Friday
August 7, 2009
FATHER KNOWS BEST
Then God asked Jonah, "What right do you have to be angry over this plant?"
Jonah answered, "I have every right to be angry - so angry that I want to die."
The LORD replied, "This plant grew up overnight and died overnight. You didn't
plant it or make it grow. Yet, you feel sorry for this plant. Shouldn't
I feel sorry for this important city, Nineveh? It has more than 120,000 people
in it as well as many animals. These people couldn't tell their right hand
from their left."
Jonah 4:9-11
Jonah had willfully disobeyed God's call to preach in Nineveh. Now God gave him
another chance.
We need to remember three things about second chances.
list of 3 items
1. God's will is going to be accomplished. God intended to warn Nineveh, and
Nineveh would be warned, whether Jonah or some other person was God's agent.
2. Jonah's disobedience merited discipline, not rejection! God gave His prophet
a second chance. Usually He gives you and me many opportunities to respond
to His guidance.
3. It is much better to respond to God when His word first comes to us. Jonah
would have avoided the terror of being thrown into the sea and being swallowed
by the great fish if only he had been willing to do God's will when he first
learned it.
list end
Let's not count on second chances. But if we do fall into disobedience, Jonah's
experience reminds us that we can still turn back to God and be used by
Him.
When Jonah preached, he said in effect, "You people of Nineveh are about to be
run over!" When the people of Nineveh repented, they got off track, divine
judgment rushed on - and passed them by! What an object lesson for Israel, The
prophets of God, had shouted out warnings of impending doom for decades.
Here, in the experience of Nineveh, a Pagan Nation, was an object lesson for
God's own people; if only Israel would listen to the prophets and repent,
God would relent in their case too. The tragedy is that the people of Israel
did not repent; the object lesson was wasted on them. The irony is that the
very people that Jonah's preaching saved, the Assyrians, were the agents God
used to bring judgment on - an Israel too hardened to heed.
When the city was not destroyed, Jonah was upset and angry. Like many of us,
Jonah thought God should behave as he wanted Him to. More was involved in
Jonah's
case, but isn't such a reaction all too typical? We think we have it all
figured out, and are sure that God should solve one problem this way, and
another
that. When He doesn't do it our way, we sulk or become angry. What we should do
in such a case is thank God that He didn't do it our way!
Our idea of how things should be done is limited by our lack of knowledge - and
often by our lack of caring. God not only knows what is best, He loves everyone
- always. Thanking God even when His decisions do not reflect our first choice
is a sign of spiritual maturity - and common sense.
Lord, Lord, how wrong we are, so many, many times. We judge when we don't even
know what we are judging about or for. We thank You for Your mercy and
forgiveness.
Help us mind our own business, and clean up our own stuff before we start
trying to meddle in other folks business again.
O. Addison Gethers
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