JONAH
"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. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD." (Jonah 1:1-3).
As
much as we hate to admit it, there is, at times, a little bit of Jonah in all
of us. It's that carnal, selfish side of
us that rises up and says, "I want to do what I want to do!" Even when we know it's not a good choice, we
choose it anyway. Paul experienced it,
and wrote about it in his letter to the Roman believers. He said, "For
that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate,
that do I." (Romans 7:15). In
other words, the things that he hated doing, and in his mind he wouldn't allow
himself to do, he did anyway; and the things that he knew were right and good,
he found that he had trouble doing. It's
sort of like our New Year's resolutions: good intentions that don't get done.
The
Lord had spoken to Jonah and revealed what He wanted Jonah to do, but Jonah,
for whatever reason, was unwilling to fulfill the Lord's will. Be it pride, be it fear, or just an
unwillingness to put forth the effort, Jonah chose to run. Notice
that in running from God's will, Jonah was also running from God's presence. We cannot refuse to obey God, and continue to
bask in His presence and blessing.
Incidentally, the place that Jonah decided to run to, Tarshish, was
about as far away from Nineveh as one could travel in that day. Jonah had to sail the length of the
Mediterranean Sea to the tip of Spain to reach his destination. Funny, the lengths to which a person will go
in order to avoid doing the Lord's will!
"But the LORD
sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea,
so that the ship was like to be broken.
Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and
cast forth the wares that were
in the ship into the sea, to lighten it
of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and
was fast asleep." (Jonah 1:4-6).
It
seems that when we run from the presence of God, we become oblivious to the
danger and the urgency of the circumstances surrounding us. Much like the disciples, who could not stay
awake on the night of Jesus' betrayal, we are often not conscious of our need to watch and pray. So it was with Jonah. The tempest was tearing at the boat so
violently that even the seasoned mariners were calling on their gods, but Jonah
was fast asleep in the hold of the ship.
When we resist the Lord's plans for us, then circumstances start to
master our lives instead of us mastering our circumstances.
When
they finally woke Jonah out of his sleep, he confessed that it was for his sake
that the ship was in jeopardy. His
solution was to suggest that the sailors throw him overboard. Of course, they were not willing to do this,
and they struggled all the harder to save the ship and themselves; but, when
all their efforts became futile, they threw Jonah into the waves. How much easier it would have been for Jonah
to simply repent right then and there and accept what the Lord wanted him to
do. Instead, he was willing to drown
rather than go to Nineveh. But it was
not to be.
In
the gospel of St. John, the sixth chapter, we read of the disciple's struggle
against a vicious storm on the Sea of Galilee.
They had rowed against the wind for about 3 or 3 1/2 miles when they saw
Jesus walking across the waves toward them.
Their first reaction to this was fear, but Jesus called to them, and
said, "It is I; be not afraid."
Scripture records an often overlooked
miracle here. "Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land
whither they went." No
more struggling, no more laboring: they were immediately where they wanted to be! It really is that easy. We only need to willingly receive Him and what He desires for us, and then we find
that we are miraculously in that place that we have longed for. The winds cease, the waves quit rolling, and
we find ourselves right where we need to be: a place of peace and assurance of
faith.
"Now the LORD
had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of
the fish three days and three nights." (Jonah 1:17).
A
wise minister friend of mine once said that God always has a big fish prepared
for those who choose to run from Him! God
doesn't like to take "no" for an answer. That place that we run to will turn out to be
the most miserable place that we can imagine.
Jonah's fish became a personal hell where he was forced to face God and
his own disobedience. It was there, in
the dark, putrid belly of the whale that Jonah turned back to God and prayed.
"Then Jonah
prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly, And said, I cried by
reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and He heard me; out of the belly of
hell cried I, and Thou heardest
my voice. For Thou hadst cast me into
the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all Thy
billows and Thy waves passed over me. Then
I said, I am cast out of Thy sight; yet I will look again toward Thy holy
temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me
round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains;
the earth with her bars was
about me for ever: yet hast Thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my
God. When my soul fainted within me I
remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake
their own mercy. But I will sacrifice
unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD." (Jonah 2:1-9).
Jonah
found redemption in that terrible place.
He repented of his selfishness, and discovered that God was a God of
mercy. When Jonah acknowledged his sin,
God had the fish vomit him onto dry land.
We, also, will always find mercy with God when we are willing to see
things as He does.
“And the word of
the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that
great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh,
according to the word of the LORD.” (Jonah 3:1, 3).
God's
purpose never changes. When He asks us
to do a certain thing, He will not rest until we do. Repentance isn't just saying we're sorry -
it's agreeing with God's sovereignty in our life and obeying what He has asked
us to do. "Bring forth fruits meet for repentance," we are told.
It
is only through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that we find strength to
accomplish God's will. If we depend on
our own will or determination, we will fall every time. John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do
for your country." Many try to
apply the same principle to their Christianity.
Instead, our motto should be, "Ask
not what you can do for God,
ask what God can do in
you." God is not interested in
our plans, or our ambitions – they only hinder the work that He is doing. You see Jesus has already finished the
work. There is nothing that we can add
or detract from what He has done. God
Himself has completed His purpose in Christ.
In order to work the works of God we must simply believe on Him Whom God
has sent. When we do, we put on the life
of Jesus which can never be altered or improved upon. “And He
saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore His arm brought salvation unto
Him; and His righteousness, it sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and an helmet of salvation upon His head; and He put on the garments of
vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.” (Isaiah 59:16,
17).
The
apostle Paul, in considering the sad state of the carnal man, said, "O wretched man that I am! who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?"
(Romans 7:24) He answers this
question in the next sentence, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord." Jesus is always
the answer to all of life's questions.
When we turn to Jesus, we find the power to do God's will. As we allow his grace to work in us, we find
the ability to perform what He asks of us (Philippians 2:13).
Jonah
is an example of what we should not do.
Many things that the Lord asks of me seem difficult to accomplish in the
flesh, but I find that God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever
(Psalm 73:26). It is by trusting God to
work His will in me that I can overcome.
When I am overwhelmed by fears, or doubts, or a sense of my own
weakness, it's then that I need to trust the One Who loved me enough to give His life for me. "Who
is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of
God?" (1 John 5:5). Faith is the victory!
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