My pastor preached a sermon on Jonah a while back. As he read over the part where Jonah finally repents in the belly of the fish, it hit me: sometimes we need a fish to take us deeper in our relationship with God. Sometimes we need a hardship to helps us find that deeper relationship with Christ.
Jonah was a prophet for God during the times of the Old Testament. So he already knew God and in today’s vernacular would have been considered a leader in the Christian churches. But his relationship with Christ would only go so far. Jonah was unwilling to do anything beyond his own comfort zone (his people). Therefore, when God sent him with a message of grace to his enemies, he ran away.
So many of us, would consider ourselves “good Christian” people, but if God asked us to take a message of forgiveness and grace to those who hurt us, what would we do? Would we run too? Jonah’s relationship was strong enough with God that He knew when it was God telling him to do something. He knew the compassion and forgiveness of God, because he says, Lord, if I go, they will repent and you will have compassion on them. (Jonah 4:2) However, he did not have a deep enough relationship with God to be willing to see things form the Lord’s heart. Jonah’s relationship only went as deep as he was comfortable.
So, Jonah runs away and gets on a boat. Most of us know the story, the storm arises, the sailors are afraid and they cast lots to see whose fault the storm is. Once they know it is Jonah’s fault they ask him what did he do. He tells them he is running from God and that to end the dangerous storm they have to throw him overboard. After trying to out row the storm, the sailors decide to do as he said and throw him into the water. The seas calm and Jonah is swallowed by a big fish. It is when Jonah is in the fish that he finally is ready to go to the next level with God. He repents and choose to obey. Jonah said, “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy. But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” (Jonah 2:7-9) Here what we see is Jonah, humbling himself after he has walked away from God because he did not want to do what God wanted. Still he knows where to turn and humbling himself he chooses to obey. Jonah finally is ready to go to the next level with God and submit to His will even though it means bringing grace and mercy to those he hates.
God causes the fish to spit Jonah out and he does go and preach to his enemies as God commanded and there is a great revival. I wish the story ended there and that all was fine and dandy, but that is not the case. Jonah learned to obey God no matter what He said to do, but Jonah did not learn to have the heart of God. His anger at God’s grace and forgiveness is where the book ends. But what we can learn from this story is two fold. One, obey God no matter what He asks and maybe we won’t need a fish to come. Two, when hard things do come, like being eaten by a great fish, realize that they are here to make us look up and take the next step to growing deeper with Christ. Jonah did that. The Fish caused him to not only obey when it was convenient and in sync with his ideals, but to obey God no matter what He asked for. However, I hope that our challenges in life will help us all grow to have the heart of the Father as well.
So the next time you are caught in a challenging predicament, look to the Lord, humble yourself, and take the next step that God has asked of you.
Hagelbooks is excited to announce a new book coming soon: For the Love Behind Him is written by Abigail Hagel Smith. It is a safe love story for all ages with struggles that we all relate to. More information will be posted on http://www.hagelbooks.com soon!