There are many questions I would like to ask Jonah when I meet him in heaven some day. things like 'are you a good swimmer?' or 'what's it like to be inside the belly of a fish instead of having a fish inside your belly?' Maybe I'd ask him, 'which is worse - drowning or being swallowed by a fish?' But at the same time I'd like to find out how he knew God was speaking to him and giving him a special task, so special that He didn't want anyone else to do it. And I like to know if he was so sure that it was God calling him, why was his faith so feeble and why did he run away?The story is so familiar that most Sunday school children know it by heart and many of us older children have never forgotten it, but there are many aspects of the account that intrigue me. First, it wasn't that Jonah decided to do nothing on hearing God's call. In fact he actively chose to go in the exact opposite direction, hoping to escape God. Didn't he know God is everywhere? But then I think again and realise that sometimes when God lays tasks at our doors, we actively see to avoid doing them, maybe not in the same way as Jonah did, but, hey, not a lot different. Maybe we let our career, our family, our leisure pursuits or any number of other things, including our church commitments, block out His call.
What worries me though is that we can even develop the ability to not only ignore God's call but to train our minds to not even hear it. Why else would Jonah have been sound asleep in the bottom of the boat when everyone else was being terrified by probably the most violent storm they had ever witnessed. Does that ring any bells? Closing God out so completely that you are oblivious to the great needs and fears of all around you.
I can understand the other sailors' reluctance to throw Jonah overboard at his request, but they were never going to make it on their own without God's intervention and also without doing the one thing that they had to do. What a lesson to us all that God has only provided one way to make peace with Him and all our own efforts are pointless until we cast everything overboard and leave ourselves in His hands.
And of course that is where the story gets really interesting. No, not the part about Jonah almost drowning, then being inside a fish for three days and finally ending up on a beach. No, the really exciting part is that God still used Jonah, despite his state of unfaithfulness, to reach the souls of the sailors and not only save them physically but also spiritually. Jonah may have never known the of the miracle of salvation that happened on board the ship he had just left rather hurriedly and unceremoniously but how good to know that God can use me to reach others even when I am far from perfect and when I am sometimes less than obedient in my daily walk. As I look around at all my friends who are believers but all at different stages in their Christian walks, it is refreshing to know that each is being used by the Saviour to expand His kingdom.
And how refreshing too, that when God called to Jonah again, he responded by going to Nineveh to preach and the whole city, from king down to beggar, responded by repenting and being saved. And while I can understand Jonah's reaction, I don't think he quite grasped just how loving and patient God really was in sparing the city from destruction. I guess his memory was a bit short, for nobody had seen greater love and patience at first hand than himself, as he lay on a beach mulling over the previous three or four days and thankful for another chance.
If we truly mean to be obedient to God, let us write Jonah's own words on our hearts as he says 'I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.' Let your past be swallowed up in a new commitment to serve the God who waits patiently and lovingly to hand over the job he planned just for you.
