Jonah Chapter 1

This morning in my prayer and study time, I was reading the book of Jonah. I love any of the prophetic books because there is so much more than the natural interpretation hidden within the text. When I first started studying the bible none of the prophets made any sense to me but Jonah! Every child has probably heard the story of the man and the whale that swallowed him up. So it was pretty cut and dry. Or so it seems.

If you study the history of the bible such texts as Josephus there is wealth of information not only into the customs of the bible historically, but a lot of information as it relates to the people or rather the nations mentioned in the bible. I love history. If you have never had the pleasure of reading Josephus, I admonish you to do so, you will be blessed by it.

Back to Jonah...In chapter one we find the G-d has called Jonah to go to Ninevah to preach against it. Interesting enough, he avoids the call of God--not just going to Ninevah. I found this interesting. I remember when I first knew G-d had called me, I acted as if I hadn't heard him. It wasn't that I didn't want to answer him, I simply doubted my ability to do what he was asking of me. That's most of us. I didn't come from a preaching family or even one that went to church except on the occasion of someone's death. So, for him to be speaking to me, I found that to be a little odd. Surely he wanted someone with at least some bible knowledge. I didn't even know most of the old hymns that I hear people sing in church when I started going-I still don't. But God doesn't care about the menial things like we do. Whether I went Of church or not, I believed in God and I always talked to him even as a small child. Where that came from, I have no Idea.
God was asking Jonah to do something specific--the call was greater than just to go and preach he wanted him to go there so that the people would change--that's all repentence is--change.
God asks all of us to do this often in our lives. He wants us to make specific changes for our benefit and for the benefit of others that will be affected by our change.

Back to Jonah...
Oddly enough, Jonah was attempting to flee from God's presence--how can you leave a God that is omnipresent? Go to a place of Ichabod--That's where Tarshish comes in. On that ship were a bunch of mariners who all had their own god. In trouble they sought their god for their rescue but to no avail. That's where most of are when we are in a backslidden position--seeking the aid of something that can neither deliver us or help us in any way.

All through this Jonah was asleep. Sleep biblically represents a sense of spiritual unawareness. Meaning you have absolutely no clue of what God is trying to convey to you or you have no sense of the movement of the adversary's hold in your life.
The mariners cast lots to see why the trouble had come upon them--even they knew that things happened for a reason greater than a normal storm.

So now here we have Jonah on a ship with a bunch of heathens--which fellowship was forbidden so he was hooked up with people he had no business being with--now stop right there--that's it. Ever had a bout of trouble come from nowhere? I know I have. One such alliance caused a great upheaval in my life last year. God had specifically told me not to be hooked up with this person and because they were family and saved, I assumed that God was only talking about not being with them for a particular season. Well, I was wrong. That "hook up" tore my world a part--I am still bouncing back and its been almost 9 months later!

The only way to get the trouble to subside from their life was to throw Jonah overboard. They didn't want to do it but they had to. I faced the same thing. I didn't want to do it, but my life depended on it. I was trying to figure out why I still hadn't seen the results I was looking for recently, and I realized that I was still talking to this person and when God said to disconnect he meant the whole caboodle! Don't even communicate with them. I was still holding conversations with this person up until a few weeks ago. Now I am really not a stupid person--far from it, but family is hard to cut off. I just realized today that this was still my problem.

So, I have finally and officially thrown Jonah overboard! I am sure that I will be able to get a breakthrough now. I will be sure to blog all testimonies I have to share as a result of this act of obedience. ODes it feel good? Nope, but I obedience is yet still better than sacrifice. I want to please him more than people. I know some people won't agree with me, but they aren't partakers of the events of my life--they live somewhere else. AS a woman, I realize that women are always evaluating how others will feel as a result of our actions. That's a good thing. But sometimes we just have to focus on how God will feel at our disobedience. People will get over it.
It may take them some time but eventually, they'll understand. And if not, oh well.

Jonah Chapter 2 later...