Jonah -- Part 2
Jonah's reaction to the call God placed upon his life demonstrates at least a couple of different things. For one, it demonstrates that some people don't want God to be merciful to certain types of people. Sometimes, we only want God to be merciful to those who are like us or agree with us in some way. We act as if surely God doesn't want people like that to be in church with us.
Another thing that strikes me about Jonah trying to flee to the far end of the known world is that it revealed that he had a false understanding of the true nature of God and that he wasn't familiar with the Scriptures available to him at the time.
In Jonah's day, many of the surrounding nations believed that deities with localized. They only had power within a certain area or over a certain people. Jonah must have held to this false belief because he thought that if he got far enough away, God would forget about him. Jonah didn't understand what David expressed when David said that there was no place that one could flee from the presence of the Lord. God is omnipresent. He is everywhere.
This is something that should be of comfort to those who are in Christ. The Lord is always watching out for us and helping in this life until we come to be with Him in the life that is to come.
God knew where Jonah was, and He sent a storm. Jonah was cast into the sea, and the Lord prepared a big fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was not swallowed by a whale. This fish was specifically created by the Lord for this specific purpose.
Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the fish. He was there until he decided to repent and do what God called him to do. He was a stubborn man. Most would have repented a lot sooner.
In the Gospels, Jesus would use the example of Jonah in the belly of the fish. Jesus said that this was a sign that He would be in the grave for three days, and then He would rise up from the grave. Jonah was a sign to the people. Jesus' resurrection is a sign that God the Father has accepted all that Jesus taught and did while He was here on this earth. It is a sign to all people everywhere throughout all time.
After the fish deposited Jonah on the dry land, he went to Nineveh and preached a message of repentance. The people repented in sackcloth and ashes.
Jonah wasn't happy with God having mercy on the Assyrian capital. However, God told Jonah that He was a God of compassion who cared about all people include those in Nineveh. God also cared about all of the animals that were in the city.
Jesus came to redeem the entire universe and return the entire cosmos to the state in which it existed before sin entered into the creation. God wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. One day, the Lord will redeem all creation when He returns in power and great glory.
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