40 Jonah

Now Jonah… Think about the person you have the hardest time getting along with, now imagine God telling you, and under no uncertain terms, that you have to go and tell that person they have to repent and they have to turn to the Lord.. How do you feel about that? Now multiply that by 120,000 and that is how Jonah felt when God told him to go to a town called Nineveh, and preach that to those people. Hey for the most part it is easy for us to generate feelings of compassion for people we like. Usually these are people we find ourselves wanting to help. But what about someone that has hurt you, or has been imprisoned for hurting others? The people Jonah was to preach to were brutal, evil people, and enemies of Jonah’s. Jonah was not too happy about doing that, so guess what. Jonah's fear and pride cause him to run from God, take off in the opposite direction, he was outta there! He was a little rebel I would say… He does not wish to go to Nineveh to preach repentance to the people, as God has commanded, because he feels they are his enemies and not worth the effort, and he is convinced that God will not carry out his threat to destroy the city.

Instead he boards a ship for Tarshish, which is in the opposite direction. See ya.. Im running away from this assignment lol. Soon a raging storm causes the crew to wonder who is causing all this, and they cast lots and determine that Jonah is the problem. They throw him overboard, he actually would rather die than go and tell those people to change their lives.. blah.. So overboard he goes... and he is swallowed by a great fish. In its belly for 3 days and 3 nights, Jonah repents of his sin to God and prays and prays, and the fish vomits him up on dry land (we wonder what took him so long to repent). Jonah then makes the 500-mile trip to Nineveh and leads the city in a great revival. But the prophet is not too happy (actually pouts) instead of being thankful when Nineveh repents and is saved. Hmmmm, He wanted to see them fry… not very nice. We cannot hide from God. What He wishes to accomplish through us will come to pass, despite all our objections and foot-dragging. Reading the bible reminds us that He has plans for us and will see to it that we conform to those plans. How much easier it would be if we, unlike Jonah, would submit to Him without delay!

God’s love shows itself in His accessibility to all, regardless of our reputation, nationality or race. The free offer of the Bible or the Gospel is for all people in all times, even today. We all have the ability to read it. Our task as Christians is to be the means by which God tells the world of this offer and to be happy in the salvation of others. This is an experience God wants us to share with Him, not being jealous or resentful of those who come to Christ in “last-minute conversions” or who come through circumstances dissimilar to our own. Now when we get into the New testament, Jesus even uses Jonah’s experience to proclaim His coming death, burial and resurrection. It is recorded in Matthew.. read it sometime... In Matthew 12:40-41, Jesus declares that He will be in the grave the same amount of time Jonah was in the whale’s belly. He goes on to say that while the Ninevites repented in the face of Jonah’s preaching, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law who rejected Jesus were rejecting One who is far greater than Jonah. Just as Jonah brought the truth of God regarding repentance and salvation to the Ninevites, so too does Jesus bring the same message of salvation of and through God alone. Read it.. its amazing..

It is necessary for us believers to say that it is quite obvious that the events which happened to the Prophet Jonah were undoubtedly the work of the power of God. Who, as Creator of the very laws of nature, has a free will to control them, when He finds it necessary, according to His all-powerful timely action. With God you really don’t need to prove a thing, you just have to believe. But if you don’t, here is something that might make you think anyways.

Can you imagine what it would be like to live in the belly of a whale for three days? There are whales of the size that could have a man inside their stomach. One of them is the Rhinodon Typicus or the whale shark. They can go through the water at high speeds, catch their prey, strain out the water from their mouths, and swallow whatever is left. In 1933 one was found off of Cape Cod. His mouth was 10 or 12 feet wide; he was over 100 feet long; his mouth was so big he could have swallowed a horse. They have four to six compartments in their stomachs. A colony of men could find lodging there. They could have a choice of rooms, for in the head of this whale there is an air storage chamber, which is an enlargement of its nasal sinus, that can measure 7 feet high, 7 feet wide, and 14 feet long. Note: A dog was once found alive in a whale’s belly after being there for six days. He was alive and barking when found. Some whales have been found with other sea creatures in them as big as an ox.
Men have been found alive in whales. A man by the name of James Bartley, was thought to have been drowned at sea. Two days after he disappeared, some sailors made a catch of a whale. When they cut it up, they found the man alive but unconscious inside of the whale. He revived and had good health afterwards. So he lived to prove it.. but I don’t need proof.. I just know and believe.. You see I always feel I have to prove something to people.. I don’t even think twice if it is in the bible.. I know in my heart anything is possible with God.. look at this earth.. its an amazing place with many many amazing incredible things happening all the time.. think about it.. If it is in the Bible, it is true!

Now what can you learn from Jonah? To really understand what I wrote well, it would be very helpful if you would sit down, open your bible and read the book of Jonah first. It is a very short book which only has 4 chapters, or about 1,344 words. A person can sit down and easily read it in about 10-15 minutes. So here is something you can learn from Jonah.

First off. It is never too late to pray. We might tend to think that circumstances have gone too far. If you were out in the ocean, thrown out of a boat and then swallowed by a great fish you might tend to think that your fate had been sealed. We need to remember that nothing is too hard for the Lord. This happened to Jonah and it was not the end for him.

Secondly - You cannot run away from God. Jonah ran in the opposite direction of which he was told to go and ran right into God. Even when he was confronted by the sailors on the boat he did not repent or pray for help, but rather he told the sailors to throw him overboard. Did his stubbornness save him from going to Nineveh? No he thought he would rather die and told the sailors to throw him overboard. Then apparently after being thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish he had a change of heart and repented and prayed for help.. finally! Jonah could have saved himself a lot of trouble by being obedient to God. This is a good lesson for us, we cannot run away from God. The Lord is everywhere that we may choose to flee. It would be much easier for us to be obedient in the first place. We may not encounter anything as drastic as what Jonah went through, but we are told that whom the Lord loves He disciplines. God loves us all!

Thirdly… God has control of circumstances even over nature. God caused the storm which tossed the ship about that Jonah was on. God told the fish to swallow Jonah as well as had him vomit him up on shore And lastly, God is gracious and compassionate. God is slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness. God could have easily just killed Jonah when he took off for Tarshish instead of going to Nineveh like he was told. Instead God dealt with him through a process of circumstances until he was willing to go. Not only that, but we know that God hates sin. Nineveh would have been destroyed then if they did not repent and change. Sodom and Gomorrah serve as a good example of what the Lord could have done, like burn it down. Instead God sent Jonah to warn them so that they would repent instead. This is because the Lord would much rather have people turn from their wicked ways and repent than destroy them . From our perspective we might tend to side with Jonah. There are reasons why Jonah would not want to go to Nineveh. He was afraid that they would repent and God would forgive them. Jonah wanted them destroyed not forgiven. There are many reasons why perhaps Jonah would not want them to be forgiven. We can only speculate as to what exactly those reasons were since the bible does not tell us. Put yourself in Jonah's place, suppose you disliked someone enough that you wanted them destroyed. Would you want to be the messenger telling them to repent, if you thought they might repent, and God would forgive them? We need to remember that we are told to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us and pray for those who mistreat us. This can certainly be easier said than done. Until we do this we are in the same boat as Jonah being disobedient to the Lord.