What sort of example are you? Do you claim to worship and follow God, yet act in disobedience to God’s commands? When people look at you, do they see someone who professes one thing but does not act accordingly? This is what Jonah was like. He was a prophet of God. Yet when God told him to go to Nineveh with a message for the people, Jonah disobeyed and ran away from God’s command.
This story is probably familiar to many of us from Sunday school. So often the emphasis seems to be on the fish or whale and yet as the pastor at our daughter’s church said last week, this book starts and ends with God. But it is also about a disobedient servant of God.
Sure, if we consider what Jonah was being told to do, it was a scary commission – to go to Nineveh to people who were enemies of Israel and who were noted for their cruelty and preach against their wickedness. Jonah’s reluctance is understandable, if he left God out of the picture and allowed fear to control him. Jonah decided to run from the commission and from God.
Do you ever react like Jonah, knowing what God is telling you to do and yet letting fear stop you from doing what God commands? Do you ever disobey God and think He won’t notice?
Jonah set sail for Tarshish which was in the opposite direction from where God wanted him to go and almost to the end of the known world at the time.
But God wasn’t letting Jonah get away with such disobedience. He sent a great storm that threatened the ship and crew. Sometimes God has to take drastic measures to get our attention of we will not obey Him.
Again we see Jonah who was supposed to be a prophet of God, did not behave like a prophet. The sailors all cried out to their own gods, verse 5. Yet Jonah, who knew the true and living God, did not pray. Jonah did not call out to God at all, yet in verse 9 he claimed to ‘worship the Lord.’ How could he worship God unless was willing to obey Him, unless he was willing to talk to Him? Are you ever guilty of claiming to worship God yet refusing to obey Him? Or of refusing to ask God’s help?
Jonah told the sailors he had been trying to run from God. He realized the only solution to the problem was to throw him overboard. After trying to combat the waves with no success, the sailors knew they have no other alternative. They threw Jonah into the water. Straight away the sea became calm, verse 15. As a result, the men offered a sacrifice to God, acknowledging that God was in control. Even at this point we see no prayer from Jonah.
Yet God, in his mercy, provided a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was inside the fish for three days and nights. Only then, hidden away in the belly of the fish, did Jonah pray. He realized how gracious God had been in providing this fish, and knew that God would deliver him. See Jonah’s assurance of God’s deliverance in verses 1, 4, 6, 7, 9.
The moment Jonah recognized God’s grace and salvation, God acted. God ‘commanded the fish and it vomited Johan onto dry land.’ The irony of this is that, up to this point, even the fish was more obedient than Jonah. A second time God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh and this time Jonah obeyed, Jonah 3: 1-2.
What does God have to do to get your attention? Is there some area of your life where you are being disobedient and what will you choose to do about it?
All Bible references from the New International Version
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