“Now, the Word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it—for their wickedness is come up before Me.’ 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 1:1-3
When we know what God wants us to do, but still refuse to do it, it’s both perilous and presumptuous—and the end-result is always worse than the first.
“But Jonah rose up to flee from the Presence of the Lord.”
Isn’t that an incredible thought, dear Pilgrim—to think that you could flee from God’s Presence? Oh, countless millions down through the years, like Jonah, have thought they could do that by simply saying “I don’t believe in God”. . . “There is no God”. . .or “How does He know?”
But, the fact remains there is a God and He always knows.
Always.
And, the sooner we begin to believe this and realize that He’s not “out to get us,” but is “out to get us,” the sooner we’ll learn the “Secret to Serenity of Soul.”
The Book of Jonah is a most intriguing one. Short in content, it’s long on Truth—although there’s much left unsaid in the story concerning God’s Sovereignty, disobedience, a lack of repentance (on Jonah’s part), etc. That’s why we must accept it as it is and simply let God be God; otherwise, we’ll spend more time in perplexity than we do praise.
In reality, the storyline is quite simple:
God called Jonah to go preach against the wicked Assyrian city of Nineveh. He didn’t want to do it because he hated the Ninevites. He tried to run from the Lord, but only went as far as God would let him. He suffered because of his disobedience, but finally did what God had said and a whole, wicked city repented. But, Jonah didn’t—and the book ends with God seemingly reasoning with the sulking servant, trying to help him realize the error of his ways.
Even so, even in the Book of Jonah, we must let God be God. Even though we cannot grasp why Jonah thought he could “flee from the Presence of the Lord” and still hate the Ninevites after they repented and cried out to the Lord (3:1-10), we still must “be still and know that He is God” (Ps. 46:10). And, we must also realize we’re just as prone to sin, stubbornness and sulking as Jonah was.
Are there not times, Pilgrim, when we know God’s Will, but like some spoiled child we stomp our feet, cross our arms and cry “I ain’t gonna do it!!”? Or, have there been times when you’ve knowingly disobeyed God and said “I’ll just run away and hide,” only to find that He was already there waiting on you when you arrived?
The answer’s “Yes” to all the above, isn’t it? As David said, “Where shall I flee from Your Presence?” (Ps. 139:7) and the answer was “Nowhere” (vv.8-10). May we cease our struggling today and say “Speak, Lord, I’m listening. Here am I; send/use me” (I Sam. 3:9; Is. 6:8).
January 18, 2012
