The story of Jonah is perhaps one the most cited stories in the Bible. We hear sermons about Jonah and the whale, or as the Bible puts it in the book of Jonah a great fish. There are debates about whether it was a fish or a whale, arguing that it had to be a fish because they don't digest their food like mammals do; which is what a whale is. They go on and on how Jonah didn't go to Ninevah when God told him to, and that after he was in the belly of the fish/whale for three days he repented and the God had the fish/whale throw him up on land.
I have yet to hear a sermon speaking to the effects of Jonah's disobedience. Have you ever stop to think of the individuals that were on the ship that Jonah boarded to Tarshish. How they had no clue as to what was about to happen to them, and I have no doubt that the captain of the ship knew that the weather was supposed to be favorable to sail.
What about the Ninevahites? Had Jonah not repented and ran to deliver the message to Ninevah once the fish/whale threw him up, would they have had the presence of mind to repent themselves and seek God for mercy?
Do we now see that when the lord speaks to us and we don't obey Him; that we are in fact affecting the lives of others? So, I beg all of us to become the obedient children He wants us to be, because the alternative brings chastening to us and unsolicited hardship to others.
How many do you think you have hindered because of your disobedience?
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
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