Most of us think we understand the biblical story about Jonah and his rebellion. but our assumptions may be challenged today. You see, Jonah's attempt to run away from God exposed his rebellion. But his greatest sin was far more egregious. and you might find it shocking.
Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl continues his biographical study on Jonah, the reluctant prophet. In this next study, we'll discover that Jonah's sin and defiance were rooted in racism. Chuck titled today's message, Resistance of a Racist Rebel. Please turn in your Bibles to the The book of Jonah. Way back in the Old Testament among the The minor prophets, minor only in the sense that they are.
For the most part, smaller, shorter than the major prophets. These minor prophets often have a major message. For all of us, and this one Perhaps more than most. speaks to us in our times. Jonah chapter 1.
I'll be reading verses 1 through 12 in the in the New Living Translation. The Lord gave this message to Jonah, son of Amittiah. Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it. because I've seen how wicked its people are.
But Jonah got up. and went in the opposite direction. to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa. where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish.
He bought a ticket. and went on board. Hoping to escape from the Lord. By sailing to Tarshish. But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea Causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.
Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors. shouted to their gods for help. and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time Jonah was sound asleep, down in the hold.
So the captain went down after him. How can you sleep at a time like this? He shouted. Get up. And pray to your God.
Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives. Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. Why has this awful storm come down on us? They demanded.
Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality? Jonah answered, I am a Hebrew.
And I worship the Lord, the God of heaven. Who made the sea and the land? The sailors were terrified. When they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. Oh, why did you do it?
They groaned. And since the storm was getting worse all the time, They asked him. What should we do to you? To stop this storm. Throw me into the sea.
Jonah said, and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm. Is all My fault. You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the story of Jonah on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook by going to insight.org slash offer.
Chuck titled today's message, Resistance of a Racist Rebel. Jonah was a prophet called of God. Make no mistake about it. But to complicate things Jonah was a rebel. Profit.
That doesn't mean he hated God. But it does mean that he hated Where God was sending him to go. Because, frankly, he hated the people. who lived at that place.
So let me say it straight. Jonah was a racist. Rebel. Instead of being wide open and willing to go wherever God told him. He was a prejudiced narrow-minded Jewish prophet.
Who wanted nothing to do with those Gentiles? living in Assyria. Especially The Ninevites. George Matheson, who lived back in the and nineteenth century was a Scottish pastor in and uh preacher became blind early in life and left in his legacy Not only great sermons, but also a number of books that he wrote. Among them, a series of four volumes on Portraits of Bible men and women.
Three of the volumes Bible men and one of them Bible women. The second in the series includes 25 pages. on the prophet Jonah I found it interesting what he titled that particular chapter He called him Jonah the narrow. Jonah the narrow. I suppose back in the nineteenth century, narrow was more appropriate.
Than the word prejudiced or even A sharper term, racist. Let me unpack that for all of us. What is Racism. Racism is prejudice. Discrimination or antagonism Directed against someone of a different race.
It is based on the belief that one's own race. is superior. One can be a white racist, a black racist. a Mexican racist, an Asian racist. Or one of those can be a racist toward one of those races.
You know in your heart if there is racism. If there is, you were not born with it. You were taught it. It is a learned sin. Tragically.
It still exists. You can be a Jewish racist. You can be a Gentile racist. Jonah was the former. He hated those Gentiles who lived.
In Nineveh. Mainly because he did not want to see them hear of the God of compassion. Lest they repent? And God forgive them. And in Jonah's thoughts, let them off light.
While they deserved great judgment. for their wickedness. But back to the term itself. Philip Yancey, back in nineteen ninety-seven, wrote a splendid book. You should read.
It's titled What's so amazing about grace? In it, Philip is vulnerable as he writes of his own life. years and years earlier. Listen to his testimony. as it appears in that book.
I grew up a racist. Rights Jancy. Although I am not yet 50 years old, I remember well. From the South practiced a perfectly legal form of apartheid. Stores in downtown Atlanta had three restrooms, white men.
White women and colored Gas stations had two drinking fountains. One for whites. The other for coloureds. Motels and restaurants served white patrons only. And when the Civil Rights Act made such discrimination illegal.
Many owners shuttered their establishments. List dramatics later elected governor of Georgia. was one of the protesting restaurateurs. After closing his fried chicken outlets, He opened a memorial to the death of freedom. as he called it.
Featuring a copy of the Bill of Rights resting in a black draped coffin. To support himself, he sold clubs. and axe handles. in three different sizes. Daddy Mamma And Junior Replicas of the clubs used to beat black civil rights demonstrators.
Yancey continues. In the nineteen sixties The church I was a part of Deacon board, the deacon board mobilized lookout squads. And on Sundays These took turns patrolling the entrances. lest any black troublemakers try to integrate us. I still have one of the cards the deacons Printed up to give to any civil rights demonstrators who might appear.
When Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, our church. founded a private school. as a haven for whites only. expressly barring all black students. A few quote liberal members quote.
left the church. In protest, when the kindergarten turned down the daughter. of a black Bible professor. But most of us approved of the decision. A year later, the church board Rejected a Carver Bible Institute student.
For membership. Yancey then adds something I would call shocking. I'd never read this anywhere before. He writes. I visited the Holocaust Museum.
in Washington, D.C., and was deeply moved. by its depiction of Nazi Atrocities. against the Jews. What struck me most personally was a section early in the exhibit That demonstrated how the early discrimination laws. set up by the Nazis Against the Jews The Jew-only shops.
The Jew-only park benches. The Jew-only restrooms and drinking fountains Were explicitly modeled on segregation laws. In the United States. These are uneasy words for you to hear. Trust me.
They're difficult words. for me to speak. Yancy's childhood and mine. Are similar in the sense of age. I'm a little older than Philip.
But I remember similar scenes. That disturbed me then and break my heart. Today They arouse emotions within us. But I decided to take time for that.
So we could all understand that Jonah wasn't simply. stubborn. He wasn't just Carnal Jonah was a racist rebel. Jonah's resistance was based on that racism. He wasn't about to go to Nineveh.
He wasn't about to give those people any sense of hope. Lest his God of compassion Change their hearts. And relieve them of the judgment they deserve in his mind. For they were a despised enemy to the Jews. Brutal and vicious.
deserving of nothing but the worst kind of future. The last thing Jonah wanted them to hear was of God's forgiveness. That is at the basis. of Jonah's going in the opposite. direction.
The Lord's commission to Jonah was clear. We see it in the first two verses. of the first chapter. It wasn't uncommon for the Lord to speak to prophets. He does it here.
Before the Bible was complete. God spoke to prophets audibly. And sometimes through circumstances. How he reached Jonah's ears, we're not told. We're only told that the Lord.
gave this message to Jonah.
Son of Amittai. Get up. That's not a new message for Jonah. He's a prophet. He lived with a pack on his back and shallow tit pegs.
Prophets were often on the move. Moving here, moving there to deliver God's message. whether it be warning. or a disturbing word of Conviction. One wagist put it that it was the prophet's job to afflict the the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted.
And Jonah had no doubt done both. But he wanted nothing to do with this calling because when God finished the sentence, Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Everything in Jode in Jonah's mind A screech to a halt. He got up all right. And he went all right.
But he did not go toward Nineveh. which was five hundred miles to the east. From where Jonah lived. He first went to the port city. A jopper.
If you ever have the privilege of traveling to the land of Israel, You will land in Tel Aviv, most likely. Just a bit south of Tel Aviv, There still exists the ancient port town of Joppa. He goes to this port town. And he finds a ship. Buys a ticket.
Gets on board the ship. that is leaving for Tarshish. That is 2,500 miles to the west. That's the full length of the Mediterranean Sea. From Israel's Shores To the tip of Gibraltar at the southern end of Spain.
just west of the Rock of Gibraltar is the ancient city of Tarshish. It's as far as you could go. in the civilized world. He wanted to go there. Why?
He tells us. Verse 3. To get away. From the Lord. Did he understand the call?
Absolutely. Did he realize he was going in the opposite direction? Of course, he did. He bought the ticket, took the ship. Got on board.
And soon found his way to the hold of the ship where he curled up. in his prophet's mantle, and went fast asleep. He hoped to escape. From the Lord. I underscore that because it is mentioned twice in verse three.
He got on board to get away from the Lord. And he hoped to escape. from the Lord. I never know those who hear what I have to say when I stand to speak. But I am convinced that some who are listening right now or running away from the Lord.
Which is an impossibility. Not just for profits. It's an impossibility for anyone. The Lord our God is everywhere at once. The Lord who made each one of us knows everything about us.
From the moment we rise up until we go to bed at night, He knows every movement of the day, He knows our every thought. even before we have it. Every word, even before we speak it. God is ever aware of each one of our lives at all times. Jonah knew better.
But when you are in this state of affairs mentally You block out what you know to be the better judgment. and you go with your gut. In this case, He was going away from Nineveh. God told him, by the way, to announce his judgment against it. No one knew his God.
Once that judgment was announced, no one knew it would be enough for them to hear it. to be terrified with the message and to repent. And then God would move in with compassion and bring his gracious forgiveness. He knew his God's heart. which was a heart of compassion.
Nevertheless, He's on board the ship. bound for Tarshish. Isn't it interesting that the beginning of verse four begins with? But The Lord. It isn't surprising, it is interesting.
But Jonah verse 3 followed by But the Lord. I title this section The Lord's hounds of heaven. That needs a little explanation if you don't remember your English literature class from years gone by. Francis Thompson, back in eighteen ninety-three, wrote a A haunting poem titled The Hound of heaven. Strange title.
startling at first. Until you realize what he has on his mind and written in beautiful poetry. He describes one who is running from God. Listen to the opening lines. I fled him down the nights and down the days.
I fled him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind. And in the midst of tears I hid From him. And on and on he goes through 182 lines in this poem. describing what it would be like for hounds Chasing a hare. with relentless, constant pursuit.
Unperturbed. As a soul flees. attempting to flee from divine grace. And the writer writes this so that you will see there is an unwearing. process of God's constancy.
As he comes after us, stays with us, does not get us out of his sight. This poem led to an old Scottish proverb: the Lord God sets the hounds of heaven. After the souls of men. That is exactly what is occurring in the life of Jonah. The Hounds of Heaven.
I laughed because I imagined when I was preparing this that the storm may have barked. Out! Hurricane! Hurricane! Or not, not really.
You look at me like I'm losing it. Really, I may be, but a little imagination keeps it alive. And here's this storm, by the way. Get it straight, it wasn't the result of Mother Nature. Mother Nature has never existed.
It wasn't the result of global warming. I'll leave the rest with you. It wasn't the rest, it wasn't the result of a freakish weather pattern over the Mediterranean. No. The one who is the God of the sea set the hounds of heaven in the form of a storm.
The Lord was going after Jonah, who is in this ship. that is on this sea. And the Lord's Hounds of heaven. or after him. No one knew it better than Jonah.
Imagine what it was like to be out on the Mediterranean Sea as the weather pattern shifted. Jonah was beginning to realize that God was commanding his attention. There's more to this story that Chuck Swindahl will show us when our study of Jonah continues here on Insight for Living.
So stay with us. First, let me suggest that this nine-part series on Jonah might stir up some meaningful conversations with your Bible study group. The Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook for Jonah will allow each member of your group to engage in this dynamic story and its relevance for today. This spiral bound resource contained studies for all nine of Chuck's sermons, with plenty of room to take personal notes along the way. To purchase the Searching the Scriptures Bible Study for Jonah, call us at 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org/slash offer.
Bear in mind that Insight for Living is a non-profit ministry that relies on the support of grateful listeners like you. Your gift, no matter its size, will ensure that these daily programs continue without interruption. And your gift will allow others to understand God's grace just as you have. Today, we'd like to say thanks for your financial support by providing a brand new booklet from Chuck Swindahl. It's called Look Beyond: Will You Focus on Eternity?
This booklet features the final sermon Chuck delivered on the weekend of his 90th birthday at the church he founded and loved. Chuck cited the wisdom that Paul shared with his mentor Timothy to brace himself for the storms coming, but never lose sight of the rewards of eternity. That's the enduring application in Chuck Swindahl's booklet, Look Beyond. We'd love to send you a copy today with our thanks for your financial support of Insight for Living. To send the donation in the mail right to us at InsightForLiving.
Post Office Box 5000. Frisco, Texas 75034. Or call us at 800-772-8888. You can also give online at insight.org slash donate. I'm Bill Meyer.
Join us when Chuck Swindahl continues his message about the resistance of a racist rebel. Tuesday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Resistance of a Racist Rebel, was copyrighted in 2018, 2019, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles Parswindahl Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
