The Prophet who ran away – Jonah

August, 4, 2012

Jonah 1:1 the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai:   

² “Go  to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” ³ But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord."  

A great reflection for our  teacher Janice as she shared the story with the beginner's class:

"An obvious lesson from the book of Jonah is in  its teaching of the mercy of God. There is mercy of God to Nineveh, Jonah himself and also the pagan sailors. All were recipients of God’s mercy. We need to go and  preach and we  need to obey God’s word.  Jonah’s obedience was followed by the outpouring of God’s power.  How great is God’s mercy? As the  hymn goes:

 "There's a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea.” 

But even that is not wide enough. The real measure of the wideness of the mercy of God is that of the outstretched arms of the Lord Jesus Christ as He hung on the cross to die for our salvation. That is the wideness of God’s mercy. That is the measure of the length to which the love of God will go.

 Many of us may not know that the book ends with a question,  in order that each one who reads it might ask himself or herself the same question…….How can we, who have known that mercy and benefited from it, be less than merciful to others? How can we do less than love them and carry the gospel to them with all our strength?"