Easter Devotional - Day 46
"The sailors were frightened, and they all started praying to their gods. They even threw the ship's cargo overboard to make the ship lighter. All this time, Jonah was down below deck, sound asleep. The ship's captain went to him and said, 'How can you sleep at a time like this? Get up and pray to your God! Maybe he will have pity on us and keep us from drowning.' Finally, the sailors got together and said, 'Let's ask our gods to show us who caused all this trouble.' It turned out to be Jonah." Jonah 1:5-7
Jonah did not seem to care much how his actions affected others. If the ship he was on sank with all the sailors, he was not concerned. Then again, that was the attitude that brought him on board the ship, anyway. He was unconcerned for Nineveh, unconcerned for the sailors, and too engrossed in his desire for revenge against his enemies to worry with any collateral damage that might result from his actions in fleeing God's call to preach repentance in the city of Nineveh.
Instead of praying, he slept. Instead of sharing any concern for the shipmen who had allowed him on board, he kept aloof. He preferred his death to allowing Nineveh to hear the message Yahweh had entrusted to him. He would rather die than allow Nineveh the chance to escape judgment. If that meant the ship would also be lost, so be it. His depression clouded any sense of compassion. His anger wiped away questions of concern for others—if such concern had ever been there.
He did not bother to help them out or point to the fact that he knew why the storm had engulfed them all. He waited until they had cast lots and God had pointed him out as culpable. Only in the light clarifying his guilt was he ready to accept the fact that he was placing the lives of others at risk. His self-absorption kept empathy at bay, refusing to look at the sailors as men with lives of any value. It was only when Yahweh allowed the lots to point to him that he stooped to confess that he was the one for whom the storm had come.
Jonah was acting less like a prophet and more like the original suicide bomber. The people in his way were not persons, but objects. His anger, pride, and sense of superior purpose placed all else at bay. There was little room left for God to work in his life and correct the course of his actions. Anger was in control. His enemies, the Ninevites were at fault in his eyes. To be honest, in his estimation, God was really the one at fault.
His anger was really at Yahweh who had sent him on this errand to Nineveh. He did not want to go. He did not want another to go. He was battling Yahweh's very purpose of mercy, warning, and offer of grace. Without recognizing it, perhaps, he was adopting the very characteristics he despised in those he had deemed enemies, and therefore worthless.
"Death and judgment to the merciless!" was his cry. He wanted to wipe out that worthless people who committed atrocities against his own nation, never recognizing just how like them he had become in his sense of moral superiority. Smug and self-satisfied in his anger against Nineveh, he did not see just how like his enemies he also needed the mercy and grace of Yahweh for his own attitudes of violence. He was no better than those he wished to die, precisely for his desire for their deaths.
Take stock of your own sense of anger and righteousness indignation toward others.
"Lord, grant me the courage to look at myself in the same way I assess the worth of others."
—©Copyright 2009, Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/
My latest books can be found here on amazon
Jonah did not seem to care much how his actions affected others. If the ship he was on sank with all the sailors, he was not concerned. Then again, that was the attitude that brought him on board the ship, anyway. He was unconcerned for Nineveh, unconcerned for the sailors, and too engrossed in his desire for revenge against his enemies to worry with any collateral damage that might result from his actions in fleeing God's call to preach repentance in the city of Nineveh.
Instead of praying, he slept. Instead of sharing any concern for the shipmen who had allowed him on board, he kept aloof. He preferred his death to allowing Nineveh to hear the message Yahweh had entrusted to him. He would rather die than allow Nineveh the chance to escape judgment. If that meant the ship would also be lost, so be it. His depression clouded any sense of compassion. His anger wiped away questions of concern for others—if such concern had ever been there.
He did not bother to help them out or point to the fact that he knew why the storm had engulfed them all. He waited until they had cast lots and God had pointed him out as culpable. Only in the light clarifying his guilt was he ready to accept the fact that he was placing the lives of others at risk. His self-absorption kept empathy at bay, refusing to look at the sailors as men with lives of any value. It was only when Yahweh allowed the lots to point to him that he stooped to confess that he was the one for whom the storm had come.
Jonah was acting less like a prophet and more like the original suicide bomber. The people in his way were not persons, but objects. His anger, pride, and sense of superior purpose placed all else at bay. There was little room left for God to work in his life and correct the course of his actions. Anger was in control. His enemies, the Ninevites were at fault in his eyes. To be honest, in his estimation, God was really the one at fault.
His anger was really at Yahweh who had sent him on this errand to Nineveh. He did not want to go. He did not want another to go. He was battling Yahweh's very purpose of mercy, warning, and offer of grace. Without recognizing it, perhaps, he was adopting the very characteristics he despised in those he had deemed enemies, and therefore worthless.
"Death and judgment to the merciless!" was his cry. He wanted to wipe out that worthless people who committed atrocities against his own nation, never recognizing just how like them he had become in his sense of moral superiority. Smug and self-satisfied in his anger against Nineveh, he did not see just how like his enemies he also needed the mercy and grace of Yahweh for his own attitudes of violence. He was no better than those he wished to die, precisely for his desire for their deaths.
Take stock of your own sense of anger and righteousness indignation toward others.
"Lord, grant me the courage to look at myself in the same way I assess the worth of others."
—©Copyright 2009, Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/
My latest books can be found here on amazon
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