BE FAITHFUL

From the story of Jonah in Scripture we find out that Jonah was a Hebrew - a follower of Yahweh or Almighty Creator God. Before Jonah's story unfolded and God spoke to him about Nineveh, God knew the beginning, middle and end of this adventure. Jonah did not have any foreknowledge of his coming days and so he and we are dealt a lesson in Trusting in God's Faithfulness. 

In Jonah's experience - there were the lessons of (1) should've obeyed the Lord from the word "Go" and (2) who are you to be angry at me for being a God of Second Chances? However, God's Faithfulness keeps resurfacing throughout the story, touching many different elements to the account.

God was faithful to sending His own Word to the city of Nineveh. God was faithful to the sailors alongside Jonah who begged for mercy as they threw Jonah overboard and received calm waters from the Lord in return. God was faithful to Jonah in that he spared his life from drowning and gave him a second chance by thinking things over in the belly of a Great Fish for three days.

Even after Jonah delivers God's message, the entire city of Nineveh repents and God's faithfulness to His character is seen as He relinquishes His anger - Jonah disapproves of the verdict. "He prayed to the Lord, 'Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.'” (Jonah 4:2-3) Jonah wanted the city of Nineveh to receive wrath and not get a second chance so bad that he was willing to die for that cause.

However, God showed his faithfulness to Jonah for the last time in this story. He taught him the lesson of second chances with the provision of shade and the taking away of that shade by growing a plant next to him and then having a worm eat it the next day during the heat of the day.

What was Jonah's part? He knew God. He heard God. He literally and figuratively ran from God's instruction by boarding a ship whose destination was a long way off and hid in the bottom of the ship. Lesson #1 - Obey. He didn't and instead God knew where he was and the result was almost the lives of those around him. But Jonah was humbled in the belly of a great fish enough to finish the mission.

However, you have to align yourself with God's desired result if you want to be on the same page as God and receive favor. Jonah did not and Lesson #2 was - who are you to be angry at me for being a God of Second Chances?

I want to magnify God's Faithfulness to you today. God never gave up on His Mercy, His Message, or His Messenger. He never gave up with Jonah and He never gave up with us. For Jesus as God's Mercy, Message and Messenger said, "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here." (Matthew 12:40-42) 

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:9 - "God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Yes, God will be faithful to the blood spilled and life given by Christ for your relationship, your fellowship with Him. That is too high a price not to be faithful.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory." (Hebrews 3:5-6) "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." (Hebrews 10:23)

"What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness?" (Romans 3:3) "...if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself." (2 Timothy 2:13) "The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it." (1 Thessalonians 5:24)

"Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." (1 Corinthians 4:1) "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms." (1 Peter 4:10) "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ..." (Galatians 5:22) "Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown." (Revelation 2:10) "But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. (2 Thessalonians 3:3)

So, just as it is written in Leviticus and 1 Peter about being Holy for the Lord is Holy, I encourage us concerning God's Faithfulness - Be Faithful, For The Lord Thy God Is Faithful.