Pas Ralph Douglas West - The Designated Whale - Jonah 1-2

0:00 This is the day the Lord has made. We rejoice and we are glad in it. Amen. Good morning. Good morning. Take God's word and open it to the Old Testament book, Jonah, chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4. Delighted to see Pastor Raven here this morning. He and his family, his wife conducted a weekend seminar in the city of Houston. Raven, where are you now? Chicago, Tennessee, and Tennessee. And so we're glad to have him with us on this morning.

0:56 a gifted preacher and pastor. The designated fish. In Jonah chapter 1 verse 17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights Chapter 2, verse 10.

1:36 So the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah on the dry land. This is the word of God. You may be seated. Jonah. All I could think about if I was at the aquarium

2:06 looking at the big fish that swallowed Jonah is to ask one question, Jonah, what are you doing in the belly? Jonah has been dismissed by many, has been insignificant. Some say, how can you believe in a book like this in an age like we live in? You don't have to believe it if you don't want to.

2:33 Martin Luther, the reform scholar said that he probably wouldn't have believed it either, except he located the story inside the sacred scripture and that alone was enough to validate the reason for his belief, Jonah. Maybe we know what the book is not about, it'll help us to believe what it is about. It's actually not a book about a man on the run. There is a man running, but that's not what the book is all about. It's not about a man on the run. It's not about a raging sea. It's not about a big fish either. It's not about a blossoming plant, neither is it about an eating worm. All of that's in this book, but that's not what the book is about.

3:31 You'll pick up, for those of you that like to read the scripture and learn, there are some 12 divine interventions in this book. This morning I'll look at two or three of them for one reason, all 12 of them are preceded by one word. That means the same thing, that God appoints this particular thing for a specific place and for a specific purpose. in these divine interventions these interventions are mentioned to remind us that what comes your way is not by accident that God has a purpose and God has a plan for why he sends what comes your way hopefully that either scares you or it certainly comforts you to believe that whatever is happening to you is not by accident, but that God has a reason that it is coming your way.

4:38 Well, I see that that didn't work, so let me say it this way, all things. Okay, I figured that would get you right there. Work together for the good of them who love the Lord and who are called according to his purpose, that whatever come your way is not by accident. God has specifically assigned it to your human situation hopefully for a greater and a larger purpose. So this book is a biography? I don't know. Autobiography? Maybe. What kind of style is it written in? Dramatic for sure.

5:25 But whatever the purpose of this book You can leave knowing this That Jonah has been preserved in the canon To remind us that God can use creation That he created In a way he desires to Let me say it one more time I know you look distracted this morning I know I haven't been here but you look distracted. Give me your attention for a moment because this could help you understand the political, social, and the cultural climate you live in that God can use his creation that he created any way he desires to to fulfill his purposes. Look with me now.

6:19 really at how this all gets started because I'm interested in wanting to know how did Jonah end up where Jonah ended up? Inside a fish? Oh, I hear what you're saying, Pastor West. I can't believe that you could believe something as ridiculous as somebody that could be swallowed up in a fish. Will it happen? And you can actually find this in the Princeton Theological Review, volume 41. 1941, in the Princeton Theological Review, of a harpoon whale that swallows a mariner. When they caught up with the whale, they killed it, opened it up, and discovered after several days that the man inside was alive but unconscious.

7:20 His skin was bleached, his face, his neck, and his hands, but later he resuscitated. Pastor West, you're reaching back. I wasn't born then. Just about 20 years ago, off of Cape Cod, a big fish swallowed a little fisherman. for 30 seconds and got sick and threw it up. The man lived. It's not debatable anymore whether there's an animal large enough that can swallow a human being. And I figure if God can do it now, he did it then. If he did it then, he can do it now. And you don't have to believe it.

8:08 You can dismiss it as being foolish. But the purpose of Jonah's writing is to remind us that God can use his creation, that he created any way that God desires to use it. Look with me now, if you would take your Bible. I won't go through all four chapters, but to give you the highlight of how Jonah ended up where he ended up. and then make one or two comments about it because it's important for us to pay attention to. I'd say that this is not a book about a man on the run from God, chapter one, or a man on the run to God, chapter two, a man on the run for God, chapter three, a man on the run ahead of God in chapter 4.

9:11 But that's exactly what this book is not about and yet at the same time it is very much about that if you're on the run, God can catch up with you. Who is this man that's on the run? Look with me now at the first few verses I will not dig down into them But I'll give you enough skeleton That you can put the meat on the bone So God can use his creation to do his work And one of the creations that he uses Is what he has created in the person of Jonah It begins verse 1 with an identification that this word here reminds us that Jonah is a real person.

10:07 But Pastor Wes, I've never run into Jonah in a way else you can find him in 2 Kings chapter 14. A historical biblical figure, that name is Jonah, who gives messages for God. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai. His name means dove, which typically implies peace, and yet there's nothing peaceful about what's about to happen in the life of Jonah. Forgive me if I get tickled reading this. I've been living with Jonah for the last week, and I'm telling you, he's a mess. And yet, in case some of you might decide to leave Before the benediction God can specialize in using messes How about that? He can do that So verse 1 is an identification That the word of the Lord comes to Jonah The son of Amittiah His name means dove In verse number 2 The scene moves away from an identification to a destination.

11:23 Jonah, I specifically have an order for you, and that is to go to Nineveh. Now, Nineveh is the opposite of where Jonah comes from. Nineveh is the great city. It's a huge city. It's a wicked city. It's a Houston, Texas. The identification Jonah A prophet Whose name means dove is to bring peace That's what he's supposed to bring Verse 2 he has been consigned To go to a destination Nineveh This is the 8th century His contemporaries are Hosea and Amos The king he is Jeroboam II He is a very successful king Business is prodigious Morality is bankrupt Houston Texas Austin Our nation Prosperous Living better than we ever have And yet as immoral as we've ever become Houston Austin, Texas Our city Our nation Prosperity But we got a bankrupt moral system Nineveh was a great city You see where it says that in verse 2?

12:58 It's a great city It's a city that's pretty large in its day It's a New York It's a Houston How do I know? Keep your finger there and go to chapter 4 And look at the very last verse, verse 11 It's only 48 verses in the whole book Four chapters, 48 verses And look what it says And should I not pity who? Nineveh And how is it described? That great city How many people does it have? About 120,000 persons That is all of these children that are in the city. That's what it's speaking of. And what's that intellectual and moral acuity? Answer it. They can't tell their left from their right.

13:51 Houston. Austin. Texas. Our nation. That's the destination that we need to take God's message to. well look at verse number three and what happens then because God needs somebody when they come to the zoo and look at this big fish and ask what are you doing inside of that you have this grand identification your coordinates are giving you the proper destination so what then are you doing out? Well, you can end up in a situation if you go in the wrong direction and turn in your resignation. Wait a minute now, because in case you think I'm just trying to rhyme words. Look at verse one, that's his identification. Look at number two, his destination. And what is he supposed to do when he gets to Nineveh? He's supposed to do verse 1 and 2, proclaim God's word to the great city of Nineveh. And yet, when Jonah got up, he ran in the wrong direction from God.

15:17 Some of you this morning, you are mad because somebody made you get here this morning because like Jonah, you're on the run from God. but that running from God not toward Nineveh but toward Tarshish. Geographically the way you interpret that is he is going as far off the map as you can get. Tarshish is as far as Nineveh as you can get and here's what he's going to discover. You can run from God but you can't run from God. Let me say it one more time. You can run from God, but you can't run from God. This is what the psalmist must have meant when he asked the question, whether shall I flee from your spirit?

16:13 And whether shall I flee from your presence? If I make my bed in hell, thou art there. If I took the wings of the morning and flew to the uttermost parts of the earth, thou art there. My bed's too short, my blanket's too narrow. There is nowhere I can hide from God. I wonder who I'm talking to this morning. You thought relocating from one center to the next, you could run from God. You thought changing addresses at your house, you could run from God. You thought divorce could cause you to run from God. You thought that going somewhere that nobody knew you could hide from God and God this morning says, I got you right where I want you. Preach Pastor West.

17:06 Now, I gotta wrap up. They didn't put a time on the clock, so I'm just aiming at it, you know. So I don't know what the time's supposed to be. That's the cue for you to tell me how long I've been up so I know where I need to finish. All right? Okay, so I guess they don't get that, all right. So let me give you these last things. of how this works and I'm done, okay? Now I mentioned four, I said there are 12 interventions, divine interventions, but I only wanna highlight four as it relates to the zoo and answering the question, how did Jonah get in the belly of that big fish? because I would be interested if somebody pointed out and said you see that fish that's the fish that swallowed the preacher The preacher didn't do what he was supposed to do.

18:22 And he swallowed up the preacher. Here we go. You ready? Here we go. So we got the resignation. And then look at verse 4. I want to point something out to you. he sent a great storm. You see it? He sent a great, that's important. He sent a great storm. Let me show you something else.

18:51 Chapter 4, verse 6 now. He prepared a plant. See that? Verse 7, he prepared a worm and of course our verse text for today in chapter 117 where it says he prepared a great fish did you see the word that's used there he did what he prepared now come here for a minute and I mean this when you see a literary clue like that that's where you pause and say God's saying something Thank you. God prepared a great storm God prepared a big fish two bigs God prepared a gourd plant little God prepared a worm little big and little it's another way of saying how God works from the macrocosm to the microcosm And again, the word is God prepared.

20:07 And some of your translations may say, it appointed, he appointed, he assigned, he consigned. I don't know why I'm in this storm that's beyond my ability to control. Maybe God prepared it. One of my favorite stories to tell is in the New Testament when a group of sailors asked the same question when they were on a journey with Jesus across the Sea of Galilee. And a storm broke out. And Jesus was asleep in the storm. when the storm was raging and rocking the ship from one side to the next and it was taking water, they thought that they were going to drown.

21:09 Go to show you how little attention they paid not only to what Jesus said before the voyage, but what Jesus had been proclaiming to them for almost two years. If they had paid attention to what Jesus had been teaching, they would have known that that end would not be at sea because Christ had to get to the cross. And some of you right now, you are panicking in the middle of a storm when God has already promised you that this is not how you're...