Jonah 1-4, “And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice”
After Jonah was woken from his sleep, the men in the boat cast lots to see who was the reason for their obstacles. Many knew that any time something was not happening right, most likely someone had sinned and the only way they could deal with it was to zero out the person and deal with that sin so as to have peace again. The situation would not change until the issue was dealt with. It’s even with us today, many of our prayers will not be answered even though they may be genuine until sin is dealt with in our lives.
We cannot shout on top of sin, we got to deal with it. 1John 1:8, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”, meaning that if we say we have no sin, we are calling Him a liar. Sin for sure will hinder us from getting where the Lord wants us to be. Jonah began to explain how and why he ran from the presence of the Lord after refusing to take the assignment he had been given. The men in the ship were suffering for the sake of someone’s sin.
Vs. 12, “And he said unto them, take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you”. Surprisingly enough, he shared with these men he had done even being in a position to repent and allow God to forgive him but instead, he wants people to drown him. He is not even taking the responsibility of jumping himself, he want others to do it for him. The bible says the Lord is good and gracious, slow to anger, He rescues them that call upon His name. 1John 1:9, “But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of all our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. Well we could say that Jonah was being tough headed but while we are at it, how many times have I messed up and when I had a chance to repent and be cleansed again I ignored and kept on trying to run away from Him? We have been talking of trying to run away from His presence but let’s use something in the natural to strengthen it. When I was young, at sunrise, I would see my shadow just before me or behind me. Many times I tried to run away from my shadow but could never escape from it, it was always with me. When we received Christ, His light was shone upon us and we saw Him as He is and we can never escape His presence. You might say that I haven’t seen the light yet, well His presence is always with you, the light gives the proof that He never leaves us.
Vs. 13, “Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land: but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them”. Instead of the men even encouraging Jonah to repent and be saved, they tried their human effort to bring the ship to the land safely by fighting the waves. If God is in control and men want to be their own god, lead themselves to safety without His help, trying hard to do what only God can do, how will that work? I’m not surprised, we always do the same trying to do it in another way when we know the right way to do it. Trying to escape from the responsibility we need to deal with. Despite trying hard, they failed to beat God in His game and Jonah was thrown into the sea as he instructed. I ask myself a question here, was he willing to die just because of his disobedience? Are we willing to suffer more because we have refused to repent? God could lose His patience with those whom He has shown it all and have refused to repent and put their trust in Christ alone for their eternal salvation.
We know that “it’s not by might nor by power but by His Spirit says the Lord”, Zech 4:6. In as much as we might try and fix it ourselves like the men in the ship, it will not work out for we are trying to fix the spiritual stuff through the flesh. To continue, Blessings Ev
He Has Magnified His Word 