We continued Jonah’s story.
God said to Jonah: ” Go to Nineveh.”
Jonah went, ” The opposite direction.”
Have you ever felt you are going in the opposite direction in your life? Well, I felt, and I have been there.
It was the mushroom season in our small local town near the Caspian sea. The small village was near a vast Jungle. As a regular season, we went to pick the wild mushrooms. There were indeed delicious and nice-looking ones. Some were eye-catching ones. I was near to my family as I do not know where to go and which direction to take – If you had ever been to a vast unknown jungle, you know being close to those know the way how vital would be. Four of us- on the way to pick some mushrooms- and only one of us know the way. Suddenly my brother and I lost the two others. We were thinking of going the right way – but we were in the opposite direction of our homes. But thank God, after about 2-3 hours, the other locals found us lost and showed us the right way.
We are running away in the opposite directions! Whether we do it intentionally or unwillingly. We do it because we are living in a sinful world, and our natural response is whatever is not comfortable – ” I’ll ignore it” – or ” I know the way”. That was what we thought; when we had lost in the jungle, we felt we are going the right way – but oh, it was the opposite.
Jonah intentionally was going the opposite way. God said to him, go to Nineveh, the great city. But, It seemed Jonah was not ready to go there. Sometimes, God calls us; He passionately wants us to do that or do what he wants us to do, or go what he wants us to go. It may be because of circumstances and other excuses – we ignore to obey. The good news is here, still, God loves us, but we will learn to follow in a complicated way, and we go through a journey to learn those lessons like Jonah.
The ship he was going on to Spain – got in dire trouble, the storm/wind was hitting the boat hard, and nearly all the sailors lost their life because of a person named ” Jonah.” So, They kicked him out of the ship. But Jonah’s life never ended there- God needed to Jonah be in a quiet location where he can meet Him even inside of a giant whale.
I’m here to say to you, my friend, if the season you are in left you out, God will catch you up. He wants to have a quiet moment with you – that, there you will realise what it means to follow Him, What it means to obey Him – even you may not understand it.
Your opposite direction is not the end of the story, but it is a sign of lesson and love.
You might be going to Joppa like Jonah. But, it will be a time to go where God told you to go in the first place. He designs your destination. The journey might look scary – but He promised to be with you. Does God want you to go with him? Does he want you to be in a quiet moment? That is where Jonah found Who God is? Inside the belly of a whale. Where is our place?
In the next post, we found out How Jonah prayed and How things changed in favour of Jonah.
Written by
Dariush Youkhaneh
You are awesome 