God is in control

from Jonah 1:4

Reading this verse in the book of Jonah, I learned four lessons in life. How significant indeed is this verse to us! With just one verse, you will get four important lessons..

1. The first lesson is God is in control of everything on and in earth. If you read this verse in relation to the previous ones, you will see that God has control over nature and natural forces. He can command the wind to blow or the nature to pour out its forces. This is possible given that God is the Creator of all the things that we can find not only on earth but also throughout the universe. As their Creator, He can simply cause them to move or do according to His words. For people who loved God so much, this all-powerful character of God is their strength and encouragement because they know that the God whom they loved and believed in is a God who can do all things according to His perfect will. But for God's enemies, those people who don't believe in God and have no personal relationship with Him, this character should terrify them. Because in an instance, they will be destroyed. Similar character is seen in Jesus Christ since He is the Son of God, and is perfectly God Himself. Read Matthew 8:27. In this verse, the apostles were amazed because the winds and waves obeyed Him.

2. When God moves, nobody can stop Him. According to God's perfect time, He fulfills His plans, and nobody can thwart them. Even God's plan with you, no one can stop Him to fulfill it. If His plans for you is to give you salvation, nobody can stop it; not even your sins. This is evident in the life of the Ninevites. In my previous post (God's Unusual Way), you have seen that regardless of the greatness of Nineveh's sin against Him, God still forgave them when they humbled before Him, and acknowledged and turned away from their sins. And when He did it, nobody was able to stop Him; not even Jonah or his disobedience, or the greatness of Nineveh's sins. On the contrary, God's enemies will not be spared of His wrath in His perfect time. And when He will do this, nobody can also stop Him.

3. The consequence of sin will not only affect the sinner but even the innocents are affected. The crews of the boat did not know that Jonah was fleeing away from God. He disobeyed God's call for him. Unfortunately, it was not only Jonah who was affected by his disobedience. Even the innocent crews were not spared of the fear of the storm. They too suffered loss and were affected both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Again, they were innocent. Similar cases we can see everywhere. How many innocent people died because of the sinfulness of one or two or three men. This only shows that the sin of one man will affect many. And this is actually what happened to us when Adam sinned against God. By his sinned, death reigned over us (Romans 5:17). But God did not allow this to go on uncorrected. In His great love for us, He sent His only Son Jesus Christ so that by His death, those who will believe in Him will have life (Romans 5:18). This is how great the love of God for us. While we were still His enemies because we are sinners, Jesus Christ His only beloved Son died for us (Romans 5:8).

4. Never underestimate God's anger. Though God is slow to anger and forgiving (Numbers 14:18), His anger is tremendous. You can find the culmination of His anger against satan and his followers in the book of Revelation. But just to provide you a picture of what it looks like, I have enumerated below some of the expression of His anger:

• hailstorm and fire mixed with blood - A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up (Revelation 8:7)
• something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea - A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. (Revelation 8: 8-9)
• a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter (Revelation 8:10-11)
• a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark - A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night (Revelation 8:12)

The Book of Revelation reveals all these things to come. God has revealed what He will do to this corrupt world in His perfect time so that each of us may come to Him in humility, and accept His gift of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. If you are truly wise, you should prepare your life for the things to come instead of giving it all to the things that will just be destroyed.

Do not harden your heart when you read this. Rather, think about it, and do the right thing to do. Do not wait when there is no more time for you to act on what is right.


Useful Links:

Being Loved by Christ by Pastor John Piper

Unconditional Grace by Pastor Carmelo Caparros

The Reality of God's Wrath by Pastor John MacArthur