The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Jonah 1:1-6, “The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,
2 ‘Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.’
3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
4 The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.
5 Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.
6 So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

Have you ever been guilty of running from God? It would be my guess that all of us have tried that at some time (or times) in our lives. We’ve thought and prayed, asking the LORD to reveal what precisely He wanted us to do; yet, when He revealed His will to us, we withdrew and ran away from His directive.

Jonah did precisely that! It wasn’t a matter of the preaching to which he objected; it was the matter of where! The Ninevites were fearsome warriors! Just read what the prophet Nahum said of them:

“Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; her prey never departs.
2 The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of the wheel, galloping horses and
bounding chariots!
3 Horsemen charging, swords flashing, spears gleaming, many slain, a mass of
corpses, and countless dead bodies– They stumble over the dead bodies!
4 All because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the charming one, the mistress
of sorceries, who sells nations by her harlotries and families by her sorceries” (Nahum 3:1-4).

Jonah saw the Ninevites as Israel’s enemy. Yet, the LORD’s message to Nineveh was Repent! Jonah knew that Nineveh would repent, he just didn’t want it to happen. He wanted the Ninevites destroyed! So, he decided to run from God! Interestingly, Jonah’s resistance always led him downward. First, he
went “down to Joppa,” where he found a ship going to Tarshish, the furthest limit of the western world known to the Hebrews. He had to pay a fare (It always “costs” to run from God). Second, he went down into the ship. The Hebrew language tells us that Jonah was so thoroughly exhausted that he fell asleep. (It’s not an easy journey when we run from God!).

When it was finally discovered why the seas were beating so furiously against the ship: Jonah admitted he was running from God, so the sailors dutifully cast him out of the ship. Thus, Jonah went down into the sea and finally, down into a huge fish –a whale of a fish!– that God had prepared for His runaway preacher!

Nineveh ultimately repented because of Jonah’s preaching, but Jonah pouted because he didn’t get to see the cruel nation crushed! Oh, how like that we often are! “Yes, he was saved before he died,” we often say of someone we know, “but we sure won’t have to put up with his attitude any more!” How non-Christ-like is that!! It’s so easy to criticize the wrong-doings of others; but have we stopped to think that our attitudes are exactly like Jonah’s? Pray that the LORD will graciously forgive us all. It pays to serve Jesus!

Heartily yours in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom