05.1. JONAH AT SEA

JONAH AT SEA Jonah 1, Part One

WE begin this evening, a series of four or five talks on the book of Jonah. My purpose in these discourses is threefold. First, to familiarise you with this book of the Bible. One of the weaknesses of present-day Bible study exists in the circumstance that so few people master even a single book of the sixty-six that go to make it up. In the next place I want to expose the absurdities contained in the Critics’ attacks upon this volume of Sacred Writ. And, finally, I hope to see the Holy Spirit reach men’s hearts with its messages, that souls may be saved.

There is every reason to believe that this book wears its author’s name. The objections that have been urged against this opinion—three or four in number—are too flimsy for thoughtful people to give them any serious consideration. The objection that if Jonah was its author he would speak of himself in the first person instead of in the third, as Dr. Pusey has said, “belongs to the babyhood of criticism.” Since Caesar, Xenophen, Solomon, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Daniel, Haggai, John, Peter, and Paul, every one write of themselves in the third person, do the critics stand ready to part with Caesar’s Commentaries, Xenophen’s Anabasis, The Pentateuch, The Proverbs, The Psalms, The Prophecies, The Gospels, and The Epistle’s? Again, the objection that we hear nothing else of this prophet Jonah, and consequently may question whether such a one existed, is adequately answered by referring to 2 Kings 14:25, where we read of Jeroboam, who was then on the throne, that “he restored the border of Israel from the entering in of Hamuth unto the Sea of Arabah, according to the Word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher.” The claim of some that had Jonah been the author he would have dealt less severely with his own character, rounding off its rough corners and deftly concealing it defects, is a criticism born of the lack of appreciation of prophetic character. Moses never dreamed of shielding himself when it came to the making of the record of his mistakes. David in Psalms 51:1-19 paints his own sin in crimson colors, and instead of attempting to palliate his guilt, prays for pardon; while the Apostle Peter is supposed to have seen and consented to the faithful record of his own cowardly conduct. The truth is that if anybody else than Jonah had been the author of this book the Prophet would have fared better and the truth worse. The name Jonah signifies “a dove,” and when first given doubtless meant to his mother gentleness and love. But, in the process of time, it came to be more significant still, as this man mourned as the dove mourns, as he witnessed the wickedness of his own people—Israel.

It may seem a strange circumstance that a man who was a prophet of Israel should receive an appointment to preach to the Gentiles of a great heathen city. But we must remember that from the beginning it was God’s custom to give to Israel’s Gentile neighbors an opportunity of salvation through the proclamation of His truth. To the Canaanites He preached by the character and faith of Abraham; to the Egyptians by the mouths of Joseph and Moses; to the Assyrians by Elisha; and to Nebuchadnezzar, Darius and Cyrus, and their respective kingdoms, by Daniel. If Israel had been either faithful students of divine providence or careful observers of the divine practice, they would have understood from the first what sounded so strangely in their ears when declared by the Apostle Peter, namely—”that God is no respector of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him” (Acts 10:34).

There are four thoughts around which all the lessons of Jonah 1:1-17 may be arranged—Jonah’s commission; Jonah’s resignation; Jonah’s experience; and Jonah’s judgment.

I. His Commission.

“Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before Me.” These verses compass his commission.

It was from the Lord. “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah saying.’ There are those who question whether he ever receive direct communication fata God. But, to call that into question is to dethrone every prophet and apostle of Old and New Testament, for the one to think they all make in common is that of being commissioned by the Lord. To call that into question is to dethrone God himself, for what rational man could admit there was a God in heaven, of infinite wisdom and unlimited power, whose chief attribute was love, and at the same time deny that such a God would be interested in men and communicate to them His mind? And, I am among those who believe that God is speaking to men today; speaking to His prophets—preachers—by the small, still voice of the Spirit, and yet by a voice so distinct that they cannot misunderstand, commissioning them to cry aloud against wickedness and call men to repentance. I believe that He speaks to the unsaved so that they understand Him, and calls upon them to repent and return to the Lord that they might be saved. And I believe that it is the greatest wickedness on the part of the saved, and the greatest folly on the part of the sinner when either shuts his ears against that voice, and refuses to hear the commission, or respond to the call. This commission was definitely expressed. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it.” There is no uncertainty in the sound. There is no question as to the language. Men often talk about their perfect disposition to do the will of God if only they could know what it was. All such speeches charge God with unfaithfulness or indifference, and prove the men who make them to be insincere. “If any man is willing to do His will he shall know” is the statement of the Holy Word, and it has been a thousand times corroborated by sincere souls. When God called Moses, He made Himself so understood that Moses had no res; until he accepted the divinely-appointed ministry; when God called Samuel, He kept repeating it over and over until Samuel did understand; when God commissioned Peter to the Gentiles, even Peter’s Jewish prejudices could not obscure for him the will of his Lord; and when God convicted Saul, He distinctly questioned, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” And God, who is “the same yesterday and today and forever” has not changed His method. Every now and then I meet a man who tells me that the reason he is not a Christian is because God has not called him as yet, and I cannot help wondering what he has been doing with his ears that he has failed to hear the call to repentance, the call to faith, the call to obedience; and I cannot help fearing that he has been doing as a friend of mine in Chicago used to do. He was deaf in one ear, and when he laid down to sleep, he found it easy to shut out all disagreeable sounds by burying the good ear in the pillow and turning the bad one up. And the man who has never heard God calling him has unquestionably his deaf ear toward heaven, for God has made the ages ring with this sentence, “Look unto Me all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved; for I am God, and beside Me there is none else.”

I dare say there are few here tonight who, if they had now to give an account of the deeds done in the body, could honestly excuse themselves for not having accepted Christ upon the ground that they had never had a call from God. And I mean that not a one who hears me shall ever be able again to give that excuse and be honest, for here is God’s word to you, “Come now, and let us reason together, and though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, and though they be red like crimson, they shall become as wool.” The execution of this commission required courage. In order to appreciate how much courage, one must keep in mind some of the facts of this bit of history. It was 500 miles over mountains, through trackless forests, and across burning deserts to Nineveh; and there is no hint in the record that he was to have other means of transportation than to go on foot. The elements of air and water might smite him with disease; the wild beast might leap upon him from his place of hiding; the highway robbers might treat him as they did the man on his way to Jericho. And if he escaped all this, and after weeks of travel reached Nineveh, he then had to confront people who were the sworn enemies of his ration; whose Paganism was utterly opposed to the faith of Israel, and cry in the streets of that city, “yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” exciting thereby the probable anger of men who were famed far and wide for their violence and bloodshed. The simple truth is that to be God’s at all requires courage. The weakness of the present-day Christianity comes partly in consequence of the denial of this fact. People have come to think that Christ requires us to give up nothing when we become His, and take nothing! On the contrary, Christ requires us to give up everything that can possibly militate against absolute obedience to His will, and take up the cross, His cross, the cross on which self is to be crucified. The most potent reason unconverted men have for rejecting Jesus is at this very point. They know what true Christianity means. They know that faithfulness to God will often transfix the flesh and the lusts thereof. They know that the Christianity of Jesus Christ will excite criticism, raise opposition, and imperil interests that are dear. And,’ in lack of courage, they refuse to respond to the call.

Dr. Van Dyke is right in claiming, “it requires bravery to be truthful, generous, just, pure, kind, or loyal;” right in saying, “courage is essential to guard the best forces of the soul, and clear the wav of their action.”

“Courage, the highest gift that scorns to bend To mean devices for a sordid end;

Courage, an independent spark from heaven’s throne, By which the soul stands raised, triumphant, high, alone; The spring of all true acts is seated here, All falsehoods draw their sordid birth from fear.”

II. His Resignation.

“But Jonah rose up to flee into Tarshish, from the presence of the Lord; ;-.i went down and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it, to go with unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” In other words, Jonah resigned his office as prophet. Heretofore, he had been fulfilling that office as we saw by the reference to 2 Kings 14:25. But now God requires of him a difficult thing, and he prefers to resign rather than attempt it. That is the secret of a great many resignations. Jonah knew perfectly well that he could not get away from the presence of the Lord, for Jonah was familiar with the Psalm in which David had said, “whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy presence; if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand shall hold me.” And Jonah knew it to be the truth. He fled therefore not so much from the presence of God as from the appointment of God. It meant a good deal to lay down the prophet’s office at that time. It was one of the most honored offices known to Israel. It means no less to lay down the prophet’s office at this time. The world has no office so honorable, and the Church none more so. It is easy to run back over the Old Testament times and show what a prominent part a prophet played in national as well as ecclesiastical history; but it is equally easy to run back over the immediate centuries of the past to show that preachers of the Gospel of the Son of God have exercised an equal, if not a greater power. Germany has no such debt to any other dead as she owes to Martin Luther, whose labors and opinions made possible her schools of learning and her improved religion. Italy will never sing sweetly enough to sound all the praises due Savonarola for his protest against political corruption and ecclesiastical crimes; while Switzerland is what she is, and caught to be far more and better, because John Calvin dwelt at Geneva. I have been going up and down the eastern coast this past summer from Maine to New York, and no man can go through the c:-a;c cities and regard their churches and schools without remembering that John Cotton, John Harvard, Roger Williams, Jonathan Edwards, Increase and Cotton Mather, had more to do with moulding new American thought and life, with making possible the universities and churches that are at once the pride and preservation of the people, than the men of all other employments and professions combined. And yet Jonah resigned this honorable office rather than keep it, and attempt a difficult task. He was afraid of the six hundred thousand heathen he had to face—fierce, terrible fellows they were. No wonder he feared them; and many a modern preacher has called attention to Jonah’s cowardice, and held him up to the public as weak, to resign himself the very first time he had to face three opponents. Jonah was a giant beside most of us. His worst cowardice was better than our best Courage, and yet he was not justified in being cowardly. No man is justified in fearing to attempt what God has commanded. The grand Martin Luther gave us the better illustration of a true prophet when he boldly professed himself willing to face all the devils of hell, if need be, and confidently believing that if he had God with him he would conquer.

There was a sense in which Jonah sought to flee the divine presence. He knew, of course, as we all know, that was no place in the universe where God was not. In the abstract he would have consented to what God said by the mouth of Amos (Amos 9:2) as true, “He that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and be that escapeth of them shall not be delivered; though they dig into hell, thence shall My hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down; and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid in My sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent and he shall bite them.” And yet, all this truth to the contrary notwithstanding, Jonah did what every disobedience to do, tried to run away from God. And circumstances seemed to favor his endeavor, for when he went down to Joppa, he found a ship going to Tarshish. That is no sign he is doing right! The devil will always have a ship ready when a man wants to sail away from God. We want always to remember that it is far more important to know where a man is going and why he is going there, than it is that he should be getting on swiftly. It is related that Huxley used to tell how on one occasion when the British Science Association met in Dublin, he was late in reaching the city; and, fearing lest he might miss the opening address, he ran from his train to a jaunting-car, and jumping in cried to the driver, “Drive fast, I am in a hurry.” The Irish cabman slashed his horse with his whip and went spinning down the street. Presently Mr. Huxley noticed that he was not going toward the place of meeting, and calling out to the cabman, he said, “Driver, do you know where I want to go?” “No, yer honor, I don’t but I am driving fast as yer told me.” It may be a good deal easier at the outset to take ship for Tarshish than to walk to Nineveh. But, if the latter would leave you in His company, you are foolish if you set sail.

You cannot pay the fare for any such privileges. Jonah thought he had paid the fare and the ship captain supposed the same, but they were both mistaken. There was more to be paid, as each of them soon realised. The most expensive sail that any man ever takes is when he sails away from God. I don’t care how smoothly it is when he first starts, nor bow cheaply he can commence his voyage, he will be rocked in a storm before he has finished it, and find himself a hopeless bankrupt, compelled to cast all his wares overboard, and forced to follow them by going overboard himself.

Louis Albert Banks says, “Go ask the young man who has been tampering with strong drink until his nerves are unsteady, his mother’s or his wife’s heart is broken, his position lost, what the fare was from Joppa to Tarshish? Go ask the young man who was arrested last week for forgery and is lying in jail waiting for his trial, his good name blighted, his promising business career forever destroyed, his home draped in shame, his conscience burning with remorse, what the fare is from Joppa to Tarshish?”

Twelve years ago when I was in New Albany, Ind., I conferred with, and helped him, in a little matter, to collect some of the statistics that Dr. J. W. Clokey wrought into that little book, “Dying at the Top.” Being interested in it, I came into possession of a volume, and was profoundly moved as I perused its pages. Nothing said in the volume stirred me more that his description of what the drink demon did for J. J. Talbot, at one time a minister of the Gospel, later a brilliant, but drinking lawyer, and eventually a dying drunkard. His love of drink separated him from his wife, caused that his children be taken from him, sent his old mother into her grave with a broken heart. And, just before he died, he said to Mr. Colfax, referring to all these losses of position as preacher, or honor as a lawyer, of love as a husband, of affection as a father, and of benediction as a son, and of respect as a citizen, and fellowship as a friend, “Now that the struggle is over, I can survey the field and measure the loss.

I had position high and holy. . . I had business large and lucrative. . . I had money ample for all necessities…I had a home adorned with all that the most exquisite taste could suggest. I had children, beautiful—to me at least—as a dream of the morning. . . I had a wife whose charms of mind and person were such that to see her was to remember, and to know her was to love. . . I had a mother whose choicest delight was the refection that the lessons which she had taught at her knee had taken root in the heart of her youngest born. But the thunder-bolt reached me even there, and there it did its most cruel work. . . and while her boy raved in his wild delirium 2,000 miles away, the pitying angels pushed the golden gates ajar, and the mother of the drunkard entered into rest. And thus I stand a clergyman without a cure; a barrister without brief or business; a father without a child; a husband without wife; a son without a parent; a man scarcely a friend; a soul without a hope – all swallowed up in the maelstrom of drink.” Oh, young men, young women, if God is calling you tonight, and you know what He wants you to do, don’t sail away from Him. As you prize holiness here, as you hope for happiness hereafter, as you value the life of the soul itself, don’t sail away from Him; but in answer to His call, say as Samuel said, “Here am I;” and if He have duties that He is clearly defining for you, say as Isaiah said, “Lord, here am I, send me.”

Now, I had expected to go over this first chapter with you tonight; but our time is gone, and there remains enough of it to engage us for another evening. So I beg the privilege of stopping here, promising to take up with you “his experience,” and “judgment,” next Sunday night. But, isn’t it a good place to stop? Isn’t a good place to ask what are you going to do with God’s call? You Christian people, what are you going to do with God’s call ? September has come; the work season of the church year has begun; the harvest is plenteous, the laborers are few. God needs prophets to speak to the impenitent, and God is as distinctly calling upon some of you as He ever called upon Jonah. What is your answer tonight? Is it a pledge of service, or a futile effort to flee from His presence? And you who have never named His name, He is speaking to you also. He is saying, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;” He is saying, “Believe and thou shalt be saved;” He is saying. “Confess Me before men, and I will confess you before the Father and His holy angels.” He is saying, “Be baptized for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” What is your answer tonight? There are but two answers possible. You must answer with Saul, “Lord what wilt Thou have me to do?” purposing as he purposed a perfect obedience to the divine will, or else you will answer as Jonah, by going away from God, and out to sea, and into the storm, and down to the darkness of the deep!