Poor Jonah…If you do not know the story of Jonah and “the whale”, which is actually a big fish, here is the short version:
God tells him to go to Nineveh to preach to the wicked people that if they didn’t change their ways, He would destroy them.
Nope, no way in this world is he going to do that.
“But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” Jonah 1:3.
Now Jonah’s home was in Gath-hepher, near Nazareth in Israel, Jerusalem being about 30 miles northwest of Joppa. So he travels to Joppa, where he gets on a boat heading for Tarshish.
Do you know that Tarshish is the most distant city in the known world?! It is 2200 miles to the WEST, clear on the edge of Spain!
Nineveh, where God told Jonah to go, was at least 500 miles EAST of Jerusalem in modern day Iraq!
Jonah’s reasoning for all of this disobedience? He despised the Assyrians, the people of Nineveh. He wanted to see them get what they “deserved”. The Assyrians were out to conquer the world and were a definite threat to Israel, so Jonah had made up his mind that they should be destroyed, he would have no part in their salvation!
So he makes a beeline for Tarshish, via Joppa, and hops a boat, where he makes all kinds of trouble.
The men on the boat discover he must be the cause of the mayhem, since the ship is about to sink, so he confesses that he is the lowlife they are looking for and even though they do not wish to do so, they finally through him overboard…and the sea is calm once again!
Picked up by a giant fish, he spends three nights in the belly of this overgrown sea lion, not the most pleasant of accommodations. “Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly…” Jonah 2:1.
“When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.” Jonah 2:7.
Confession is good for the soul…especially in Jonah’s case. He realizes his mistake, “And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.” Jonah 2:10.
Can we truly run from God and prosper?
No!
“‘Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:24).
Did not the Lord create us, knows all about us and even fills the earth with His presence? There is no hiding from God!
Jonah found it out the hard way and had to spend three nights with weeds wrapped around his head.
How much are we like Jonah today? We think we know better than God, we bargain with Him, plead with Him and even run away from the Lord in our attempt to do our own will.
Things never go as we plan when we take things in our own hands! Like Jonah, we will find we could have saved ourselves a host of troubles had we just obeyed God in the first place.
What are you struggling with today that you need to repent of? Do it today! We have no promise of tomorrow! Is there something or someone that you cannot forgive? Is it really worth it to hold a grudge? Do you realize it is only hurting YOU? Repent, repent, and repent some more, as Jonah would have said.
Let it go! Tomorrow may be too late….pray, fast, break the chains that are holding you back and start living the life God intends for you to live.
Save yourself the money on those traveling shoes…
Sharing with Making your home sing, Living Proverbs 31, Modest Mondays, UNITE , Walking Redeemed
