Fish? What Fish?

Lately in my quiet time I've been asking the Lord to direct me to Scripture that He wants me to read. In doing this, I stumbled across Jonah. Most of you are thinking, "Really, Jonah? Man runs from God, gets eaten, repents, obeys, and gets grumpy. Really?" Yep, that's the short of the long. And by long, I mean 4 chapters. Even still, it got me thinking...what has God told me to do that I have run from? Because of my running (oh the irony), what is my "fish?" I began to pray and pray and pray and ask God to show me any areas of my life where I was running and unaware to it. Furthermore, because of that running I asked Him to begin to deliver me from my "fish."

{insert dramatic music here}

I realized that I was skipping a step. I asked God to show me my running and to deliver me but I forgot I had to repent. Here is Jonah's (chapter 2) prayer:

Jonah's Prayer

1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.

2 He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry.
3 You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.
4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
5 The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God.
7 “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
8 “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.
9 But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord.”


10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Just by reading Jonah's words you get a clear picture of how sorry his heart was. You can picture him being buried alive, drowned, tied down, suffocated and without any control of what was happening to him. The only thing that was going to deliver him from such circumstances (which are always subject to change) was crying out to the Lord. Being merciful as He is, God gave him his second chance.

{Setting: Nineveh; Enter Jonah)

I laugh at Jonah running around preaching and warning the citizens to repent of their wicked ways. How many of us have been in similar situations (metaphorically, of course). We see individuals who we are compelled to speak to and warn them of consequences that may befall them. We do--they come clean with God--God loves on them and shows them mercy--they go on their way.

We're left standing there going, "HELLO!? I sat in a fish not doing what You told me because I knew when I did, they'd do what they'd did, and because of who You are, what You'd do what you did?! I got punished! Not fair!"

And the same happens with Jonah. He gets so furious, he runs again into the middle of nowhere and tells God to go ahead and end his life. Now, I've never been there, but Jonah was a passionate man...or a big baby...haven't decided yet. What I do know is that the same compassion and mercy and grace and love and kindness...etc...that God had on Jonah when he repented, He showed on those in Nineveh. Jonah has no right to react the way he did.

Do I have any right to get angry with God because He is who He says He is and does what He says He will do? Of course not. And that my friends is a hard pill to swallow.