“Then said they unto him, ‘Tell us, we pray you, for whose cause this evil is upon us. What is your occupation? And from whence do you come? What is your country? And of what people are you?’ And he said unto them, ‘I am a Hebrew—and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, Who made the sea and the dry land.’ Then were the men exceedingly afraid and said unto him, ‘Why have you done this?’—for the men knew that he fled from the Presence of the Lord, because he had told them.”
Jonah 1:8-10
Perilous, indeed, is the position of one who knows what God wants, but willingly refuses to do it.
Motives.
Today’s Manna asks a simple question: “Why do you do what you do?” or “Why are you doing what you’re doing right now?” Although we know that none of us truly knows our own heart—for it’s incredibly deceitful (Jer. 17:9)—the fact remains that there are times when we clearly know God’s Will and still refuse to obey.
Such was the case with Jonah.
Not only did he know what God wanted, he even told the sailors that he was “running from the Presence of the Lord!” Unbelievable! It was bad enough to disobey God; it was even worse to openly declare it, seemingly without even a twinge of guilt in his conscience!
But, such is always the case, dear Pilgrim, when the heart grows cold and harder and the conscience grows more calcified through repeated, willful sinning. Woe to any of us who no longer feel the Spirit’s pricking when knowingly transgressing God’s laws—for it’s truly one of the most perilous places to be in life!
Such hardness of heart doesn’t happen overnight.
At first, there’s a sharp, inward wincing because of that sin. It continues through the next sin and the next. But, like a professional wrestler’s hand that grows thick calluses on it from repeatedly striking the mat while in training, so does the conscience’s inner voice grow quieter through repeated sinning. And, before long, we can even sleep during a terrible storm like Jonah did (v.5) and brag to others about those things that used to make us weep.
Oh, the downward road of depravity (Ps. 1:1)!!
And, woe to those who knowingly travel it without a twinge of guilt or fear!
It’s interesting that the sailors were more afraid of Jonah’s God than he was! And, even in his sinful condition, they still asked advice from him as to what they should do (vv.11-12). Likewise, it’s also interesting to see that they even tried to rescue him from certain death in the sea by “rowing hard to bring the ship to land, but could not because of the raging sea and hurricane-force winds” (v.13). They were more concerned about him than he was himself!
May we submit our lives to the Spirit’s scrutiny today (Ps. 139:23-24) to make sure that we’ve not grown cold-and-indifferent to God like Jonah had. And, if He reveals areas in our lives where we’re sinning against the Lord, may we not rest until we’ve repented of them and made the changes necessary to keep from grieving and quenching His Holy Spirit.
January 22, 2012
