Don’t You Just Love That Jonah?

Who doesn’t love the story of Jonah? Our imaginations go wild trying to picture a fish swallowing a man. The miracle though is that the man, Jonah, lived through the ordeal. Three days in the belly of a great fish (probably a Dunkleosteus) is what one would call a life experience.

We probably don’t want to admit it but there is a lot of Jonah in most of us. The first few verses of the Book of Jonah says: The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

How many of us have tried to run to our own Tarshish when God wanted us to minister in Ninevah? How many of us, in a moment of insanity, have actually thought we could go somewhere or do something where the Spirit of the Lord wouldn’t find us?

Psalm 139:7-10 is clear: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me….

My point is if God wants us to go to Ninevah, there is no Plan B. We are going to Nineveh eventually, as did Jonah. What we can do is avoid being thrown off the boat and catching a fish ride for 3 days if we just respond to His Spirit the first time.

Jonah and I have a lot in common. How about you?