|
|
|
||||||||
By Marc Hermon
You have a terrible enemy. This enemy has killed many of your countrymen and is threatening to take you into captivity. God himself has describe to you the wickedness of the capitol city of this foreign country. These were the thoughts of Jonah as God came to him and asked what he perceived as impossible, "Go and preach to the Assyrians at Ninevah!"
One would think that Jonah would fear for his life in this endeavor and therefore be scared to go. Well, Jonah didn't want to go, but it wasn't because he feared for his own life; rather, it was because he was afraid his preaching would actually be considered and God would forgive them. Jonah hated his enemies so much that he didn't care if their souls were lost. So, Jonah had a decision to make: "Obey God or run away?" As mankind usually does when it uses human logic, Jonah chose incorrectly; and without God in your life, things can start looking pretty bleak.
Jonah's life started a downward spiral. He went down to Joppa. He went down into the ship. He went to sleep down in the sides of the ship. He was thrown down into the water. He was swallowed down into the belly of the fish and went down to the "bottoms of the mountains" (2:6). Finally, with weeds wrapped around his head (2:5), and realizing that he couldn't go any farther down, he turned to God in prayer. How sad it is that we often use prayer only when we can't see any other way out.
However, God showed that his forgiveness runs deep as the fish and Jonah's life started looking up! Granted, it started by being vomited up, but it was a step in the right direction.
This time Jonah decided to do the right thing. He preached to Ninevah and his fears came true. They repented and God forgave! Jonah wished that he could die. His hatred for his enemy had blinded him of the depths of despair that he had just recently endured. God's patience with Jonah was overwhelming. He sent a shade plant and then caused it to whither the next day to demonstrate to Jonah his selfishness. Jonah was so angry that he hadn't even considered that the 120,000 children in the city would have also been destroyed.
We never find out if Jonah saw the error of his way and learned to forgive. I hope he did. Matthew 6:12 says God will forgive us as we forgive others. Does that scare you? Are you comfortable with God forgiving your sins only as well as you forgive others? It was a good thing for Jonah that God didn't base his forgiveness of Jonah on how Jonah forgave others.
In Matthew 12:40-41, Jesus talks about the sign of Jonah, comparing Jonah's three days and three nights in the belly of the fish to the time he would be in the earth. He ends the statement by saying, "Behold, a greater than Jonah is here." Jesus went through the most atrocious of deaths and in the very midst of his agony asked God to forgive the very people who were inflicting this pain. That is the kind of person who I want in charge of my forgiveness! BEHOLD, A GREATER THAN JONAH IS HERE!" PRAISE GOD!