Much To Think About

  “Then the sailors picked up Jonah and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve Him.” Jonah 1:15

  As we listened to Sunday’s teaching, part of a series for the next few weeks on the Book of Jonah, I scribbled down a couple of questions.

  As the storm battered the ship and the crew grew desperate, why did Jonah have to be thrown into the sea?

  Why didn’t he jump overboard?

  The sailors had begged God not to let them die for Jonah’s sin. They asked God not to make them responsible for his death yet here they are, having to throw him overboard. But Jonah didn’t die did he? He was swallowed by a great fish for three days and three nights.

  One of the reasons for the significance of this very short Book is because of how it parallels or foreshadows the life of Jesus. This is a comment I have read or heard several times but I don't think that's where God is leading me this morning.

  Having got this far, I have paused to read the entire story seeing as I am not overly familiar with it. My only awareness of Jonah’s story was that he was swallowed by a whale and God saved him. There is a strong possibility I had some aspects of the story mixed up with the childhood tale of Pinocchio. He was swallowed by a whale and became a real boy by saving his father from the belly of the beast. (Smile.)

  Jonah’s story began when the Lord gave him a message to take to Nineveh. Jonah ran from the responsibility of telling the Ninevites they had been judged by God for their wickedness. Following all his misadventures, he eventually agreed to obey God.

  The people of the city repented of their evil ways. God spared them. Jonah was really ticked off by this because to be a prophet whose prophecy doesn’t come to fruition wasn't good. He asked God to take his life because he felt it wasn’t worth living! Then he went and built a shelter and sulked all the while watching what the Lord would do to Nineveh.

  The thing that leapt out as I read was God’s own question, “Is it right for you to be angry?” He asked Johah this on two separate occasions.

  It has caused me to reflect on when anger gets the better of me; when anger becomes a raging sea that threatens to overwhelm me.  Is my anger rooted in ego or righteousness? It bears some thinking about.

  What is righteous anger?

  Smile.

  I doubt I am the first person to ask that question.

 

  Hmmm…righteous anger has room for grace as God so clearly demonstrates time after time. It is, after all, why Jonah was saved by the big fish. It is also why God sent him to Nineveh in the first place.

  And that, my friends, is something to think about. AMEN!