What Has He Prepared For You?
Jonah 1:17-4:11
Intro:
1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
Body:
1. He Prepared For The Sailors –
~ When They Set out To Sail They Had Their gods(v.5), goods(v.5 – wares), and their guts(v.13 rowing in the storm)
A. A Preacher – Jonah 1:9-10
Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Rom 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
B. A Pardon – Jonah 1:15
Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
C. A Peace – Jonah 1:16
Php 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
2. He Prepared For Jonah –
A. He Prepared A Whale – “A Great Fish” Jonah 1:17
~ I first need to address some common false teachings regarding this whale:
- It was a real event! The Catholics teach this (found on Catholic.com):
Question:
Is the story of Jonah and the whale a myth?
Answer:
Catholics are free to understand the story of Jonah and the whale as literal history or as didactic fiction. In Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Karl Keating writes:
“The Catholic Church is silent on the proper interpretation of many biblical passages, readers being allowed to accept one of several understandings. Take, as an example, Jonah’s escapade at sea, which readers often find disturbing. Ronald Knox said that ‘no defender of the sense of Scripture ever pretended, surely, that this was a natural event. If it happened, it was certainly a miracle; and not to my mind a more startling miracle than the raising of Lazarus, in which I take it Catholics are certainly bound to believe. Surely what puts one off the story of Jonah is the element of the grotesque that is present in it’ (Ronald Knox and Arnold Lunn, Difficulties, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 109).
“The most common interpretation nowadays, and one that is held by indubitably orthodox exegetes, is that the story of the prophet being swallowed and then disgorged by a ‘great fish’ is merely didactic fiction, a grand tale told to establish a religious point. Catholics are perfectly free to take this or a more literal view. . . .
“Strictly literal interpretations of what happened to Jonah actually come in two forms. One relies on the fact that people apparently have been swallowed by whales and lived to talk about it. In 1891 a seaman, James Bartley, from a ship named the Star of the East, was found missing after an eighty-foot sperm whale had been caught. He was presumed drowned. The next day, when the crew cut up the whale, Bartley was discovered alive inside. If Jonah’s three days in the whale were counted like Christ’s three days in the tomb, after the Semitic fashion—that is, parts of three distinct days, but perhaps only slightly more than twenty-four hours total—then it is possible that Jonah could have been coughed up by that great fish just as his story says. This would be a purely natural explanation of the episode.
“The other literal interpretation is that Jonah indeed underwent what the story, read as straight history, says he did but survived only because of a positive miracle, and several different sorts of miracles have been suggested, such as suspended animation on Jonah’s part or a fish with a remarkably large air supply and decidedly mild gastric juices” (Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Ignatius Press, 129–30).
~ We Know it was a whale because Jesus said it was:
Mat 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
~ There is a picture of the destination for the disobedient – A Place Called Hell! Jonah 2:2
~ The Water is a picture of the baptism or the end of ourselves
~ The Weeds are a picture of the renewing of the mind – He was aware of the constraint that has occurred and this gives way to a prayer in v.7
B. He Prepared A Watermelon – “A Gourd” Jonah 4:6
~ Watermelon is a member of the cucurbitaceae plant family of gourds
~ You may be asking, how do you know it was a watermelon and not squash? Look at the end of v. 6
~ I have never seen a man happy over squash but now give me watermelon and watch me smile!
~ God so often gives us watermelons in life! He gives us strength and guidance. He gives us the refreshing hydration that comes with a bite of soul winning! Have you led someone to the Lord? Its very much like taking a bite out of watermelon on a hot day!
Rom 6:21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
C. He Prepared A Worm – Jonah 4:7
~ This Term means Maggot
Isa 41:14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 66:24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
~ Three times in Mark 9 the passage is used
Mar 9:48 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
~ We think so highly of ourselves but truly our worm is wretched. ~ When Our Worm presides then destruction, death, and disdain follow!
~ God was demonstrating how quickly a worm can remove and destroy something so wonderful. Jonah was pouting about how God could have done the revival another way (the way Jonah wanted it done) v. 8 - He wished himself to die
~ v.9-10 – God addresses this worm in the man Jonah
~ He says: “not laboured, neither madest it grow”
- How often we get upset at things that are and things that are not but we had nothing to do with it outside of our opinion from afar
D. He Prepared A Wind - Jonah 4:8
~ Another Wind is blowing and this time he ain’t sleeping!
~ This time the Sun is beating down on him.
Rom 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
~ But look what it says before this in v.8 – when the sun did arise
~ Can I tell you this morning that the Son has arised and he said:
Joh 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
~ The power of His Word beats down upon the heads of those who should be serving
~ The Wind is The Winds of Revival that yields great power!
Hab 3:2 O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.
Eph 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
3. He Prepared For Nineveh –
A. The Word -
Rom 10:16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Rom 10:18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Heb 4:13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
B. The Works -
~ What was their works? V.10
Act 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Act 3:20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Luk 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Pro 28:13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Pro 28:14 Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.
C. The Way –
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Rom 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Rom 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
~ Just as He Stretched Forth His Hand To Nineveh, He will Stretch it Forth Unto You:
Rom 10:21 But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
Conclusion:
He Has Prepared for you so will ye prepare for Him:
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.