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.

Hope you had a good Lord's Day, a 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,

I have a little glass figurine on my credenza that in fact,

I'm going to get up and show it to you. So hold on. All right.

So this is, this is one of the things that I received from my father after he passed away, but it's a, 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, 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 two, you have this well -known command from the

Lord to Jonah that says, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.

All right. So the Lord gives a very clear, unmistakable direction to Jonah, his prophet, a command.

He tells him what, 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 two?

The word is, but, 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 three, 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 three 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.

There's another interesting use of those same two words in verse four of chapter one.

And in verse four, the word, but, communicates the idea of conflict, all right, here's what

I mean. Verse three 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 four 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, conflict, and 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 four. 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