Why Do We Run from God?
Good Morning Friends,
Our Pastor at Moorings is beginning a sermon series on the four chapters of Jonah. So we are going to be studying Jonah for much longer than it takes to read this short book. Now most of us are familiar with this story. Kids love it, but as we get older it sometimes loses its awe factor. I don’t know why, but it seems like adults read it as simply a guy that runs from God, gets swallowed by a big fish, gets puked out and then goes and preaches in Nineveh, the people repent. I guess we better be prepared to learn that there is a lot more to it than that. So I am going to have to write a few devotions on Jonah to prepare me for the experience. And as I sit down to write it seems more appropriate than I initially thought. The book is appropriate for study during Lent for several reason, but mainly because the sign of Jonah is the story of Christ and that the Jonah narrative is about us. It is about repentance. So we get started with a question. Why Do We Run from God?
Scripture: 1Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.’ 3But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
4But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. 5Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. 6The captain came and said to him, ‘What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.’ 7 The sailors* said to one another, ‘Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.’ So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8Then they said to him, ‘Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?’ 9‘I am a Hebrew,’ he replied. ‘I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.’ 10Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, ‘What is this that you have done!’ For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.11 Then they said to him, ‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may quieten down for us?’ For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. 12He said to them, ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quieten down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.’ 13Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. 14Then they cried out to the Lord, ‘Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.’ 15So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. 16Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17 *But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.
Jonah 1 (NRSV)
Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?’ The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God. As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!” Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.
Jonah 2:1-10 (NRSV)
Message: Well the men were praying on the ship as the tempest roared, but I think that the most powerful prayer that Jonah ever prayed was not then but in the belly of a fish. It was a prayer offered after his confession… after he had been thrown overboard…after he had been rescued from a watery grave. It is a prayer of thanksgiving in a time of trouble. Here Jonah prayed the Psalms. He prayed parts of Psalm 18, 31 and 107. In times of trouble we can pray the Psalms too. When we cannot find the words, they give us the words. They speak for us. They teach us about God’s deliverance. They teach us of a God of second chances. We can find a lot in the psalms. So if you feel like you have been thrown overboard go to the psalms. If you feel the humble and awkward situation of having been saved but not yet delivered, then discover that just as sin sinks the soul, grace lifts us up re-born. Here discover that God’s grace perseveres with us as it did with Jonah, for it is more powerful that any sin. Know that God will answer us even if we are sinners. And that he does not rescue us because we are good. He answers us in spite of His judgment. He delivers us from impossible circumstances in order to win our undivided loyalty and thanks… Friends, the Book of Jonah is more than a story. So for a few days this Lent we look at how God puts us back on the right track when we are distressed. We look at the process of praying in the belly of a fish for deliverance to a God of restoration. We face up to the reasons we run from God.
Pray we do not let our emotions deprive us of grace. Pray that we meditate on God’s ways and ask Him to change our hearts. Pray we run to, not away from God. Pray we be humbled by God’s grace and filled with joy as we are awed by God. Pray we call upon Him in our day of trouble. Pray that He deliver us. Pray that we glorify Him in response. Pray because God is good even when we are not. Pray because God is powerful enough to fix anything. Pray because prayer will change us for the better. Pray we realize that we cannot outrun God. Pray we realize that the storms of life are not punishment but an intervention, brought on by God’s affection rather than His anger. Pray we see storms as an act of mercy God uses to liberate us from ourselves.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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