Temple Baptist Church - 6-8-2014
Jonah 1:1-2:10
Introduction:
A. We have been looking at some of the seas mentioned in the bible and making some biblical applications to our lives.
1. Seas are a beautiful type of problems, troubles, trials, and hardships. I, once again, want to say that life is hard! Someone once said that you are going into a valley, in a valley, or just coming out of a valley.
2. We hear such phrases as, “When it rains, it pours!” Sometimes troubles come few and far between and, at other times, they seem to come in bunches. When you realize that life is hard, you can make it. As long as we think that life is a “bed of roses,” we are “steam rolled” when hard times come. You have to brace yourself.
3. It is like going to the dentist or doctor, knowing that the needle is coming and you brace yourself. If I know that I am going to get stuck, I am ready for it but if someone walks up behind me and jabs me in the seat with a hatpin … Oh well, I guess you know the answer to that.
B. Some problems are out of our control while others are of our making and, to some degree, in our control. The latter is the case with Jonah.
1. The problem was one of his making.
2. The problem was one that he could have fixed at any time.
3. The problem was one that escalated as Jonah continued in his rebellion.
C. Now, a short summation of this little, four chapter book:
1. Jonah was a prophet of the Lord. (1:1)
2. Jonah was disobedient and ran from the Lord. (1:2-3)
3. Jonah’s life started an immediate downward trend. (1:3-5) The word “down” is found three times in these verses along with “so he paid the fare thereof.”
4. The Lord prepared a great storm. (1:4) “The Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.”
5. Jonah’s rebellion touched the lives of others. (1:5-16) The mariners were caught up in the storm at sea along with Jonah.
6. The Lord prepared a great fish. (1:17) Matthew 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
7. Jonah repented to some degree, was vomited up, and preached. (2:1-3:4)
8. The Lord honored Jonah’s preaching but not Jonah’s attitude. (3:5-10)
9. The Lord continued His work in the life of Jonah to restore him. (4:1-11) God never gives us!
10. The last word the Lord ever said to His prophet was “cattle!” (4:11) We do not know the end of Jonah’s life because the bible falls silent at this point in order to make a point: getting right was Jonah’s choice!
D. Now, I want to give us three things concerning the “Sea of Chastisement.”
1. The Reason for the Sea.
a. Rebellion and disobedience. Jonah had prophesied before so I do not believe that the disobedience was that Jonah was not willing to preach.
2 Kings 14:25 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher.
b. Jonah’s rebellion and disobedience were in relation to WHERE God told him to go preach. The people of Nineveh were Assyrian people: the arch enemies of God and a very cruel people!
c. Jonah was like most of us: he wanted to be obedient to the commands of his choosing and disobedient to the commands that he did not like!
d. So, the sea was one of chastisement.
2. The Reaction to the Sea.
a. For a while, Jonah continue in his rebellion. He told the mariners to throw him overboard instead of bowing before God and repenting.
b. Jonah was not afraid of drowning in the sea but he knew nothing about the great fish that awaited. Too often, rebellious children of God are not afraid of dying and will continue to rebel not knowing that there are some things worse than dying!
3. The Revelation of the Sea.
a. The sonship of Jonah!
Deuteronomy 8:5 Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.
Hebrews 12:7-9 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? (8) But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. (9) Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
b. The love of God for His children!
Proverbs 3:12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
Proverbs 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. (Betimes – to dawn or early at a task.)
Hebrews 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
c. The resolve of God to do what is best for His children!
Hebrews 12:11-13 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (12) Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; (13) And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. (The intention of the Lord is to restore, not to punish!)
Hebrews 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
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