“Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.”
We must do what God says, if we will have peace. His commands are BINDING, and they are for our good, because He blesses us in this way and none other.
Jonah thought that he’d have peace by casting himself into the sea, he thought God would meet him in death, and all problems would be over. He didn’t know that God had prepared a great fish, and he’d spend three days and nights - a picture of Christ suffering God’s wrath - in the heart of the whale, suffering for his sin - “And said, I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and you heard my voice” (Jonah 2:2). Before he got out the fish, he said, “I will pay that that I have vowed”, or, I will do what God says. Then, upon confessing that “salvation is of the Lord”, Jonah was spat out on the dry ground of no condemnation to preach unto Nineveh the preaching that God commanded (Jonah 2:9-3:3). So, Jonah couldn’t escape the command, and we can’t either. We can’t be happy or saved, unless we strictly obey what Jesus says.
Somehow, it comes into our carnal mind that salvation by grace means that I can do my own thing, and my heart breaks for Christians and false-professors who hold this lie in unrighteousness. We CAN’T be happy, because God CHASTENS whom He loves, and He cannot bless us in a way that is contrary to Himself. If He says, “Go and do”… “go to Nineveh, that great city and cry against it”, then we must go and speak His word.
Leave the consequences with God, but know that you have a better life and better reward by obedience, than by sin. Matthew 5:12 says, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad“, in the here and now, “for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you“, so that God gives us joy as we are hated by men and ridiculed, which we cannot get cowering and choosing sin (Matt 5:12).
God sets before us BLESSINGS and curses, so that we may CHOOSE the good and hate the evil (Deut 30:15-18). Be wise, plan wisely, and prepare yourself for FUTURE good by doing God’s will now.
How often have you and I awoken from sin only to say, “It profited me not”, and “why did I do that? How foolish was I”? Let this word of Christ STOP you and me from sin before we commit it. Let us RETURN to the Lord by the Lamb’s blood to do His will now, obtaining fresh mercy from God to obey. We can obey by the grace that He gives, and we will certainly get the reward, as promised. It is not wrong to seek reward, so long as we seek it from God His way. He commands OBEDIENCE to be the apex of Christianity, that from a willing heart we do His will by the forgiveness that we’ve received. We are not only justified by faith, but we’re born from above, so that we love God and obey by the power He gives.
We labor now for rewards soon to come.
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