Until this morning, I hadn't known that Jonah, who lived in the belly of a fish for three days lived in Galilee, just three miles from Nazareth where Jesus grew up. Jonah and Ninevah, I could match, but Jonah and Galilee? I wouldn't have guessed if not for the Bible commentary I read this morning around 5 a.m.
I hadn't read the Book of Jonah for years, maybe for the reason the story is too familiar for me to read through again. But this morning, I came across some facts , which I hadn't known before. Being only 4 short chapters long, I finished reading the book of Jonah in one sitting.
I found it interesting to know that Jonah was the only old Testament prophet who had lived in Galilee. Of course he lived around 750 yrs before Jesus. Though it's a short book, Jonah contains many valuable lessons for us to learn. Even Jesus mentioned about Jonah being in the belly of the fish for three days, when he spoke of His death and resurrection.
The book reveals the outreaching grace of love for the Gentiles. God summoned Jonah, the prophet, to go to Ninevah, the capital of the Gentile nation of Assyrians. Assyrians were long term enemies of Israelites, and probably Jonah might have feared and hated them much as the rest of the Israelites in his time did.
Knowing well the danger, humiliation and even death he might face in the hands of Ninevites, Jonah in his wisdom thought of running away in secret in the opposite direction. A very bad decision! How could he even think of doing anything unknowing to the all-knowing God? The result- waves under the command of God rocked the boat Jonah was travelling, and threw him overboard and into the belly of a large fish. Only then did Jonah realize, how stupid and disobedient he had been to run away from Someone who could command and overturn nature with the flick of His finger.
The storm made Jonah to be thrown into sea, and God, not yet finished with Jonah ordered a large fish that's big enough to host Jonah in its belly for three days to swallow him up. It's here, in the pit of slimy darkness, wrapped up in sea weeds, Jonah came into his senses, repented for his sins and begged for forgiveness from God. After three days, he got vomited out on the shore. And it took Jonah three days to walked to Ninevah to give out God's message to the people.
Jonah's thunderous warning of the destruction of the city, alerted the Ninevites, including the king, to panic. Soon they put on sackcloth and sat on ashes and proclaimed fast without any food or drink. To display the seriousness of their repentance, they didn't allow even their animals to drink or eat anything.
Was Jonah pleased over their repentance? The Bible doesn't say so. But God did. He saw the Ninevites' sincere attempt to change their ways and and decided to withdraw the punishment he planned to bring upon them earlier.
Jonah should have leaped in the air and praised God for His mercy, on witnessing the peoples' act of repentance. Instead, the scripture tells us that he was displeased and was angry at God for changing His plan. Why? What was the problem with Jonah?
Self-centeredness! Plain and simple. He had proclaimed to the people that God was going to destroy the city soon. That didn't happen. He didn't want to look like a false prophet before the people. The fact that they've repented and changed their ways didn't matter to him. It's his reputation, he saw was at stake. He couldn't understand why His God, the LORD of Hebrews should mercy towards his enemies and let them live.
To teach Jonah a lesson, God sat him under a shady vine to give him enjoy its comfort for a while and then made the plant worm- eaten and wither. The loss of the plant made Jonah sad and get angry with the worm. God made Jonah to realize that, if he could have pity on a vine for which he hadn't labored, shouldn't God have pity on Nineva where more than hundred and twenty persons and much of their livestock.
Don't we all sense a little of Jonah in us? Sometimes, we hate to see someone we dislike being blessed. We expect those who violate God's ways to be punished then and there. Instead of praying for them, we impose judgement on them. We expect God's anger rather than God's mercy for those, who don't follow after Him.
Self-righteousness could become a barrier and hinder us to rejoice with those whom we don't associate. It's here, we need to be cautious, and not to give into Jonah in us. If God could die for all, why should we restrict our love and prayers to only to those who are familiar to us. What about those who belong to another faith? Or those whose life styles we condemn? Jesus loves them too. Only through us, He can love them. So, are we willing to go where He want us to go or do we want to sail in the opposite direction?***
No comments:
Post a Comment