Hello friends.
In addition to the studies that Joel is posting, I (Justin) am going to
post a biweekly devotion. It will be rather short and will resemble the
devotions we have at camp. Here’s what I want you to do: 1. Read the devotion.
2. Share the devotion on Facebook and
Twitter. The studies Joel is writing, currently on 1 Timothy, are for the
junior staff. But, these devotions I write are for you to strengthen your faith
and share with others. So, put it out
onto your social networks so that others can read it. I will try and get three
up before the teen retreat. I’ll ask you guys about them there.
_______________________
There was no way this was natural. They were everywhere. The
king looked around his war camp. His army was decimated. All was lost. How could this have happened? They had
the city besieged, right where they wanted it. They were so close to its
capture. Everyone would mock him for this. He was the king of great Assyria! How could they lose 185,000 troops in one
night? Hezekiah was like a bird in a cage! He was going to crush Jerusalem,
flay their king alive and impale him for the world to see. How could he do that
without an army? How could this have
happened? There was nothing left to do, but go home. It was time to head
back to Nineveh.
Many years before this a man named Jonah sat outside of that
same city, pouting. More than that, Jonah was indignant. Not because he was in
a nation that would one day bring the Lord’s vengeance on his beloved
fatherland. No, he burned for another reason. It was the fire kindled within
Jonah the moment God’s call came to him. “Go to Nineveh, Jonah.” Rather than
follow God’s command, he took off, like a spoiled child with his parents. Jonah
tried to get as far away from Nineveh as possible, like he was saying, “God, if
you won’t give me what I want, then nobody can get what they want.”
Jonah’s problem with God went even deeper than that, though.
On the sea, Jonah and the sailors found themselves pitted against menacing
waves and mysterious depths. When Jonah tells the sailors about the God he
serves, they believe him. It was a small miracle to foreshadow the great one
that was coming. They threw him in the sea, and instantly the storm was
silenced. Jonah was swallowed. From the literal depths of life, Jonah finally
finds humility. But, it’s not to last. Jonah knows he still has a job, knows
his grief with God hasn’t gone away.
Covered in fishy goo, he reaches the shore again, and sets
for Nineveh. He drags his feet the whole way. His heart is only half in his
message to the Ninevites, but it doesn’t matter. The Holy Spirit overcomes
Jonah’s pitiful “sermon.” The city is converted. The city is converted. His preaching converts a city, and he is
remembered mostly with a giant fish. But, Jonah is hardly jubilant. This is
exactly what he didn’t want.
Jonah had gone 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 leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade
for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But
at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant 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, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said.
“And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
But the Lord said,
“You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make
it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have
concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a
hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their
left—and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:5-11)
Can you sense Jonah’s problem? It isn’t that plant or worm.
It isn’t the sun or the wind or his lack of water. It isn’t even Jonah’s
melodramatic attitude. Jonah’s problem was in his heart. He saw the cruel
Ninevites—a people who delighted in violence and genocide, and he hated them.
But, even that wasn’t his greatest
problem. Jonah didn’t think that this city deserved God’s mercy. He thinks
that God has been too patient with them and they should just be wiped out. Can
you sense Jonah’s problem? Jonah can’t see how patient God has been with him.
Jonah doesn’t see the mercy God has shown to him, again and again and again and
again. In his self-righteousness, Jonah believes he is entitled to God’s mercy,
but that Nineveh could never deserve it.
He was partly right. Nineveh didn’t deserve God’s mercy and
grace. But, neither did Jonah. Neither do you. Avoid the trap Jonah stumbled
into. When you see mercy in others’ lives, don’t be jealous or covet what they
have. If you wonder, why them? Wonder
instead if you aren’t just like Jonah, sitting under a doomed plant hating the
grace of God. God has been merciful to you, too. You have a greater vision of
it than the Ninevites. They believed without ever seeing salvation completed in
Christ. Consider the mercy God has given to you to know that you’re forgiven. His
destructive wrath stood against you and the Ninevites, but God redirected it.
Jesus was destroyed instead. Consider that mercy.
There’s two things you can do to keep yourselves from under
Jonah’s plant. First, pray that you learn
to hate your own sin more than the sins of others. Read that sentence again.
Treasure that concept. Second, choose one instance of God’s mercy each day and
thank him for it.
Prayer: Merciful Father, teach me to hate my own sin more than the sins others. Your mercies are new each morning; teach me to see that in my life. In Christ's name. Amen.
Jonah picture from here.
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