“Now, the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God, out of the fish’s belly.”
Jonah 1:17-2:1
If we’re God’s child, He will chasten us—because He loves us (Heb. 12:5-11); the question is, “Will we repent and come back to Him?”
God always knows everything about us—from the womb to the tomb (Ps. 139). He knows the number of hairs on our head (Mt. 10:30) and the number of tears that we’ll shed in a lifetime (Ps. 56:8—KJV).
Why, then, do we think that we can deceive Him or ourselves into believing that He doesn’t know what we’re thinking, saying or doing?
Truly, the “heart is incredibly deceitful and wicked? Who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). We all have “blind spots” in our lives. In fact, studies have shown we all have four “quadrants” or areas: 1. That which everyone knows; 2. That which only we know (and God, of course); 3. That which only others know or see (our blind spots); and 4. That which only God knows.
Likewise, we know there are two basic types of sin: Sins of commission and sins of omission. But, we’re accountable for them all.
That’s why it behooves us, if we claim to be born-again children of God, to live conscientious, consecrated lives for Christ; otherwise, there’ll always be an inward tension within us where our “walk” and our “talk” don’t line up. And, this inward, civil war will continually grieve us because we know we’re grieving Jesus’ Holy Heart (Rom. 7:7-24).
Jonah knew he was sinning against the Lord.
And, why he thought he could successfully “flee from the Presence of the Lord” (1:3, 10) is beyond us, even though we try to do the same thing (Ps. 139:7-10).
But, one thing was clear: He only ran as far as God was willing to let him go. And, after “sending out a great wind and mighty storm into the sea” (1:4), he “prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.” And, even though there’s been much debate as to what type of fish this was, Jesus settled the matter when He said “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly. . .” (Mt. 12:40a).
How much better we’d be if we’d simply take God at His Word! There’d be no need to spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours in trying to figure out the ins-and-outs of creation; we’d simply believe what God said in Gen. 1! Likewise, if we’d quit debating about whether that’s a zygote, fetus or developing embryo in a mother’s womb and simply call it a baby made in God’s image (Ps. 139:14-16; Gen. 1:27), we’d be much better off (Mt. 7:24-27).
The Scriptures are clear, dear Pilgrim, when they say “Be sure your sins will find you out” (Num. 32:23). What is done in secret is never hidden from God (Ps. 139:11-12). Therefore, let us surrender our all to Christ today so we can “walk in the light as He is in the Light, which enables us to have fellowship with Him and others as His Blood cleanses us from all sin” (I Jn. 1:7). Hallelujah!!
January 23, 2012
