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Nineveh

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Jonah

Chapter 4: Revolutionize Pt. 3

Jonah 4:9-11 “But God said to Jonah, ‘Do you do well to be angry for the plant?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.’ 10 And the Lord said, ‘You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’”

Not only does God call the city of Nineveh great, meaning there was a LOT of people, but he reminds Jonah that the people in the city are in danger of dying. The language here is specific. If a vine can perish overnight, and that is cause for great pity for Jonah, how much more pity should he have for the people that perish.

Think about it this way. If I rolled a wheel barrow up to you that was full of a million dollars, and I said “You can have this money IF…. you press this button. But if you press this button, somebody somewhere in this world will die. You don’t know the person. You’ll never know who it was. You won’t be punished. Nobody will even know it was your fault. You press this button, somebody in the world that you don’t know dies, and you go home with a million dollars cash.” Would you do it?

It’s crazy how we can start justifying it. We have that moment when we start thinking about it. “Well, thousands of people die per day anyways. We’re all going to die sooner or later. It doesn’t affect me so…”

I think a lot of us try to behave as if we’re numb to death. While we hypothesize about this million dollar scenario, we can become experts at acting desensitized toward death. But death is a frightening thing for us. We’re not used to it, and I don’t know if we’re ever supposed to be. It’s a result of our sin, meaning death only exists because we fell out of God’s perfect plan. The Bible says since every human being has sinned, every human being now dies. So, while death is the number one common denominator for mankind, it wasn’t written into God’s original plan and therefore will always feel unnatural.

Now here’s the thing, this is what God was telling Jonah. We need to be gripped by the fact that there are people everywhere that are perishing, that are dying without Christ, and who need the good news of salvation. Perhaps this truth is so uncomfortable that we quickly throw up our defense mechanisms. We can pretend this isn’t really happening, we can distract ourselves, and we can change the subject quickly. But we can’t hide from this fact forever.

It’s not a happy thought. It’s heartbreaking, really. In my next post, I will finish this whole series off with some good news. But for now, allow me to give you some peace. You can rest at ease knowing that nobody is counting on you to be the lone hero of the world. While the truth is dark and heavy, you are not called to save the world. You are simply called to spread the Gospel within your world; your community, family, workplace, school, etc. So do your small part and trust that God is working beyond your awareness to save this world.

I ended the last post with a question, “Why do I need to sacrifice my personal comfort to bring a revolution to my world?” Here is the first of three answers I would like to pose to you.

Your World is Part of Something Bigger

Jonah 4:10-11 “And the Lord said, ‘You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’”

Did you know that God called Jonah to the city of Nineveh three times? In Jonah 1:1-2, 3:1-2, and 4:11. The last time is really the saddest call, and it’s what we’re going to talk about in this chapter. You know how in every argument, somebody throws out the trump card? It’s the final statement that wins it. For kids, it’s usually something like, “I’m going to tell mom!” Bringing mom into it is a definite trump card. For teens it’s usually something like, “Everybody knows it.” Pulling in the majority vote is a definite trump card. For God, His trump cards are usually convicting questions, like earlier, “Jonah, do you even have a right to be angry?” This time the trump question is, “You pitied the death of a plant, Jonah. Shouldn’t I pity a huge city of 120,000 people and all of their cattle?” After this trump question, there is no further conversation.

Now remember, Jonah is a picture of the church. So this is not a unique call that is specific to Jonah, but reflects the call of God upon us, the church! Let me ask you, how many people in your world do you know will spend eternity in Hell apart from God, if they were to die today? That’s the ugly question everybody tries to avoid. We don’t like to think of people going to hell. It’s not pleasant. But it’s reality.

The problem is, sometimes we feel like it’s best if we just don’t interfere. That we’ll just make things worse if we start trying to tell them about Jesus. But if we don’t say anything, then who will? We can’t leave the fate of the world’s souls in a hope that somebody else will share Jesus with them. That’s why it is so important, and so strategic, that YOU revolutionize YOUR world. Because you have a relationship with, and come into regular contact with, certain people like nobody else.

You are placed exactly where God wants you so you can revolutionize your part of this planet. I don’t think God calls any single person to change the whole world by themselves. He gave that command to the whole family of Christians. Don’t get me wrong, His will is that “all should come to repentance.” But it will only work if each individual Christian revolutionizes their own world. Jonah was not called to change the whole world, he was called to the 120,000 people in the city. And you, reading this right now, are meant to reach the specific group of people in your life. So let me ask you:

Are you doing your part in revolutionizing the world?

In the next two posts I’ll explain two more reasons for you to revolutionize your world. The first one is really uncomfortable. But don’t worry, it gets better.

Jonah Chapter 4

Revolutionize Pt. 1

Leslie and Lauren are two sisters that are looking to Jesus and reaching out to those in need, and as a result they have revolutionized their world. After a life-changing experience at camp, these girls decided to get serious about changing the lives of those around them; specifically the homeless lives. So they got an idea to create a ministry in their church called “H2O: Hope to Others.”

Basically, people from the church can pay $3 for a paper bag filled with food, water, and a Gospel tract that they keep in their car. So when they come across a homeless person they have some way to help them out in a practical manner. The project has provided these not-really-shy but not-really-outgoing girls with many opportunities to trust God and step outside of their comfort zones.

But it gets better. Since they’ve started, they’ve been featured on Oregon’s largest newspaper, have had calls from other churches wanting to start their own H2O program, and they have even started a website for people all around the world to catch the vision and passion. They have revolutionized their world.

In this last chapter you will be see how God loved the people of the city of Nineveh so much that he went to such great lengths to bring a revolution to the city when His messenger was resisting His will. And not only that, but how He is on a mission to bring a revolution to your world as well.

It’s in this chapter that God lowers Himself to actually engage in an argument with Jonah about His plan and desire to bring a revolution to the city of Nineveh. It was a silly argument to say the least, but God took him on nonetheless. And when you read it through, you can’t help but groan a little bit for Jonah. Like, “Jonah, dude, why are you being so selfish? What’s with all the whining?”

Before we start judging him again, though, here’s a few reasons why Jonah was living in self-pity and with a self-absorbed lifestyle. He was not accepting God’s will. He had forgotten how God had been merciful to Him. And he did not love God or his neighbor as well as he should have. So yeah, Jonah failed on several lower levels which led to this emotional breakdown.

But we are just as self-absorbed, self-pitying, argumentative, and disobedient as Jonah, aren’t we? Of course, we don’t like to admit it. But God has an incredible compassion for the people of the world, and thankfully, that involves us. So once again we see that Jonah’s story is our story. But this is the last chapter of his. The final phase of his story. And it’s about creating a revolution.

We’ve said the city of Nineveh represents the world, and it does. But we’re going to narrow it down now. Because what it really represents is not just THE world. It represents YOUR world. Where you live day to day. Your school. Your job. Your family. Your friends. Those are the people you are called to reach right now. We’re not talking about when you’re older, when you’re wiser, when you’re smarter, or when you’ve graduated. We’re talking about right now, you are called to reach YOUR WORLD.

And the whole, “I’m too young to do something spectacular.” is a flat-out lie. Throughout history teenagers have reached their worlds, and they’ve started revolutions, just like Leslie and Lauren. They created a movement in people that all pointed back to Jesus Christ. Teenagers throughout history have done heroic things and many of them have gone unnoticed, and unappreciated, but that makes them all the more honorable.

Even in the Bible we have many stories of young teenaged people making big differences. People like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel, Joseph, Mary, and Ruth. These are all teenagers who did amazing things for God to revolutionize THEIR WORLD. It seems like God prefers to use the young, the incapable, the weak, and the simple to do amazing things.

As a Christian. (young, old, or in between) you are called to abandon your own personal comfort and to bring a Christian revolution to your own world.

But why? If you’re like me, you want to know the why. Not in any sort of disrespectful way. People just want to know why they are supposed to do things. I’ve always asked why, and it’s always driven my mom crazy. “James, take the trash out.” “Why, it’s only half full?” If she was in a good mood I would get an answer, “Because there is meat rotting in it, that’s why.” And if not I got the answer that we’ve all heard before. “Because I said so, that’s why!”

It makes me happy that God doesn’t leave us in the dark. He knows what He is asking is hard. It’s sacrificial. And sometimes God answers our why questions with, “Because I’m God, and I said so, that’s why.” But sometimes He answers our questions. And He has answered this question for us, “Why do I need to sacrifice my personal comfort to bring a revolution to my world?” In my next three posts, the last three of this series, I’ll share with you the why and the how of revolutionizing your world.

The question we ended with in the last article is one we’ll all ask at some point. How am I supposed to respond to the evil in this world? To answer that question, I think it would do well for us to first look at the reason for evil in our world.

Jonah 3:8 “But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.”

Let’s do a quick review about the emphasis on the evil, wickedness, and violence in the city of Nineveh that we find in the book of Jonah. The Bible uses several different ways to describe the situation in Nineveh:

Jonah 3:8 they were living in an “evil way”
Jonah 3:8 there was much “violence that is in their hand”
Jonah 3:10 God wanted them to be “...turned from their evil way…”

Now, while the evilness of this city is obvious, this is also a not so subtle emphasis on the disobedience and rebellious attitude of Jonah. Jonah was unable to properly respond to the evil in the city because he was blinded by the evil in his own life. Somehow we Christians have found it quite easy to look at the evil and sin of others and condemn it while never quite recognizing our own sin and evil.

So before we begin correcting this problem, let me explain to you first where the evil in the world comes from and why it is such a problem in our world.

1st. When God is left out of our choices there will always be evil. This is the rebellion in all of our hearts.

Our natural instinct is to be selfish, therefore any decision made without Jesus is selfish. Do you understand that? When we’re born into this world, we’re born selfish. It’s not natural for anybody to serve God and serve others. It’s only natural to serve ourselves. So to keep God in the choices we make is going to be a conscious effort. Don’t ever think that somebody makes wise, godly decisions because they have that type of personality. Following God’s plan isn’t a matter of personality. It’s a matter of the heart. So seek God’s plan in every choice you make.

2nd. When there is a strict moral code, there will be evil. This is the religion in all of our hearts.

Look at the evil in Jonah’s life. He was angry, intense in his reaction to what God had done, and blatantly argumentative. He actually believed that he knew better than God about what should be done to the ‘heathen’ for what they were doing in their city.

Kim Jong Un is currently the dictating tyrant of North Korea who received a lot of publicity for his recent threats of war. He’s known as a selfish, proud man and he rules his people with no respect or concern for them. And yet they all worship him and go crazy when they see him. It’s actually really bizarre. But here’s the reason why. He has the power to imprison and even kill them. When his father died, many people were imprisoned because they did not cry enough or show enough grief at his funeral. That’s crazy! He even goes by the title “Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army.” Kim Jong Un has set himself in charge and is ruling with an incredibly strict and incredibly wrong moral code. The result is evil, misery, false affection, and forced adoration. There’s nothing healthy, pleasant, or sincere about it.

When we adhere to strict moral codes and set ourselves up as “supreme”, like Kim Jong Un or like Jonah, then we are going to have an inner wickedness about our lives that will cause us to have the same evil that we see in others.

It’s kind of shocking, and a little sad, at how aggressive the Bible is in exposing the rotten attitude in the heart of Jonah. I’m sure if Jonah had written this story he would have been like, “Yeah, let’s skip that part about me running from God. Oh and let’s skip that part about me being racist. Aaaand maybe that part about me pouting because God didn’t kill Nineveh.” But the Bible pulls no punches. God calls Jonah out and calls his judgmental attitude what it is: sin.

So before we start looking at others for their sins, let’s first take a look at our own life.

If you’ve been reading this and all you can think about is, “Man, I hope so-and-so would read this. He’s so judgmental.” Than you better snap out of it, because that is a statement of a rebellious/religious person. That’s looking at someone else’s sin before your own. Watch out for your own religious or rebellious attitude first because that’s where evil comes from.

I’m the youngest of three boys in my family. So as the youngest, I got beat up a lot. And of course, I deserved most of it, because there were times I thought I would hurt them, scare them, or annoy them, thinking I would have the upper hand. But there was one problem, I was always the one that ended up getting hurt. For instance, one day I was sitting on the counter in the kitchen and I took a jab at my oldest brother. I think it was more of a chin scoop. You know when you scoop the extra skin under somebody’s chin? All it took from him was a flinch toward me and I jerked backwards and nailed my head against the cabinet.

I intended to get the upper hand, but the results were rarely what I expected. And it usually hurt!

Before I explain how this has to do with anything, let’s do a quick review of the story. Let’s summarize it this way: The people of Nineveh were in need of revival. Jonah had already experienced revival (he had run from God and was swallowed by a fish where he repented) and he was now going to go to Nineveh so they could experience revival.

Now, this is where the story gets interesting and it’s also where my plans of bullying my older brothers comes in. I’m going to go ahead and spoil the story of what happens to Nineveh. Jonah preached, the people repented, and God graciously withheld His wrath! Normally, there is a danger that happens for preachers after a great victory like this. Think about the pride of preachers when they start advertising how big their church is, or how innovative their methods are. But Jonah had another issue at hand. What should have been a cause of great rejoicing, became a reason of great anger with God. Jonah threw a temper tantrum because God forgave the people of their sins.

Is this not bizarre? Jonah goes to Nineveh, preaches for them to repent or die. They repent, and Jonah gets angry! What’s really going on in Jonah’s head? Didn’t he want them to be saved? Maybe Jonah’s conversation with God in the belly of the whale went something like, “Fine, God! I’ll go preach! But they won’t listen, and you’re going to kill them anyway. Which is fine with me. They don’t deserve to live!”

Or maybe he did have a genuine moment of compassion for the people of Nineveh, but soon lost that compassion and resorted back to his self-righteous racism. Whatever the case was, Jonah expected the people to refuse him, to continue in their sin, and get killed by God. But just like annoying my brothers never ended the way I expected, the results were not what Jonah expected.

In verse two, Jonah gives us a glimpse into why he refused to go to Nineveh in the first place; because he knew that God was gracious, merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. Let’s be honest, that’s just awful! To purposefully not share the Gospel because you knew God would forgive someone is despicable. Jonah was being both religious AND rebellious in his response to the Ninevites’ evil.

But while we’re being honest, I think we all need to admit something. We often do the same thing. And it should genuinely scare us how tolerant we can be about evil in our lives.

There’s no doubt that there is evil in the world and we understand that God has a plan to deal with it. But all too frequently, we choose to react to evil with our own plan. “Well, it’s really not that big of a deal.” “Somebody else will talk to them.” “Boy, I really hope they learn their lesson someday.” Gossip, avoidance, revenge, judgment, etc. Often times, our response to evil in the world only emphasizes the evil in our own hearts. It’s how we respond to the evil in the world that reveals what we are truly like.

If we respond with unnecessary judgment or cruel harshness, that reflects the religious person we are. If we respond with passivity and acceptance of sin, that reflects the rebellious person in us. What we want to do is respond to evil in a way that reveals the repentant person we are.

So, how are we supposed to answer the evil in the world? That’s what the rest of Jonah 3 is about, and what the next articles will discuss.

RUN

Pt. 5 The Cure for Running

Jonah 1:15-17 “So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. ¹⁶Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

¹⁷And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

So what does God do when someone runs?

At first, if you’re like me, your thought is of the terrible consequences. “God punishes those who run from Him!” After all, He created a storm and a giant, awful fish to eat Jonah. But here is the amazing truth, and you have to get this.

The storm wasn’t just Jonah’s punishment, it was really Jonah’s salvation. Hear me out. The storm was raging and Jonah accepted the fact that this was God’s wrath being sent to him. So he decided that there was no more running. He stopped running, he turned and faced God and the storm, and he dove into the waves of his consequences. But just below the storm (the wrath of God) lay a fish prepared by God (salvation). It was when Jonah had no other choice that he plunged himself, by faith, into the wrath of God fully expecting death, that he actually experienced the Lord’s salvation.

Now here’s the deal, God hasn’t really changed. The way He dealt with Jonah is how He is still dealing with us. I mean not with a big fish, of course, but the same principles. We run from God, and His wrath is sent towards us. But instead of us receiving the wrath when we stop running, we receive grace and forgiveness. Isn’t that the story of the cross? God’s wrath is poured out on the world. But Jesus steps in and takes the wrath upon Himself, so all that’s left for us is salvation. In the end, what we believe to be an ocean of God’s wrath turns out to be an ocean of forgiveness and acceptance.

Jesus taking God’s wrath was the most extreme act of love the world has ever seen. It has provided us an escape. But the escape is only through Jesus; by putting our trust in Him and what He did for us. We dive into Jesus, who took the wrath of God, and we receive salvation. And not just salvation from God’s wrath, but salvation from our own rebellion as well. The cure for your running always has been and always will be Jesus’ love. So stop running. When you turn and face the consequences of your sin, you will escape the punishment. You will embrace His love and you will live.

About two years ago I went to the funeral of a man I don’t know. The grandpa of two sisters in our student ministry was honored and remembered at this funeral. As I sat in the service, they had several family members and friends stand up to talk about Robert. It was made apparent from the very beginning that Robert was a good man. He loved God, he loved his family, and he loved his friends. As I looked around the auditorium I was impressed to see how many people came to remember Robert. He had lived a life that was impactful. He served in the church, he served in the city, he served in his family, and his life influenced many people, and they had all come to the funeral to honor his memory.

But as the service went on, the Pastor said something that struck me. He said, “We’re not here to make Robert out to look like he was perfect, because he had his flaws.” These girls’ Papaw had times in his own life when he ran from God. But here’s the thing that made him such a good man. In those times that he ran from God, it wasn’t long before he would stop, turn to face Jesus, and make the courageous decision to dive into the ocean of God’s wrath only to find it to be an ocean of His love.

I know you’re not perfect. But Jesus’s grace says you don’t need to be. His grace simply says, “Stop running. I lived perfectly FOR you. I took the wrath FOR you.” So let me ask you a question; When your time has come, and the funeral is yours, will people remember you as a good man or woman who loved God and loved people? I know you’ve already sinned, you’ve already messed up, and maybe your reputation right now is pretty lousy. But listen; that can change. You can be remembered as a man or woman who glorified Jesus if you stop running from God, face the consequences, and live in grace. If you want that, your only hope is in Jesus Christ.

Jonah 1:3-14 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

⁴But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. ⁶So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

⁷And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” ⁹And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” ¹⁰Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

¹¹Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. ¹²He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”

¹³Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. ¹⁴Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.”

When you run from God things get complicated.

The journey away from God at first appears harmless on the outset. Jonah goes to the port, finds a ship going to Tarshish and pays the fare. It may have appeared way too easy, there just happened to be a ship and he just happened to have the money. It all seemed like the right thing to do for him. Which proves the point, when you really want to disobey the Lord there is always a way. You don’t have to look hard to find an alternative path to flee from the presence of the Lord.

But as I mentioned in an earlier post, if you choose to take that alternative path, there is a cost. The fare Jonah paid to get a ride was only the beginning of what he would have to pay for running from God.

1^st It hurts you.

The Bible says he was fast asleep in the ship. He was so distressed, rebellious, depressed, and freaked out that he had no interest in life and no energy to face his circumstances. You could say he was dying in his sleep trying to escape his troubles. The captain comes down to where he was sleeping through a crazy storm and shouts at him, “What are you doing, you sleeper!?”

Have you ever been so depressed like Jonah that all you want to do is sleep your problems away? Men and women who have spent time in jail or prison know this feeling very well. There are countless stories of inmates who were released after some time of being locked up whose sleep schedule is totally out of whack because they slept through most of their sentence. When they get a job, they struggle to make it on time because of their wrecked sleeping schedule. Depression, specifically brought on from rebellion, might begin as only a mental state, but it costs a person physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually.

And it all happens because God has wired you in a specific way. He has a plan for you, and when you choose to follow your own plan, it’s like a lion choosing to cage itself. The lion needs to hunt and roar. Those caged lions at the circus all look depressed because they’re not getting the adventure they’re wired for.

That’s exactly what happens to us when we try to do things our own way. Sure it looks a lot like freedom and it might even feel a lot like freedom. But only for a while. Soon you’ll slowly begin to realize you’ve put yourself in a cage and you’ll find yourself increasingly unsatisfied with the life you chose. That’s when depression sets in. But your stubborn sin nature will continue to fight it. Forcing you to run further and faster in search of something satisfying, not realizing that the only thing that can satisfy you is waiting just behind you with His arms wide open.

The personal cost of running from Christ is great and it’s not worth it. If you don’t want to take my word for it, you’ll find out soon enough the hard way. But you need to understand, it doesn’t just hurt you.

2^nd It hurts others too.

The storm of Jonah’s consequences brought trouble upon a lot of innocent people. The storm was so great that the most experienced sailors were terrified. Remember this…

We don’t get to sin for free.

When I was about 18 years old, I went on a mission trip to the desert lands of Utah to do some work at a ranch camp. On one of the days there we got to have a little fun on a horseback adventure. We were told to meet at the barn where the horses were, and they would help us get saddled up.

So once we were all saddled up we set off on our adventure, my friends all leading the way with me and my dusty steed, Billy, taking up the rear. The trail just took us around some rocky hills and through a couple fields. It was a pretty simple trail really. But Billy, the old horse, didn’t really like to follow in the line and he didn’t really want to listen to me. Instead he wanted to walk into the field and eat the wheat. Several times we were just walking along and he would lose his step and stumble just a little and my heart would jump into my throat. I was fully expecting this old boy to fall over on my leg and crush me and I would have to whisper my final words before I died in the dessert like a western movie. But he always caught his footing, and we kept moseying on behind everybody.

I also soon found out that this old, clumsy horse didn’t like other horses either. The reason we fell into the back of the line was because he didn’t like having another horse beside him. Once or twice we would end up beside the next horse and he would swing his head and try to bite the other horse. This made me fear for my life and start pleading with him to love his neighbor like he should.

Eventually we all wound up on top of a hill to catch an astounding view of the sunset. Sunsets in the desert are stunning to say the least. We all sat there gazing in wonder from the top of this tall hill. We could see far across the desert and watch the shadows growing. That’s when I realized… what goes up a hill must also go down a hill. Right then the tour guide, sitting on the precipice looks back at us and says, “Just lean back!” and he and his perfectly graceful horse plunged over the ledge.

One by one all of the others started slowly downhill, leaning as far back as they could, and their horses elegantly tiptoed down the hill. And then it was just me and Billy... “Billy, I know we’ve had our differences. But I ask, that just this time, you please follow the rest of them.” But Billy is old and Billy is clumsy. And Billy doesn’t like other horses. So with all of my faith in this horse, I lean back and he starts down the hill. All is going well. Billy is behaving like a true gentleman. Until the clumsy old man stumbled.

He quickly caught himself, but it sent us down the hill at a slightly quicker trot. It wasn’t long until we came up alongside the rider in front of us. Which Billy doesn’t approve of one bit. So Billy does what can only be expected from a grumpy, stubborn, clumsy horse. He starts bucking, kicking, and running down the hill full speed. Rocks are being kicked up in the air. We’re nearly beginning a land slide. We’re whizzing past all of the other riders. And all I can feel is my spine being whipped back and forth like a maraca.

No amount of pulling, tugging, or screaming would stop Billy. He was on a rampage. Over my own screaming and the laughing of all the others I hear the voice of the tour guide. “Pull back!!!” So for the sake of my own survival I pull back with all of my might on the reign and Billy slides to a halt at the bottom of the hill. Dust clouds swirling all around me. Knuckles white. Heart beating like a jungle war-drum. Prayers still echoing through the hills. And a justifiable anger in my heart towards Billy the grumpy horse. I didn’t talk to him the rest of the trip.

Billy basically made his own life miserable. He was unhappy and couldn’t get along with other horses. He refused to follow the path that was set before him. And every time he tried to take his own route, things got uncomfortable. But it wasn’t just Billy who suffered. The other horses suffered from his grumpiness and the rider most definitely suffered from his stubbornness.

Your rebellion doesn’t just affect you. Others are hurt when we try to forge our own trail. It happened with me and Billy. It happened with Jonah and the sailors. And it happens with you and those closest to you. So this is the final cost of running from God: The pain of sin and correction enter your life. Not only do you have to deal with the consequences but those around you, most often those who care for you the most, have to deal with the pain as well.

The good news is, there is a person who took the ultimate consequence of your sins so you could be restored to your Heavenly Father. Next month, we’ll examine the cure to running.

Jonah 1:1-3 “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ²‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.’ ³But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.”

There are several questions I believe the passage above answers for us. You might not have asked these questions yourself, but God apparently believes they are important questions nonetheless. The first question that needs to be answered is “What does it mean to run from the presence of the Lord?” Once that question is answered we can ask, “What causes us to flee from the presence of the Lord?” I want to answer those two questions in this article, and next month we’ll answer the question, “What’s it going to cost me if I do run?” After that we’ll see, “What is the cure for running from God?” But first, what does it even mean to run from God?

Understand this, you cannot leave the literal presence of the Lord. He is omnipresent, which means He is everywhere all the time. When Jonah ran from the presence of the Lord, what’s really happening is he was refusing to seek the face of the Lord. He was actually running from the relational presence of God. For instance, I am close to my dad, but he lives 20 hours away. What I’m really saying is, physically he’s far away, but relationally he’s close. Our physical closeness with God cannot change, He’s always here. But our relational closeness with Him can.

Now, Jonah was a prophet in Israel, a person of tremendous influence who had a long history of prophesying before we’re introduced to him in this whole story. We’d expect Jonah, this servant of God, to have it all together. So why then did He run from God when he knew better? Why would a man of God, who had served Him for so long, book it out of there? What’s the cause?

There was a popular, arrogant view in Israel, that all the nations around them that had wrongfully taken their land should be conquered and destroyed. God had killed many, many people for Israel before. So these Israelites were getting a little cocky. They started thinking everybody who treated them wrongly should be taught a stern lesson. In other words, and this is very important, they thought they knew what God wanted. Jonah was influenced by this racist worldview, and he thought his plan was better than God’s. When God told him to do something that did not fit with his worldview and personal plan he took off running. “Thanks, but no thanks, God.”

Sometimes, we can get so caught up in our culture’s idea of what God’s will is that when God actually shows us what He wants we often hesitate, stutter, and/or completely reject it. Jonah fled because he rejected the clear voice of God, “Arise, go to Nineveh” And we Christians have a word for that: sin. Sin is when you choose to follow your plan rather than God’s.

Remember this, the longer you run from God the further away you get and the harder it is to come back. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it is more difficult. Because when you are living in sinful disobedience you are building a life (your identity) apart from God. You are erecting walls between you and Him and the road back to a relationship with Him stretches longer with more and more walls built in between.

It’s important that you stop for a moment and do some introspection here. Check your own life and ask some questions. What has God spoken clearly into your life from His Word? Are you willing to submit your cultural assumptions and ideas to God? You are either obeying, and therefore remaining close to God, or you are disobeying, and running from His presence. In the next two months we’ll look at the cause and cure for running. But for now take inventory of your life and reflect on how the culture is influencing your beliefs about God, the world, and yourself. And always remember, God’s grace will redeem and restore even the most distant rebels.

I have a friend who came to America from Haiti many years ago. His name is Franco Wakhisi and he is an incredible runner. Which, makes sense since he is Haitian. About two years ago, my then girlfriend/ now wife, Jessica, came down to the Keys to visit me one summer, and it just so happened that the week she was there was the week the Keys Ultramarathon was taking place, and Franco was running in it. So we get this phone call and my dad says, “Hey, Franco is going to be passing by our house. A bunch of us are going out to cheer him on, you should come too!” So Jessica and I went out to where our group of friends were waiting by the road to cheer on Franco. As he passed by us, he stopped to give sweaty hugs to everybody, eat a banana, put some lotion on his feet, and change his socks. He thanked everybody for coming and then shot off again. This guy, along with over 100 other runners, started that morning before the sun came up and kept running until the sun went down. My friend, Franco, finished a 100 mile ultramarathon that took 22 hours to run, and got 11th place out of 105 runners!

Talk about an incredible act of athleticism! This guy is a serious runner with serious determination! But really, we’re all runners, aren’t we? Just in a different way. At some point in our lives every one of us has done, or is doing the same thing as Jonah: Running from God’s command. At first, it was probably uncomfortable. You felt the conviction of it and you felt guilty. But that selfish nature inside of you wants you to keep going. And soon it started to get easier. And you began to have a selfish pleasure about it. But this kind of running doesn’t lead to healthier living. This kind of running, like with Jonah, leads to personal destruction.

Here’s the saddest part of it all. Jonah didn’t just run from God’s command to love people. When he fled, he ran from the very presence of God. You need to remember that. When God calls you to something, and you choose to run, you’re not just running from the call. You’re running from God Himself. because you cannot stay in His presence if you are disobeying His command. You can’t choose to rebel against his commands and still believe you two are on good terms. It doesn’t work like that.

When temptation comes, you’ve got to determine now that you will not run from the command. Determine now, that you will choose to stay by God’s side.

But why? Maybe you’re asking what the big deal is anyway. I mean, you’re comfortable with your spirituality now, right? At least you’re not as bad as most of the others kids at school, right? But that’s the thing about your relationship with God; He’s not comparing you to the other kids. Your relationship with Him is personal. So while you may think you’re ok because you’re better than so-and-so, God isn’t feeling the same. It’s like a husband saying his marriage is amazing while the wife says they’re just barely surviving.

Next post we’re going to jump into the first verses of Jonah’s story, and I’m going to explain the why: Why should I even want to stay by God’s side if He’s going to command me to do things I don’t want to do? And why is it so difficult for me to do what’s right and stop running away when it gets tough? For now, you just need to take some time to define your relationship with God, not by what you like to think it is, but by the way He defines it. Have you remained close by His side even through the difficult commands?

I’m going to be honest with you. I never liked running. It never made sense to me. Especially track running. What’s so exciting about running around in circles? It’s exhausting and you always end up right back where you started. It’s like a race to see who can be first to get back to where you already are. I don’t get it! I never liked running.

Until my senior year of college.

My suite mate was a runner. This guy would run ten miles a day! And he didn’t even run track. He just did it because he liked it. And I just thought he was stupid for doing it. But seeing him always running and sweating kind of hurt my ego. I was lazy. I didn’t run unless I was late for class, and then I would show up all wheezy and sweaty. It was a little embarrassing. I realized that year that I should probably try running more often.

So I tried it. And for the first two weeks I hated it. I was sore, and it wasn’t even fun. Totally not worth it. But just shortly after those two weeks, I stopped being so sore. And I got used to running. In fact, don’t tell anybody this, but I actually started to like it. I liked pushing myself. That feeling of accomplishment was nice every time I beat my own distance. Feeling the wind fighting against me was a challenge I enjoyed. The sense of freedom I got while running full speed was invigorating. And best of all, I had a new sense of healthiness. During that year, I got used to running, and I liked it.

God is passionate about people; sinful people- those that are religious sinners, like Jonah, and those that are rebellious sinners, like Nineveh. Now, we’re all sinners, and we were all lost at some time. But He is relentless in running after lost, sinful people. Actually, He specializes in it.

Throughout the story of Jonah, there is a theme of running. God tells Jonah to run to Nineveh, but Jonah runs from God. Then Jonah gets convicted and chooses to run to Nineveh. It’s all throughout the book. But the whole reason of this running is because God cared deeply for the sinful city of Nineveh. But he also cared just as much for the runaway missionary, Jonah.

The story really has the same features of anybody reading this book. Either you haven’t yet completely understood the Gospel and let it have its saving grace implanted into your soul, like Nineveh. Or you’ve heard it, maybe even put your trust in it, but you are still trying to do things you’re way, like Jonah. Both are running in the wrong directions.

So as we walk through the story of Jonah, you’re going to see some very obvious comparisons between this story and your life. There are some things that will jump out at you and be so obvious that you can’t ignore it. But also certain treasures that require a little digging and a little more introspection. So let’s start with the main character of this story.

Interestingly, contrary to the popular children’s Sunday School belief, the book of Jonah is not about the fish, which is only mentioned three times. It’s not about Nineveh, which is mentioned only nine times. And it’s not even about Jonah, who is mentioned eighteen times. It is about God who is mentioned a whopping 38 times in the 48 verses of the book. It’s about His endless grace in pursuing the religious and rebellious sinners like you and me.

So the story is about God, and more specifically the character of God, who is both loving and merciful and who relentlessly runs after His people. If you think about it, it’s the same message as the rest of the Bible: Jesus loves people.

But that’s just the beginning. There’s a second part to this theme. Yes, Jesus loves people, but He also calls us to love people. And this part is really what we struggle with the most. We all love to say, “Oh, Jesus loves me! Jesus loves you! Jesus loves everybody!” And He absolutely does. But He calls us to love everybody too. That’s not as easy and acceptable as just letting Jesus love us.

Jonah vividly displays the hesitation to love people. God commanded Him to love a specific group of people with a specific truth, and Jonah was not willing to obey. At least, not at first. He was happy to let Jesus love him, but he wasn’t so happy to love people himself. So he did what so many of us have done at some time. Run.

What about you? We'll look a little bit more at this question and study the cause of running, but for now I simply want you to do an honest gut-check: Have you been sitting comfortably in God’s unconditional love for you without reflecting that love towards others? Have you been running from God’s command to love others like He loves you?

Faith | Hope | Love

Jonah Chapter 4: Revolutionize Pt. 3

Jonah Chapter 4: Revolutionize Pt. 2

Jonah Chapter 4: Revolutionize Pt. 1

Jonah Chapter 3: Reach (Part 2)

Jonah Chapter 3: Reach (Part 1)