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The GO Zone:Where's Your Nineveh? (Part One)
by Dave Weiss (Dave's bio)
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Most Christians have a Biblical hero or two. Mine would include Peter, Paul and of course Jesus. Of course we also have people in the book that we would not want to emulate. Near the top of that list for me would be Jonah. After all this is the guy who thought he could run from God. Why would anyone want to do that? Well let's find out.
To really understand the book of Jonah, you really have to have a look at what was going on at the time. Israel is divided, and while they will not fully take over for about 200 years, the Assyrians are pretty much running the show and they are hated by the Israelites. Jonah, son of Amittai is a prophet to the people of Israel and it is safe to assume that Jonah has no love for the Assyrians at all. So what does God do? He calls Jonah to go an witness to the Assyrians in their capitol city, Nineveh. Great assignment, right? So Jonah turns and runs for Tarshish. Sometimes I think we are pretty tough on Jonah. Really when you look at what Jonah did, it wasn't so much that he was running away from God as it was that he didn't want to do what God said. To put this into perspective, imagine that God would call you to go to Osama Bin Laden and the Al Quaeda network, are you going to sign up? It's the same thing with Jonah, this was a very dangerous mission.
So Jonah begins to run. He gets on a boat and headed in the complete opposite direction. Thinking he has accomplished his goal he goes below decks and goes to sleep. Then Jonah learns a very powerful lesson. You cannot outrun an omnipresent God. A storm rises up. A storm that is so bad that it appears the boat will be torn in two. The pagan sailors are praying to all their gods trying to be rescues but nothing is working. This is because praying their gods is about as effective as talking to a wall. There is only one God and they are about to meet Him. Somewhere in the turmoil of the storm, the sailors remember the guy sleeping below deck and wake him up. They say to Him, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your God, maybe He will take notice of us and we will not perish.” After some discussion they discover that their problem is Jonah, that the storm has come because of what Jonah has done and that their only recourse is to throw Jonah into the sea.
What happens here is amazing. These pagans are waking up. They realize a God powerful enough to send a storm after one of his people might frown on them throwing one of His children into the ocean, so look what happens, they pray to God. They ask His forgiveness for what they are about to do and then they put Jonah over the side. We all know what happened to Jonah but sometimes I think we dive too fast into the belly of the great fish and we miss the point. Look at Jonah 1:15, 16. “Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to Him.” These sailors saw the power of God and believed.
Here is the moral of our story so far. You cannot run from God, He is everywhere. When God tells you to go somewhere, He has a reason. Even in His disobedience, God used Jonah to reach people, but here's some advice: God will accomplish His plan with or without you, so you might as well be willing to do what He says. Go overboard in your life and your witness. Don't make God send a storm to get your attention. God loves the people He is sending you to and He loves you. The place God is sending you to might look like Nineveh to you, but to God it looks like a bunch of His children who need help. He thinks enough of them to send you. You can't outrun Him so you might as well GO!
Next time: Into the Belly of the Whale
Copyright 2002, Dave Weiss. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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About Dave Weiss: Dave Weiss is a youth leader, speaker, writer and licensed minister in the Church of the Brethren and resides in Mohrsville, PA. He is a member of the Write Group for Interlinc's Youth Leader's Only, a youth ministry resource. He has written "Interlinc's Festival Survival Guide." For more on Dave's Ministry go to http://www.radicallyreal.com
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