Life of Jonah

Life of Jonah

Jonah 2:9 ‘But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.’

            In the above passage Jonah makes a declaration that salvation is of the Lord. His words came out of his experience on his journey. Jonah went through a great experience and learnt a big lesson in his life. In Jonah 1:1 ‘Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,’ the meaning of the name ‘Jonah’ means a dove which signifies a bird without any blemish. In the scripture, Dove is often referred to Holy Spirit. His father’s name ‘Amittai’ means a truthful one. Today, let us meditate upon the life of Jonah and learn a few important things from his life.

Submission

Jonah 1:2-3 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.”

                We see the Lord instructed Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach the word of God. But Jonah did not fulfill the words of the Lord. He goes to a place called Tarshish which is against the command of the Lord. Jonah who was considered to be one of the prophets, acted against the will of the Lord. Jonah obeyed the Lord but he went to a different place. Bible scholars claim that Jonah refused to go to Nineveh because it was a foreign region or it was a gentile region. We see Jonah acted on disobedience and travelled on his own choice. In verse three, we see he ‘fled’ to place he was not supposed to go. Jonah went to Joppa by land and paid a fare to get into a boat. In verse two, we see the Lord told him to go to Nineveh but did not tell him how to get there. If God asks us to go to a particular place, he will lead us through many different ways and he is able to provision us.

                In Acts 8:31,40 – We see the Holy Spirit took Philip to Azotus to fulfill the purpose of the Lord. This is the leading of the Lord which transports Philip from one place to another by spirit. Same way in Ezekiel 8:30 , 43:5 – We see the Holy Spirit might have planned to take him by the hair just as he took Ezekiel to Jerusalem. If the Lord wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh, he would have taken him in any possible way. But Jonah diverted from the will of the Lord which made his journey troublesome. Despite of the fact that Jonah was thrown out of the ship, the Lord has prepared a fish ready to transport him to the destination. If we have willingly decided to do certain things that are against the will of the Lord, it is high time that we submit ourselves to obey the will of the Lord.

Supplication

Jonah 2: 1-2 “Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.”

                Over here we see Jonah was making a supplication from the belly of the fish. Jonah explains that he was afflicted inside the fish and cried to the Lord. The moment he gets trapped inside the fish’s belly, he started to realize and prayed to the Lord. The affliction makes him regret his decision. In Jonah 2:4 ‘Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.’

In Jonah 1:4-6 ‘But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.’ When the entire ship was troubled due to the great wind, Jonah was sleeping in the lower deck until the shipmaster compelled him to pray to the Lord. We see the shipmaster reminded Jonah to pray. Jonah knew the real reason why the ship is tossed as he confesses in Jonah 1:12 ‘12And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.’ Even our lives can be tossed due to unexpected problems for no reason. But all we need to do is pray and analyze if we are acting according to the will of the Lord. The lack of prayer disconnects us from the Lord. Though Jonah went against the will of the Lord, he was not abandoned by the Lord. We see the Lord himself had planned the whale’s departure (1:17) and destination (2:10) and made all arrangements of his travel. Jonah might have thought that there is no solution, but Lord has devised an alternate path to get him out.  This is the Lord’s doing when we submit our supplications to the Lord. We the children of the Lord must never depart from the presence of the Lord. We need to make sure that we pray well and get connected to the Lord God.             

Surrender

Jonah 3:1-2 “And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.”     

                In the above passage, we see the Lord spoke to Jonah for the second time to go to Nineveh. First time when Lord told the same thing, Jonah did not submit himself. But now in the third chapter, Jonah immediately surrenders himself to the word of the Lord.  All troubles came to an end by the second chapter, and in the third chapter begins with the word of the Lord. When Jonah surrendered himself, he witnessed that everything worked on his favor. We see the Lord was merciful to all the people in Nineveh. He changed the evil into good and blessed them. One of the major reasons why our troubles are never ending is because that we have not surrendered to the will of the Lord. Let us all pray for the divine will of the Lord to be fulfilled in our lives. Amen.