“Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5ย All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to His own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship” (Jonah 1:4, NIV).
It was the darkest moment of my life that left me wondering about the love of God and His concern over me in my situation. In prayer I said to Him,” Lord I love who you were in the Old Testament. I read about the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt, I love the speed and the urgency you gave to their deliverance. I love the heavy response and great show of your power in confirming who you are to the Israelites and who you are compared to the gods of Egypt and any other gods. I have read and loved the punishment given to those who fought against the Israelites”. I sat the whole night thinking about the way the Lord revenged against the enemies of His people, the Israelites. I waited to hear what He would say to me. The spirit of the living God responded and said, “He is the same yesterday today and forever”. The answer sounded like Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke common saying in His crusades worldwide.
Jonah wanted to see God’s judgment on a people that He was degusted about. Jonah must have had the same feelings like me. Jonah hated Nineveh which was the capital city of the one nation that continually made war and fought against the Jews, namely, Assyria. It is easy for us to want God to treat us according to His mercy and Grace, but to our enemies we want him to treat them with justice, so Jonah and I are not different. Jonah refused to go and prophesy to the capital city of Israel’s archenemy, Assyria. He feared that if He did, then God would have averted the disaster that was due to come upon them in 40 days. We wish and pray for the destruction of our enemies, we demand for revenge and want it now. However, just like Jonah learned the folly of resenting God’s grace when it is extended to the people He thought should not receive it, we should leave the timing and God’s dealing with our enemies to him. So long as we feel in charge of our enemies, God will not take over. He only does so when we make Him God over the pain that has been caused by our enemies. He alone understands the timing and what revenge to our enemies will accomplish for His glory. So let God be glorified in dealing with your enemies. Do not try to manipulate God, nor His timing.
Jonah ran away from God’s demands, just like we run away from the sermons that are supposed to correct and rectify our lives. He ran away avoiding Nineveh which was 500 miles east of Jerusalem, He decides to go sailing 2000 miles west of Jerusalem. When you decide to run away from God, you really do not care or pay attention to the destination of your disobedience. Jonah had no compassion for Nineveh. The prophet Nahum gives us some insight on what caused Jonah to go the other way (Nahum 3:1-4). In short Jonah hated them. He did not want them blessed. As far as He was concerned they could be condemned forever. Nineveh was a bad, nasty and cruel place. They built pyramids of human skulls outside of a conquered city. They held their victims down, reached into their mouth and pulled the tongue out. Jonah saw no point of God’s mercy on this people because of their sin.
Know that obeying God’s commands is vital to your destiny and life purpose, which includes your personal goals achievements. You might ask what is God’s command to me? God might be sending you to a city, if not then it could be to your own personal life. May be there is sin in your life and God is asking you to repent, but you are running away from His commands. Instead of repenting, you try to justify why you cannot give it up. Maybe He is sending you to your own relationships. You know the pain you have caused to your relationship by poor decisions and wrong judgments, but you are hung up with self justification, and running away because you want revenge for those things that have been done to you. As long as you are taking God’s place of revenge, you will never see the hand of God in your enemies’ lives. Release them to God, pray for them and bless them. Your personal sins will cause others to suffer. You see this in the ship; everyone is scared of dying and they are calling upon their gods. Remember your sin will cause suffering to your family, friends and those that you were meant to minister to through your personal life’s gifts, if you obeyed God and walked rightly before him. Your sins will affect other people, because you have not been living right so your family gets affected. Because you have not been responsible, your actions have affected others.
The Bible says that God caused the storms. This tells us to indentify the source of the storms in our lives. There are self-induced storms that come as a result of our own sins and disobedience to God. Some storms come through other peoples choices that they have made on our behalf. Regardless of the source of the storm, God’s intension is not to kill you or destroy you, but to draw you close to himself. He wants to rescue you. He wants to deliver you. Remember that God delights in your prosperity; you are the apple of His eye. Any life lived either in known or unknown darkness, secret sins, pretense or hypocrisy has its life span which is determined by the Lord. When we run away from the commands of the Lord, we must pay for the consequences, they might not show up in your life time, but might show up in your children’s lives.
Byย Evangelist Isabella Mwango
