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The Ambassador Group

Biblical Missionaries

0. Biblical Missionaries: The Great Commission

01. Biblical Missionaries: The Missionary Nature of God

02. Biblical Missionaries: Abraham- the First Missionary

03. Biblical Missionaries: The Unlikely Missionary

04. Biblical Missionaries: The Jonah Saga

05. Biblical Missionaries: Exiles as Missionaries

06. Biblical Missionaries:  Mordecai and Esther

07.Biblical Missionaries: Jesus- The Master of Missions

08.Biblical Missionaries: Cross-Cultural Missions

09. Biblical Missionaries: Peter and the Gentiles

10. Biblical Missionaries: Philip as Missionary

11. Biblical Missionaries: Paul- Background and Call

12. Biblical Missionaries: Paul- Mission and Message

13. Biblical Missionaries: Must the Whole World Hear?

Welcome to another in-depth exploration of biblical missionaries written by Borge Shentz edited for audio and produced by The Ambassador Group.

Exploration 4 The Jonah Saga I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation the 1 who fears him and does what is right.

Acts chapter 10 verses 34 and 35 New International Version.

The Jonah saga is the account of a Hebrew prophet working well beyond his comfort zone.

Alive during the reign of Jeroboam II, about 750 BC, according to 2 Kings 14, verse 25, Jonah is the only Old Testament prophet whom we know of who was directly called to be a missionary in another country.

The truth that the creator of all races did not intend to limit salvation only to his chosen people is stated repeatedly in the Old Testament, especially in Isaiah and the Psalms, even though popular Israelite theology at the time of Jonah did not accept that the Gentiles were also in God's plan to partake in salvation.

Even in the New Testament times, it was a hard lesson for the Jewish believers to learn.

In the 4 chapters of Jonah, we read an honest record of Jonah's reluctant pioneering experience as a foreign missionary, both the positive and the negative.

Here a person's inner and very human reaction to the call of God is preserved, along with a powerful appeal for the need of foreign missions.

A few guidelines for foreign missionaries and cross-cultural witnesses emerge from the book, which also points to solutions for some of the issues and The The Flawed Prophet Second Kings 14 verse 25 mentions Jonah.

Jeroboam restored Israel's border from the entrance of Hamath to the Dead Sea of the Arobach according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-Hepher.

What does this verse tell us about Jonah?

Let's compare our listening observations.

Outside the book of Jonah, the prophet is mentioned in 1 other Old Testament passage, the verse we heard, 2 Kings 14.

Here Jonah is honored as a prophet that predicted Israel's recapture of territory taken by Syria.

In Hebrew, that place's name means wine press at the water hole.

Gath Hefer was a town in Zebulun in northern Israel, only a few miles from Nazareth.

This means that both Jesus and Jonah were Galilean prophets separated by about 750 years.

Let's find out more about Jonah from his own journal, so to speak, the Book of Jonah.

Listen with this two-sided question in mind.

What kind of picture do these verses present about him?

Both the good and the bad from Jonah chapter 1 verses 1 to 3 9 and verse 12 now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai saying arise go to Nineveh that great city and proclaim against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.

But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from being in the presence of the Lord as his prophet and went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish, the most remote of the Phoenician trading places then known.

So he paid the appointed fare and went down into the ship to go with them to Tarshish, from being in the presence of the Lord, as his servant and minister.

Verse 9, And he Jonah said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I reverently fear and worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

Verse 12, And Jonah said to them, Take me up and cast me into the sea.

So shall the sea become calm for you, for I know that it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.

From Jonah chapter 2 verses 1 to 9, Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly and said, I cried out of my distress to the Lord, and he heard me.

Out of the belly of Sheol cried I, and you heard my voice.

For you cast me into the deep into the heart of the seas and the floods surrounded me all your waves and your billows passed over me then I said I have been cast out of your presence and your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple.

The waters compassed me about, even to the extinction of life.

I went down to the bottoms and the very roots of the mountains.

The earth with its bars closed behind me forever.

Yet you have brought up my life from the pit and corruption, O Lord my God.

When my soul fainted upon me, crushing me, I earnestly and seriously remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple.

Those who pay regard to false useless and worthless idols forsake their own source of mercy and loving-kindness.

But as for me, I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving.

Salvation and deliverance belong to the Lord.

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city of 3 days journey, 60 miles in circumference.

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

So the people of Nineveh believed in God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth in penitent mourning from the greatest of them Even to the least of them.

For word came to the king of Nineveh of all that had happened to Jonah and his terrifying message from God.

And he arose from his throne and he laid his robe aside, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

And he made 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 nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them cry mightily to God.

Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Who can tell God may turn and revoke his sentence against us when we have met his terms and turn away from his fierce anger so that we perish not?

And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way.

And God revoked his sentence of evil, that he had said that he would do to them, and he did not do it, for he was comforted and eased concerning them." Jonah emerges from his book a strange mixture of strength and weakness, self-willed and rebellious, but also teachable and obedient.

He was loyal to God, courageous and a believer in prayer but he was also narrow-minded, selfish and vindictive.

While Jonah was described as a servant of the Lord in 2nd Kings 14 25, he cut a somewhat sad and tragic figure in the book bearing his name.

It is a mark of the integrity and reliability of the Bible that he was described in such a candid manner.

The natural human tendency of a writer would be to obscure and hide less acceptable aspects of biblical heroes.

But under the Spirit's inspiration, the Bible's authors present the valiant along with the petty in the lives of people to illustrate the truth that no matter how weak and unpleasant these characters may be, God is able to work through them if they are willing.

What other Bible characters did God use despite their personality flaws?

What hope can you draw for yourself from the fact that God uses flawed and damaged people to work for him in reaching out to others?

Go to Nineveh was God's command to Jonah.

In the Old Testament, the usual appeal to the nations was, come to Zion.

God's original plan was for Israel to live their religion, making the nations so attractive that other nations would come to them for guidance, as Isaiah 56 and verse 7 says.

All these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples." Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 to 20 tells us Jesus's command to his disciples.

Jesus approached and, breaking the silence, said to them, All authority, all power of rule in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you and to behold I am with you all the days perpetually uniformly and on every occasion to the very close and consummation of the age.

Jonah, as a forerunner of the disciples in the New Testament, is told to go to Nineveh, which to him seemed an unclean center of idolatry, brutality, and totalitarianism.

Jonah made detailed preparations to go west by sea, Even though God had directed him to go east by land, Jonah, the unwilling prophet, fled in the opposite direction.

We will now hear Jonah chapter 1 verses 3 to 17.

What lessons can you gain from this amazing narrative?

So he paid the appointed fare and went down into the ship to go with them to Tarshish, from being in the presence of the Lord as his servant and minister.

But the Lord sent out a great wind upon the sea, and there was a violent tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken.

Then the mariners were afraid, and each man cried to his god, and they cast the goods that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.

But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.

So the captain came and said to him, What do you mean you sleeper?

Perhaps your God will give a thought to us so that we shall not perish.' And they each said to 1 another, Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.

So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

Then they said to him, Tell us, we pray you, on whose account has this evil come upon us?

And what is your country and nationality?' And he said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I reverently fear and worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.' Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, what is this that you have done?

For the men knew that he fled from being in the presence of the Lord as his prophet and servant, because he had told them.

Then they said to him, What shall we do to you, that the sea may subside and be calm for us?

For the sea became more and more violently tempestuous.

And Jonah said to them, Take me up and cast me into the sea, so shall the sea become calm for you.

For I know that it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.

Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring the ship to the land, but they could not, for the sea became more and more violent against them.

Therefore they cried to the Lord, We beseech you, O Lord, we beseech you, let us not perish for this man's life, lay not upon us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.

So they took up Jonah and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

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Series

Biblical Missionaries

04. Biblical Missionaries: The Jonah Saga

Parent Series

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Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

0. Biblical Missionaries: The Great Commission

10m

01. Biblical Missionaries: The Missionary Nature of God

52m

02. Biblical Missionaries: Abraham- the First Missionary

44m

03. Biblical Missionaries: The Unlikely Missionary

42m

04. Biblical Missionaries: The Jonah Saga

53m

05. Biblical Missionaries: Exiles as Missionaries

1h 22m

06. Biblical Missionaries: Mordecai and Esther

1h 12m

07.Biblical Missionaries: Jesus- The Master of Missions

44m

08.Biblical Missionaries: Cross-Cultural Missions

48m

09. Biblical Missionaries: Peter and the Gentiles

1h 36m

10. Biblical Missionaries: Philip as Missionary

59m

11. Biblical Missionaries: Paul- Background and Call

48m

12. Biblical Missionaries: Paul- Mission and Message

54m

13. Biblical Missionaries: Must the Whole World Hear?

51m

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