Archive for the 'Jonah' Category
Friday, August 6th, 2010
Having appointed some circumstances to shape his servant, the Lord resorted to another method, namely reasoning. Jonah was in no mood for rejoicing. He was angry at the way things were turning out and didn’t think twice about showing it. We would probably have left him to stew in his own rebellious juice, but not God. He drew alongside Jonah and began to reason with him. ‘Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?’ (Jonah 4:9) God asked him. ‘It grew overnight and died overnight. You didn’t contribute anything, did you?’
God has the authority to command us and to expect our obedience. He knows what’s best and shouldn’t need to debate with anyone. But God is so merciful. Often he discusses things with his servants. ‘Come, let us reason together’ he invites. He grants us the dignity of reasoning with him. Jesus told his disciples, ‘No longer do I call you servants but friends.’ God loved Jonah, so he tried to stop him from wallowing in his emotions by asking him to face up to a few facts.
God reveals his own heart
‘Look, Jonah,’ said God, ‘You’re concerned about the welfare of a little plant, so why can’t I have compassion for the thousands of people in Nineveh?’
When Jesus saw the crowds, ‘he had compassion on them’ (Matt. 9:36). When we see the crowds, they look happy enough. They look self-assured and confident, secure with their big houses, shiny cars and all the latest gadgets. ‘Surely they don’t need God,’ we think. ‘They appear to be so comfortable.’ But Jesus sees right through all the frills and into their hearts. He sees the anxiety of the man who is about to lose his job and the distress of the mother who can’t cope with life any more. ‘I see them flung down’ (NIV margin), he says. ‘And I’m filled with compassion for them.’
Sometimes the image of God shines through ungodly people. Jonah told the sailors, ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea and it will become calm’ (Jonah 1:12). At first, compassion prevented them. They tried their hardest to save him. In much the same way, people today often display kindness to relieve others of their suffering. Indeed, even the toughest individual can reflect something of God’s character, because he’s God’s offspring.
God looked with compassion on the heathen in Nineveh, recognising that they were his offspring, captive in the hands of Satan. ‘Shouldn’t I be concerned about them?’ he questioned Jonah. Today, God looks with pity on the lost and says, ‘Shouldn’t I be concerned about them? Yes, they’re sinful, but they’re my offspring. I love them and I gave my Son to save them. I’m not far from any one of them. They could hear the gospel message and respond and their lives could be changed. I want you to share my compassion and reach out to them – not with cold professionalism but with tender mercy.’
Alone with God
So often we’re more concerned about the ‘plants’ than the people. We preoccupy ourselves with our own ministries rather than sharing God’s yearning for the human race. Even our evangelism can be an ‘ego trip’ or an endeavour to prove ourselves. We can be very like Jonah, with muddled motives. God wants to change and purify us so that our actions match our attitudes and there’s no room for hypocrisy.
Every one of us will experience a ‘Jonah, chapter four’. The curtain will rise and you will be alone with God. Actions will be weighed. Secret motives will be revealed. The things hidden in darkness will face the light.
How will you score when God unearths the attitudes you’ve kept so well concealed? Will your works stand the test of fire? God wants to reward you. It gives him no pleasure to find you out. That is why his word warns you that this final scene will certainly take place for you – with you as the star of the drama!
Be motivated by that. Let God search your motives now. Develop accountability to others now. Prepare to meet your God. Christ is coming for a bride who has made herself ready, adorned for her husband. Get involved in actions motivated by love and faith that he will delight to reward.
‘Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me and I will give to everyone according to what he has done’ (Rev. 22:12).
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Friday, July 30th, 2010
Jonah was an obnoxious character. He was delivered from the fish and saw a great revival, but still he missed the point. God could so easily have said, ‘That’s it! You’ve taken up too much of my time already.’ But he didn’t. God loved him enough to keep working on him. God really loves the unlovely and is committed to winning and transforming them.
When I look back over my own life, I’m amazed at God’s patience. I would have given up on myself ages ago. Maybe you feel the same way. Sometimes we think, ‘God, what on earth made me do that? How could I have been so unkind? How could I have said such an awful thing? It just slipped out and it must have hurt.’ Sometimes you’re shocked by yourself and realise how selfish you are. God has always known what’s underneath, but he isn’t deterred.
‘I love to see you succeed,’ says God. ‘I’m not glorified by unfruitful Christians. Pruning produces more fruit, and I’m looking for glory on a grand scale. But outward success isn’t the whole story. I want your success to be properly motivated.’
In his mercy, God refused to abandon Jonah as a hopeless case. As a master craftsman he kept chiselling away at him, using first one instrument, then another, to penetrate and shape his heart.
God appoints circumstances
While Jonah sat outside Nineveh, the sun climbed high in the sky. As the temperature rose, Jonah wondered how long he would have to wait in the sweltering heat before God judged the people. God looked down on him, took pity and ‘appointed a plant’ (Jonah 4:6, NASB). The vine grew over Jonah and sheltered him. Jonah was naturally very happy with this expression of God’s grace. He was, however, not so happy when God, in that same grace, appointed a worm to chew through the vine and sent a scorching east wind to increase Jonah’s discomfort.
In his grace, God appoints circumstances for us. Sometimes he says, ‘I’m giving you a plant to protect you and show you that I love you.’ And we say, ‘Thank you, Father. Now I know you love me.’ But sometimes God appoints a worm to remove the shade and a scorching east wind to blow down on us. It’s the same loving God at work but he’s working in a different way. His purpose is to transform us into the image of his Son, and he will appoint whatever is appropriate at the time to bring about that goal.
East winds
Have you encountered any scorching east winds recently? Maybe you’re in the business world and are getting some Chinese east wind. Their product is cheaper than yours. How are you going to survive? You could do with a plant, some protection – a tariff on imported goods, perhaps. But it doesn’t come. Or maybe it’s a Middle East wind, and oil prices are increasing so much that your business is in jeopardy. You long for protection but it’s not there. Life’s uncomfortable.
Sometimes the east wind just seems to come from nowhere. Suddenly we find that we’re facing hostility and opposition, and we cry out, ‘What’s happening to me? Lord, give me some shelter. Stop this east wind. I can’t stand it!’ But God replies, ‘No. In my love I’ve appointed the east wind for you. Receive it from me.’ But Jonah hated the wind and railed against it.
The apostle Paul’s attitude to his ‘east wind’ was totally different. What was his east wind? It was a ‘thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me’ (2 Cor. 12:7). What was this thorn? Verse ten seems to imply weaknesses, insults, hardships and persecutions. God removed his protecting hand and allowed Satan to prevent Paul from becoming proud of his revelations. Three times Paul pleaded with God to remove it, but God replied, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ The apostle joyfully accepted this because he continued, ‘I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me’ (2 Cor. 12:9). He allowed the east wind to shape his character and bring glory to God.
Since God appoints circumstances to change your character, don’t fight everything that comes your way. By all means ask God to intervene, but if he doesn’t, learn the lesson intended. Let him use the scorching heat to form the image of his Son in you – and rejoice as you go through it.
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Monday, July 26th, 2010
Jonah destroys all our theories that God uses only the totally sanctified to fulfil his greatest purposes. Jonah’s heart wasn’t right and neither was Samson’s, but both were powerfully instrumental in God’s hands.
Unsanctified servants
Church history is littered with people who had powerful ministries but who didn’t live as God intended. Some preached to thousands and even saw many saved, healed and delivered while behind the scenes they were indulging in all manner of questionable activities.
When character declines, anointing doesn’t necessarily cease immediately. Church history seems to indicate that for a while gifting outlasts character until God sighs, ‘Enough!’ Samson discovered this to his terrible cost. Beware of being impressed by externals. Just because someone is powerful in public doesn’t necessarily mean that he pleases God in private.
Inadequate repentance
Well might we ask, ‘Lord, why did you ever take Jonah out of the fish? He’s a dreadful character. You should at least have left him in there a bit longer.’ But that’s the wonder of God. He knew that Jonah’s repentance wasn’t complete but still had mercy on him. ‘That’s enough. I’ll release him now but I haven’t finished with him yet.’
Maybe God has recently rescued you from some great crisis and given you a great new sense of fulfilment and usefulness. That’s great. But don’t think that you’re now the completed saint. Your heart may not yet be absolutely right. God has displayed his amazing grace to you but he wants to take you still further.
A lady I once knew often said to me, ‘Every time you preach, God speaks to me about my smoking habit.’ The issue became an obsession. ‘I feel so condemned,’ she told me, ‘but I can’t give it up.’ One day, I said to her, ‘Actually, God wants to speak to you about a lot of things. It’s just that whatever message you hear, you relate it to smoking.’
Soon after this, she broke the habit. ‘That’s it!’ she thought. ‘I’ve done it! I’m through!’ But she wasn’t. True, she had conquered smoking, but she suddenly realised that this small part of her life had assumed huge proportions in her mind. Once the clouds of smoke had lifted she saw more clearly that God had much more to say to her. She wasn’t sanctified overnight. God hadn’t finished with her.
Instant sanctification?
Some people teach that sanctification is there for the asking. You can read about ‘The Higher Life’ or ‘The Secret Way’, where you’re encouraged to just ‘let go and let God’.
But the Bible doesn’t teach that your life is transformed by an instantaneous experience. God didn’t say to Jonah, ‘Right, into the fish with you, and I won’t let you out until you’re through on everything: character, thoughts about Nineveh, attitude to the lost, trusting my wisdom – the lot. When you get out, you’ll be a sanctified man.’
When you overcome one obstacle, don’t think it’s the only issue in your life that God wants to sort out. Don’t assume, ‘I’ve arrived.’ God will simply say, ‘Well, I’m glad you’re out of that. Now you can turn over the page and have a look at the next thing I want to say to you.’ When you’ve conquered one peak, another beckons in a step-by-step relationship with God.
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Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
‘But Jonah was greatly displeased and very angry’ (Jonah 4:1). How sad that Jonah’s chapter four should begin this way. He’d just witnessed a great revival, a mighty turning to God. We’d expect the prophet to be rejoicing, ecstatic at the people’s response to God’s Word, yet Jonah’s reaction reflected not joy but hostility.
‘Isn’t this what I said while I was still at home?’ he blurted out. ‘Before I left I said you’d do this. That’s why I ran away. I know that you’re a compassionate God, and I told you that you’d let them off. I was right in the first place.’
Self-justification
The Ninevites had repented, but Jonah had not. He hadn’t changed his mind about anything. ‘Get me out of this fish,’ he’d cried to God when he was in distress. But when God released him, he didn’t change inwardly. He hadn’t come into line with God’s view at all. All this wayward prophet wanted to do was justify himself.
You can have the same experience. ‘God, please get me out of this!’ He releases you only to discover that your repentance is superficial. It isn’t enough for you to feel the pressure of a situation. You must repent, change your heart and say, ‘Lord, you spoke to me clearly. I used to justify myself, but I’m not going to argue any more. I won’t be like Jonah – out of the pressure but inwardly unchanged. You want me to be different deep inside. When I cried to you, it was the beginning of a consistent change in my life.’
Self-importance
‘In forty days you’re all going to be condemned,’ Jonah told the Ninevites, but in his heart he knew that God would show them mercy. Jonah had no love for them. He was more concerned about his own self-importance. At the same time as he was declaring ‘You’re all going to die,’ he was thinking, ‘What’s going to happen to my prophetic ministry when the people don’t die?’ This man was more concerned with the vindication of his prophetic gift than with the overall purpose of God. ‘My ministry! My ministry! I must protect my ministry!’
The apostle Paul was thrown in prison, and from there he wrote to the Philippians, ‘Some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill … But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice’ (Phil. 1:15,18). Paul didn’t feel remotely threatened by others who were preaching the gospel outside his prison walls. He recognised that God’s purpose was far bigger than his personal ministry.
We have to choose whether we adopt a ‘Jonah attitude’ or a ‘Paul attitude’. The Jonahs among us complain, ‘I’ve got a really important ministry but there’s no room for it here. I’m fed up waiting to get my voice heard, so I think I’ll leave the church.’ But the Pauls among us say, ‘Lord, I know you’re accomplishing your purposes here. I want to be part of this, so I’ll just serve you wherever I can. I know you’ll open doors for me if I’m not so much taken up with my ministry as I am with you.’
Once Jonah had given God’s message to the Ninevites, he sat down outside the city and said to himself, ‘OK, let’s see what happens to them.’ How cold and unfeeling can you get? This man had just been walking through a vast condemned city. He’d passed children in the streets, men and women going about their daily business, cripples and beggars. ‘Forty more days and that’s it for you!’ he’d declared in his professional prophetic way. There is no hint of compassion, no saying to himself, ‘They’ve only got forty days. I must get among them. Perhaps I can do something to help.’
When Jesus came to be baptised, John the Baptist protested, ‘I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?’ (Matt. 3:14). But Jesus wanted to identify with us. He wanted to be the sort of friend who wouldn’t just stand and watch us suffer God’s imminent condemnation. So he went through our experiences with us. He walked alongside us, served us and died for us.
Self-pity
Jonah made himself a shelter, and God caused a plant to grow over his head to ease his discomfort. Jonah was ‘very happy about the vine’ (Jonah 4:6). ‘Super,’ he said to himself, ‘a vine! The sun’s off me – marvellous!’ Amazing isn’t it? Jonah was more concerned about a plant than about the whole city. And when the vine died and the sun blazed down on him, he fell again into depression and wanted to die.
This man was like a yo-yo. One minute he was up, the next he was down. While he was inside the fish he cried out, ‘Help, Lord! Save me!’ then, when God rescued him, he said, ‘I want to die.’ When the vine grew over him, he was happy, but when it withered, he withered along with it. Talk about living by your emotions.
We can be the same way. We cry out, ‘Lord, just get me out of this. I’ll be obedient to you. I’ll change.’ And God is merciful. He releases us and for a while we’re very happy. But after a few weeks other pressures come and we begin to lapse into self-pity. ‘Why did you command the worm to eat my vine?’ we protest to God. ‘It isn’t fair. You don’t love me any more. I think I’ll leave the church.’
What pathetic attitudes we sometimes adopt. How will we feel when we meet the Lord and he uncovers them all? Happily for Jonah, his feet were still on the earth. He wasn’t yet meeting with God as his ultimate judge, but as one who was still showing him amazing mercy and trying to win his heart. God certainly strives with his children, but in the end we’ll have to account for what we did on earth.
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Monday, July 19th, 2010
Most people judge by what they see in a person. God is more impressed by the unseen. Samuel received a gentle rebuke from God when he was trying to discover which of Jesse’s sons he should anoint as king. ‘You’re looking at his stature,’ said God, ‘but the Lord looks at the heart.’ People might be very impressed by actions, but God is far more interested in what goes on behind them. We read, ‘The Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed’ (1 Sam. 2:3) and, ‘All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord’ (Prov. 16:2).
Focus on motivation
When you’ve come to the end of your life, you’ll receive an appraisal based not so much on your achievements as on your motivation. You might remind God, ‘I was involved in the conversion of over a hundred and twenty thousand. You must be impressed by that. It was a tremendous revival. That’s what you were looking for, wasn’t it? So now the curtain can fall.’
No. God is looking for more than success. He’s interested in the secret motivation of his individual servants. Your work ‘will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames’ (1 Cor. 3:13-15).
This passage isn’t talking about salvation, which is a work of grace through faith in Christ. Here the emphasis is on reward for ministry. It concerns things which are left standing after God has searched your motivation. Some will suffer loss, while others will be rewarded. But for all of us, there will inevitably be a ‘chapter four’ – when the crowds have gone, with no one around to be impressed by externals, when it’s just God and you; and he’ll look right into your heart.
The apostle Paul wasn’t concerned by what people thought of him. He said, ‘I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me’ (1 Cor. 4:3,4). Although Paul felt that his conscience was clear, he didn’t finally even trust those feelings; he realised that God knew better than his conscience. ‘He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God’ (1 Cor. 4:5).
Well done
You can have a great career, you can bask in the praise of men, but nothing will ever compare with the ‘Well done’ that comes from God. Imagine being praised by God! Imagine hearing him say to you, ‘Well done! I’m really pleased with you.’ Surely that prospect must be one of the most exciting in the entire universe! Surely it is your highest desire: to live to please God and, at the end, to hear his words, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant … Come and share your master’s happiness’ (Matt. 25:21).
I have had some exciting days. I remember the day I was saved. I remember the day I got married and the days when our children were born. I remember tremendous, exciting days in my life, days to treasure. But there will never, never be a day to compare with the day when I receive my praise from God, when I hear him say, ‘Well done.’
When the curtain rises for the last time, there will be a great turning around. Jesus said, ‘The last will be first, and the first will be last’ (Matt. 20:16). The people who wanted and received their acclamation from men will be disappointed when they meet God. But those whose hearts were truly seeking after righteousness will be rewarded.
God is interested in hearts and no one except God knew what was going on in Jonah’s heart. When Jonah reached his chapter four, God confronted him, saying, ‘I want to talk to you about your motivation. I want to reveal what’s hidden inside.’ And so the spotlight goes on and we’re allowed to eavesdrop on this extraordinary encounter.
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Thursday, July 15th, 2010
It was electrifying. The weird figure stood in the city centre, his skin strangely coloured, his clothes worn and dusty, and began to shout, ‘Nineveh, hear me! In forty days you’ll be overturned!’ No explanation, no credentials presented, no alternatives offered. Why should the people heed him at all? Yet they did.
A magnificent response
The impact of Jonah’s words was astounding. Hearing the news of impending doom, the ordinary citizens were first to respond. The entire population declared a fast and put on sackcloth. Then the king learned there was something happening among his people and he too humbled himself. This large-scale repentance wasn’t just outwardly impressive, it was genuine. The Ninevites weren’t merely observing religious practices, they were actually turning from their evil ways (Jonah 3:10) and completely changing their lifestyle.
Here’s a classic example of a genuine spiritual revival that eventually changes society itself. Bills passed in Parliament won’t ultimately change society. You can’t legislate a nation into righteousness. Only a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in revival can change the moral climate of a nation.
When that change takes place, those in authority become aware of a new morality emerging, and in the wake of such a visitation genuine reformers are raised up. Holiness begins to be seen in our schools, shops, factories and offices. And as moral standards begin to rise at the grass-roots level, so the government will adjust the laws of the land to reflect new national attitudes.
We must still pray for our rulers and write to our MPs about specific issues, but note that in Nineveh, the national transformation started among the people. Wesley saw a similar pattern in England in his day. Genuine revival is a sovereign intervention of God. Meanwhile, we must preach the gospel where we are – among ordinary people in our neighbourhoods, workplaces, schools. As individuals repent, they will, in turn, influence the nation.
So it was that all of Nineveh repented, from the least to the greatest. Three thousand converts on the day of Pentecost was amazing, but look at this. In all church history I have never heard of such a sweeping revival as there was in Nineveh. What a glorious climax to an extraordinary story. Jonah had learned his lessons and a mighty revival took place.
The end – or is it?
At this point, we would expect the curtain to fall and thunderous applause to break out among God’s people. ‘That must be the final scene,’ we would think as we glanced quickly down the programme:
Act 1
Scene 1: God speaks to Jonah
Scene 2: Jonah runs away
Act 2
Scene 1: Jonah is chastised
Scene 2: Jonah repents
Scene 3: Jonah is restored
Act 3
Scene 1: Jonah obeys
Scene 2: Jonah is overwhelmingly successful
‘Terrific,’ we think. ‘What a magnificent story! Now, where’s my coat?’ The applause subsides and we get up to leave, when suddenly the curtain rises. ‘What’s this?’ we say, startled. We look again at the programme, turn over to the back page and read:
Act 4
Scene 1: God speaks to Jonah again
On the stage sits a solitary figure. The Ninevites have all gone and Jonah is left alone with his God. The curtain has fallen on the story but has risen again to reveal the heart of the prophet.
So the book of Jonah ends not with the triumphant climax of chapter three, but with chapter four. This chapter will appear at the end of every one of our life stories. It begins when the final curtain has dropped on your earthly life, when people have held your funeral service and applauded you for your great contribution to the world. Then the curtain will rise again and you’ll be alone before God and he’ll look into your heart.
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Monday, July 12th, 2010
‘The Lord commanded the fish.’ Amazing. Fish are not the only things God can command. ‘Aaron’s staff, become a snake!’ He ordered. ‘Sand, turn into gnats!’ ‘Locusts, gather your friends and populate Egypt!’ ‘Red Sea, open up!’ ‘Walls of Jericho, fall!’ ‘Lions, spare Daniel!’ ‘Fire, don’t touch those three men!’ Is there anything he cannot command? No, nothing. Seas open, walls fall, lions shut their mouths, fire is harmless, and even death yields its captives. At his word everything obeys. Every confinement ceases. You cannot be entrapped by anything that will refuse to obey God’s command.
Our fish is at God’s command
Jonah was imprisoned by his circumstances, but God’s command released him. ‘I feel so trapped by my situation,’ you may say. But God can change it overnight. ‘Job situation, change!’ he can order. ‘Money, get into her bank account!’ ‘Managing director, promote him to that position!’ God is far greater than our circumstances. At any time he can command our ‘fish’, ‘Enough! Let him go!’ And the fish will cough us up – not back into the sea, but onto dry land.
The Bible tells us, ‘For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let me ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance’ (Ps. 66:10-12). God takes his people through difficult circumstances, not because he wants to hurt them, but because he wants to strengthen them and make them more effective. React positively to confinement and you will one day, like imprisoned and forgotten Joseph, find yourself suddenly released onto dry ground and into great things.
A second time
At last Jonah was on dry ground, delivered, delighted, but probably disqualified – or was he? No! Here we find those wonderful words, ‘The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time’ (Jonah 3:1). What a glorious statement. We may have written Jonah off; he might even have disqualified himself. But God didn’t abandon him. He brought his prophet right back into his original plans, back to where he had left off.
Throughout Scripture we read of scarred people whom God had chosen and who heard from him a second time. Abraham, unable to wait for God to give him a child by his wife Sarah, produced a son through her maid, Hagar. ‘That’s it,’ we’d have said. ‘He’s blown it. No chance of God using him now.’ But after thirteen years, Abraham heard God’s voice again, ‘Your wife Sarah will bear you a son’ (Gen. 17:19). And a year later the promise was fulfilled.
Then there was Moses. ‘I’ll deliver Israel,’ he said, then killed an Egyptian and ran for his life. Forty years later God called him again, and Moses brought the Israelites out of bondage just as God had intended. And what about David, the man after God’s own heart? He committed adultery and as good as murdered the woman’s husband.
Peter cursed and swore that he didn’t know Jesus, but he wasn’t overlooked from that time on. God’s word came to Peter a second time, ‘Do you love me?’ And on the day of Pentecost, who was it standing there preaching the gospel, to which 3,000 people responded?
God’s grace says, ‘Come back – not to a different word, but back to my original word to you. I will gladly pick you up and reinstate you to my original purpose. That’s what I’ve wanted all along.’ God does not adjust His command in order to accommodate Jonah. His authoritative word must be obeyed as originally given.
What was Jonah’s response? He ‘went according to the word of the Lord.’ That’s what God wants from us – to go according to his word. Have you messed up your marriage? Is your business on shaky ground? Have you been resisting God in your spiritual life? Get back into line with the Word of God. Jonah did. Will you?
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Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
In the midst of his turmoil, in spite of his feelings of rejection by God, Jonah declared, ‘Yet I will look again toward your holy temple’ (Jonah 2:4). What did he mean? He was really saying, ‘I remember your covenant promise.’ Into his unrelieved darkness came a ray of light. God had sealed a promise with his covenant people.
A Covenant Promise
Solomon’s temple was built in obedience to the command of God. When it was completed, Solomon gathered all Israel together and prayed, ‘O Lord my God … May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night … because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel’ (2 Chron. 6:19, 20, 26, 27). God heard his prayer. He filled the temple with his glory and made a covenant with Solomon to listen and respond when anyone repented and prayed toward the temple.
Jonah looked back into the dim past and recalled Solomon’s prayer and God’s answer. ‘I’ve been expelled,’ he thought to himself, ‘but there was a promise, wasn’t there? Surely if I look again to the holy temple, you’ll hear me. You’ll answer me. You said you would.’
Some Christians say, ‘I used to be a servant to God, but I’ve cut myself off from him.’ But don’t you remember that somewhere in the distant past there was a covenant? Search your memory. Weren’t there promises? Didn’t God say, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love’ (Jer. 31:3)? Didn’t he say, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’ (Heb. 13:5)? Didn’t he promise that if we confessed our sins, Jesus would forgive us?
No one needs to remain under a cloud of condemnation. Jonah looked to the temple; you can look to Jesus. You aren’t worthy, but he is. Cry out to him, ‘Lord, you promised. You promised you’d always love me and never leave me. You promised that if I confessed my sin you would be faithful and just to forgive my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Lord, I claim your promise. I repent and I return to you now with all my heart.’
Fulfil your Vow
Jonah also added, ‘What I have vowed I will make good’ (Jonah 2:9). Now that he was returning to God, Jonah knew that he must also return to his vow and to the word that God had originally given. Unless you are willing to return and be totally obedient to the word God originally gave you, and to fulfil your commitment to him as Lord, you aren’t truly repenting.
Have you made a vow to God? Did you once promise him something? Maybe earlier in your Christian life you responded to God’s call and said, ‘You can count on me!’ But time has passed and you have lost the zeal you once had. You’ve become preoccupied with your career, your family, your hobbies. Your vow is almost forgotten.
Maybe you made a different sort of commitment to God. ‘I will sort out my financial affairs, Lord. I’ll pay the tax I haven’t declared and start tithing.’ ‘I won’t indulge in that bad habit any more.’ ‘I won’t get involved in a relationship with that person. I know it’s not right.’ But you haven’t done what you said you would. For one reason or another you haven’t fulfilled the vow.
Sometimes people make vows when they’re caught in a crisis. ‘Oh, God!’ they cry out, ‘Help me! Get me out of this and I promise you I’ll …’ And God graciously steps in and rescues them. They‘re delighted. ‘Thank you, Lord!’ they say. ‘I’m so grateful.’ Then time passes and the vow slowly fades from memory until it’s viewed as little more than a rash comment made on the spur of a difficult moment.
‘I can’t fulfil that promise now,’ some people say to God. ‘I just can’t face it. Besides, I really don’t think I’ve got the resources any more. I had them when I made the promise, but now things have changed. It’s different. You understand, Lord, don’t you?’
Yes, he understands. But he hasn’t said, ‘All right, forget the vow.’ We can try by various means to relinquish our responsibility, but God hasn’t released us from it. ‘The vow is still outstanding,’ He says. ‘I’m waiting for you to fulfil it and I’ll be there to help you. Don’t back away any more. Do what you promised you would and I will restore you – completely.’
The Bible tells us, ‘When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfil your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfil it’ (Ecc. 5:4, 5).
God wants you to come back to the root of your problem. He longs to hear from you the words of the psalmist, ‘I will … fulfil my vows to you – vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble’ (Ps. 66:13, 14). You may want God to work on your terms, but he wants to lift your standards to his. ‘Come back into my will,’ he says. ‘Come back and fulfil the original vision. It’s the only way forward.’
Jonah – far removed from God’s will, alone, tired and miserable – prayed, ‘What I have vowed I will make good.’ In that moment, as if a severed electric cable had been rejoined to its source, there was light, power, revelation and a shout of assurance, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord’ (Jonah 2:9). His declaration triggered an immediate response in heaven, ‘And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land’ (Jonah 2:10).
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Monday, July 5th, 2010
Floundering around in the water, sinking like a stone, Jonah suddenly found himself inside a huge fish praying to God for help. What else could he have done?
Help!
‘Help!’ That’s where you start. You don’t begin by trying to work out exactly how God might want to be addressed – ‘I beseech thee, almighty God, creator of the universe …’ You don’t begin by reviewing your own unworthiness and the various sins you’ve committed since you drifted away. There are times when urgency totally eclipses formality.
You may be wondering, ‘How am I going to come back to God? The implications are frightening, and I don’t know if I can face them.’ Like Jonah, you might feel, ‘If I come back to God, I will have to face up to doing what he was telling me to do.’
But don’t let that deter you. Be honest with yourself and tell God exactly how you feel. Tell him, ‘I’m afraid of what you might ask of me, but I want to get back into your will. Help me, Lord.’
‘Help!’ is a cry God will not ignore. You could be restored to God as you read these words. Why don’t you cry to him for help even now, at this very moment?
God is Sovereign
Jonah acknowledged that God was behind everything that was happening to him. ‘You hurled me into the deep,’ he said. ‘All your waves and breakers swept over me’ (Jonah 2:3). He knew that he was God’s captive, that God had been pursuing him.
When we become children of God, we are never free agents again. We are never finally at the mercy of circumstance. We have been bought with a price; we belong to God; we are in his hand. He is our new master and we are his captives.
In his letter to Philemon, Paul didn’t begin, ‘Paul, a prisoner of the Roman guard …’ He wrote, ‘Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus’ (Philem. 1:1). In his letter to the Romans, he didn’t say, ‘Try hard to be slaves of God.’ He said, ‘[you] have become slaves to righteousness … [you] have become slaves to God’ (Rom. 6:18, 22).
The fact is that as a Christian, you’re Christ’s slave. That’s why you feel so desperately uncomfortable when you stray from the will of God. Something in your heart says, ‘You really shouldn’t be doing this.’ The voice belongs to your new owner. He troubles your conscience. It’s hard going.
I once knew a man who drifted far away from God. He got into an adulterous relationship and refused to face up to his rebellion. Then one day he had a heart attack. Lying in the ambulance, he overheard the paramedics saying, ‘I don’t know if he’ll still be alive by the time we get him to the hospital.’ As he lay there, helpless, he cried out, ‘God save me!’ Though backslidden, like Jonah, he knew enough about God and his mercy to call on him again.
As he continued his prayer, Jonah said, ‘You have expelled me from your sight’ (Jonah 2:4). Jonah felt as though he had been forsaken.
‘Banished,’ the New International Version translates it. Imagine a medieval knight discovered in a plot against the king. He stands before the king who passes sentence, ‘You’re banished from the land.’ Slowly, the full horror of banishment dawns on him. That’s how Jonah felt – not just judged but banished, outside, away from where he ought to be. He didn’t argue against his sentence. On the contrary, he acknowledged the justice of it.
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Friday, July 2nd, 2010
God doesn’t want only to shake individuals. He wants to shake the church.
The church is God’s messenger to a storm-tossed world. She holds the keys to the nations. She knows the answers that everybody needs to hear. How can the church sleep while the world is agonising with such colossal pressures? How can she drift while people’s hearts are failing on every side? Suicides, drug addiction, mindless brutality, abused children, elderly people terrified to answer their doorbells at night – what a world we live in. How can the church, God’s prophetic voice to the nations, become so purposeless and fall asleep?
When the church forgets her calling, when she turns her back on her obligation to the lost, she suffers a total loss of identity. Jumble sales and bazaars are hardly the mark of a prophetic people who bring God’s answers into the turmoil of our generation! Christians who rejoice only in inward-looking ministry are barely more relevant. God wants to shake us out of our complacency. If the unsaved really knew what we know about heaven and hell and free salvation through Christ, they would say to us, ‘How can you sleep?’ We must wake up to our identity and our calling. We must be restored to a true fear of the Lord.
As soon as Jonah admitted his identity and acknowledged that he worshipped God, reality broke in. Until then he had been running away, but once he affirmed his fear of God, the mystery was solved. Jonah’s admission, ‘I fear God,’ had a startling effect on the sailors. They were terrified and began to cry out to God and offer him sacrifices. That’s how revival breaks out. When the wayward church wakes up to its true identity and declares, ‘I fear God,’ people are frightened and begin to pray and seek him for themselves. This is the real distinction between organised evangelism and revival. Revival begins in the church when God’s people genuinely reaffirm their fear of the Lord and reclaim a right relationship with him. The repercussions have a powerful effect on society.
Identified with God’s purposes
In the face of Jonah’s disobedience, God would have been justified in saying, ‘Jonah has deserted his post and cannot be trusted. I’ll just let him go. Amos is much more reliable. Amos, you go instead!’
But although God could have turned to Amos, he didn’t, because he’d chosen Jonah. Having started a great work in this wayward prophet, God was committed to completing it. He loved Jonah and stood by him, just as he’d stood by Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Peter and others when they drifted from his plans. God’s faithfulness to backsliders is amazing. His covenant love extends beyond our wildest dreams.
Just as God’s purpose was personified in Jonah, so his purpose is wrapped up in the church. He sees the church’s faults and failings, but He will never abandon it. Do you think God will say, ‘I’ve had about as much as I can take from the church! I think I’ll scrap it and look somewhere else for support. Maybe I’ll ask a couple of million angels to help me out. They’d be much more reliable.’ No: God chose the church and he’ll complete his work through the church. We’ll reach all the nations. God has said so, and he’s 100% committed to us.
Wake up
God was sickened by the wickedness of Nineveh. The people’s sin angered him. He could have destroyed the city, but he longed to show compassion, to be merciful, to offer the Ninevites the opportunity to repent. Today, God wants you to share His anguish. ‘Look at those huge cities: London, Birmingham, Manchester …’ he’d say. ‘Their wickedness has come up before me, and I’m angry at their sin, but I love the people and long to show them compassion and mercy. Take the gospel to them. I want to display my love and power in your cities, to give them the opportunity to repent.’
Are you personally obeying God in this great commission, or have you fallen asleep? The heathen captain asked the backslidden prophet, ‘How can you sleep? Have you noticed the terrifying storm? Have you seen the size of the waves? Don’t you realise we will all perish?’ Death and destruction seemed to be closing in on his frail life, and God’s servant, who knew the answers, was asleep.
God wants you not only to know about the great work he’s planning for the nations, he wants you to be involved in it. Don’t go running in the wrong direction, spending your resources on the wrong things and falling asleep to the world’s need as though it did not affect you. God will send the storm and shake you until you get back on course, until you are caught up with him in his worldwide purpose, until you get up on your feet, acknowledge your waywardness and cry out, ‘Lord, I’m coming back! I’m ready to follow your command.’
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