Jonah

I don’t think there is any prophet in the old covenant that gets dissed as much as Jonah. Unfortunately, I have heard many shallow messages regarding Jonah being weak, rebellious, and not listening to G-d, without the depth of understanding regarding the whole situation.

The book of Jonah is filled with so many lessons for us to learn.

Messiah Yeshua elevates the prophetic writings in His Gospels, by using his account as a sign for that generation, and I would say for all generations that follow.

Let’s compare and contrast Jonah to us today.

Jonah– Heard the word of the L-rd
What about us—Do we give time out of our day to wait upon the L-rd and hear His words?

Jonah– Ran away from G-ds presence. He went in the very opposite direction of where Ad-nai wanted him to go.
What about us—Do we run away from G-d, or run towards Him? I think most of us would think of a time or times in our life that we ran in the very opposite direction of G-ds plans and purposes for us.

Jonah– Slept in the midst of the storm. There was another one, Messiah Yeshua, who slept in the middle of a storm as well.
What about us— How do we act in a storm? Are we that calm that we can sleep so soundly?

Jonah– Recognized he was responsible for the storm and its coming from G-ds hand. He tells the sailors to throw him overboard.
What about us—I am not sure how many of us would have passed that test.  Do we recognize G-ds hand upon us and how he wants to bring about change in our life?

Jonah– G-d causes a big fish to swallow Jonah. Pretty miraculous.
What about us— Do we see G-ds hand of provision and His way out? It’s pretty miraculous as well!

Jonah– Comes to the end of himself after 3 days and nights in the belly of the fish; he cries out to G-d and repents.
What about us—Where do we stand with repentance?

Jonah– The fish spits him out on dry land.  Again he hears the word of the L-rd and goes right to Nineveh.
What about us— Is our path so direct after repentance? Do we waiver? Are we purposeful?

Jonah– Preaches to his ruthless enemies a message of warning from his Holy G-d.
What about us— Do we even preach the Good News to our friends?

This message was not one of grace and forgiveness.  It was a warning from G-d because of the evil that had risen up before Him, and in 40 days He would overturn their city.
Their response— the people listened, believed G-d, fasted, and put on sackcloth.
At this point G-d was comforted by Nineveh’s repentance and He relented from their destruction.

Jonah-Became angry because his enemies were spared.
What about us—Are we happy when good comes to our enemies?

How many of us have caused more than 120,000 people to come to repentance?

Messiah Yeshua spoke about the sign of Jonah and it was recorded in the books of Matthew and Luke.  And he revealed that it was the only sign that generation would be given. But what a sign! Yeshua would be put to death and spend 3 days and nights in the belly of the earth, and would be raised from the dead!  Wow, and for what purpose?  An amazing opportunity for the entire world, not just one country to come into repentance and be saved! Not for just one period of time but forever more!

Blessed be the Name of the L-rd!