June 16, 2020
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Reading along with us in Jonah? Here’s today’s reading:
Jonah 1 (ESV)
Jonah Flees the Presence of the Lord
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”.......Continue Reading
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16Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows.
I like the book of Jonah for a few reasons.
• It gives an hones glimpse in the life of a prophet, the good, the bad and the ugly.
• Prophets were not superhuman! They struggled with God’s message just as we may do from time to time.
• It shows that while Israel is God’s people, God is still concerned with all nations
• It shows that repentance can occur in anyone, even the worst of us.
Trying to run away from God is an exercise in futility for Jonah. At first, he heads in the opposite direction of Nineveh toward Tarshish. When God intervenes and sends a storm, he seeks to still run away by death when he asks the sailors to throw him overboard. And finally, when God sends the giant fish to swallow him, three days later he realizes that he cannot run away from God’s work.
“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.””
I was thinking, “how often do I pray about a person or a city’s wickedness before the Lord?” it is not usually my default. I pray for people in positive ways, for surgeries and health and relationships and salvation. I almost never cry out against a person or city and bring their wickedness before the Lord. I guess that is not completely true, I have prayed for justice regarding deceptive situations in politics and evil in the world, like sex-trafficking and abortion. I am thinking that I should not just be praying the list: heal, preserve, restore, protect, but also bringing wickedness before Lord as well. Who will deal with evil and deception that is plaguing us far better than we can?
Such a familiar story, but with so many lessons about God and us! How merciful is God that He sends His prophet to the capital city of the Assyrians! They were uniquely brutal and so their evil was great, but God doesn’t let it end there. He reaches out through the prophet to get a message to them. And what a great picture of the futility of trying to run from God, but that doesn’t stop us the way it should, does it? But God doesn’t let that end there either. He sends the storm and everyone is freaking out except Jonah……Jonah sleeping right now is a great picture of how we try to turn a blind eye to God’s word and work and discipline when we are fleeing from Him. I wonder what Jonah was thinking when they started drawing the lots….he probably already figured it was about him, but would God use these lots as well to show him? Well He does and Jonah knows exactly why the storm is there and what needs to be done.
I am impressed with these sailors throughout this first chapter. They use their experience to deal with the storm originally but then recognize that higher powers are at work, so they encourage everyone to pray…prayers of ignorance, but still prayers, still searching for answers. When they find out it is Jonah, at first they refuse to throw him in, which is kind of them, but then in desperation do the only thing they haven’t tried but pray to Jonah’s God to not hold them accountable for Jonah’s death. I would have loved to be fly on the wall when Jonah’s body hit the water and the wind started to die down and the waves stopped crashing. What a great revelation of God’s power and control and so they make sacrifices and vows to this God of the Hebrews. So God was revealing Himself to them too. Hopefully these efforts were not to just placate God in the moment, which is common for the world to do, but true faith would bring lasting change.
But God is not done working on behalf of His prophet and the world…He sends a fish to swallow Jonah to provide the first underwater submarine ride…but also a place for Jonah to be humbled and recognize his place in God’s plan….
1Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.