Relentless Pursuit
“A Ship, a Storm, and Sailors”
Jonah 1

A story about the struggles believers have to trust the goodness of God	

God relentlessly pursues…
1. When we run off course - v. 1-3

Anytime God is working in your life, you may have a bigger opportunity that comes up

2. In hurling a storm - v. 4-6

Every difficult thing is not the result of sin, but every sin will bring you difficulty
	
3. Using the people in our lives - v. 7-16

There are times when nonbelievers act more righteously than believers, despite their lack of faith.
﻿
Jonah was a stranger in his own heart toward God.

Why a fish? Is it real?

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth…and now something greater than Jonah is here.” –Matthew 12:40-41

Our response to the relentless pursuit of Jesus is to surrender

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Additional notes on the story of Jonah:

Jonah, the Story
•	It is NOT a simple fable about a man and a fish
•	It is about race and nationalism, since Jonah is more concerned over his nation’s security than over a city of spiritually lost people. - 2 Kings 14	
•	Jonah wants a God of his own making, a God who simply smites the bad people, the Ninevite, and blesses the good people, Jonah and his nation.  
•	When the real God keeps showing up, Jonah is becomes angry and falls into despair.

Broken into two parallel patterns:

Running From			Running To
God’s word - 1:1-3			God’s word - 3:1-3
God’s warning - 1:4-7		God’s warning 3:4-7
God’s grace - Fish - 2:1-10		God’s grace - Plant - 4:1-10

Plot is similar to the Prodigal Son - Luke 15:11-32
Running from the father - younger son - v. 11-24	
Obeys the father - older brother - v. 25-32

Jonah, The man
•	Minor prophet
•	Patriot - who supported an evil King (Jeroboam II - 786 - 746 BC) for military security - 2 Kings 14
•	Jonah questioned God’s plan, judgement, and mercy
•	Given his political view, is a surprising choice for God to go to Nineveh
•	﻿In 2 Kings 14, we learn that, unlike the prophets Amos and Hosea, who criticized the royal administration for its injustice and unfaithfulness, Jonah had supported Jeroboam’s aggressive military policy to extend the nation’s power and influence. The original readers of the book of Jonah would have remembered him as intensely patriotic, a highly partisan nationalist. And they would have been amazed that God would send a man like that to preach to the very people he most feared and hated.
Keller, Timothy. The Prodigal Prophet (p. 12). Penguin Publishing Group. 

Nineveh
﻿It was even more shocking that the God of Israel would want to warn Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, of impending doom. Assyria was one of the cruelest and most violent empires of ancient times. Assyrian kings often recorded the results of their military victories, gloating of whole plains littered with corpses and of cities burned completely to the ground. The emperor Shalmaneser III is well known for depicting torture, dismembering, and decapitations of enemies in grisly detail on large stone relief panels. Assyrian history is “as gory and bloodcurdling a history as we know.” After capturing enemies, the Assyrians would typically cut off their legs and one arm, leaving the other arm and hand so they could shake the victim’s hand in mockery as he was dying. They forced friends and family members to parade with the decapitated heads of their loved ones elevated on poles. They pulled out prisoners’ tongues and stretched their bodies with ropes so they could be flayed alive and their skins displayed on city walls. They burned adolescents alive.3 Those who survived the destruction of their cities were fated to endure cruel and violent forms of slavery. The Assyrians have been called a “terrorist state.”

﻿The empire had begun exacting heavy tribute from Israel during the reign of King Jehu (842–815 BC) and continued to threaten the Jewish northern kingdom throughout the lifetime of Jonah. In 722 BC it finally invaded and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and its capital, Samaria. Yet it was this nation that was the object of God’s missionary outreach. Though God told Jonah to “proclaim against” the city for its wickedness, there would have been no reason to send a warning unless there was a chance of judgment being averted, as Jonah knew very well (4:1–2). But how could a good God give a nation like that even the merest chance to experience his mercy? Why on earth would God be helping the enemies of his people?

Keller, Timothy. The Prodigal Prophet (pp. 10-12). Penguin Publishing Group.