2 The Choice (V.3)
But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD. (V.2 NLT)
According to the online dictionary: a choice is an act of choosing between two or more possibilities. "The choice between good and evil"
synonyms: option, alternative, possibility, possible course of action
The Choice to Defy God
Throught history there have been historical pigeons that have carried vital messages that have saved lives and have risked or even cost their own.
During the First World War, a pigeon named Cher Ami (dear friend) saved the lives of many French soldiers by carrying a message across enemy lines in the heat of battle. Cher Ami was shot in the chest and the leg, losing most of the leg to which the message was attached, but continued the 25-minute flight avoiding shrapnel and poison gas to get the message home. Cher Ami was awarded the French ‘Croix de Guerre’ medal for heroic service.
(Pigeon Control Resource Centre)
This pigeon went bravely to his death in order to deliver a message, while Jonah, the Prophet, whose name means dove/ Pigeon and who was God’s messenger got a straight forward command and decided to go in another direction. It reveals to us the human condition, the choice that we have to obey God or disobey him, there were no guns blazing over Jonah’s head, but still he decided not to go, because God was sending him to a people who were an instrument in destroying his own people and he figured more or less that if they repent they will be forgiven.
We are not to develop the habit of going our own way.
Sometimes we purposefully go in the opposite direction of where God wants us to go.
Jonah seemed to have not liked the idea of going to Nineveh so he was on his way to Tarshish: According to the Old Testament Student study guide, Nineveh and Tarshish represent the two opposite ends of the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean world. When Jonah started for Tarshish, he was apparently trying to get as far away from Nineveh as possible. Just like Jonah many of us are trying to get as far away as possible from where God wants us to be, because of personal reasons, maybe we wanted God to send us somewhere else, maybe we did not want God to send us at all: regardless of the reason, it is God’s Mission that we should seek to obey.
But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD. (V.2 NLT)
According to the online dictionary: a choice is an act of choosing between two or more possibilities. "The choice between good and evil"
synonyms: option, alternative, possibility, possible course of action
The Choice to Defy God
Throught history there have been historical pigeons that have carried vital messages that have saved lives and have risked or even cost their own.
During the First World War, a pigeon named Cher Ami (dear friend) saved the lives of many French soldiers by carrying a message across enemy lines in the heat of battle. Cher Ami was shot in the chest and the leg, losing most of the leg to which the message was attached, but continued the 25-minute flight avoiding shrapnel and poison gas to get the message home. Cher Ami was awarded the French ‘Croix de Guerre’ medal for heroic service.
(Pigeon Control Resource Centre)
This pigeon went bravely to his death in order to deliver a message, while Jonah, the Prophet, whose name means dove/ Pigeon and who was God’s messenger got a straight forward command and decided to go in another direction. It reveals to us the human condition, the choice that we have to obey God or disobey him, there were no guns blazing over Jonah’s head, but still he decided not to go, because God was sending him to a people who were an instrument in destroying his own people and he figured more or less that if they repent they will be forgiven.
We are not to develop the habit of going our own way.
Sometimes we purposefully go in the opposite direction of where God wants us to go.
Jonah seemed to have not liked the idea of going to Nineveh so he was on his way to Tarshish: According to the Old Testament Student study guide, Nineveh and Tarshish represent the two opposite ends of the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean world. When Jonah started for Tarshish, he was apparently trying to get as far away from Nineveh as possible. Just like Jonah many of us are trying to get as far away as possible from where God wants us to be, because of personal reasons, maybe we wanted God to send us somewhere else, maybe we did not want God to send us at all: regardless of the reason, it is God’s Mission that we should seek to obey.