Boy – that can say a lot. When our kids were younger, we told them that we had 2 rules in the house. Obedience and respect. You can obey without respecting and you can be respectful and not be obedient. We stood for both.
This morning we are going to look at Jonah and his disobedience, disrespect and ultimate obedience without respect.
God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and speak out against the sin and evil there. Instead Jonah decided to run from God and head in the opposite direction just as quickly as he could. He got on a ship headed for Tarshish to “flee from the presence of the Lord.” Not a good sign.
“ The Lord spoke to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Nineveh is a big city. I have heard about the many evil things the people are doing there. So go there and tell them to stop doing such evil things.” 3 But Jonah tried to run away from the Lord.” Jonah 1:1-3 ERV
Most of you know the story – storm at sea, the sailors throw Jonah overboard, he’s swallowed by a great fish, spends 3 nights in the fish’s belly, Jonah cries out to the Lord and then is spit out on the beach a 3 days walk to Nineveh.
In the belly of the fish, Jonah recognizes that it’s the Lord who has sent the fish to save him from drowning. He agrees to go and proclaim judgment over the people of Nineveh. At Jonah’s declaration of God’s displeasure with the ungodly living in Nineveh the King declares that all the people are to repent and hopefully they will be spared.
At the end of 3 days, the city has repented and God acknowledges their repentance and spares them. Jonah gets mad and tells God, “I knew you would spare them if I came here” and he went to the outskirts of the city and pouted. He was very angry with the Lord for sparing them.
Jonah had cried out to the Lord while in the fish’s belly and was saved but he became angry with the city cried out to God and they were spared. He was obedient to do what God called him to do but he didn’t respect God’s actions when it came to others.
“Jonah was not happy that God saved the city. Jonah became angry. 2 He complained to the Lord and said, “Lord, I knew this would happen! I was in my own country, and you told me to come here. At that time I knew that you would forgive the people of this evil city, so I decided to run away to Tarshish. I knew that you are a kind God. I knew that you show mercy and don’t want to punish people. I knew that you are kind, and if these people stopped sinning, you would change your plans to destroy them.” John 4:1-3 ERV
Are we like that?
We expect God to forgive us for the things we’ve done but we become angry when we don’t see others “getting what they deserve”. Sometimes we find it hard to forgive those who have hurt our feelings or mistreated us in some way.
We need to follow the example of Jesus. He prayed for those who spoke evil against Him, those who plotted His death, even those who drove the spikes through His hands and His feet.
“So get rid of everything evil in your lives—every kind of wrong you do. Be humble and accept God’s teaching that is planted in your hearts. This teaching can save you.” James 1:21 ERV
Our obedience to God’s word shows the world that we respect His authority and honor Him with our hearts and our actions.
Let’s live like Jesus today and not like Jonah.