Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. 4 But the Lord threw a great wind onto the sea, and such a great storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart. 5 The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god. They threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep.6 The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up! Call to your god.[a] Maybe this god will consider us, and we won’t perish.” 7 “Come on!” the sailors said to each other. “Let’s cast lots. Then we’ll know who is to blame for this trouble we’re in.” So they cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah.
This is the part of the story EVERYONE knows, Jonah blew it. He fled God's mission and went in a totally opposite direction. I don't know about you, but I can relate, I went in a totally opposite direction from God's call and I can tell you that stupid, disobedience hurts. Lets look at a few things.
1. Jonah CHOSE a path of disobedience. No one forced him, or kidnapped him, Jonah ran from the call on his life. 1 Samuel 12:15 we are told that if we "rebel against His commandment, then the hand of the Lord will be against us. " In an age of prosperity gospel preaching, and get all you can world, having the hand of the Lord against you is not a pleasant place to be. What causes disobedience you say? Several causes, disbelief, fear, or just a heart of rebellion. Notice in Numbers 13 when the spies come back from the promised land. Their fear and disbelief cause them to decide NOT to go over. John Maxwell once said, "Never let fear decide your future." and its true. Fear causes disbelief, disbelief causes either no action, or rebellion against God's plan, both have dire consequences.
2. God responds to our actions. Psalms 78:40 says "How often they defied and rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!" We love preaching that God sees us in our need, and in our despair, but usually not to keen on reminding ourselves He sees us in our rebellion. Notice he tried to hide, God found him, he tried to run, and God caught him. There is nowhere you can hide so why do we try so hard? Again fear, disbelief and rebellion are our culprits. We are afraid to admit we failed, or we don't believe He can forgive, or we think we have went too far.
3. His disobedience impacted ALL around him. They all paid the penalty of Jonah's disobedience. Why, because we don't live in a vacuum, we impact those around us for both good and bad. The Israel could not enter into the rest God wanted for them due to disobedience, many times our finances, families and relationships suffer as we reap the seeds of disobedience. Sometimes we blame God, our genetics, our family or anyone but ourselves. I can tell you from experience with unemployment, and frustration, it is a hard thing to realize that the valley you are walking through is self-created, and only the grace of God can bring you out. We will focus on that part of the story later I promise.
What about you, are there areas in your life where the seeds of disobedience have taken root, and perhaps have even began to bare fruit? Then today is a great day to pull them out by the roots and ask your Heavenly Father for forgiveness and allow you to get back on the right path.
Prayer: Father help me to always listen and be obedient to your word. Allow it to be active and alive in my life I pray. Amen
Grace and peace be multiplied to you
Eric
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