Jonah 2:1-10 – All forms of earthly disruption (storms of life, like we are currently in) are primarily spiritual disruptions born in the spiritual realm. They are, as Dr. Tony Evans calls them, Divine Disruptions. To make sense of these disruptions without addressing the issue spiritually makes no sense…the point IS spiritual. Same for Jonah. It wasn’t until after he fled, endured a violent storm, was plummeted into the deep almost dead, and swallowed by a “giant fish”, and sat there inside of the fish for three days and nights did he finally PRAY. Jonah 2:1, “Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God…” This is our human condition. This is our pride. This is our skewed belief that we will somehow out-wit the God who commands the sea and land. This reflects how we greatly we view ourselves and how small we view God. Jonah finally relents to God’s will and authority in his prayer and he states, “But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows, for my salvation comes from the LORD alone.” IMMEDIATELY Jonah is spit onto the shore. When we finally relent God’s response is immediate. God wasn’t just desiring to redeem Nineveh, He wanted to redeem the wayward heart of Jonah. God wants this from us too. In the process of God resolving our divine disruption He’s resolving heart issues in His people. God waists NOTHING. Everything is transformative. God doesn’t yell or condemn Jonah…He simply spits him out. He is so long-suffering. Grace is always at the front end of His behavior. God is holding us, His people, right now in the belly of the fish…in our chaos until our will is tamed and His will is received by us. He will not relent. He is God. This is His plan and it will come to pass. What should we do? Easy: 1. Pray. 2. Offer praise. 3. Commit our hearts to God’s will and not our own. Everything we might run to…God commands, created, and owns…to not align ourselves under His will and care is stubbornness. Jonah is a mirror of how much our heart can hate a people group…it can make us rebel and run from God, take us out of God’s will, cause spiritual disruptions, and bring us close to death before we choose to love like God loves. Just because we are His people doesn’t mean that we love like He does…only a heart continually laid out before Him will have the ability to do that.
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