Micah McCormick: Jonah, chapter 2.
Micah McCormick: I was so excited last time with Obadiah I got to read the entire text.
Micah McCormick: I'm not going to.
Micah McCormick: I could read through the whole book of Jonah.
Micah McCormick: I'm not going to do that tonight, but we're going to take a sample from Jonah in chapter 2, and we will be considering a bit more of the book as a whole.
Micah McCormick: But I wanted to definitely get our eyes right on the text to start tonight.
Micah McCormick: Jonah, chapter 2.
Micah McCormick: I'll read the first nine verses Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish.
Micah McCormick: I called to the Lord in my distress and he answered me.
Micah McCormick: I cried out for help from deep inside Sheol.
Micah McCormick: You heard my voice when you threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas.
Micah McCormick: The current overcame me.
Micah McCormick: All your breakers and your billows swept over me and I said I have been banished from your sight.
Micah McCormick: Yet I will look once more towards your holy temple.
Micah McCormick: The water engulfed me up to the neck.
Micah McCormick: The watery depths overcame me.
Micah McCormick: Seaweed was wrapped around my head.
Micah McCormick: I sank to the foundations of the mountains.
Micah McCormick: The earth's gates shut behind me forever.
Micah McCormick: Then you raised my life from the pit, lord, my God.
Micah McCormick: As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple.
Micah McCormick: Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love.
Micah McCormick: But as for me, I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving.
Micah McCormick: I will fulfill what I have vowed.
Micah McCormick: Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Micah McCormick: What's Jonah all about?
Micah McCormick: What's the melodic line that was for you, two guys?
Micah McCormick: Miracles?
Micah McCormick: Maybe If you grew up in Sunday school, like I did, you heard the story of Jonah from a young age.
Micah McCormick: It's pretty amazing.
Micah McCormick: This big fish swallows this guy and he's alive in the fish for three days and then he escapes.
Micah McCormick: Seems pretty miraculous, it is.
Micah McCormick: What's Jonah all about?
Micah McCormick: A little older, you might think it's about racism.
Micah McCormick: Jonah hated those Ninevites.
Micah McCormick: He was prejudiced against them and he shouldn't have been.
Micah McCormick: Also true.
Micah McCormick: Also true that he shouldn't have been prejudiced against the Ninevites.
Micah McCormick: Or?
Micah McCormick: I was talking to one person this week and he brought attention to the end of the book.
Micah McCormick: It ends with Jonah seems to be having a pity party and sometimes you just got to suck it up and do what God calls you to do and not complain about it.
Micah McCormick: Also true, right.
Micah McCormick: So what's Jonah all about?
Micah McCormick: Well, what we're going to try to do tonight is pull some different threads together from the book of Jonah to work toward answering that question.
Micah McCormick: And I want to actually start with the words of Jesus, because if Jesus comments on some part of the Bible, that's pretty significant to take into hand.
Micah McCormick: So let's hold your finger right here in Jonah and let's go over to Matthew 12.
Micah McCormick: Just so you can see it with your own eyes, hold your finger in Jonah.
Micah McCormick: Matthew is a little easier book to find.
Micah McCormick: First book of the new Testament, matthew, chapter 12.
Micah McCormick: And look at verse number 40.
Micah McCormick: This is Christ speaking, 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.
Micah McCormick: So Jesus sees in at least this central portion of Jonah that we read about Jonah being in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, jesus sees some kind of connection to his own life and ministry and what's coming.
Micah McCormick: But what's the context here in Matthew 12?
Micah McCormick: Did Jesus kind of pull his disciples aside and say listen, let me tell you about some things that are coming up.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to suffer and I'm going to die.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to rise again.
Micah McCormick: If you look at Matthew 12, the context is not a private conversation with his disciples about some prophetic things that were going to happen.
Micah McCormick: The context is there's Pharisees representing Israel who are criticizing him and rejecting him, and they ask for a sign, and he said no sign is going to be given to this wicked and adulterous generation.
Micah McCormick: So it's a context of Jesus pronouncing judgment against Israel, and Jonah's three days and three nights becomes this sign of resurrection for Christ.
Micah McCormick: But it seems to be connected with the judgment that's happening or going to happen to the Pharisees, those within Israel that reject Jesus.
Micah McCormick: Now, next question, with what Jesus says here that I'll just leave open for the time being, is Jesus just happened to call to mind one incident in the life of Jonah as applicable to his current day.
Micah McCormick: He doesn't say I'll give you the sign of three days and three nights.
Micah McCormick: He said I'll give you the sign of Jonah.
Micah McCormick: So is there something more expansive about the nature and character of Jonah's ministry that Jesus sees, and maybe the three days and three nights is not the totality of all that he's trying to convey or bring out.
Micah McCormick: So we're going to think about that.
Micah McCormick: Go ahead and turn back to Jonah.
Micah McCormick: That's what Jesus says.
Micah McCormick: So we've got Jesus drawing a parallel to his own life.
Micah McCormick: Often in scripture it's going to point us to Christ.
Micah McCormick: We're expecting that, hopefully.
Micah McCormick: While you're turning back to Jonah, there's one other place that mentions Jonah, 2 Kings.
Micah McCormick: I'll read it for you.
Micah McCormick: You don't have to turn there.
Micah McCormick: 2 Kings 14.
Micah McCormick: In the 15th year of Judah's king, amaziah, son of Joash, jeroboam, son of Jehoash, became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned 41 years.
Micah McCormick: He did what was evil in the Lord's sight.
Micah McCormick: He did not turn away from all the sins Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit.
Micah McCormick: He restored Israel's border from Labo Hamath as far as the Sea of Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, the word God had spoken through his servant, the prophet Jonah, son of Amittai, from Gath Hefer, and the way Jonah begins.
Micah McCormick: If you look at the first chapter, the word Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai.
Micah McCormick: So it seems pretty clear it's the same Jonah.
Micah McCormick: It doesn't just happen to be a different Jonah.
Micah McCormick: So, although we have Jesus mentioning it in the Old Testament, we have Jonah serving at some point as a prophet in the northern kingdom under this wicked king.
Micah McCormick: So when Israel's been divided Judah in the south, rest of the tribes in the north.
Micah McCormick: Jonah's serving in some way there.
Micah McCormick: Jonah is one of the few prophets who is explicitly told go to another nation and talk to them.
Micah McCormick: A couple of weeks ago, with Obadiah, prophesied about Edom but he was never told, at least as far as we read to go to Edom.
Micah McCormick: Jonah is actually told go, least as far as we read.
Micah McCormick: To go to Edom.
Micah McCormick: Jonah's actually told go, leave, go to Nineveh and give them God's word.
Micah McCormick: But this book is part of Israel's scripture.
Micah McCormick: It's the scrolls they collected.
Micah McCormick: So, as much as Jonah had a message from God for Nineveh, there's something there that was meant to be for Israel also.
Micah McCormick: There's something there for us also as well.
Micah McCormick: There's four basic scenes in Jonah.
Micah McCormick: Now, this is not the outline, is not the four scenes, but I want to give you this just so you see the movement of the way the book is working in terms of the scene development.
Micah McCormick: Chapter one Jonah is fleeing from the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Most of chapter one.
Micah McCormick: Chapter two he's in the belly of this fish praying.
Micah McCormick: That's what we read in the scriptures tonight.
Micah McCormick: Chapter three he goes to Nineveh.
Micah McCormick: He preaches to them.
Micah McCormick: They repent.
Micah McCormick: Chapter four he's outside of Nineveh, having a conversation with God.
Micah McCormick: So, like I said, we're going to try to take some different threads, thematic threads, from the book of Jonah and see if we can see where this book is going, how it's shaping our thinking and as you look at the first part of chapter one so you can turn to chapter one if you haven't already done that.
Micah McCormick: If you're chapter two, go back to chapter one.
Micah McCormick: It starts off by repeating two times that Jonah was fleeing from the Lord's presence.
Micah McCormick: You see that in verse number three look right there he got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord's presence and then, at the end of that same verse, he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord's presence.
Micah McCormick: It's an interesting way to describe his activity.
Micah McCormick: Doesn't Psalm say where can I go from your presence?
Micah McCormick: Where can I flee from your spirit?
Micah McCormick: I mean, did Jonah think he could really get away from God?
Micah McCormick: No, but keep in mind, in this old covenant not everyone had sort of immediate access to God's presence.
Micah McCormick: There were the priests who could go into the temple, the holy place, but even only the one priest one time of year.
Micah McCormick: The prophets often had a special privilege.
Micah McCormick: They often received a window into the divine council and the divine courtroom to receive a message.
Micah McCormick: And Jonah is confronted by God, but he rejects what God is calling him to do.
Micah McCormick: God calls him to take upon himself to go to Nineveh and he says no and he goes the other way.
Micah McCormick: The prophet of Israel rejects his vocation.
Micah McCormick: That's the first threat I'm pulling out here.
Micah McCormick: Prophet of Israel rejects his vocation, his calling from God.
Micah McCormick: Remember when Pastor Doug preached a few weeks ago from Isaiah, the mountain of the Lord will be exalted and elevated.
Micah McCormick: It's this holy place.
Micah McCormick: Look at the way the narrator shows Jonah going down and down and down.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse number three, verse three, he, as soon as he leaves the Lord's presence and the Lord dwells in an exalted place.
Micah McCormick: He went down to Joppa, he paid the fare and went down into the ship.
Micah McCormick: In verse number five, he goes down into the lowest part of the vessel and when the sailors find out there's this storm because of Jonah, they throw him even out of the boat and he goes down into the sea the verses that we read in chapter two.
Micah McCormick: He's crying out from the very depths of the belly of the fish in this watery grave down, down, down, down.
Micah McCormick: Rejecting God brings judgment.
Micah McCormick: That's the second threat.
Micah McCormick: Rejecting God brings judgment.
Micah McCormick: Now there's an interesting turn of hope, because in chapter one, jonah's judged in a lot of ways throughout this book, but he's thrown into the sea and left for dead.
Micah McCormick: I mean, that's pretty much almost as bad as it could get right there, right sea, and left for dead.
Micah McCormick: I mean, that's pretty much almost as bad as it could get right there, right.
Micah McCormick: So the sailors are what's going on?
Micah McCormick: And Jonah confesses well, the God, I know the true God, living God.
Micah McCormick: He's created the storm, and so they throw him overboard.
Micah McCormick: So he's thrown overboard.
Micah McCormick: And when he's thrown overboard, though, this is where the hope comes in judgment for him.
Micah McCormick: As far as he knows, he's dead in the ocean, in the storm, but then the storm stops.
Micah McCormick: And the rest of these guys, who are probably not Israelites, they're foreigners, they're another nation, and yet they offer sacrifices and vows and call on the Lord in an act of thanks.
Micah McCormick: Now, I don't know these sailors, whether they truly were converted, I can't answer that question.
Micah McCormick: But and this is the third thread the prophet's judgment brings salvation to the Gentiles.
Micah McCormick: He's thrown overboard, but they're saved.
Micah McCormick: In chapter two, which is the chapter that I read Jonah's crying out from the belly of the fish and it sounds like one of David's Psalms.
Micah McCormick: If I just read that part of Jonah's prayer and I didn't read anything about the fish or whatever you'd think, oh, it must be David when his enemies are chasing him and he doesn't know what's going on or where to be.
Micah McCormick: But it's Jonah and he seems to be crying out in genuine turning to the Lord.
Micah McCormick: In chapter three, when Nineveh hears the message of God's judgment, what do they do, this foreign people?
Micah McCormick: They turn in repentance and cry out to the Lord.
Micah McCormick: So chapter two is similar to chapter three in the sense of there's a crying out of Lord.
Micah McCormick: I've got no other options.
Micah McCormick: Lord, have mercy on me.
Micah McCormick: In chapter two it's Jonah, the prophet of Israel, crying out.
Micah McCormick: In chapter three it's this foreign nation of Nineveh crying out.
Micah McCormick: But regardless of who you are, when you cry out to God in genuine repentance, there's hope.
Micah McCormick: So, fourth thread, if I can put it this way, those who cry out to God in true repentance find resurrection, hope.
Micah McCormick: Now we think of resurrection as only life after death.
Micah McCormick: But the language that Jonah uses, of the weeds are wrapped around me and I'm down in the pit and I'm in your bars.
Micah McCormick: He's as good as dead.
Micah McCormick: And then the fish spits him out on dry land.
Micah McCormick: Nineveh hears the message and it's you're going to be judged, god's going to condemn you.
Micah McCormick: And they're saying, oh no, we don't have any hope.
Micah McCormick: But then God relents and gives life.
Micah McCormick: So it's this kind of resurrection to hope as the people cry out to God.
Micah McCormick: And then chapter four is an interesting way to end the book because it doesn't end with Jonah's prophecy and the nation's repentance.
Micah McCormick: It ends with Jonah having a conversation with God outside of Nineveh.
Micah McCormick: He's got kind of a bad attitude and we wonder, when you read the book of Jonah again, if you're thinking about it's got kind of a bad attitude.
Micah McCormick: And we wonder, when you read the book of Jonah Again, if you're thinking about it from the perspective of a children's Sunday school story.
Micah McCormick: It's like, well, just there's the fish and God did an amazing thing, which is true, but that's not how the book ends.
Micah McCormick: It doesn't actually leave you with the fish, it leaves you with Jonah out there and we don't know what happened to Jonah.
Micah McCormick: Did he come to his senses?
Micah McCormick: What happened to Nineveh?
Micah McCormick: They all repented and God spared them.
Micah McCormick: Did they become like?
Micah McCormick: We don't read later scriptures of them having this legacy of godly offspring.
Micah McCormick: What happened to Nineveh?
Micah McCormick: We don't know.
Micah McCormick: It's kind of like a cliffhanger story.
Micah McCormick: But the story ends with God.
Micah McCormick: It ends with his speech and his character, just like how it began when the word of the Lord comes to Jonah.
Micah McCormick: So if you're thinking of Jonah as a story first and foremost about him, or even the Ninevites, that's not what you're left with.
Micah McCormick: You're left with God.
Micah McCormick: So look at chapter 4, verse 2.
Micah McCormick: Jonah says he knows that God is gracious and compassionate and slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.
Micah McCormick: And in the very last verse of the book, chapter 4, verse 11, it's God speaking and yes, he's confronting Jonah about his lack of compassion.
Micah McCormick: But the Lord says may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people?
Micah McCormick: And he, jonah, you don't care, but I care.
Micah McCormick: That's how the book ends.
Micah McCormick: So fifth thread is that God wants to reveal his mercy to the nations.
Micah McCormick: Okay, so let's review.
Micah McCormick: I know that was that.
Micah McCormick: I gave you a lot there.
Micah McCormick: Let's review that.
Micah McCormick: Thread number one the prophet of Israel rejects his vocation.
Micah McCormick: Thread number two rejecting God brings judgment.
Micah McCormick: Number three the prophet's judgment brings salvation to the Gentiles.
Micah McCormick: It happens in the sea and then it happens when Jonah's put in the fish.
Micah McCormick: That finally turns him to give the message of salvation to those that are outside.
Micah McCormick: Number four those who cry out to God in true repentance find resurrection, hope.
Micah McCormick: And number five God wants to reveal his glorious mercy to the nations.
Micah McCormick: And that seems like a little bit of an overarching bigger thread in terms of emphasis than the rest of those threads.
Micah McCormick: You're done.
Micah McCormick: No, I'm not done.
Micah McCormick: Those five threads are about Jonah.
Micah McCormick: Remember I said this is a story for Israel.
Micah McCormick: It's part of their scripture.
Micah McCormick: So let's think about those five threads just a little bit in light of the whole nation of Israel and their history.
Micah McCormick: The prophet of Israel rejects his vocation.
Micah McCormick: That's the first thread.
Micah McCormick: Didn't God call the whole nation of Israel to be a light to the Gentiles?
Micah McCormick: Didn't he say here's my law.
Micah McCormick: When you keep it, other nations are going to look at you and see your wisdom.
Micah McCormick: So they weren't.
Micah McCormick: Israel wasn't called to be a missionary in the way that we think of immediately sail somewhere and tell someone.
Micah McCormick: They weren't called the same way that Jonah was.
Micah McCormick: But God had appointed Israel to be his, the guardian of his scripture and his mouthpiece of character that nations would see them and want to turn to the Lord.
Micah McCormick: How did Israel do with that vocation, with that calling from the Lord?
Micah McCormick: They reject it.
Micah McCormick: Instead of being a light to the nations, they want to be like the nations.
Micah McCormick: Give us a king like the nations.
Micah McCormick: Give us idols like the nations.
Micah McCormick: Give us practices like the nations.
Micah McCormick: They reject their calling.
Micah McCormick: Number two rejecting God brings judgment.
Micah McCormick: Hasn't Israel seen this time and time again in their history?
Micah McCormick: In the Old Testament don't we see rejecting the Lord judgment, rejecting the Lord judgment.
Micah McCormick: Number three the prophet's judgment brings salvation to the Gentiles.
Micah McCormick: This is not as transparent, but think about some of the key figures.
Micah McCormick: If you think about Jacob, the father of the Israelites, his 12 sons, the Bible spends the most amount of time on Joseph.
Micah McCormick: What happens to Joseph?
Micah McCormick: He's put down in the pit.
Micah McCormick: He's left for dead.
Micah McCormick: He shipped away.
Micah McCormick: He's in the prison.
Micah McCormick: He's left for dead.
Micah McCormick: He's shipped away.
Micah McCormick: He's in the prison.
Micah McCormick: He's lied about, but he emerges from the prison and he helps rescue Egypt from a famine.
Micah McCormick: Think about the book of Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: We're going through that book right now.
Micah McCormick: It calls Israel the servant of the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Through that book right now, it calls Israel the servant of the Lord, and yet Isaiah is constantly talking about judgment that's coming to the servant of the Lord, and yet there's hope in the book of Isaiah that ultimately the Gentiles are going to see light and experience salvation when you fast forward to the New Testament.
Micah McCormick: The Jews of Jesus' day rejected him and Jesus pronounced his judgment on them.
Micah McCormick: But then what does Paul say in Romans 11?
Micah McCormick: Their rejection was salvation for the Gentiles.
Micah McCormick: It was mercy for the Gentiles that they returned to and they heard the gospel Number four those who cry out to God in true repentance find resurrection, hope.
Micah McCormick: We see certain kings in Israel, like David, who says against you and you only have I sinned, and God restores him.
Micah McCormick: We do seem to see seasons in Israel's life where they turn to the Lord and they're not cut off forever.
Micah McCormick: God brings them back.
Micah McCormick: There's resurrection hope in the nation of Israel, and remember Romans 11, those branches that are cut off.
Micah McCormick: But later Israelites come and if they have faith they'll be grafted in.
Micah McCormick: They'll receive mercy from the Lord.
Micah McCormick: God wants to reveal his glorious mercy to the nations.
Micah McCormick: Why does God send Jonah on this mission?
Micah McCormick: Because he wants to reveal mercy to the nations.
Micah McCormick: Why does God call Israel to be a light to the Gentiles, because he wants to show his mercy not just to Israel but to all kinds of people.
Micah McCormick: And that brings us back to where we started, with Christ, with Jesus.
Micah McCormick: So now we've Jonah, jews, jesus, if you can think about Jonah in that context.
Micah McCormick: Tonight we looked at Jonah with those threads, looked at the Jews.
Micah McCormick: Now let's think about Jesus.
Micah McCormick: The prophet of Israel rejects his vocation, but this is the reverse when it comes to Christ.
Micah McCormick: Here am I, I've come to do your will, o God, your laws, within my heart.
Micah McCormick: This prophet of the Lord who comes down Rejecting God, brings judgment.
Micah McCormick: Well, jesus never rejected his father, but he did actually come to suffer judgment for all those Jews and Gentiles who belonged to him, who were chosen by God, all those he came to take their judgment, the rejecters.
Micah McCormick: And, yes, number three Jesus's judgment brings salvation to the Gentiles.
Micah McCormick: He opens up the way for all kinds of people, jew and Gentile alike, so that those number four who cry out to God in true repentance find resurrection, hope, not just temporary rescue from disaster.
Micah McCormick: Like the sailors in the sea which, again, maybe they truly had some spiritual grasp with the Lord, we don't know they found that salvation from the immediate storm.
Micah McCormick: Christ comes and it's resurrection, hope eternally.
Micah McCormick: It's all the weight of sin that would take us down, down down to hell forever.
Micah McCormick: No, not, if we're trusted in Christ and Jesus comes to reveal the Father's glory.
Micah McCormick: He came full of grace and truth.
Micah McCormick: The same God who revealed himself in Jonah as a God of mercy mercy for the Ninevites, mercy for pagan people.
Micah McCormick: Jesus reveals there's a God who would be so merciful.
Micah McCormick: He wouldn't just even allow us some opportunity to save ourselves, as if that were even possible, but he's going to come and do all the rescuing, all the saving, himself.
Micah McCormick: So what's this book of Jonah all about?
Micah McCormick: About miracles, yes, there's miracles.
Micah McCormick: It's about racism.
Micah McCormick: Yes, there's prejudice.
Micah McCormick: That's wrong Jonah's part.
Micah McCormick: It's about not having a pity party.
Micah McCormick: Yes, that's true.
Micah McCormick: But there's a bigger story of Jonah.
Micah McCormick: So here's how I would summarize it God will secure his purpose of mercy to the nations through the dying and rising of his prophet.
Micah McCormick: That's a little long.
Micah McCormick: I tried to make it more concise.
Micah McCormick: If you had a better idea, come talk to me afterwards.
Micah McCormick: I know, but let me repeat that again God will secure his purpose of mercy to the nations through the dying and rising of his prophet.
Micah McCormick: Jonah is as good as dead in the sea.
Micah McCormick: The sailors are saved.
Micah McCormick: He's as good as dead in the belly of the fish.
Micah McCormick: But after three days he comes out.
Micah McCormick: Nineveh hears and believes Praise God for his mercy.
Micah McCormick: Israel's as good as dead.
Micah McCormick: But Ezekiel says oh, these dry bones, they're going to live.
Micah McCormick: Israel's cut off and Gentiles are grafted in, but then more Israelites are grafted in.
Micah McCormick: Praise God for his mercy.
Micah McCormick: We see Jesus, the great prophet of Israel, sacrificing himself, and his sacrifice was successful.
Micah McCormick: And we know he's successful because he rose from the grave and he's received the inheritance of all the nations.
Micah McCormick: Praise God for his mercy.
Micah McCormick: Last thing for you today.
Micah McCormick: I'll leave you with this.
Micah McCormick: So again, god will secure his purpose of mercy to the nations through the dying and rising of his prophet.
Micah McCormick: Last thing for today, just something for you to think about this week.
Micah McCormick: In Jonah 2, did you notice that Jonah says he'll look towards God's temple?
Micah McCormick: He says it two times.
Micah McCormick: Verse number four I will look towards your holy temple, verse number seven my prayer came to you, to your holy temple.
Micah McCormick: What's he talking about?
Micah McCormick: He's in the belly of a fish in the Mediterranean Sea somewhere.
Micah McCormick: The temple's back in Jerusalem.
Micah McCormick: He's not doing any looking to the temple.
Micah McCormick: Okay, and remember the reading from 2 Kings.
Micah McCormick: He's a prophet, any looking to the temple.
Micah McCormick: Okay, that's that's.
Micah McCormick: And remember the reading from second kings.
Micah McCormick: He's a prophet to the northern kingdom.
Micah McCormick: He's not even a prophet that we read about, at least to the southern kingdom.
Micah McCormick: So he doesn't seem to have a lot of the northern kingdom.
Micah McCormick: Under this bad king was setting up false places of worship.
Micah McCormick: Jonah is is fleeing God's presence.
Micah McCormick: Jonah is fleeing God's presence.
Micah McCormick: So the way the book begins, he's fleeing God's presence.
Micah McCormick: Where would Israel go to find God's presence?
Micah McCormick: First and foremost, the temple.
Micah McCormick: So it's almost as though he's leaving the place he needs to be.
Micah McCormick: But then in chapter two, he's recognizing there's one true temple.
Micah McCormick: It's not getting away from God, it's not false worship of the northern kingdom.
Micah McCormick: There's one true temple and I've got to look there, I've got to submit myself to God.
Micah McCormick: So you have the prayer with the temple language, you have the beginning a little bit, and then look in chapter 4.
Micah McCormick: Okay, he has this relapse.
Micah McCormick: So, like Noah coming out of the ark and Israel coming out of Egypt, jonah comes up out of the waters and he's recommissioned, he's ready to go and he preaches.
Micah McCormick: But then setback.
Micah McCormick: He's upset and verse number five of chapter four says that he goes from the city of Nineveh away from God, out east.
Micah McCormick: The first person in the Bible that's described that way he went from the presence of the Lord east, is Cain.
Micah McCormick: That's not a very good overtone, right of what's going on here.
Micah McCormick: But then Jonah, 4, verse 5 says that Jonah makes himself a shelter.
Micah McCormick: That's what the NIV says, that's what the CSB says.
Micah McCormick: I think the ESV uses the word booth, this specific word in chapter 4, verse 5, it's not always used in a religious sense, but it is often used in a religious sense.
Micah McCormick: It's the word in Leviticus and Deuteronomy that says it's a festival of booths or a festival of shelters, this celebration where the Israelites make these special tents to commemorate what happened when they came out of Egypt.
Micah McCormick: There's feasting and celebration.
Micah McCormick: It's the same word.
Micah McCormick: I don't see our brother Bob Wepler tonight when he preached from the book of Amos I'll rebuild the booth of David that's fallen.
Micah McCormick: Exact same word there, booth or shelter, that's used.
Micah McCormick: And here's Jonah making himself his own booth.
Micah McCormick: You got God's anger burning down on Nineveh.
Micah McCormick: They repent and God relents.
Micah McCormick: Now Jonah's the one who's angry.
Micah McCormick: He's ticked off.
Micah McCormick: Do you do well to be angry.
Micah McCormick: Jonah's like yeah, I think so.
Micah McCormick: Do you do well to be angry?
Micah McCormick: Jonah's like yeah, I think so.
Micah McCormick: I'm pretty ticked off.
Micah McCormick: And Jonah's one that's angry and the sun is scorching down on him and his head, the sun that God made the burning anger on the Ninevites.
Micah McCormick: Now we've got the sun and Jonah's feeling the sun, so I'll make my own shelter.
Micah McCormick: How does that work for him?
Micah McCormick: Verse number six sorry, let's go.
Micah McCormick: Verse number five.
Micah McCormick: It does say that his shelter he made that little booth that he constructed.
Micah McCormick: It provides shade.
Micah McCormick: But then in verse number eight, it says the sun is being down on Jonah's head so much he wants to die.
Micah McCormick: Well, what about his booth?
Micah McCormick: Well, his booth wasn't really cutting it.
Micah McCormick: His booth wasn't really giving him the shade that he needed.
Micah McCormick: Verse number six there's a plant that provides shade for Jonah's head.
Micah McCormick: So the plant seems to be doing a better job than the booth.
Micah McCormick: Where did the plant come from?
Micah McCormick: The plant came from God, the booth came from Jonah.
Micah McCormick: It's God's shelter, not Jonah's shelter, it's God's plan.
Micah McCormick: God provides the plant to rescue Jonah from his.
Micah McCormick: And then the CSB, I think, says trouble.
Micah McCormick: Most of you say trouble there.
Micah McCormick: In verse number six, what's Jonah's trouble?
Micah McCormick: Like?
Micah McCormick: Well, it was hot out.
Micah McCormick: This is the same word.
Micah McCormick: And if you've got a little note in your Bible, you guys see that little note in your Bible there.
Micah McCormick: Some of you have it, some of you might not.
Micah McCormick: It's okay if you don't, but there's a little note for all of you in the margin there where it says to rescue him from his trouble.
Micah McCormick: And it says in the margin or what's the word there?
Micah McCormick: Disaster or evil.
Micah McCormick: This is the same word that's used at the beginning of the book when Nineveh's trouble comes up before God.
Micah McCormick: Now, was Nineveh's trouble that it was just really hot where they lived in their country?
Micah McCormick: No, nineveh's trouble was the whole constellation of their rebellion.
Micah McCormick: So I think there's an attentional link of those words where here, when it talks about Jonah's trouble, it doesn't just mean it was hot out and he was kind of needed a fan.
Micah McCormick: He was not remembering what the message was.
Micah McCormick: He was angry when he should have had the heart of God for these people.
Micah McCormick: What's going to get him out of the trouble?
Micah McCormick: Well, it's the shade that the Lord provides.
Micah McCormick: It's the shelter that the Lord provides.
Micah McCormick: So's the shelter that the Lord provides.
Micah McCormick: So just something to chew on as you go forward, friends, we can't bring ourselves resurrection, hope and we want to dwell with God.
Micah McCormick: That's a good thing, to long for God's presence in his dwelling.
Micah McCormick: But if we think we're going to create it or craft it on our own, we're in.
Micah McCormick: To create it or craft it on our own, we're in big trouble.
Micah McCormick: It's God who has sent Jesus Christ to tabernacle among us.
Micah McCormick: It's Christ that brings us the ultimate rescue from our trouble and that refuge.
Micah McCormick: We sing songs like in the shadow of a mighty cross, I dear refuge of my weary soul.
Micah McCormick: These are lines that speak of Christ and all that he's done as the true dwelling place of God, as the great hope of all that we need.
Micah McCormick: And isn't God merciful?
Micah McCormick: Let's pray.
Micah McCormick: Lord, your mercy is everlasting.
Micah McCormick: It goes from one generation to the next.
Micah McCormick: We thank you for how rich your word is, that we see you preparing the way for the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Micah McCormick: Even through Old Testament stories, you prepare the way for a display of your mercy that is so astonishing that it will take eternity for us to sing the praises of mercy that has rescued us.
Micah McCormick: Mercy that has rescued us in our self-righteousness and bitterness, mercy that has settled over us and worked, even apart from our own prejudice and apathy.
Micah McCormick: We want to be those who cast ourselves entirely on you.
Micah McCormick: We want to be those who take shade under all that you provide for us in Christ.
Micah McCormick: We want to worship you through Jesus Christ to be a true dwelling place of God in the power of the spirit, and we want this message of hope, this message of mercy, to go out through all the lands.
Micah McCormick: So help us to sing this song as we conclude prayerfully tonight, in Jesus' name, amen.