Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” (Jonah 2:1-2)
If you grew up in church, you know the story of Jonah. God asked him to go to Nineveh, a city of 120,000, to help him save them from their own wickedness.
Like most of us, when we run from what we think is trouble, we often go somewhere we think we cannot be found. So, too did Jonah. He refused to obey God, went to Joppa, and boarded a ship to take to Tarshish, a place where he thought God would never find him.
But as so often is the case, God had other plans for Jonah, and needed to provide a little drama to get him to say, “Yes, Lord”. A great storm arose on the journey home. Jonah’s shipmates blamed him for their demise:
“Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?” – for the sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.” Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.” So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows.” (Jonah 1:10-16)
The moral here: Sometimes God puts us on our backs (or in the belly of a great fish) to get us to look up. And boy did Jonah ever look up after he ended up in the belly of a fish. “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,” Jonah said, “and he answered me.” (Jonah 2:2)
This story, and its message to all of us, is no matter how distant God may seem, or how much trouble we are in, we are never out of his reach. God can deliver us from anything, even when the source of trouble is often of our own making. He can always be found – no matter what the storm.
We often blame God for the troubles that come our way because we know he is an omnipotent God. In other words, he has the power to stop it from coming, so when it does come, it must be his fault. This is flawed thinking. God lets trouble come our way for two reasons. First, it’s through and from troubles that we learn the greatest lessons of life. And because of them, we draw closer not farther from God. Second, God may let the trouble come our way, but we shouldn’t blame him for them.
Most of the time, trouble comes because of the decisions we make. God doesn’t always make it happen. But he does always lets it happen, and figures we are likely to learn something from it. He was right about Jonah. Hopefully, he’s right about us, too.
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