OBEY THE WORD OF GOD
A Contemplation on the Book of Jonah
From the first two verses of the book of the minor prophet, Jonah, God is very clear with what He wants Jonah to do: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” (Jonah 1:2) Jonah was also very clear with what he wanted to do: “But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” (Jonah 1:3a) Using his own wisdom and reasoning, Jonah decided to sail to Tarshish.
Just as God was very clear with Jonah almost 2800 years ago, He is also very clear with us today in what He wants us to do: obey the word of God, the Bible. In John 14:15, Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Much like Jonah, many of us are also very clear on what we want to do – disobey the word of God, rely on our own wisdom, and flee to our own Tarshish. We do not want to obey God’s commandments, not even the simple ones.
One of the simpler commandments in the Bible is to pray always (Luke 21:36a). Do we obey the word of God or do we use our own reasoning and excuses to flee to Tarshish? How many of us pray privately 365 days a year, with no exceptions for church feasts, week-ends, invitations, vacations, and recovering from such events? How often do we convince ourselves that we will pray but right after calling our 100 closest friends, rearranging the living room furniture, and changing all the light bulbs in the house? Even if our excuse is work or school, we are still disobeying God. We must at least put effort and struggle to pray most of the year. Praying every day is to us what Samson’s hair was to him - power. If it is cut, we lose our power.
Another simple commandment is to help others (Matthew 25:37-40). In the story of the paralytic (Mark 2:3-4), the Bible does not say if the four men loved the paralyzed man or even if they knew him, but they were willing to help him. They uncovered the roof and carried the man up to the roof and down to where Jesus was. Had there only been three men willing to help instead of four, the paralytic might not have been healed. We must put effort to help others by giving of our time, energy, and resources.
A harder commandment to obey perhaps is to love one another to the point of sacrificing one’s life for others. In John 15:12-13, Jesus says, “12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” We can struggle to obey this commandment by first loving our own family members - spouses, children, parents, siblings - then extending our love to others.
Not much has changed in 2800 years. In Jonah 4:2b, Jonah defends his decision to sail to Tarshish by saying, “Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God,..” Like Jonah, we often recite Psalm 136:1b, “His mercy endures forever”, as an excuse for our laziness and negligence in obeying God’s commandments. In deed, God is merciful, but we must also put effort to obey His word. God was merciful to Jonah, but after he prayed to Him from the fish’s belly (Jonah 3:3a). He was also merciful to Nineveh, but after they repented (Jonah 3:5). Both, the city of Nineveh and Jonah, admitted wrong doing, repented, and finally obeyed the word of God.
There is great power in obeying the word of God. By obeying the word of God, Jonah saved Nineveh, a city of more than 120,000 people. By obeying the word of God, Moses liberated a nation from slavery. Although we may not be able to save a city or liberate a nation, perhaps we can save ourselves by at least struggling to obey God’s word. One of the church fathers once said, “Struggle in your effort to obey God. Perhaps in His mercy, He will grant you eternal life for your struggle to obey.”
May God give us the willingness and the determination to search out His commandments and to struggle to obey them. On Judgment day, may we be made worthy to stand before Him and boldly say like David, the prophet and King, said, “I made haste, and did not delay to keep Your commandments.” (Psalm 119:60)
