The Christians Hour

Bob Russell: You're listening to The Christians Hour. Thank you for joining us today. It's a joy to have you with us. The Christians Hour is a ministry of Gospel Broadcasting Mission, where we use radio and media to share the good news of Jesus Christ. We carry this message of hope and salvation to the ends of the earth until all have heard.

Can I ask you something? Have you ever struggled with certain parts of the Bible? Maybe you've read a passage or a chapter and thought, "Really? Did that actually happen? Could that be possible?" At times we wrestle with what we read, and sometimes we get so focused on the event that we miss the deeper meaning of the story.

In today's message, Rick Atchley, lead pastor of Hills Church in Fort Worth, Texas, takes us to one of the most well-known and often misunderstood stories in scripture. It's the book of Jonah. Many people fixate on Jonah and the great fish, but that's not the point. This isn't just a story about a man and a fish; it's a story about a man and a great God, a God whose power goes beyond our understanding and whose heart is full of compassion for the lost. You're going to enjoy this message. Here's Rick to share more.

Rick Atchley: The Lord impressed upon me the story of Jonah, the story of the man that was swallowed by a great fish. And many people find that story hard to swallow.

Ben Cachiaras: When skeptics beat up the Bible, few books are more black and blue than the account of Jonah. They struggle to believe in the existence of such a great fish, but I'm going to suggest that there is a struggle beneath that struggle, and that is the existence of a great God.

Rick Atchley: Because the author's intent is not to get you to wrestle with the possibility of a man being swallowed by a fish, but to wrestle with the reality that you might not want to be swallowed by the mission of God.

Mike Breaux: So, let's do some struggling together. Let's read the first three verses in the book of Jonah. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai. Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

Rick Atchley: We're going to struggle together, and the first big struggle is the question: is this a true story? Did you notice that Jonah's father was mentioned in the first line of the book? And why does that matter? Well, Jewish historians were meticulous when it came to the accuracy of their genealogies. So, from the very start, the writing style of this book is characteristic of history, not of the genre of myth or fable.

That it reads like the account of a real man who went to a real city at a real time in history. And we know Nineveh was a real city. It's not called Narnia; it's called Nineveh. And it was a great city, and it was a wicked city. And they were known for this. In fact, the end of the book of Nahum, a prophecy written a hundred years later about Nineveh, says, "When you fall, the nations are going to clap because who hasn't endured your endless cruelty?" Nineveh was a real city. It really was great. It really was wicked.

And Jonah was a real prophet. He lived in the first half of the eighth century BC. He was contemporaries with prophets like Amos and Hosea. And when you read their books, they're constantly criticizing the northern kingdom of Israel for their idolatry. But Jonah got that rare assignment of getting to prophesy some good news to the northern kingdom. Let me show you that in 2 Kings 14. Jeroboam II recovered the territories of Israel between Lebo-hamath and the Dead Sea, just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had promised through Jonah, son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher.

Maybe you're thinking, "Okay, I will admit Nineveh was a real place and Jonah was a real man, but the rest of that story is just too fishy." I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

Gene Appel: There is a strain of Christianity that wants to claim a belief in God but wants to take the Bible and reinterpret stories that would offend the sensibilities of a secular culture. So, I'm going to be blunt. It makes no sense to me to claim belief in God while disclaiming a belief in the possibility of miracles.

Rick Atchley: Which is easier to believe, that a man could survive inside a fish for three days, or that a man could be dead for three days and then come back to life? You might be skeptical of the historicity of the account of Jonah, but apparently Jesus could swallow it. I believe Jesus trumps all other interpreters of the Old Testament. And Jonah is the only Old Testament character with whom Jesus directly compares himself.

Aaron Brockett: 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."

Rick Atchley: So, Jesus believed there was a real prophet named Jonah, there was a real city named Nineveh, and a real revival took place there. So much so that Jesus said, "At the judgment, people from Nineveh that repented at Jonah's preaching are going to be there to rebuke those who heard about Jesus and rejected him."

Ben Cachiaras: More than that, Jesus tied the reality of his resurrection to the integrity of the fish story in Jonah. The resurrection is the linchpin of our faith. Paul says if Jesus isn't raised from the dead, you're an idiot for being a Christian. Everything hangs on the veracity of that account. Why would Jesus take the most important event in history and compare it to a story that he knows is not true?

Rick Atchley: I've never been to Rome. If I ever get to go, I want to see the catacombs. Miles of tunnels built by early Christians to bury their dead starting about 100 AD. 150,000 people are buried there. We know they're mainly Christians because of the pictures painted over many of the graves. And here's the interesting thing: there wasn't a cross in any of those pictures for the first 200 years.

Most of the pictures are scenes from the Bible of great acts of deliverance like Noah and the ark, or the three Hebrew boys in the fire, or Daniel and the lions' den. Remember, many Christians were thrown to lions. But do you know the picture that is in the catacombs over those graves far more than any other Bible story? It's Jonah. Why did they pick this story?

They were making a statement that the person in this grave will not stay in this grave. They will be raised from the dead, just as Jesus promised because Jesus did what Jonah did: a miraculous deliverance from death. And so, I think the real issue is not the historicity of the account, but the believability of miracles. And that's a struggle for some of you. Some struggle to acknowledge a God who's greater than their knowledge. They need a God who fits into their understanding of how things operate.

Gene Appel: Now, that's why I don't think anything is gained by finding true accounts of men who actually survived being swallowed by a fish for a short time. There's some stories like that out there. But trying to make miracle stories in the Bible fit within the laws of nature completely misses the point. Scripture is presenting a worldview of a creator who can do whatever he wants with his creation. Creation is not his Lord; he's the Lord of his creation.

Don't we see this all over the four accounts we have of the life of Jesus? Jesus is constantly telling creation what to do. He can take a sack lunch and multiply it and feed thousands of people. He can curse a tree with a word and it'll die. He can tell a storm to stop and the wind and the waves will calm down. He can command fish to swim inside a net. He can tell a withered hand to be healed or a blind eye to see or even call someone out of a grave.

Now, I admit that is a worldview that demands faith. But don't they all? If your worldview is that nothing somehow became something and non-life somehow became life, you too have a worldview that demands great faith. My worldview is based on a creation that is stunningly designed according to evidence. And I believe it implies a designer. And that designer can do whatever he wants with his design.

Rick Atchley: I want you to notice the fish is only mentioned in three verses in the whole book, but God is mentioned 39 times. This is not a story about a man and a great fish; it's a story about a man and a great God, a God who is not bound by our capacity to understand how he does what he does. He is beyond our knowledge and can do what he wants with his creation.

And so, I'm going to read it the way I think the author intended for it to be read. This is a story that raises questions God wants to ask us. It's not asking if a man can escape a fish; it's asking why men want to escape the mission of God. That's the real struggle. Why do we, like Jonah, run from God?

Mike Breaux: You see, those first three verses would have caused the jaw of any Hebrew to gape. He did what? He got on a boat and went out into the sea? The Hebrew people were terrified of the sea. You don't read any stories, you don't even have legends of brave Hebrew sailors. Jonah is the only person in the entire Old Testament ever depicted as getting out on the Mediterranean Sea.

Rick Atchley: Why? What would motivate a prophet to say no when God says go? Well, I'm sure Jonah probably enjoyed being a popular prophet. He was one of the prophets that actually said good things. I'm sure on People Magazine he made the cover: Israel's favorite preacher. And he knows, "If I go to our enemies, I'm going to get canceled. I'm going to get unfollowed. It's not going to enhance his public image."

Also, Jonah's knowledge of Nineveh's evil was not abstract. He knew what kind of people the Assyrians were and what they did to their enemies. Certainly, the mission came with an element of danger. But Jonah's real concern was not what the Ninevites might do to him. It was what God might do for the Ninevites.

Jonah's real problem is that deep down he knew that God was a Christian. That God was always looking to rescue people who ought to be judged. Look at what he says in chapter four. "Didn't I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran to Tarshish. I knew that you're a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. God, you're just too Christian."

See, Jonah knew if God wanted to destroy Nineveh, he didn't need Jonah. He knew the Sodom and Gomorrah story; he could just call down fire. God was sending Jonah to preach against Nineveh because God was for Nineveh. Why else would he give them 40 days so that they could ponder and repent and be saved?

Now Jonah knows, "The God I worship has every right to give his prophets assignments. But what if the assignment doesn't feel right?" God wanted what was best for Assyria. Jonah didn't think that would be best for Israel. And Jonah resented that God didn't allow him any input on how to run the world. And so Jonah thought it over and said, "I simply cannot be an accomplice to God's huge mistake."

Aaron Brockett: Nineveh is about 500 miles to the east of Israel. Tarshish is 2,500 miles to the west. It was the end of the then-known world. What's Jonah thinking, that he can escape the presence of God? Of course not. He knows Psalm 139: "Where can I go and flee your presence?" He's not trying to escape the presence of God; he's trying to escape the service of God. He's thinking, "I can get so far away that it's impossible for God to use me to do this thing that shouldn't be done." I just can't go there.

The book is not asking the question: can a man live inside a fish? The book is asking: can a man live inside the will of God when he doesn't agree with it? That's the real struggle. Yes, some struggle to acknowledge a God who's greater than their knowledge, but most of us struggle to want a will that is greater than our wants.

Rick Atchley: How do we run from God? By becoming atheists? Not most of us. No. We run from God, most of us, by deciding what part of God's agenda we'll swallow and what part we'll reject. I need, and you need, to look in the mirror and ask, "What's my 'I just can't go there' issue?"

Is it what the Bible teaches about sexuality? For thousands of years in the Judeo-Christian tradition, there hasn't been confusion. Jesus endorsed Matthew 19, the Genesis 2 principle. God gave sex as a gift to seal a covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, and that's where it belongs. And I'm talking to some people right now and you're saying, "Well, times have changed and that's not how I want to live. I just can't go there."

What about the way we steward our finances? Scripture is clear: your net worth doesn't give you self-worth. We're to be generous to the poor. We're to tithe to the kingdom of God. Some of you are thinking, "Well, I can have the lifestyle I want and live that way. I can't go there."

What about forgiving the person that hurt you? You know what God wants. Scripture says get rid of all bitterness and rage and malice and forgive as I have forgiven you. But that person that betrayed you isn't sorry and the wound still hurts, and you think obeying God and forgiving them would be a mistake. And so you have no intention of going there.

Maybe it's what the Bible says about how we are to view and treat foreigners and immigrants. I've seen hundreds of posts by Christians who apparently think they shouldn't go there. Or maybe like Jonah, you'd rather identify first as a citizen of your country than as a citizen of God's global kingdom. More than we realize, we often harbor feelings and make choices that imply that sometimes God is just wrong. And it usually involves not wanting to see other people the way God sees them.

Gene Appel: William Booth founded the Salvation Army. And one Sunday night he's walking down a street in London with his 12-year-old son Bramwell, that he called Willie. And suddenly he takes Bramwell into a saloon and lets his son see the smoke and smell the stench and the drunkenness and the sin that's just being flaunted. What kind of place is that for a kid? And then William turned to his son and said, "Willie, these are our people, and I want you to spend your life bringing them to Christ. I want you to go there."

Rick Atchley: The book of Jonah does not teach that God loves the whole world. The book forces us to face the fact we know God loves the whole world, but sometimes we have a problem with that and we don't want to go there. Norwegian novelist Johan Bojer wrote this story called *The Great Hunger*. And a man who is very anti-social moves to this small town, builds a house, puts up a fence around it, puts up a "Keep Out" sign, buys a vicious dog, sends the message: "Leave me alone and stay off my property."

One day a little girl from the village saw the dog and put her hand through the fence to try to pet him. And the dog did what it was trained to do: it grabbed her arm and it mauled her, and she died from the injuries. The town was understandably full of rage. Their response was not to speak to him, not to sell him groceries, not to sell him seed to plant in his field to grow a crop. The man is desperate; how is he going to survive? And one day he sees a man out in his field sowing seed.

And so he goes out to see who this man is, and it was the father of that little girl. And he says, "Why are you doing this?" And the father responded, "So I can keep God alive in me." That's what happens when you love those you're told not to love and you see people the way God sees them. The struggle leads to the real miracle: that God lives in you. Sadly, we seem to live in a time and in a culture where people more and more are being identified by who their enemies are. More and more we're forming tribes around: do we all hate the same people?

Mike Breaux: And like Jonah, if you want to rationalize that kind of disobedience, if you want to rationalize not wanting to go where God goes, there will always be a ship waiting to take you to Tarshish. It's at the dock right now. It's called "Anything But Nineveh." And all you have to do is buy a fare and sail away.

But here's the problem you're going to have as a Christ follower: how you're going to reconcile your "I won't go there" spirit while you're worshipping an "I'm willing to go there" Savior. Jesus's assignment was even harder than Jonah's. Go to my enemies, preach to them, and they're going to kill you.

Rick Atchley: God came to you when you deserved judgment. And so the real struggle in this book is this question: who or what is my Nineveh? And my guess is you already know. I suspect while I've been preaching, the Holy Spirit has been prompting. And I need to tell you, God's not going to let you flee in peace. If you run from God in that particular area, he's going to come after you, just like he did Jonah.

Think about it. If all God cared about was Nineveh, he could have sent another prophet. But he came after Jonah, not because God needed Jonah, but because Jonah needed a great God. And so do I, and so do you. You see, the real struggle is to run from a God who can outrun you. He'll come after you, and the sooner you turn to Nineveh, the better, not just for you but for everybody. Because when you run to Nineveh, you are walking with God.

Bob Russell: Well, how about you? Have you struggled to walk in the will of God? Are you running from something he's called you to do? Well, can I urge you, don't rationalize disobedience like Jonah did. Don't let pride stand in the way. Don't keep sailing in the opposite direction of where God is leading you and don't justify your decisions based on your personal preference.

You're running from a God who is faster than you and who loves you too much to leave you where you are. Turn back, repent, step into what God has called you to do. There's no greater path than walking in his will. Well, our thanks to Rick Atchley for that powerful teaching and our thanks as well to Acappella Ministries for their music of worship.

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