Jonah - Pt. 3

 

And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.” (1 Samuel 15:22-23 ESV).

 

Sometimes I wonder how deaf we are to the work of God in both our personal lives and the global community. If anything seems clear to me, given our global condition, it is that God wants us to do some things differently in both. I saw the little cartoon attached recently and it accurately described the frustration I’ve seen expressed in so much of our current events. It seems we are currently experiencing the “Jonah effect.” Whether we’re the sailors or Jonah, whoever is supposed to go to Ninevah… just go already!

 

You certainly know the story. Jonah was given a clear directive. There was no mistake about what the Lord had said: Go to Nineveh and preach against it (cf. Jonah 1:2). Jonah's response, however, was to do the exact opposite of what he was told. Jonah was afraid, angry and prideful. He knew when the Lord told him to "preach against" Nineveh it meant God wanted to give that ungodly city a second chance, and Jonah's sense of justice demanded punishment for Nineveh. He didn't care what the Lord wanted, and he was ready to take the whole city down with him.

 

Repeatedly, Jonah was ready to die for his conviction. He was so against the Lord's compassion to others and even himself, so selfishly determined, he wanted to retreat into death. But the Lord's will always prevails. Our reading today tells us there is no sacrifice God delights in more than our obedience to Him (v. 22). After Jonah confessed his belief in God on the ship, the Lord calmed the storm and stirred faith in the hearts of the sailors. When Jonah preached the truth to Nineveh, the entire city repented in sackcloth and ashes, and God relented from destroying them. When Jonah turned from his stubborn disobedience, God saved him and everyone around him.

 

Obedience is better than sacrifice because God's ways are better than ours. He turns tragedy into resurrected life. I wonder, where is your Ninevah? Don’t you think we all would be better off is we’d just go?