Many of my friends this morning are suffering in various ways. Sometimes life seems to bring on these seasons of pain, grief, and fear in tidal waves but not without the mercies of God relentlessly swimming within them.
My childhood friend Jerry is facing open heart surgery right at this moment. Another friend is in unending, excruciating agony in both of her shoulders with little pain management available. Another is fighting blood cancer. Still another is battling M.S. There are others.
Maybe you are thinking that is all good and fine, that you can believe God will intervene and help these dire and needy situations. But what about the one who caused their own pain? Does God help them? Surely they knew how to get themselves into this mess, and God now standing with his hands on his hips, wagging his finger, will not get them out.
What about Jonah?
Jonah, a prophet of the people of God, no less, who should have known better, was flat out disobedient to God's command in his job description. "Go preach to Nineveh." God wanted to show mercy on the wicked city. However, Jonah ran away from God the text tells us; he went in the opposite direction.
We could say Jonah caused his own pain.
Pastor Bryan, the teaching pastor at the Summit Church, in his recent series on Jonah pointed out something I had never seen before in the epic story.
"God has more mercy than we have mess."
In Jonah's rebellion, God was still hounding him to heaven. When Jonah refused mercy to Nineveh, God still showed mercy to him.
Astounding, isn't it?
Another thing Pastor Bryan pointed out was that as Jonah continued in his disobedience, God sent the storm that rocked the sea and the boat. God sent the fishermen, who threw Jonah overboard. And God sent the whale that swallowed him alive.
God sent these things to Jonah out of his mercy. Pastor Bryan hopes that he has shattered our image of a Santa Claus god.
When we are in a pit simply because we live in a broken world or in a pit of our own making and rebellion, either way, we do not have the strength or the power to get ourselves out. We don't "got this" I'm sorry, but I don't like that saying. We don't got nothing.
But God has everything.
And we learn this when we come face to face with the darkness, fear, and pain of a pit, whatever it may be. We learn to call on the God who has everything and depend on him.
We learn that God has more mercy than we have mess.
He sends storms, fishermen, and whales to "fish" us out of the pit.
Some people want to just trash the God of the Old Testament and accuse him of "cosmic child abuse" and all sorts of atrocities, but they are missing the overarching theme of the entire Bible narrative: We are the ones that got ourselves in the mess! We are the guilty, rebellious party. We are born sinners, and we add to our sin account daily. Against God who is Holy, Holy, Holy.
And "while we were sinners, Christ died for us." ( Romans 5:8 )
Because God has more mercy than we have mess.
I just pray that we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
"Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." Hebrews 3:15
Cry out to him.
"I cried out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice....The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me.... yet you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God...... Salvation belongs to the LORD!" 💜 ( Jonah 2:1,5,6,9 )
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| The Farmer with the late great Atlas and his grand pup Aslan |
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