🌿BREATHE TRUTH🌿
“But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went aboard, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.” —Jonah 1:3
🌿LIVE THE REAL TRUTH🌿
Ships are versatile creatures. They can carry almost any cargo, cross multiple seas, and come in a myriad of shapes and sizes. When Jonah comes to the port of Joppa, he finds a ship that can not only tend to his needs and transport him, but also something valuable to Jonah: his reasons for defying God.
Jonah is not a broken man fleeing God in Joppa. He is a man confident in his rationalizations for not obeying God’s mandate. He is justified in refusing to heed God’s call to minister to the Assyrians. Why? Because the Assyrians are infamous for their inhumane treatment and torture of their enemies. They gain carnal pleasure in the pain of their unfortunate captives.
Moreover, Nineveh’s location in Upper Mesopotamia on the banks of the Tigris River gives them prime real estate placement for commerce and trade routes. They take advantage of this water location by often robbing those who pass through their territory. This is an ungodly people who treat others in ungodly manner and who become ungodly powerful in the process. Did Jonah believe he had valid reasons to turn God down and not go? Absolutely.
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He bought a ticket and went aboard, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.
Tickets offer access and open doors. For Jonah, this ticket is of unique value to him because this is a ticket to freedom.
Here lies the crux of this journey that Jonah is on: Jonah is running away from God because he wants his freedom from God’s will.
Jonah wants out of this onerous obligation that God has assigned him. Jonah knows he can’t argue or fight God head on. So Jonah does the next best thing in his mind. Flee for freedom.
There are tickets in our lives that have taken us to destinations we shouldn’t have gone. Tickets in our past that brought us to regretful spaces. Tickets in our present that is conveying us to uncertain places. Tickets in our future that will reel us to unknown races.
If you have a ticket to go somewhere you know will separate you from God, give the ticket to God and receive a new one. This is the great exchange of faith. God will give you a ticket to a better ending than the one you’ve got now.
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For those who have never received the good news, here it is. The ultimate ticket to end all tickets. The golden ticket of all time. The ticket of salvation is the most prized one we will ever receive. God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross to save us from our sins and give us free tickets to our paradise destination, Heaven. If you know someone who haven’t received this ticket, share the details with them. No expiration. No purchase required.
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The idea of being the master of our fate is appealing because it propels us in a position of power. But with that power comes a responsibility to produce provisions when problems arise. Later, when Jonah finds himself inside the belly of a giant whale in the middle of the ocean, Jonah realizes he doesn’t have all the answers or a way out to his problem. Only God does. Jonah’s humanity is humbled. In our limited understanding, we believe our humanity can overcome God’s divinity. If we run far enough, we’ll find the freedom we’re fleeing for. This is what Jonah believed and what Jonah had to re-learn, the hard way.
Only in the Real Truth can we experience freedom. Jonah’s flight from God became his own prison. It trapped him in his anger against the Assyrians and angst against God.
Find freedom not from running away, but from coming home to the Real Truth.
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Copyright 2019