Refusing to Obey
Scripture: Jonah 1 v 10
"Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto
him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence
of the Lord, because he had told them."
There will come a day when the Lord lays something on
your heart that is against everything you know or want to believe. He may want
you to end a relationship that is going to damage your life. He may want you to
confess to a crime that happened years ago. He may want to change your
direction to a destination not to your liking.
Whatever it may be your response may be to run the other
way. Go on holiday. Put distance between you and the situation. While you are
escaping your whole world starts to fall apart as the Lord makes escape very
difficult. Just as He did for Jonah.
God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh and give them warning
about the consequences of their many sins. Jonah loathed the Ninevites much as
most of us feel about the Daesh (ISIS), or Al Qaeda, or Assad of Syria. And we
would no doubt react just like Jonah did. Run, hide, escape, be somewhere else.
Anything but do God's will.
Others can get caught up in your panic and be hurt by it.
To spare them you sacrifice yourself. Let me die you say. Even death was preferable to Jonah than
helping that evil city. You may agree
with Jonah and desire death over obedience, and at the very last moment God
spares your life and the scary thing you were fleeing from becomes quite
acceptable, in the end it turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to
you.
Jonah had to be thrown overboard, swallowed by a whale,
bleached white by its gastric juices and then spat out on the beach near the
city of Nineveh! He must have asked a shocked fisherman "Where am I?"
and realised that God means business with Nineveh and resigned himself to do
what was commanded.
God knows best and can see the future. He had that big
fish ready and waiting to deliver Jonah to the place He wanted him to be. The
impact on Nineveh was heightened by how Jonah looked and how God engineered his
arrival on their shores. Anyway his words had the desired effect and the whole
city repented by fasting in sackcloth and ashes for three days.
Jonah developed a death wish. No matter how evil or wrong
people are, God loves them and Jesus died for them. He will go to extremes to
reach the lost and fallen as He did for each one of us. If you are the closest
available extreme method then it could easily fall on you to reach out to the
lowest of the low.
So when the Lord God gives you a difficult task to do,
pause and ponder before you run. There are still plenty of whales in the sea
ready to do their Creator's bidding. When God's plan for us is displeasing we
need to stop fighting it and look for the advantages. We need to see beyond the immediate drama to
the victory over the many Jesus is aiming at.
Prayer: Almighty God nothing ever surprises You. You know
us so well and Your plans for us are always for our good. If You need to move
Heaven and Earth to save the lost help us to submit to Your plans peacefully so
that You may be glorified in us. Amen.