Written by Tyler S. Fulcher | The Pastor's Resource
The Book of Jonah is a popular sermon series for many pastors.
A dramatic storm, a giant fish, an evil people, a reluctant/angry prophet, and a merciful God combine to make this a riveting story.
If, by some chance, you have not preached through the Book of Jonah, I'm sure you will at some point in the future. Here are three sermon ideas for preaching from Jonah 1.
Tyler S. Fulcher writes about the Bible, Theology, and Church History. He is a biblical scholar based in Springfield, MO. Click here to contact.
Jonah 1 (WEB)
1 Now the LORD’s word came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”
3 But Jonah rose up 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 its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
4 But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship and he was laying down, and was fast asleep. 6 So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will notice us, so that we won’t perish.”
7 They all said to each other, “Come! Let’s cast lots, that we may know who is responsible for this evil that is on us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they asked him, “Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you?”
9 He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.”
10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. 11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us?” For the sea grew more and more stormy.
12 He said to them, “Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great storm is on you.”
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. 14 Therefore they cried to the LORD, and said, “We beg you, LORD, we beg you, don’t let us die for this man’s life, and don’t lay on us innocent blood; for you, LORD, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they took up Jonah and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
17 The LORD prepared a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
*FWIW: I use the World English Bible because it is the only public domain version of the Bible. Unfortunately, most Bible translations are held under copyright by whichever company pays for the translation. As a result, I cannot legally copy their text and send it out to people. The World English Bible is an updated version of the American Standard Version. You are welcome, encouraged even, to trade it out for your favorite version of the Bible to study.
By color-coding Jonah 1 (Jonah=blue; Sailors=red), you can see clearly how much the narrator focuses on the sailors. While most people rightfully focus on Jonah as the main character, we could make an argument that Jonah 1 is, at least equally, about the sailors.
Perhaps, it would be more precise to think of Jonah 1 as a contrast between Jonah and the Sailors.
The contrast between these characters offers us one way to preach this passage.
If you trace the actions of Jonah and the sailors, and then compare those actions you can make some surprising observations about the passage.
Jonah received the word of the Lord to travel to Nineveh. For (initially) unexplained reasons, Jonah does the opposite. He travels to Tarshish to flee from the presence of the Lord (vv. 3, 10). To get to Tarshish, he must pay the fare to board a boat in Joppa. At some point, after boarding the ship but before the worst part of the storm, Jonah went to the bottom of the vessel to sleep.
Awoken by the ship master, Jonah is then forced to reveal his identity. He refers to himself as a Hebrew, which is the term foreigners use to describe the Israelites. In this instance, Jonah is identifying himself to a group of foreigners, and so the term makes sense. After identifying his people of origin, Jonah also identifies his god. He says that he fears "the LORD, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land."
After his conversation with the sailors, Jonah instructed the men to throw him overboard into the sea. Following a failed attempt to get back to land, the men throw Jonah into the sea. Finally, Jonah ends the first chapter being swallowed by a big fish and sitting in its belly for three days and nights.
As you can see from the color-coded text above, the mariners take up a lot of space in this chapter.
The first time we meet them, we learn they are terrified by what the events unfolding around them. As was usual in the ancient Near East, the men betray a polytheistic worldview (i.e., a belief in many gods). The narrator notes that the men were crying out to their own gods.
This piece of information may also suggest that the men came from different locations because deities in the ancient Near East were often thought to be local or regional gods. In addition to praying to their gods, the men proactively try to keep the ship from breaking up. They throw cargo overboard in an effort to lighten the load.
Upon discovering that Jonah was not participating in the effort to avoid disaster, the ship master confronts him. He instructs Jonah to call out to whatever deity Jonah worshipped. This instruction reveals the men's desperation. They cannot be sure which deity is punishing them and so they cry out to any and every divine being they know.
The text does not tell us whether Jonah prayed to the LORD. Instead, it skips to the next scene in which the sailors cast lots to determine who is responsible for their crisis. Casting lots was a common way of discerning the will of the gods in the ancient world. Although it may seem like a foreign concept, we actually have precedent for the action in both the Old and New Testaments (Leviticus 16:8; Joshua 18:10). As we discover, the cast lots reveal Jonah as the culprit. Upon making this discovery, the men interrogate Jonah with rapid-fire questions. His reply terrifies the men.
Curiously, we learn that the men already knew Jonah was fleeing from his deity. If they knew that information, why did they wonder who was causing the crisis? This piece of information might suggest that the men did not think the LORD was a particularly effective deity. It did not cross their minds that the man who openly admitted he was running from God would be the cause of their troubles.
After asking what they should do, the men do not like Jonah's proposal. They try to row back to land instead of throwing him into the sea. The storm prevents them from making the journey, however, and they are forced to do as Jonah suggested.
Before throwing him into the sea, however, they beg God for mercy. After throwing him into the waters, they make vows to the LORD and offer a sacrifice. The narrator states that the men feared the LORD, a trait that seemed to be missing from Jonah.
The contrast between Jonah and the sailors is striking.
Jonah is God's prophet, but he runs from the Lord.
But he repeatedly refuses to listen to God. Nothing in this passage suggests that Jonah ever changes his disposition towards God. Instead, he would rather die than obey the Lord. Additionally, Jonah knows exactly who God is. The Lord is God who made the land and the sea. If Jonah knows this, why did he think he could flee from God by going to the sea?
Whereas Jonah understands who God is and what He is capable of, the sailors seem clueless. Faced with imminent death, the sailors cry out to any deity who might listen. They rouse Jonah from his sleep, hoping that he might know something about the God who caused the storm.
As soon as they recognize the Lord's power, they humble themselves before Him. They ask that God show them mercy, and they offer a sacrifice when He does.
Here are three ways the sailors differ from Jonah. These observations could provide the main points of a sermon about these characters.
1) When faced with difficulty, they immediately turn to God.
Jonah runs from God. The sailors cry out to any god who might listen. They don't stop until they discover the God who made the land and the sea. Their response should challenge us to do the same. While we should turn to God long before a crisis, we must certainly turn to God when we encounter difficulties.
2) When they come to know the true God, they respond with humility and worship.
The sailors responded in humility when they learned about the God of Israel. They did not want to kill Jonah, so they tried to take him back to dry land and let God deal with him there. When it became clear that God would not let them return, they cried out for mercy and did what Jonah suggested.
They prayed and worshipped God in response to His display of power. Jonah seems indifferent or resigned to the Lord. He knows what must happen for the sailors to survive, but he makes no attempt to repent, and the text does not record any prayer from Jonah (before chapter two).
3) As foreigners, they put God's prophet to shame.
God instructed Jonah to go and prophesy in Nineveh. Jonah refused, and fled to Tarshish. He was God's prophet, but he disobeyed.
The sailors, by contrast, try their best to appease the Lord. They cry out to the heavens for salvation. Even though Jonah told them to throw him into the sea, they feared God's judgment if they killed His prophet. When they finally did as Jonah suggested, they prayed before acting and offered sacrifices afterwards.
These foreigners, who did not know the Lord, put His prophet to shame every step of the way.
A second way to preach from Jonah 1 is to focus on Jonah's movement in the chapter.
I've highlighted this feature of the text by bolding and underlining the text.
As you can see, Jonah's life takes a downward trajectory as soon as he chooses to disobey the Lord.
On three separate occasions, the narrator tells us that Jonah was running from "the presence of the Lord." A more literal translation would say that Jonah ran away from "the face of the Lord."
Geographically speaking, we learn that Jonah is fleeing to Tarshish.
No one actually knows where Tarshish was located. The information we can gather from the Bible is unclear. Scholars have proposed locations in Africa, India, and the Mediterranean. While we cannot know its precise location for certain, we can understand the significance of Tarshish for the Book of Jonah.
Hebrew literature sometimes used a device called a merism. Whenever they wanted to talk about the full extent of something, they would list the polar opposites. We do something similar in English with phrases like "head to toe" or "high to low."
Psalm 72:10 lists Tarshish and Sheba as two ends of the world. Since Sheba was east of Israel on the Arabian peninsula, Tarshish most likely lay somewhere in the distant west.
May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute,
may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. (NRSV)
As Uriel Simon notes, the repetition of Tarshish three times in v. 3 suggests that Jonah intended to go as far away from the Lord as possible. He was willing to go to the ends of the earth to escape God's plans.
In addition to Jonah's attempt to flee to the ends of the earth, the first chapter emphasizes Jonah's demise by showing him on a downward trajectory throughout the chapter.
Jonah goes down
Even though Jonah must have gone up to the deck of the boat, the narrator does not describe this action. The captain asks him to go up, but we do not read about this movement. You could discount this as a detail simply omitted by the author, but he is so careful to track movement throughout the chapter that the omission is almost certainly intentional.
The only time Jonah goes "up" in the first chapter occurs when the sailors pick him up to throw him overboard.
Finally, the chapter ends with Jonah going down into the belly of the fish
Sermons about Jonah 1 often focus on the prophet fleeing from the Lord. You can say quite a lot about this without ever connecting to the observations I've laid out above.
As you can see, however, the narrator wants us to learn two things about running from God.
First, even if you try to run to the ends of the earth, you cannot escape the God who created the land and the sea. It is far better to simply surrender.
Second, running from God will lead to your demise. Like Jonah, your life will fall apart. Jonah's descent throughout the first chapter provides an apt image of what happens when we run from God. Our life quite literally goes to hell.
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