A Withered Tree and Me

The past couple posts I have written have been a little heavy, so I am going to try and go easy on you all this week. Just a simple bible story. Nothing deep, maybe a little profound, but I will attempt to be gentle. The story of Jonah has always been one of those great redemption stories of a large body of people all coming to the knowledge and forgiveness of God the Father. Let's start at the beginning. It is interesting to note that we get no backstory of Jonah, only his father's name. So, God calls out to this man, a prophet. He gives him a simple task. "Go, do what you have been called to do. Travel abroad and tell people what you have told hundreds of people hundreds of times. That should be no problem, you do this all the time. Well, yes, the place I am sending you is THAT place. The place so full of wickedness and corruption that it has reached my ears. No, your going the wrong way. What are you doing? I said Nineveh, not Tarshish. That is not what I wanted" In case you missed it, here is was happened. The book of Jonah starts with the voice of the lord coming to Jonah, son of Amittai. "Go", He says, "to the city of Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." For some reason, Jonah decides he is having none of it and heads to Joppa to buy himself a ticket out of there. "Tarshish or bust". In comparison to Nineveh, this is pretty much the other side of Israel. Of course, God is not happy about Jonah's decision. So while Jonah is at sea playing go fish with some pirates, God sends a great storm that begins to rock the boat. Naturally, the sailors get scared and they begin to cry out to their gods, you know, the ones who have no power and can't even hear them. Jonah is sound asleep in the bunker of the boat and he is suddenly awoken by the captain. "Wake up, pray to your gods to save us from this storm". After an intense game of go fish, Jonah lost the hand and they all realized that it was because of Jonah that they were in this mess. So they interrogated him on who he was. "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of Heaven, who made the sea and the land." This only made the seamen all the more terrified. "Throw me in," Jonah says," and the storm will be no more". So, up and over the edge, the crew throws him in the sea, and the storm stops immediately. Before the men have a chance to pull him in, a big fish, (some say whale, others aren't sure), swallows him up and he is gone into the depths of the sea. 3 long days and 3 long nights spent in the belly of this great fish. Naturally, this gives Jonah some pretty good prayer time. After a heartfelt apology, God commands the fish to upchuck Jonah onto dry land. Conveniently, right on the beach of Nineveh. So, Jonah does the smart thing and goes into the city. He tells the people that if they do not repent and turn from their sins, God would destroy the city. The king declares a city-wide fast and all the people repent. Then, Jonah leaves the city and perches himself on a ledge just outside the city. He wants to watch the action as God wipes Nineveh off the face of the earth. "Where is the fire and brimstone? Where is my explosion?" That's it. That's the whole story. we have no report of what happened to Jonah after he realized God wasn't destroying anything that day. Jonah is left on a cliff with his thoughts. God is gracious enough to provide shade for Jonah on this cliff side, but after a while of Jonah still waiting for doom and gloom on Nineveh, God sends a worm to eat the tree. With nothing left over but a withered branch of what once was. Sometimes, God will leave us on a cliff with nothing but a withered tree and our thoughts. It is up to us to either sulk in what did not happen, or prepare for what is coming instead.

Adam Semple- A Young Man on A Mission From God