Salvation Belongs to the Lord - Jonah 1-2

0:55How can we reconcile God's mercy and God's justice? Another question that we'll see in the book of Jonah is: how do we reconcile the fact that God has a chosen people, the Jews, and yet he still loves and has a plan to save the Gentiles, the non-Jews? So how do we reconcile the fact that the Jews were chosen, elected by God, and yet God still does things in the lives of Gentiles for non-Jews and still blesses them? As well. And we'll see both of those questions get partially answered today or as we study the book of Jonah. Also, as we've gone through these studies, since the minor prophets and really Old Testament history is so unfamiliar for so many of us, exercise we've continued to do over and over is go over some big dates. We call them fuzzy dates. So if we were to back up all the way to the year 2000 BC, the people that would be living around 2000 BC would be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's a good marker for us. And then if we move forward 500 years, that's where we get Moses and Aaron in that generation. So 2,000 is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Around 1500 is Moses and Aaron. Around 1,000 is Saul and David and Solomon. And then around 500 is when the kingdom was sent into exile for 70 years. They come back, they live in the land, and of course, around the year one, around the turn of the millennium, is when Jesus is born. So 2,000 is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 1,500 is Moses and Aaron. 1,000 is Saul and David and Solomon. 500 is the exile, and zero is around where Jesus was born. And if you remember what each of those figures did in Old Testament history, then you can really have a grasp of what's going on with the people of God. Because if you remember that it was Abraham's grandson that was the one who took all of his sons to go live down in Egypt, Israel took all of his sons to go live in Egypt around the year 2000. And if you remember that it was Moses that God used to bring them out of Egypt, well, now you've got a good 500-year chunk where for most of that time, Israel was down in Egypt. Well, if you remember that Moses helped oversee the building of the tabernacle, and that Solomon in the year 1000 helped oversee the building of the temple, now you've got another big 500-year chunk from 1500 to 1000, where the tabernacle was where people went to meet the Lord. It was a period of the judges before the kings came. If you remember that Solomon in 1000 did build the temple, but that temple was destroyed in the exile in 500, then you've got another big 500-year chunk of Israel's history where they do have the temple in Jerusalem and they're living under the rule of the kings. For most of the time, the split kingdoms. So, all of that to orient us, that right now we are in between that period, as we study Jonah, we're in between that period of 1000 and 500, when 1000 BC and 500 BC, when Solomon had finished the temple around in the 900s.

4:30Had finished the temple and it hadn't been destroyed yet. That will come several hundred years later. And Jonah is prophesying around the year 800 to 750 BC. So we're right in the middle of the time where God is dwelling in his temple. Solomon had built this temple. God's glory entered into it. And that's where the people of God interacted with the Lord. That's where he heard their prayers from. That's where the center of their worship is. And that's going to be important for tonight as we study Jonah, because Jonah is going to mention that several times: that God is in his temple. He hears Jonah's prayer from his temple. Jonah can't wait to get back to the temple to sacrifice.

5:14His life is centered around this temple because that's where he meets the Lord. When we study Joel and Obadiah, that was about 50 to 100 years before what we're going to study in Jonah. And the reason why we know that is because of 2 Kings 14. Hopefully you turn there. 2 Kings 14, verse 23. In the 15th year of Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Judah, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned 41 years. So remember that there are after Solomon in the year 931, the kingdom split into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. And the southern kingdom was called Judah, the northern kingdom was called Israel, and they each have a kingdom. King throughout Israel and Judah's history.

6:03This is speaking about the king, the king of Israel in the northern kingdom. He reigns for 41 years. Jeroboam. Verse 24. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, which he made Israel to sin. Verse 25, he restored the border of Israel from Lebo Hameth, as far as the sea of the Erebah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah, the son of Amatai, the prophet, who is from Gath Hefer. So there we have another reference to Jonah outside of the book of Jonah, where Jonah has actually prophesied to the king and the people that the Lord would restore this border, that he would bless them in spite of the fact that they're being wicked. Verse 26, for the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there is none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash. So we don't know when in Jonah's life this is, but this does give us a historical context for when Jonah existed and when he prophesied. And it also, interestingly, tells us of a time when Jonah, even though Israel didn't deserve it, Jonah has a message of God's blessing for them and a message of God's mercy for them that the Lord would restore this border. And then God did, just like he prophesied through Jonah. God did restore that border in spite of the fact that the king was evil. And it's because of the Lord's great love and his great mercy towards his people. So now turn over to the book of Jonah. And we'll see. We don't know if this is before or after. We don't know if this story in the book of Jonah is when he's 20 years old. Maybe this is when he's a brand new prophet, and then he has a long life of prophecy after that. Or this could be the very last thing we hear from Jonah. Maybe he's an old man and he's been prophesying to the king all these years and this is how he ends his life. We're not sure.

8:20But it is another time when Jonah is used by God to show mercy to a group of people who don't deserve it. We're going to study Jonah over the course of two weeks. Jonah is four chapters long, and so we're going to do two chapters in the first week and two chapters next week, Lord willing. And the reason is because the book is just split so easily in half. Look at chapter one. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amatai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.

9:00And then we have some of the most familiar things that happened to Jonah, but then look down at chapter 3. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you. So we really, in chapter 3, have almost a restart of the book. We have almost the exact same phrase that God calls Jonah again and tells him to go again after everything that's happened. And I think that as we approach the book of Jonah, as I sometimes approach the book of Jonah, we can remember that this is a story we learned when we were kids. We remember that maybe our parents taught it to us, or a Sunday school teacher, if we grew up in the church. It's a story that we think we're familiar with, but I think we can forget a lot of the details and forget even some of the main lessons that Jonah is trying to teach us, the book of Jonah is trying to teach us. I think if I asked some of you at home to summarize the book of Jonah, you might say something like this.

10:08God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh because he had a message of forgiveness for the people of Nineveh. But Jonah was scared of the Ninevites, and so he fled in the opposite direction. And in order to punish him, God swallowed him up with a whale or a big sword. And spit him out again. And then Jonah did go and preach this message. And the people of Nineveh did repent, and there's a happy ending. That sounds like the right summary of Jonah, I think, to many of us, but almost everything in that summary was wrong. If you were paying attention, God did not ask Jonah to go, God told Jonah to go. God did not have a message of forgiveness for the Ninevites. He had a message of judgment for the Ninevites. Jonah did not run the other way because he was scared of the Ninevites. He ran the other way because he wanted to get away from God.

11:12The fish that swallowed Jonah was not God's judgment against Jonah. That was God's mercy against Jonah, or mercy for Jonah, a blessing in his life that Jonah prayed and was saved by this fish. Jonah did go and preach to the Ninevites the message of judgment. They did repent. That part was true. But the book doesn't have a happy ending. That's not the ending is when they repent. The ending is not happy. Jonah is exceedingly angry. He is not happy with what the Lord has done. He didn't want the Lord to forgive these people. And that's how the book ends. So I hope you see that this book is worth studying again. There's so much for us to learn about God, so much for us to learn about. Our own hearts and how we should think about the Lord and think about others and seek to be used by the Lord. So, pray with me before we begin. Father, we thank you for this exciting book, this story that's so different from all the other minor prophets, this story that's action-packed, this story that's funny, but also a story that's so rich, that teaches us so much about your character, that teaches us about the attitude we should have toward you, towards others, towards outsiders.

12:52Father, we pray that you bless our study tonight as we study something that was written so long ago that to many might seem like it doesn't apply or like it's not worth our time. But we know that all of Scripture is profitable and is good for us to study, it's good for us to learn, and good for us to grow. So, I pray that you would help us as we seek to do that. In Jesus' name, amen.

13:23Another special thing about the book of Jonah is that in its two halves, you have almost the exact same outline. And so we're going to have the story of Jonah be our outline tonight. And the first part of that story is that Jonah disobeys God's command. Jonah disobeys God's command. Look at Jonah chapter 1, verse 1. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.

14:05So just to start, Nineveh is not yet the capital of Assyria, but it is a great city. It is a city that's known for their evil, that's known for their cruelty, that had a particular animosity against the people of Israel. They were not friends. This was not a friendly group of people that God was asking, that God was telling Jonah to go to. And in verse 2, he says, up, go to Nineveh. Up, go to Nineveh. Verse 3. But Jonah rose. So he did get up. Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 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, away from the presence of the Lord. God says, up, go to Nineveh. And in response, Jonah knows immediately that he is not going to obey the Lord.

15:11This is not saying that he ran in the opposite direction because he was scared of the Ninevites. This is saying that he ran the opposite direction because he knew he was not going to obey that command of the Lord, and he wanted to get away from the presence of the Lord. Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. At this time, there seems to be two or maybe three different cities called Tarshish, but all of them are way west. And Nineveh, if you didn't know, is to the northeast. So Jonah, as he goes to Joppa, this port city in Judah, he's going in the opposite direction of Nineveh, and he's trying to sail from this port as far as he can go to Tarshish. He finds a boat to Tarshish. He says, yep, that's far enough, all the way across the known world. I'm going to go in the exact opposite direction because I'm not going to go to Nineveh. I'm not going to obey the Lord. And I'm not going to stay by the Lord's temple. I'm going to get away from the presence of the Lord. Verse 3. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 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, away from the presence of the Lord. The Lord. So Jonah is going down to Joppa, down into the boat, opposite of up, go to Nineveh. Verse 4, but the Lord hurled or flung a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. So God has seen everything that's gone on. It says in verse 2, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. So, like we've talked about before in the minor prophets, God's very clear that he sees everything. And he's saying, I've seen the evil that Nineveh has been doing. It has come up right in front of my eyes. And now, again, Jonah is trying to get away from the presence of the Lord in the temple. And surely he knows God is omniscient or something, but maybe he's trying to get as far away, kind of out of sight, out of mind. He knows he's not going to obey, and he doesn't want to deal with God, and he doesn't want God to deal with him. So he goes away from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord sees him do it.

17:44The Lord flung a great wind upon the sea. There was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. That is our first part of the story: that Jonah disobeys God's command. But now we get to the second part of the story, and this is our longest part for today. The second part is that Gentiles fear God's wrath. Jonah disobeys God's command, but Gentiles fear God's wrath. Verse 5. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his God, and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.

18:35But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So you can tell in the story that he's using these same words over and over and over. God said, up, go to Nineveh, but Jonah went down to Joppa, down onto the boat, and then inside the boat, down to the lower deck. The Lord flung this storm onto the sea, and then the text reuses that word that that's what the mariners were doing to their cargo. The mariners flung their cargo into the sea. So these sailors were afraid, these experienced sailors that Jonah had hired, they were so afraid, they realized this was so rare that they immediately assumed it would be something divine from the very beginning. They thought this was strange, and they were scared for their lives, and they knew that there needed to be. Divine intervention. So, verse 5 again, the mariners were afraid. Each cried out to his God. They hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So Jonah is sleeping during this time. Verse 6. So the captain came and said to him, What do you mean, you sleeper? Are you crazy? How are you sleeping?

19:59Up, call out to your God. It's the same word again. Up, call out. God said, up, call out to Nineveh. In chapter 3, he'll say the same thing. But here the sailors say, up, call out to your God. Up, call out to your God. Perhaps the God will give us a thought, will give a thought to us that we may not perish. They've all prayed to their gods. It didn't work. They've tried throwing cargo over the edge. It didn't work. They go and find Jonah sleeping and they say, Can you pray to your God? And we'll see if that works. Verse 7. They said to one another, Come, let us cast lots that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Even this is something that was a more common practice for Jews, for faithful Jews, than for other cultures. People who believe that the Lord actually caused the disease. Of the lot. And so these Gentiles are being righteous, at least to the extent that they understand. They immediately understand that they need to figure out why God is upset with them. They need to cast lots so God can show them who it is God is upset with. They cast lots and it fell on Jonah. Verse 8. Then they said to him, Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you from? They want to know everything about him. They need to fix this issue. Verse 9: He said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea in the dry land. That is Jonah's confession. He says, This is who I am. I am somebody who fears the Lord, even though right now he's not acting in the fear of the Lord. But he says, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. The two things that Jonah is going to have issues with in this book, the sea and the dry land. The God of heaven is the one that Jonah worships. And so, verse 10, then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, What is this that you have done?

22:28For the men knew that. He was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. So, chapter verse 10 fills in the blanks a little bit. That Jonah didn't just tell them that he was a Hebrew, that he feared the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea in the dry land. He also told them why he thought this was happening: that he was a prophet. They asked his occupation to remember that he was a prophet and that he is fleeing from the presence of the Lord, and they are outraged. What is this that you have done? That phrase is used several times in the Old Testament to speak of moral outrage. You've done something terrible. What have you done? What is this that you have done? Verse 11. Then they said to him, What shall we do to you? That the sea may quiet down for us. For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. They were already scared for their life, and it's just getting worse.

23:28Verse 12, he, Jonah, said to them, Pick me up and fling me into the sea. Then the sea will quiet down for you. For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. Okay, so Jonah confesses, he says, I know it's me. I serve this God. I am fleeing from his presence, and it's because of me that this storm has come. So please throw me over. But remember that these Gentiles, they Seem from the very beginning to be fearing this God. They understand this is a divine hand. They understand that God is the one who's doing this. And now they're speaking to God's spokesman.

24:15They're speaking to God's prophet, and he tells them to throw him over the edge. But now already this is a God that they fear, and they're trembling. And so, verse 13, nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. So it's getting worse and worse. It's continuing to get worse. Jonah says, you can throw me over the edge, but they don't want to. They're going to try to just get him back to the land. They're going to try as hard as they can to dig into the water and get him back. But they can't. So verse 14, therefore they called out to the Lord, O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you. So they fear this God, but they're going to listen to his prophet. They're going to throw him over the edge just like he said. But before they do, in their faith, what little faith they have, they call out to the Lord. They pray to the God of the sea and the dry land, and they say, O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased. Pleased you.

25:34Really, from the very beginning, you'd think these Gentiles would be, these non-Jews would be furious at Jonah, that he's fleeing from the presence of the Lord and has put all of these other men in danger because he got on their boat. This isn't their fault. They're scared for their life. They've already had to throw cargo over. It's not working. And yet, their response is not, oh, yeah, we're going to throw you over the edge. Their response is careful. Their response is full of fear of the Lord. They're taking careful steps to do what the prophet has said, even though they want to honor and fear this new God that they're learning all about very quickly. Verse 15: So they picked up Jonah and flung him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. So while Jonah is busy being so unfaithful to the Lord, that the Lord has given him a call, has commanded him to do something, and he has completely disobeyed, these Gentiles are. Showing the exact opposite trend, that every single thing they're learning about this God, they're responding to correctly. They're even, after all of this, they're offering sacrifices to the Lord, maybe on the boat if they have stuff for this, but this doesn't give a time frame. So maybe this is after they get to shore, they find a way to offer sacrifices to the Lord and make vows. They're thankful and they fear this God because of what they'd seen on the water and what they'd seen with this prophet. So I think that the shining truth that comes out of this is that these Gentiles were faithful in a way that this Jew wasn't. That even though this Jew was part of God's chosen people, God had given him a command and he refused to obey it. And yet these Gentiles, who were outside of God's covenant people in the Old Testament, they were responding so well, just like we'll see later in the book.

27:56That is the second part of our story. So we've seen that Jonah disobeys God's command. Then we saw that Gentiles fear God's wrath. Finally, in this third section, we'll see that Jonah cherishes God's mercy. Jonah cherishes God's mercy. Backing up again to verse 17, and the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three years. Days and three nights. Chapter 2, verse 1. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol, I cried, and you heard my voice.

28:52So we don't hear about that in the narrative, but we do hear about it in this prayer: that what happens after these sailors throw Jonah, fling Jonah, just like God flung the storm onto the sea, that they fling Jonah into the sea, the storm stops, and they fear the Lord. But what happens for Jonah is he starts sinking, and he's sinking quick, and he is a dead man. He is going down and down and down. God told him to go up, but he chose to go down and down and down. And now he is continuing to go down and down and down into the deep.

29:34He knew he was a dead man. And finally, he came to his senses and he called out to the Lord. He remembered the character of the Lord. He remembered the goodness of the Lord, the mercy of the Lord. In verse 2 again, he started his prayer. I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol, I cried. So he was on the edge of. The grave on the edge of death, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. All your waves and your billows passed over me.

30:14Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. So Jonah is sinking and sinking. He knows he's a dead man. He sees the waves and the billows go over him. He's under the water. He's in the heart of the sea. He's going to die. And he calls out to the Lord again. And even though he has run away from the Lord's presence and been driven away from his sight, he says, yet he knows, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.

30:59So he prays to the Lord, and he knows the Lord hears him. And he knows the Lord is going to save him. And he says, I know I'm going to look on your temple again. Verse 5. The waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped about my head. That's how deep he was. He was in the depths, so that even these weeds were entangling him. At the roots of the mountains, I went down to the Land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. So there he seems to even say that maybe he died or was on the verge of death.

31:46And yet the Lord still stepped in and brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. Verse 7, when my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord. And my prayer came to you into your holy temple. The very temple that Jonah had tried to flee away from, the presence of the Lord that he tried to flee away from, now Jonah, in the depths of the sea, as his life is fainting away, he remembers the Lord and prays to the Lord, and the Lord hears in his temple. Verse 8, those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.

32:29But I, with a voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed, I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. So Jonah went down to the depths. He was about to die. He prayed to the Lord, and the Lord saved him by sending this fish to swallow him. Jonah knew now that he would be saved. He would. Get to see the temple again. The Lord had heard his prayer from the temple, and he's going to get to go there and sacrifice again. Jonah recognizes that all these other fake gods are fake gods. It's vain to follow them. It's vain to serve them. But the true God hears our prayers, no matter how deep in the depths we are. The true God hears our prayers, and he is the one to whom we should pay regard. He is the one that we should worship, and he is the one who stepped in and had mercy on Jonah's life. And Jonah cherishes that mercy.

33:39It's really an amazing story, isn't it? As we step through it slowly together, you know, quickly together, really. It's such an amazing story. And it is such an example of the Lord's mercy. As we have been studying the minor prophets and really studying all of the Old Testament, as we go through different books and different passages, one of the best things we can do is that since the Jews don't, since we are not in that Old Testament system where we're living under the kings and we're sacrificing in the temple, a lot of times the things that they do and the way that they pray doesn't exactly line up with the way that we're supposed to pray, that we learn in the New Testament, or the things that we do in our Christian walk. One of the most helpful things we can do when we come to the Old Testament is to look at what this passage teaches us about the character of God, about the attributes of God. And so many are on display in this passage that we've studied tonight, right? That God has been immeasurably patient with his servant.

34:50I think if any of us had an employee that we asked to do something, and he said, I know I'm not going to do that, and I'm getting as far away from you as I can, we would say, okay, you're fired. Good riddance. You know, we would have no patience. We would say, then never come back and see me again. And yet, our God is immeasurably patient to have mercy on Jonah, to not abandon this man to the depths of the sea. When he calls out, the Lord heard and saved him in a miraculous way. The Lord kept working with Jonah, kept speaking with Jonah, kept speaking through Jonah, and was patient with him. We also see the mercy of God when Jonah cried out to be saved, and the Lord was merciful to him. We've seen that God hears our prayer no matter where we are, no matter what depths we've sunk to, God still hears our prayers. He pays attention.

35:56He pays attention not only to our prayer, but also to our wickedness. Like he pays attention to the Ninevites' wickedness. It says that it's come up right before him, just like we studied in the psalm last week, that our sins are before him, that he does see all that goes on and he hears what we say. We've seen the wrath of God because of that sin in this passage in Jonah 1 and 2. We've seen that God is angry over sin, and that the people of Nineveh need to hear this, and that God is angry with Jonah, and that he needs to send this storm, and Jonah needs to be flung into the sea.

36:39We hear about the wrath of God in addition to the mercy of God. And finally, we read about the power of God, don't we? So many miracles already in these first two chapters. And this is before even the biggest miracle of all these Ninevites coming to faith and believing in the Lord. Before that miracle, before the miracle of the plant and the worm that's going to happen in chapter 4, before all of that, God is amazingly working through nature. He can fling a wind, he can stir up a sea, he can bring a fish, he can guide the lots that the men are doing on the boat, casting on the boat.

37:24He can bring this fish to save Jonah. He's in charge of nature. He's in. Charge of the things that happen on this earth. The Lord is powerful and sovereign. And so, as we come to this text, as we come away from this text, there are a million things that we could apply, I'm sure, but I want to give you three. As you're thinking about this text and all that we've learned already from Jonah about the character of God, first, let's obey the Lord with the right attitude. He is meant to be obeyed.

38:02His commands are meant to be obeyed when we hear it. Jonah had the opposite idea. He determined in his heart that if God says to do that, I am not going to follow that God. And I think we see that same attitude in many people today. If God says that this is a sin, I'm not going to follow that God. If God commands this in his word, I'm not going to follow that God. And that is the total opposite attitude of what we should have. Instead, we should say, God is God, and he commands what he commands. And our only duty, whether we like it or not, is to obey those commands when we read them in God's Word. That's the first application to obey. The next is to fear the Lord, like these Gentiles. They were humbled on the sea, and they appropriately feared the Lord. They saw the Lord's power and feared him.

38:57They were humble before him. Our third application, and maybe the most important for you tonight, is that we should repent. Jonah was being disobedient. He was being annoying. He was having the exact wrong attitude. He was doing the exact opposite of what God said. And yet, finally, when he was on the edge of death, in his moment of trouble, he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord still forgave him and had mercy and saved him from his situation. As he prayed in his prayer, salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation, deliverance is the Lord's. He can do it.

39:59And so the application for us is: if this God shows mercy, even to the worst sinners, then all of us should repent and come to him and ask for forgiveness. Recognize that salvation only comes from him, that he can step in and save us from physical circumstances, but also from eternal punishment, eternal damnation. There was another man 800 years after this man who also fell asleep in a boat, who also woke up and, because of his actions, calmed the storm.

40:49He would die and spend three days in the heart of the earth, as he says in Matthew 12, where Jesus speaks about how his generation was going to get to see the sign of Jonah, that just as Jonah spent three days in the belly of the whale, so Jesus would spend three days in the belly of the earth before he rose again. But Jesus' message to the people that were listening in Matthew chapter 12 was that the Ninevites, after this happened and Jonah spent these three days, they would hear the message and repent. But Jesus' generation, even though the sign was much greater, that he died and spent three days in the grave and then rose again, even though his sign was much greater, that his generation wouldn't believe, that they would reject him, that they wouldn't repent. And therefore, the men of Nineveh would rise up against them. The future judgment because they did repent. And so, again, I think that the main application that we can walk away with tonight is that we have a God who shows mercy. We have a God who is wrathful over sin, that should be feared and should be obeyed, but we also have a God that is patient with us and merciful towards us. And our duty and our privilege is to come to Him and beg for that mercy and repent, and He will forgive. Pray with me, Father.

42:39What an amazing story of your forgiveness and your patience already we see in this book. What an example we see in these men who knew almost nothing about you, yet could tell that they needed to fear and obey your voice. May we be like them and not like Jonah, who had this wrong attitude. We pray, God, that instead you'd make us like Jonah in chapter 2, that comes to you for forgiveness, that comes to you for mercy.

43:22And since your word has promised it, and we can have confidence in it, that just as Jonah had confidence in, That you heard his prayer, that you would save him and you would bring him back to the temple. That we also, because of your word, we know that we can have confidence to trust in your promises to us. That though we have sinned and though we have strayed, we can come to you and ask for forgiveness. We can come even tonight and beg for your mercy.

44:00We can come and have confidence that you keep all of your promises and have confidence that we also will see your glory. We thank you for this passage. We thank you for what it teaches us about you, your character, your love, and your mercy, and your patience, your wrath towards sin, your power, your sight of all creation, the way you hear all of our prayers. We thank you, God. I pray that you'd help us obey your voice. You'd help us fear you.

44:45And you'd give us a heart of humility and repentance, gratitude, and thanksgiving. Thank you, Father. In Jesus' name, amen.