Ever wonder why Jonah didn't want to go to Ninevah?
Jonah the son of Amittai was a small town boy from an obscure and remote corner of Israel, Gath-hepher of Zebulun. Yet traveling to educated and sophisticated Nineveh, magnificent capital of the Assyrian Empire, should be no challenge to a man who readily set sail on a large cargo ship for distant Tarshish.
The Assyrians surely intimidated neighboring countries with their malicious brutality and horrific expertise at siege warfare, which rivals any in human history. But fear seems to have little place in the heart of a man who dares to first defy God, and then later angrily rebuke Him. One might surmise that Jonah sought to prove himself anything but the "dove" he is named.
In the end, Jonah leaves no question about his motivation for disobedience, which is revealed in the closing words of his book (Jonah 4:2). Not unlike the Pharisees, who had zeal for God without knowing Him, Jonah's problem was that he knew God all too well, but loved Him all too little.
If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
~ 1 John 4:20 (NKJV)
The Bible says it took three days to walk through Nineveh, long enough for Jonah to closely observe its people. However intelligent and advanced their culture, their hedonistic lives immersed them in sin's misery and darkness. Their plight evoked only Jonah's contempt.
Jonah not only knew God to be gracious and merciful and compassionate, he had just experienced the depth of it in deliverance from the fish. He readily praised God for the blessings poured out on a repentant heart, but seethed with rage and persisted in hatred when God did the same for someone else.
Such knowledge—such personal experience—is riches greater than all the wealth of the mighty Assyrian Empire, greater than the GNP of mighty United States. We will not be willing to pay the cost (however small or great) of sharing such treasure unless we first love God and love people.
Lord God, knowing You is an inexhaustibly deep well of living waters. Thank You for permitting us to touch such treasure. Please allow us to see others through Your eyes and feel for them what You do, that we might do Your will on the earth as it is done in Heaven.
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Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Amen. There is a new video up on my blog sweet friend, love you.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Denise, for the 'amen.' Your voice is lovely. And when you sing the glories of our Lord, your voice becomes magnificent!
DeleteOh Anne, that verse has been a stumbling block for me....sometimes I would much rather spend time with my animals than people! "Please allow us to see others through Your eyes and feel for them what You do," I am claiming your prayer that I may be able to do this more and more....Lori
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lori, for joining me in prayer. Yes, people are much more worthy of our love and time than animals. But I find your remark particularly interesting in light of the fact that the very last words in the book of Jonah are from God Himself, putting the final emphasis on His compassion for the animals as well as people. "And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?"
DeleteGod in His dealings with Jonah overwhelms me. I memorized Jonah 2 with my son, and even the first phrase spoke volumes to me about God, about me, and about God and me: "Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish..."
ReplyDeleteMonica, you point out an incredible fact. If Jonah praised the Lord from the belly of the fish for deliverance from death in the sea, before he was delivered from the fish, how much more should we praise God for deliverance from eternal death, before our deliverance from temporal suffering?
DeleteThere is SO much more I'd love to say about Jonah. Perhaps another time. : )
OUCH
ReplyDeleteamen
Deletethis one really went deep! Jonah and i have too much in common, i think.
ReplyDeleteBud, we all have more in common with Jonah—and with the Pharisees—than we'd like to see. As I mentioned to Monica, Jonah praised God for deliverance while he was still in the fish. Our deliverance from the sea of sin and death might leave us in the belly of sin, but we ARE delivered! This is a temporal discomfort. Full deliverance is a process of humbling. Sometimes painful? "No pain, no gain." Efforts to avoid the pain result in lack of gain. Keep your eyes on the goal, not the road. Shalom.
Deleteoops. i forgot to thank you! this answered more then one question of my study in Jonah.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Bud.
Deletedon't think i've ever left four comments on a post in such a short time. when i first opened this page and read it, i was up and walking away from the computer. like another said above, i find life a lot easier with animals then i do people. been isolated from people including family for quite a spell. i get out with people but it's mostly in a type of relationship that's more worldly and without anything related to spiritual things. although i have anger issues, i don't think it's towards God as much. would dare say that i have a healthy fear of God and unhealthy fear of people.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, Bud, Jonah could have spent as much as forty days within the walls of Assyria before he went to sit outside the walls, in hope of its destruction. The subtitle to the excellent book Sacred Marriage (by Gary Thomas) is "What if God Desighned Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy?" The same might be asked of life.
DeleteGod fully intends to make us thoroughly and absolutely happy. We are creatures of immediate gratification, wanting our happiness RIGHT NOW! (*whine*) He asks us to seek His happiness—His glory—and to become more like Him to do it. The irony is that the more we release pursuit of our own happiness, and seek His glory, the happier we will be in eternity. Jesus described, more than once, that Heaven has different levels of rewards. The way we handle trials and sufferings (and unpleasant people) here is opportunity for reward there. "Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (etc... James 1:2-3)
Those may be the most difficult words in all of Scripture. Think on them, Bud.
Shalom. : )
Oh my. Ignorance isn't my excuse. Not one bit.
ReplyDeleteDavid, you never fail to touch me with how responsive your heart is, whether in your comments or in your posts. Now if we all could remember how to keep heart response active in all our words and deeds throughout the day—eh?
DeleteThe most unforgettable of all the Bible's characters, to me, is the sinful woman who washes Jesus' feet with her tears. (And wouldn't that be a WHOLE lot of tears?) It wasn't that she sinned so much more than others. But "how deep" did her appreciatiton of sin go? Because of that, she was able to love much.
Every single one of us has the potential to see ourselves as having "sinned much." Comprehending how deep our sin goes, and how deep God's love and forgiveness go, can prompt love that goes as deeply. We need only the courage to combine our knowledge with breadth of perception to more deeply appreciate God's love, and then feel compelled to return it to Him and spread it to others.
If you'll allow the explanation, that's why I've been scarce on your blog. I still read most posts, but don't take time to comment. There are more and more people in my life that I cannot help but love, and a finite human sometimes spreads love thin. Thank you for being a faithful presence here.
PS to David ~ I do trust that you'll remember always: God's forgiveness and love have already gone far, far beyond the whole of our sins, even the ones we have yet to commit. Regardless of the condemnation we may receive from ourselves or from others, we who are Christ's never, ever, face a single moment of condemnation from Him.
Delete"For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things." (1 John 3:20)
we all need to learn this lesson well... to give love and mercy to others 'cause we got it aboundantly....
ReplyDeleteWe were given that we might give, yes NataĊĦa?
Delete