Jonah.
I read this morning a message I wrote a few years ago. I needed to remember the details. God called him to go to Ninevah. He lived 500 miles from Ninevah. Over a three-week journey.
Rather than going 500 miles to Ninevah, he went 450 Miles in the opposite direction to Joppah and set sail to go another 750 miles. If he had reached his destination, he would have been 1200 miles away from Ninevah.
There was a river beside the City of Ninevah. It is believed that Jonah was vomited out by the City. The God of the City was a fish. The Fish God, Dagon.
Is it not amazing to consider that God used a fish to carry Jonah to deposit him on the banks of the City he was sent to preach to? Even while Jonah was in the Belly of the Fish, that fish took him toward the place God intended for him to be.
His skin was probably bleached from the acid of the fishes belly, and imagine a level of earnestness we can not imagine, out of the Fish came a Man to a City who worshipped a Demon in the form of a fish.
At least 1,000 miles that fish would swim. While Jonah refused to repent. When he finally repented and that fish vomited him on dry land, there was the place God intended and the miracle we all must rejoice in. Jonah 3:1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time…
Thank you, Jesus, that the Word of the Lord comes again. Though he had rejected the Word of the Lord.
Though he had rebelled against the direction of God.
While stewing in the fish’s belly soup, God shuttled him to the place Jonah had to be. Jonah likely got to Ninevah faster because of the fish than he would have without the fish.
Selah.
God can take our mistakes and use them as fuel for His purpose. God is glorious in His mercy toward us.
So thankful today.
I am writing a book on forgiveness, and this is a message I was going to include. While editing it, the details above came alive to me. I went and verified the math, miles, and travel times.
Amazing.
http://inbythroughhim.blogspot.com/2020/07/dont-be-like-jonah.html