Jonah and the pandemic
Jonah 1:4 The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.
Many people are confused, perplexed and baffled about this COVID 19 that has now swallowed many people in India and still threatening with more waves to come in future and other new infections are in the pipeline to be unleashed. Let me point out to you an incident from the book of Jonah that clearly gives us an answer to what we are facing now.
When the passengers and the crew in the ship were terrified about the storm that was creating havoc, they cast lots so they may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us." So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. BAM came the answer! JONAH! Jonah can be compared to the sleeping churches and believers of today who have been the cause of this COVID 19. Anybody listening?
When fasting prayers, night prayers, early morning prayers are conducted, believers ignore the invitation from the Church. Christians come late to church and leave early or hurry out, without spending time in greeting other believers in the church. We have failed to honor the House of God and treated it like a club. Anybody listening? We daringly gossip about the pastor and his family and guffaw about other believers, how can we expect our prayers to be answered with so much ‘blood’ in our hands.
When the idol worshipers were fearfully calling out to their gods, but prophet Jonah who served a true living God went to sleep. How pathetic! Very few people respond when I invite them to join our night prayers or early morning prayers, because they do not want their sleep to be disturbed despite our country being ravaged by the virus. Many Christians would be snoring away to glory until Corona virus knocks their door.
What was the reason for the storm?
• Daringly Jonah disobeyed the Lord’s commandment
• He boards a ship and goes in the opposite direction
• He is a prophet, yet he dishonors God.
• Things may go favorably for a while even though you may be in the wrong track; however, be warned, you would be met by God.
How do we handle crisis in our life?
Let us analyze the situation and look for errors on our side which might have brought us to the present crisis rather than always blaming God for everything. Are you listening? Not many understand the seriousness of the problem until it gets worse and worse, if attended and rectified in the beginning itself, may be the situation would not have come to the point of the ship breaking; however, Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep. Are we Christians and the Church any better today? We are right in the middle of a terrible and horrific pandemic which is threatening to kill and swallow us; yet, we are snoring sound and loud. Present day Christians and the Church who have no time to wake up in the morning and pray for the nation are the Jonahs.
Great city
Nineveh was a great city, and yet a heathen city, without the knowledge and worship of the true God. Don’t look at the opulence and affluence of a country with dropped jaws but consider the darkness in it, without knowledge of the only true God they are all bound to be destroyed; look at it with the eyes of God. Nineveh was a wicked city and God had burden for it so He commanded Jonah to go and preach the Gospel. Do we have this burden for our Country?
