7.16.24

This week we are looking at the first chapter of Jonah. And we are discovering that the heart of sin is running from God. But before we can even understand what it means to run from God, we must start at the beginning.

The opening words of this book, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah”, frame the context for life. God has a calling…a word, that comes to each one of us. In fact, that's true of all creation. God says, “Let there be light”, and there is light! God tells a tree to blossom and leaf, and it does! All of creation obeys the word, the calling of its Creator. Except mankind.

And Jonah was no exception. God called him to go to Nineveh and preach to them. But he said, “no”. In his mind, he had good reasons for not wanting to go. The Ninevites were the sworn enemies of his own people. They were ruthless and oppressive to the Israelites. And the last thing he wanted to see was evil people like that being the recipients of God’s grace. They didn’t deserve it the way he did. Or so he thought.

And what Jonah is showing us here is that the heart of sin is trying to build an identity apart from God - apart from his calling upon our lives. Any time we choose to do something that God has not called us to do…any time we run from something we know God wants us to do…it's because we are trying to build an identity of our own apart from him. At the heart of mankind is this deep belief that we know better. And what we “know” are various ways of creating an identity of our own choosing.

The problem is, it doesn’t work. We are incapable of “naming” ourselves. And it creates a life unending struggle. We become obsessed with wonering, “Do people notice?…Can I keep it up?…What if they see what I'm really like inside?…How can I tell if I'm impressing others enough?” And it's an effort that we can never rest from – never stop – we can never be assured that it's enough.

We all need a word from the outside to validate us – and the words of others are never satisfying enough. The fundamental assumption of modern American culture is that you can determine your own self – and validate your own self. But our own experience proves that it never works.

And what Jonah is showing us here is that, if you don’t hear the well done from God in your heart, you will be desperate to hear it from others. We always need an outside validation. It's the way we were made. And you will turn whatever you look to into a god. It will become something you need to have – something you can't live without. All in the hopes that it can proclaim “well done – you’ve arrived.”

Do you know what “callings” that God has placed upon your life today? His Word is filled with descriptions of what that looks like.