Running away from being blessed?

Jonah 1 (For the text click here)

One of my earliest memories of a decision taken to obey God or not is unfortunately a decision to disobey God. I would have been about 17 and attending a Christian youth group with a girl friend. At some point she turned to me and said, "We don't need this; you only God when something is going wrong and everything is OK at the moment." I listened to that comment and decided to stop going. I have regretted that decision ever since and the decision to disobey has haunted me and remained with me, particularly when I found out that God wants to bless us all and lead us into a fullness of life that we can not imagine. The idea that He is only there as a last resort is actually really sad because it means that many of us live lives that are disconnected from the wonderful source of all the good things in the universe!

The story of Jonah is a story full of misunderstandings about God and His motives. Jonah doesn't want to bring judgement on a town that is well of the rails, maybe because he imagines that the town will blame him for their punishment. As we know, the story will turn out that the people will change and all will be well, but the expectation that God is bent on punishment and not blessing is part of Jonah's understanding of God.

While Jonah is busy running away from God's call on the boat, Jonah assumes that he is going to be killed for his disobedience and when hiding is no longer an option he does the honourable thing to save the crew and tells them to throw him overboard. In this part of the story, the men on the ship are busy trying to appease their ideas of the gods and their response to the sea calming down when Jonah is thrown over board is again fear. God offers Jonah a surprise and miraculously saves him. The disposition of all the characters is that God is a God of punishment. The disposition is that God is one who condemns. The only time to approach such a God is when things are going badly to try and appease the anger.

But God is not like this. God has shown in Christ that He is working to bless us all. Why do we find it so hard to believe and trust that God is working in our lives to bless us all with what we need.

Yours Lord is the greatness, the power, the glory, the splendour and the majesty;

For everything in Heaven and on Earth is Yours;

All things come from You and of Your own do we give You.

Amen.