Thursday, December 18, 2014

JONAH:

Jonah is a prophet in Israel around 760 B.C.  during the reign of Jeroboam II.  Jonah receives word that he is to go to Ninevah and preach against it. So Jonah runs away, boards a boat and heads for Tarshish. While on the boat a terrible storm rages, Jonah reveals to the crew it is because of him and has them throw him overboard.  A fish swallows him, keeps him alive and then deposits him on the beach. Jonah then obeys God, goes to Ninevah, preaches against them, forecasts their destruction and to his great displeasure they repent.  Jonah becomes angry with God and admits this is why he ran away, he did not want to see God redeem then Nineties

"O Lord is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." (4:1-3)

But the Lord replied, "Have you any right to be any?"(4:4)

So Jonah goes outside the city, made a shelter and sat in it's shade.  God then caused a vine to grow up and cover him from the sun.  Jonah was very happy about the vine, but the next day God caused a worm to eat it and it withered and died.  Jonah was even angrier because of the vine, so much so that he wanted to die.

But the Lord said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow...But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people...should I not be concerned about that great city?"

REVELATION 9:

The fifth trumpet blows and swarms of locusts attack the earth tormenting mankind.  People who do not have the seal of God are tortured to the point that they long to die. Then the sixth trumpet is blown and it released two hundred million mounted troops to release plagues onto the earth.

The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idol of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood - idol that cannot see hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts. (9:20,21)

JOURNAL:

 I have heard the story of Jonah countless times. Yet this morning I am struck by how angry he is. I always thought that Jonah was fearful of the people of Ninevah and that is why he was running away. No clearly, he hated them and did not want to see God redeem.  Then to see him sit and pout and acknowledge God's grace and actually be angry about it, is almost funny.  The interaction between them is truly that of a spoiled child.  It is accentuated even more over the vine and how he is so happy about it and then bitterly angry when it dies.

Jonah is a mess! And boy do I relate...and as only God can do, he has compassion on him.  He continues to communicate and teach and love.  God's concern, as always, is Jonah's heart.  Just as yesterday with the people of Edom, the pill of bitterness and hate will cause senseless behavior that in itself is a prison.  With Jonah, God knows he needs to be pushed in ways that are unconventional so that his sin can be exposed. Again, the amazing grace and love of God always wins out.

The other thing that really hits me about these two texts is our ability to hold onto sin and how God allows it. With Jonah and with the prophesy of Revelation, sin can be so pervasive and blinding that tremendous, obvious acts of God, seem to have no effect.  It is in these moments, thinking about my own life, that I realize all the miraculous blessings that are freely given, and yet I am more prone to complain about what I don't get or have rather than what I do.  It truly is a reminder that feelings are gifts, but they can't always be trusted.  Like the vine they come and go. But God is constant and will never leave or forsake us.

"God loves you! So do I! Make it a great day!"