Day 195

Jonah 1:1-4:11, Romans 2:1-16, Psalm 85:1-7

Never mind the Bible in a year, a book of the Bible in a day is pretty impressive going and that was Jonah done and dusted.

I loved the response of all the people on the boat when the storm hit, they all prayed to their gods. These were people who had a faith in so many different gods, who believed that those various gods could intercede to help them and calm the storm. Some may even have believed in gods of the sea, wind and rain, the ones who could really help here, or so they thought. Then Jonah told them that he was a Hebrew and believed in the “God of Heaven” and they “were terrified”. Despite the fact that they believed in this god or that god, they were terrified when the one true god was brought into the equation. They knew who he was, they knew what he was capable of and it brought the truth home. What reaction do people have when we mention that very same God today. Now I am not suggesting that they should necessarily be terrified like you would be in the storm, but the mention of God should have an impact.

There is one other lesson that we can learn from Jonah, namely that it is not our place to question God. Look back at the picture from yesterday and you will see the vast wisdom of God, how deep, how wide and how infinite that wisdom is. It is not ours to question! And yet God has infinite patience too. Having seen all the things that God did in 2 Kings you might expect Jonah to be struck down for his anger, but God teaches him a quiet lesson with a vine. It is not our place to question and be angry with God but sometimes life leads us to that point and God doesn’t mind when we yell at him, he embraces us in love and teaches us of his ways like the loving father that he is.

There is so much more that we can learn from the story of Jonah but we would be here all day! From this visit to such a short book we take with us our belief in the God who changes lives, a belief in the God of gods who inspires more awe than any other God. We believe in the God who gave all that up in order to stand amongst us in Christ. It is that God that we can come to with absolutely any emotion and he will listen and help us see his truth. What is it that you want to bring to God today?