It has been a month since my last post. Life got busy and sadly, I was not able to set time aside to write nor was I in the capacity to do so. However, in all this busyness, I am thankful that the Lord was continually with me, He never left me and unlike me, He was present and faithful. Truly, our Heavenly Father is a rock on which we can stand because He never fails and He is a blessed assurance. I can see why king David in many of the Psalms called God his rock, his refuge or his fortress. Indeed, seasons come and go but His love remains, He remains the same. What a marvelous truth we can stand on! While being on a hiatus, I have been reflecting on the reality that I can’t do anything without God. I know it is a bit of a cliché in Christian circles but it dawned on me even more, especially when I realized that tasks that I normally do were getting difficult, it humbled me and I saw that I was never the one doing them in the first place, God alone was always the one enabling me to do them. This was something that was convicting even as I continued with my reading of the minor prophets in the book of Zechariah. In chapter twelve, we learn that the Lord will “pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication” (Zechariah 12:10). Without the Lord’s pouring out the spirit of grace and supplication, the hearts of the Israelites would not have been tender towards Him, they would not have looked to Christ, they would not even have been mourning when they should. In the same way, we too, without the Lord’s enabling, cannot rightly come to Him, nor can we do the right thing including the menial tasks we think we handle on a daily basis. The more I ponder, the more I realize why humility is the portion of the believer. This week, as I continued my reading of the minor prophets from the book of Jonah, I was struck again by the love of God that should beget humility in us.
I am sure you are familiar with the story of Jonah. It is a popular Sunday school Bible story that kids remember because this man was swallowed by a whale (the Bible actually never says “whale” but “big fish”). Of course the story is much more than that and I am not going to get into the book. Instead, I would encourage you to go read it, it is an easy read and it is very entertaining. I am actually surprised that Hollywood has not yet found the story intriguing enough to make a blockbuster out of it! Anyway, one of the points that are clear from the story of Jonah is that the love of God is massive for man. The human race, as we learn in the Bible is God’s best creation in that it is the creation that God made in His likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). Moreover, we who are on the other side of the redemption story have a better understanding of this love because we know God sent His one and only Son to die in the place of sinners —wicked people like you and I. However, this reality about who God is, is something Jonah was not ready to accept. As we read in the book, Jonah disobeyed and was angry at God because as he says “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 3:2). How do you get mad at God because of His character? And what character? His goodness? Love? Compassion? Mercy? How do you get there? Isn’t it from our pride and foolishness which causes us to “lean on our own understanding” or to be “right in our own eyes”? Plus, has anything good ever come from being “right in your own eyes”? Even when God is patient with Jonah, asking him a similar question to what was asked Cain “Have you any right to be angry?”, Jonah elevates himself so high that before God he is more righteous. The question should have caused Jonah to do an introspection, to review his action but Jonah was too angry to do anything sensible. This is such a grave sin, yet God spares Jonah and still uses his foolishness to teach him a lesson. I am not sure how to call this but I thank God that His ways are not our ways, that His thoughts are as far as the heavens are from the earth compared to ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). When God is faced with our foolishness He is not flustered, nor is He “out of it”, nor does He “lose it”. He remains self-controlled and handles us rightly. What God was trying to show Jonah is that He does not delight in the death of man even when the man is evil, He loves man and does not want to see man perish (Ezekiel 33:11). The evil of the Ninivites is not even something that God brings when He teaches Jonah a lesson about His love for man and quite frankly a lesson about His right as God to do as He pleases. Yes, the people of Nineveh were evil and that is the reason God sent Jonah to go proclaim a judgement against them. That proclamation was a merciful act of God because it was an opportunity to repent that was presented to the Ninivites. Jonah knew that this was so because to his credit he actually knew his God. While Jonah saw the Ninivites as unredeemable people, God saw them as people in need of a saviour, a people in need of truth, a people in need of guidance (Jonah 4:11). Our perspective is often skewed, we do not have the full picture and unlike God, we do not see the beginning from the end because we are not the Alpha and Omega. Every biblical character that has tried to elevate himself to the level of God has always been put down. Job tried with questioning God and wanting to justify himself before a Holy God but when God showed up, Job remained speechless and responded accordingly: “I am unworthy —how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth” (Job 40:3-4). The book of Jonah shows us that sometimes, the character of God can rub us the wrong way and that is our problem not God’s. It also shows us that knowing God is not the same as embracing God and submitting to Him. We can know of God but are unwilling to submit to Him, unwilling to obey Him. Like the crowd who were often amazed at Jesus’s miracles but never ready to submit to him, our knowledge of the Lord which could be characterized as “puffed up” does not automatically translate to submission. Total abandonment is what God requires from us. His glory He does not share with anyone, not even the creature He sent His son to die for. Let us not make this mistake. I am more and more convinced that this is why submission is such a pillar in the Christian faith. From denying our flesh, to living for Christ, none of that is possible without submission. Even as we are commanded to live harmoniously as brothers and sisters, the refrain to submit to one another in love is present throughout the word of God. We cannot do without this. I wonder, is that why faith is so vital? Because faith produces obedience and there is no obedience without submission so in that context, we cannot please God if we are not submissive or humble.
I don’t know about you but for the first time, I realized that God should have stroked Jonah, I realized that I have often read the story with a “cute” view of God. For some reason, just as I read in Jonah that “Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry”, I too was “greatly displeased” and I became fearful at what that act could have brought Jonah. Somehow, the fear of God took over and I saw Jonah’s foolishness for what it was rather than just dismissing his act as a one of a child who does not know what he does. The mercy of God is displayed in this book in a mighty way and I pray I never have to test God in such a way to receive His mercy and love. My prayer for all of us is that the fear of the Lord fills us all so that we would be consciously living in a way that honours and pleases Him, decreasing so that He might increase. Amen.
A Word Aptly Spoken 