Sea-Saw

Sea-Saw

What if we asked God to work but didn’t like the outcome? So many of our prayers contain the unspoken assumption that the answer will follow as we anticipate it. When we place our expectations on a prayer’s answer we are immediately limiting God to only what our feeble minds can conceive. Man will see imprisonment and pray for release forgetting that our God can open any door and set any captive free. (Acts 12:1-19) Man will see an impenetrable fortress and despair not knowing that God can crumble the mightiest wall with a trumpet blast. (Joshua 6) Man will see a lifeless corpse and assume it is the end of a story, instead of realizing that God will use it to begin the salvation of all peoples for all of time. And that the One who first breathed life into the lifeless can raise up the dead just as easily. A true understanding of God’s sovereignty will necessitate a reckoning with our own triviality. Which is part of why we choose to dwell on it so seldomly. Recognition of God’s sovereignty should humble man, but man is notoriously difficult to humble. We see mastery of the world as an achievement instead of understanding it as a gift. And even then, we see the gift as deserved instead of understanding that it is given in spite of our lacking. But in Jonah we see this egocentric mentality elevated to its highest form. A belief and recognition of God and all of His authority coupled with a disagreement as to direction. 

Ponder the chutzpah for a moment. God gives Jonah clear and concise direction. Jonah knows God, is aware of His power, authority, and heart. But refuses to follow because he disagrees with the outcome. And while it may feel warmly self-righteous to stare aghast at Jonah’s impertinence, it’s far less comfortable to shift that same gaze into a mirror. Far too many Christians believe in God’s sovereignty, know God’s loving heart, are aware of the instruction given in His word, and are familiar with the example given to us through Jesus and choose to just as callously ignore it all. Why should I love my neighbor when he votes that way? Why should I pray for her when she treats me that way? Why should I forgive them if they refuse to repent? Why should I waste my time telling them about the gospel when they so obviously don’t want to listen? Or why should I worry about others when I already have so much on my own plate? Why should that be considered a sin if it isn’t harming anybody? We second guess God most every day. Sure Jonah’s example is more strident and dramatic, (anybody else spend any time in the belly of a great fish?) but it doesn’t make it any less pertinent. Fleeing from God’s will leads to ruin and hopelessness, and the ramifications don’t just stop at your door.

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?” (James 2:14) If our faith should inspire and drive us to action, what is it that animates disobedience and disdain? That’s a sobering thought. Our faith should spur us to action but we must be wary that we are acting toward God’s will and not solely our own. We see in Jonah the danger of a misprioritized faith. A willingness to follow God, but only through our preconceived notions. But we are in no position to dictate terms. It’s a sentence that should contain no conjunction. ‘I want to follow you God…but.’ Anything that follows the ellipses is not just unnecessary but dangerous. Jonah was thrown overboard into storm tossed waves and was swallowed up by a great fish. For three days, a timeframe that also symbolizes death, he was spewed up onto shore, much humbled but still obstinate. Do you wish to learn such a lesson? Must we be what was described in Proverbs 26:11, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.” 

Jonah’s lesson seems to be tailor made for us recidivist sinners. Jesus even calls our attention to it in Matthew 12:38-40. “Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to Him, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.’ He answered, ‘A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 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 balance of the section, through verse 45 is also well worth reading for elaboration on the point.] The Pharisees and teachers expected God to cater to their whims and desires. This is not the way. It’s interesting how a Christian’s first public act is to mimic (albeit rather loosely) what happened with Jonah. In baptism we, in all of our acknowledged waywardness and sin, admit that we have been fleeing God and wish to turn back to His path. We are submerged in water. Then are brought forth again, made whole through God’s forgiving grace. Our lives before this moment, nothing more than a desperate and headlong bid toward Tarshish, and now finally corrected to head toward Nineveh and our calling to ‘go and make disciples.’ 

There has always been something fascinating to man about the sea. With as much of it that covers our world it seems endless. And even with our modern eyes we have not plumbed all of its depth to learn its secrets. It exists irrespective of us and is unconcerned with our goings on. The sea humbles us by stubbornly moving of its own accord regardless of our wishes or wants. It exists beyond our ability to control. And it is necessary for us to live. But there’s a strange dichotomy here. The same God that parted the Red Sea, that flooded the earth, that separated out the waters from the land and set its boundaries also spoke this way to a Samaritan woman. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13) Although it is metaphorical I do believe there is something to the two approaches. Fighting against the sea, slowly sinking in it, having it pour into your lungs and drowning. Or submitting to God’s will and wisdom to have the water of life pouring out from within you. It’s good to learn from Jonah’s example, we can also learn from Job. “Then Job replied to the Lord: ‘I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.’” (Job 42:1-2) It is not enough just to believe the words, that belief must fuel action. And that action cannot be dictated by our own wants. Don’t limit God to only your own understanding or comprehension. A wave does not understand the sea, it can only be directed by it for the short span of its existence. Allow yourself to be directed toward God’s will and do not be afraid. And if you find yourself tossed in the turbulence, adrift and alone, remember that His voice remains the only way to still the winds, calm the waves, and silence the storms.

Jordan Williamson