Beloved radio, friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and the worthy name of our blessed say to the Lord Jesus. It is with a heart of joy as well as appreciation to the Lord that we come to you again with the Word of God and continue the commencement of our study of a book in the Old Testament, The Prophecy of Jonah. We trust that in our preceding message, the opening one, We have satisfied our listening audience regarding the truthfulness of the story of Jonah. The words of the Son of God in Matthew twelve, verses thirty-nine through forty-one in particular, definitely proved the reality and the truthfulness that there was such a prophet as Jonah and that he was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. So now let us commence the study of the book in particular. May we learn the significant truths that are contained in the book for our mutual blessing. Our English Bible is dividing this prophecy into four chapters, each chapter making a section, thus giving to us four parts to the whole story. May we name the chapters and their subject. In chapter one we will find a disobedient prophet. And Jonah himself, the disobedient prophet, brought into the midst of a great storm when he is fleeing from the Lord. In chapter two, we shall see a chastened prophet under the chastening hand of God. When Jonah is in the bowels of the great fish, where we shall find him, not fleeing from the Lord, but praying to the Lord. In chapter three, we shall note a successful prophet, as in the city of Nineveh. Jonah fulfills the commission which God had given him, and there we shall see him speaking for the Lord. In the closing chapter number four, we shall find an instructive prophet. where Jonah and the Lord are speaking one with another, but where Jonah has to do some learning from the Lord. Now let us begin in chapter one, where the disobedient prophet is recorded fleeing from the Lord and brought into that great storm. We read verses one and two. 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 has come up before me. This is the commission that God gives to him, the command to go and preach against the great city of Nineveh, which was the capital of the Assyrian Empire in that day. The reason for his commission, and the words of judgment that were to be spoken against it, was because of the alarming wickedness and the corruption of that great place. Now we go to verse three, and here we find a most unusual fact. The prophet, instead of obeying, flees away from the presence of the Lord. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. And he went down to Joppa. and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Now why did Jonah flee from the presence of the Lord when he was commanded to preach in the city of Nineveh? There have been many varied answers given to this question. some of them extremely harsh in their criticism about Jonah. Some have said he was a very bigoted man who would not go to the Gentiles with a message. But the scripture gives the answer, as we may find it within the book of Jonah itself in his own words. And if you have your Bible and would turn with me to chapter four and read verse two, chapter four in the second verse of this prophecy, you will find Jonah telling God himself why he fled away. Listen to the words. Therefore I fled to Tarshish, for I know that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth thee of the evil. Now this is a very frank statement that Jonah made himself. It reveals the very thoughts of his mind and of his heart regarding the whole matter. Jonah did not want God to spare Nineveh. That was his reason for running away from God. He was willing to forsake. He was willing to give up his prophetic office rather than to see Nineveh spared. And why should Jonah display such feelings as this? Did he really have some motive that persuaded him to make such a drastic step of disobedience to his God, and to flee from God rather than deliver his appointed message to Nineveh? Yes, it is true. God commanded him to go to Nineveh and cry against it. In forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown. But you know, Jonah knew something about his God. And as he stated in this second verse of chapter four, he knew that God was gracious. Now let us search carefully into the background of Nineveh, the wicked capital of the greatest Syrian empire in the days of Jonah. Now what did Jonah know about that city that would affect his conduct and cause him to be disobedient to God's command? There were two facts that Jonah knew about Nineveh. They were awesome and they were terrible facts that he knew, and they gave him a fearful dread. If God would repent and not destroy the wicked city because of his divine compassion. For Jonah frankly said to God in our verse in chapter four, I know that thou art a gracious God and merciful and slow to anger. and of great kindness and repentance be of evil. And yet why did he dread the possibility of God sparing Nineveh? Well, there were two reasons that every man in Israel knew about concerning Nineveh. First of all, Assyria was the rising world power that was destined to destroy the nation of Israel. Jonah knew this. He knew from prophecy. that had preceded him, that Assyria was the nation which was predicted to destroy his own beloved land and people. For Isaiah the prophet had foretold how Assyria would destroy Israel in Isaiah chapter eight. And Hosea the prophet, another one, coming very soon after Jonah tells the same in chapters nine and ten and eleven of his prophecy. Even the prophet Amos, whose ministry probably overlapped the last part of Jonah's He tells of the judgment that God would soon send, not only on Israel, but upon the nearby nations also. And Amos declares remarkable words in chapter three and verse seven of his book that say, The Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants, the prophets. Yes, Jonah knew the bitter part that Assyria would play in the destruction of Israel. Now a second fact he knew, and that was the terrible brutality of the Assyrians. They were the German Nazis of those days. It would be nauseous for us to consider the terrible details of Assyrian brutality in the past. Nahum the prophet tells of it very vividly when he describes Nineveh. He calls it, woe to the bloody city. It is full of lies and robbery. The prey departeth not. There is a multitude of slain. There's a great number of corpses because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mystery or the mistress of witchcraft. In the book of Naaman, chapter three, verses one through five. And he even continues to declare. For the description of Nineveh's cruelty and wickedness in his prophecy concerning Nineveh, Naaman shows no pity on Nineveh, but he seems to delight over the coming destruction of the wicked city and the foul butchery of Assyria. Yes, the prophets felt just as Jonah did about it, the wickedness and the cruelty and the that the city of Nineveh and the Assyrian power had manifested and would still manifest in hatred against Israel. Now these facts may be confusing to you and to me. Then why did Jonah change his path when God gave Nineveh only forty days and he would destroy it? Could he not have taken the message? believing that the destruction of the wicked Assyrians would soon be accomplished. Yes, he could. But from the context of the book, his own book that he writes, and his confession in chapter four in verse two, there was one thing that Jonah also realized, that Jehovah was a merciful God, and if Nineveh repented, and they cried to God, even at the last hour, Assyria might be spared, and then Israel would perish. The prophet may possibly have thought that there was one way that Nineveh would not be spared, and how? Well, he could fail to give Nineveh the warning message, and he would leave it then to God's judgment, thinking it would be better for him to sacrifice his office and even himself, if necessary, that Israel might be saved. So Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord. But let us realize the meaning of this expression. It was not that he could go where God could not find him. Jonah knew better than that. But his flight was the renunciation of his prophetic office. He refused to be obedient to the word of the Lord. He probably was willing to suffer God's vengeance himself, if only Israel might be sane. Yet what Jonah needed and what we all need is to realize that any true servant and messenger of God is to enter into the great compassion of God's heart, which he seeks to pour upon sinning, suffering, sorrowing men and women throughout all ages. For in his great heart of love, God gave his only begotten Son to save you and me from an eternal hell, and Jonah should have been grateful that he served a God who had compassion. This undoubtedly must have been the reason. Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord. Father, we pray that the Holy Spirit will enumerate our hearts and minds in the Savior's name for his glory. Amen.