I wrote recently about how God often chooses those who are ready and willing; then He makes us able. There is at least one very notable exception to that rule. In the four chapters of the book of Jonah, we find that Jonah was able, but definitely not ready or willing to obey God’s instructions. I heard a sermon once about Jonah titled, “Lord, here am I – send him!”
Jonah was already chosen by God as His obedient prophet. Jonah knew the power of God’s words spoken through His prophets and he also knew God’s love and mercy toward all of His creation (including him). God told Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and warn them that unless they repent and turn from their sins, the entire population of more than 120,000 people plus all of their animals would be destroyed; but there was one problem. Most of those people were Assyrians and unlike God, Jonah had hatred in his heart toward Assyrians and wanted them to be punished for their sins instead of forgiven. Today, Jonah would be considered a hater and a racist.
Instead of obeying God or even refusing to go, Jonah took off in the opposite direction. He found out very quickly that you can’t run from God. When he finally went to Nineveh and issued God’s warning, the people repented, fasted and prayed for forgiveness just as Jonah thought they would and he was angry that God forgave and saved them from destruction. God gave him an object lesson about his misdirected hatred and anger.
As a side note; the scripture is very clear that it was a large fish and not a whale that swallowed Jonah and threw him up three days later. The Creator of all life surely knows the difference between a mammal (whale) and a fish.
As Christians, God’s adopted children, we have already been chosen to represent our heavenly Father here on Earth. We have experienced God’s mercy first hand and we know that God loves the world (including us) so much that Jesus died to bear the sins of all who believe in Him. When God speaks to us through His Holy Spirit, we only have two choices; do it or regret it. Running away from God is not an option and neither is allowing our human thoughts and feeling to get in the way of His love and His mercy. Jonah learned that the hard way. Let us learn from his mistakes.