Choice and Determination
(Jonah 1:1-3)

Life is series of choices and determinations. The success and failure of our life is depended on what to choose and how to decide. When we choose and decide to do something with the God-oriented goal, we can have a happy life. Today’s scripture reading shows that Jonah faced ferocious waves because he chose to go to Tarshish, not to follow the order of God, which was to go to Nineveh. We should learn to choose and determine the right thing before God in order to have winning life during our life.

1. The choice of Jonah
God wanted Jonah to preach against Nineveh. However this city had a long history of violence against Israel and Jonah didn’t hope that the city would not be destroyed. So Jonah ran away from God and headed for Tarshish (Jnh. 1:3). He knew that God wasn’t pleased the way to Tarshish, but he was led by his selfish thought and chose the wrong decision. How about us? Aren’t we waking with the wrong lane even we know the way is not right? We should turn away from the wrong way and follow the right direction which makes God pleased.

2. God who relents
God wanted to remind Jonah of his calling. So He sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up (Jnh. 1:4). This great storm was the hand of God to lead Jonah who was in the wrong way into the right direction. Jonah realized that he was the source of trouble at the sea and he asked sailors to throw him away into the sea. But God provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. And Jonah was fed by the big fish. He repented inside the fish and decided to follow the will of God. When we don’t follow God and live as what we want, God wants us to return to God through the storm of hardships.

3. God who establishes the work
God is God who works and establishes the work. When Jonah repented inside the fish, God asked the fish to throw him up to the land. And God sent him to Nineveh to proclaim the message of repentance. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. The people of Nineveh declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. Despite of our stubbornness, selfishness and mistakes, the will of God will be achieved. Therefore, we should find the will of God at any moments and should decide to obey God.