“Take time to be holy, Let Him be thy guide; And run not before Him, Whatever betide.” (3rd stanza of hymn “Take Time To Be Holy”)
We sing this old hymn in our worship services quite often and the last time we did so, when we sang the above words of the 3rd verse I had a mental picture of one of the Old Testament prophets. Im referring to the prophet Jonah and the well-known story of his mission assignment from God and the various stages he passed through while completing it.
I also see Jonah as fitting within the category of being a “Person of Interest” which I mentioned previously of being based upon the TV show of the same name. Youll have to admit that Old Jonah certainly is an interesting character to look at and study. I see the stages of Jonahs attitude towards this mission to be extremely interesting. Ill just refer to him as “the man who ran FROM God, TO God, FOR God and AHEAD of God.”
Let me begin with some historical data about Jonah and his mission which we get of course from the book of Jonah. If you recall, in the beginning, God spoke directly to His children through the Patriarchs, or heads of the family. Then, when His children were given the written law, the Law of Moses, the priesthood was His messenger to the people. Later on, when the priesthood had gotten wicked that they were perverting the true law, God chose another method of proclaiming His Will – the prophets.
Jonah is one of the “Minor” prophets, not because of any classification by God, but rather identified as such by men because he didnt write as much as the “Major” prophets. Jonah wasnt near as verbose as prophets like Isaiah or Jeremiah. But, that doesnt mean that his prophesies were any less important than the others because all of them spoke for God.
As to his personal history we know that he was the son of Amittai and from Gath-hepher, a town located in the northern area of the nation of Israel, sort of west of the Sea of Galilee. His term as a prophet was during the reign of Jeroboam II (2 Kgs. 14:24-25). What I found interesting about Jonah was that he was sent by God to prophesy to the Gentiles.
Okay, now lets look at his mission assignment. He basically had a three-fold mission. (1) To call the people of Ninevah to repentance. (2) To teach Israel a lesson (apparently didnt work) and (3) to be used as an example of Christs resurrection.
Upon being given this assignment, Jonah began running, only he ran FROM God instead of where he was told to go. Ever wonder why he did this? Run away from God? Think about Jonah being an Israelite and Ninevah being the capitol of Assyria, which nation was a great danger to Israel. Jonah was a patriot and therefore if he didnt get to Ninevah and warn them of Gods prophesy of destruction, he would be helping his country. Just to let you know, Jonah was right – it was the Assyrians that later wiped out the nation of Israel.
So, if you open your Bibles to the book of Jonah youll see that instead of heading Northeast (up) towards Ninevah, he went in the opposite direction, Southwest, or as verse 3 says “down” to the coastal port city of Joppa. His plan was to run to Tarshish, a town in whats now Southern Spain, which was just about as far as one could run in those days.
It’s time to use cialis buy india and experience the best love making session. cialis is an excellent product for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Therefore, these two herbal pills prevent sexual disorders like nightfall, semen leakage, viagra on line order ED and early discharge. Synopsis: Take the sexual pleasure you give to your lady love to great heights with the miracle worker, viagra cost in canada. The substances available in viagra online france a cigarette can minimize the blood vessel to lessened blood circulation near the reproductive organ. God wasnt pleased with Jonahs behavior and “sent out a great wind” which was just about to sink the ship on which hed sailed. Verse 5 tells us that the mariners were praying “every man to his god” and nothing was working. They had a dilemma on their hands. Nations had their respective gods of their lands but, theyre out on the ocean. Which god had any control of the ocean?
They had to go down into the ship and wake the sleeping Jonah and get him to pray to “his God” so that they wouldnt “perish.” After interrogating Jonah and finding out that it was his fault that this storm was upon them, they asked him what they should do that would calm the seas and he told them to throw him overboard because he knew this was all his fault. They did their best not to, but eventually they could see no other way of salvation. What I find interesting here is, that the mariners prayed to God because of what they had to do to Jonah. Perhaps Jonah influenced them to believe in Jehovah, the “God of heaven, which made the sea and the dry land.” (Jonah 1:9)
Overboard he went and the “great fish” prepared by God for this occasion swallowed him. He was inside the “whales belly” (Matt. 12:40) for “three days and three nights” before being deposited on “dry land.” I think that its sufficient to say that Jonah had a change of heart while in the depths of the sea as evidenced by his repentance and prayers to God. Its while inside the “fish” that he began running TO God. To say that he was a changed man is an understatement. He was reissued his mission, “go preach” to Ninevah.
Jonah wasted no time in doing so. He beat feet to Ninevah as fast as he could. Now hes running FOR God. And, as soon as he got there he started preaching. Boy, he must have been one “whale” of a preacher because the entire city “believed God,” proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the “greatest to the least” and even the animals. It worked, as God saw their repentance and turned away His anger.
Youd think that Jonah would have been pleased that his preaching saved an entire city, wouldnt you? Well, he wasnt. The record says that he was “very angry” over Ninevah believing Gods word. He bellyached that he had known all along that God was “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness” and wouldnt destroy Ninevah. Thats why he tried to run away to Tarshish so they wouldnt be saved. Now hes running AHEAD of God.
So, in his little snit-fit, Jonah goes out and sits under a shady gourd vine (prepared by God) to watch what happens to the city. He really liked the shade provided by the vine. Didnt last long because the next day God sent a “worm” to kill the gourd vine and when it was dead, He sent a strong East wind and the combination of wind and sun about wiped old Jonah out. He felt so bad he wanted to die. Again!
Jonah learned some valuable lessons from this mission to the Assyrians. That he could have feelings and compassion for a mere gourd vine and not the thousands of souls in Ninevah. Souls that he did not create. He learned that God is the God of all of His creation and exercises His power over all of it and He sets the rules for who is saved and who isnt. A gentile nation believed and obeyed God while His people Israel didnt despite having many prophets – not just one.
In closing, lets put ourselves in Jonahs shoes. In relation to God, which way are we running? The only acceptable way to run is either TO God and FOR God. Running FROM or AHEAD is not pleasing to the Lord. Jonah learned this the hard way. Why cant we look at his experience and get a valuable lesson from his ways of running without having to experience them for ourselves?
Ron Covey
