Vs 1 and 2, The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai : 2 " Go to the great city of Niveveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me. (NIV)
In vs 1 God loves us so much, that he gives us His word. He loves us so much that He will give us chance after chance to repent. Even a people as wicked as the Ninevites.
In verse 3 Jonah runs from the Lord. How many of us have ran from Gods calling or prompting? How many times have we ignored or turned up the music or the world to try and drown out Gods calling on us? As we all know, when God wants us, there is no way to hide, or out run God. And Jonah found that out first hand. Jonah had to pay a fare to get on the ship. How many times have we paid "the fare" for trying to go it alone, outside the will of God?
Vs 4 When the storms came each sailor called on his god, to calm the seas and save them to no avail. The captain finds Jonah sleeping and he wakes him to pray to his god that they may not perish. I'm sure there is something to their saying he was in a deep sleep. I'm wondering how he could sleep while he is running from the Lord?
The sailors figure out Jonah is responsible for their impending peril, and ask, who is responsible for all this trouble? He tells them he worships the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land. This terrifies the men, and they ask him what they can do to calm the seas? Jonah comes to terms with the destruction he has caused to himself and those around him. He knew there was nowhere to run. Sound familiar? He tells the men to cast him into the sea. Instead they try and row back to shore, but the storm only gets worse. The sailors now cry out to the one true God and ask forgiveness for throwing Jonah overboard, at which the sea becomes calm, (there is such a calm peace, when we are in the will of God) the calm sea terrifies the sailors even more, to which they offer sacrifices to God. The sailors lives were no doubt changed forever that day. And I'm sure there were some converts among them.
But Jonah did not die in the sea. God was not finished with him yet. He was swallowed by a great fish, and remained there for three days and nights.
I would like to say how much I appreciate the Real Men of Euless. God has blessed me tremendously and I consider our church one of my biggest blessings.
Rick VanderZanden
