Second Of Four Things That Will Change Your Life...obedience 2 Series

Four Things that will Change Your Life…2b…Obedience…

We began talking last week of the second thing that will change your life…obedience.

First, there was faith, and we learned that we must have faith to please God.

Second, we must be obedient to Him and His Word.

Let’s spend a little more time within this subject of obedience…

Ticket to Tarshish, Please…

Jonah 1:1 ¶ Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

Last week we discussed how God spoke to Noah, and told him to “build an ark.”

How that God gave Noah a list of things to do that to us would seem impossible to get done. But, in spite of the enormous tasks that faced Noah…

We read that Noah’s response to what God told him to do was simply… “Thus did he, and so did he”…according to all that God commanded.

Noah was obedient…well, how about our friend Jonah?

3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Unlike Noah, Jonah doesn’t obey. Not only is he disobedient…not only does he decide he is not going to do what God has told him to do…but, he goes the complete opposite direction that God wanted him to go.

Again in vs. 3…

3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Jonah runs to Joppa, which is a city by the sea. He buys a ticket for a ship headed to a place called Tarshish.

Now, Nineveh is this way (NE), and Joppa where Jonah flees to, to catch a boat to Tarshish is that way (SW).

A person couldn’t go in any more of an opposite direction as to what God wanted him to do.

Someone once said… “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words. It is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.”

[The words of Eleanor Roosevelt ring true:] Little House on the Freeway, Tim Kimmel, Page 143

Jonah would soon learn a hard lesson about his choices.

But, before we are too hard on Jonah…understand that there is probably a reason that he does not want to go to Nineveh. There is probably a reason why he disregards what God has told him.

What would that reason be?

Why wouldn’t he want to go to Nineveh?

(History of Nineveh)

Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians were a rough people who were constantly warring against other countries and people.

They were anti-God, they worshipped and practiced witchcraft, and it has been said that…

Assyria was one of the most brutal nations of the ancient world. They were feared and dreaded by all the peoples of that day.

They used very cruel methods of torture… One of the procedures was to take a man out onto the sands of the desert and bury him up to his neck—nothing but his head would stick out. Then they would put a thong through his tongue and leave him there to die as the hot, penetrating sun would beat down upon his head. It is said that a man would go mad before he died.

… it is said that they were so feared and dreaded that on some occasions an entire town would commit suicide rather than fall into the hands of the brutal Assyrians.

Jonah, obviously may have thus had a reason for why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh. He didn’t want to go, because he didn’t like the people.

They were an evil people…but, this was not any new news that God wasn’t aware of…

Didn’t God tell Jonah in the verse we read earlier… “cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”

God knew how wicked, and hated they were. Jonah may have had this reason for not wanting to go…but, that does not change the fact that God told him to go…

We always have or find a reason why we cannot do what God wants us to do? And, that reason always seem right to us. It sounds like a good decision, based upon a good reason or feeling.