Jonah and Perspective

A flat tire in a busy downtown can feel like the start of a terrible day, but zoom out and it might be the safest possible place for trouble to happen. We start there, because that’s how real life works: our first reaction is usually frustration, fear, and worst-case thinking. Then we slow down, reflect, and realize how often God’s care shows up through timing, help, and small details that do not look “spiritual” at first glance. 

From that practical story, we move straight into the Book of Jonah and the power of perspective in the Christian life. Jonah isn’t just reluctant, he’s terrified and angry because Nineveh belongs to Assyria, Israel’s enemy. We talk about why that context matters, what it means to run from God, and how the storm and the fish become a harsh mercy that resets Jonah’s priorities. When Jonah finally speaks, the message is short, direct, and shockingly effective, leading to real repentance across the whole city. 

We also dig into the bigger theology behind the story: God’s authority over nations, the idea that warnings can be conditional when people repent, and why Jesus treats Jonah as a sign that points to the resurrection. Along the way, we bring it home with personal examples of how pain and setbacks can redirect us toward purpose, and why obedience is often the doorway to peace. We close with two seven-word summaries that clarify the gospel and the choice it demands. 

If this challenged you, share it with a friend who needs a perspective shift, then subscribe and leave a review so more people can find these Bible-based conversations. What part hit you hardest?

Transcript

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Perspective Starts With A Flat

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's good to be with y'all this morning. Um look forward to this. The only problem with uh that I have is when uh I only get to preach once every three or four months, it's like, okay, what do you pick to what what there's there's a lot in the word to to choose from, you know, and then if I start preparing too far in advance, I just keep adding, you know, every time I read back over to I add a little more and then it's like, oh, I'll never get all that in, you know, and then I have to go back and scale it back or try to uh the best I can. But anyway, today I'm gonna start with a little personal story about perspective. And uh then we're gonna get into the book of Jonah and how perspective uh dictates how we feel about things, how we react to things, and uh what direction we the decisions that we make is can all be uh changed by perspective. Okay, um, you know, I see Tracy there, and I know uh his perspective on fishing changed when you get the live scope. Because when you when you know there's a fish there, now you may not be able to catch it, but at least you know you're fishing where the fish is fish are, you know, as opposed to, well, I hope there's one there, you know. So perspective uh changes things. But I had uh I went camping with my wife and I, we went to Camp Marla, we went camping with uh some friends of ours that we've known for 35, 40 years, I guess now, and we've been camping with them every year. This was the first year in 30 years that they weren't able to meet us for um Memorial Day weekend. But they had a grandchild on Friday. So we let them off and said, okay, that, you know, I guess that's a that it's a good enough uh reason for. So let me find my lesson here and we'll get started. But anyway, we went camping and uh over at Hillsborough at Lake Whitney, and when uh on the way home, I'm pulling into Hillsborough, and it by their main street, like most small town main streets, you know, it's got parking on each side of the road, and then you have the main street that goes down in between all of that. Well, it was uh uh a Sunday afternoon. No, I I don't remember what day it was. But anyway, it was busy, and a guy pulls up beside me and he's waving frantically at me, and uh he said, You got a flat, you got a flat, you know. I said, Oh, and here I am in in the middle of the downtown area, and there's cars lined each side. Well, after he says that, there just happens, as I'm pulling up to the next light, there happens to be three empty spaces. And so I'm able to pull my old truck and and boat and get them both over out of the road to the curve and take up those three parking spots. Well, I get out and sure enough, I go the back, and fortunately the my boat trailer tire was on the curb side, so I didn't have to get in the traffic. There was a huge shade tree right over it, and um it wasn't completely flat because when it's completely flat, I found out my floor jack won't go underneath the axle. So anyway, it was up high enough that I could still get the floor jack under it, and and uh everything went fine, of course, and I had a brand new spare that I just bought because I'd run over a four by six with the other one and bent the rim. Uh so anyway, I had a new tire and all that, and I'd just gotten it a month, but it had gone down. It was only had about 30 pounds of pressure and needs 60 in it. So anyway, I get it on. I get in the truck, say, okay, Marlowe, we need to find an air for this tire before we go any further. Well, we were at that intersection, and there was a turn to the right where I didn't have to try to merge back into the traffic. So I just made a right turn and drove about 50 yards, and there's a tire shop that was open right there. So I just pulled up in front of it and say, Can you put 30 pounds of air in that tire? You know, and they did, and I was back on the way. Well, you know, when I that guy first pulled up beside me and said, You got a flat. First of all, what's your first thought? You know, bad thoughts. It's like, oh, it, you know, it's it's hot, it's uh, you know, uh I didn't know the tire was gonna go flat. Uh, you know, it's gonna be another expense, it's gonna take me time, and I've still got two and a half hour drive before I'm home and I'm gonna be sweaty. All these thoughts start going through your mind. Well, after we got back out on the road and headed toward Marshall, I've got to thinking, you know, if that would have happened five miles earlier, I would have been on a two-lane road with no shoulder, and there wouldn't have been any place to pull off, and it was bad. I couldn't have found a better place for it to happen, and to have a guy that cared enough to say, hey, you got a flat before that, because when we pulled the tire off, there was steel belts showing through the tire I took off. So it was just a matter of time until it blew out anyway. So there was a shade tree. There was I was off the road, and then there just happened to be a tire shop 20 50 yards from where the I changed the flat. And I got thinking, you know, the Lord took care of me. Yeah, there are no coincidences, and he couldn't have put me in a better place at a better time than he did for me to change that tire, you know, and so I I encourage it, and all of us are gonna face something like that at some point, where, and I I relayed this morning that I helped a guy put in a wheelchair ramp at some friend's house yesterday. Well, the guy he had planned on, I told him I wasn't gonna be there because I planned on being here a little earlier, you know, and leave. But anyway, uh so God canceled those plans. He made a sorry Eddie, that's why your air conditioning went out. It's because of me. I was supposed to stay. So anyway, uh, but he wanted me to stay in Marshall yesterday. And I I so I texted my buddy yesterday morning and said, hey, I can help if if you still need me. He goes, Yeah, he said, come on. And so uh when I got there, he says, Yeah, the other guy had lined up, woke up with a fever this morning. So he said, I wouldn't have been able to do this if you hadn't been been available. So anyway, there's no coincidences. The Lord has it planned out before we ever ever get get going. So anyway, um I know I've got this lesson in here somewhere. If I don't. Oh, there it is. Okay. So point one, when it first happened, my thought my thoughts immediately went to all the bad or negative things associated with the problem. However, when I took time to reflect, I th it changed everything. And I could be thankful for that flat tire in that situation under those circumstances for it for it to work out. It couldn't have been a better scenario if that was going to happen. And it was just a matter of time till that steel belt tire came off. So anyway, uh my brother-in-law, he always I coached with him for several years, and he would always tell the team, hey guys, nothing is ever as good as it seems, and nothing is ever as bad as it seems. And that depends on your perspective.

Jonah’s Call And Enemy Anxiety

SPEAKER_00 9:09

And so uh today we're going to talk about Jonah and his perspective. Uh, one other uh reference in the Bible to perspective are a couple of guys named Joshua and Caleb. You know, they had a different perspective, they saw the same things as the other ten spies, but their perspective changed everything. So uh in Jonah chapter one, it says, get up. And there's an exclamation point by that, and it's interesting that Jonah would write that with an exclamation point. So evidently the Lord was wanting to get his attention. Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because their wickedness has confronted me. However, Jonah got up to flee to Tarshus from the Lord's presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarsus, and he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshus from the Lord's presence. Okay, a little bit about Jonah. He lived in Gath Hephar, which is four miles north of Nazareth, so up above the the uh Sea of Galilee there. Um and he was alive during the reign of Jeroboam II in the northern in Israel, the northern kingdoms had already separated, and Jeroboam II was probably the the uh strongest that Israel ever was as the once they divided. And so things were were pretty good for them. However, the Assyrians were about 500 miles to the east, and uh they were a constant threat to Judah and to uh Israel at that time. Now, Hosea and Amos were contemporaries of Jonah, and they both, you know, have their own books and their own prophecies that God uh would use Assyria to punish Israel. And Hosea 11:5 says, uh Israel will not return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria will be his king because they refused to repent. Okay, so uh, and then uh in Amos 5.27, so I will send you into exile beyond Damascus. Yahweh, the God of hosts, is his name, he has spoken. So, you know, the these other prophets were also talking about Assyria and their invasion, but he's uh also that Assyria eventually, even though they are going to be used to punish Israel, you know, their time is coming as well. But because of that, it for those of you that grew up in the cold war, you know, to how we as a people in America felt about Russians was that's the enemy. They are a threat, they could blow us off the map at any time, you know, if they chose to. And so I equate Jonah's call to go to Nineveh like somebody sending me to Moscow uh to preach the gospel during the Cold War to the enemy, you know. Why do I want to do anything to help the people that could erase us from the planet, you know, at any moment? Uh so any patriotic Jew would not look forward or favorably toward the Assyrians. And the Lord tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital city, the heart of the beast. So can we understand Jonah's reluctance? Yeah, I think we can all have been in situations where God has called us into a situation that we'd rather go the other way. Uh, because you know it's gonna be difficult and uh it's just your heart's just not in it. Um and then Jonah 1 verse 3. He says Jonah uh went the opposite direction. He went, Jonah was headed to Tarshus. That's about 2,000 miles from where he currently is, there at the Sea of Galilee. That's like us driving to Los Angeles, except he he he doesn't have a car, you know, or an airplane. And so he gets on a ship and he's gonna go with that 2,000 miles. I mean, he is not gonna go, you know, he doesn't want to go. Uh so of course you all know the story.

Running From God Into A Storm

SPEAKER_00 14:10

The storm arises. Uh he tells the those guys on the ship with him were believers in God. They all had their own gods, but when Jonah they wake him up, isn't that similar to somebody else that was sleeping in the front of the boat when the storm was raging? But anyway, um he comes up and says, Well, he says, It's my fault. I'm running from the God. Who is your God? Well, he's the God that created the earth and the sky and everything in it. And they're like, Are you kidding me? You know, uh, and so he says, You need to throw, get rid of me, and everything will be fine. So they wind up throwing him overboard, and uh then the con the storm just goes, he made believers of uh this God. Now they probably just added Jonah's God to their other gods, you know, we don't know, but but they were aware that there is a God that created the earth and the heavens and everything in it. Now, when Jonah's thrown overboard, just like my two-hour drive to the house uh in my truck, it's kind of like being in the belly of a fish, I guess, if it's hot. But anyway, um, and loud and uh doors don't close very well. Uh anyway, the uh he had time to reflect. He thought he was gonna die, and probably wish he would have rather than sitting in. Can you imagine being inside of a fish for three days and nights? Anyway, he had time to reflect uh and change perspective. You know, he thought going to Nineveh was bad. Where he wound up was far worse. If he had kept the right perspective of who God was and had obeyed God, he could have avoided a whole lot of trouble uh in the meantime. But anyway, so he swallowed, the fish uh spits him out on the bank, and he still has about uh a month of walking to do to get to Nineveh. You know, again, that's about what I say, 500 miles uh on east, and it was a little ways to get to where the back to the Sea of Galilee. So he had about another month. Well, uh he had a whole month then to prepare a sermon. It's kind of interesting, his sermon's only seven words. If I can just tell you his sermon, we could have been we could be through with this and move on. But uh he said, yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. That's in the third chapter, verse four. Yet

Nineveh Repents And God Relents

SPEAKER_00 17:18

40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And he walked three days. The city was pretty big because he he walked a little way as he was preaching, he went into the city a three days' journey, and uh that was his message. And much to Jonah's chagrin, his message was successful and resulted in mass repentance from the king down to the lowliest citizen, and even the animals put on sackcloth and ashes and weren't fed or watered, they all went on a fast. So that is true repentance. And when people accept Christ, sometimes I think we give we give people the impression that if you just accept Jesus, then you're good, you know, and he'll forgive you of everything. But there has to be repentance. It says repent. Peter told his first sermon, repent and be baptized, every one of you. Repent. That means change the things in your life that aren't in order. Make a change. Um and so repentance was displayed by every creature in the city. Jonah's message is eventually, you know, 150 years later, what he prophesied or told the people, it happened. It wasn't 40 days. They repented and God relented from what he had promised, but they fell back into their ungodly ways. And so 150 years later, Assyria is overthrown by the Babylonians. Um Jonah 1, verse 2. Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because their wickedness has confronted me. So God had to remind, you know, as he reflected, he says, okay, and God renews that after he spit out on the bank,

God Rules Nations When We Cannot See

SPEAKER_00 19:40

says, now go. And so Jonah goes. Um in uh Isaiah 10, verse 12, it says, But when the Lord finishes all of his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, I will punish the king of Assyria for his arrogant acts and the proud look in his eyes. And then another scripture I want to bring out is if I can get the pages apart. Zephaniah 3, verse 8. Therefore, wait for me. This is the Lord's declaration, until the day I rise up for plunder, for my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, in order to pour out my indignation on them. All my burning anger, for the whole world, earth will be consumed by the fire of my jealousy. Um and then again, oh uh Jeremiah 25, verse 31. He says, The tumult reaches to the ends of the earth because the Lord brings a case against the nations. He enters into judgment with all flesh. For the as for the wicked, he hands them over to the sword. This is the Lord's declaration. And I read those passages to say, Lord is in control of the nations. All nations. He wasn't only concerned about Israel or Judah, he was concerned about the people from Nineveh, the Assyrians. He was concerned about the Babylonians, he was, and he intervened in all of those different nations. He brought one nation against Edom, you know. Uh the list is endless. The Canaanites, the Jebusites, the Gergesites, and every other shite that, you know, are listed over and over. He was in control of all of those. And he is working even today among the nations. Sometimes we look and say, Where are you, God? You know, and Jonah saying, Where are you, God, when you're going to use the Assyrians of all people to come in and pass. Judgment on Judah, your people. You know, he didn't understand it then. And we can't see from God's perspective. But when we understand that God is in control and has been throughout history, it changes our perspective. God's got this. I don't understand it, but God does. And so we have to have faith in that and trust in that and do what God has called us to do in the meantime. All right. So the men of Nineveh repented. Matthew verses 12 or chapter 12, verses 40 to 41. For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah's proclamation. And look, something greater than Jonah is here. So he's saying, those those people that Jonah preached to, they repented. They changed their ways. They will, in the final judgment, they will be accepted ahead of the Jews that had Jesus in their midst, and they rejected him. Rejected his

Jonah Points Forward To Jesus

SPEAKER_00 23:30

message. And uh I think the next one is goodness gracious. All right, Luke 11, 30. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation. So, you know, Jonah, I'm sure there was more than seven words to his sermon as he walked through the city. I'm sure he told them, look, I ran away from God, so I didn't have to come here. And I was thrown overboard and I was swallowed by a fish, and he spit me out, and so here I am. He would that was a sign to those people that, yeah, he's a prophet of God. I mean, it's obvious, and they accepted his message. Um it's interesting too. Prophet, you say, Well, God didn't do what he said he was gonna do. Well, prophecy is conditional. Because when they repented, God said he relented. And there's several stories. Abraham bargained with God, said, Hey, you know, I know you said you're going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but uh what if there's ten people righteous? You know, if they if he had found ten people righteous, that prophecy would have not been followed through with. But unfortunately, there weren't. And uh they were wiped away. Um Jonah is a prototype of Jesus. Because it, you know, in Matthew 12, um 40 it talks about Jonah and Jesus both being in the grave three days, three nights. Jonah was asleep in the bow of the ship, just like Jesus was, and then the storm went calm at the command of the Lord. Um the uh in Romans, and and there's a lot of people that say, Oh, there that's just a fairy tale. But that was Jesus said, I'm I am just like Jonah, I am going to be in the grave three days and three nights. So if you discredit that Jonah's story is true, then you also have to discredit Jesus. Then he lied about it. And so uh, you know, I think C.S. Lewis said Jesus is either who he says he is, or he's the biggest liar that's ever been on the earth. You know, he wasn't a he's not just a good man. If if he's uh we don't consider liars good people, right? So uh in Romans 15, 4 through 5, it says, For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the scriptures. Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement allow you to live in harmony with one another according to the man commands of Christ. So all of these things, you know, two-thirds of the Bible is uh what we call the Old Testament. I just call it uh the first testament. It's all one testament, you know. Uh so it's all talking about God and his relationship with his people and wanting that relationship. So um

Purpose, Pain, And Perspective Shifts

SPEAKER_00 27:45

want to know that God is in control, that God is loving and patient with all people, that God demands obedience, and that obedience involves repentance and changing our ways, and that God has a job for each of us. And some of us have have walked away and run away from that, and then God calls us back. We may not have been swallowed by a fish, but we may have been put into circumstances that we had no control over. And things seemed terrible and awful. But why did God do that to Jonah? You think he was trying to get his attention? He said, Look, Jonah, you're the man I've selected, and you're the one, the only one that's going to get this job done. And if I have to put you in the belly of a fish for three days to get you to change your perspective on things, I hope it doesn't come to that. But that that's if that's what it takes, then that's what it takes. Um the only thing I've experienced, well, I say the only thing, the the one thing that I remember the most was my senior year uh of football. I I was wanting to go play college football. That was number one thing. And uh the night, this one particular night, seventh game of the season, my senior year, I finally had scouts gonna come see me play from Northeastern in Tallaquah. So, you know, I was all fired up to try to impress them. In the first quarter, I think the second series, I'm rolling out the pass and I slip and fall, and I put my hand back behind me like this to catch myself, and I break my arm. Nobody even touched me. That's real impressive to scouts, let me tell you. Well, anyway, because of that, like I said, the the head coach had played at Northeastern, and so he had some relationship, and he got them to offer me a half scholarship. And I thought, well, you know, that's really not the school I wanted to go to anyway, and if they're only gonna pay half of it, I wasn't uh too excited about it. So anyway, my parents wanted me to go to Harding, and so I went as a walk-on to Harding, but I look back at that and say, the Lord had to twist my arm to get me there, you know, because I I was gonna go where the money was, like most humans uh on this planet, but uh that didn't work out, and God got my attention, and thank goodness he did, you know. And uh so we all have a purpose. God has a plan for us, and he has a job for every one of us to do. Don't have God break your arm to get you to fulfill your purpose, don't have him have prepare a fish to swallow you, you know. Uh, because God wants you and he puts those things in our lives for that. And we need to change our perspective on things instead of looking at the bad things that I'm going through. Let's look and see how God might be using that to get my attention. Um now,

A Seven-Word Gospel And Closing Charge

SPEAKER_00 31:25

I could have saved us a lot of time if I would have just done what Jonah did and gave a seven-word sermon. Uh, and so I put together two. One is the gospel. If you don't know the gospel, here it is in seven words. Jesus crucified, buried, raised alive, coming back. If I use Jonah's approach, it would be Jesus. Accept and live, reject and die, your choice. You know, sometimes we don't want to be too blunt, afraid we might hurt somebody's feelings. I'd rather hurt your feelings than you lose your soul in eternity. You know, I I'll risk that because there's people in here that love you and care about you, and they want you to be saved eternally. And that's what it's all about. And so I encourage you this morning, uh, let's work on changing our perspective. Let's become the people that God has called us to be, and uh, we can stand in front of God.