The Church Called Jonah

# 8 - The Sleeper Jonah 1:5 – “But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.”  But Jonah  We just read the part of the story where the sailors are struggling to keep the ship afloat and save their lives, by disposing of the cargo, so as to lighten the ship, but here’s another scene on that same ship – one that is amusingly strange. Jonah, the one who is the real cause for all this chaos, fear and loss of property, is totally oblivious to the situation around him. The words, “But Jonah,” says a lot. It says that Jonah was in no way perturbed by the situation around him. It says that he was disconnected from the reality around. It says that though he was the cause of the trouble, he did not seem to care about anyone or anything but himself.  Similarly, the world is in turmoil right now. In more ways than one, and I personally believe that we The Church are responsible for what’s happening around us. We have not been the peo...

# 7  The Disposing Jonah 1:5 – “every man cried out to his god and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load.”   And threw the cargo… We just saw how the mariners, each cried out to his god to help them out of the terrible situation they were in. Now we see them going one step further. No other gods but One Notice it says that “every man cried out to his god and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea.” It looks like they did both things at the same time – they cried out and threw the cargo into the sea. It doesn’t seem like they prayed to their gods and waited to see if they would come to their rescue before they decided to do something about it themselves. For those who don’t know the Lord personally, and for those who worship other gods, there’s no way they can have a testimony of their ‘gods’ intervening in their lives and bringing about a solution to their situations or a change to their lives. And the reaso...

# 6 – The Great Cry  Jonah 1:5 – “every man cried out to his god.” We’ve just seen how the mariners, who obviously would have been tough men and who would have weathered many a storm, were so afraid because of the tempest. Now we’re going to look at how they went beyond just experiencing the emotion of fear but see how they expressed their fear and what they did as a result.  As is wont of every human being, when we experience fear, most of us do something as a result. When difficult circumstances are under our control, we do all we can to overcome the situation as smoothly and as quickly as possible, but there are times when things are beyond our control. At that point of our lives, most humans would cry out to God, who has control over all things. As is the case today, so it was in the days of Jonah, the sailors decided to cry out, each man to his god.  When fear is experienced by an entire team, then every member of the team ensures they do something about it and they...

# 5 - The Fearful Mariners  Jonah 1:5 - “Then the mariners were afraid…” The Mariners… When the ship is about to be broken up, then the crew know that they are in real danger. They are not only in danger of losing their ship, but also in danger of losing their lives. They must have been experienced sailors and accustomed to the ship, to the sea and to storms, but this one seemed boisterous enough to instil fear in them. The ones who were entrusted to see the passengers (and Jonah) arrive safely at Tarshish were now not so sure they would make the journey. That’s not a good feeling to have as a passenger. It’s like a ship captain was shouting, “Mayday.”  A Trust Issue  Jonah had entrusted his life into the hands of men whom he did not know and was on a journey fleeing away from the God he did know. Now, these men he had entrusted his life to, who thought they had their ship under control were suddenly not in control anymore. The sailors who had trusted the ship to get th...

# 4 - The Mighty Tempest  Jonah 1:4 - “But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.” But the Lord sent out a Great Wind on the Sea  Jonah had just boarded a ship to Tarshish and was doing a good job of blending with the other travelers, as if nothing was amiss in his life – after all, who knows our thoughts and intentions but God, and we ourselves. And if God doesn’t reveal them to other people, we’re safe isn't it? He had found himself a comfortable place on the ship – at the bottom of it, and settled in for the journey.  Just when Jonah perhaps thought all was well, and taken care of, did the Lord enter the scene again. Verse 4 says, “But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea..” Jonah didn’t seem to take into account a couple of important things; one was that He couldn’t out run God, who was omnipresent, and the other was that, when God wanted to do something, no one, and not...

Jonah 1:3b -   “He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the  Lord .”   He went down to Joppa We’ve seen how Jonah made up his mind to ‘flee from the presence of the Lord,’  I t isn’t long before a rebellious attitude is followed by a rebellious act, and that’s what Jonah did. He was to ld to go to Nineveh (which was in the east), but he decided to go west to Tarshish instead. He headed Joppa, which was his connecting point, from where he would then board a ship to Tarshish. In all my years of travels (with my mother and brothers before marriage), when we traveled across India for no particular reason, I remember the many connecting points we touched to get to where we were going. We know from 2 Kings 14:25 that Jonah hailed from Gath Hepher , which is present day Mashhad , which is at an altitude of 985 metres (3250 feet). We don't know where Jonah was w...

# 2 - The Rebellion  Jonah 1:3a  - “But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord...” 1. BUT  In verse 1, God clearly told Jonah to go and preach against Nineveh as it's wickedness had come up before God. Verse 2 begins with the word, ‘But.’ The verse could have begun with the word, ‘So,’  but it didn’t. The word, ‘So’ would have meant that he decided to obey the Lord and go to Nineveh. By the verse beginning with the word, ‘But,’ we immediately get a sense that something’s amiss. It creates in us a sense of curiosity, as to where this story could be going.  Rebellion seems to be wrapped up in the heart of man and is evident in us humans, right from our childhood. It began in the Garden of Eden and it hasn’t changed since. It’s almost like something comes alive inside of us when we hear an instruction to do something, and we immediately question it, and even before we have a reason to disobey, we decide to do so. Once we decide to r...