All Right, All Right! I'll Go!

Jonah 3.1-10

1 Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”

3 This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.[a] 4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” 5 The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

6 When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes. 7 Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city:

“No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. 8 People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. 9 Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.”

10 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.

Footnotes
3:3 Hebrew a great city to God, of three days’ journey.

Jonah. Servant of God who wants to pick and choose who he serves and who he doesn't. So he stands firm. "No God. They aren't worthy and I'm not going." And then he runs. He jumps on a ship and tries his best to run from God. Only problem is, God churned those waters until the guys on the ship started to freak. 

Jonah already told them he was running from God, so they had a pretty good idea where the stormy waters were coming from. Jonah did too. So, following Jonah's orders, they toss him overboard and sure enough, the waters stop. Smooth as glass. Only now, Jonah is in the belly of a big fish... until he begins praying, calling out to God. And God heard him and had the fish spit him out onto the shore. 

It's kind of funny. God doesn't miss a beat. He sends Jonah right back to where he was sending him when Jonah ran away. This time, he went. But he still wasn't thrilled. Jonah didn't think the people of Ninevah were worthy of being saved. He knew they were sinners living in ways that offended God and felt they deserved to be wiped off the earth... even though God gave Jonah a second chance! 

So Jonah did what God told him to do this time and the Ninevites heard him. In fact, they repented, turned from their evil ways, and re-committed themselves to God's ways. I would love to tell you that Jonah felt bad and did the same. But he didn't. He was kind of miffed that they actually listened. He truly wanted God to wipe them off the earth. 

As I read this scripture today, it got me thinking about the way God calls us to work with or reach out to specific people, and sometimes, we just plain disagree. We don't want to work with them. We don't want to share Jesus with them. And we certainly don't want to share the love of Jesus with them. So we run. We jump ship and head in the opposite direction. But where we go, there God is. On turbulent waters, in the bellies of fish, on long unwanted journeys. 

And so we cry out... and God hears. And just like Jonah, God doesn't change direction. God sends us in the same direction he did before we ran. Oh, surprise! So here's a thought: What about just going where God calls, doing what God asks of us, and celebrating when what God calls us to do, actually works. Now there's a thought! 

All right, all right!... I'll go. 
How about you?