God's Seeking Love: The Story of Jonah

O living God, you come unto me glory, and do not hold the wonder of thy might. His radiant light has shattered through our darkness, and in our hearts his wisdom hath now shone. And to all people, as human-born as children, have raised us up from death to life with you, there we will sing the new creation anthem, O praise the one who's making all things new. And so we wait in eager expectation, and join the song as all creation grows.

Lord, may today be made the same by glory, the day you call your sons and daughters home. Last week, Mark started talking with the young people and those older who were listening about the story of Jonah, the prophet Jonah. There he is. Right, Jonah, very good. So, who remembers hide and seek as a kid?

Yeah? I think we must have all played it at one point. Someone counting with their fingers like this.

One, two, miss a few, 99, 100, and everyone's running in all different directions to try and find this perfect place to hide. Now God spoke to Jonah and asked him to go to Nineveh.

Now here, I don't know how you have a picture of God speaking to someone. This looks like Jonah's summoning the waiter to pay the bill in a restaurant. But last week we saw Jonah was running away from God and the call upon his life.

And Jonah was doing his utmost to try and hide from him. Now what we see this week, God is seeking Jonah through a series of events that might cause him to turn and repent and renew his obedience with him.

God's seeking, as sometimes happens with us, God's seeking involves his chastening hand for us. Now there are five ways that God seeks Jonah in this passage from the beginning.

First thing, Jonah has gone to Joppa. He's paid his fare and he's got on a ship that's sailing for Tarshish. Now Nineveh's that way, and you'll be surprised to learn Tarshish is that way.

He's going in the opposite direction. So what's the first thing that God does to try and get through to him?

You probably know that he sends a violent storm on the boat that they're on. And what happens is the crew initially are very afraid and they try to lighten the load by throwing what they could spare over the side of the boat and crying on their pagan gods. Jonah's sin of running away isn't just affecting Jonah, it's affecting the safety of these possibly hundreds of people, we don't know, on this ship. So the captain goes to find Jonah.

While everyone is busy sorting themselves out up deck, and the captain goes to find Jonah. And what's Jonah doing? Is he praying and repenting and working out what he can do to turn this ship around and get to Nineveh as soon as he can? He's asleep. Why he's asleep? I don't know. Is he exhausted from all the emotional turmoil of running? Or is he just in rebellion and relaxing and thinking he's got away with it?

So the second way God challenges Jonah and seeking after him is through the captain challenging him. The captain was not happy, clearly, with Jonah sleeping below deck while everyone else was upstairs doing all they could to try and keep this ship afloat. So he went and said, how can you sleep?

Get up. Call on your God. Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish. Now this must have been a challenge for Jonah.

You see, how could Jonah run to God in prayer while he's running away from him physically? You can't do two things in two directions at the same time. So that would have been a real challenge for Jonah.

Maybe God was speaking to Jonah through the words of this captain. Turn back to me, Jonah. It all starts with a word of prayer. So Jonah got dragged above deck.

Are we sleeping? There's the challenge. So Jonah got dragged above deck and of course was confronted with the crew.

Now sailors are often superstitious and... Maybe God was speaking to Jonah through the words of this captain. Turn back to me, Jonah. It all starts with a word of prayer. So Jonah got dragged above deck.

Where were we? Sleeping. There's the challenge. So Jonah got dragged above deck and of course was confronted with the crew.

Now sailors are often superstitious and in this slide we see, the next slide, we see them casting lots trying to work out who was guilty on this ship of this terrible crime that's caused this calamity. This is the third way that God is seeking Jonah. The sailors said to one another, Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible. Well, guess who the lot fell on?

The lot fell on Jonah. Now, let's not assume that this was a matter of chance.

Of course, this was God's doing. From the casting of the lots, the sailors concluded that Jonah must be responsible for the storm. They'd done this little superstitious thing and worked out it must be Jonah. He'd upset his God. So then they start asking him questions.

Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you? And Jonah gives them an answer. I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. His answer is interesting.

Can he honestly say that he worships the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land? Hasn't he stopped doing this during his backslidden state? But also interesting is that he doesn't tell them what kind of work he did.

He didn't own up to being a prophet that had given up on his prophetic calling. Again, maybe God is speaking to Jonah. You've turned away from me, now turn back. So Jonah gave a kind of clipped answer, an honest answer, and yet a deceptive answer.

And the crew weren't fooled by this. They then said, so what have you done? They knew he was running away from the Lord because he'd already told them this. And you all know, of course, what happens next. So their accusation was the fourth way God was trying to reach out to him.

It's as if God was saying to Jonah, Jonah, I'm speaking to you through these men. This is all because of your disobedience. Return to me, Jonah. And what happens next? The fifth way that God was seeking Jonah. He was going to be thrown into the sea. The sea wasn't getting any calmer. And the sailors said to Jonah, what should we do to make the sea calm down for us?

What should we do to you to make the sea calm down? Jonah said, pick me up and throw me in, and it will become calm. I know that it's my fault that this storm has come upon you. Now, understandably, these men didn't want to throw Jonah overboard because they didn't want to take his life.

They didn't want his blood on their hands. So they did their best to row to shore.

But it was no good. The sea grew even wilder than before. And they cried out to the Lord, please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man. For you, Lord, have done as you pleased. Now, if I do the next three slides really quickly, it should be like a Pixar animation.

There's that one. And then that one. And then that one as he falls over into the raging sea. And this is when things become really desperate for Jonah. He's chucked overboard by these desperate sailors trying to save the ship. Now, if you want to know what happens next, come back next week.

Just like Jesus calming the waters, just like Jesus when he calmed the storm, the waters settled immediately. And the sailors feared God because of this. But Jonah isn't safe yet.

God brought these circumstances to him to cause him to turn, to repent, to renew his obedience to him. As I alluded to earlier, we all make mistakes and let God down. But God seeks his people to the ends of the earth and not just to the bottom of the sea to restore us to himself.

Let's be thankful to him. We're going to sing again and then we'll have our Bible readings. So it's up on the screen.

So please stand to sing. The night is dark, but I am not forsaken. For by my side, the Saviour he will stay. I labour on in weakness and rejoicing, for in my need his power is the same. To this I hold, my shepherd will defend me. Through the deepest valley he will lead. All the night has been won, and I shall overcome, yet not I, but through Christ in me. The fate I dread, I know I am forgiven.

The future sure, the price it has been paid. For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon, and he was raised to overthrow the grave. To this I hold, my sin has been defeated. Jesus now and ever is my plea. All the chains are released, I can sing, I am free, yet not I, but through Christ in me.