HERO to ZERO

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Jonah was much like Moses, a hometown HERO that became a ZERO.  He was a Hebrew prophet, who walked intimately with God.  That changed with one rebellious act, disagreeing with God that the Lord should spare judgment on the wicked city of Nineveh.  The prophet ran away from his home with the intention he’d hide from God’s view.  He was wrong.  Chapter one ends on the open sea with a storm, and Jonah’s disobedience being discovered as the cause; he’s tossed overboard and a great fish swallows him. 

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish.  He said, “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble,  and he answered me.  I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me!  You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea.  The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.  Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence.  Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’  “I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me.  Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.  I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.  I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever.  But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!  As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord.  And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple.  Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies.  But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows.  For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.”  Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.  Jonah 2:1-10

Perhaps a better title for today’s message would be:

From HERO to ZERO, and BACK!

So, what do we make of a prophet who runs from God, gets thrown overboard by some superstitious sailors, swallowed by a gigantic fish, and spit out on the beach, in the town God wanted him in the first place.  You could make at least two assumptions (only one of them correct):

     1.    Honest, genuine, prophetic prayer nauseates fish!

     2.    You should never try hiding from God.

Jonah was reluctant, but finally showed up in Nineveh, and preached God’s message of destruction to that pagan city.  The surprising turn of the story is that all the people of that huge city repented and trusted God, who forgave their sins.[1]  Jonah…not so much; the prophet sunk into a depressive adolescent pout, still refusing to join God in compassion for a city and people he hated.  If there’s one irrefutable conclusion you can draw from the story of Jonah, it’s:

Sometimes We are our own Worst Enemy

For You Today 

Jonah truly went from HERO to ZERO, and BACK…and the process continued, because his selfish attitude never changed.  The preacher finally preached, did God’s will, wasn’t happy about it, sat under the whining-tree, and pouted.  And God still loved him.  It begs the question, though about petulant Jonah…and us:

If he (or we) have to be swallowed by a big fish, and on the verge of death, before cooperating with God…are we EVER REALLY COOPERATING with God?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   Fall - Redemption - Obedience  and  Jonah's Praise  and   Why, Jonah? 

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Read the rest of the story HERE