Even though Jonah knew that he was guilty, even though Jonah deserved death, and even though he had surrendered himself to the just punishment of being cast into the sea,

yet in the moment of dying he remembered that God is slow to anger, abounding in

steadfast love showing mercy to thousands and he cries to the Lord.

How does God's compassion overcome our human resistance?

That's the question John Piper answers from the Book of Jonah in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on November 21st, 1982.

Jonah did not go east when God told him to go to Nineveh where Nineveh was he went to Jappa

on the coast and took a ship which was headed for Tarsish which probably was in Spain.

God hurls a storm against this ship,

threatening to sink it.

The prayers of the crew avail nothing, and so they wake up Jonah and ask him who he is and

Jonah says in verse 9 of chapter 1 I'm a Hebrew and I fear the Lord of heaven who made the sea in the dry land and they're

terrified and they ask, well what can we do to make this storm stop?

And Jonah says in verse 12, pick me up and throw me into the sea

and then the storm will be calm for you.

It's a puzzle to me why Jonah was willing to lay down his life for these

pagan sailors when a few weeks later he gets very angry at God for having mercy on pagan Nineveh.

But I think that probably the reason he was willing to let himself be thrown overboard in this chapter is because of shame

and remorse mainly. He had tried to get away from the presence of the Lord, it says in

verse three, but how can you flee from the presence of a God who made the land and the sea. He sees how stupid he's been, how utterly

foolish he's been. God has tracked him down, he has exposed his folly, his guilt is obvious,

he surrenders himself to the punishment.

...