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Bristol SDA Church

Tickets to Tarshish

Garhett Morgan

Tickets to Tarshish- Part 1

As I was studying for this sermon, I was really excited about it.

It's been 1 that I've been wanting to do for a while.

And once I started writing it, I realized that it was going to be too much for just 1 sermon.

We're going to have 2 sermons on the story of Jonah, and it's entitled, Tickets to Tarshish, which we're going to explain that title here later on today.

So we're going to have a part 1 and a part 2, so I'm not going to be here next week, and the week after that is men's retreat, so you're going to have to wait probably 3 weeks to get part 2 so really remember today.

You know the book of Jonah is only 4 chapters long and it's 48 verses in total.

For the average reader it only takes about 10 minutes to read the story of Jonah.

Yet when you look online, and it's an amazing thing to have the internet at your fingertips because you have so much information that just comes alive, it can be a real blessing.

It can also be a real curse to many as well.

But if you look online and you look at Bible skeptics, you'll find that many skeptics don't have a problem with the book of Genesis.

Many don't have problems with the book of Revelation or Matthew.

But 1 of the books that Bible skeptics focus in on the most is the book we're going to be looking at today, the book of Jonah.

There's a few reasons why that is, and 2 of the verses that they focus most on, if those 2 verses were taken out of the book of Jonah, often the skeptics probably wouldn't have a problem.

You're probably wondering what these 2 verses are.

It's in Jonah chapter 1, and the last verse of that chapter.

This is a verse that many scientists and skeptics have a problem with.

It says, Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, And Jonah was in the belly of the fish 3 days and 3 nights.

Now that seems a little bit extreme, doesn't it?

But many scientists and skeptics believe that it would be impossible for a man to be inside the belly of a fish for 3 days and for 3 nights.

The other verse that skeptics have a problem with is the last verse of chapter 2.

And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." When you look at the story of Jonah, you find that it's a pretty unbelievable story, isn't it?

There's no other story in Scripture or in the history of the world that really talks about a fish swallowing a man whole and then spitting him up a little bit later.

But should we as Christians believe in the validity of the story of Jonah?

And there's a few reasons that I believe that to be true.

We're gonna be looking at the scientific evidence of why that should be true today, which is gonna be awesome.

But number 1, apart from the scientific evidence, I believe that it's in the Word of God, we should believe it.

Methods of Science and different theories of science and laws of science change quite often, with the exception of a few.

You think of like the law of gravity and things like that, right?

But science is changing all the time, isn't it?

If you take a look at medical science, you found back in the day that people would prescribe cigarettes for asthma, right?

So science is constantly changing and often science is dead wrong.

But if anything comes up against the Bible, even if science contradicts the Bible, brothers and sisters, I'm going to believe in the Word of God.

So 1 of the reasons I believe Jonah to be true is that it's in the Bible, but another reason I believe it to be true is in the story of Luke, if you want to turn there.

Keep your finger in the book of Jonah because we're going to be back there.

But Luke chapter 11, Luke 11, 29 through 30.

Jesus is speaking in this statement here in Luke 11, 29-30.

Luke 11.29 says, And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation.

They seek a sign, and there shall be no sign given it, but the sign of Jonas, or Jonah, the prophet.

For as Jonah was assigned to the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation." If you take a look at Christ, he references the book of Jonah.

So did obviously Christ believe in the story of Jonah?

So if the Bible says it, and it's included in the canonization of the Bible, and if Jesus believed in the story of Jonah, do you think we should as well?

But let's take a look at the story of Jonah specifically now that we know the validity of it is true.

Go back to the book of Jonah and we're going to reread our scripture verse.

Jonah 1, verse 1, and we find this prophet of the Lord that's given a certain command.

It says, 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 is come up before me." Perhaps 1 of the greatest understatements that the Bible ever makes is that Nineveh was a great wicked city.

I'm a big history buff as a lot of you know, and this week I decided to take a look into the history of Nineveh itself.

It was very comparable to the nation of Babylon at the time.

And Assyria did some things that are unspeakable, especially in this setting today.

I did some great marble walls, and Assyrian reliefs are stone carvings that they used to put on the walls of their palaces, in their homes, and in their town squares.

I was tempted to show you some of these stone carvings or Assyrian reliefs that were inside the city of Nineveh when the archaeologists dug it up a little bit.

And these stone carvings that were found in Nineveh were so graphic that I didn't feel comfortable putting them on the screen in church service.

I know there's a lot of children here today and so that's 1 of the reasons that I didn't.

But if you're curious about what these stone carvings were all about, I posted them on my Facebook yesterday.

So if you want to go to those sometime and take a look at what's depicted there, you'll find that these Ninevites were extremely brutal people.

If you look at the history of nations, especially in the old world around the 500 BCE, or BC as we Christians say, at 500 BC you'll find that most nations had pretty bad kings and then every once in a while they'd have a good-hearted 1, They'd have a humanitarian.

They had some pretty bad kings, didn't they?

But Assyria or Nineveh is very different because when you look at all of the kings of their time you'll find that there wasn't an ounce of mercy or humanitarian among any of them.

And the Assyrians hated 1 people the most.

Assyrians or the Ninevites hated everybody, But they hated 1 nation the most, the Jews.

It's said that they went to the land of Judea and they captured many Jews and brought them back to Nineveh.

And these Assyrian reliefs that are found inside the walls of Nineveh write the story of what they did to some of these Jewish people.

And to put it lightly and to give 1 mild example of what they did, there's a relief that is there that depicts them taking Jewish children and in front of the palace in the town square impaling them with a big stick.

Impaling them to the point where it didn't gum through any of their main arteries to where they were still alive as they were hanging there.

They would light a slow-burning fire underneath them and wait for their skin to bubble and then peel it off.

It's said that sometimes as these people were being tortured to death, it took 2 weeks for them to actually die.

A lot of historians call them the old world Nazis of their time.

Now I only say that to give you a true picture of what Jonah was really thinking.

When we tell this story often we say, Jonah what are you doing man?

God told you to go somewhere why don't you just go?

But what God had just told Jonah to do probably scared him to his wits end.

Jonah knew everything about the Ninevites.

He had heard that the king loved to have heads inside his room for him to look at when he fell asleep at night.

He knew all of this, but yet God had told him to go.

Tickets to Tarshish- Part 2

Father, Lord, I thank you for the Sabbath day that you've given us.

Lord, it is a little bit cold outside, but we thank you that it's warm here.

And Father, as we look into the continuation of the story of Jonah, Lord, help it to help continue to convert us.

And Father, as we grow closer to you, we know that you will grow closer to us.

So 2 weeks ago, if you remember, we left Jonah in a pretty precarious spot.

If you remember, Jonah went down to Tarshish, and then he went down into the boat.

And then after he was down to the boat, he went down into sleep and then he was cast down overboard into the water.

And finally a great fish opened up his mouth and swallowed Jonah, and Jonah was even down further.

Jonah might be the 1 that has gone down furthest in the oceans even today, I'm not sure.

We talked a little bit last week or 2 weeks ago about how that fish or that whale, wherever it may have been, could have actually swallowed Jonah.

And we did a little bit of research on that.

And we found the important word there that we read in Jonah was that God prepared a fish.

You know, God still has creating power, doesn't he?

And it could have been that God used a current species that is still out there, I don't know.

But all's I do know is that the Bible says it and I believe it.

Jesus believed it to be true and I believed it.

And even if science says that it is impossible for a man to be swallowed by a fish and in 3 days still be alive.

I first of all, believe that science says that it can be true, but because the Bible says that brothers and sisters, I believe it.

Lots were cast to see whose fault it was that this big storm had took place, and it fell to Jonah.

Now I'm not sure how God used the lots and all that gambling little thing there, but he did and it fell to Jonah.

And Jonah, as we find him, is there in the belly of this great fish.

Jonah is about ready to have a wake-up call, isn't he?

No, I don't know about you, but oftentimes in our lives it takes us to get to rock bottom before we realize that something is wrong, and Jonah had a rock-bottom experience.

If you take a look at Jonah, chapter 2, Jonah chapter 2, verse 6, you find this.

Jonah chapter 2, we find Jonah in prayer, and look what he says here in Jonah chapter 2, verse 6.

He says, I went down to the bottoms of the mountains The earth with her bars was about me forever Yes has now brought up my life from corruption.

Oh Lord my God When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord And my prayer came in unto you, into your holy temple.

They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving.

Jonah should have prayed a long time before this, shouldn't he have?

As soon as Jonah had some doubt in his mind about where he should have gone.

He should have been on his knees But the first time we find Jonah actually in prayer in the book of Jonah is when he's in the belly of a great fish he's got seaweed wrapped around his head, and he is down at the bottoms of the ocean.

You know, so oftentimes we as Christians do the same thing.

When a trial approaches us or something along those lines, We do everything that we can to fix it and our last resort is prayer.

When our first resort should be to be on our knees.

There's a lady in 1 of my other churches who a couple weeks ago was having some back pain and so she decided to go into the doctor and get it checked out.

And on her kidney, they found a growth the size of a tennis ball.

And they also noticed that her lymph nodes were starting to become sore, and as they continued to examine her this past week, they found that it's most likely stage 4 lymphoma.

And I remember talking to her this week and going through some verses with her of comfort and she says, I guess all we can do now is pray.

And we say that often, we say that a lot.

But prayer is something more powerful than just a last resort.

It isn't something that all we have left is to offer a prayer, but prayer is something powerful.

And if we have faith that God will operate his big plan, then I believe that we will see answers to prayer.

And Jonah here, as he is down on his knees, he's obviously a man of God.

And as he is there, He doesn't really make any excuses for his wrongdoing does he he doesn't at all but he says I will give thanks to God That I am in this belly of the fish.

You remember a couple weeks ago You probably don't but we talked about the Ninevites.

No, I don't want to get too in-depth on that anymore but we saw the Ninevites were pretty evil people, right?

We saw that they were very murderous, and we talked about a couple of those instances that they were, and we don't need to go into that anymore.

But the Ninevites also were a polytheistic religion.

Now polytheism means that certain religions believe in many gods All right, we as Christians some of them as Christians are monotheistic Which believe which means that we believe in 1 God, right?

But 1 of the 1 of the Ninevites many gods was the god of let me get this right Dagan Now Dagan was a god that was very interesting.

Dagon and Ishtar were both gods or a goddess of fertility.

Now the reason that he was part fish was because fish in the minds of those ancients was a symbol of fertility.

Now I don't know, But when I was growing up, my parents allowed me, or they didn't really allow me, I just bought them.

Now guppies, you can buy it at the pet store for like a dime a piece.

They're really, really small and they're really easy to take care of.

They don't eat much, and so they thought, okay.

But guppies, if you get the 2 right kinds of fish, within about 4 weeks, I had about 5, 6 guppies, I think it was.

And as I continued to go on, I just had court jars and just full of guppies in my room.

This is why Dagon was a god of fertility.

Now this god, and I can show you a picture of this later, but this god was very interesting.

If you took a look at him in those ancient descriptions and the ancient stone carvings, you'll find that he looked just like a man.

He had a body just like we did, but he had very long hair.

And his hair wasn't hair like we have it, but it was scales, all right?

Just describing what they thought this God looked like.

And this God had scales that would cover his entire body that grew from his head.

And if you take a look at Nineveh, you'll notice that when Jonah was spit out, the Bible says that he was spit out in a 3 days journey.

We're going to talk about that in a minute, but the Bible actually says that Jonah was spit out right along the side of where Nineveh was.

Now if you look at Nineveh, you'll find that Nineveh isn't anywhere close to any large mass of water.

There isn't a sea, there isn't an ocean, there isn't anything like that, but there is something very important.

The Tigris River is a very large river and it's very deep and it's very wide.

And it actually ran right along the side of Nineveh.

In fact, in some maps, I'm not sure if it's exactly true, but in some ancient maps of Nineveh, we find that the Tigris River actually ran through the middle of the city, just like it did in Babylon.

So when Jonah was spit out of this whale, he was either spit out on the side of the city right there, or it could have been, it's very possible that Jonah was spit out of that river in the middle of the city.

Now as Jonah is there, let's continue to read this.

Jonah chapter 2 and verse 10, And the Lord spake unto the fish, And it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Verse chapter 3, and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying arrives go to Nineveh that great city and preach unto it the preaching that I bid you That's the exact same thing that God had told Jonah to do a long time ago, right?

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Tickets to Tarshish

Tickets to Tarshish- Part 1

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