Tuesday: Our Excuses: Inconvenience
Daily Lesson for Tuesday 31st of October 2023
Jonah’s experience in the belly of the fish (see Jonah 2:1-10) was a dramatic show of God’s love and mercy, and Jonah’s prayer reveals that he didn’t miss God’s message of love. But just because he had had an incredible encounter with God didn’t mean that his old thought habits or attitudes would easily change, even though he went to Nineveh anyway.
Read Jonah 3:1-10. How did the people respond to what Jonah had preached? What lessons are here for us about witnessing?
Whatever Jonah’s personal feelings about the Ninevites, he preached what God told him to, and the results were astonishing. The Ninevites were moved to repentance! Yes, Jonah had to go through a lot, to do what he didn’t want to do, but when he did it, God was glorified.
Thus, God’s mission is carried forward on the shoulders of those who are willing to sacrifice, even if reluctantly. Our values must give way to God’s priority for the lost. Like Jonah, we sometimes harbor prejudices that keep us from reaching out to a person or group.
Having to face our prejudices requires humility. Mission also requires time and emotional energy. Investing in others’ lives and truly caring for them can be taxing. In an age when we are stressed keeping up with our own lives and problems, providing emotional support can seem just too exhausting.
And finally, being involved in mission often requires that we change how we feel about and use our money. Whether related to providing care for people, purchasing literature and outreach materials, or paying for services or conveniences to free up time for mission work, there are expenses related to mission. Whatever form it may take, mission work requires sacrifice.
The good news is that in spite of Jonah’s inadequacies, God worked powerfully in bringing the Ninevites to repentance. Sadly, Jonah did not share in the blessing of heaven’s joy.
What sacrifice is God asking you to make—or be ready to make—for the sake of sharing His love with someone else? How completely do you trust that He will fulfill His promise to enrich your life through sacrifice?
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Randy Pausch, a computer science educator gave a lecture just before he died entitled, "My One Last Lecture". It was a powerful inspiring lecture. In it he tells the story of his days, playing high school football. He recounts that on one practice day, he was particularly discouraged because it seemed that he could never do anything right. The coach kept yelling at him and it seemed that he was playing like a demented donkey.
After the game, he was walking despondently back to the changing rooms when the assistant coach caught up with him and observed to Randy, "The coach was pretty rough on you out there today!"
Randy responded, "Yeah, he was yelling at me all the time. Maybe I should give up trying to play football."
"No!" responded the assistant coach, "He believes you will make a good player. That's why he is yelling at you. When he stops shouting at you, that's when you know he has given up on you!"
God did not give up on Jonah. He "yelled" at him in the storm and he "yelled at hin in the belly of the fish. And then he reassigned him the task. It was as if God was saying in his coaching voice, "You are still learning!"
Wasn't that the story of the Hebrew nations? God kept yelling at them, each time they did something stupid.
God does not give up on us until we make the decision ourselves to push him away.
Having been a Hindu for almost 36 years of my life, I never heard King Jesus' voice, but that changed on the 10th of May 2013 when I received The Holy Spirit.
I would rather have Him call me a "demented donkey" 🤣🤣🤣 (which we wouldn't call us) than have the silence of those ~36 years of my life.
Praise be to our King Jesus 🙏
What sacrifice is God asking you to make—or be ready to make—for the sake of sharing His love with someone else? How completely do you trust that He will fulfill His promise to enrich your life through sacrifice?
I personally don't see sharing King Jesus with others as a sacrifice. It is a blessing in my life & something I do without any effort. I am just thankful to Him. That's all. Just thankful.
"But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.", King Jesus in Matthew 9:13 KJV.
It all starts with the understanding of God's Love for me, an unconditional Love. From then on, I can appreciate and submit myself entirely to Him. His will must be recognized and searched for every day. For that, I need to develop a relationship with Him, spend time, and engage in activities. God can use me then to preach His Love to others.
Still struggling to understand this subtopic of Inconvenience. Who was inconvenienced? Jonah or God? And how? I've read the lesson for today but still floating with nothing reasonable to pick in ralation to the subject of Inconvenience.
So, I checked Google for the meaning of the word Inconvenience : "The state or fact of being troublesome or difficult with regard to one's personal requirements or comfort."
So, to offer an answer to your questions:
Who was inconvenienced? Jonah or God? And how?
I say it was Jonah. He really didn't want to go to the Ninevites. He felt it more comfortable to do other stuff. But God convinced him otherwise.
I agree, I didn't see anything about inconvenience in Jonah's story. I think there might be better texts to focus on to emphasize that. If the issue was inconvenience, Jonah wouldn't have fled. He would have just stayed home.
It was inconvenient for Jonah to move out of his comfortable angry attitude towards the Ninevites. We can all get into a pattern of destructive or ungodly behavior that if left unchecked can become so much part of us that we think we cannot live without it. (Children who were raised in abusive homes either go on to abuse or find another abuser to perpetuate the same pattern, for example) It then becomes difficult to move away from that because we’ve become so dependent upon it. This is how I see Jonah’s situation. He had become so entrenched in his hatred for the Ninevites that it was uncomfortable (or inconvenient) to even consider moving away from that mindset.
Jesus gave a clear warning to each Christian in Mark 16:15 “ GO ye into ALL the world and preach the gospel to EVERY nation, kindred, tongue, and people.” Excuses are given on time, comfort, convenience, money. When God gives us a job He provides the resources and He makes the way.
The Turning.
Today's scripture references were packed with multiple stories of God's mercy upon fallen humanity.
Jonah didn't show any mercy for Nineveh until God Turned him around. However, he did praise God for saving him from the depths of the sea. Jonah 2:1-10.
Job 33:28
Ps. 16:10
Isiah 38:17
h what the message was that He wanted Jonah to tell the inhabitants of Nineveh as he embarked on his journey into a city that could have been 50 miles long. If we embark on a mission, He will put words into our mouth as well!
The people of Nineveh responded and repented of their sins! Word went up to the king. He also repented and assisted in proclaiming God's message of repentance; trusting that if the city Turned from their evil ways, who can tell if God will Turn and repent, and Turn away from His fierce anger.
Jonah 3:10.
And God saw their works, that they Turned from their evil way: and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
What a merciful God we serve! Praise His Holy Name.
The king of Nineveh humbled himself, changed his kingly garments, put on sackcloth, sat in ashes and fasted. He then proclaimed that all the people in the land, including animals, should also fast. This shows us that we are not to judge others salvation, because we don't know how God is working on their hearts - Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart (1 Sam 16:7). WHo would have thought these evil Assyrians would recognize the God of heaven, and repent from their evil ways!!!
God is merciful towards us and longsuffering with all His children.
Praise be to God for His loving kindness!!!
The point of the story of Jonah is whether or not he will repent and turn to God. The irony of the story is that the heathen Ninevites are more willing than the prophet to do God's will. This begs the questions: How might we be like Jonah? How might God be bringing us to repentance?
The story of Jonah is more like an exposé of an "inconvenient truth" about his faith than an overcoming his "inconvenience".