Jonah...Under His Shade Tree in a Snit

Friday, February 24, 2023

This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry.  So he complained to the Lord about it:  “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord?  That is why I ran away to Tarshish!  I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.  You are eager to turn back from destroying people.  Just kill me now, Lord!  I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”  The Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”  Then Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen to the city.  And the Lord God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there, and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah’s head, shading him from the sun.  This eased his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant.  But God also arranged for a worm!  The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away.  And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah.  The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die.  “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed.  Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”  “Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”  Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there.  It came quickly and died quickly.  But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals.  Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”  Jonah 4:1-11 

Jonah was attempting to float an argument that never floats, that his anger was justified.  He was angry at God for sending him to Nineveh, an arch-enemy of his Jewish heritage.  Jonah knew it was possible that city might respond to God’s sovereignty, repent, and be saved.  And that was the last thing Jonah wanted.  He was angry at the Ninevites for their atrocities on his people.  He didn’t want God to forgive them; he wanted them toasted…extra-crispy.

This look into Jonah’s character is also a peek behind our curtain.  We are not at all different from Jonah, making excuses for our bad behavior, sulking when God doesn’t incinerate our enemies, and blaming God for the awful mess that we have created for the next generation.  We respond with ground troops or drone strikes. 

On a personal level we turn to Jonah’s shade bush for comfort:  drugs, alcohol, or building a bigger and better (and much more lucrative) mousetrap.  And if that doesn’t work to soothe our pouting curmudgeon ways, we settle for making everyone else around us miserable with the same excuses Adam and Eve gave about their rebellion; they blamed God.  Asked by God to account for his behavior, Adam replied: 

“It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”  Genesis 3:12

Jonah’s life was many generations removed from the Garden of Eden, but nothing had changed about rebellion against God’s ways.  And it still hasn’t to this very moment.  The prophet predicted that.  Preaching about why a Messiah would have to die for our Jonah attitude and ways, Isaiah said:

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.  We have left God’s paths to follow our own.  Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.  Isaiah 53:6

For You Today 

This Lenten season, stay away from Jonah’s bush of complaints; instead, hang out with the Psalmist:

Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 

Psalm 37:4

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

            Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Fall - Redemption - Obedience  and  It's Not Easy Being Green      

Images:  Title Via WikimediaCommons   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

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

Once Again; Slowly This Time

Thursday, February 23, 2023

Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time:  “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”  This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.  On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds:  “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”  The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.   Jonah 3:1-5 

I’ve never spoken to anyone who has never heard of Jonah.  Most of the time, whether it is someone who has been in church all his life, from the cradle roll to Senior Adult class – or someone who has never set foot inside a church, their immediate recollection of Jonah is his disobedience and being swallowed by a huge fish.  Thus proving the point, being a bad boy gets a lot more press than obedience.

I get the feeling that after Jonah’s unplanned submarine ride God spoke to him that second time a little more slowly, and with a tone somewhat like what my Dad used to have when I was dangerously close to my last chance to get it right (and treading on his last nerve!). 

God said:  Jonah…son…let me say this one more time….slowly…

NIN-E-VEH….NOW!

Seven of the sweetest words you’ve ever heard followed:

This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command…Jonah 3:2^(NLT)

While most people remember Jonah’s disobedience, it is the best news to recall how he began to get it right by repenting and being forgiven and used in God’s service. 

Certainly Jonah still had attitude problems to deal with later, but with his bigger problem solved – obeying the unmistakable command of God to proclaim a message of love to his enemies – Jonah was now able to hang around and have God do some major repair on the prophet’s sense of compassion.

And doesn’t that sound like somebody YOU know?

Well, more slowly this time…isn’t that US?

For You Today 

If you went to Ash Wednesday service yesterday, you may have had a cross drawn on your forehead with some ashes.  

Every year that cross of ashes helps me remember the Jonah in me – disobedient, running from God – apprehended by grace – marked by the ashes of repentance, mixed with the oil of healing.

I don’t mind that being remembered about me.

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

(Today’s devotion is a re-posting of this title from 3/2/17)

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Do What?  and  Pyxis Points      

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

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

Hiding From God

 

Thursday, July 15, 2021

I have found my servant David.  I have anointed him with my holy oil.  I will steady him with my hand; with my powerful arm I will make him strong.  His enemies will not defeat him, nor will the wicked overpower him.  I will beat down his adversaries before him and destroy those who hate him.  My faithfulness and unfailing love will be with him, and by my authority he will grow in power.  I will extend his rule over the sea, his dominion over the rivers.  And he will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’  I will make him my firstborn son, the mightiest king on earth.  I will love him and be kind to him forever; my covenant with him will never end.  I will preserve an heir for him; his throne will be as endless as the days of heaven.  But if his descendants forsake my instructions and fail to obey my regulations, if they do not obey my decrees and fail to keep my commands, then I will punish their sin with the rod, and their disobedience with beating.  But I will never stop loving him nor fail to keep my promise to him.  No, I will not break my covenant; I will not take back a single word I said.
 I have sworn an oath to David, and in my holiness I cannot lie: His dynasty will go on forever; his kingdom will endure as the sun.  It will be as eternal as the moon, my faithful witness in the sky!”  Psalm 89:20-37

The one story I heard over and again while in seminary it was, I ran from God.  The most loved (and probably most despised) text for a day’s study was Jonah, the reluctant prophet who ran from God, and was subsequently treated to a submarine ride in the belly of a great fish, right back to where he was called to be in the first place.  It seems hiding from God just won’t do! 

But, what’s a God-called person to do when he’s afraid to answer the call? 

Short answer, read Psalm 89. 

But, read it looking at how God sees the call.  God had chosen David as the next king of Israel to replace the faithless Saul.  The call covers the width, breadth, and depth of how that call would be worked-out by God, with promises for David’s protection, strength, and growing authority, infused with an unending measure of God’s lovingkindness.  Even if the inhabitants of the kingdom were to refuse to cooperate, God gave David an assurance that his reign was going to endure as long as the stars, even as long and as sure as the mighty name of JHWH.

If a person, called by God to serve, is certain of God’s character and promises, there seems to be little to hold one back from responding to the call.  Except there is that one little reality – so many in history resisted the call.  Peter resisted it, telling Jesus to leave him be; Peter was a sinful man and was, in effect, saying, Lord, you don’t want someone like me…you’re holy, and I’m not.[1] 

With Peter it wasn’t a matter of doubting God’s ability; Peter questioned how Peter could ever be up to being God’s man.  And this is the fly-in-the-ointment of any calling.  We may not doubt God’s calling in the generic sense, that God has chosen to use even flawed human beings to accomplish His will.  We doubt God’s specific choice to use me.  Doesn’t the Lord remember this about me…or the time I did that?  Like Jonah, we just can’t see it, and we want to find a little dark place to crawl-in, and hide from God. 

(Isn’t it ironic how God allows that?  Just think of the 3 days Jonah was allowed to hide in a small, dark, and rather smelly fish’s belly to think about his choice!) 

For You Today

So, are you still hiding from God these days? 

Go back and look at the promises God makes to those He calls to serve him.  He may be calling you to serve by preaching, or sharing your faith with a neighbor, but when He calls, remember the promises…put your name at the end of each one.  He’s always been faithful…and that won’t change.

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

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

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[1] See Luke 5:8

When God's Message Stings

 

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.  Shout aloud!  Don’t be timid.  Tell my people Israel of their sins!  Yet they act so pious!  They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me.  They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God.  They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me.  ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.  ‘Why aren’t you impressed?  We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’  “I will tell you why!” I respond.  “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.  Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers.  What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling?  This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.  You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind.  You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes.  Is this what you call fasting?  Do you really think this will please the Lord?  “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:  Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you.  Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.  Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless.  Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.  “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal.  Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.  Then when you call, the Lord will answer.  ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.  “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.  Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!  Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble.  Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.  The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength.  Isaiah 58:1-10

Isaiah was a priest to the rich and powerful people who ran things in Jerusalem.  His voice stung like a scorpion in the wilderness as he preached a message nobody wanted to hear.  Truth be told, nobody wants to hear a prophet with a stinger-tail.

Jeremiah was a weeping prophet because Israel needed someone to weep for their sins.  Amos called the refined ladies of the king’s palace fat cows[1].  They lived lavishly while the ordinary citizens were starving.  And John the Baptist?  Well, the poor listened, but the powerful plotted…and had his head on a platter!

There is little about being a prophet that is attractive to those who value an easy life, career advancement, and perks.  Mainly, the job description calls for telling those who have those values that their whole existence stinks in God’s nostrils; and then they kill you.

And yet, Isaiah says, don’t be timid…speak the tail of the scorpion out clearly and don’t hold back!  Be like a trumpet blast…tell Israel of her sins! 

For a prophet there can be no other choice. 

·       Jonah found that out when he tried to run away from his appointment to Nineveh.  God arranged a submarine ride back to the mission field. 

·       Elijah trembled in the face of adversity, hid in a cave, and hoped to die before ever seeing Jezebel again; he didn’t die, but God’s Word prevailed, and Jezebel’s corpse was eaten by dogs. 

Considering a prophet’s calling, and that for which God always seems to employ His prophets, what would today’s prophet say of America? 

·       Would he be like Jeremiah, the weeping theatrical prophet, dressing in swaddling clothes, and hacked to pieces by an abortion provider?

·       Would he be like Isaiah or Samuel, marching into the White House and Congress with a list 7 times longer than Martin Luther’s 95 points of the sins of leaders?

·       Would she instruct like Priscilla, telling all the so-called pandering preachers, insipid messengers of prosperity and fluff, to cease their endless petting of evil, and start calling our nation to repentance?

Would to God we would see that.

For You Today

If the day of God’s prophets is ended, what hope is there for humanity and righteousness? 

None, I suppose, except, Revelation’s final message, even so, come, Lord Jesus.

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

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] Amos 4:1

 

The Sign of Jonah

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.”  But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.  “The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah.  Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.  The queen of Sheba will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon.  Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen.         Matthew 12:38-42

To understand the sign of Jonah (a metaphor comparing the resurrection of Jesus with Jonah’s three-day ride inside God’s fish-taxi) we must understand to whom Jesus was talking.  Matthew tells us the group that came seeking a sign were teachers of the law and Pharisees; these were the religious professionals (clergy) of Israel.  The teachers of the law (rabbis) did just that, taught each jot and tittle of Scripture’s laws.  Their entire focus was zoomed-in on legal correctness, making certain no law was forgotten.  The Pharisees were more interested in living-out [applying] the law daily.  They took what the rabbis taught and tried to walk the tightrope of never crossing the line of transgression.  This group was made up of teachers of the law and keepers of the law.  Their tribe is legion to this day.

I recently had a conversation with a young man who had been raised in church but hadn’t been for some time.  It was a conversation that lasted awhile, and eventually turned to faith.  He explained that his main life’s goal was to treat other people like he wanted to be treated.  It was a golden rule approach of which the Pharisees would be proud.

This group of teachers and keepers of the law were also inspectors of anyone who infringed on their domain.  They came to Jesus looking for proof; they wanted a look at Christ’s credentials.  And so, Jesus held up Jonah and the queen of Sheba.  One was a Jewish prophet who had trouble obeying God’s command, but eventually had to repent and obey; the other was a non-Jew, and a woman, hardly representative of authority to rabbis and Pharisees, but displaying the utmost of wisdom when she came to sit at the feet of Solomon.

By holding up Jonah and Ethiopia’s queen as righteousness, juxtaposed to the rabbis and Pharisees who prided themselves on self-righteousness, Jesus turned everything upside-down.  And, the teaching for us is that the humility of repentance trumps the pride of righteousness every time.

Veiled [thinly] in Jesus’ teaching is the sign; the Lord is telling the teachers and Pharisees to watch for the humility of the grave to be overthrown with the power of God on the third day.  He was saying to them, you’re like little children if you don’t understand…you think you’ll be done with me if you put me in a grave…but you can’t keep God in a grave!

Here’s the apostle Paul’s commentary on the rabbis and Pharisees:

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction!  But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.  As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”                                             1 Corinthians 1:18-19

For You Today

If you’re like my young friend, trying to keep the Golden Rule, but forgetting the humility of worshipping the God of that Golden Rule, you’re missing true wisdom and the power of God.  Start looking at the third day’s empty tomb.

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

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on 1 Corinthians 15 see Signs

Do WHAT?

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time:  “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”  This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.  On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds:  “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”  The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.  When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes.  He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes.  Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city:    “No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all.  People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God.  They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence.  Who can tell?  Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.”  When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.   Jonah 3:1-10[1]

Second chances come in many different areas of life.  Relationships, career, health, and even games.  Most of the time there is some forgiveness involved, or, at the least, a softening that gives us a chance to make it right this time.  Jonah had that.  He’d stumbled at the first call to go to Nineveh; this time he made it count.  The whole city repented and turned to God, including the king.

It’s a preoccupation of mine how many second chances people walk past.  Perhaps one of the more well-known second chances is the pan handler; it’s a bit uncomfortable, but if you avert eye contact you can usually get past that guy on the corner of the street with the sign that always includes anything helps – God bless.  What’s “second chance” about that encounter is not merely that guy, or one of his tribe, being on virtually every major intersection you pass, but that we become so adept at ignoring the second chance to love being involved in mercy. 

It is safe to say Jonah would welcome the opportunity to explain just how awful it is to enable that guy begging on the corner.  In a free country you’re supposed to work and provide for yourself.  While it’s probably true that there are some who bear those signs asking your help (and dollar bills) who just find it easier to beg than work, there are probably many more who have just come to the end of their rope, and the knot at the end of that rope is you; they’ve become too accustomed to holding on to that knot, or too afraid to let go.

Jonah got a second chance to deliver God’s message of judgment and mercy.  Nineveh was promised destruction if they didn’t let go of the knot at the end of their wicked rope.  What was so unusual was the way they believed the message of God and repented…from the throne room to the brothels and barns.  The message of judgment brought change and a mission of mercy.  All Jonah had to do was let go of his own knotty rope of hatred towards the Ninevites and do as God had directed.

For You Today

Truth is you know that guy with the God Bless sign as well as I do.  And you have probably heard this message before about Jonah, and the Scripture I want us both to have annoying us today as we drive past the man or woman holding that sign with one hand, and the knot at the end of his or her life’s rope with the other:

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8

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

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

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[1] For other posts on Jonah 3 see When the Land is Desolate  and Once Again - Slowly this Time and The Face of Rebellion