How often are you given a task you really don’t want to do?

How do you deal with it?

Wrong Way!

Jonah dealt with it in a way I can understand. He was supposed to be going to the huge city of Nineveh (in modern Iraq) to deliver a message from God. What did he do instead? He boarded a ship at Joppa (on the Mediterranean coast of Israel), sailing west to Tarshish – quite the wrong direction!

While Jonah was on the ship from Joppa, he told the crew what he was doing and soon they were in the heart of the worst storm they had ever experienced.

When the men realised he was running away from God, they were terrified. They knew there was no escape from the storm while Jonah was in the ship. “Throw me overboard”, he told them. (In the Bible, you can read the full story of Jonah being swallowed by a huge fish and after 3 days being vomited to dry land)

Not what he expected

Jonah finally delivered the message and was very surprised when the people listened and immediately turned from their ways, avoiding destruction from God.

Can you imagine how Jonah felt? He had thought he knew better than God, he felt a complete fool and wanted to die. He sat huddled in a makeshift shelter outside the city to watch what would happen.

Another reason I like Jonah, is the way God helped him to learn.

He caused a shady plant to grow up over Jonah’s head, so that he was protected from the strong sunlight. It was exactly what he needed and he was glad of it. Imagine how he felt when, in the morning, it had shriveled up! Now the sun was beating down mercilessly and he wanted to die again.

How was this going to teach him anything?

God knows best

“You had compassion on the plant, although you didn’t make it grow in the first place”, said God. “Shouldn’t I have compassion on more than 120,000 people?” The fact was, God had created those people, and what happened wasn’t up to Jonah.

God is able to see the ‘bigger picture’, but we don’t have that perspective. If ever I need reminding that God knows more than I do, all I need to do is think about the book of Jonah.

Follow this link to read the Bible account of Jonah

The post Why I Like the Book of Jonah appeared first on Search for Hope.

I love the book of Job!

On the face of it, Job seems like a pretty miserable book – if you’re not familiar, Job was a wealthy, well respected and Godly character in the Old Testament who had everything taken away from him – children, wealth, respect and health. His wife told him to “curse God and die”, such was the state of his existence.

But Job refused to speak evil of God and the main part of the book is a discussion between Job and his three friends, who were sure Job was being punished for some terrible crime against God.

And yet throughout Job keeps his faith – he says to his friends

“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God”

Job 19 v 25-26

In the midst of all that hardship, Job’s belief in God’s bigger picture, centred on the hope of resurrection from the dead, kept him going.

It’s a book that teaches us about the mercy and love of God. He teaches Job through his suffering that we can’t earn favour with God, but if we believe in his power to save then he will love us despite our imperfections.

God uses Job and his faithful example to teach his 3 friends that they couldn’t be saved by their own good works. We all need God’s grace and mercy if we’re to be saved from death.

A Beautiful Light

So in a book that seems on the surface dark and sad, there’s a beautiful light shining through it. I think it shows the lengths God was willing to go to to teach Job and his friends about His true character – God isn’t a vengeful Deity, but a loving God looking for our love. As Job says,

“My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.’

Job 42 v 5

James says in his New Testament letter,

“You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy”

James 5 v 11

Job’s example reminds me that no matter what happens in my life God is in control, and if I have faith in him he’ll bring me to His kingdom.

And I nearly forgot – Job has a happy ending! Job is returned to prosperity and influence, with more children and the prospect of seeing those taken from him at the resurrection when God’s kingdom is established on earth.

The post Why I Like the Book of Job appeared first on Search for Hope.