Jonah Knew God’s Will And Chose To Flee ("2 Questions" Day 1)

This week's personal Bible study begins with the opening verses of the familiar story of Jonah. In this episode, Matt and Rachael demonstrate the "Two Questions and a Statement" method as they walk alongside you in your study. 

Click Here for week two homework sheet

BEFORE this episode: Complete DAY ONE Homework (Jonah 1:1-3)

AFTER this episode: Complete DAY TWO Homework (Jonah 1:4-7)

Transcript

Fruitful Faith And 2 Peter 1

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Do you ever feel like your life just isn't as productive or effective as it should be? As followers of Jesus, we want our short time on earth to have eternal impact, but often we feel like we're falling short. The good news is that Scripture gives us a promise, a life that's never ineffective or unproductive in knowing Jesus Christ. In 2 Peter 1, we're told to build on our faith, adding goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. As these qualities grow, they keep us fruitful and effective for God's kingdom. I'm Matt Morrow, and my wife Rachel and I have spent nearly 20 years teaching God's Word and walking with people in every stage of faith. Our passion is to see lives permanently and radically transformed by Scripture applied. Adding to your faith is here to help you understand biblical truth, practice it daily, and grow to look more like Jesus. We're glad you're here. Let's walk this journey together.

Study Method: Statement And Questions

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Hi friends, welcome to day two, week two, day two of how to study the word. So we are in the first day of homework from the method, a statement and two questions. And so we are going to, I hope if you have not yet read Jonah 1, verses 1 through 3, hit pause now and go read that and write a statement and two questions after prayerful consideration of that passage and then come back here. So if you have read it and you have prayerfully considered your statements, statement and questions, then we're gonna kind of work through that together today. And so our process every time we study the word is that we always open with prayer, that we don't read the word without first asking the Lord to do what only he can do, which is by his spirit reveal himself to us. And so, Matt, would you pray for us as we begin?

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Absolutely, Lord. Thank you so much for your goodness to us. Thank you for your just your heart for us to know you better and for your generosity in giving us your word so that we can do that. I pray, Lord, that you

Prayer Before Opening Scripture

SPEAKER_02 2:30

will open our eyes to see the truth of your word, that by the power of your spirit we will understand what you have for us in it, and that through that we will know you better. We will be shaped and formed in your image as a result. Lord, thank you, and we just look forward to seeing what you will reveal to us over the course of the next few minutes and even in the days ahead. Lord, we love you, and in Jesus'

Reading Jonah 1:1–3

SPEAKER_02 2:52

name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Amen. All right, so our verse today is Jonah 1, verses 1 through 3, and it says, The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Ametai, 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. So, Matt, I guess you have taken some time to prayerfully consider that.

Jonah’s Disobedience Observed

SPEAKER_00 3:34

So, what were your statement and questions?

SPEAKER_02 3:37

So the statement that I observe here is that while I don't know, I don't know his motivation yet, I don't know any of that. What I do know is that Jonah knew the will of the Lord and he chose to run away from the presence of the Lord. So that's that's to me the the overriding statement or observation that he knew the will of the Lord and he chose to run away from the presence of the Lord. And then the questions that I asked were, why did God send Jonah to Nineveh? We don't know that yet from the text alone. And then why did Jonah choose what he chose? Why did Jonah disobey God in this direction? We, you know, we don't we don't know that either. So this these first three verses raise a lot of questions, but clearly setting the stage for for a pretty dramatic uh story that's about to unfold.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

So the statement that that I wrote, and I think you could write a statement just on verse one that the word of the Lord, right? So God speaks to his servants.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Yeah, which is a timeless truth.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Right. And he is uh commanding his servant to preach against Nineveh because of its wickedness. So he wants his servant to share truth in Nineveh because of their wickedness, like their wickedness has come up before him. But the statement that I wrote kind of focused more on verse three that that is a summary of Jonah's action. So Jonah ran

Why Nineveh And Why Jonah Ran

SPEAKER_00 5:20

from the Lord, he went to Joppa, he found a ship, he paid the fare, he went aboard.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

So and each part of that matters, right? Each part of that matters. Would you say it again?

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Right. So so Jonah, like he ran away, right? So he went to Joppa, he found a ship, he paid the fare, he went aboard, and he fled the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

Right. And all of that, of course, is completely the opposite of what God asked him to do.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Right. So so there's there's another thing that kind of jumped out of me. You said there were no rules about how many of these you could do. So so the so there's another observation here. I I wrote down my one statement, which was that Jonah knew the will of the Lord and chose to run away from the presence of the Lord. That's an observation, it's a statement of truth in there.

Wickedness Coming Before God

SPEAKER_02 6:12

But but it also strikes me as I as I look at this, and even as I hear you describe your own your own statement and questions, is that is that the rebellion of man, the rebellion of people matters to God. And he will pursue them. And so that's what's happening right here with Nineveh. We're told God, God says to Jonah, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it. Why? For their evil has come up before me. So the rebellion of people matters to God. And he pursues He pursues them.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Yeah. And that was one of my questions from it is what does it mean for a city's wickedness or for wickedness to come before God?

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. It's not language we really use for that kind of thing very often.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

So And it's not uh I guess it's not a way that I very often think about wickedness either.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

That it's coming coming up before God. Like I don't I don't think about it that way.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

And maybe I should be.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Well, maybe so. And I and I don't either. But I mean, I think about like how we I mean we know wickedness exists, we know that it's that it's an offense to God, we know that it's that it's counter to his plan and to his and his will, and we know that he's holy, and so wickedness is is just again, it's an affront to him. But I don't always think of my own wickedness like coming up before him. Like it's it's almost like the wickedness interrupts an otherwise holy existence of the Lord. It's like what you know, where is this coming from? It's just emerging and and sort of it demands to be dealt with when that happens. That's different than just something that's going on in the background.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah, it is. And

“Open Doors” Versus Obedience

SPEAKER_00 8:08

another one of my questions came just from Jonah, right? So Jonah runs away from the Lord, he goes down to Joppa, where he finds a ship, he pays the fare, he goes aboard, and he flees. And I think about that a lot, those statements a lot, especially when I find myself kind of tempted, I guess, to or find myself in in disobedience to just kind of think through that process, right? That that when I'm in that Jonah ran away from the Lord. So when I feel myself kind of running away from the Lord, like what direction kind of am I going? Like he found a ship that was doing what he wanted to do.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Yeah, there's ships going everywhere, probably, probably some going in the right direction. And he was like, nah, not that one.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Right. And he found a ship kind of going where he already wanted to go.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

He paid the fare. Like he thought that he was in control of the cost, right? He paid the fare.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

He even, even, of course, we know everybody knows where this is going. He even even thought he knew what the cost was.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

The cost was gonna be a lot greater.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Right. Which uh you will find in scripture is the nature of sin. Right, right, right. It always demands more than we than we expect from it. But he he went aboard, right? And then he flees. And and so I think about that, and I know even times when we've we've talked to our children that the fact that Jonah went to the port and found a ship going to Joppa doesn't mean that was the Lord's will for him to go to Joppa.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Right. And we do this, don't we? We're like, oh look, there's a ship, it's an open door, here I go.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Like I already didn't want to go to Tarshish, you know, you know. So we can confirm or I wanted to go to Tarshish,

Counting The Real Cost Of Sin

SPEAKER_00 10:10

right? So, like I didn't want to go to Nineveh, and there's a ship, and it happens to be going to Tarshish, which is where I want to go anyway.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

So the Lord opened a door.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

The Lord opened a door, and we have to just be careful about that. And you see it, you see it here in Jonah that he got down there and he found what he was, he found what he was looking for.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Which we always can.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

And we can often find what we are looking for, and so that doesn't equate to obedience or God's will. And you know, and so I do think that's something as we think through kind of applications to just test ourselves, you know, do I is this really what what am I listening to the Lord or am I looking for an answer that I want to find? Am I looking for a way out? And then trying to back my way into thinking that that was God's will. And um, so I think those are just good things to think about. Even thinking just through like he paid the fare, like the scripture tells us, like that's a detail that that God included in his word, that he paid the fare. And to your point, he thought that he knew what the cost of this was gonna be. And and it's not what the cost is going to end up being. But we we do that too, right? Sometimes we make these kind of calculations and we think our disobedience isn't gonna cost us very much.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

We always underestimate it. We always underestimate the cost of our own sin, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Well, I was just gonna say, you know, we don't ever want to go farther than scripture goes or try to to read things in or to over over spiritualize or assign things that aren't there, but we also don't want to miss the details that God does include for us.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Yeah, no details there by accident.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

We don't always we don't always

Details In Scripture Matter

SPEAKER_02 12:10

know precisely why it's there. And we certainly are capable of reading things into a text, we have to be very careful about that. But every detail is there on purpose. There are no accidental details in the in the word.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

And all of scripture is is there to train and and correct and rebuke and lead us to righteousness.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

So for the for most people who are maybe listening to this or or trying this, they're trying it for the first time. And so, or many will be at least, trying it for the first time. And I and I'm pretty new to it myself, to this particular method. So what are some what are some things that as people think about e whether it's this particular passage or just just the the approach as they first start trying to do this? Are there are there things that you're thinking about as you're listening that are that were complicated or that were maybe not as not as maybe didn't move as easily as you thought it would would move or something like that. Uh Rachel, what have you heard? When you've worked with others on this kind of a method, what kinds of things do people kind of bump up against here that can be challenging, especially as they're just getting started?

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Um probably what I run up against most is people thinking that like their questions were simple.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Yeah. Like I don't feel like my question's very good.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

There's not there's something like there's much here. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Or, you know, or I just I just repeated what I read as my statement.

Getting Started With The Method

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Right. I mean, uh you want to be prayerful and start there and and do do what you see, right? Like as as you work through that, and oftentimes as you have those questions, you can come back to that. And then once you have finished reading, so from from Jonah 1 through 3, move that reading to prayer, right? Something from that, something from God's heart for Nineveh, something about sin coming before the Lord, something about Jonah's response. What in there can you move to prayer for yourself, for this world, for the people around us? Like, what in that can you start thinking about that I can can move into prayer? And I think we we live in a place where a world where our sin has to be coming before the Lord. Yeah, yeah. Like whatever that means, I I don't know, but but that has to be happening. So, so just ask the Lord, right? Like what out of this should I be praying about? And then what is the the thing that I'm gonna meditate and memorize? So, you know, is there a verse in there that really stands out to you? You know, is there something that you're like, I would really like to to commit that to memory? Um, or

Simple Questions God Can Multiply

SPEAKER_00 15:10

is it a statement or a question that you just want to meditate on? You know, as as I did this, I really thought about Jonah's response. You know, that he he wanted to run, he went down, he found a ship, paid the fare, he boarded the ship, he fled. You know, and just kind of asking myself throughout the day, like, Lord, show me places that when you're asking me to do something, that I'm not willing, that I'm trying to flee, or that I'm looking for what I want instead of what you're asking me to do. And so that became kind of what I meditated on that week that day was just asking the Lord to show me those places of disobedience, small and big, in my own life.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

So when I heard you talking earlier about the what what people often will sort of feel as they're just starting this method, is that maybe my statement or my question doesn't amount to much. Like it feels kind of simple or or just not very insightful or whatever. What I want to do is just encourage people, if if you're if you're feeling that way, if you're thinking about that, for some reason, what the Lord brought to brought to my mind is just as you were describing that, because our our pastor recently preached on the feeding of the 5,000, and and I'm thinking about how how here's this this kid in this place where he has five loaves and two fish, and and the and the disciples and Jesus are asking, does anybody have anything that can help with all these hungry people? And he could he must have come and thought, well, what I have isn't much. It certainly is not gonna help much with a problem this big. It's kind of simple and there's just not much going on here, but you can have it, Lord, if if you if you want it and want to put it to use. And look what Jesus did with it. He fed 5,000 people with that. And so I I don't know if, again, for whatever reason that came to mind. I'm thinking, if you feel like your questions or your statement are nothing much, if it just feels like it's just a little too like I should surely be getting more out of this, I should have more. Don't do that. Don't do that. Do the same

Daily Faithfulness Over Perfection

SPEAKER_02 17:20

thing with your questions and your statement that this kid did with the five loaves and the two fish. Just present them to Jesus and and see and marvel at what he will do and how he will grow that mustard seed bigger and bigger over time. It's it's really it's really exciting to see. And I think you will experience this for yourself if you stay faithful in doing this each day. We talked earlier about how there the homework that we have going along with this study is not burdensome. It's not it's not a heavy lift of homework, but it is daily. It's very important that it happen daily. That's whatever else happens. If you, if you feel like you're clumsy in your study, if you feel like your questions and your statement are too simple or not or not very insightful or whatever else, forget about all of that. Just maintain the faithfulness of daily time and stick with it and present it to the Lord and see and marvel what He will do. Absolutely. So we want to wrap up here, but I want to remind you that that we have we will just pick up right where we left off tomorrow in the book of Jonas. So meditate

Closing Prayer And Homework

SPEAKER_02 18:24

on those questions and meditate on the statement that you that you wrote down and allow the Lord to continue to cultivate and work that. We want to pray for you and for each other as we ask him to do that very thing in our lives. And then, and then we want to we want to obviously encourage you in the word as well. So, Rachel, you want to lead us?

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Oh, absolutely. Let's most gracious heavenly father, we just come to you and and we first we praise you that you are a speaking God, that your word still comes to your servants just as it came to Jonah. And Father, we do praise you that you are still a pursuing God. Father, that you are sending your people out because you are concerned about those who are lost and those who are wicked. And so, Father, we we just praise you because that is your heart, that you are a God who pursues those who are lost. And so we praise you for that. And we praise you that you, that you do still speak to your servants, even when we're obviously not worthy of of your of your words. And so, Father, we praise you for that. And Father, I just pray that that as we go out today, that we will just think about your word, that we'll meditate it on it all day long, that you will just remind us what rebellion looks like, and that you will remind us of your heart and your love and just bring this story and and this response to mind, Father, so that it is instructive to us. And I pray that you'll show us ways that we are being disobedient to you. That Father, that you will show us ways that we have bought into the deceitfulness of sin. And that you will just reveal that to us. And Father, I know that that this idea that wickedness comes up before you is more than I can understand. But Father, I know that we live in a world where wickedness is constantly coming before you. And we thank you for your mercy and your grace. And that that was not the last word that you sent your son to redeem us from our sins and to give us new life and to give us life eternal. And so, Father, we praise you because in Christ is life and it is the light to all men. And so we praise you for that. And we ask you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Amen. And we continue to pray that the Lord will show you new and glorious time in his word each day. So as we prepare for that, again, the homework is in the show notes. You can download that. But Jonah 1, verses 4, 5, 6, and 7 for tomorrow. We'll pick up right where we left off today in the book of Jonah, where you'll have a new statement and two new questions.