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!

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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

Shebna's Retirement

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Thursday, January 16, 2020

This is what the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, said to me:  “Confront Shebna, the palace administrator, and give him this message:  “Who do you think you are, and what are you doing here, building a beautiful tomb for yourself—a monument high up in the rock?  For the Lord is about to hurl you away, mighty man.  He is going to grab you, crumple you into a ball, and toss you away into a distant, barren land.  There you will die, and your glorious chariots will be broken and useless.  You are a disgrace to your master!  “Yes, I will drive you out of office,” says the Lord.  “I will pull you down from your high position.  And then I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah to replace you.  I will dress him in your royal robes and will give him your title and your authority.  And he will be a father to the people of Jerusalem and Judah.  I will give him the key to the house of David—the highest position in the royal court.  When he opens doors, no one will be able to close them; when he closes doors, no one will be able to open them.  He will bring honor to his family name, for I will drive him firmly in place like a nail in the wall.  They will give him great responsibility, and he will bring honor to even the lowliest members of his family.”  But the Lord of Heaven’s Armies also says: “The time will come when I will pull out the nail that seemed so firm.  It will come out and fall to the ground. Everything it supports will fall with it. I, the Lord, have spoken!”                Isaiah 22: 15-22

Shebna was palace administrator in the most powerful kingdom on earth.  The next moment he was retired…to the garbage dump!  Hero to zero in nothing flat!  Horatio Alger wrote novels in the so-called Gilded Age of U.S. history, always the rags-to-riches of young, impoverished boys who grew up to be rich and admirable.  Shebna is the downside of this theme.  He had it all, but was unfaithful, and God was going to toss him into Hell’s wastebasket!  Shebna’s seat of power would belong to Hilkiah’s son, Eliakim, who would do well for a while, but even his legacy would resemble a loose nail in a wobbly table.

When I read passages that show God’s displeasure with unfaithful servants, I get a case of the night sweats.  After all, I am a pastor, charged with leadership in God’s house, and, whether the membership is a dozen or thousands, it is a holy calling, and not to be a trifling thing.  An unfaithful servant is just as wicked in a small place as having charge over Jerusalem’s palace.

It’s tempting to think only about the blessings God brings into our lives.  In a rather obtuse way that lends itself to a Pollyanna existence, resembling an ostrich with its head in the sand.  Because, for all the benevolence of God to provide and bless his children, there is also the holiness of God’s sovereignty.  And when our responsibility to serve Him is breached with self-importance, or impudence, that disrespect invites God’s wrath in response.  What happens then is the dominoes of our little kingdoms falling one after another, right into the retirement village of a garbage dump.

For You Today

We are all servants in God’s kingdom, and we are all, in some way, called to be at work in His vineyard.  As you ponder that thought about how you are involved as a vineyard servant, ask this question also – is my service for Him, or for me?

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

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