MOTIVES

Scripture for the day: Jonah 4:1-3 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord, and said, "Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!"

Thought for the day: Why did Jonah run in the first place? Was it because he was afraid of the people of Ninevah? Everyone knew it was an evil place, full of people who had no regard whatsoever for anyone other than themselves. Jonah certainly had heard of their evil deeds and knew they were not even of the children of Israel. We get the picture that he thought they weren't particularly worth saving; in fact, he'd rather not be a part of anything good that might come to them. So he ran "from the presence of God;" as if he could go far enough to escape. Jonah ran so hard and so fast that, before he knew it, he ran smack into the same God who'd commissioned him in the first place.

Why was Jonah a prophet of the Lord? I have no doubt God had called him to deliver His message, just as He had so many before him and has called so many afterward. But why did Jonah respond to God's call? Was it out of love for the Lord? Was his response a means of gaining prestige and power among his people? I think we have a right to ask these hard questions because Jonah seems to have had no problem relaying God's messages when they were easy or pleasant, or at least going to God's own people. But when the task became a bit more difficult or dangerous, suddenly Jonah wasn't so sure he wanted to be a prophet. Then, when his message was received, people began to repent and turn to God; revival actually broke out in the whole city, suddenly Jonah is so angry he wants to die.

You see, the whole episode didn't turn out as Jonah had hoped or expected. It's O.K. to serve a God who acts as we think He ought and holds the same attitudes we cherish, but when that God begins to break out of the box in which we've kept Him comfortably for so long, we begin to get uncomfortable ourselves. Don't we find it pretty easy to settle down with a God who thinks we're pretty special and loves us, but doesn't have much to do with those "other" people? We somehow find it reassuring to know God has a message for us, wants to bless us, and desires above anything else to take care of us. It's only when He asks us to share that message, that love and that care with the alcoholic, the drug addict, the thief, the murderer, the adulterer, the sexually immoral, or even those who disagree politically, that we are forced to examine our attitudes and motives.

Will we be the Jonah's of our day, wondering why the Lord would extend His message of reconciliation to those who've hated and ridiculed Him? Or will we be like the beggar who found the bread of life and wants only to let others know where they can find it as well?

I heard of a man, an evangelist, who put a small card right in front of his steering wheel on his car so that, as he was wearily driving from one exhausting appointment to the next, often on the road for months on end, he would be reminded of his calling. And the one word he wrote on the card was his reminder. It said simply: SOULS

Now go take on your Ninevah. - Bill