FBC Morning Light – November 28, 2022

Well, a good Monday morning to you. Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend and enjoyed time together, maybe with family and friends, and maybe able to get outside and enjoy some outside activity perhaps over the weekend, and especially yesterday.

Jonah’s Command, Rebellion, and Submission

Hope you had a good Lord's Day, gathering with the people of God and worshiping the Lord together. Well, today we read in our Bible reading plan the little book of Jonah, a very familiar story. I mean, you hear that story from the time you're in children's Sunday school class, preschool era, you know?

And I have a little glass figurine on my credenza that, in fact, I'm going to get up and show it to you. So this is one of the things that I received from my father after he passed away, but it's a little figurine of a giant fish, and can you see that with the man in the middle of the fish?

I'm trying to find a way that... there you go. That's a pretty good thing. Anyway, that sits on my desk to remind me of the importance of the two little words, but and so. Let me explain. In the first chapter of Jonah, in verse 2, you have this well-known command from the Lord to Jonah.

It says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. So the Lord gives a very clear, unmistakable direction to Jonah, his prophet, a command.

He tells him where to go and implies in there what to do. It tells him what to do. Go to that city, cry against it, and he gives him an explanation for it, for their wickedness has come up before me. All right, so very clear.

What's the next word? In verse 2, the word is but. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and that little word but communicates a great deal. When a command from the Lord has been given, and the next word is the word but, that communicates rebellion, that communicates disobedience, that communicates the idea that I have a better idea, I have a will of my own that I'm going to exercise, and I am not going to submit to your will.

That's a very powerful and poignant three letter word in the English language, isn't it? It's a word of rebellion. In contrast, the word so is a word of submission. So for example, you remember what happened in the intervening time, right?

Jonah ends up in the belly of the fish, he repents in the belly of the fish, and the Lord has the fish cough him up. And then in chapter 3, the word of the Lord comes to Jonah the second time, saying to him, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.

Similar command, doesn't need to give an explanation this time, he's explained himself in the first command, but it's the same basic command. Arise, go to Nineveh, and preach against it. And then the next word in verse 3 is the word so, so.

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. The word so is a word of submission, it's a word of compliance, it's a word of accepting what God has told me to do, and acts on that accordingly.

So these are very powerful two little words, and that little figurine of Jonah in the belly of the fish, sitting on my credenza, reminds me of the importance of those words. When I understand from God's word what he wants me to do, I need to respond with so, instead of but, so I don't end up being that glass figurine in the belly of the fish.

Conflict With the Lord and the Consequences of Disobedience

There's another interesting use of those same two words in verse 4 of chapter 1. And in verse 4, the word but communicates the idea of conflict. All right, here's what I mean. Verse 3 says Jonah, but Jonah, instead of obeying the Lord in rebellion, he arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish in the opposite direction, paid the fare, went down into it to go with him to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. All right, so Jonah is exercising his will.

And now verse 4 begins again with the word but. But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea. So here, that little word communicates conflict. In this case, the Lord is in conflict with Jonah's intention, and creates this great wind on the sea.

And then the little word so appears again in verse 4. So that the ship was about to be broken up. Consequence. A consequence of the Lord's action in the first part of the verse. But the Lord sent a wind so that the ship was about to be broken up.

A word of consequence. So it's interesting how these little words in the Bible can communicate so much important information by way of application. When God gives us a directive, then we need to respond with so.

Let's go. Let's do it. Otherwise, we can experience the but of conflict from the Lord, and the consequence of that conflict. So let's be sure that when God gives us directives, we respond with so. Heavenly Father, I pray that we would take that challenge today and be encouraged in the course of this day to walk with you and to walk obediently.

And this we ask in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right. Well, listen, have a good Monday and hope your week gets off to a great start. A good day.