Learning That God is God | Jonah 1:1-3

Scripture

• Jonah 1:1–3

About this sermon

Introduction: The book of Jonah is not about a fish. Though the prophet Jonah is on stage throughout this account, the book is not primarily about Jonah. The book of Jonah is about God. And the book of Jonah is about the fact that God IS God whether we want Him to be or not. We do not elect God. Nor do we get to vote on whether He remains in office. He is not a God confined to a city or a nation — even when He has covenanted with a nation. Even when He has specially blessed a nation. He is not a regional God. He is not a God confined to our people group. He is not an ethnic deity. He is not a God that we get to make in our image. We cannot make Him be what we want Him to be — He has made Himself known. He is not a God we can control. He will do as He pleases. He is sovereign over all realms. He is sovereign over judgment and salvation. He is sovereign over life and death. He is sovereign over men and kings and cities and nations. He is sovereign over the planet and the creatures that exist on this planet. He is sovereign over the skies and the seas and the land, and all the weather that affects those elements. He is the creator of all mankind and cares for the souls of men in every tribe, language, and nation. And He has the right to care because He made them and sustains them. Though He has made Himself known, He cannot be fully comprehended. He often baffles us. He cannot be bargained with or made to do what we think is right. He commands what we sometimes would not want Him to. He calls us to obey Him in ways that we sometimes would like to avoid. He cares about things that we sometimes wish He would not — and if He were like us, He would not — but he is not like us. He is patient with us, even when we think wrongly about Him and His world. He owes us no explanation, yet He often reasons with us — even when we do not deserve for Him to reason with us. The book of Jonah is about God. It is about His willingness to have fellowship with those whom He saves and uses. It is about how He trains them, even as He is using them. It is about His ability to rebuke, and convict, and teach hard lessons, even as He is being patient and good to us and patient and good to others. It is about what God does in response to genuine repentance and what genuine repentance looks like. It is about His mercy. It is about His willingness to save. And it is about a man who had to learn that this God is inescapable. You can try to run from Him, but you cannot avoid Him. You do not get to choose whether you will be in His school or when you get to graduate.