Jonah 1: You Can't Outrun the Face of God

Introduction

Away from the face of the LORD, nothing good waits for you. That phrase runs through all of Jonah 1: in verse 3, Jonah rises to flee away from the face of the LORD; at the end of that same verse, he boards a ship away from the face of the LORD; in verse 10, the sailors realize he is fleeing away from the face of the LORD. Three times, the same formula, in a chapter of just sixteen verses. The preacher sums it up in one line: what God wants for his people and for humanity is always good, whether in judgment or in salvation. So moving away from his face means cutting yourself off from the one place where anything good can actually rise up for you.

This chapter puts you in front of an inescapable God, a prophet on the run, and pagan sailors who end up fearing him better than he does. If you have ever wondered why Psalm 139 asks, "Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence?", Jonah 1 gives you the scene: a storm, a ship, a cast lot, and a man who would rather sleep in the hold than go speak to his enemies.

Sermon outline

1. Enemies of God: fear his judgment (v. 1-2)

• "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me." God is not one local god among many.
• The sailors of that day thought in terms of many gods: a god of the mountain, a god of the sea, a god of the rivers, a god of fertility, a god for each people. Here, though, it is the God who made the heavens and the earth, the inescapable God.
• Nineveh, capital of Assyria, was known for its violence, its injustice, and the terror it carefully spread everywhere its power reached. Terrorism is nothing new to our century.
• The message is twofold: God is not indifferent to evil, he is determined to judge it, and he is just as determined to warn people first. He sends his prophet to the sworn enemy before judgment falls. That, already, is grace.

2. Away from the face of the LORD: fear the LORD (again) (v. 3-10)

• Jonah rises, but to go the other way: Joppa as his port, Tarshish as his destination (in modern-day Spain, near the Strait of Gibraltar). He pays the fare and boards, away from the face of the LORD.
• 2 Kings 14 helps you understand the man: Jonah, son of Amittai, was the prophet through whom God announced to Jeroboam II (a wicked king who never broke with the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat) that Israel's borders would be restored. Jonah is a witness to the undeserved grace God shows his own people. And he refuses to let that same grace be announced to Nineveh.
• His flight is both foolish and futile: this is the God of heaven and earth. The preacher pictures it simply: a soccer player hiding behind a corner flag, thinking the referee cannot see him. The whole earth is the LORD's field.
• Contrast in verse 5: the sailors are afraid, each crying out to his own god, throwing cargo overboard. Jonah, meanwhile, goes down into the hold, lies down, and falls fast asleep. A peace that is badly placed.
• The captain shakes him awake: "Why are you sleeping? Get up, call on your God." It is the pagans who call the prophet back to consistency.
• The lot falls on Jonah. He has to own it, stand up straight, and confess: "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." A clear-cut creed, spoken on a raging sea, by a man claiming to flee the very God who commands that sea.

3. Before the LORD: the sailors' awe (v. 11-16)

• The sailors' fear grows in three stages: in verse 5, they are afraid and cry out to their gods; in verse 10, they are seized with great fear when they learn that Jonah is fleeing the Creator God; in verse 16, they are seized with great fear of the LORD when the sea grows calm.
• In verse 14, they call on the LORD by name: "LORD, we pray, do not let us perish for this man's life." They acknowledge his power and sovereignty: "You, LORD, have done as it pleased you."
• In verse 16, after throwing Jonah into the sea and watching the raging waves stop, they offer a sacrifice to the LORD and make vows. Their idols disappear entirely from the story.
• The role reversal is complete: it is the foreign, superstitious, ignorant sailors who end up fearing the LORD, not the prophet.
• No sea and no storm can resist God's will. No human heart is too far away or too hardened for him.

4. From Jonah to Jesus: the true storm calmed

• Mark tells an almost mirror-image scene: a storm, a boat, and a man asleep in the stern. But this time it is not a disobedient prophet, it is the Lord Jesus. Woken up, he is not inconsistent: he commands the wind and the waves to be still, and asks his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?"
• The disciples are seized with great fear: "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" The same progression we saw in Jonah's sailors.
• Far more than a calmed storm, the cross is where God laid his judgment on his own Son so that his wrath against us would be satisfied. That is the storm (the storm of sin and death) that Jesus calmed at Golgotha.
• The death of Jesus is your assurance that God has forgiven all the evil you were guilty of: your hidden idols, your flights, your resignations included.

Key takeaways

• Away from the face of the LORD, nothing good waits, not for you and not for the people God wants to send you to.
• It is impossible to flee the God who made the sea and the dry land. Your flight does not take you away from his presence, it only takes you away from his plan for you.
• Jonah's drama is the gap between what he says about God ("I fear the LORD, the God of heaven") and what he does with God (he disobeys, he goes down, he falls asleep). That same gap threatens every one of us.
• God can use people who seem very far away (even pagan sailors) to call his own people back to consistency, and to make himself feared.
• The Lord is so determined that he moves his plan forward with you or in spite of you. The grace you have received is not just good for you, it is also for your "Ninevehs."

Personal application

1. Where are you fleeing from the face of the LORD right now? What "Tarshish" fare have you already paid to avoid going to your "Nineveh"?
2. Is there a gap between what you sing on Sunday morning and what you live out during the week? Where do you go down to sleep in the hold?
3. Who is your "Nineveh": the person or group you refuse to bring grace to because, in your eyes, they don't deserve to hear it?
4. What do you fear most: losing your reputation, your comfort, your safe routine, or displeasing the God who showed you grace?
5. Are you willing to believe that God can use the "sailors" he places in your path (strangers, the ignorant, the distant) to bring you back to him and to make himself known through them?

Scripture references

• Jonah 1 (WEB)
• Psalm 139 (WEB)
• 2 Kings 14 (WEB)
• Mark 4:35-41 (WEB)
• Acts 1:8 (WEB)

Frequently asked questions

Who is Jonah, and why does he refuse to go to Nineveh?

Jonah, son of Amittai, is a prophet of Israel already known from 2 Kings 14: through him, God had announced the restoration of Israel's borders under the wicked reign of Jeroboam II. Jonah has witnessed the undeserved grace God shows his own people. Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, the sworn enemy, known for its violence. Jonah refuses to go because he does not want that same grace (a warning before judgment) extended to that enemy.

Can you really flee from the presence of God?

No. That is exactly what Psalm 139 reminds us: "If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there." Jonah 1 confirms it in action: the God who made the sea and the dry land sends the wind, sends the storm, and names the guilty man through a cast lot. Fleeing does not take you away from God's presence, it takes you away from the plan he has for you.

Why does this chapter also talk about Jesus?

Because the scene of a prophet asleep in a boat during a storm comes back in the Gospels, this time with Jesus. The one asleep this time is not on the run: he is the Lord who commands the wind and the waves. And the true storm he comes to calm is not just the one on the lake: it is the judgment we deserved, which God laid on him at the cross so that his wrath against us would be satisfied.