Hello, Good People! We are back! I took a few weeks off from posting to concentrate on a new business start-up. Hopefully, you’ve continued to read your Word and put God first, regardless of how busy life gets. Here’s the introduction to our new book of study, Jonah:
“I’m going to run away,” a child shouts in anger. And he does! But a few minutes later, he is back and all is well.
What would you like to run away from? What escape routes have you planned out? All of us long to run away – more often than we'd like to admit. What do we run from? Marriage, job, friends, pressure, criticism, responsibility, failure, abuse, loneliness, boredom, fear. There’s much in our lives from which we’d like to escape.
The book of Jonah is the story of a person who ran away from God. God wanted Jonah to travel to the wicked city of Nineveh, in a foreign land, and preach to the people there. These were not just any people; they were the greatest enemies of Israel, known for their glorification of evil and their brutal torture practices. Jonah’s assignment was to call the people of Nineveh to repent, to turn to God. Jonah was afraid that they actually would and that God would forgive them. He could not imagine the evil Assyrians getting out of the judgment they so richly deserved. He could understand forgiveness supplied in full measure to his own people, but this was too much to handle!
Why did Jonah have such a hard time with this? We don’t know, but it is easy to imagine that one of his family members or a close relative may have been the victim of a brutal Assyrian attack or crime. When we think in terms of our own feelings if someone in our family were attacked or molested, we can empathize with Jonah.
Jonah wasn’t ready to deal with this prospect, so he ran away. Instead of going east toward Nineveh, Jonah boarded a ship toward Tarshish in Spain, far to the west. He not only ran away – he fled in the opposite direction!
Of course, it is not possible to run away from God. When Jonah boarded the ship, God was already there. When he sailed the high seas, he was sailing on seas God had created. There in the storm, he met God. And in the belly of the great fish, he understood the mercy of a tenacious God who pursues all people with undying love.
Jonah’s is not a fish story but a story of trying to run from God to avoid obeying him. It is a story of finding God wherever we go, no matter how far away or how remote. For Jonah, it took a storm and a great fish to learn obedience. (Wow! Jonah knew God would forgive these wicked people, so he didn’t want to do what God asked him to do and he ran.)
For us, God may send an entirely different classroom where we learn to obey him. It may be an accident, a near death experience, or a terrible disease. It may be the voice of a preacher, a walk through a mountain meadow, or the advice of a friend. It may be any one of a hundred unexpected things. But whatever it is, we need to be sensitive to the voice of God, listen, and obey. (Touch Point Bible)
Lord, thank you for your Word today! Help us be obedient to you, even when it is uncomfortable, even when it hurts and we may not agree. Lord, get us to a place with our walk with you that we are, simply, able to recognize your voice and hear your instructions and guidance to us. And, Lord, thank you for allowing us to study another one of your amazing books. You are awesome and we love you!
May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
….AND MAY WE ALL PRACTICE THIS WITH ONE ANOTHER.
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