Jump Start # 403

Jonah 1:6 “So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

  Jonah is the pouting prophet—the preacher with an attitude. He was told by God to go do what prophets do—tell the word of God. He just didn’t want his audience to be foreigners, the city of Nineveh, so he found a boat going to Tarshish and thought he got away from obeying God.

  Most of us know the story. God caused a great wind that became a great storm. The sailors throw Jonah overboard and a great fish swallows Jonah. Before all of this happens, we find our verse today. Jonah is sleeping in the boat. The storm is severe. The sailors are scared. They pray to their pagan gods. The storm worsens. The captain wakens Jonah and tells him to pray.

  I find this most interesting and very disappointing. You’d think Jonah would be leading the men in praying. Instead, they are praying and Jonah is sleeping. The man of God must be reminded by pagans what he ought to be doing.

  That same concept happens today. Often it’s the Christians who are sleeping when they ought to be praying. Sometimes we find our pagan society appealing to religious practices that we ought to be doing, such as praying, or being modest, or staying away from porn.

  It’s easy to assume that because people don’t worship correctly or even very often, that they don’t have any clue about God whatsoever. How wrong that is. What better thing to do, in the midst of a storm, when you are scared, to pray. That’s a great thing to do.

  There is a similar story in the New Testament. A group of ten lepers, bound together by a dreaded disease, see Jesus and cry out for mercy. The Lord tells them to go and show themselves to a priest. As they leave, they are healed, cured. The death sentence was removed. They can return to life, family and leave the stench of dying lepers. They head to the priest. One of the ten, a Samaritan, first returns to Jesus, bows at his feet and thanks him. Jesus commented, “where are the nine?” Why was this foreigner, the Samaritan, the only one to thank. Why didn’t the Jewish lepers do the same?

  We can be reminded by others and shown by others how we ought to be. Jonah wasn’t just running away from his duty, he was running away from God. Before this chapter ends, Jonah tells the sailors why he is fleeing. They become more scared of Jehovah than the storm. Jonah tells them to throw him overboard. They do everything to keep from doing that. What was Jonah thinking? Death? I’d rather die than go to Nineveh?

  The pagan sailors again pray to God. They fear the wrath of God if they kill His prophet. What is missing in the first chapter of Jonah is the prophet who prays to God, seeks God and obeys God. What’s missing is God in Jonah’s life.

  That can happen to prophets…it can happen to preachers…it can happen to church members. Belonging to God is a relationship. It’s personal, intimate and it’s real. Belonging to God is more than having your name on a church membership list—it’s walking with God daily, it’s talking with God daily, it’s being committed to God daily, it’s loving the Lord daily.

  I wonder if we see the connection between Jonah and us? Our faith isn’t a Sunday thing. It’s an all the time thing. It’s upsetting to see the pictures and read the comments that some Christians place on Facebook. The world sees those things. Immodest pictures…gossip..foul language…have we fallen asleep in the boat? Where’s God? Where’s our commitment? Where’s our faith? Does it matter that we are on vacation or on a business trip or in a boat running away from God? Does it matter that we are having a bad day?

  This is more than taking God seriously, this is about God being a part of me. Paul said, “Christ lives in me.” Show it. Show that light and show that salt that Jesus said you are. Show it at work. Show it on Facebook. Show it on vacation. Show it in the storm.

  Wake up, Jonah. There’s a storm and you’re sleeping. Wake up, Jonah, your faith is asleep. Wake up and pray!

Roger