When I was 11 years old I wanted a ‘pony’ (horse) for Christmas. So, in December of 1971 I opened up a box to a gray plastic horse introducing me to my gray/white mare named Mitzy with a colt in tow. Since then there have been a number of horses, bumps, bruises, learning and love for these beautiful large 4-legged animals. Horses, for their survival, have a fight or flight response. When frightened, their first instinct is to escape the situation and get as far away as possible.
You and I also get into a flight or fight mode at times too. When we are faced with a situation we don’t like or feel boxed into or just plain don’t want to do- we may choose to ignore it, argue about it- refuse to do it, or run away from it!
Jonah. had no plans to be a ‘hero’ to a foreign nation. He had no desire to be anything to them- He flat out, ran away from his assignment. Most of us think that if God ‘told’ us something to do we’d do it! But not this guy—he got on the next ship going the opposite direction. God told Jonah- get up and go- pretty simple instructions- there isn’t any room for a misunderstanding. Jonah heard the message- Jonah understood the message and Jonah said- not today God- and chose to disobey- he chose flight in the opposite direction. It wasn’t only the opposite direction, he wanted to get away from the Lord! He didn’t want to obey the word of God.
Jonah was in flight mode- “I can’t and I won’t go to Ninevah God.” Instead of talking to God about it- he ran. It seems that when the going got tough he got going. You and I respond to stress and difficult situations in similar ways to Jonah. We probably don’t get on a ship in another direction- but we will try to change course. The extremes may include divorcing a spouse, quitting a job prematurely, a ‘mid-life’ crisis, turning to drugs, gambling or alcohol to give us some peace amidst the stress.
God wasn’t finished with Jonah though- He sent a storm- a storm so severe that seasoned sailors were ready to give up. Once they believed that it was Jonah’s fault that God had sent the storm- a couple of unique things happened- those sailors decided to try out this new God and pray to Him. And then- when Jonah said throw me overboard- they prayed to this God of Jonah’s for forgiveness. Next, when the storm subsided immediately upon Jonah hitting the waves- these sailors became believers! They chose to take Jonah’s God as their own. Even through Jonah’s disobedience lives were being changed! What an amazing God we serve!
Next, Jonah is in the process of drowning in the sea and God sends a great fish to swallow him. As his life was slipping away- a rock-bottom moment- he remembered God and prayed. You and I are thinking- what took you so long Jonah? We have the blessing of hindsight- yet how many times have we had to have a ‘wake-up’ call in our lives. We know the right thing to do- but we do the wrong one anyway. We know the right way to go, but want to take a short cut, we want to have the ‘feelings’ we want to have the thrills- and when our faith walk feels like work- we think it’s too hard and change course.
Faith involves growing in our knowledge of Scriptures and of the person of God. Faith involves serving God by loving Him and loving people. When we have committed our lives to Him- we will automatically obey His call, no matter the cost- no matter the direction we are sent.
Jonah finally went! He was grateful to not be fish food. He was grateful to be alive. He recognized the power of His God. Now it was time to do what he was supposed to do in the first place. This time he obeyed God’s command! Jonah got to this large Gentile city- of his enemy- and walked through it delivering an 8-word message, ““Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” Nothing flowery or persuasive in this delivery. Jonah told the message without any encouragement, any hope, or any soft pedaling. Jonah was given a message of warning and death to the people of this city- and they responded! They believed him and they listened! When they heard that in 40 days their city, their homes, would be destroyed they believed him. Word got around so fast that the king himself responded and believed the message.
That’s the dream of every minister- that when the message is preached people believe and respond in such a way as to bring a revival to their church and their community. South Troy has stories like that- during the days of Reverend Fletcher- his son shared this story with me about 14 years ago: Iin the late 30’s Reverend Fletcher has been going from farm to farm to meet the people, pray with them and see how he and the church could help. On farmer was not interested. He was a hard-working man, very independent, and very much someone that enjoyed his drinking and carousing. So Reverend Fletcher and others in the community began to pray for this man. Every week at noon the church would be open for prayers and prayer meetings began. Even the children of the school walked over and prayed once a week for the taciturn farmer as well as others in the community. With those prayers revival began! The farmer they prayed for became a believer- and when people in the community saw the changes and the faith of that one many- many more were added to the family of God through the ministry of the South Troy Church.
South Troy began with 4 people, and we went door to door with everything from batteries to scotch tape, introducing ourselves- and inviting people to Pie Socials on Sunday nights, Thursday night Bible studies and finally to Sunday morning worship. And then on Easter Sunday April 8 of 2012 we had our launch- every Sunday worship and we had 44 people that first Sunday. We’ve had many ups and downs and challenges, but we’re still here! Still desiring to obey God’s call despite the enemy’s tactics. That’s the power of obedience to the call. That’s the power of the Holy Spirit to change hearts and lives.
One of the best lessons we can learn from the book of Jonah is that God can use even Jonahs to bring messages of hope and salvation to the unsaved world around us. There are days that you and I fail as representatives of Christ. There are days that the message we are sharing seems to fall flat. There are times when we sin, when we fall terribly short of God’s best and yet God uses us in our inadequacies to save a soul. No matter how reluctant you are- God has a better plan- God has the best plan!!!
Obey God’s call- He will do the rest!
