Author: A Little Faith Lift…Finding Joy Beyond Rejection
www.alittlefaithlift.com
AWSA (Advanced Writers & Speakers Assoc.)
Jonah runs. God gives him clear direction to speak to the evil Ninevites and turn them to Him instead of the idols they worship. Sounds relatively easy, only this prophet hates the Ninevites and does not want them to repent and change the way they are living. So, Jonah runs 180 degrees in the opposite direction. What Jonah does not know is that if you want to run from God, Satan will always give you a ride. God’s request is a 500-mile trip; Satan’s is 2500 miles. Better than doing something nice for my enemies, Jonah tells himself. Jonah jumps aboard a cargo ship to Tarshish, forgetting that God directs everything, including the weather. His voyage triggers a violent storm at sea, and the sailors, recognizing Jonah as the cause, reluctantly throw him overboard to calm the waters.
Enter the whale, the whale’s belly to be exact, where Jonah finds himself. Get that? Jonah prays to be rescued all right, but he is thinking more like a dinghy or a life jacket or a Carnival cruise liner to pick him up. Instead, God gives him a fish. The slip-and-slide ride down the fish’s throat has to be terrifying, but that’s not the end of the story. Jonah is helpless but not hopeless. Jonah’s problem is God’s provision. Three days he slushes around amidst dead fish and sea algae, ultimately praying and repenting. I love how God waits to move. At the right time, three days after Jonah nose-dives into the fish’s belly, God does His thing. (If “three days” rings a bell, it should. Jonah serves as a foreshadowing for Jesus himself.)
God commands the fish to release Jonah onto dry land, and the prophet heads to Nineveh where he proclaims God’s warning of impending judgment. The people listen and repent, making Jonah do the happy-dance to see God’s mercy first-hand.
Not! Jonah is one cranky character. After all, he deserves God’s mercy because he’s such a holy man, but these Ninevites? They represent your worst enemy on steroids. The pouting prophet retreats to a hillside outside of Nineveh and constructs a simple shelter to observe the city. From there, he says that it would be better to die than to witness what God is doing for his enemies. Human resentment versus divine compassion at its finest.
Some people just don’t get it.
Sure glad I don’t ever fall into that category.