In Your Life?
Numbers 32:23
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."But Jonah rose up to flee...FROM the presence of the Lord." How many of us can truly say we've never had a "Nineveh" in our lives? Some place the Lord wanted us to go and we didn't want to? We used to sing a song entitled, Jesus Use Me: Jesus, use me, Lord, please don't refuse me. For surely there's a work that I can do, and even though it's humble..............
The truth is, "Of course, Lord, You understand, I'll go anywhere you send me PROVIDED it's not to the ghetto or into the jails. I'm not going into those places. And I just can't stand hospitals or nursing homes, Lord, can't stand to be around sick or old people. Oh, and don't send me to the poor people, either, Lord--I just got my new car and poverty is so depressing. They don't dress up and I have a certain image to project, you know, but I'll go anywhere you say, Lord.................." We forget Who is the Master and who is the servant, Amen?
Nineveh was not a place Jonah wanted to go, either. The Ninevites were enemies to him, a wicked lot indeed. Sooner or later, most of us will have a "Nineveh" come into our lives: some place the Lord directs us to go and we head in a completely opposite direction. Like ole' Jonah, we forget that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. We are the ones who insist on that "belly of the whale" experience before we submit. Oh me, er, Amen?
Verses 4 and 5 of that chapter tell us that the Lord sent a great wind into the sea which created a great "tempest" so that the ship was like to be broken. You see, when Jonah disobeyed, God could have zapped him into non-existence right then: instant retribution for his disobedience. But He didn't, just as He doesn't with us. When we disobey God, we think that if we aren't instantly vaporized, we've gotten away with something. But Jonah didn't "get away"--neither will we! His time of reckoning was coming and so is ours. Yet, when it arrives, we whine, "But God, I thought You were a God of love." He is! If He wasn't, we would get what we TRULY deserve! Let's admit it, we think, "That kind of mercy is only for me--God shouldn't extend it to so-and-so: he deserves what he gets!"
Yes, God gives us every opportunity in the world to obey Him but we're so wrapped up in our sanctimonious selves we don't feel He ought to expect more of us than we are willing to give. Except--it's to be HIS Will, not ours! What does the Word of God say about obedience? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice... I Samuel 15:22.
Ugh oh, again! There I was, performing all the right rituals: going to church, shaking hands with the preacher, sacrificing to pay our tithes ...to obey is BETTER than sacrifice. Well? Well? I was doing what I was supposed to be doing!! Wasn't that enough? In a word? NO! God had a specific plan and purpose for me, and until I lined up with it, I had MAJOR problems. And, I wish to add, those problems spilled over into all aspects of my life. ( Echo, Echo, Echo... Been there, done that, eh?)
It didn't take long for the crew to roust old Jonah from his dreams--what right did he have to slumber while the rest of them fought to save their very lives? They said, "Get up and call on your God; perhaps He will have mercy and not destroy us." They cast lots to find out who had brought such evil upon them, and it fell to Jonah.
...Be sure your sin will find you out. Numbers 32:23. I have to smile when I hear preachers preach on "Hidden Sins". There's no such thing as a "hidden sin", folks. Oh, it might be hidden to the eyes of mankind, but mankind does not determine one's eternal destination: God does, and there is nothing (as in NO THING) hidden from Him! When we disobey God, it won't take long to show up in our lives.
Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? What is thy country? and of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. 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. Jonah 1:8-10.He "feared the Lord, the God of heaven..."? Let's examine that word "fear" just a moment. Fear as in "respect"? Obviously not--he was disobeying God. Fear as in "afraid or fearful of"? Again, obviously not. They didn't find him cowering in a corner--they found him asleep! Jonah didn't have a "leg to stand on", so he did the same thing we do.
Publicly parade our pedigrees:
- "Why I am an ordained minister!" (Of God or man--there IS a difference!)
- "Well, I've been in the way for X number of years!" (Get out of the way and into God's Way!)
- "My parents went to church all their lives!" (Won't save us. The Word of God says we all have to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12). You can release your grip on that set of coattails, now.
- "My uncle is pastor of the biggest Cathedral in _____________." Wonderful for him but sorry, won't show up on your page when God opens the Book on you.
Those old boys on that ship with Jonah desperately wanted to live, but not at his expense. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. Jonah 1:13. Even when Jonah said, "Toss me over!" they still tried to avoid flinging him into the sea.
Let me tell you, many times I have found "sinners" to be more compassionate than so-called "Christians". Getting saved is NOT God's permission for us to become arrogant and unfeeling. But too many of us adopt a "better-than-thou" attitude. We peer down our "better-than-thou" noses at others (when we deem to look down from our self-exalted heights). We berate the "world" for its acts of charity, but do we extend any? We excuse our heartlessness with, "Well, they don't believe like I do", or "They don't attend our church," or "They're not up to our standards!" Father, forgive us!
When all their efforts failed, they tossed Jonah in the foam, and the sea ceased from her raging. I reckon old Jonah had just enough time to think, "I'll float here 'til the next ship comes by..." when darkness engulfed him. 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. Jonah 1:17. (And I don't care if it was a "whale" or a "whale fish" or a "shark"--NONE of that is important! It was a place I wouldn't want to be, you wouldn't want to be, and neither did Jonah!)
Now get this: Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, Jonah 2:1. And what happened? "He heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice...When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord...I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." (Jonah 2:2,7,9) And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. Jonah 2:10.
Does that sound familiar, "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord..."? When DO we REMEMBER God? When the crisis hits, when our hearts faint within us! It is our nature: "I can handle it, I don't need God." We get ourselves in trouble, all by our little selves and then cry out to God, "Why did YOU let this happen?"
And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. Jonah 3:1-3 Nineveh was not some tiny little "bat-your-eyes-and-miss-it" place. It was so large, three days were required to cross it and had a population of more than 120,000 people. God characterized the people within it as not being able to discern between their right hand and their left hand. (Jonah 4:11)
The good news is, Jonah 3:3 starts with "So" instead of "But" as in 1:3. By the time Jonah had gotten one-third of the way through the city, the "Word" had gotten 'round: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" 'Tis a good thing those folks were just as simple as God read them to be! They readily accepted the truth: So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. Jonah 3:5. They may not have been able to discern between their right hand and their left hand, but they were wise enough to realize that their very existence was at stake and they'd better set about to make some changes, quickly! This is one time in the Bible we don't read that the King brought in all his wise men and soothsayers and astrologers to "divine" the meaning of the message. It was very clear: "In forty days, THE END."
For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. Jonah 3:5-10.Well, praise the Lord! God spared the city of Nineveh and its 120,000+ citizens! Wasn't that wonderful, Jonah? Jonah! Now where'd he get to this time?
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. Jonah 4:1-5.We want to chuck all the "old stuff", including the Old Testament, but we sure don't need to. We need to learn from it. Jonah sounded just like so many of us today: "God needs ME." Get over it. He doesn't. If I refuse to do that which He calls me to do, it won't cause a glitch in Heaven. There will be somebody else willing to get the blessings and the rewards if I'm not. Behold, I set before you this day a BLESSING and a CURSE; A BLESSING, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: And a CURSE, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other Gods, which ye have not known. Deuteronomy 11:26-28. Now while the context of that scripture may have been the commandments which God gave unto Moses for the children of Israel, the same holds true today, my friends. God gives us choices. Obey or disobey: each carries its own reward: a blessing or a curse. Which will it be?
Jonah didn't want to be there--the people of Nineveh were his enemies. God could have wiped them all out! Jonah had no compassion for those people: he delivered the message, but only under duress. How like so many of us--grudgingly: "OK, God, I'll do it but only 'cause You're making me!" Yet, the Word of God instructs us: Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. Matthew 5:43,44.
What???? "No God, I don't want to pray for _______. I hate him! Just look what he did to me! If I pray for him, You'll convict him, he'll repent, You'll forgive him and I'll have to forgive him. I don't want to do that!" Hate it for ya, gotta do it anyway. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:46-48. Sometimes, we just have to love "in spite of".
And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? Jonah 4:6-11.And people think the Bible is not for today!! Look there--Jonah was all messed up over the gourd that died, but didn't care so much as the value of a fig that over 120,000 souls were in jeopardy! If that doesn't describe the world's attitude today, I cannot say what could. We save everything in the animal kingdom, from whales to snail-darters, yet kill thousands and thousands of babies every year! We get all bent out of shape over a rain forest, but won't buy a sack of groceries for our neighbors next door who just lost their job! We happily withstand sleet and freezing temperatures for a football game, but won't visit a nursing home, a hospital or a jailhouse on a balmy day in June! We'll yell ourselves hoarse, jumping all over the room when wrestling's on, but not so much as lift our hands in prayer when we are in church. Hello?
Certainly, I love animals and I applaud the efforts of anyone to help them. I even understand why so many are more apt to help animals than they are humans--humans are an ungrateful bunch of beings. And, we shouldn't go about destroying this wonderful planet Earth--it is truly magnificent. But we've still got our priorities wrong, folks!
I don't know if Jonah ever repented of his "better-than-thou" self-righteousness. But I know one thing--the same applies to us as applied to Jonah: we had better obey our calling. If we don't go to our "Ninevahs", there will be a belly-of-the-whale experience. It may not literally be in the belly of a fish--it may be through a dark time of confusion and failure, but it will be there. Let me assure you of this one thing: if God sends you, He will be with you every step of the way.
"You Got A Nineveh In Your Life?" Copyright © 2001 by Patricia Sikes.
All Rights Reserved.
Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. Matthew 12:38-41. (See also Luke 11:29,30.)
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