Jonah: A Really Cool Book for Overseas Work
I read the book of Jonah the other day, and it blew me away. I think I'll write a book one day titled like this post. Anyway, looking at Jonah's story is a huge encouragement to overseas workers everywhere. Here's a synopsis:
1. God tells Jonah to go to an evil city called Ninevah and speak out against it.
2. Jonah doesn't want to go and runs away from God and his calling.
3. God finally gets Jonah to go to Ninevah (I'll skip the whole fish thing, but verse 2:8 is really cool.)
4. Jonah travels one day's journey into the city and finally tells what God wants him to.
5. God saves every single person in that city, from the king on down. They all fast, repent, and cry out mightily to God.
The kicker for me is who God used and how. Jonah didn't want to go to that city, he didn't care about the people at all. In fact, he was hoping to watch them get destroyed.
Jonah:
1. Didn't want to follow God's call in the first place.
2. Didn't care about the people there at all.
3. Actually wanted to watch them be destroyed.
So, Jonah travels one day's journey into a city of 120,000 speaking what God told him to, and God saves every single person!!
"Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them." - Jonah 3:4-5
It later says that the king himself put on sackcloth and issued an edict for the city to repent and cry out to God.
God used one man who went one day's journey into a huge city, and saved every single person. What an amazing response from such a weak messenger.
If God used Jonah to save Ninevah like that, how much more can he use those that go with a heart for the people! How much more can he use those that stay for years, and team with others who care for their people!
4:11 shows God's hearts for the nations, at least I think it does.
"And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?' "
At the beginning of the book, God called Jonah to speak against the evil of the city and to proclaim a coming judgement. At the end, God reveals that he cares for the city, and sees the people as "not knowing their right hand from their left". God was not blindly furious at them, he cared for them, and knew that they needed someone to tell them the truth. When that truth was told, the people repented and God showed His love by relenting.
Is this not every worker's dream? It's certainly mine.
