Where Are You Going?
Think about it, God has an assignment for each and everyone of us, and just like Jonah in the Bible, we have chosen to go somewhere else or do something else. The Book of Jonah speaks of God’s grace, second chances, and God’s mercy extended to man despite a rebellious attitude and total disobedience. On a deeper evaluation of this story, we all can probably identify with every step of it – excluding of course, being thrown overboard, and being swallowed by a whale. Jonah receives specific instructions from the Lord which said, ‘Go at once to Nineveh and preach to them about their sins and their wickedness.’ But Jonah seemed to have other priorities. He takes a ship to Tarshish from Joppa to get away from the presence of the LORD!
Jonah 1:1-3 “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah, son of Amittai, saying, ‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.’ But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so, he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.”
There are many people today who would go to great lengths to get away from the presence of the Lord, like Jonah. But what Jonah soon realized is that there isn’t a place on earth of God that one can go to, to get away from its Creator. In fact, David says, it does not matter where I can go because You O Lord are there! While David and Jonah learned that human beings cannot run from the presence of God, there are many today who are deceived into believing this lie. These people occupy themselves with work, give all their efforts to obtaining wealth but little do they realize that their efforts are in vain because soon their journey on earth would come to an end, and they would still have an encounter with the very One that they were running from.
The lesson that we can learn from this story is that we should never try to reassign ourselves to another task without accomplishing the one that God as given to us first. Our success can only be achieved when we learn to put God first. Jonah seemed to have a personal vendetta against those living in Nineveh. He believed that those people were wicked and sinful, and, in his opinion, they should be punished for their evil ways. But what Jonah forgot about was that he was also a sinner before God touched and saved him. Often, we also behave like this by not witnessing about God to those around us simply because we think that hell is an appropriate destination for them in our eyes. But God is full of mercy, love and compassion and His will that none should perish!
The amazing point about this story is that Jonah acknowledges his sin and his arrogance attitude, and he repents in an amazing fashion – he was willing to be thrown overboard into the sea. He realized that what he did was wrong, and he was willing to die so that others could be saved. Jesus died so that the world through Him might be saved. But God, comes to the rescue of this disobedient man and gets a whale to swallow him and to spew him on the shores of Nineveh. When God wants you to do something, do it in obedience and submission, instead of taking the route that gets you into a storm and into the belly of a whale. After Jonah got to preach to the people of Nineveh, the people were saved from destruction as they repented of their evil ways. We can also be saved from our wickedness if we humble ourselves and pray and turn from our wicked ways… then God will hear our prayers and He will heal our lands.
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