Wake Up, Jonah ("2 Questions" Day 2)

Today's Bible study workshop picks up with Jonah 1:4-7. As Jonah runs away from the presence of the Lord, God sends a great storm. In this episode, Rachael and Matt explore questions and statements about the storm and the danger of "sleeping" too long. 

Click Here for week two homework sheet

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

AFTER this episode: Complete DAY THREE Homework (Jonah 1:8-12)

Transcript

Fruitful Faith And Eternal Impact

SPEAKER_01 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

Meet Matt And Rachel

SPEAKER_01 1:04

daily, and grow to look more like Jesus. We're glad you're here. Let's walk this journey together.

Homework Method Recap

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Hello, I'm Rachel and this is Matt, and we are on day two of our homework. So if you remember the process, you should not be listening to this until you have done your own homework. So if you have not spent some time doing two statements and a question or a question and two statements on Jonah 1 verses 4 through 7, hit pause now and go spend some time in Jonah 1 verses 4 through 7, and then come back and you're welcome then to join in the discussion that Matt and I are going to have about these verses as we share our statements and questions that we can that we kind of felt like the Lord was prompting us as we meditated on those verses. So, Matt, if you would like to open us in prayer, we can jump in and talk about Jonah verses, Jonah 1 verses 4 through 7.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Sounds good. Will do.

Opening Prayer

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for this story, this familiar story that that we've heard in many cases since we were children about Jonah and this great fish. And and Lord, I pray that you will give us uh fresh eyes to be able to see what your spirit would reveal to us in this today. So I pray, Father, that you'll just move mightily, that you've already, I pray, done that in those who are listening today, and that as we as we move through this text, that we will just see your character more fully and more completely. And in it, Lord, we will be driven to worship you all the more. Lord, we love you, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Amen.

Review Of Jonah 1:1–3

SPEAKER_01 2:46

So I thought it might be helpful if we started with just taking a look, a quick, quick recap from yesterday. So yesterday was day one of this study, and and we were in Jonah 1, 1 through 3. And of course, this is where the word of the Lord came to Jonah saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, a great city, call out against it for their sin, their evil has been has come up before me. And Jonah didn't do that. He instead got up, he fled to Tarshus. He went the other direction from the presence of the Lord, and he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarsus, and then he paid the fare, went down into it, and went with them and away from the presence of the Lord. And that was where we started yesterday. So some of the some of the statements and questions, we we observe that Jonah knew the will of the Lord and he chose to run away from the presence of the Lord. Uh we we ask questions like, well, why did God send Jonah to Nineveh in the first place? And and why did Jonah disobey that? And and and and then we sort of observe that that the rebellion of people matters to God. The people in Nineveh matter to God and that he will pursue those who are even in rebellion against him. And and there were there were other good questions and and statements that we described and kind of worked through yesterday, but but just to give you a little bit of a setting as we jump in today to that next text.

Reading Jonah 1:4–7

SPEAKER_01 4:06

So today we're in Jonah 1, 4 through 7. And Rachel, would you like to maybe read that text and then we'll we'll start unpacking that as well.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

You know, Psalm 24 says that the earth and everything in it and the world and all of its inhabitants belong to the Lord. And I don't know that there is a better picture of those truths than than in the book of Jonah. So yeah, let's pick up in Jonah 1. We're gonna read verses 4 through 7, and I'm going to read it from the NIV. You are welcome to pick any any translation that is comfortable for you. I don't always use the NIV, but today I'm gonna read it from the NIV. Jonah 1, verses 4 through 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 Lord Sends The Storm

SPEAKER_00 5:06

the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below the deck where he lay and fell as 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 so that 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. And they cast lots, and the lots fell on Jonah.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

So the story is is building, the tension is growing, the drama is is kicking in now, and obviously there's a lot going on here. And so as we kind of take a step back, remember what we're going for here is maybe a statement and a couple of questions, or if you prefer, a question and a couple of statements, but just but just keeping it pretty simple and keeping it limited to this text. So in this case, you may have probably do have some familiarity with where this story is going. And so that may inform some of your statements and questions, which is fine, but primarily we really just want it focused in this part of the text and not get too far ahead or behind where we are in that text. And the goal here, remember, as always, is not to master a method as a skill or something like that. The goal is to use this to tune our hearts to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in his

Why Jonah Wouldn’t Pray

SPEAKER_01 6:25

word so that we can ultimately know better what he has for us in it. So uh, Rachel, is there a statement that um that comes to mind for you in this that really you zeroed in on?

SPEAKER_00 6:37

I think one of the things that stood out to me is the Lord sent the storm. And so that was my statement that the Lord sent the storm, and the storm was violent, it it threatened the ship.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Right, right. And we talk about how in this method, this these uh statement and two questions, statements very often point to, if they if they're not specifically, they often at least point to some kind of a timeless truth. And so when you say the Lord set the storm, there's probably something to that for us, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Yeah. Definitely. I think we can we can see something that's that's true about God. And we we want to be careful about the kind of implications that we draw from that. But it is true that sometimes storms come into our lives and they are sent or allowed by the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Certainly under his sovereignty and often sent directly for his purposes in our lives, which its purposes are always good,

How Can You Sleep

SPEAKER_01 7:40

but the storm can be hard. I I made an observation in in terms of a statement here, which was really more about Jonah, which was for some reason, Jonah did not want to cry out to God. I mean, it certainly appears that way in this text. He, I mean, if you look at what he did, he hid in the inner part of the ship, and he had to ultimately be dragged out, even in the middle of all this storm and chaos that's going on. And and even then, he didn't exactly cop to it. He didn't, he didn't it acknowledge or admit what was going on. He waited for them to cast lots to try to find out who's at fault here, and he he knew it, but he just he just for some reason didn't want to cry out to God in this setting. So that's just that's something that jumped out to me in the text. And I think there's again, if statements point to timeless truths often, then I would just say this is a you know not an uncommon condition of the human heart. And there are there are things about it that remind me of my own heart, where where I'm you know, if I'm in rebellion, the thing I need most and that would most resolve everything is just to cry out to the Lord, and yet when I'm in rebellion, for some reason, I often don't want to cry out to the Lord. My my sin just is is strong and it pushes me away. What about questions? What are some questions that uh that

Modern Idols And Desperate Prayers

SPEAKER_01 9:07

arise just from reading this text?

SPEAKER_00 9:10

One of the questions that I had comes from verse six when the captain goes to Jonah and says, How can you sleep? Right? They're in this storm, their their livelihoods, their their very lives are being threatened. And so the captain goes to him and says, How can you sleep? Get up, call on your God. Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish. And just in its context, God is sending Jonah to Nineveh to take notice of people so that they will not perish. And now the captain is saying to Jonah, We're about to perish. How like maybe maybe your God could save us? Yeah, how can you sleep? And so that kind of became my question from from this is how how can you sleep? Because we live in a world that that is is headed to destruction. There are people that will die and will eternally perish. And so my question to myself is how can you how can I sleep? Yeah, like how can I be asleep while that's happening around me?

SPEAKER_01 10:21

You almost think of this of this pagan captain of the ship coming down and saying, Look, do you I'm I'm in trouble here. What I've got is not working, and and everything is literally falling apart.

False Gods Versus The True God

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Do you have anything that could help?

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

And the world is crying out. And I mean, they may not always consciously, and they may often resist, but but the world is crying out, everything is failing, none of none of what I have is working. Do you have anything? And the answer to that is yes, we do, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:53

That's right. And that was my second question is that they were all crying, like all the sailors were crying out to their gods. And that was my second question is what does that look like today? You know, when people are scared, they're crying out to something, and that will tell you what their God is. And and then you juxtaposed that with the captain, is like, maybe your God could help. What do you have? Like these gods are not solving the problem. Maybe your God could help. And that kind of led me back to how can I sleep?

SPEAKER_01 11:29

Yeah, yeah, right. I had uh questions that were similar, and sometimes you will find, by the way, as you're as you're writing down a statement and a couple of questions, you you might find, and I and I I'm new to this this method, this, and so I'm practicing it for the first time with many of you. But what what I'm finding already is that the questions and the statements come more readily, and and with more of them, uh the more you do this, right? I mean, I'm sure you probably have experienced that because you're more familiar with this

God’s Timing In The Storm

SPEAKER_01 12:00

method, Rachel. But but even on here on just day two, I'm like, I have quite a few questions and a couple, two or three statements here that could could work. And so I'll just mention a couple of questions. I had some of the same, a couple of the same ones that you did, particularly that how could Jonah sleep, although you took it to a place that that I thought was much more aimed at application, which I'm which I didn't have yet in my question. But I will say too that I I wonder I wonder how many false gods were called on before the one true God was actually sought by these men. Right? I mean they all have their gods. And how many false gods were called on with obviously no no uh outcome or no benefit before they turned to the one true God? And that's cost was high.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

I mean the ship was coming apart, they lost the cargo.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

I mean, while they're crying out to to false gods who have no power, how many of those before ultimately, finally, in in the nick of time, crying out to the one true God? And then and then the other one that I sort of wondered about as I'm thinking about you know what God's doing here in Jonah's life, is I thought, why did God wait to force Jonah's hand on this until he was already well on his way in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of the sea, with all these other guys? Like he could he was obviously prepared to inter in this case was prepared to intervene in a very dramatic, powerful way. He could have done that at any point. So, and his timing's always perfect too. We know that as just a biblical principle. So,

Practicing The Method Faithfully

SPEAKER_01 13:45

what is it about this? Well, why did he wait until this moment to force his hand? Why did he wait until he got on the ship and got out into the sea a distance and was with all of these other guys? What was it about that that was important to God's timing?

SPEAKER_00 14:04

I think those are good good questions to to ponder and and to think about. The text may help shed some light on that as you continue to read. You may get some of those questions answered. But at this point, you know, I would encourage you to just pray, you know, pray while you're working through it yourself, but but pray also now, just you know, just to ask the Lord to to show you truths about himself, ask him to show you ways that you can apply this story and the responses of the sailors, the responses of Jonah to your own heart and to your own life to see what maybe he's calling you to do. You know, are there people that that are perishing around you that you need to wake up and and start crying out to your God for them?

unknown 14:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

But to to ask the Lord to do

Testing Insights And Staying Grounded

SPEAKER_00 15:00

that and ask him, you know, as as you read through that, are there verses that stand out to you that you want to meditate on or uh commit to memory? You know, the captain went to him and said, How can you sleep? is one that when I work through this, that I I just rattled around on all day is get up and call on your God. Right? Like, how can you sleep? Get up and call on your God. Maybe he'll take notice of us and we won't perish. So, you know, just kind of thinking through are there verses in there that that stand out to you that that you would like to commit to memory that that you want to meditate on.

unknown 15:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

The other thing that I'll just just encourage you with as well as you're doing this, and we're again we're taking it in a small bite every day, and that's really what the what the process, what the method is here. I think what you'll find is that there are there are cues each of these days, even if you're only doing a couple of verses, there are cues in the statements and the questions you ask that can point us toward, as we've said, timeless truths, practical application, things that I will change, that that I will do to respond to this truth. Those are those are cues that kind of come up in this. But ultimately, where we're headed here is you you would use this over a period of significant amount of time. And as you write those down, those questions and those statements in your journal, in your notebook along the way, then what you're going to do is you're going to have these natural places where you pause and reflect on the past several days or maybe a couple of weeks, because it's just a natural place in the story. Just take a moment, take a breath, and reflect on it. And

Next Assignment And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_01 16:35

often what you'll find is as you look back at those and you see multiple statements, multiple questions, some of those will answer each other. You'll you'll notice as you're as you're making statements or questions in a couple of days something that happened yesterday or two days ago that you're going to want to circle back to and and connect the dots with. So I say all that to say we won't have time, even in this six-day demonstration, to take you through more than just basically a chapter or so of Jonah, but you're but there's going to be this natural pause moment where you can take a look and go, okay, well, what has the Lord shown me over the last six days? You know, what kinds of questions and statements are am I writing down? And I think what you'll find is these are questions and statements that are prompted by the Holy Spirit in your heart to illuminate the truths of scripture. And that's where you start kind of really being amazed at how he's at work.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

And your statements and questions do not have to be our statements and questions.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

No, they're probably not.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

The word of God is so deep that you can mine it your whole life and never find all of the things that are in it. So, you know, I think like if you're like, oh, that's not what I got out of that, don't that's okay. Do not be alarmed.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

I mean, you want to test everything. I think that's that's the one caution here is that you can get completely different, but completely biblical truth and and movement of the same Holy Spirit that we have, and have different questions and different statements here. Test everything. Make sure that we're not following error or just going far afield of what the core intent of the of the text is. But to you to Rachel's point, I mean, this is it's we know it's supernatural. That's that's what's so awesome about this, is that there's it because it's supernatural, you can't get to the end of it. You can't get to the bottom of it. It it's just gonna keep keep generating more and more and more spiritual nourishment all the way.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

And there are good places to test that. You know, uh as David Platt used to say, if you're getting something out of out of it that that the saints and studying the word have never gotten out of it, that should be a cautionary tale to you.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

He probably hasn't waited all this time just to reveal core biblical truth to you for the first time. That's that's not true.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

He's never shown anyone before. But it uh what I'm saying is But it doesn't have to be the same thing we'll do. It doesn't have to be the same thing that that we're doing in these ten minutes. That that if you read that and you're like, oh wow, I focus more on verse five than on verse six. Great. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Great, yeah. So that takes us to the end of day two. And uh when we pick up again tomorrow, you're gonna before you tune back in to another episode of the podcast, you're going to read Jonah 1, 8 through 14, a little bit longer section this time. So we're talking about six verses. You're gonna take that passage of scripture, Jonah 1, 8 through 14. You're gonna come up with a statement, a couple of questions. Again, you might find yourself writing down more statements and more questions than just just one or two of each. But that's gonna be because the Lord is at work and He's doing He's doing a mighty work and He's gonna continue to to to do that. And as you practice this, you're gonna become more in tune with what the Holy Spirit is doing and saying in your heart as well, as He illuminates the sc the truths of Scripture. So go ahead and and be in that text tonight, tomorrow, before you pick up the next podcast. We'll do the same thing and we'll be back here to to kind of talk through what the Lord's showing us as the Lord shows you great truths in his in his word as well. Rachel, would you anything to add before maybe you close us in prayer today? No, we're in Jonah eight uh verses eight through twelve. Oh, I'm sorry, did I get that wrong? Yes. Why didn't I have eight through fourteen? Okay, so Jonah one verses eight through twelve. Okay. Four verses then. There we go. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Why don't you close us in prayer and we'll pick up most gracious heavenly father, we praise you that that the earth and everything in it does belong to you and the people and the whole world and all of its inhabitants also belong to you. And Father, we just first want to just take some time to think about that and to praise you for that, that everything and everyone belongs to you because you have created it. And Father, we know that your heart is that none should perish. And so as we just reflect on Jonah and what you are showing us in his word, Father, I pray that you will help us to not be sleepers in a world that is perishing. That Father, that we will be obedient to you, that we will open our hearts and our minds and not try to run from your will. That Father, when the storms come, that we will wake up and we will ask ourselves how those are being used by you and in our lives, that we'll look for you and your purposes in it. Father, I pray that you'll make us aware of the false gods that others cry out to in their times of trouble, and also that you'll show us the false gods that we are tempted to cry out to in times of trouble. And Father, we pray that in all of this that you will just make us more and more like you. Because Father, we know that you are a God who takes notice of us and you are a God who saves. And so we ask you to do that work in our lives. We ask it in Jesus' name.

unknown 22:16

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

Amen. So we hope you'll enjoy your time in uh in Jonah tonight and tomorrow, and we'll be back here tomorrow with more of the story.