The Mission of Jonah

The Mission of Jonah

4/23/18

The story of Jonah details one of the more common aspects of humanity that each one of us can relate for we have all been told what to do and then for some reason failed to complete the task.  But do we realize just how significant Jonah’s life is to ours and how we can learn so much not only about ourselves but our nation as well when it comes to the call of God?  God gives us every opportunity to heed His call before He must act in supernatural ways to grab our attention, and even after grabbing it sometimes we fall back into sin.  God hopes that we listen to His call and understand the task at hand so that He will not have to prepare a judgment against His people for lack of completion.  Let us take to heart the call, repentance, mission, and sin of Jonah and learn from his mistakes before it is too late for our own nation’s call.

Many of us tend to take our time when God tells us to do something or shows us things that we should tell others.  It is a common theme amongst humans to drag our feet with these notes and messages from God even though we have been told many times before about what our mission is to the world.  I have fallen into this category of lackadaisical beliefs and God has impressed me to write about such misgivings and failures of mine in the past, and I must confess I did it once again just the other day.  Many of you know that I have written over 500 messages from God to those who wish to know and understand restoration and the process of which God wants to work in our lives but I cannot use this as a measure of my life when God continues to give me items about His Word for me to give to you.  It is the daily mission that I receive that God instructs me to complete on a constant basis and not through my means of when I am ready to complete.

I finally had a couple of days off in a row the other week and was enjoying my time in the peace and quiet that was at that time in my house.  I was reading the Bible, studying a bit and just relaxing when I had the thought of writing cross my heart.  As the human being that I am, I said to myself that I would get to it after while and continue in the relaxation process that I had believed I deserved.  It was not too much longer that my body began to react as if I had run out of steam and continued this path until I was totally exhausted.  I tried to elevate my blood sugar to give me energy again but all my attempts did nothing to help my condition (as my grandmother used to say).  So, I went to bed and lied down and took a nap fully expecting to be recovered when I woke up, I was not and my state continued as it was before I lied down.  I could not understand what was transpiring and my mind was even becoming strained to think clearly.  I did sleep quite well that evening and nothing else transpired that night for I was hoping I would feel better when the morning arrived.

The next morning arrived quite nicely and when I got out of bed I had absolutely no energy to speak of but I did not panic at all and kept quiet as much as I could about how I was feeling to others.  I took so many naps that day that I could not believe it, I was so tired and for the life of me I could not figure out why.  We went over to my daughter’s house for dinner and had a great meal but I was still wiped out, even after several naps and not doing one thing all day I was at a loss.  Then, a thought burst into my head, I took a small scan of my body and energy level and believed I had figured a pattern out.  I told my wife that it had come to me that I was feeling just like I did when I had Mono a long time ago and that my residual EBV antibodies must be activated for some reason.  I thought that I had come up with the solution but God had other plans in mind.

As the following day arrived, I was feeling better but still drained like my energy was trying to return but for some reason could not.  I stayed in this dried up condition for a while trying my best to figure out what the issues were in my body with many tossed around but no conclusions made.  Then, after a few hours of contemplation, I remembered that I had an article that I needed to publish on my blog.  It was completed and all I needed to do was to date it and sign it, a simple thing to do and it did not take too much time to complete but a necessary step in my obedience to God.  I am not exaggerating here at all, for as soon as I went to my blog and began to complete my task my body began to feel better.  At first, I did not recognize this was occurring but as soon as I finished what I was supposed to do and published God’s message I was on the road to recovery.  I was sitting at my desk listening to music when I noticed that I was feeling better and it was then that I realized what was going on and what had plagued me for about 36 hours.  I was not doing what God had shared with me to complete and my health was not up to par because it was His way of grabbing my attention.

It is this point that God wants to make to us today and He wants us to understand a bit more about His servant Jonah while explaining things.  We will be in Jonah for a while for after I published the article that I was supposed to do days earlier, God dropped a few topics concerning Jonah into my heart which I promptly wrote down.  I did not want to go through that sickening feeling process again, but it served as a stage for what occurred to Jonah, how he responded to God, God’s response to Jonah, Jonah’s obedience, and then failure.  A great series of truth about ourselves and our nation did God reveal to me so that He may once again tend to His children in a manner of loving kindness of choice before He must prepare a judgment for those who reject His mission.

This definition of Jonah’s mission is clearly defined in the first few sentences of the Book of Jonah as stated in Jonah 1:1-2: “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”  Now, these few verses give us a clear picture of who is who and what is to be said and where it is supposed to be said.  So, how can one deny such a mission statement and direction given to them?  The only answer is that Jonah did not want to go and do what God wanted him to do so a challenge of power commenced as we see in Jonah 1:3.  However, Jonah 1:3 will be for the next installment of this series but keep it in mind as you proceed with the information God has for us on this topic.

I love it when God calls out a specific person by using the name of that person’s father.  One cannot get any more specific when the family lineage is used in order to ensure that no mistake in identity can be brought into the picture.  Immediately this portion of identification is taken care of in the first verse and then God continues with His command to Jonah by initiating the timeline of when this mission should be completed.  The word “arise” is meant to be done now without delay and is derived from the word “qum” which means to get up and is used in an exclamatory fashion.  No delays are possible for this usage of the word “arise”.  It is a fascinating detail about God and how He knows exactly when to tell His children to begin and then complete their mission.  Our minds have no way of comprehending the future and the timing of the future but God does and He uses this holy feature in order to grab the attention of those who are perfect for the job (purpose) so that true devastation can be avoided.

Next, God informs Jonah of exactly where he was supposed to go.  God did not hesitate nor did He suggest Jonah stop off somewhere in between before his arrival in Nineveh.  God told Jonah to get up immediately and to head to Nineveh by the necessary means of travel of that day.  It is this type of initiation process that explains God and how He operates, for He knows He has no human time to lose and that His timing is perfect in every way in order to protect His prized Creations.  It is this example that ends all doubts and beliefs that God is not a specific and direct Father.  Then, God describes the state of the city of Nineveh when He says that it is a great city.  God recognizes the size of the city and how important it is for the world at that moment.  However, God sees a far greater potential for the city if they will follow His Ways for we all know that when God speaks a name it is for a reason and since God cannot do anything in a reverse direction, all must be for the good.

Now we come to the point where God gives His orders to Jonah, which follow the first few words that God has already spoken to him they being clear and concise in all manner.  God makes no mistake about what Jonah is supposed to preach to the people of that city.  It is fascinating that God refers to the people of Nineveh as the “city of Nineveh” claiming that the people are the representatives of that place instead of the buildings, area, etc.  This proves that while God knows and sees the physical land crafted area of this city His concerns are of the people.  God does not tell Jonah to cry against the city of Nineveh itself but to those who inhabit within the city because while God gave us the ability to build cities He is not interested in the physical growth of cities but the spiritual growth of His prized Creations and their eternal positioning.  But God did not stop in His instructions at this point but further defined Jonah’s mission by calling out why God was sending Jonah to Nineveh for it was the wickedness of the people that had been recognized by God.  God did not want to be forced to punish Nineveh for their sin and choose the perfect man to complete this rescue (repentance) mission.

We must take heed here concerning what God means by “their wickedness is come up before me.”  God has made an interesting statement here and implies that at some point their sins of the people of Nineveh grew enough that it grabbed the attention of God’s heart.  This does not mean that God ignores sin until a certain “level” is obtained but since He understands what a majority is and what a majority of sin would establish He cannot allow such activities to thrive for if He did He would be considered a liar.  The words that God uses here is a signal, a signal that should say to us that the conditions of the hearts of the people have taken His notice which means He sees the growth of the world in them and the world inhabits their lives more than He does.  It also means that God must send out warnings to the people before He must take matters into His hands and grab their attention in a supernatural manner.  This proves that God is not up in Heaven waiting to strike down those who choose to live in the world, but that God gives us every opportunity to repent and change our ways before He must act.

So, when people say they have a message for those who will listen and their message comes straight from God’s Word then there can be no hesitation that it comes from God.  I can guarantee that there were many who laughed at Jonah when he entered into the city because anyone who would show up with bleached out hair, seaweed in their teeth and torn smelly clothes that screamed REPENT! Probably would get some odd looks.  But when Jonah decided to stop running and do what God had told him to do, the Bible states that there was a great revival and that many people changed their ways and began turning their hearts to God.  So many people changed their hearts that God spared the city and allowed no judgment to come to the city.  And it is here again that we have the simple truth that if people turn from the world and live according to God’s Ways God promises life abundantly and a healed land.

Most of us know that there are a “few” details that are being left out here concerning Jonah and how he came to go to the city of Nineveh.  That is okay because those details will be covered quite soon and will contain vital information about why this series is important to you and to our nation.  God wants us to know that He has placed people in this land who dearly love God and seek His Word every day.  God has chosen some of these people to send messages of warning to those they know and to this entire nation.  God has done this for a reason and that reason is the exact same as what God told Jonah to say to the people of Nineveh.  God is sending messengers out to speak the warnings of God that if we do not change our hearts quickly that there will be a devastation occur to this land that will not only change our nation but the world as well.  We have no record at all of the devastations of Nineveh during Jonah’s time and the reason for that is because the people believed in what Jonah was telling them.  If we do not listen to these messages from God today, our world shall drastically be changed in a manner in which no one shall ever recognize again.

Can you take a guess at whose responsibility it is to spread the news and the messages that God wants His people of this nation to hear?  Yep, not only is the Church supposed to be telling those who are lost about God and His Ways but God has selected some who go the extra mile in their ministering and foretelling of the ugliness that God sees before Him.  Jonah’s mission was clear and precise and so is ours and we cannot afford to hold back the truth one more day.  If we believe the Bible to be the authoritative Word of God then we must believe that the story of Jonah and the entire Book of Jonah is true; therefore, we must also believe that those who are proclaiming the Word of God today that their words come from the same source as Jonah’s.  God is giving us warning after warning and it is time we stop and listen to what God is saying for if we do not then we are all in for a rough and life life-changing experience, and through our disobedience will prove that God and His Word was correct all the time.  Repent, Church!  Repent, USA!  Changes are coming that will devastate our land if we do not repent and turn back to God 100%!

DLB