Considerations: Life Lessons from Jonah (Part I of III)
By Chris Voss
A father had a rather strong-willed son. On the way to the grocery store the father kept telling the child, “Sit down and buckle the seat belt.” But the little kid just kept standing in the seat. Again the father said, “Sit down and buckle the seat belt.” After a time or two more, the boy was convinced he had better sit down or his father would stop the car and punish him. Slipping down onto the seat and snapping the seat belt closed, the little boy looked at his father and said, “Daddy, I’m sitting down on the outside, but I’m still standing up on the inside.” Rebellion and disobedience isn’t unique just for children. We all at one time or another resist authority and direction for our lives for various reasons. Unfortunately, an attitude of rebellion and disobedience can not only separate us from those we love and normally obey, it can also separate us from God and his plans for our lives.
When you feel the Lord leading you to do something new, or difficult, or maybe unpopular, do you resist the Lord’s urgings and nudgings, ignoring your heart, your Godly emotions, as if you have just run away from God? Maybe you thought it was all just too much for God to expect of you? Just like that little boy, your spiritual rebellion is causing you to sit down on the outside but on the inside you are standing up. Jonah was a prophet from God in the Old Testament that felt the same spiritual rebellion.
Jonah 1:1-3, The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh, about 500 miles northeast of Israel, to warn of God’s judgment if the people of Nineveh did not repent of their evil living. Jonah knew all about the cruelties and brutalities of the Assyrians of Nineveh and he despised Nineveh. Jonah understood clearly that God had a specific job for him, but he did not want to do it. Instead, Jonah tried to get as far as he could from Nineveh, and from God.
And so it is today. When God gives us directions through His Word and the Holy Spirit, many times we resist the Holy Spirit and Scripture, claiming that God is asking too much. But resisting or ignoring the Lord will only create more problems in our lives, as Jonah would soon find out.
Next time: The danger of our disobedience to others, a “Jonah conscience” and prayer during spiritual rebellion, all considered in part II of “Life Lessons from Jonah.”
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Chris Voss is a pastor at First Christian Church, 317 S. Main, Donna.