Jonah 1
COMMENTARY:
: 3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. (6440 “presence” [paniym] means face, sight, countenance, away from, before, or in front of.)
DEVOTION: The LORD had given an assignment to Jonah that he didn’t want to do. He was a servant of the LORD. He understood who the LORD was. He had served the LORD in the past. Here he was being told by the LORD to go to a place that Jonah wanted to have nothing to do with.
So what was his decision? He decided to disobey the LORD and run in the opposite direction. He didn’t want to obey the LORD. He didn’t like the people. He might have been afraid of them but we will learn that he really didn’t want the LORD to spare them when we reach the end of the book.
What are we going to do when the LORD puts us in a place we don’t want to be in? Are we going to try to run away too? Is that even possible? With the LORD we can never leave the face of the LORD. HE is omnipresent. Jonah knew this but still thought he could head in a different direction.
We know this as well yet we sometimes try to not be obedient to the LORD in our life. These types are called sins of omission when we quench the Holy Spirit in our life. HE gives us an assignment to witness to someone on a plane and we don’t do it. HE gives us an assignment to take some cookies to someone who is hurting and we tell HIM we are too busy. We can come up with excuses when we don’t want to obey the LORD. Jonah did.
He was quenching the Holy Spirit by not going to Nineveh where there were people willing to repent and follow the LORD. It is sad but true of us today too. There are people HE wants us to reach and sometimes HE has to do drastic things to get our attention, so that, we will do what HE tells us to do.
CHALLENGE: Listen to the Holy Spirit as HE gives you assignments and then do them. Don’t fight HIM. None of us can win that battle.
: 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man to his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. (3372 “afraid” [yare’] means fear, terrible, dreadful, to fear God, be frightened of, or to stand in awe of.)
DEVOTION: Have you ever heard someone tell you that if you do something wrong your conscience will bother you and you won’t be able to sleep? It is thought that the LORD would keep you awake until you settled the issue. This didn’t happen with Jonah.
Here we find that the LORD has spoken to Jonah about preaching to a group of people that Jonah didn’t want to be saved. He didn’t like them. He was prejudice.
So he ran in the opposite direction and boarded a ship to head as far away from those people as he could get. The LORD caused a storm to come up so that the sailors were afraid and started praying to their god.
What was Jonah doing? He was asleep in the lowest part of the boat. The captain had to wake him up to tell him to pray to his God about the storm.
It seems that his conscience was not bothering him. He was willing to see a large group of people spend eternity in hell because he didn’t like them.
We are given an assignment from the LORD to reach those in our neighborhood and our families for the LORD but it seems that we are happy to head in the other direction. Yes, many of our neighbors and family members will not listen to us but that doesn’t relieve of our responsibility to try. We are supposed to at least pray for them and look for opportunities to talk with them when they are willing to listen.
CHALLENGE: Don’t fall asleep on the assignment!!!
: 12 And he said to them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm to you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is on you. (8367 “calm” [shathaq] means quiet, silent, subside, settle down, or die down.)
DEVOTION: Do we understand that the LORD has full control of the weather? HE can cause a storm and HE can end a storm. HE uses the weather to get the attention of HIS people and those who don’t believe in HIM.
Here God uses a storm to cause Jonah to be thrown overboard, so that, he can complete the assignment God has given him. The sailors didn’t know what was happening. They were just scared. They didn’t want to die. They wanted to live to continue sailing. They had a divine appointment with the LORD.
They woke up Jonah and asked him what to do. He told them that the storm was his fault and they needed to throw him into the water and the storm with end.
They didn’t want to do it. They were afraid that God would punish them for throwing him overboard. They prayed for the first time to the LORD and asked HIM not to punish them. They had the fear of the LORD in their life for the first time in their life.
God can cause storms to happen in our life to get our attention. When a storm comes do we turn to HIM or try to settle it without HIM? Jonah thought that once he was thrown overboard he would probably die and go to heaven and not have to go on the assignment the LORD had for him. That was not the case. Sometimes that will not be the case in our life.
CHALLENGE: Storms are one way to get our attention. Are we listening?
: 16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows. (3372 “feared” [yare] means revere, afraid, to stand in awe of, reverence, honor or respect.)
DEVOTION: Jonah was given a command by the LORD. He didn’t like the command. He tried to run from the LORD. He went on a ship and fell asleep. It is thought that those who are followers of Christ would not be able to sleep if their lives were not in tune with the LORD. Here we find that Jonah was trying to run from the presence of the LORD and was sleeping through a storm. He had to be woke up and told to pray. Once he told the mariners who he was and what he was doing they were afraid. They tried to save Jonah by getting to land but could not. They threw him overboard after they prayed to the LORD not to punish them for their act. After the storm ended this verse comes into action. Their reaction to the end of the storm was threefold. They stood in awe of the LORD. They had worshiped false gods before this event, now they were worshiping the LORD. They offered a sacrifice to the LORD. They made vows to the LORD. This was a life changing experience for them. Jonah had won followers of the LORD by his running from the presence of the LORD. He was a prophet heading in the wrong direction. Has the LORD call and we have gone in the wrong direction? Are we willing to turn around? Or does the LORD have to turn us around?
CHALLENGE: Do the storms of life cause us to reverence the LORD more or less?
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