Jonah 1-4
Ahh…the story of Jonah – a good one! I’m sure there are many things to learn from this story, but I want to note three for now:
1. You cannot flee from God! Jonah was a God fearing man, but he did not like what God was asking him to do. And so he ran. Or he tried to, anyway. The result wasn’t good. Clearly, it is best to humble yourself in obedience to God regardless of what you think of what He is asking you to do!
2. This story is one more really good example of how God uses our biggest mess-ups, mistakes and poor decisions for His good purpose. Had Jonah not been disobedient to God, he would not have been swallowed by a big fish and we would not have “the sign of Jonah” that Jesus spoke of in Luke 11:29. Jonah’s prayer from the belly of that big fish is another prophetic description of Jesus redeeming work. Note in verse 6 that it says, “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.” Interesting how Jonah was still in the belly of that fish when he made this statement. I am not suggesting here that Job’s disobedience to God was a good thing, because it wasn’t. But God knew what was in Jonah’s heart and He mercifully wove that into His Plan as only He can do. Rather mind-blowing, really, but there it is.
3. Once again, we see that God does not reject the humble. Nineveh’s sin was great and, as it turns out, their repentance didn’t last. But their moment of humility was very real, and God accepted it. Jonah didn’t get more than one day into this great city before every man and beast was in full repentance mode. Jonah knew God’s nature, that He is “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jonah 4:2b), which is why he tried to flee in the first place. He was angry at God’s mercy. But God’s ways are not our ways, and He made it very clear to Jonah that it was right for Him to care about His creation. We can choose, like Jonah, to be angry about what we see as injustice. Or we can choose to be grateful for God’s mercy, trying to understand that He is never in the wrong. It is our perceptions, not God’s actions, that are flawed.
Acts 15:1-21
Boy, old habits die hard, don’t they? It is a wondrous thing that the Truth of Christ got through to some of the Pharisees, but yet they struggled to let go of the law. It is understandable – they had studied and applied themselves to the keeping of the law their entire lives. They had wrapped their whole beings into it. But Jesus told them that He was the fulfillment of that law they were so committed to. So it is now Jesus in whom their – and our – whole beings should be wrapped. I like how Peter points out that the law is a yoke that nobody can bear. This is in stark contrast to what Jesus said of Himself in Matthew 11:30, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:30).