Constanta Church of Christ

THE REFUSAL

    "The word of the Lord came to Jonah...But, Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish."  (Jonah 1:1-3)

   There is not another book in Literature that has suffered as much from both friend and foe.  Readers spend more time discussing the great fish that swallowed Jonah than the intended message.  Once, there was a Prince that loved and wished to wed a peasant girl.  He sent her an engagement ring in a beautiful box.  She wore the box and lost the ring. 

   As with Jonah, the Word of the Lord comes to you and me.  It comes in different ways.  It comes through Bible study, words of a friend, a worship assembly and etc. God gave Jonah a strange and unwelcomed message.  "Go to Nineveh."  Jonah objected not because he thought the message had no appeal---every man has an insatiable hunger that only God can satisfy.  He did not go because he thought God was for the Jews only.  Too bad this belief did not perish with Jonah.

   Jonah headed toward Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.  Would God's presence have been---in the wicked city, Nineveh?

   Jonah boards a ship and fall asleep.  The man who makes up his mind to do wrong is more at peace than one undecided.  Thank God if one's disobedience does not permit sleep. 

   God, in His mercy, sends a storm and Jonah becomes more dangerous than TNT in the ship.  His rebellion was a risk of life to others.  This is always true.  The solution was to throw Jonah overboard.  A New England farmer, on a cold day, picked up a mother and infant in his wagon.  He noticed the mother dozing and then sleeping.  He, with force, dragged her from the wagon and made her run behind.  It saved her from freezing.  Sometime, we need a storm in our life to awaken us.  And, remember, no man ever flees from duty without hurt to self and others.

WE NEED TO ACT SENSIBLY

"Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on rock......but, everyone who...does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand." (Matt. 7:24-27) Jesus has come to the end of the sermon on the mountain. He has spoken with authority and audacity. He has dared to tell the people that their destiny absolutely depended on their attitude toward His words. Refusal to act upon them would result in disaster.

In this story Jesus makes four assertions: First, He says we are all builders. He can speak with special authority since building has been his field of trade. The two houses He references is not a contrast in good and wicked but foolish and sensible. Doing good is sensible while doing bad makes no sense. We are all building character and becoming certain types of men and women. Each house is to be tested. Each life will have both sunny days and black clouds with fierce storms. If in commonplace events we easily surrender, what will be do in an hour of real crisis? Jesus' story indicates the effects of the storm are not always the same.

The two houses, during the sunny days showed no difference. Two trees are standing side by side. A mid-night storm howls through and, in the morning, one is on the ground. It was hollow. The storm did not make the difference, it only revealed it.

Jesus instructs us that no one's destiny is a matter of chance. The difference in the outcome of the two builders is not that one listened and the other refused to listen. Nor, was it that one had an opportunity and the other had none. The latter might have listened with approval.

Please note, to act upon words is true in the nature of things. A lovely girl promised to marry you. If you had not acted, today, you'd be a cranky old bachelor. Destinies are determined by what we intend to do with the words of Jesus?

Charles Jackson Fayetteville, Arkansas