat and he falls asleep. Has everyone here been out on the open ocean? Even if you don’t get caught in a storm, it can be really something. And in all likelihood Jonah had never been on a sea-going vessel before.[4] And the seas are so bad now in our text that even the experienced crew is afraid. They are scared for their lives! Jonah isn’t. Jonah is sleeping! Jonah is beneath deck. Jonah isn’t helping at all! And this is an ‘all hands on deck’ situation. Everyone is working and everyone is praying – most of these people would probably be praying to the Phoenician gods but if any of the crew is from elsewhere they would be calling on their gods too.[5] You’ve heard the expression, ‘no one is an atheist in a foxhole’ – this may not be true but this is certainly one of those 'foxhole' type situations. Everyone is praying. Everyone is working, everyone… except Jonah. The Captain himself comes and finds Jonah and says, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” Presumably Jonah does do this but maybe he doesn’t. Either way God is good. He still has everything under control. Jonah isn’t more powerful than God. He can’t thwart God’s salvation here.

 

The people pray to their gods and cast sacred lots to figure out why all of this is happening: whose fault is it? And the lot names Jonah. God reveals to everyone present who and what the problem is. God is good. He still has everything under control. Jonah isn’t more powerful than God. He can’t thwart God’s salvation. The people on this boat, however, are quite afraid. Verse 8-11:

So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”

He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

      This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.) The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

 

These people are worried. God has revealed to them and Jonah has confirmed to them that he is to blame because he is blatantly defying God. Jonah has told them that he is intentionally doing the opposite of what God has told him to do. Even though Jonah knows God, even though Jonah has served God, even though Jonah has worked for LORD as a prophet, God gives him this assignment and Jonah says in effect, “No, I quit!” Can you imagine?

 

Can you imagine if you are a new non-unionized worker and your boss gives you an important task to do and you just say, “No thanks I think I’ll take my holidays instead”? Can you imagine if you are a courier and your boss gives you this package and says, “You need to get this package to Victoria in 3 hours or everyone will die”? Can you imagine then if instead of driving to Victoria you hop on the next bus to Tofino instead? This is in essence what Jonah is doing.

 

God is good though. He still has everything under control. Jonah isn’t more powerful than God. He can’t thwart God’s salvation but this is what Jonah is attempting here. He doesn’t want any part of pointing the Ninevites to salvation. The boat -and all of the people on it- is being tossed around in the storm and people are franticly praying and working to keep it afloat. They are terrified. They ask of Jonah, “What have you done?” The sea is getting rougher and rougher. They ask him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” They are terrified but that doesn’t stop Jonah from trying to quit his job, from trying to shirk his responsibilities, from trying to avoid at all costs his God-given mission. Verses 12-15a:

“Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 

Then they cried to the LORD, “O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased.”  Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard…

 

Now there are a couple of things worth remembering here. What is the task, the job that God has given Jonah to do? God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. What does Jonah do? He so much doesn’t want to do this job that he runs in the opposite direction. Now, imagine this scene that we are looking at here. Everyone with Jonah asks him, “Since you are responsible for this calamity by not obeying God, what can we do?”

 

“Kill me” is basically Jonah’s answer when he tells them to throw him overboard. Jonah, if he is anything like most Israelites of his day and age, Jonah can’t swim. Israel is not a seafaring country.  Again, I grew up on Vancouver Island here. I am a kayaker and was a SCUBA diver. Susan was a lifeguard and I don’t imagine that either of us could and I know that neither of us would want to have to try to swim through a storm and Jonah, in all probability, can’t even swim. The strangers on the boat are asking what they should do to appease his God and Jonah says, “You should kill me.” Now, God is good though. He still has everything under control. Jonah isn’t more powerful than God. He can’t thwart God’s salvation.

 

Jonah knows very well that God, to say the least!, discourages human sacrifice (which is basically what this would be).[6] Jonah, who knows the Lord; Jonah, who knows the scriptures; Jonah, even in the midst of this terrible storm with all these other people’s lives on the line; Jonah, I submit, is still defying God![7] God has told Jonah to go to Nineveh and Jonah hates this commission so much, Jonah hates the idea that God would use him to save the Ninevites so much that Jonah would rather die than do what God tells him to do. God is good though. He still has everything under control. Jonah isn’t more powerful than God. He can’t thwart God’s salvation but can you imagine?

 

When Heather was only a baby, less than 2, we went to Winnipeg for Susan’s convocation; Heather had a seizure. It wasn’t just a little one. She was sleeping in my arms in a pew with Rebecca and Sarah-Grace beside us. All of a sudden she starts shaking for about a minute or more. Her eyes roll back in her head. I grab her and the girls and I head to the door where I know the ushers will be. I ask one person specifically to get a nurse or a doctor from the congregation; I ask another person specifically –twice- to call us an ambulance. I even hand her my phone to do so. She refuses! She refuses to call for help! I have never seen anything quite like this before. My baby is turning blue and she doesn’t call for help! She even hands me my phone back. Now, I imagine that she panicked; however, at the same time as she is not calling the ambulance, someone else is trying to comfort me by telling me not to worry but I am looking down at my baby turning blue; I am looking down at my baby gasping for air; I am looking down at my baby unconscious and in those very few seconds I can’t get this person to even call an ambulance to help her. I can’t tell you the reflexive emotions that were aroused in me as someone –even though I am sure it was just that they were panicking – refused to help someone else in serious need. Now, God is good though. He still has everything under control but picture what I am feeling in that moment.

 

This must be a similar feeling to what God, the sailors, or even we reading this story centuries later, could have towards Jonah. Here is a man who has been told to help save not only one small child but to bring this news of salvation to a great city of many small children, their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers, their grandparents, their neighbours; and instead of calling the divine ambulance, Jonah hands the phone back to God, and says, “I’m not going to make the call.” Not only that. Jonah, by asking the sailors to throw him overboard, Jonah says, “I would rather die than help you save those people, God.” Can you imagine? God’s children in the ancient city of Nineveh are about to die and He asks Jonah to point them to salvation and Jonah says, “I would rather die than help You save them, God.” Now, God is good. He still has everything under control. Jonah isn’t more powerful than God. He can’t thwart God’s salvation.

 

And in our situation with Baby Heather, the person who refused to call the ambulance for us was incapable of helping; she was useless. The point is that God saved Heather regardless of that person’s inaction. God provided someone else to call an ambulance; God provided someone with some sort of medical training to be with us; God provided someone to pray with me and for Heather; God provided friends to look after Rebecca and Sarah-Grace while we were in the hospital with Heather; God provided Dr. Burke, who was the President of the College to make special arrangements even for Susan’s graduation. God provided so many great and caring people who prayed for Susan, the girls, and I, and who prayed for Heather’s salvation in the here and now.

 

As God provided for Heather, so God provided also for the sailors on that ship in that storm on that day and, as we read in the rest of the book of Jonah, God also provided for the many small children in the giant city of Nineveh. Verses 15-17:

Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him. But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

 

God saved the sailors. The raging sea grew calm and they were saved and there is more than that to this here as well. You will notice that it says that these men, the sailors, greatly feared the LORD. The word LORD is written all in capital letters. Whenever you see LORD written like this in English, in Hebrew it is YHWH; the tetragrammaton; YHWH is God’s divine name. These sailors aren’t praising the same gods at the end of this adventure that they were at the beginning. They are now praising YHWH. They are saved and they are praising the LORD.

 

God also saved Jonah but God did not save Jonah from doing the work that Jonah is supposed to do. Jonah still has to deliver God’s message of salvation to the children of Nineveh. You could even say that when He sent the giant fish, God didn’t let Jonah of the hook.

 

In Chapter 2 then - we won’t read all again now - Jonah prays to God for salvation. Jonah, like the sailors now, knows that salvation is from the LORD. He prays for salvation and salvation he gets. Jonah 2:10-3:3a records this:

And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

   Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh.

 

God did not give up on Nineveh. God did not give up on the sailors. God did not give up on Jonah and God will not give up on us. As bad as everything can get in our lives: when storms kick up, when everyone around us seems to be panicking, when it looks like all those who are around us are going to perish, when we are caught in the midst of trouble, God is good. He still has everything under control. We aren’t more powerful than God. We can’t thwart God’s provided salvation.  Even after maybe we have disobeyed or even defied God like Jonah did in today’s story - as long as we still have breath in our body there is still time for us to repent, there is still time for us to turn, there is still time for us to dial that phone of Salvation which Christ provided for us between the cross and the empty tomb (cf. TSA docs 6&7). As long as we have breath in our body, even if thus far we have turned and run the opposite direction from God, as long as we have breath in our body, we can still repent, we can still return to Him and we can still be a part of His salvation both now and forever more.

 

Let us pray.

 

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1] R.B.Y. Scott, "The Sign of Jonah: An Interpretation," Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology Vol. 19 no. 1, ed. Balmer H. Kelly (Union Theological Seminary: Virginia, January 1965): 16. Identifies three thematic movements in Jonah of which God’s sovereignty is the first.

[2] Donald J. Wiseman, T. Desmond Alexander, and Bruce K Waltke: Obadiah, Jonah and Micah: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 26), S. 65

[3] H. L. Ellison, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: Jonah/Exposition of Jonah/I. The Disobedient Prophet (1:1-2:10)/B. The Storm (1:4-6), Book Version: 4.0.2

[4]  H. L. Ellison, Pradis The Expositor's Bible Commentary, CD-ROM: Jonah/Exposition of Jonah/I. The Disobedient Prophet (1:1-2:10)/C. Jonah's Responsibility (1:7-10), Book Version: 4.0.2

[5] H. L. Ellison, Pradis The Expositor's Bible Commentary, CD-ROM: Jonah/Exposition of Jonah/I. The Disobedient Prophet (1:1-2:10)/ B. The Storm (1:4-6), Book Version: 4.0.2

[6] R.B.Y. Scott, "The Sign of Jonah: An Interpretation," Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology, Vol. 19 no. 1, ed. Balmer H. Kelly (Union Theological Seminary: Virginia, January 1965): 16.

[7] cf. Donald J. Wiseman, T. Desmond Alexander, and Bruce K Waltke: Obadiah, Jonah and Micah: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 26), S.

Deuteronomy 8: Thanksgiving Day

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 08 October 2023 and 09 October 2022, by Major Michael Ramsay

 

This is the 2023 version, to view the earlier version click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2022/10/deuteronomy-83-20-and-psalm-100.html

  

Deuteronomy 8 reminds us of an important truth that, Verse 3, because He loves us, God hungers us blessing us to rely on Him but, 8:10-11, as we enter times of abundance we must give thanks to the Lord because, 8:19-20, forgetting the Lord will result in our destruction.

 

    The book of Deuteronomy here records the time after the Hebrews had fled Egypt and before they reached Canaan. They had only what they could carry and – as they were nomadic – obviously, no farms to grow food, no permanent water source or anything like that. They were hundreds, thousands or even more people without a permanent home wandering around the desert.

 

    As the Hebrews followed God around the desert like this, He provided for them. Even their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell during this time. God provided for them when they had nothing. God provided for them. Deuteronomy 8:15,16:

 

He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.

 

    Even though one generation of Israelites was faithless upon leaving Egypt their actions did not nullify the faithfulness of God (Romans 3:3,4) who provided this desert experience as a means to their salvation. The next generation, who was born in the desert, learned to rely on God in their time of real need and God provided for them in the desert. God, through Moses and then Joshua, reminded the people not to forget this: in the desert God and God alone provided for them, preparing them to receive the Promised Land.

 

    But alas, as God warned them, these times of relying on God passed when the people acquired stability, income, relative ease and apparent self-sufficiency. They didn't think they needed Him once they settled in their promised land so they left Him and then they didn't have Him. And so when life's hard hand dealt them their blows they turned to look for God's protection but they had turned their backs, walked away and left Him behind. God didn't leave them. They left Him. They exchanged the safety of God's love for the death of wealth and the myth of self-sufficiency.

 

    In our country too: Canada was arguably founded on the Word of God: notably Psalm 72:8: that is from where our old name came – when I was growing up this country was called the Dominion of Canada; Canada Day used to be called Dominion Day. We used to have the Lord's Prayer in Parliament and Gideon Bibles in the schools. Now we don't seem to think we need or want Him anymore.

 

    This is sad but there is some good news. There is still time to return to our Lord. As long as we exist as a nation there is still the opportunity for our nation to return to acknowledging God. Now I am not pretending that Canadians of the ‘olden days’ were better than today. We made mistakes then, like we do now. We are making improvements and we are making some serious errors. We are just people after all. The key is whether we try to serve the Lord or not. He loves us and wants us on His team, as part of His family. Maybe our country as a whole never will be. We, as Christians, however, should do our best to help build God’s Kingdom here as it is in heaven, to help bring people into the family of God’s love and support. We can do this by continuing to serve God by taking care of our neighbour as well as reading our Bibles and spending time in prayer with God and, of course, also sharing about the blessings of doing all these things with others so they can experience it as well. God loves us and as such He wants us all to be part of His Dominion. As long as we exist it is not too late: we can all and each still return to the Lord.

 

    We know that Israel's Messiah did eventually come, even after all the unfaithfulness. Jesus is their and our Messiah. Jesus was born, died, and rose from the grave. And we know that Jesus will come back too and he will reign forever not only as King of the Jews but also as King of the whole world (cf. TSA doc. 6). When he does, will he find that we are walking with him or that we have walked away from Him and His Kingdom?

 

    There is a children’s book, Thanksgiving Day in Canada – it is a favourite book of mine. I have quoted it quite often for many years when speaking about Thanksgiving in Canada – my children all know the book very well too. As I have shared from the pulpit here on a previous Thanksgivings, the other year I found out something very interesting. You know that Susan, the kids and I lived and worked in Toronto prior to being posted here. We were the Officers responsible for The Salvation Army`s Warehouse Mission as well as 614 in downtown Toronto. One year during our time there, with Thanksgiving coming up, I happened to be speaking with our worship leader, Krys Lewicki, about the book and it turns out that he wrote that book (it was promoted by CBC as part of Canada`s 125 anniversary). Krys also wrote a Thanksgiving song that is in that book that we sang earlier and will probably sing again before we leave. About Thanksgiving, from the book:

 

The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are more closely connected to the traditions of Europe than of the United States. Long before Europeans settled in North America, festivals of thanks and celebrations of harvest took place in Europe in the month of October. The very first Thanksgiving celebration in North America took place in Canada when Martin Frobisher, an explorer from England, arrived in Newfoundland in 1578. He wanted to give thanks for his safe arrival to the New World. That means the first Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated 43 years before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts!

For a few hundred years, Thanksgiving was celebrated in either late October or early November, before it was declared a national holiday in 1879. It was then, that November 6th was set aside as the official Thanksgiving holiday. But then on January 31, 1957, Canadian Parliament announced that on the second Monday in October, Thanksgiving would be "a day of general thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed."

Thanksgiving was moved to the second Monday in October because after the World Wars, Remembrance Day (November 11th) and Thanksgiving kept falling in the same week. Another reason for Canadian Thanksgiving arriving earlier than its American counterpart is that Canada is geographically further north than the United States, causing the Canadian harvest season to arrive earlier than the American harvest season. And since Thanksgiving for Canadians is more about giving thanks to the Lord for the harvest season than the arrival of pilgrims, it makes sense to celebrate the holiday in October.

 

    In this day and age of the Holy being replaced by the secular in so much of our society, it is a good encouragement to each of us as individuals and as the Lord’s children here to remember that even our Parliament once declared Thanksgiving as "a day of general thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed."

 

     Please this weekend let us remember not only to be thankful but to be thankful to God; and with all else that we are indeed thankful for let us not neglect our gratitude for the harvest that the farmers have reaped this year and all those who the Lord will and does provide for through that.

 

    This weekend and this day let us remember to offer thanksgiving to Almighty God for all else and for the bountiful harvest with which we have been blessed.

 

Let us pray.

 

 

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