Fish, Pottery Shard or Bread

Visual illustrations

Really want you to focus on something today. Three stories that I think blend this Thanksgiving season

A fish

A Pottery Shard

A Loaf of Bread

These three remind me of three stories about what happened when bad things happened to people, other people and themselves. It was brought to mind by many conversations I have with people when tough and challenging times come there way.

Maybe you have experienced those challenges.

As part of being a follower of Jesus I get to walk with people going through big challenges in life. The other day I had a lady at work ask me for a little help after school. Its awesome to be a follower of God because people don’t understand, when people ask us for help and we make ourselves available to be used by God for help, they should really tell us what is going on because we have amazing strength in Christ Jesus. I was ready to help this woman move out of an abusive relationship, deal with her cancer diagnosis, or pray over her and walk her through the steps of needing to repent of her shameful sin. We can go into all kinds of situations and come out knowing more about the amazing grace of Jesus and His incredible strength. I’ve lived it. She didn’t know all that. She just wanted me to help lift something out of her car. And I can do that too :)

Because we are called to love others and we know love by this that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.

But what about when we don’t want to. That’s what the first physical example is about. The fish.

Jonah was a prophet and he was a self centered man called by God, to do an amazing work of God, and yet he was so real, so very real about how he really felt about other people.

We often tell the story of the prophet Jonah in children’s Sunday school classes and the VeggieTales made a whole movie about it but I tell you friends if you haven’t gone and read Jonah in a while I strongly encourage you to do so. I can go cover it briefly.

The first verse gets right in the action

Jonah 1:1–3 CSB

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.” 3 Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence.

If you don’t know the story, it gets right to the action. Jonah was given a message from God. Clear, no discension making necessary. How many of you have had to make a big, big decision and weren’t sure what God wanted you to do. How much you were asking God to make it really clear. God made Jonah’s decision really, really clear. Go to Nineveh. A huge capital city of an incredibly powerful empire. An empire that would conquer lands and when the people stopped fighting, They would divide them up like imagine the united states, conquering a country. Taking a 1/3 of the people from that country like Mexico and moving them to Iran, a 1/3 from Iran and putting them in Afghanistan. A 1/3 from Afghanistan and putting them in Mexico. Nobody would know what to do, how to speak, families divided, many dying before they could be moved. I didn’t get to the worst part they would march portions of like prisoners with hooks in their mouths over many, many miles. It was horrible. Nineveh was horrible.

God called Jonah to do something about it by telling them what God wanted. And Jonah booked a trip to … Tarshish. That is like God telling you to go on a mission trip to Japan and you decide to book a trip to South Africa.

Jonah actively rejects what God tells him to do. He ignores the people of Nineveh, he heads for some other place. While on the way a storm comes up and Jonah is asleep because He doesn’t even care that much about the men He is with. He can sleep through a storm wrecking the boat. Only after they wake him up does he tell everyone that he was running from God and they should throw him overboard. They don’t want to but they have no choice.

He gets thrown over, the storm stops and he gets swallowed by a great fish. God saves him. Big time save, big miracle.

Jonah was happy to be alive and began to pray. He ended his beautiful prayer in this way:

Jonah 2:7–9 CSB

7 As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple. 8 Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love, 9 but as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

Here he is saying that while those in Nineveh are horrible for what they do, he will turn it around after God saved Him. He will do it with Thanksgiving.

He gets vomitted out and walks to Nineveh. where he preaches powerfully, God put the words on his lips. Nineveh repents.

The king himself repents. This nation that did so much evil begs God for mercy.

and what became of Jonah’s emotinal state after serving God with Thanksgiivng and everyone obeying the word of God He preached?

Jonah 4:1–4 CSB

1 Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. 3 And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Jonah is so mad because God is so kind that he wants to die. Jonah is the influencers influencer. People know God through Him. His mouth, turns people from sin, but He hated the people for what they had done. Jonah felt he was in the right, and God was in the wrong.

Jonah then builds a shelter and it was so hot where he was at. But God allowed a plant to grow and provided Jonah great shade to be more comfortable. Then this happened.

Jonah 4:7–8 CSB

7 When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered. 8 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head so much that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.”

God made a plant, it gave shade. God made a worm. Plant died. and Jonah is furious that his life is uncomfortable. Now He wants to die.

What if you were Jonah?

Jonah 4:9 CSB

9 Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “Yes, it’s right!” he replied. “I’m angry enough to die!”

Dude, Jonah is hilarious. But have you ever found that when a blessing in your life changes you are incredibly ticked. Wondering if God even exists. Doubting why you even went to church in the first place. Why did you ever give $20 in the offering plate that one time two years ago, when now your broke but drug dealers have lots of money. Man you helped build Christmas lights, how can you have a broken arm now!

I have heard this attitude many, many times.

Do you think Jonah learns from God and stops being so selfish?

Do you think God takes away his ability to be a prophet?

Do you think God allows someone to come by and torture him?

What do you think happens?

Here is the real ending

Jonah 4:10–11 CSB

10 And the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. 11 So may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”

That is it.

Over.

When you read the Bible you become amazed at how true to right now it is. God is comfortable without a really clear ending. God used a really selfish person to save an entire city and even its animals.

What if this world isn’t all about you and whether you looked at stuff you weren’t supposed to?

What if this world isn’t all about you and how mean you were to people? Would you be more mean? What does that reveal about your heart and your desire for God?

What if God is actually in the business of saving people from their sin and bringing them into a meaningful life beyond just waiting for the next good thing that happens to them?

Some of you will soak up that guilt but I got a challenge for you, This leads me to a person that I think of when I see pottery. Most other people think of Him when life really, really goes bad. His name is Job, and unfortunately it is spelled just like the English word Job so his teachers never said his name right in Elementary school.

Job is very different from Jonah. Both are followers of God. But Job’s story begins with how amazing he is.

Job 1:1 CSB

1 There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil.

Complete integrity. This guy was so good, as the very old game show used to say, “How good was He?”

When God talked with Satan, yes, God talks with Satan. God is not above Satan, not afraid and not equal to, above. Anyway when God says to Satan

Job 1:8–9 CSB

8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.” 9 Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing?

Satan, the accuser said, Job just has it better than everyone. He has privilege. Think about what Satan didn’t say. By not saying anything about what Job did, how long would it take an enemy to talk about the bad you have actually done. How long would it take your family members, friends to mention the wrong you did? I’m sorry but it takes me about 5 seconds to realize the sins I have done. I would like to call myself a man of perfect integrity but I am nowhere near it. Yet Satan himself can only say that Job has perfect integrity because life is so good.

Here is how Job lives. He cares so much for the spiritual health of his family

Job 1:5 CSB

5 Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

Job worshipped and prayed for his family in repentance even if he couldn’t think of stuff to repent for. Job rocked.

And then God allowed all kinds of horrible stuff to happen in Job’s life. Job wasn’t a jerk. He didn’t cause it. Stuff just happened.

His donkeys were attacked by an enemy tribe and all killed. The sheep were all killed in another incident. His camels all destroyed in another incident. Then his children all having dinner together were all killed when a powerful wind destroyed the entire house they were in. All at the same time.

Everything that Job could consider his wealth was gone. So remember Jonah thought he should die once a worm ate his shade. What would Job’s response be to losing all his wealth and children.

Job 1:20–21 CSB

20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, 21 saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Job stayed totally faithful and it got worse. Job got sick, very sick with a skin infection that caused boils. I once had a boil when I was I child. It hurts, its gross, and Job had several of them. While I had pain medicine the only think Job could do to soothe himself

Job 2:8 CSB

8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.

Life was horrible. Jonah wanted to die after people listened to him and a worm ate a plant. Job stuck with God after losing all his wealth and his health. Even Job’s wife wanted him to give up

Job 2:9–10 CSB

9 His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” 10 “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.

Everyone around him, his closest friends blamed Job’s actions for what he did. But we know Job didn’t do anything wrong.

I want to tell you I have met people that have had bad things happen to them. I have met people who say that they are just like Job.

I have not met anyone just like Job. I have met so many people who ignore all their bad decisions. Who ignore how much they ignore God. Who don’t see all those around them falling into sin and needing God’s message of love and repentance. However, Job’s whole life revolved around God. Even when he had an amazing time with family, he still put God as the focus of his life and bad stuff still happened to him.

Two years ago at this time, I had to put my wonderful dog Golden to sleep after his amazingly generous life. Near the same time, I was treated horribly at school by a parent. It was epicly bad. At the same time, my mom discovered she had Leukemia.

That’s really, really bad things. They hurt. I am not Job. But I can learn from Job’s response. I didn’t cause any of those things. They happened to me. I do not have perfect integrity. But I did remember what Job said,

Job 2:10 CSB

10 “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.

The book of Job shows us that God is not a product where following him makes every good thing always happen to us, that bad somehow becomes impossible for the person who lives rightly. Nope, Tragedies happen. They are not always about what we did or didn’t do. We aren’t all that matters. A follower of Jesus gets to go through these things with God.

Yet, even though God never answered Job directly in his question of why. God did show us the answer later through the last person in the illustrations. And let me not forget to add that Job was blessed by God again in this life. Restoring his life, his wealth, and more children.

Jonah was self-centered and ran from God but God still used him. He couldn’t handle hardship.

Job handled hardship incredibly well, yet struggled with the why.

The next one whose story is best shown by bread, He shows a completely different way to go through the challenges of life.

John 6:48 CSB

48 I am the bread of life.

John 6:51 CSB

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

For those of you who don’t know, this is what Jesus called himself.

Jesus lived perfectly. He was even better than Job. As far as caring, , Jesus cares so much for people that He chose to give his life for people. He symbolized this by saying that He was bread and His bread would be broken for us.

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 CSB

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Jesus life was the opposite of Jonah. He willing stated and lived out that He came to seek and to save the Lost. He talks about living like a shepherd looking for a lost sheep.

Jesus doesn’t focus on being good to get things from God.. Jesus points out that the religious leaders of his day, were very good about their religious practices but their hearts were corrupt. They might behave sexually, and not go into sexual immorality but in their minds they want to do it. They might not murder people but in their minds they want people to die. Jesus said, this kind of right action isn’t right enough. They aren’t perfect. And please don’t think that you can too! The goal is not to get so perfect you don’t need a savior.

Even those who knew so much about God, knew so much about how to behave rightly. Lived pretty well in front of people yet change has to happen.

John 3:3 CSB

3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

No one is Job. Even Job wasn’t good enough to save himself. So Jesus made his life about following God and loving others by Saving them.

John 3:16–18 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

I cannot stress this enough that whereas most of us stress about this life. Jesus is perfect. You won’t be on this side of heaven. But life isn’t about perfection and it isn’t about getting all the joy out of it. Jesus demonstrated what life is meant to be about, love of God and love of others. By doing so He knew what the end result of His life would be, all of us saved.

John 12:32–33 CSB

32 As for me, if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to indicate what kind of death he was about to die.

He died on a cross, given himself over for the punishment for all of our sins. Jonah just had to go tell. Job went through a pain not of his choosing and not of his desire. Jesus knew how his death would come, what it was for, and even though He didn’t want to do it. He did it. He desires to love God.

The night before He died Jesus prayed.

Luke 22:41–42 CSB

41 Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and began to pray, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me—nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

This is the purpose to life. Not my will but God’s. For Jonah it was about how He felt. For Job it was just about going through life. But Jesus saw so much of what God desired in His life.

The culmination of Jesus teaching is that life is about God. We are to love God, love others.

I don’t really have a specific application of this truth to your life except for something my mom posted on Facebook three years ago yesterday,

“The challenges of daily living for Jesus Christ is often opposed by our world and the evil forces around us. God is good all the time, God is Love all the time. God is my strength and shield all the time!

Praying and trusting God to provide healing of lives, bodies, and situations, to bring His glory. Thank you, God. (I’m) Choosing to have a great day, full of opportunities and blessings.” - Linda Yates

ShIs thankful even usable faith or is it a perspective of being used in faith.

Suffering comes in life.

Job

Righteous

Prays for his family even when everything is going well just in case his family is doing wrong.

Bad stuff still happens to him

He insists that God is worth of praise in the bad and the good times.

Jonah was called on by God to prophecy. He was spoken to by God and given a direct order.

Jonah had other life goals than God and desires for people.

Jonah never debated but went the other way from God’s call

He didn’t care about the men being in danger of dying

He let them cast lots until he told them.

Then he went to the city and did what God asked.

People repented.

He was pissed.

Then he went out the city and God gave him a bush.

Then a bug ate the bush and Jonah was pissed.

We are to have a different orientation than both of them.