I was wondering what to read in the Bible and decided to read one of the Prophets. When I opened it to the part of the Bible with the Prophets, it opened to Jonah. I thought I already know this story, but God always teaches you something new every time you read the Bible. So I read the book of Jonah. But when I read the last couple of chapters, I noticed that I did not remember it. It was after Jonah had been spat out by the great fish, and told the people of Nineveh about what God would do. Jonah 3:1-10 says:
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you."
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city-a visit required three days. On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: Forty more days and the city of Nineveh will be overturned." The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his thrown, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:
"By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish."
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion on them and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.
When Jonah finally came and told the people of Nineveh the words of the Lord, they listened to it right away and stopped their evil ways. And because of this, God took compassion on them and spared them. But Jonah became angry at the Lord for this. He felt that the Lord made Him go through all of what he went through for no reason. Because God sent him to tell the people that He would destroy them. But when they heard the Words of the Lord they accepted them right away, and repented for their evil ways. And were saved instead of being destroyed. Jonah 4:1-11 says:
But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the Lord, "O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents fro sending calamity. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."
But the Lord replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"
Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head and ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."
But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."
But the Lord said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
I have had to think about this from the moment I read it till a few minutes before I started writing this post. First, do not think the vine represents the people of Nineveh. It is an example of Jonah's needless anger. He did not tend or grow the vine, it was not his own posession. It was only there for a day, and yet he grew angry about it. However, he also grew angry about God putting him through all He did, and end up not killing the people of Nineveh. How ridiculous does his anger seem. But Jonah did not realize something. If he had not gone to tell them of what God had said, a whole people who God cared for and who would have so readily loved God, would have been destroyed. And even if he had realized this, he probably would have said, "Why couldn't God send someone else in my stead?"
The truth, is that we are all a big bunch of Jonahs. We are all commanded to go and tell people in our lives (our Nineveh) about God's saving Grace. Many of whom are ready to accept it, but may never hear of it, and instead be destroyed. We say, "Why does it have to be me only? Why does God not just take care of it with someone else, or on His own?" As I thought about that question, another question came into my head that I have had so many people say to me. "Why does God not just remove all evil from the world and make it so that we all already love Him?" I thought about it for a long time. And my answer was ultimately, We do not know. For who can know what God's plan is? Romans 11:33-34 says:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"
We cannot know what God wants us to do, for it is His plan. I was given a piece of logic that states, "It is impossible to know the mind of the Lord, because to know the mind of the Lord means to be equal on that plain with the Lord. This is impossible, for man can in no way, be equal to God." We do not know why God does the things He does. Why sin is still in the world?, Why we do not already know of God's greatness when we are born?, Why it is up to us to tell others of God's Son Jesus? But, we can have Faith in God, just like we have faith that He sent His Holy Son to die on the cross to save us from our sins, that whatever He does, it is done for a greater purpose.
As I was talking to a friend from church about what I was going to be talking about in this post, I thought of a theory, as to why He lets us choose to sin or love Him. I ended up asking the question:
"Why do mothers and fathers choose to have children, even though they know that they could turn around and hate them?"
I feel that the answer to this question, is also the same answer to why God does what he does. The answer is that they wanted something that they could love, and who would Choose to love them. Not be forced to love them. For if that was the case, we would be nothing more than an animal with an instinct to love God. If this is the right answer, then it just goes that much farther to show the Fatherly nature of God. For He created us, so that He could love us. And that is proven all the more with the sacrifice of His one and only Perfect Son on the cross, so that we might be saved and go spend an eternity with Him in Heaven.
I do not know if my theory is true or not, for no one knows the mind of the Lord our God. However, it is what I believe to be the reason. But even if it is or if it isn't, I know that I will always have a Father, who will do anything for me, till the day I die, and beyond that. And that He wants me, and all of you, to Love Him and others with all our hearts, and to share God's life saving Word with all of the people in this World. Praise be to the Father!
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
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