WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT
One of the most unique books in the Bible is the book of Jonah—a short four-chapter book about God asking the prophet Jonah to go to the evil city of Nineveh, and call them to repentance. Instead of obeying God’s command, Jonah goes in the opposite direction and finds himself in a desperate situation—inside a whale. This little book in the Old Testament packs a wallop. But there is more to this story than a prophet being swallowed by a huge fish. It not only shows us God’s salvation of the Ninevites but also the prophet Jonah. In the book of Jonah we see how God graciously reaches for the wicked and the wayward and also how God mercifully reaches for the self-willed and the self-righteous.
There is no one outside the reach of our gracious, sovereign, loving, & merciful God.
The story of Jonah teaches us that God doesn’t categorize sin. The sin of commission and the sin of omission are equally bad, and yet God is merciful to all—to the Ninevites and to Jonah. Basically, wether you fit in the Ninevite category or the Jonah category, we are all in the same boat (pun intended). The Apostle Paul speaks of our complicity and mutual need for God’s Grace in his letter to the church in Rome:
So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it: There’s nobody living right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. They’ve all taken the wrong turn; they’ve all wandered down blind alleys. No one’s living right; I can’t find a single one. This makes it clear, doesn’t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin. —Romans 3:9-20 (MSG)
Lets take a quick look at who the Ninevites were using historical context. Nineveh was the largest city in the world at the time and was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, located in upper Mesopotamia (which would be modern-day northern Iraq). Nineveh was an epic city with exotic temples, beautiful palaces, wide streets, and impenetrable walls. But despite it’s impressive size and architectural wonder, the Hebrew prophet Nahum referred to it as “the city of bloodshed” (Nahum 3:1). The Assyrian Ninevites were renown for their inhumane treatment of not only the enemies they fought, but also the cruelty they inflicted on innocent survivors of captured towns. “Boys and girls were burned alive or reserved for a worse fate; men were impaled, flayed alive, blinded, or deprived of their hands and feet, of their ears and noses” (Assyriologist - Archibald Henry Sayce).
Obviously, the Assyrian Ninevites deserved to be punished by God, and Jonah knew this as well as anyone. But God in His patience was extending to the entire population of Nineveh a chance to change their ways. However, Jonah’s prejudice towards others and his stubborn disregard of God’s plan are no less evil in the sight of God. When God gave Jonah a specific assignment, Jonah blatantly disobeyed and ran from God by boarding a boat going to Tarshish. And as Jonah sailed in the opposite direction God reached for Jonah in two unusual and yet disciplinary ways.
1. God sent a wind to stop Jonah
The Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. —Jonah 1:4 (NIV)
The wind was not a coincidence or a mere act of nature. God sovereignly created this wind of opposition to get Jonah’s attention. This was God’s way of reminding Jonah of his assignment. Paradoxically, this violent storm was an act of God’s love. God was reaching for Jonah.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. —Hebrews 12:6 (ESV)
Always remember, God wants to use your life to speak to others so they too can be saved. God loves people. He desires to save people and will use your life. However, if you are living a disobedient life, God will devise the means to communicate His plan for your life. This is the other side of love … tough love … attention-getting love … life- changing love … disciplinary love. God wanted Jonah to preach to the Ninevites because He wanted to save the Ninevites. So, God used the wind to stop Jonah. The great wind was God’s obvious way of showing Jonah that nothing good can come from self-willed or self-righteous living. If you read between the lines you can see: The safety of those on the boat and salvation of the those in the city of Nineveh depended on Jonah being selflessly obedient. Jonah soon realized his disobedience was the cause of the wind and asked to be thrown overboard into the sea so that the ship would not sink and jeopardize the safety of the other passengers. But still God was not finished disciplining Jonah.
2. God prepared a whale to swallow Jonah
The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days. —Jonah 1:17 (NKJV)
Wow! That’s three days too many. At this point Jonah was half-digested by the whale and probably wondering if God was going to take his life. However, during this time inside the whale Jonah had a change of mind and his thoughts turned back to God’s plan for his life.
God’s plan was for Jonah to help change the culture of an idolatrous and barbaric group of people who ironically worshipped Dagon, the fish god. Jonah was to play a huge role in bringing a message from the One True God to the fish-god people … to preach repentance … to see lives changed … for Nineveh to be converted. Jonah was to become what the New Testament calls a “fisher of men.” He was on a fish-catching assignment from God. Always remember:
• If you don’t catch fish, the fish will catch you.
If you are not living to promote God’s kingdom culture, the culture of this world will swallow you up. God has a divine assignment for you but if you are running from your responsibility, unwilling to speak up for God, or just trying to fit with the crowd, then you might find yourself in a difficult or compromising situation. If you don’t try to change the world the world will change you —There’s no middle ground.
Jonah humbled himself and repented. Ironically, Jonah found himself in the position of asking God to save him even though he wasn’t willing to go save others. Isn’t this a bit hypocritical? It’s easy to think of salvation only in terms of being saved yourself and forget that God isn’t interested in just saving you. Don’t think of God’s deposit of grace in your life as you alone being saved … think of it as God investing in you so that others can be saved though you. God invested in Jonah because He wanted to use Jonah to save others.
• God is interested in you because He wants “interest” from you.
Think of it this way: God is the consummate investor. God is investing in you and wants interest (or fruit) from that investment … a return. He doesn’t just save you so you can sit and look pretty on Sundays. God saved you so you can help save others. He blessed you so you can be a blessing. So in the belly of the whale Jonah repented of his disobedience and agreed to go preach to the Ninevites. Look what happened next …
So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. —Jonah 2:10 (NKJV)
God was waiting on Jonah to humbly submit and obey, and then He spoke to the whale and it vomited him up on the beach. Truth be told, if Jonah had not agreed to obey, the outcome would have been drastically different. Instead of being vomited out of the whale he would have been digested by the whale. Think of all the alternatives that comes from a disobedient life.
• Obedience determines which end of the whale you come out of.
Many times when we find ourselves in difficult situations it’s important to measure our level of humility and obedience to God’s will, otherwise the outcome may not be pretty. It’s dangerous to kick against the will of God.
In the New Testament, when Saul of Tarsus (a Jewish Pharisee) was headed to Damascus to persecute Christians, a bright light blinded him and Jesus Himself warned Saul of the dangers of resisting God’s leadings. In essence, Jesus was saying, If you keep resisting my will and stubbornly pursuing your own plan you won’t only be blinded, you will feel an even stronger hand of discipline.
Saul soon became aware that he was on the wrong path and that God was saving him in spite of himself. And this means of salvation was so Saul would become a disciple of Christ who would make disciples for Christ. So that he, a Jew, would bring Christ to the Gentiles. Later Saul of Tarsus became Paul the Apostle and had the humility and grace to admit we are all in the same boat. Remember he said:
And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin. —Romans 3:19 (MSG)
This might be speculative, but there seems to be a connection between Jonah and Saul of Tarsus. We could say that Jonah in the Old Testament and Saul of Tarsus in the New Testament were in the same boat. For example:
Both were self-willed and self-righteous religious zealots.
Both thought they deserved the grace of God and that others didn’t.
Both were called to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.
Both had to be disciplined in an extraordinary manner.
Jonah was three days in the whale and Saul was blind for three days.
Luke says in Acts 9:18 that “something like fish’s scales” fell from Saul’s eyes and Jonah’s spiritual eyes were opened while in the belly of a fish.
We could say we are in the same boat with Jonah who fled to Tarshish, and with Saul of Tarsus. We are also in the same boat with the Ninevites (Gentiles). We all have self-righteous and unrighteous tendencies and we all need desperately God’s grace. Just as God did with the Ninevites, with Jonah, and with Saul of Tarsus, God will also graciously use various methods of discipline to teach us about ourselves and His plan for our lives. We are all in the same boat in the sense that that we are incapable of living a God-pleasing life through sheer self-will and determination.
The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. —Romans 3:21-24 (MSG)
The Gospel of God’s grace teaches us that all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions. We all start out as sinners and merely knowing and obeying the rules doesn’t put us right with God. This is why He sent His Son to save us. Scripture makes it very clear—on our own, we can’t live right, we will not be alert for God and we will always take the wrong turn. This revelation forces us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin at that we all need Jesus.
Without God’s help both Jonah and Saul of Tarsus would have ended up in ruin. But God reached for them just like He is reaching for us today. God devised means by which he could arrest their attention and put them on the right track. This is God’s grace in action.
The book of Jonah is a powerful reminder of God’s sovereign involvement, intervention and interaction in every aspect of our lives. God sent His Son to be in the same boat with us. To be born and to live among us … to suffer with us … to be tempted like us … to die for us … and to save us. Jesus was God’s way of reaching for us.
3. Jesus is the greater Jonah
Jonah was asleep in the bottom of a boat and Jesus was asleep in the bottom of a boat (Mark 4:38-40).
To those on the boat, Jonah spoke the truth about himself, was thrown overboard, the storm immediately subsided, and the sailors "were awestruck by the Lord’s great power.” In the same way by Jesus’ word, the storm was calmed and those on the boat were saved. Ultimately Jesus was metaphorically “thrown overboard” for the salvation of the whole world.
Jonah was in the belly of a whale for three days. Jesus was in the heart of the earth for three days.
By one man (Jonah), the word of God came to a whole nation. Through one man (Jesus), the Gospel impacts all nations.
One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.” But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.”
—Matthew 12:38-41 (ESV)
The book of Jonah gives us a glimpse of our merciful God and His reach for us through Christ. He saves us because He loves us and intends on using our lives to reach others.