Jonah: Running to God (Forge Teens)

The book of Jonah is probably one of the smallest books in size! There are only forty-eight verses in total but this book is significant in nature. This book is probably the most practical and relevant books for our world today. This is a case study of “missed blessings” because so many readers focus upon its supposed difficulties rather than its rich teachings. What we are going to do is, we are look at a story that a lot of people consider to be kind of a kid story that you hear about in Sunday School, but the truth is, the story of this reluctant prophet, Jonah, really will speak to all of our lives if we listen to the Spirit of God.

Fish for Rescue

No doubt in the midst of this struggle and even when he reflected on the situation as a whole

Jonah would have considered his life to be almost over

If you look closely at these verses, you see that Jonah gives some insight into the thoughts that he had during his time in the cold waters of the Mediterranean sea

He says that he was in distress

He found himself in the deep heart of the sea in which there was nothing but water surrounding him

Verse 5 tell us that the water encompassed him and the weeds wrapped around his head

I imagine Jonah struggling to swim in the silent black sea

Caught in various riptides, sinking more and more with no solid ground

Jonah was in some serious trouble and was about to drown

The great thing is that God’s promises will always overcome our foolish decisions

His promises of grace and mercy have already taken into consideration our mistakes.

It was that grace and that mercy that moved God to prepare a great fish for Jonah’s rescue

God had called Jonah to Nineveh, but beyond that Jonah was called to know and submit to God

God was not yet finished with him.

God answered Jonah’s cry of distress even though he was guilty

Jonah was not on his way to Nineveh when he fell overboard

He was running from God and He was guilty of disobedience

That’s why he was in the water

So of you are in trouble right now because of disobedience

And if you are wondering if there is hope, will God have mercy on me and hear my cry

Take heart from Jonah

His distress was the fruit of his guilt but God answered him and gave him another chance

It took being in trouble and under the tokens of God’s displeasure for him to pray

Jonah was rescued from death, but he was not delivered to dry land yet

He has not drowned, but he was unexpectedly saved from death by the great fish

He isn’t completely safe, he is still in danger

Illustration:

One Christian song writer put it this way

“I hear the whisper underneath your breath

I hear you whisper, you have nothing left

I will send out an army to find you

In the middle of the darkest night

It’s true, I will rescue you”

I really love that picture of God speaking to the person who is on the edge of giving up and saying, “You’re not on your own. You’re not forgotten. You’re not abandoned. In fact, I will send an army to seek you out and rescue you.” That’s a beautiful picture of what the church is when we are living out God’s mercy. People may be considered worthless or disposable from the world’s perspective, but God raises up an army of people to go out into the dark world and speak good news to desperate souls: “I know you feel there’s no hope, but I’ve been sent from the Master to bring you Home.”

I think the more often then not, our focus is on Jonah and his disobedience which is probably an accurate thing

But for those of you living in obedience

Prioritizing the Lord

Know that God is preparing you just like he prepared that fish

God is getting ready to use you to rescue someone else

There was a great deal of preperation that had to be done prior to the account that we just read

God had to make the specific kind of whale back in Genesis

God had to nourish and protect the whale throughout its life to make sure that it grew to the right size to be ready for this assignment

God had to navigate that whale to be physically in the position to accept Jonah

Too often we look at our obedience to God and get frustrated because there is no fruit and no reward.

This preparation took years to do

Some of the greatest preparation you will receive is during your teenage years while attending

Forge

Valley Forge Services

in the Academy.

But truthfully you can have all the prepation that you want or will ever need and still not be used by God if you’re not willing.

This whale had to be willing to be used by God in a simple but great way.

It took less than ten seconds for Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt to cover the one hundred meter distance on the Olympic track and win the gold medal in London. Those few seconds cemented his status as the “fastest man alive” and placed him on the winner’s podium once again. But the race was not won in those seconds—it was won by hours and hours of practice, workouts, weightlifting, special diet, and coaching.

The race was not won in the performance but in the preparation. It is our desire for something greater that causes us to sacrifice some things, even some good things, for the sake of things that are better.