VIII.  The Disobedient Servant...........Jonah

JONAH     The Disobedient Servant

(take note and put yourself in Jonahs place. He sounds and acts just like we do)

I will not have an outline for this book. As I said at the beginning, you will need your Bible and find it in the
Old Testament . You will have to read the verses first to really understand the explanation I have given for each one.

                               >>>>ENJOY>>>>

 THE BOOK OF JONAH 

The book of Jonah is a lesson on how God deals with disobedience in His people. It is also a lesson on how
self-willed and stubborn we can be if we don’t want to do what God tells us to do. It shows how merciful God is to
repenting sinners and how long-suffering (patient) He is with Christians who ignore His wishes. 

[verse 1]……..The first verse tells us who Jonah is.

                         He is the son of A-mit-tai…means my truth.  We are the sons and daughters of God. Jesus said,

"If you have seen Me you have seen the Father. My Father and I are One".
He also said,

"I am the Way the Truth and the Life."  So we are the children of Truth, the same as Jonah.

[verse 2]…This tells us what God told Jonah to do. In this case it was to go to Nineveh and to preach (or prophesy)
against it for the city was very sinful. (God knew there would be people saved and so did Jonah...[chapter 5:2]

Now a little jealousy sets in….I’m a Hebrew, one of God’s chosen. If these people get saved, God will start showing them
favor and they might share in all the gifts I’ve got! Besides that, He wants me to cry it. (say it very loud) There are no churches
in Nineveh so Jonah will have to tell it in the streets…But Lord, in front of everybody?…(sound familiar?)

But what if….I have the gift of Prophesy and it doesn’t come to pass?…..Maybe God was Merciful….

But what if….I have the gift of Healing and this person doesn’t get healed?….Maybe they lost their healing by sinning or
maybe they don’t want healed….lots of reasons…

There are no ..what ifs….when God says to do something!

[verse 3]……Jonah doesn’t handle obedience very well.  He tries to run and hide from the Lords presence.

First he goes to Joppa…..not far enough….God is still there.

So he buys a ticket to Tarshish. (not a doubt in my mind if he had made it to Tarshish he would have went farther! 
He was thinking just like some of us do when God wants us to do something. (if I get far enough away that I can’t
get back for awhile He will give the job to some one else)

[verse 4]……God now goes to work to change Jonahs mind.

How many times does He have to change circumstances, living conditions, whatever, to get us back on track?
Sometimes He has to let things go on until they almost break us before we will obey. If we’ll check, almost everything
wrong in our lives will be because of disobedience in some way.

[verse 5,6,7]……What does Jonah do?...Ignores it...Falls asleep.

The bad thing is when we disobey God it doesn’t just affect us but those around us as well. So even though we ignore it,
when it begins to upset the lives of those around us they start to examine their lives and to get rid of all those things that
 might have caused all of this.

   Then they begin to pray!

God may not show what was done or who did it but sin will usually show itself when people pray.

The Word says…Be sure your sin will find you out….

[verses 8,9]……The men on the ship begin to ask questions of Jonah…..What is your occupation?….He had to tell
them he was a prophet…….Where do you come from?….Israel….Is that your country?…..Yes…What kind of a person
are you that you would cause this evil to come upon us?…..He had to tell them that he was a Hebrew and that he served the
God of Creation…….Don’t you know he felt ashamed?

[verse 11,12]……they want to know what to do. Jonah tells them he knows its his fault so get rid of him and cast him
into the sea to calm it….In other words there is no Peace, no Rest, no Calmness until the sin that caused all the uproar is cast
into the sea of forgetfulness ….Not the person but the sin.

[verse 13]……Now the people around Jonah do everything they can to help him. They try to get the ship to dry land
but the Lord is not done yet…….Why?……

Jonah has confessed but to the wrong person. He is still looking to men to help him out of this trouble. 

He has confessed but he has not REPENTED.

[verse 14]……After everything that has happened, they finally realize that this is God’s doing and they start to believe.

[verse 15]…..They then do what Jonah tells them.

                       They toss him out!….After all, he’s a Hebrew prophet….Doesn’t he speak for God?

[verse 16]……They not only believe but they are saved!

                         Nothing like a good spot of trouble to make us call on God…..Right?….

[verse 17]……God always protects His people

CHAPTER 2 

[verses 1,2]……Finally, Jonah repents. He begins to pray in the middle of his problem and God hears him.

[verses3/6]…….Jonah’s prayer

[verse 7]……Jonah says (like us) when I’ve come to the end of my rope (not before) I remembered God and
 prayed and He answered!

[verse 8]……Anyone that trusts in anything but God (including themselves) give up the compassion
that comes from Him.

[verse 9]……Jonah makes a vow. He will do what God told him and go to Nineveh and preach salvation.

[verse 10]……God spoke TO THE PROBLEM and THE PROBLEM RELEASED JONAH.

CHAPTER 3 

[verse 1]…..This shows how patient God usually is with most of us. He not only forgives but also forgets!
Jonah is returned to his previous place with God. 

[verse 2]…..Now Jonah has to go to Nineveh on faith. God is not even going to tell him what to say until he gets there.

[verse 3]……Jonah doesn’t even hesitate this time.

[verse 4]……Nineveh is a big city . It takes three days to walk across it. The Bible doesn’t say so but I imagine
Jonah was to preach for three days as it does say that a days march into the city he began to preach. He prophesies
against Nineveh and says that because of their wickedness the city will be destroyed in 40 days.

[verses 5/8]……When the citizens hear this, they start to repent. The King even makes it a proclamation that they are
to fast and call on God and turn from their evil ways.

[verse 9]……Maybe God will repent of His anger toward them and not destroy their city.

[verse 10]……God saw they were sorry for their sins and that they had stopped their sinning so He changed
His mind and did not destroy them. 

CHAPTER 4 

[verse 1]……Now Jonah gets angry…..Why…….

[verse 2]……He tells God that he knew this would happen.  Begins to defend himself. (that’s why I ran)

[verse 3]……Starts to feel sorry for himself. (I might as well be dead)…..Why?….I can just hear Jonah….
God, I came down here like you told me to. I obeyed (yes the second time) I prophesied against these people. I
told them I had heard from You and You said they would be destroyed in 40 days…..And now look….They have
all repented and You won’t destroy them. What are people going to say…They are going to say I’m a false prophet.
Nobody will ever believe anything I say again!

He should have been rejoicing….One message and a whole town was saved.

All he thinks about is how it is going to make him look. I think he thinks more highly of himself than he ought to.

Up to now, in this story, the Lord and Nineveh are the only ones who know he’s even there. If the people of
Nineveh talk about him at all it will be to sing his praises of how he came to warn them.

  (I’ll bet you they won’t tell anyone about the man who came to town with fish vomit all over him!)

[verse 4]……Then God says, are you doing the right thing in being angry?

[verse 5]……Jonah goes out of the city to sulk awhile. Then he starts to think that just maybe God might do something
to the city to make him feel better. So he makes a booth and sits down to watch to see what God will do. He might
not destroy the city but surely He’ll bring a judgment of some kind on it so that he, Jonah, can save face. He doesn’t care
that it may take 40 days. He’s prepared to wait.     (sound familiar?)

[verse 6]…….God is still taking care of Jonah. He causes a gourd with huge leaves to grow that it might be a covering for
him. He’s getting tired of Jonah’s complaining about the dew at night and the heat in the day. (Jonah’s grief)

Jonah was very glad to have the gourd…..( I knew God cared about me because I’m a Christian. After all I’ve done
I know He’ll hear me! He must be going to do something to Nineveh because He gave me a covering that will keep
me cool and dry if I have to stay here for 40 days!  (sound familiar?)

[verse 7]……But God prepared a little worm to cut the gourd  the next morning. He will always use some little
thing to bring us down to size.

[verse 8]……Now when the sun arose (no more gourd) it beat down on Jonah’s head until he fainted and wished he
were dead like the gourd. You killed the gourd, now kill me as I can’t stand the heat or cold…….Those who love
to complain should never be left without something to complain about!!!   

[verse 9]……God again rebukes Jonah for the way he’s acting and for complaining. He has complained from the
day God called him and according to Jonah, he’ll be angry and complain until the day he dies!   
   (actually he’s still angry about Nineveh)

[verses 10,11]……God tries to reason with Jonah. You had pity on the gourd ( you complained when it died)
and yet you never labored for it at all. You never planted it, you never made it grow, and it came up and
perished in one night.

In other words, you nit-pick, you worry and complain about little things that mean nothing.

  I have the over-all picture and all I ask for is obedience from My people.

If you can worry over a gourd at least let Me worry over a city full of people who need Me. You should be
more worried over their cattle than a gourd. If I had destroyed the whole city I would have destroyed the good
people with the bad and also destroyed their animals that were innocent of all things. 

How many of us nit-pick until we have destroyed a whole church, a whole congregation of people that need the Lord?

How many of us, like Jonah, complain about everything that doesn’t go just right, doesn’t turn out the way
we think it ought to.

After this lesson we should know just what God thinks about disobedience and rebellion. We should also know
that He will deal with it in His own way! 

I, for one, am going to THANK GOD not only for the gourds (blessings) in my life but also for the worms that cut
me down to size when I need it and keep me humble and fit for the Masters use!

MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!