COLUMN
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
– Matthew 23:13
I love the story of Jonah and the whale (big fish), and I think it’s a story most people have heard.
How God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance to them or God is going to come against them, but Jonah tries to run away from God’s calling and gets on a boat to flee to Tarshish, which is in the opposite direction from where God wanted him to go. God causes a storm to stir up while Jonah is asleep in the bottom of the boat.
The storm wakes Jonah up and he goes to the top side.
The men on the boat are wondering which one of them had angered God so.
Jonah tells them it was him and they should throw him overboard into the water.
They didn’t do it at first, but fearing they had no other options lest they all drown from the storm they threw him over.
I’m gonna speed this up a bit. God created a big fish to swallow Jonah, and he stayed in the belly of the fish for three days, during which he prayed a beautiful prayer of forgiveness to God (Jonah 2:1-9). God had the fish spit Jonah back on shore and Jonah finally answered God’s request to preach repentance at Nineveh. When word got to the king of Nineveh that God was going to destroy it unless they repented from their evil ways, he made a decree that everyone must beg forgiveness and fast.
God being the merciful God that he is accepted their forgiveness and did not destroy them. Well this made Jonah mad. He told God, “This is why I didn’t want to go to Nineveh in the first place. I knew you would forgive them.”
I think Jonah had already forgotten that God had just forgiven him, as well. Friends be careful not to judge others on your thoughts of who should go to heaven and who shouldn’t because to just be honest with you, none of us deserve it. We are all God’s children, and he is trying to reach each and every one of us. He may be trying to use you to reach that person you don’t want to. Be obedient and always, always show love and kindness to all you meet. May we all strive to be more like Jesus who gave all to everyone.
Blessings to you all,
Pastor Mike Deviney, The Foundation Church of Maysville