Tuesday, November 17, 2009

All Things to the Glory of God... In Jonah!

Jonah 1:11-17
(http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jonah%201:11-18&version=NKJV)
Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.” Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the LORD and said, “We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You.” So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and took vows.
Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah wasn’t a completely bad guy… just a little stubborn. In this occasion, he was being kind of self-sacrificial. He knew what they had to do, and he was willing to do it… where was that thinking nine verses, is my next thought.

The men didn’t listen to Jonah, and they tried to save themselves, which didn’t work very well. So now they were willing to Jonah. They threw him over the side. But what they did is the big part of today's lesson. Why didn’t Jonah have that thinking nine verses ago? He was having a bad moment. But all things work for the glory of God, right?

Jonah’s turning his back on God led the crew of men to respect God and start to have a relationship with Him. Now they were talking to God and sacrificing to Him. So even in the story of Jonah, a man whose turning of the back prompted possibly the biggest tool of God in history to that point, God turned hearts towards Him through Jonah’s issues.

We serve a pretty cool God.
In His Service,
Joyce

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