JONAH: THE RELUCTANT PROPHET
by Jerry Vines
Scripture: I JOHN 5:7, II KINGS 1:1-18, II KINGS 2:1-3, II KINGS 2:5-8, II KINGS 2:10-21, II KINGS 2:24-25, II KINGS 3:4-13
JONAH: THE RELUCTANT PROPHET
It is one thing to be uncertain about the will of God and to miss
it. It is an altogether different thing to definitely know the will
of God and disobey it. The book of Jonah is a cl-as-si-c i-lu-stration
in the bible of a man who had been given definite revelation about
the will of God. A man who knew beyond question what God wanted him
to do and yet openly and defiantly disobeyed the will of God. Now
there is evidence in other portions of the bible that Jonah was a
real character. There are some who said because of the super-natural
nature of the contents of the boak of Jonah that Jonah never really
existed that he is poetic in nature. But over in II Kings chapter
fourteen and verse twenty five in the historical section of the Old
Testament there is a definite historical reference to the man named
Jonah, the son of Amittai, who was a prophet of the Lord. Also in the
New Testament our saviour the Lord Jesus Christ makes reference to
Jonah. In Matthew chapter twelve and in verse forty. I want you to
read with me what the Lord Jesus had to say. Well, let's really look
2
back at verse thirty nine and here is the Lord Jesus and here is what
he said about the prophet Jonah. Matthew chapter twelve and verse
thirty nine. "But he answered and said unto them, An evil and
adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign
be given to it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonah; For as Jonah 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. The men
of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn
it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a
greater than Jonah is here." So the Lord Jesus took this Old Testament
prophet as an illustration of his own death burial and resurrection.
Now the book of Jonah is given to us in four chapters. And I want
us to look at those four chapters ...
It is one thing to be uncertain about the will of God and to miss
it. It is an altogether different thing to definitely know the will
of God and disobey it. The book of Jonah is a cl-as-si-c i-lu-stration
in the bible of a man who had been given definite revelation about
the will of God. A man who knew beyond question what God wanted him
to do and yet openly and defiantly disobeyed the will of God. Now
there is evidence in other portions of the bible that Jonah was a
real character. There are some who said because of the super-natural
nature of the contents of the boak of Jonah that Jonah never really
existed that he is poetic in nature. But over in II Kings chapter
fourteen and verse twenty five in the historical section of the Old
Testament there is a definite historical reference to the man named
Jonah, the son of Amittai, who was a prophet of the Lord. Also in the
New Testament our saviour the Lord Jesus Christ makes reference to
Jonah. In Matthew chapter twelve and in verse forty. I want you to
read with me what the Lord Jesus had to say. Well, let's really look
2
back at verse thirty nine and here is the Lord Jesus and here is what
he said about the prophet Jonah. Matthew chapter twelve and verse
thirty nine. "But he answered and said unto them, An evil and
adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign
be given to it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonah; For as Jonah 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. The men
of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn
it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a
greater than Jonah is here." So the Lord Jesus took this Old Testament
prophet as an illustration of his own death burial and resurrection.
Now the book of Jonah is given to us in four chapters. And I want
us to look at those four chapters ...
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