Jonah
Message 4 – Simple Obedience

Jonah was a Jewish Prophet who lived 8th Century BC, also referenced in 2 Kings 14.

God told him to preach to people in city called Ninevah (ancient city in Iraq, near modern city of Mosul). Jonah didn’t want to so ran away from God. He ends up in in a boat, in a storm, and is thrown overboard. He is swallowed up by a large fish, spends three days and nights in the belly of that fish until the fish vomits Jonah onto dry land.

He preaches to the city of Ninevah, the Ninevites respond, there’s revival in Ninevah, and Jonah isn’t happy about it because he disagrees with God’s kindness to the Ninevites.

Jonah 3:1-10
Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

A wicked city of 120,000 people turned their hearts toward God. How did a failed and runaway Prophet transform into the leader of the most remarkable revival in history?

Simple obedience.
God doesn’t need our advice, arguments or excuses. He just wants our obedience.

1 Samuel 15:22
Obedience is better than sacrifice …

In God’s eyes, simple obedience is better than the most elaborate religious rituals and offerings.

Three obstacles to obedience.

1. Choose obedience over doubt.

We know that Jonah ran from God’s call because he didn’t want the Ninevites to receive mercy. But there must have also been doubts in his mind.

At its core, doubt is thinking we know better than God.
Simple obedience requires us to trust God.

2 Kings 5:13-14
Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

Elisha invites Naaman to a simple act of obedience. Naaman doubts it will make any difference at all – but when he finally just obeys what the Prophet asked him to do - a miracle!

We see the power of simple obedience, in the face of doubt, at the account of the wedding in John 2.

John 2:5
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

John 2:7-8
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

To fill up 600 litres of water into jars, when the need was wine, seemed like a foolish idea.

John 2:8-10
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

The servants put their doubt aside and simply did what Jesus told them to do, and a miracle ensued.

2. Choose obedience over fear.

It also seems likely that Jonah ran from God in disobedience because he was afraid. The Ninevites were cruel and barbaric, and Jonah wanted his life spared.

When we feel God calls us to do something, fear can grip our heart and stop us from obeying. Simple obedience requires courage.

Genesis 12:1–3
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

For Abraham, there must have been fears that sprung to mind at the thought of doing what God had asked of him.

Hebrews 11:8
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

Fear will always keep the borders of your life small and contained, but obedience will always bring you into a much bigger future. The extent to which God works through your life will be proportionate to your courage.

3. Choose obedience over self-interest.

It’s likely another reason Jonah ran from God is because going to Ninevah to preach didn’t really seem in Jonah’s best interests. Thank God Jonah looked beyond his own interests and obeyed.

Philippians 2:4–9
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name…

Jesus looked beyond His own interests and instead obeyed. Because of that, God honoured Him.

Simple obedience requires us to die to self.

Obedience is our responsibility – outcomes are God’s responsibility.

At the end of the day, success in life is going to boil down to this, “Did I do what God asked me to do?”

The one thing that says “Jesus you are Lord of my life” is when we simply obey.

What is God asking you to do?

Naaman was asked to dip seven times in a river.
Servants asked to fill six stone jars.
Abraham to leave his country.
Jonah to go to Ninevah.
Jesus to go to a Cross.

God’s purpose is different for all of us – but obedience is the common link.

“Do whatever he tells you to do.”