Mr Black and White | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Mr Black and White | Previous Challenge Entry
By Stanley McMahon
01/13/16
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Mr Black and White
‘Resolve’ is in that same important group of words that happen to begin with ‘R’; words like repent, renew and revive. It is a familiar element in the lives of characters we find in the Bible. People like Jonah who heard the word of the Lord and steadfastly resolved to do exactly the opposite of what he was supposed to do.

Jonah is known to those familiar with his ministry and story as the Reluctant Prophet, the one that took a boat to the ends of the known earth and ended up getting swallowed by an enormous fish. He didn’t just do nothing and refuse to head for Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian nation that had inflicted so much pain on his beloved country. On the contrary, he pro-actively went in the opposite direction.

On reflection, I think Jonah’s motivation was partly due to the fact that he knew the power of God in his life. Like Ezra, the hand of God was upon him , and he knew it. Jesus referred to Himself as One greater than Jonah , inferring that Jonah was, in fact, a great prophet. Certainly, he was successful on his trip to Nineveh, on his second approach. He preached his heart out and the king led the country in repentance, right down to the very animals.

It seems that his prejudice and harboured anger against the enemies of Israel went deep into his soul. He knew that God would bless his ministry. He suspected that the Lord might listen to their cry for mercy and reverse His own resolve to punish them. Grace will do that. It will go against our sense of justice. It will frustrate our prejudices and do outrageous things like forgiving people who hurt others, rather than just nice people like ourselves.

But how great was the Lord’s resolve to use Jonah. He brewed up a terrible storm and risked the lives of a boat full of sailors. He provided a nightmarish marine taxi for Jonah for a couple of days before being spewed up on the sand. Not the most pleasant of experiences, but God does not care for our comfort. There are more important things.

Jonah was the Billy Graham of his day and his resolve to remove himself from service teaches us two things about how God works and how the human heart works.

1. The Lord God has resolved to use our gifts to bring Him glory. Jonah was important to Him. He had been created with a job to do. He had been given oratory skills and the heart and vision of a prophet. The Lord did not want to waste that, so He pursued him. He will pursue us too, until we see that our gifts were not given for our enjoyment, but for His glory. We are charged to use and develop those gifts, not let them shrivel up like unused muscles. Our decision on what to do with them will be the difference between, ‘Depart from Me,’ and ‘Well done.’ Let us respond to Him with humility and resolve to love Him with all our hearts, strength, soul and minds.

2. The human heart is fragile. It is easily broken and we need to take care about how we react to life shattering experiences. Nothing changes our perspective on life like suffering. We either respond to it by running to the Lord for strength and grace and refuse to allow our faith in God as the Righteous Judge to be shaken, or we succumb to the temptation to follow the advice of Job’s wife to curse God and die.

We make no mistake by resolving to surrender our gifts and watching how the Lord can use us. Ask Jonah. He has been there, done that, nearly drowned, smelled terrible and got the sunburn to prove it!

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